Transcripts For CSPAN Florida Gov. DeSantis Holds Coronavirus Briefing 20240712

Crash victim who was categorized as a covid19 death. Gov. Desantis well, its great florida, the ral reason were here at one blood today is so many floridians have asked what else can i do to be helpful against the fight of covid19. Folks have been very diligent social racticing distancing, wearing face coverings looking out for our we want you to continue to do that. There is another way you can help. Infected who have been with covid19 and developed ntibodies for the disease to donate your blood and one blood here is really leading the charge on this. We started this in march, of e was not a lot information about how to treat omebody that was infected with covid19 and required hospitalization and there has been a lot of Different Things long the way that have been done. There have been a lot of great made. Due that have been one of the treatments that many physicians around the state effective is the use of convalescent plasma. Donated lood that is from somebody who has cleared the covid19 disease. Has the antibodies and that is then used on a patient who is in the hospital and what they find is, as well with some of the other treatments, the it, the more effective it will be. F you wait until the end, then there is not much that ends up making a huge difference. Has had Antibody Testing for the general public at a number of our drivethrough sites for the last several weeks including here at the Orange County Convention Center. So, if youre somebody that thinks you may have been infected in the past, you can go, it is a blood draw, but you 15 minutes. In we advise folks who arent experiencing any covid19 of the people that go to our drythrough sites dont have any symptoms, they curious, maybe i was exposed and then they get a diagnostic test and thats fine and thats available. F youre in that situation, doing an Antibody Test may be a er option [protests] gov. Desantis we will not dont ng the police, worry about that. What you have with the plasma is the ability to help folks. Into a u go drivethrough testing site and you want to do an Antibody Test, see if you able to had a recent infection, if you have a certain type of antibody. You get the i. G. G. Antibody, you are in a situation where you know you have cleared the illness for several weeks. Its important to do, that is available not just at the Orange County also at n center, but the jacksonville drivethrough beach, e, at the palm West Palm Beach ballpark site, at the Miami Beach Convention Hard Rock Center in miami dade county. What we have been seeing over the last couple weeks, we have seeing an increase in prevalence of people who are antibodies. Itive for if you do test positive for antibodies, youll get the there, go with one blood and consider giving blood o that youre able to be in a situation where youre helping patients. I think its something thats very, very important. There is an increased demand rom hospitals for convalescent plasma. We want to be able to meet that need. So one of the best things you do if youre somebody who has recovered from covid19 is o donate blood, your plasma will be able to be used to help and this success has been promising. Think if you look at a hospitalized patient now given treatment early, theyre doing better than patients were doing and april when the pandemic really first hit. To know, thistant is just one way that were able need p folks who treatment. The other thing that a lot of the physicians have asked for have been using is Prescription Drug remdesivir. His is something that had been controlled basically with the federal government initially sending to the Health Department it directly to hospitals, when hospitals started running low on it, they we were for help and able to do that and we were able weeksedite a shipment two ago and then we expedited another shipment that is in hospitals today which is important. Remdesivir is similar and conjunction in plasma. Nvalescent its a five, sixday regimen. Physicians early, believe there is a really good sense of support. Its important to understand, we ball on getting todesivir into the hospitals have the convalescent plasma and the opportunity to do that as well. Also important to note that covid19, while its obviously issue, there are a lot of other Health Issues out here if you need healthcare, particularly for things like heart and stroke, we dont want people deferring that, go in, the hospitals are safe, here is capacity, right now there are people in intensive care for things other than not seek ho did attention when they needed to and their condition worsened, now its a tougher fight. If youre somebody out there that is experiencing those not shirk o not, do from going in to get the medical attention that you need and we have 25 of the hospital beds are available and almost 20 of the i. C. U. Beds are available. County, nearly 26 of adult hospital beds are 22 of le and nearly i. C. U. Beds remain available. So the capacity is there. The Covid Patients represent a larger percentage of the census month or a d a monthandahalf ago, we have helpapacity and the states with some of the folks who are contract nurses and some of the other medical professionals. Really appreciate that. I want to thank the folks at one their support. We have a lot of folks who are orking really, really hard on this to be able to help patients, to be able to generate better outcomes. For members at way of the public to be able to do it. Remember, you dont have to have positive in a diagnostic test. There are people that have this a month or twos, ago, maybe two, three months ago ho will have antibodies that can be used for this. Even if you never tested positive before, you think you exposed, go get an Antibody Test and consider blood. With that, i want to let the folks from one blood come up and things and well take a few questions. Thank you, governor desantis. On behalf of the 2,500 team embers at one blood, i want to thank the governor for being here today and help raise unprecedented he need for convalescent plasma. Ince the early days of the pandemic, we have been working ith the governors office, and the department of health. As coronaviruses cases surge, for convalescent plasma is reaching extraordinary levels. One blood experiencing a 500 for hospital mand orders for covid19 convalescent plasma. Urging people who recovered from the coronavirus to step forward and donate their plasma. You are jently needed. The surge in the number of diagnosed with coronavirus is coupled with the fact that hospitals are convalescent plasma earlier in their treatment which is right in to new heights. Its all hands on deck in one blood. As quickly as donations come in, process, we test, and we distribute them and get them out because the demand is currently unprecedented. One blood is collecting plasma seven days a week and we are processing and testing 24 hours a day. Revolving door. As quickly as the plaz ma comes back out because that is the importance of the need at this time. You must register at donate. Org to convalescent plasma. You cant walk in and donate first and istering qualifying. Once again its oneblood. Org. Donated every 28 days. Since there is strong ongoing for conswra less sent plasma, go to oneblood. Org if qualify and make donation a habit. One blood is one of the first Blood Centers in the country to collecting and distributing convalescent plasma, so once again, we are part to support the critically ill. Thousands of units a day for convalescent distributed thousands of units a day and there is no sight. Right now i would like to ntroduce our chief medical director, dr. Rita reich, thank you very much. Thank you, governor, thank you, we have quite a storm outside, ill try to talk as loud as i can. I would like from a medical of view tell you how important convalescent plasma is. This is a treatment that has been around for almost a century, but it is only recently the f. D. A. As y an experimental therapy for is experimental. Were still doing studies on it. Go. E still learning as we the important thing to know is that people who have recovered and are now healthy and have antibodies circulating actually help save a life and improve an outcome for a erson who is fighting the disease. In other words, the antibodies convalescent plasma donor can boost the immune system of someone really sick in i. C. U. Or someone who has had a massive exposure. Since the n using it outbreak of the pandemic and we are finding that we have very positive results from it. Theyre not published yet. The analyses are still being encouraged re very by what we see. So what were really hoping to earlier and use it more often than we have been enkournting an extraordinary rapid increase in orders for this product now, c. C. P. As you heard here several times. Database, ave a donor so we do not know where to find we le who have covid19 and need them to come forward register on our website to make themselves save a person lp who is battling covid19. If you know of anyone or you has n to be someone that covid19 and youre now healthy, please go to oneblood. Org and register. The need right now is quite urgent, so thank you. Thank you, governor. We appreciate all one blood is doing. Its a great way for floridians to be able to help their fellow floridian, and i think we will get a good response out of this. You are going through our drivethrough sites within Antibody Test, you will get a result that day, 15 minutes. Consider going immediately to donate blood because you could helpful. Before i take some questions, just a couple of comments on some of the upcoming events, particularly the school year. Our Guiding Principles have been number one that, ultimately, parents need to be free to choose the best environment for their student, for their kids. If that means they preferred distancelearning because they are not comfortable with kids in school, thats their decision as a parent. If people want a hybrid, they can offer a hybrid. We want to provide parents who want their kids in school and option as well. We see the problem that has already developed with not having kids have access to the mentorship and in person instruction. We dont want folks to fall behind. We really, really want to focus on the best interest of our students, and giving the parents the maximum amount of choices to be able to make the best decision that they can. I would also say, as we think about in person versus virtual, there are some really significant hurdles for certain classes of students when it comes to virtual learning. Mayents with unique ability just simply not be able to learn in a virtual environment at all. Some students, although the Florida Department of education did work to put out more laptops, but not all students have that reliable access to the internet or computer. For some students, schools in one place where they get access to healthy meals. The most common place where abuse and neglect are identified. Thats just because fulks in the school are really looking out. Obviously, the whole issue of child care or continued will continue to be something for our low income families. Choice is paramount. I know that some of the fulks in Central Florida have committed plans and some of the districts. I will say this, if you look at the trends in Central Florida, you look at the positivity in the single digits. You look at seminole has gone down. Orange is well. Those are very good signs. You look at the indicators. Those have declined. So i anticipate that to continue. As we get into the school year, i think the numbers will be even lower because fulks have been doing a good job. Lks have been doing a good job. We really want to give parents a choice. [inaudible] gov. Desantis its a really important point. One, if a parent has a child may have underlying conditions we for virtual. If they wanted to be in there with special accommodations, School District need to make those accommodations. This aim with employees. This is something that has been in our guidelines, regardless of employer. If you have, as a Business Owner and School District and the state has followed this too if you have someone that has an Underlying Health issue, they absolutely need to be given the option. Sabbatical,ake a but those folks who are higher risk, you absolutely need to have accommodations for, without question. I have not seen it, but if there is an adult or instructor who is concerned from a health perspective, i think accommodations need to be made, absolutely. You should have to, but if a teacher does not feel comfortable there and they want d, andtheir job distance some that have more chronic conditions, if they want to say i just think they should be given as much options as possible. These are unique circumstances, lets be flexible, lets try to give parents the choices and do its best for kids, but lets also recognize although i dont think the schoolchildren are the spread, anyors of Employment Situation you have to take precaution to make sure people are protected. [inaudible] first of all, i did not give any executive order. That was the department of education. They have a board and do Different Things. My view is, we have to work together. I want to work with all the School Districts. If you look at the epidemic throughout florida, its more severe in sums in some parts than others. We have to be guided by the evidence and the data and make sure we are putting the interest of kids first and given the parents the choices they deserve. [inaudible] gov. Desantis which lab was that . [inaudible] thats a great question. I think we went into this, all the labs were promising into phase one. We figured it be 72 hours. But the country is testing more than anywhere else. I think its 700, 800,000 tests per day and the labs have gotten backed. Emergency management is going through and making changes. While we debuted on friday in Orange County was most of the people that are testing now dont have symptoms. Maybe they were exposed, maybe they know a person that got it. 25 that are coming to our test sites are just curious. They dont know that they have been exposed, they want to do it. Thats fine, but we have people who have symptoms any need to know whether you have it or not. We started especially for symptomatic people, Orange County, jacksonville, broward and miami. Those were taken on friday, package sent. I believe the results will come to the people today. We check with Emergency Management to confirm that. The goal is, if we work with specific labs, we understand there is a certain class of test takers who are symptomatic, who really to know one way or another whether they have it. That is the most important thing. A test of asymptomatic person will be more instructive. If its positive and you have symptoms, you are infectious. If you have no symptoms and test positive, that could be dead virus. Rna willn a of the be there for a wild. Thats why symptomatic testtakers are important. What we will do is see how much capacity we can build an out model, and if we can continue to build capacity there, then really, anyone that has a symptom, we would like them to go and get sent out the same day. If we can get it back within 36 hours, thats a huge deal. [inaudible] gov. Desantis they should not recruit. When you do the percent positive for new cases, its the total number of tests minus those who have previously previously tested positive. If you tested positive and are trying to get out of quarantine and you have two negatives, those are not counted. If you test positive those are not counted. That doesnt really tell us about anything with the spread. We have had people that have tested positive five times, six times while they are in isolation. If you test negative twice, you have already had it, that does not necessarily mean there are more negatives. They should not be counting get. There are issues. I have asked the department of health to follow up. I know its been reported about some of the labs, traditionally the only report the positives. We express them to do the negatives. As they have pointed out, some labs presented 100 positive. To get it is, they want the positives out as quickly as possible so that people know and the negatives can get backlogged. Still, if you are actually going to use this percent positive as a metric, you have to get all the negatives there as well. The other thing i have asked the department of health to look at is, there was a case in Central Florida were somebody was in their 20s and they were in a motorcycle accident. That was counted as a coronavirus death. A lot of people are like, how is that possible . You get hit by a car and then you are a true to coronavirus . I think the reason that is the cdc has said that anybody who has tested positive, if they then die, thats a death amongst cases, but i think the public should know. If somebody commits suicide and then they turn out positive, should that be attributed to the coronavirus . And for the perspective states reporting, they will do it the cdcs way, but i think the public should know how many of those types of fatalities there are. We have had families who have been a little frustrated that they have an elderly relative who had a chronic condition and hospice andected in that was being attributed to corona when they had alzheimers, or some other thing. Tohink that it just needs be, ok, heres what the cdc is requiring. Here is what this means. And then, here are some instances in which, clearly it was somebody that died with rather than died because of. These cases, respiratory distress, you are dying because of. There are some of those cases, particularly when we talk about Car Accidents where people scratch their heads and say, why would that be something. The reason is, they are following cdc guidelines. I think cdc is like, and set of why notg to figure out, just include it and maybe you can go back in parts later. I think sometimes people see that and get frustrated and wonder, thats not really what should be there. [inaudible] want toantis so they test site just for symptomatic . We are doing the symptomatic lanes here in orlando and jacksonville. I think, assuming we get the test results back and a good order, this may be a good model we expand. Add some of do is the test sites be dedicated for symptomatic. If youre symptomatic, what will happen is you will get through much quicker because this Orange County Convention Center has had up to 2000 and a day, certainly 1800. Our test sites have gone down, which is somewhat of a good sign. It may mean we are turning a corner here. But i think it would be something i would support if we could figure out which sites will be for symptomatic. We do want to have access for other folks as well, like in miami, they have a lot of test sites. Maybe to dedicate one for symptomatic and one in Orange County and get quicker results. I think a lot of people would really like that. One more question. [inaudible] gov. Desantis i have asked them to look at that. I have heard it. The people that are told you are willing to provide their name, we are interested in investigating this. Its ridiculous. Some people sign up, then for whatever reason they dont go through with the test and then they say you were tested positive when you are not even swapped. Every time a test is run there is a lot of money that goes to these labs. But for that to come back positive when there was no specimen submitted, its problematic. I have heard it enough to be concerned. I would say to the public, if you are somebody that this has happened to and are willing to come forward and give us the details, i think that needs to be corrected. Is getting a test result without being swabbed, what does that say about the other stuff going on. I want to know which labs its happening at. Its a big problem. Everybody, donate your plasma. Its very important. You can make a different difference in peoples lives. Cspans washington journal. Are taking your calls on use of the day and discuss policy issues that impact you. Up tuesday morning, American Federation president discusses the unions position in the debate over reopening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. And, american conservative union. Ill talk about campaigns 2020 watch cspans washington journal tuesday morning. Be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, Facebook Comments and Text Messages and tweets. Join the discussion. Live tuesday on the cspan networks, the house continues work on the fiscal year 2021 defense programs and policies bill at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. At 9 30 a. M. On cspan2, Maryland Governor larry hogan, along with former fda commissioner discuss marilyns coronavirus pandemic response. The Senate Returns at 10 00 a. M. 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