People have been working very, very hard today. I tell you, for a long time, they have been working. Before i begin, i want to express our nations well wishes to Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he wages his own personal fight with the virus. All americans are praying for him. Hes a friend of mine. Hes a great gentleman and a great leader. He is, as you know, he was brought to the hospital today. Im hopeful and sure that he is going to be fine. Hes a strong man, a strong person. Today, every patriotic american heart beats in solidarity with the incredible people of new york and new jersey. They have really become a very hot zone. Some very good things are happening. In new york, the first time aware of the deaths were less from the previous day. That is the first drop so far. Maybe that is a good sign. Could be. The hospital levels are starting to perhaps decrease. It has been very short but perhaps decrease. We wish Governor Cuomo and all the people in new york and new jersey, your governor is doing a great job. He is doing a great job in new jersey. They got hit very hard. I just want to say that the full power of the American Government this isican enterprise, an all military operation but we have waged. And especially over the last number of weeks. 50 states and territories have been approved for major disaster declarations, which is very unusual. Thanks to the army corps of engineers, new york citys Javits Center is one of the largest hospitals in the United States. It is designated for treatment of the virus, patients and staff by hundreds of federal medical personnel deployed from two Army Hospital units. They are doing a great job. This was something we didnt expect to do but they needed help in new york, and we sent federal troops. Not only troops, we sent a a lot of talented doctors, nurses, First Responders. People are now running javits. Also, as you know, the uss comfort which is in new york, there has been publicity about that coming in. That was not supposed to be for the virus at all under any circumstances. But it looks like more and more we will be using it for that. So we will see. That was supposed to be for people having other medical problems. But it is very interesting because there are virtually no cars on the road, no motorcycles on the road, no anything on the road. Things that would normally be taken care of, we dont see anymore. We havent seen that in a long time. Perhaps a positive. The ship is ready. If it has to, if we need it, if we need it for the virus, we will be using it for that. They would prefer not, for obvious reasons, but it for any reason they needed, it is ready ready. It, it is we have the best doctors, best military leaders, and the best logistics professionals anywhere in the world and we are orchestrating a federal response unlike anything our country has ever seen or done. Weve never done anything like this. More and more, we are using our medical people because of the fact that jurisdictions, states, in particular, new york, new jersey, the connecticut area, long island now has become a hotspot, part of new york, we are sending a lot of things on supplies. Now we are sending personnel where it is needed. Military personnel. As of tuesday, we will have deployed over 3000 military and Public Health professionals to new york, new jersey, connecticut, and other parts of our country. That number is going up. We hope we are seeing a leveling off in the hottest spots of them all. We will see. You will see it over the next few days. Lets see what happens. But we are prepared. In the last seven days, fema has airlifted reticle supplies and protective equipment from every corner of earth. They are coming from all over the planet. Including from within the United States where the equipment is not as necessary. Since last sunday, cargo planes have delivered almost, listen to this, 300 million gloves, almost 8 million masks, and 3 million gallons, and many more fully loaded cargo planes are right now on the way. Three big ones landed today. The supplies are being distributed directly to the hospitals and Health Care Providers across the nation so that the massive amount of material that we are getting in is being delivered all over the country. Will deliver an additional 600,000 n95 masks to new york city to take care of the needs of the Public Hospital system. It was a request of mayor de blasio. Weve been working great with mayor de blasio, getting him a lot of stuff. Hes working very hard, i can tell you that. And we are working very hard with new york city and new york state. And at the request of congressman lees eldon, out in long island, we will also be delivering another 200,000 n95 masks to Suffolk County where they need it badly. We are getting that out on an emergency basis. Should be there tomorrow. We will also be deploying millions of n95 masks to other locations that admiral poe love check will detail shortly. The admiral will be up in a couple of minutes. Over the last 24 hours, fema has delivered an additional 500 ventilators to new jersey. 500. Been, the governor has very thankful. We are working very hard with new jersey including building hospitals. We have also sent an additional 200 ventilators to louisiana, definite hotspot. 300 to michigan, working very well, i think, with the governor. 600 will be going or have gone to illinois and i mean there is a governor, i hear him complaining all the time, pritzker. He is always complaining. And yet i said to give me a list of the couple of things we have done in illinois, and we are building 18,500 bed hospital in mccormick place. We are helping to staff it and probably we will end up staffing it because he is not able to do what he is supposed to do as a governor. He has not performed well. We are also sending 100 ventilators to massachusetts. Illinois, 100 to to massachusetts, 300 to michigan, 500 ventilators, 500, going to new jersey. And this is being done by fema, being delivered by fema. And it is i think of that, when you think about 500 ventilators. A ventilator is a big deal. We are also establishing a federal medical station in the washington, d. C. Area to help washington, d. C. And working closely with the mayor and everybody in washington, d. C. At the same time, governor inslee, we appreciate this of Washington State, has returned 400 ventilators which can now be deployed elsewhere in our country. The state of washington has done very well. They will not be needing some of the ventilators that have been sent. About 400, thats a lot. We appreciate that he is able to give them back. He feels confident that they are in good shape for the coming weeks. Until we can deflect declare a final victory. In the days ahead, america will endure the peak of this terrible pandemic, our warriors in this lifeanddeath battle are the incredible doctors and nurses and Health Care Workers on the front line of the fight. We pledge to them our eternal gratitude and everlasting support. They make all of us very proud. Our country is very proud. We have people, they love our country, the world loves our country, most of it. Probably all of it, they just dont say it. I can report today that the United States has now tested and given results. Gotten results of 1. 6 7 Million People, that is far more than any other country has been able to do. And you remember, we inherited a broken system. A lot of this has been developed. By tuesday, new rapid pointofcare testing kits has been produced by abbott laboratories. Great company. They will be distributed to all of our Public Health labs. That is a 15 minute test, as well as the Indian Health service, the cdc, and the Strategic National stockpile. We are going to have 1200. On a weekly basis, we are making more. They go very fast, they are very accurate tests. Other countries are wanting them. At the right time, we will be able to do that. Now, we are getting them to all of ours. We have done 1,670,000 tests. Think of that. 1,670,000 tests. We have a great system now. We are working with the states. In almost all instances. We have a great system. The other thing that we have bought a tremendous amount of is the hydroxychloroquine. As you know, it is a great malaria drug, it has worked unbelievably, it is a powerful drug on malaria. And there are signs that it works on this, some very strong signs. In the meantime, it has been time. A long it also works very powerfully on lupus. We will have to see because again, it is being tested now. This is a new thing that just happened to us, the invisible enemy, we call it. No if you can, if you have signs of heart problems, grissom rhythm ice and which will kill certain things that you dont want living within your body. It is a powerful drug. If you dont have a problem, a say letoblem, we would your doctor think about it. But as a combination, i think there are two things that should be looked at very strongly. Purchased and we have million pills of the hydroxychloroquine. 29 million. A lot of drug stores them by prescription, and also, and they are not expensive, also we are sending them to various labs, are military, we are sending them to the hospitals. We are sending them all over. I just think it is something you know the expression, ive used it for certain reasons, what do . You have to lose what do you have to lose what do you have to lose . A lot of people are saying if you are a doctor, a nurse, a first responder, a medical person going into hospitals, they say taking it before the fact is good. But what do you have to lose . They say take it. Im not looking at it one way or the other. But we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didnt do it early. But we have some very good signs. That is hydroxychloroquine. And as rifamycin. Yourave to go through medical people, get the approval. I have seen things that i sort of like. What do i know . Im not a doctor. Im not a doctor. But i have common sense. The fda feels good about it. They have approved it. They gave it a rapid approval. And the reason because it has been out there for a long time, they know the side effects and they know the potential. Ited on that, we have sent throughout the country and we have it stockpiled. About 29 million doses, 29 million doses. We hope it works. Driven by the goal of the brightest minds in science, we have the brightest minds in science, but we are driven by the goal of getting rid of this plague, getting rid of this scorched, hitting rid of this virus. Getting rid of this virus. These Brilliant Minds are working on the most effective antiviral therapies and vaccines. I have met many of the doctors that are doing it. These are doctors that are working so hard on vanquishing the virus. We strongly recommend staying at vigorouscticing hygiene and maintaining social distance so that you are just not going to catch it. But is the most effective weapon in this war. I will tell you, we are committing to the to you, we are committing to the people of our country like few administrations, few people, few professionals have ever committed before. They are working so hard. I see them. I see them before my eyes exhausted. People that im dealing with everyday, exhausted. They havent left. They havent left their offices. They havent left their hospitals. We meet them, we see them. Tremendous strides have been made. I think the vaccines, we will have a report on that. But the vaccines, working together with other countries, we are also working with many other countries. And we all want everyone else to be first. We are very happy. But we are very far down the line on vaccines. We will see how all that works. Johnson johnson is doing a great job, working very hard. Great,ne would be therapeutics would be great. We will see what happens. In the meantime, you may listen to what i said about the two drugs mentioned. My administration is rapidly implementing the largest emergency Economic Relief package in american history. Youve seen what has been happening. Billions of dollars in Small Business loans have already been processed through paycheck protection programs. So we went out on friday and literally, it has become so popular, it has been worked with the banks, they get it to the Small Business it is all about employment. It is all about jobs. Want you to keep your jobs. Keep Small Business funding to payroll. Workers on the and we are sending direct Cash Payments to millions of americans and rushing aid to the hardest hit industries. We are saving industries. You will be seeing it. And if we do more, we are going to do more and we are going to try and get rackley to people get directly to people. We will take care of our workers, are Small Businesses. We are going to take care of our large businesses, the airplane industry, the airline industry, a lot of Great Industries that we have that are in trouble because of what took place over the last short period of time. These are industries that were doing better, for the most part, doing better than ever. The airlines were doing great. Oil was doing great. Oil and gas. In the Energy Industry was doing phenomenally well. It got hit like nobody has ever been hit before. Just about like no industry has ever been hit before. There has never been anything like this. But we see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening. Things are happening. We are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. And hopefully in the not too distant future, we will be very proud of the job wielded. You can never be happy when so dying. Ople are but we are going to be very proud of the job we did to keep the death down to an absolute minimum, the least it could have happened with this terrible, terrible virus. In closing, i want to note that today is palm sunday and the beginning of holy week for christians and americans and all around the world. While we may be a part from one another, as you can see from our great churches, our great pastors and ministers who are out there working very hard, but we may be apart, we can use this time to turn to reflection and prayer, and our own personal relationship with god. I would ask that all americans pray for the heroic doctors and nurses, for the Truck Drivers and Grocery Store workers and for everyone fighting this battle. I mentioned yesterday, i see the nurses rushing into hospitals and they are putting on their outfits and they are putting on their masks and goggles, they are rushing into war. I see people from apartment houses screaming and shouting and singing. It isnt it is an incredible thing. They are warriors. They are running into buildings and they are literally putting it on as the doors are opening. They are running inside. And they are running inside to tremendous danger. Tremendous danger. But most of all, i would like to ask for your prayers, for the families who have lost loved ones, ask god to comfort them in their hour of grief. It is a great hour of grief for our nation, for the world. 151,morning, i was talking for four days i said 151, 151 countries. This morning, it is 182 countries. It jumped up a lot. As of this morning, it is 182 countries are under attack from this monster. With the faith of our families and the spirit of our people and the grace of our god, we will endure, we will overcome, we will prevail, we have learned so much, we will be stronger than ever. And i just want to thank everybody. I want to thank the incredible professionals on the task force. We had a big meeting today, there were calls all day long to so many different people. I think our package to get everyone working when we are ready is turning out to be successful. We may have to make it larger because it has been really successful. But all of that comes back to this country. We want to get them back, we want to get our people back to work. Everybody wants to be back. We want to open our country as soon as possible. With that, im going to ask dr. Birx to say a few words. You. As some charts to show and thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, mr. President. As you can see from the hopeful signs in italy and spain where we see finally new cases and deaths declining, it is giving us hope of what our future could be. We wanted to give you an update on where all of the states were. We are looking at this as states normalized per 100,000 citizens. It looks very similar to last week. We wanted to update you. We have been covering throughout the week this states that were moving on this map. You can see very clearly where new york is as a state. Although this is very much still centered in the new york metro area. New jersey is the orange line. The greenline is louisiana. That is followed by massachusetts and then connecticut and michigan are together in those lines toward the bottom. And then of course, washington, d. C. Is now visible on this map, which was not visible before. And the yellow line towards the bottom is Washington State. Next slide, please. This just summarizes all of the states that we are tracking closely at the county level. So we are tracing and tracking not only the epidemic at the state level, but understanding what is happening in county by county with new cases. And of course also, the deaths. We are also triangulating that with all of the laboratory data, and just to tell you how we are doing that, for new york which you can see at the top, it is now about 36 positive. They were in the 40s. Day over day, there percent positive is starting to decline. New jerseys is increasing, however. They are up to 42 of the specimens that come to the laboratory are positive. Louisiana, 25 . Massachusetts, 20 . Connecticut and michigan, 20 . District of columbia, 15 . Washington, 8 . Illinois, colorado are at about 16 . Pennsylvania, which is also new to the graphic, is at about 12 . Next slide, please. If we could go back one, im sorry, go back one slide, one more. All of the states here, those are 38 of the states, 38 of our states have less than 50 cases per 100,000. They are testing, there Laboratory Results are consistent with that. Their zero Positivity Rate for the laboratories are less than 5 . This is how we are tracking and triangulating both case reporting, mortality or fatalities, and also triangulating that with laboratory. The new york metro area, new jersey, louisiana, and a series, in Washington State, have all tested at a rate greater than italy and spain. I know many of you are tracking that. Remember, many of us, we pushed out a lot of those assays at the beginning over the last two to three weeks. I want to thank admiral gerard and hhs who have been working closely to make sure the states that were having an outbreak had access to all of their assays. , please. In the next one. To give you an idea of how we are looking at this, we look at cases every day. I wanted to thank my data team. They spent all evening compiling data. I get it at about 2 00 in the morning. It looks at all of these metro areas by their granular counties. So we can see the counties that have a new cases, but also helps us identify the hospitals and understand what hospitals will need. Ventilators or ppe. This is the detroit area. It is oakland and detroit. Wayne county. Next slide. We also track mortality. It gives us insight into how many clients are in the icu, who need care. We want to make sure we are meeting the needs both on cases and appreciating the front line Health Care Workers that are saving many peoples lives. Next slide. This gives you an idea from new orleans. We are also tracking st. John the baptist parish also. But this is the new orleans and jefferson county, and really tracking those on a casebycase basis to look for changes over time. Next slide is there mortality. You can see it is starting to stabilize. This is how we have been tracking and tracing the epidemic as it moves through states and counties and communities. As we started, we just wanted to note again, we do see hopeful signs in spain and italy. They have completed nearly four weeks of mitigation with people really doing social distancing, staying at home, ensuring they were washing their hands, if they have to go out of the Grocery Store they are extraordinarily careful, they send one person from the family. We can really see that beginning to work and we are very hopeful that over the next week, although we will see rising numbers of cases of people who lose their lives to this illness, we are also hopeful to see a stabilization of cases across these large metro areas where the outbreak began several weeks ago. So thank you for your attention. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Admiral, please. Admiral polowczyk thank you, sir. Updateht i would give an on the air bridge first. Up on dr. Birx and how we are geographically aligning the supply chain. Bridge, we had three additional flights come in today, bringing one million 2. 8 millionowns, n95 masks, 2. 8 million surgical masks, 11. 8 million gloves, 18. 6 thousand gowns. That material will be pushed out across the nation, delivered to hospitals, Nursing Homes across the country. Dr. Birx went through the geography. So over the last few days, i have been aligning the supply chain to those areas. And then reaching down into those areas and extracting data from those areas on ppe burn rates. For example, i spent the weekend talking to chief operating officer in detroit, for example. I talked to the leadership at detroit medical center, audrey gregory. Officer ofhe Health Oakland county in michigan. And also with Chicago Health officer, dr. Allison ari. Reaching down to a level to understand their needs. We are geographically aligning the supply chain. You can see dr. Birx went through these counties and we are getting down to the county level. And then aligning it by priorities of pointofcare. Public hospitals first, v. A. Hospitals, private hospitals, Nursing Homes, First Responders acutecare. , we will being days making a push to the geographic areas that dr. Birx mentioned. Increasing the volume through the to through the supply chain through those areas to give them weeks, not just days worth of supply. Primarily using our Industry Partners that we are directing. Cardinal mckesson, medline, henry schein, Concordance Health care, directing them to put product to the hospital door, the nursing home door, the First Responders, directly to them. Outre also working to push millions of doses of hydrochloric when hydroxy chloride. We want to push the same thing to the same impacted areas, working to get it into hospitals and every pharmacy. My team is back there right now working the arrangements to make that to the hospital front door. And primarily to the local pharmacies so that doctors can write those prescriptions and you can get it prior to having to go to a hospital. Pres. Trump great job, thank you very much. Thank you, pence mr. President thank you, mr. President , mr. Vice president. I mentioned the president had given the department of Veterans Affairs very specific instructions to be as aggressive as possible in response to the virus crisis. Not only to protect veterans, but also to help the American People. As many of you know, we have three primary missions at v. A. One is to support veterans health, the others to provide veterans with benefits. In the third is memorial services. But we have a Fourth Mission. And that is to support the nation in times of national emergency, both in war and peace. We provide a bridge from the federal government to the states and localities during these emergencies. As a result of that, i have ordered our veterans hospitals to begin preparing more than 1500 beds to make them available both at the icu and the acutecare level to the states on localities across the country. As a result of that, we have opened up approximately 100 beds in the metropolitannew york area. In brooklyn, manhattan, and east orange, new jersey. We will be informing the governor of louisiana, john bel edwards, tomorrow that we will give him access to our v. A. Medical center in louisiana to come to the aid of the people of the pelican state. I have also given instructions to initiate the Fourth Mission in michigan. We will be providing the people of michigan access to hospital beds both in ann arbor and detroit. Also provided a pharmaceutical trailer to be used by michigan to support the citizens of michigan will be coming into that facility or medical care. We have also informed the commonwealth of massachusetts that we will be helping them in their efforts to protect their most vulnerable citizens and in two of their Nursing Homes your in accord Nursing Homes. In a court of the president s instructions, we are in the fight not only for the nine point 5 million veterans who were part of our service, but we are in the fight for the people of the United States. Vp pence thank you, mr. President. Members all heard from of the president s Coronavirus Task force. We are truly blessed to have the kind of leadership we have. Whether it be the admiral, who has organized the distribution of tens of millions of surprise supplies. Analyzing the data hourbyhour. Calling on every agency of government, including the v. A. , hhs, every agency. I hope the American People know that at this president s direction we are sparing no expense, where doing whatever it takes. We are marshaling the full resources of the federal government to respond to the challenges facing communities impacted today by the coronavirus and making sure every community in america has support. As the president has said so may times we have forged a partnership with sony states. 800 40esday another military medical personnel arriving in new york city. There will be some 3000 department of defense and hhs personnel on the ground to supplement and to provide relief to Health Care Workers, really at the epicenter of the coronavirus in the new york city area. And you guess are the v. A. Is opening up bed space. In new jersey i spoke at the president s urging today with governor murphy. 500 ventilators announced today being built on the supplies we have already provided. We were able to coordinate to expend extend testing in new jersey through may 30, if the need is there. Also opening up v. A. Beds. I spoke with governor Governor John Bel Edwards in louisiana. And was encouraged to hear from him that, as you heard dr. Birx say, that new cases were down slightly. In fact, we are seeing a trend of some leveling among all the governors i spoke to today. Secretary ofat the the v. A. Just announced, about ning up v. A. s abilities v. A. Facilities has been a priority. We are going to continue to send resources and supply and personnel. Bothchigan i spoke to governor and mayor of detroit. Governor whitmer and i spoke detroitnew program in that will make hydrochloric when available for 3000 patients through the henry ford hospital. They will be tracking in a formal study. Urging iesidents assured her we are more than prepared to make hydrochloric when available. Duggan. From mayor mike fda,s so grateful to the approving the tests of hydroxychloroquine. He will be able to use the test this weekend to test 150 First Responders who had been sidelines because they had been exposed to the coronavirus. They all got 15 minute tests and they are now back in the line of duty and the mayor could not have been more grateful. In illinois i spoke with the governor as well. Mayor Lauren Lightfoot of chicago, as you just heard, not only have we sent 600 ventilators to the state of illinois, but i assured the governor, i assured the mayor, that while the principal focus that we have in the next several days is on the rising cases in the Greater New York city area, louisiana, that michigan and illinois are in the forefront of our thinking, and at the president s direction we will make sure the people of illinois and michigan have the resources, equipment, and support that they need. The governor did express great appreciation for the fact that our army corps of engineers instructed 500 beds at mccormick place. Before the end of the week, would construct another 2500 beds for an overflow Health Care Facility in chicago. Mayor lightfoot told me the army corps was just outstanding in the job they have been doing in constructing the extra bed space. Expressse, let me just our profound appreciation for Governor Kate Brown and governor jay inslee. The state of oregon and the state of washington are leading by example. Oregon sent 140 ventilators to new york city. They looked out their circumstances and concluded that they could spare those. At the point of the need, and because of the low and steady numbers in Washington State and in california, governor inslee today announced they were sending 400 ventilators back to the Strategic National stockpile, and those will be deployed at the point of need. Not only are california and Washington State low and study, but as i spoke with governors and mayors today, i want to say to the American People that we are beginning to see the glimmers of progress. Me not tos will tell jump to any conclusions, and i am not. But like your president , i am an optimistic person and i am hopeful. And the truth is we are starting to see cases, and most importantly, losses as hospitalizations begin to stabilize. But nick no make no mistake about it, i want to say to the American People, if that holds, if that is happening, it is because of what all of you are doing. It is because the American People are putting into practice the coronavirus guidelines for america. You are listening to your state and local officials. You are practicing social distancing. You are using drivethroughs instead of going into restaurants. On behalf of your president and all of us, working really at every level, i just want to say thank you, america. Thank you for responding. Thank you for putting other peoples lives in the forefront of your thinking. Putting it over and above your own inconvenience and difficulty. Because of your efforts, there is, as the president just said, light at the end of the tunnel. And i am absolutely convinced with the continued patience consistence and prayers of the American People, we will get through this and we will get through this a lot sooner than we first thought it would take. Thank you. Can we start with the admiral. One estimate, their work two flights where did the flights come from . Asia. You mentioned all these flights that dropped off things. How are you making sure you drop them off at hospital a and people do not just go grab everything. Its going to the loading dock. Theres an invoice. So those people that are responsible for that loading dock and that invoice, they are going to make sure they will not be did you have a chance pres. Trump we get orders for a lot more than we think an area needs. We need to either negotiate that down or give them what they want. Instance, it, for with the medicines and with other things, we like to give it to them. Every day we are building up and building up very rapidly and deploying it. But we do get orders from some state where we do not think they need. We try to get them what they want anyway. You mentioned the Prime Minister at the top. Did you speak to him today . Pres. Trump i did not speak to him, no. I got a call from the ambassador. Move, goings a big to the hospital. He is a great gentleman. I just hope he is ok. You mentioned the nurses, the doctors, the people gearing up to get ready, people who are applauding. Has there been any talk on any level whatsoever of some sort of either Compensation Fund or protection for nurses, doctors . Some people have said i cannot risk my families livelihood, i cannot go back to the er. Pres. Trump we are talking about doing something for them. But we are really looking at the conclusion. We do not want to focus on that now. They are incredible. They are not saying we are not doing it. They go in with good equipment, with great equipment, and some that is not so good. Sometimes they catch it. Wearing the best stuff you can buy, brandnew. It is a very tough enemy. These are amazing people. We are talking about something. But we are thinking about lets get it finished first before we do that. The Surgeon General this morning was talking about the coming week being among the hardest and saddest weeks of our lives. He was talking about this being our pearl harbor, our 9 11 moment. You all are talking about the glimmers of hope and stabilization. How are the American People supposed to bridge those different descriptions that they are getting . Pres. Trump i do not think they are so different. We all know we have to reach a different point. That point, it is going to be a horrific point in terms of death. But it is also a point at which things are going to start changing. We are getting very close to that level right now. And the next two weeks are going to be, i think they are going to be very difficult. At the same time, we understand what they represent and what that time represents. And hopefully we can get this over with, because this is a very horrible thing for the world. Look, we are one country out of 182 now, 182 countries. A friend of mine, he said he did not know we had so many countries in the world. 182 countries are now affected by this. But we want to get it over with. Can i just ask a followup on those numbers . How does that change the production projections you are making earlier this week of 100,000 to 250,000 . Pres. Trump we hope we can stay under those numbers of. Of deaths. And as far under those numbers as possible. Now, if we did nothing, you know that number too. But the American People really stepped up. So do the professionals. So we are hoping to stay him or those numbers. That means the minimum and the maximum, but we are hoping to stay under the minimum. You know what that number was. But do the numbers you were talking about today, have they changed those productions projections . Pres. Trump i would say the answer is yes, but i would also say we are not going to know in terms of the final toll until we get to the end. And we will probably possibly are not so far away. We are getting closer. But it is our goal to stay as far under that minimum number, the minimum number as possible. Ok . That is what we want to do. As president of the United States, your word carries a near miss here is enormous weight. And while you acknowledge you are not a physician, you promote these medicines extensively here. How do you not go so far as to beginning nickel advice . Medical advice . You said yesterday you might take these medicines without showing symptoms. Do you still plan on doing that . How do you calibrate being enthusiastic and not playing dr. . Doctor . Pres. Trump because i want people to live and i am seeing people dying. I see people dying without it. And you know the expression, when that is happening, they should do it. What really do we have to lose . We also have this medicine that has been tested for many years for malaria and lupus. It has been out there. It is a very strong, powerful medicine. It does not kill people. We have some very good results and some very good tests. You have seen the same tests i have. In france they had a very good test. They are continuing. But we do not have time to cite lets take a couple of years and tested out. Lets go and test with the test tubes. I do not have time. I would love to do that. But we have people dying today. As we speak there are people dying. If it works that would be great. If it does not work, we know for many years, malaria, it is incredible what it has done for malaria. It is incredible what it is on for lupus. But it does not kill people. That is one of the things with the vaccine. When we have a vaccine we have to do tests, because when you inject that vaccine, when they taste take whatever it is we have to take, we have to make sure it does not have a horrible impact, destroys somebody. It could. So we have to test it for a long time. This one, not so much, because it has been out there. Now, i am not acting as a doctor. I am saying do what you want. But there are some good signs. You have read the signs, i have read the signs. With the other one there are some very good signs also. Going together, works very well. But there may be an indication that if you have a problem with your heart, you should take what we call busy pack. You should not take it. And that is ok. To a would love to go laboratory and spend a couple years testing something. We dont have time. We dont have two hours. Because there are people dying right now. If it does help, great. If it does not help, we gave it a shot. We give it a shot. That is the way i feel. Yeah, i would be very serious about taking it. Passed something i am very proud of, right to try. Makes so much sense. We have the greatest doctors and labs, lab technicians, greatest medicines, the greatest minds in the world. Everybody admits it. And when we are close to having something, or when we have something that tests incredibly well, you could not use it for years because it would take years to test. So with the help of also democrats, bipartisan, they have been trying to get this passed for decades, you know that. It is called right to try. So a person would be diagnosed, terminally ill from something. Days, meaning before a year ago, they would say, do you think i could try this pill, this whatever, this medicine, that is testing so well. No, you cannot do that, under no circumstances. They would leave for asia, they would leave for europe. If they had money. If they had no money they would go home and die. We got a thing called right to try. If somebody is very ill, terminally ill, they are going to die. And it was very complex. Was as easy as it sounds, because there were huge liability problems, the Drug Companies did not want to do it because they did not want it on test results because these are sick people, so they did not want to bring down test results. The Insurance Companies had tremendous problems. I got everyone in a room and i said look, sign a waiver. The person taking it said we are not going to sue. Not going to sue the insurance company. Not going to sue the state, the city, or the federal government. Ok . It is called exculpation. And we got it done. A very simple agreement. I dont know why nobody ever thought of it, but they never thought of it, i did. And we got it done. Now we have right to try, which actually, in my opinion, much more difficult than what we are talking about here. If theres a medicine or something, a possible cure, something looking good and somebody is going to die or they are very sick, they take it. And you know, we have had some unbelievable results. Unbelievable results. It also gives the people help. The doctors who are treating coronavirus patients, they have the medical expertise to determine whether or not they should prescribe hydroxychloroquine. And there are already Clinical Trials in place looking at hydroxychloroquine. Let the science speak for itself . Why are you promoting this drug . Pres. Trump i am not. I am not at all. You know what i am trying to do. I am trying to save lives. You come here every day talking about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine. Pres. Trump it may work and it may not work. If it does not work, it is nothing lost by doing it. Nothing. Because we know longterm, what i want is to save lives. I do not want it to be in a lab for the next 1. 5 years as people are dying already the place. It is already out there. Doctors can prescribe it. So what do you accomplish . Pres. Trump they bought massive amounts of it. 29 million doses of it. We have it coming from all over the labs. We are doing in here. In case it does work, we want to have it. And we have given it to drugstores, we are sending it all over. Fema is doing it. We are doing it through different channels. Many different channels, including the companies that make it. It is a very special thing. Now, it may not work. In which case, hey, it did not work. And it may work, in which case it is going to save a lot of lives. A lot of people are saying if the people walking in prior to getting it, if they take it, it has a profound effect. Well maybe it doesnt maybe it does not. I do not want to wait 1. 5 years to find out. Only cnn would ask that question. Fake news. I was hoping to ask after burkes a question. Dr. Birx a question. You just said you saw some change any projection. I am wondering, you obvious he have one weeks more worth of data since the 100,000 to 240,000 potential deaths figures you gave last week. So im wondering with all the caveats that this is based on continuing social distancing, and if one city pops, things could change dramatically. Now is the range you are looking at in terms of total death impact . Dr. Birx the most important thing right now is when we were talking about why we are hopeful, we are hopeful because last time i was here, i was not able to really tell you that italy and spain were coming across their apex and coming down the other side. And i think timmy, that is asked to me, that is extraordinarily hopeful. They completed four weeks of strong mitigation. That is our word to the American People, that we can look like that. Two other countries look like that now, two other countries with a very similar experience to our experience. Higher case numbers and higher mortality. So that is what the promise is. The promise is if we do this, we can potentially be better. Dr. Fauci and i today got another update from another independent modeler, and the numbers came in close to that 100,000 number again. But dr. Fauci and i believe that every american follows the guidelines, six feet, washing hands, not social gathering, that will have an even greater impact. And the other side of the equation certainly is our remarkable Health Care Providers. Our respiratory therapists, left technicians, nurses and doctors are saving lives every day. So that changes the number too. Pres. Trump i also think that dr. Fauci and dr. Birx are very impressed with the American People. And im not going to put words in anybodys mouth. I would never do that. But i am, i and i would say that they are doing maybe a better job than we all thought even possible. When you look at the streets of new york where there is nobody in the street, no cars, no nothing, i have seen it. I have seen those streets for a long time and they are packed all the time. Now you see there is nobody. You look at other places, you look at what is going on in california where they are doing a fantastic job, they really are, the governors doing great. Im proud of them. Proud of a lot of people. Proud of a lot of people on the other side. A lot of people. I am really delighted to work with people that, frankly on other issues i did not get along so well with, we disagree with. We do not have to go into that now. But we are getting along with a lot of people. And they are happy with us, we are happy with them. Thei really believe that American People are doing a better job than anybody would have thought even possible. And that is one of the reasons we can even be talking about the kind of number that we hopefully will be talking about, which is at the minimum level instead of the maximum, or beyond. It is not even the maximum, it is much beyond the maximum level, which would be horrific. Esper mentioned the department of defense might be moving any direction abusing face coverings. Former Vice President biden engine he would use a mask whenever he goes out now. Are we getting to a point now where we might see members of the Coronavirus Task force also where face coverings . Pres. Trump it was voluntary as i saw yesterday, and certainly if they would want to, i would encourage it. I would have absolutely no problem with that if they wanted. We had a long meeting today. There is good separation. But the task force meets and i would certainly have no problem if they wanted to. It might be advisable. Its advisory and we will see what happens. On project air bridge, we have seen reports that chinese testing kits and ppe turn out to be faulty to some capacity. Pres. Trump not here. No, but in spain. Pres. Trump they are not sending faulty things to us. We will look at it and check it out. One of the things we are doing to prevent that is using those six companies, the ones in the major supply chain. We are actually going to facilities looking at products, inspecting it, and clearing it before it comes here. So we have heard those things. That is why we are doing that. A followup of the doctors. Pres. Trump also sending it to other locations. When it comes to the ventilators, which are very complex, we have now under construction literally thousands of ventilators. But so far i think our projections on ventilators had been correct. Did you have something . For yourself and for the doctors, if they want to take a crack at it. Some of the models that you guys are using have been very accurate when it comes to protecting deaths over the last couple days. There are a couple other metrics that they seem to be pretty far off on, specifically hospital beds. Are you guys happy with the models you are currently using . Is any need to adjust those . Pres. Trump it is turning out that we are needing less hospital beds. We may have models but we have been saying that. In new york we were saying we think youre going to need less. Lets hope that continues. I heard Governor Cuomo this morning, and he was saying less hospital beds. Also less death. That was a big thing. First time. Less death today than yesterday. Also less hospital beds. That means less patients. Basically it is less patients. And we were saying that, and it also means less ventilators. So not so a lot of very positive things happening. With Prime Minister johnson hospitalized, i noticed a fume and its ago you were standing right next to Vice President pence. Are you considering staying away from each other just to make sure we have continuity as a government . Pres. Trump we have this tiny platform, and i would love it to be wider. You are staying away from each other. Mike, you were tested . Ok, like, recently. So was i a couple days ago. But you keep interacting. Pres. Trump here we are on this platform. But i get next to them, i dont breathe. I am only kidding. We are sometimes forced into positions that i would rather be away, but you are all looking for questions. Mike is a very big part of this. I am. It is very difficult maintaining like this distance on this little area. I just wanted to ask quickly under what circumstances would you consider leveling imports, tariffs on imports of oil into the United States . Pres. Trump if the oil price stays the way it is because of people that really want to see it go up. We want to save a great industry. He built a great industry in this country. If they did not get along i would do this, yeah, i would do tariffs, very substantial tariffs. Because we are independent now. We have our own oil. If we did the tariffs we would be saying we do not want any foreign oil, we are just going to use our oil, and that would help to save an industry. It has become a tremendous job producer and it is great to be independent. Our energy is now independent. Reproduced more oil and gas than any other country. That all took place over very recent times. 91,e meantime i am seeing road. On the i see very inexpensive jet fuel. But i want to save our great Energy Industry and that is what we are doing. So i would absolutely do that. And the price will still be very low. But what we will do is we will save. Importantly we will save tens of thousands of jobs. One of the other things we are doing is having oil shipped to our Strategic Oil reserves. And we are buying it for the right price and we are shipping it, in some cases we are storing it for nothing. We are filling up our reserves with this very inexpensive oil. Nobody thought they would ever see a price. This is like from the 1950s where they had big dollars. So no, i would use tariffs if i had to. I do not think i will have to because russia does not benefit by having this. And saudi arabia does not benefit by having. Oil and gas are there major sources of income. So it is not is a very bad for them. We have a very important industry. And it has really formed beautifully. It was the virus that killed, because what happened is it is down 40 from the day this happened. 40 . Otherwise it would be doing phenomenally well. So that is it. Peoplewe get an idea of waiting for the stimulus check, how many days they have to wait . Speaker pelosi said in the next bill they would like additional stimulus bills. Have you thrown around an amount . Pres. Trump no, but i like the concept of it. We are talking about a different way of doing it, but i like the concept. I like the concept of infrastructure. Our country has to be rebuilt. They spent eight trillion dollars in the middle east. We have to rebuild our country, ok . We have to rebuild our roads, schools, bridges, we have to rebuild our country. So i like an infrastructure bill. I also like money going directly to people. It is not their fault that this happened. And i do think this, especially the faster we can get it open, our country, can you believe we are talking about our country . Getting our country open. The faster we get it open, the bigger the rocketship going up. I think it has a chance to go really quickly, relatively quickly. I would like to see very quickly but we will see. Part of the stimulus and part of what we are doing, that will help it. And the nice part is we are paying practically zero interest rates. We are paying very little. One of the reasons i like the infrastructure bill. Because we are borrowing. We have a strong dollar. And the advantage to a strong dollar is everybody wants to invest in this country. They all want to buy our dollar. In terms of timeline, still tent still two weeks . Pres. Trump a couple of weeks is what im hearing. Up. Want to follow has there been any tension with the medical staff on the numbers . Pres. Trump we discussed it with the staff, with fda. Fda approved it, so, you know, which is another point. It has been approved by fda, which is very important. It was not approved by fda i cannot do this. But fda approved the hydroxychloroquine. If it turns out not to work, are hospitals and doctors bs kauppatori from the federal government be exculpatory from the federal government . Pres. Trump it is not going to hurt people. It can help them but it cannot hurt them. That is the beauty of it. It can help them, but it wont hurt them. What do you have to lose . Canbviously we know anyone spread the disease unwittingly. So why not have a few businesses open . Why do we have to shut everything down . Why even take a little chance . Pres. Trump we will answer that question later. All i can say is right now things are looking really good and opening up will be a bang. No one will be happier than me. To follow up on your comments about the ventilators, new models suggest 320,000 suggest 32,000 ventilators will be required by april. Across the country. Pres. Trump in addition to the ones we have already sent . Just total. We have a little over 9000 right now and those are ready to rock should we need them. You understand the flux ability. If we need them the flexibility. They are ready to move. Its a military operation. We are ready to move. They will be moved immediately into whatever section of the country we need. Correct. Fema is working on a plan to be able to move ventilators. If dod gave another 500 ventilators, they are on the move, being staged at fort dix. They will be able to rapidly deploy them to locations. You heard the president mentioned states giving to states, things like that. So theres the ventilators that are not in use that conceivably we can rapidly move as well. But you mentioned there were thousands that are currently being made. I wondered if there was any update with gm and ford. Pres. Trump no, but it will not be long. They have started. Gm, ford. We have approximately 11 companies doing it. And we are going to have a stockpile for the future. Hopefully we never have to use them. They should not. The hospitals, the states should have brought a stockpile. So we have to make up for it. But if we have extras, other countries need them. The u. K. Needs them badly, france, italy, they need them. So, its complicated, it is a big piece of equipment, it is this pensive, and we will it is expensive, and we will be able to help other countries once we take care of our needs. Infrastructure spending pres. Trump i chose you, but that is ok. On infrastructure you have remarked about how empty the roads are. Is there any way to speed up infrastructure . I mean the beltway in washington, it takes forever to do any road repairs. Pres. Trump because they do not do construction techniques that work and that are better. I see a highway, which is what i do, i do construction, what i did. I see a highway, it is good but it has a dead top, and it has a big concrete base underneath. I see them come in, i do not want to say where but i could give you plenty of examples, and they ripped the hell out of it. They take out everything. Now they pour in a new base, it is not as good. The concrete base was fantastic. It takes forever. It takes forever. And instead of creasing scraping out the asphalt or the top, scraping it off and putting the new asphalt down, putting the new median in, they could have done it. Then they open the highway and it starts to crack. The reason is because it has not been set. 20 times spend 10, 15, more money than they have to. I never believed when i watch these people doing highways and doing roadways, and doing work, they take the most expensive solution, and the bottom line, the job itself is far worse. That is what im getting at. Taking advantage of the fact that so many people are staying at home, not on the roads, is there a way to pres. Trump hopefully they will not be staying at home for long. We will not have that kind of time. If we have that kind of time, we made a big mistake. How many rapid tests has the federal government already deployed across the country, and which regions received the tests . Pres. Trump who has that information . The 15 minute test has been a breakthrough. I have reflected on the progress they made in detroit and First Responders back on duty. Lastt laboratories started tuesday producing about 50,000 tests a day. Arei am informed that there about 18,000 of these machines already across the country. They are actually the same machines used to get a strep test quickly when you go to the doctor. Now they are surging these 15 minute coronavirus tests to Health Care Professionals and Health Care Facilities around the country. Purchasedn, fema has disturbingse devices to all 50 states and the Indian Health care system. And then we will be disturbing the tests. Is there anything to add further on that . Admiral. K the i did not hear the question. Vp pence had they received the 1200 or what is the timetable . I believe they were on the shelf at abbott. A majority of them. I did not have the exact numbers. I think there is some manufacturing but the balance of them are on the shelf. Pres. Trump some have gone out, but the big bulk go out tuesday. In some previous briefings you referred to the federal government as a backup. Theres definitely a different approach today here with the distribution. The sense of it and listening to your presentation today is that you are embracing taking a leader role for distribution. Is there a change . Pres. Trump no, we are supposed to be the backup. But like in illinois at the governor could do his job. So we had to help him. We are sending 600 ventilators. Your building a hospital we are building a hospital in mccormick place. We had some people who needed a little help. In new york we had to get a lot of help but we worked very well Governor Cuomo and mayor de blasio. Meant to be the backup but we are taking on a much bigger role than that. And that is ok. I have no objection to it. In some cases it has worked so well where a think where they think they are over the big problem and they are calling to say you can take your equipment back now. We are really deployed as a backup but i feel we are much more than that. They have done a much better job. I will say i do not think that the people who have represented this country, the federal government, whether it is the admiral, the generals, all the , they are heroes for what they have done. What they had been able to do in a short amount of time, they took a system that was broken, just like we did the military. Our military was broken and the pleated peer to it was broken and we have rebuilt our military. We have rebuilt this. I appreciate your question because your hearing all the things, the millions of masks, the hundreds of thousands of gallons, they are surgical, protective gallons gowns at the highest level. We are getting into the various states. And most of the governors are very happy. A lot of times it is politics. Maybe i do the same thing, i do not know. They will try to act not so happy. But when i speak to them or the Vice President speaks to them, they are singing the praises of all these people. So i always take umbrage when somebody says something about what we are no. To do what we have been able to do and to build it to a level should have taken a year. Should have taken two years. They did it in a matter of weeks. And we are helping states. No, it is them. New york had the right to buy 16,000 ventilators. They could have bought them. They did not. I understand, it is very expensive. That is a lot. 16,000. They chose to do Something Else with their money. I understand that. The problem is when Something Like this comes along that you a longexpectlook, 1917, time ago. Perhaps 100 Million People died. That is a long time ago. So people did not think it was going to happen. Frankly, did anyone in this room think a thing like this could happen . But it happened. And we built up a force. This is a military operation, it really is. With fema, the army corps of engineers. And you are very gracious on that point. The army corps of engineers, 2500 units of beds and everything else. And then Governor Cuomo called and he wanted to go covid. Meaning, for the problem. Was notaid well, supposed to be that way, but we want to get it done. So now military personnel are operating it. Good will tell you what is , it has not been very full. That is a good thing, not a bad thing. Now maybe over the next week something will happen. But it has not been. But it is better than the other alternative where we run out. Beds. Medicalbuilt four centers in new york. And a lot more than that. It is such an honor to have done it. But the people who have done it are amazing and have to be appreciated. They are not going to appreciate me at all. I do not care about me. They have to appreciate the generals, the admirals, the doctors and nurses. We are bringing in 3000 people who are medical professionals coming from all over the country. To help new york city, help new york state, and help many other places. I think it is incredible what they have done. And i do not think they had been appreciated. Me, you can forget about. It. Tually mean they have to be appreciated. In the back please. Yesterday you pres. Trump i see the light at the end of the tunnel. If i did not i would not be very thrilled with what we have done. I see light at the end of the tunnel. Numbersons are some coming out today. I think we had a very good meeting today. We are seeing things that we did not even report because we think it is too early to report. I think we are seeing things happened that are very good. And all of us, including the medical professionals, we know we have to open our country up. We have to open our country up. No country was designed for this where you close it. We are in the midst of the greatest economic boom in history. For any country. Our country had the greatest economic boom in history. We had the most people working that we ever had come almost 160 Million People. And then they want nobody to leave their house. You could use the term cold turkey. That is called cold turkey. Our country is not designed this country is not designed for that. We have to get our country back. And i think it is going to come back and i hope it is going to come back very quickly. Sir, the first lady has been tweeting and encouraging people to where face masks. Pres. Trump she feels that way. She feels that way. I would wear one. In a erally, i am not would you like me to wear one right now . That would be a little awkward, i guess. If igain, i would wear one thought it was important. She likes the idea of wearing it, yeah, a lot of people do. Again, it is a recommendation and i understand that commendation. Are you encouraging new yorkers to wear them . Pres. Trump would not be surprised. What would you like to know . If we are going into this most difficult of times, how can the American People emotionally prepare for that . And while the president is eager to see the Company Country reopen, how can we balance the mitigation factors that need to take place before that . Pres. Trump by the way, he would like to see the company open too. Hes an american who loves our country. Dr. Fauci part of the answer relates to two other questions i heard, i think from the back about how can you on the one hand have said yesterday that this will be a bad week, and at the same time talking about the light at the end of the tunnel. It seems to be inherently contradictory but it is not. It has to do with what we explained before about the lag. And when you look at the indications that dr. Birx and the president were talking about where you see it flattening out of cases. And you do not see the realization of what that means until two weeks later. So right now we are seeing, as we also correctly, that this will probably be a really bad week. That is a reflection of what happened 2. 5 weeks ago. So if we start seeing now a flattening or stabilization of cases, what you are hearing about potential light at the end of the tunnel, does not take away from the fact that tomorrow and the next day will look really bad. So we have to make sure, realize we are always talking about it 2. 5 week lag. I think a couple people asked that question. It is really not incompatible with what we are saying. With regards to what we tell the American People, what we have been telling them all along, that the only tool, the best tool we have is mitigation. We know it worked in other countries and we see how it works here. So if we really want to make sure we do not have these kinds of rebounds that we are worried about, it is mitigation, mitigation mitigation. That is the answer. What is the message for people and the places that have not been the focus . Dr. Fauci the same thing. Mitigation, mitigation, mitigation. In fact [laughter] is the minimal of what we should be doing. Everyone should be doing that. Points or the other, it to physical separation. Whether it is no crowds, six feet, staying away from theaters and restaurants and what have you. Exactly, exactly. Are you worried about people becoming complacent . I think people are about ready going to go nuts staying in their house. Are you worried that seven days from now people are going to say a have to get out. Dr. Fauci i do not think it will happen. I mentioned this the other day, from ionas. From my own experience. People really understand the responsibility they have. So this is about all of us. This is not just about us. Because if everybody does their part, you are going to not have those kind of rebounds that we are worried about. Asymptomty additional atic cases do you think there are in the u. S. Given what we have learned . Dr. Fauci we do not know. Even among us, good friends that we are, we differ about that. It is somewhere between 25 and 50 . In other words, about the people who are out there. Trust me, that is an estimate. I have no Scientific Data get to say that. You know when we will get the Scientific Data . When we get the antibody tests out there, and we really know what the penetrance is. Then we can answer the questions in a scientifically sound way. Right now we are just guessing . Pres. Trump and we have made great progress on the antibody testing. What do you think about the issue with hydroxychloroquine . I answered this 15 times. You dont have to answer. He is your medical expert. Why am i not wearing a face mask now . There are couple reasons. One is that the major reason to wear a face mask is to protect you from infecting you. I had my test yesterday and it was negative. Pres. Trump very good answer. I think that could be yet. I love that answer. Especially on the face mask. Go ahead. Issue,he equipment records show that federal agencies did not pres. Trump oh stop it. Who are you with . The associated press. Agencies did not receive pres. Trump let me answer your question because it is a same question you always ask. Ready . They have done an unbelievable job in delivering. The associated press, which is not so great. Not like it used to be. The people that you are looking whatema, the military, they have done is a miracle. What they have done is a miracle in getting all this stuff. What they have done for states is incredible. And you should be thanking them for what they have done, not always asking wiseguy questions. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Announcer we will reair this briefing later this evening on cspan. In the meantime you can find it on a website, cspan. Org. The member ofuci, the white house Coronavirus Task force, spoke at todays briefing and is a focus of a profile on tonights addition of q a. That is next here on cspan, your unfiltered view of government. When you are dealing in the interface of politics, policy and medicine, the thing that i have found to be very effective is be consistent, bta
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