Shortening the duration of the pandemic, which is what it is. The cdc has published guidelines on the coronavirus, dotgov to enable the coronavirus, dotgov, its heavily used right now, for americans to protect themselves, their families, and their communities. While the risks to young and healthy americans remains very low, weve learned a lot about this over the last two weeks, anyone can be a carrier for the virus, and risk transmission to Older Americans and those with Underlying Health conditions, and those who are most at risk. They have not done very well, Older Americans who are especially if they have a health problem, they have not done well. We must take all precautions and be responsible for the actions
that we take and that we see other people take. We want to prevent the spread and transmission of the disease, uh, its incredible whats sports, whats happening with the sporting world, where so many of the great sports that weve gotten so used to at this time of the year, theyre not going to be meeting. And theyve done a great service, actually, that would be another way that it could be, uh, problems could be caused. But this is why i outlined on wednesday night my administrati administrations the fact that weve issued a requirement suspending all medically unnecessary visits to various places, but in particular nursing homes. We should all be working off the same playbook when it comes to protecting americans, we have to. We need to be consistent in adopting measures to limit the spread of the virus. The virus is the same whether its spreading in cities, towns,
or rural communities. The tools and tactics for attacking it are similar no matter where you go, no matter where you go. You have some hotspots throughout the world right now that people would have never thought possible. Theyre being very seriously affected. Key among these efforts, breaking chains of transmission between people. These measures have been adopted by many companies, universities and schools. And we want to protect the safety and the health of their employees and their students. I encourage everyone to follow the guidelines weve issued by cdc and these common sense measures, a lot of it is common sense, for the areas where the virus is spreading. The cdc is advising communities to postpone large gatherings, postpo postpone assemblies, stagger recess and lunch for schools that arent canceled, increase schedule plannings, and cancel
worksponsored travel, among numerous other steps that can be taken. Americans are the strongest and most resilient people on earth and in the coming weeks we will all have to make changes and sacrifices but these short term sacrifices will produce long term gain. And again, ive said were learning a lot for the future and future problems like this or worse, or worse, could get worse. The next eight weeks are critical. We can learn and we will turn a corner on this virus. Some of the doctors say it will wash through, it will flow through. Interesting terms. And very accurate, i think youre going to find in a number of weeks its going to be a very accurate term. In times of hardship the true character of america always shines through. We live in the company of the greatest heroes and the most
inspiring citizens anywhere in the world. We want to take care of our people. We want to draw on the strength of our history, draw on the strength of our people, and we will get through this all together, we will just get through it. So much progress has already been made. And frankly the numbers, because the steps that have been taken, are at a level that a lot of people are surprised, especially when you compare them with other places, far smaller populations. The spirit and the will of our nation is unbreakable. We will defeat this threat. When america is tested, america rises to the occasion. To those families and citizens who are worried and concerned for themselves and their loved ones i want you to know the federal government will unleash every federal authority, tool, and resource at its disposal to safeguard the lives and health of our people. So we are with you every step of the way. No nation is more prepared or
more equipped to face down this crisis. As you know, were rated number one in the world. Were also helping other nations, many other nations, were helping them a lot. And theyre doing okay in some cases, in some cases theyre not doing well at all, but were working with a lot of groups of people and a lot of other nations. With faith and heart and hope and love and determination, we will succeed, we will prevail, we will be very, very successful, and well learn for the future. Thank you all very much. If you have any questions we can take some. Go ahead, john, please. And if you would like to ask some of the folks up here, that would be fine, please. Reporter mr. President , where are you with the house bill . Yesterday we talked to you in the oval office, you were opposed to it. What has happened since then and whats the holdup on that . Well, we dont think theyre giving enough. We dont think the democrats are
giving enough. We didnt agree to certain things they agreed to. We could have something but we dont think theyre giving up in, theyre not doing whats right for the country. Reporter if i could ask dr. Fauci. Go ahead, please. Reporter thank you, mr. President. You just mentioned waiving interest for Student Loans. You talked about adding to the spr. What are the specific targeted measures is your administration thinking about secretary . Treasury secretary mnuchin said youre just in the second inning of things you might be thats true. Were going to be releasing a paper in about two hours stating quite a few other steps, very important ones. Please, go ahead. Reporter sir, if you wouldnt mind. Reporter thank you so much, mr. President. I want to know if you are in contact with the brazilian president bolsonaro after a member of his delegation who was with you saturday was tested positive and also i want to ask another question, if youll let
me, senator Lindsey Graham and also senator rick scott are selfisolating. Are you planning to take any kind of precautionary measure to protect you and also your staff . No. We have no symptoms whatsoever. And, uh, we have we had a great meeting with the president of brazil, bolsonaro, great guy, very a very tremendous hes doing a fantastic job for brazil. And as you know, he tested negative, meaning nothing wrong this morning and we got that word too, because we did have dinner with him, uh, we were sitting next to each other for a long period of time. Reporter are you in contact with him over the Coronavirus Crisis . No, we have were talking about it country to country, but we did discuss, uh, if he had a problem. It was reported that he may have it and he doesnt. Fortunately. Reporter thank you so much, mr. President. Dr. Fauci said earlier this week
that the lag in testing was in fact a failing. Do you take responsibility for that . And when can you guarantee that every single american who needs a test will be able to have a test . Whats the date of that . Yeah, no, i dont take responsibility at all because we were given a, uh, a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time. It wasnt meant for this kind of event with the kind of numbers were talking about. And what weve done is redesigned it very quickly with the help of the people behind me. And were now in very, very strong shape. I think well be announcing, as i said, sunday night. And this will start very quickly. And well have the ability to do in the millions over a very, very quick period of time, so no. And what we have done, and we are going to be leaving a very indelible print for the future in case Something Like this happens again, but it was a
and thats not the fault of anybody, and frankly the old system worked very well for smaller numbers, much smaller numbers, but not these kind of numbers. Reporter by sunday night will every american be able to get a test . So just to reiterate what i said to many of you multiple times, its the system. The system was not designed. For what it was designed for, it worked very well. The cdc designed a good system. If you want to get the kind of blanket testing and availability that anybody can get it, or you could even do surveillance to find out what the penetrance is, you have to embrace the private sector, you cant do it without it. When i said that i meant the system was not designed for what we need. Now, looking forward, the system will take care of it. Reporter mr. President , with respect to go back, please, if you go back to the swine flu, it was, uh, nothing like this, they
didnt do testing like this, and actually they lost approximately 14,000 people, and they didnt do the testing, they started thinking about testing when it was far too late. What weve done and one of the reasons people are respecting what weve done, we got it very early, and weve also kept a lot of people out. Reporter mr. President , the last administration said they tested a Million People by this point. Ask them how they did with the twiswine flu, it was a disaster. They would a very big failure with swine flu, a very big failure. Reporter mr. President , i want to ask you about the european travel ban that goes into effect at midnight tonight and the exemption youve offered to the uk. There are 17 countries that are in the socalled schengen zone that have fewer coronavirus cases than the uk. And just in the past 24 hours, the uk has added 208 coronavirus cases to their total. Why did they, mr. President ,
deserve an exception and would you consider adding them to this travel ban list . Reporter well, that was recommended to me by a group of professionals. And we are looking at it based on the new numbers that are coming out and we may have to include them in the list of countries that we will, uh, you could say ban or whatever it is, during this period of time. But yeah, the numbers have gone up fairly precipitously over the last 24 hours. So we may be adding that. And we may be adding a couple of others. And we may frankly start thinking about taking some off. Go ahead. Reporter thank you, mr. President. Im a correspondent with hong kong phoenix tv. You have mentioned that the number in china has been decreasing and china has made tremendous progress in the past weeks. Im wondering how much confidence does this give you to control the virus in the United States, and do you see the data china has been sharing with the United States has been helpful . I think it has been helpful. Weve been working very much with china. Ive spoken, as you know, with president xi. They went through hell. And their numbers are starting to look very good. Theyre really looking very good, were very happy about that. We are sharing data, yes, in fact were sharing quite a bit of data including the fact that some of our pharmaceutical companies are working over there right now with large groups of people. Yeah, go ahead, please. Reporter thank you, mr. President. You spoke with canadian Prime Minister trudeau yesterday. Did you discuss the potential closing of the border between canada and the u. S. . And by extension, are you considering ways to salvage the 2 billion daily trade between the two countries . So we didnt discuss the border. Weve had a very good relationship, theyre just about finished with the u. S. Embassy, he actually called to tell me that. At the time his wife had not been diagnosed. Shes a lovely lady, wonderful lady, great lady. And since then ive heard, read, that, uh, the result was that she has it. And i was a little surprised, i think he was surprised also. We did discuss it prior to. Shes going to be fine. But, uh, he thought that she would not most likely have the virus, unfortunately she does. But we didnt discuss the border yesterday, no. Go ahead, please. If you have any questions for these great geniuses up here, you should, even a business question, related to what were talking about. Reporter mr. President , russ p palombo from abc news in miami. What is your message to the cruise line and travel industry that florida depends upon . Since senator rick scott and miamidade mayor carlos gimenez
had the same exposure to you and are selfisolating, should you be . I dont have any of the symptoms. We have a white house doctor, i should say many white house doctors, i asked them that same question and they said you dont have any symptoms whatsoever. And we dont want people without symptoms to go and do the test. The test is not insignificant. As far as the cruise line business, were with them all the way, its a great business, its a great u. S. Business, frankly. And i know how important they are to the country, that includes airlines, the cruise line business, obviously, was hit very hard. We had a tremendous success out in oakland where we moved, and Vice President pence did a fantastic job with that. We worked with uk, they worked with canada, they took their people back, in canada, approximately 600 people, uk likewise took a number of people back to the united kingdom. We have people quarantined. It was a big operation and it worked out any you dont hear about it anymore, it worked out really well. Mike, you might want to Say Something about that because it was really done properly. Thank you, mr. President. That program, the grand princess, the ship, is continued to be administered and the highest standards, orderly way, as the president directed. And the americans that needed treatment have received it. I spoke to the governor of iowa today, and some of those who now have been cleared are able in proper supervision to return. Its another example of the extraordinary cooperation, governor abbott, governor newsom, Governor Kemp of georgia. The president directed me last saturday to travel down to miami. We met with all the leaders of the cruise line industry. Several cruise lines have
announced a 60day pause in operations. Our department of Homeland Security has praised them for doing that, because of the unique Health Challenges particularly presented to seniors with underlying conditions. We have a proposal from the cruise line industry. But they are currently considering what other steps that they might take, perhaps even similar to what those other lines have taken. Were anticipating some response on that in the next 24 hours. But as the president said, the American People cherish our cruise line industry. The men and women that work on the ships, men and women who work on the shore, all the economies that are so benefitted by a vibrant cruise line industry. What the president has directed us to do is whether there is a pause in the moment, as some cruise lines are doing, and as we all continue to discuss, we want to work with the cruise line industry to ensure that
when we come through this, that cruise lines and the medical services that are available and for the passengers and all of the crew, the cruise lines are safer than ever before and can prosper for many years to come. Reporte go ahead, please. Reporter this question is for doctors fauci and birx. Dr. Fauci, based on what you know, what is the trajectory of when this outbreak will peak . How long do the American People have to remain on emergency footing . For dr. Birx, as the administration tries to get its arms around the shortage issue, the next glaring need could be respirators and related hospital equipment. What is the administration doing right now to ramp up the production of respirators and that kind of equipment should this outbreak persist . When you have an outbreak like this, particularly if youre trying to interfere with it, its impossible to predict the time element of when its going to peak and when its
naturally going to go down. If you look at the situation where countries really did not get to the point of trying to contain and mitigate very well, you see a peak over several weeks and then down again over other several weeks. What were trying to do is the efforts that were doing is to blunt that peak. And i mentioned it many times, and i think its important and appropriate for me to mention again, because it answers your question, when you talk about preventing infections from without in, which is the kind of travel restrictions were talking about, then how do you handle what you already have in your country . You continue some sort of containment but you also do mitigation. And you try to proportionate to the areas where there are the most infections. The success of that and how much you make this turn into this is going to give you the amount of time. If were successful, it will be less. If were not successful, its going to be more. But these kind of things generally run out in a few months. Hopefully well make it several
weeks, eight, nine, whatever, weeks. But i cant give you a number because it depends on how successful we are. Great, thank you, its a great question. Dr. Fauci have worked together a very long time and continue, its a privilege to work with him every day. I think you can learn very and i appreciate there was some graphics done by the reporting over the last several days, if you align the data from china with the data with south korea, you can start to see almost a complete overlay of that data. So thats what were tracking very closely, as well as italy. But you have an excellent question. I just want to make one note. In south korea, i want to repeat, only 4 of the tests were positive. That means 96 of the people had a different respiratory disease. Because were in the middle of flu season, cold season, and all of the other respiratory diseases that we get every day, in labcorp and quests early
data, theyre running 1 to 2 positive. That means we have a lot more respiratory disease out there besides the coronavirus. Thats why the screening is critical. But even with the screening were going to run what we think are very low rates. Needless to say, though, were taking it extraordinarily seriously to plan for what could come. Not what dr. Fauci talked about blunting the curve, that makes it much less high need at that peak of the curve were all planning for. Were in full inventory of all of our assets. By the president unlocking, the secretary of hhss ability to unlock the resources that every hospital has and the hospital Emergency Preparedness plan allows them to defer elective issues, to keep those hospital beds open for those who might need it. So were in full planning mode for each of those things. And i might add that were in
the process and in some cases have already done it, ordered a large number of respirators just in case. We hope we dont need them but weve ordered a large number. Go ahead, please. Reporter thank you very much, mr. President. In your speech to the nation you mentioned the situation in china and south korea has improved and youre thinking about removing the restrictions, also the warning in place right now. Right. Reporter when can we expect that announcement and how do you see the overall progress that Asian Countries made . Well, some are making progress, some are not, as you know, but some are making progress. And as they make progress, as they get down to the number we all think is right, that they know is right, we know is right, well be opening it up. And some are really moving along rapidly. We hope to be able to open things up as quickly as possible. Go ahead, please. Reporter thank you, mr. President. I would like to ask secretary azar and dr. Fauci just how dr. Fauci, okay. Better. Not 100 , but 90 . Go ahead. Reporter this affects the elderly primarily, and in that sense its an unusual disease. Is any specific research being done as to why it affects our Senior Citizens more than others . So i dont mean to diminish your question. But we already know why it would affect Senior Citizens more. Because when you talk about anything that requires a robust immune system, as you get older, your immune system is not as potent as it is when you are young. And thats the reason why when you talk about even influenza, which we have extraordinary experience with over decades and decades, the people who are very
vulnerable are the elderly and those with underlying conditions. The same thing holds true for a variety of other disease, why cancer is more prevalent in mostly older individuals, because the immune system that screens for it is less robust. So it really is kind of wellknown over a lot of studies. Oan, please. Oan. Reporter mr. President , the chinese officials are expressing some tones of discontent with how where the source of this virus has come from, and theyre spinning some odd narratives. What is your response to the chinese officials who are doing that and have they signaled any kind of resistance to upcoming trade talks in response to how were handling this virus . China is going to be buying 250 billion worth of goods and 50 billion from our farmers. Its a great deal for our country. Its about time somebody did that. And frankly, uh, phase ii will start negotiating. I did read one article but i dont think that article was representative, certainly not in my conversations with president xi. And they know where it came from. We all know where it came from. Reporter thank you, mr. President. Yamiche alcindor from pbs news hour. My first question is you said you dont take responsibility. But you did disband the White House Pandemic Office and the officials that were working in that office left this administration abruptly. So what responsibility do you take to that, and the officials that worked in that office said that the white house lost valuable time because that office was disbanded. What do you make of that . You just think its a nasty question because what weve done is, and tony has said numerous
times that weve saved thousands of lives because of the quick closing. And when you say me, i didnt do it. We have a group of people. I could ask perhaps, my administration, i could perhaps ask tony about that, because i dont know anything about it. I mean, you say we did that. I dont know anything about it. Reporter you dont know about the reorganization that happened at the National Security council . Its the administration, perhaps they do that, let people do, you used to be with a different newspaper than you are now, you know things like that happen. Reporter but this is an organization please go ahead. Were doing a great job. Let me tell you, these professionals behind me, these great, incredible doctors and businesses people, the best in the world, and i can say that, whether its retailers or labs or anything you want to say, these are the best in the world. Were doing a great job. And we are 40 people right now, 40, compare that with other countries that have many, many times that amount, and one of the reasons we have 40 and others have and again, that number is going up, just so you understand. And the number of cases, which are very small relatively
speaking, its going up. Weve done a great job because we acted quickly, we acted early. And theres nothing we could have done that was better than closing our borders to highly infected areas. Please go ahead. Reporter thank you, mr. President , for on 24 for latin american countries and spain. I would like to ask you two very brief questions. One, for how long were going to have the emergency, i mean, the National Emergency. I hope not long, but its there now, and it gives tremendous powers for things that we need, tremendous power, actually. And the stafford act and various other things that were involved with and have studied and memorized in so many different ways and forms. It gives, uh, the kind of power that we need to get rid of this virus. I hope we wont need it long. Whatever it takes. Reporter so for now we still dont know for how long. And something very important i wanted to ask you is like how do
you think do you really think its essential coordinating with other countries and learning from the lessons that they already these same situation, countries, of course, like china and south korea but now recently italy and spain, and how is that coordination done . Thank you so much, mr. President. Were in touch with italy and, uh, its a country that we love. We have tremendous, millions and millions of people, originally, origins from italy, were working with them. Theyre in a very theyre in probably, relatively speaking, the toughest position of all. Were in touch with everybody. Were in touch with when i say everybody, were in touch with many of the countries that you know about, that youre writing about. And theyre calling us, asking for advice. Theyre asking for the advice of the people behind me. Italys got a tough situation. But theyre really, uh, they have really clamped down. And i think theyre going to see some very good results. Its tough, what they did, they really took their medicine. But theyre going to see some
much better results. Jeff. Reporter thank you, sir. With regard to domestic travel, should americans feel safe or should americans at all be traveling to states such as Washington State, new york, and other hotspots within this country . And a followup on brazil, youre asking people who come back from europe, americans coming back from europe, to selfquarantine for a couple of weeks. You were in a picture with somebody who now has coronavirus from brazil at maralago. How is that different . Well, ill tell you, first of all, im not coming back from someplace. Reporter but you were exposed. There was somebody that they say has it. I have no idea who he is. I take pictures and it lasts for literally seconds, i dont know the gentleman that were talking about, i have no idea who he is. I havent seen the picture. Theres a picture of something. I take sometimes hundreds of pictures a day and that night i was taking hundreds of pictures so i just dont know. I did sit with the president for
probably two hours. But hes tested negative, so thats good. Reporter and the domestic go ahead, please. I would say if you stay home, its not bad. Its not bad. There are certain parts of the country that are essentially have zero problem. Washingtons been very tough. In particular, a nursing home. Washington, the state of washington, has been very tough, its been a big percentage of, when you talk about the 40 deaths, its been a big percentage of the deaths, as you know very well and they all came from a certain area, unfortunately. Please go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Reporter thank you very much, mr. President. Sky news. You talked this week about the uk doing a good job in tackling coronavirus. In light of the rise in cases, are you changing your mind about that . You also just spoke about possible travel restrictions. Have you discussed when they might be put in place . In light of the results, as we discussed before, in light of the results, well be looking at it. The task force is looking at it very strongly, the task force and everybody. It was looking good, the results have been building up pretty rapidly, well be taking another look at that, yes, absolutely. Go ahead, please. Reporter mr. President , thank you. I want to first follow up on jeffs question, because the person you were standing next to, whether you know who he is or not, tested positive for coronavirus. Dr. Fauci said this morning if you stand next to somebody who tested positive, you should selfisolate and get a test. You say your white house doctor is telling you something different. Who should americans listen to . And my second question i think they have to listen to their doctors. And i think they, uh, shouldnt be jumping to get the test unless its necessary but i think they have to listen to their doctors. I havent seen the picture,
somebody said theres a picture with somebody taking a picture with me but i havent seen it. Reporter doctors say you might have it even if you dont have symptoms. Are you being selfish by not getting tested . I didnt say i wasnt going to be tested. Reporter are you going to be . Most likely. Not for that reason but because i think i will do it anyway. Fairly soon. Were working out a schedule. Reporter my second question, mr. President. Go ahead, please. Go ahead. Yes. Reporter i know theres been a lot of talk about testing. I just wanted to make sure were clear, though, because weve been hearing from doctors who say as of today they still cant get patients tested who need a test. So as of today, can everyone who a doctor wants to have tested can tested . And if not, when . Thats been true for a while. Ill let mike, why dont you answer that, please. Well, as the president said, and dr. Fauci has articulated,
the nature of our Current System were the cdc has samples sent and tests are performed or state labs perform tests, or in some cases university and hospital labs perform tests, is generally adequate for an Infectious Disease or for people getting diagnostic work done. But given the sheer scale of this, the president tasked us with bringing together this extraordinary public and private partnership. Today, by some estimates, when you add all the labs together, and today the president made it possible for every state in the country and their state labs to authorize labs across their state to do coronavirus testing. Were estimating somewhere between 15 and 20,000 tests a day are able to be performed. But very soon, uh, with the program that was announced
today, americans will be able to visit one of the sites closest to them as described on the website. If theyre symptomatic, if the questionnaire indicates it, and be able to have a test there. And these incredible companies will process the test and theyll receive that information. But for now the best advice that we can give for people is to speak to their doctor, as the president just said. And if the doctor indicates, that physician, if its not a University Hospital or otherwise authorized lab can contact the state lab, and again, every state lab in the country can perform tests today. But what the president charged us with when i was tasked to take over the White House Coronavirus task force was, open up tests all across the country. The president said a few days ago that we made it clear that any american that wanted to get a test would be able clinically to get a test because i literally heard from the governor of Washington State who
said the doctors in Washington State were saying if you were only mildly symptomatic they would not order a test. And fortunately, the president directed cdc to clarify that. Now, anyone in consultation with their physician, regardless of their symptoms, can request a test. And their doctors will contact those agencies, those labs in their state. But very soon, americans will be able to go to these drivein sites and be able to obtain and participate in a test. Dr. Birx, is there more to amplify that . I think thats perfectly said. I think just to review one more time about the testing, with labcorp and quest, i think many of you have been to doctors offices and seen the little boxes outside. What they do is they deliver both the specimen collection piece, because remember, its a nasal swab, its not a to be of blood, they deliver that to doctors offices and hospitals. Then they arrange to pick this
up. The important piece in this all is theyve gone from a machine that may have a lower throughput to the potential to have automated extraction, i know you dont want all these details, but its really key for the laboratory people, its an automated extraction of the rna that then runs in an automated way on the machine with no one touching it and the result comes out at the other end. So sample to machine to result. That cuts out a lot of the manual pieces that were happening that were delaying the test results. Reporter and so with that, whats the timeline like from when youre tested to when you get results, like next week what should people expect . With the prior testing it was taking several days because the test is slower. We believe with this test, because of its throughput, that the testing can be from start, remember, it has to transport, to the laboratory that will run it. And then were hoping that all can be finished within 24 hours which is very similar to other tests that you receive today. These are not point of care tests. We are working on point of care tests. But we have to realize point of care tests take six months or more to develop. So were not waiting for those. Were still diagnosing this on knew c nucleic acid, this is the actualactual virus in your nose that were amplifying. Were working closely with states, we have a more targeted form of governments going in and doing it like in new york where the relationship is very good, give gavin newsom, he made some very complementary comments, we worked on things together having to do with this. Really, the relationship that we have, i cant think of a bad relationship. Were helping them. Were funding them in some
cases, depending on what it is youre talking about. And were all working together very closely. So weve done really i think a tremendous job of teamwork with the different states. One or two more. If you have questions for these folks does anybody have a question for the folks up here . Who has a question up here . You have . Go ahead. If you have a question, go ahead. Reporter thank you. I have one for you as well. I thought. I knew you would. Reporter i do have one for them because i havent heard this yet. Ask them first, please. Reporter yes, i will. With regard to the ceos, can you tell us when you expect to see items like Hand Sanitizer that have been going out of stock very quickly back on the shelves . There have been a lot of reports about that. And for you, mr. President , could you talk about a potential bailout for the cruise industry . You had suggested that could happen. Is that something youre still looking at and how much would that be . I didnt suggest that it could happen. But i can tell you its an industry that was very badly
impacted by whats going on with the virus. And, uh, its a great industry. Its a very important industry. We will be helping them. And we will be helping the airline industry, if we have to, assuming we have to. So far people havent been asking. Should they be asking, we want to make sure our airlines are very strong. One day, all of a sudden, it wasnt looking so good. Interestingly, i was talking to doug, and the numbers theyre doing from the retailing standpoint i guess because of this, europe, this is the opposite, all of you have been selling a lot of stuff. Do you want to answer the question as to the Hand Sanitizers . Specifically the areas where were seeing pressure in the supply chain are surface cleaners, cleaning supplies, paper goods in particular, Hand Sanitizer is going to be very difficult to have 100 stock on for some time. Were still replenishing it and shipping it but as soon as it hits the stores, its going. The same with all the categories
i just mentioned. All the retailers who are here are doing that as fast as they can. Reporter whats your advice for consumers . This team has given you other examples of what people can do to fight back against this virus and you should look at the entire list. I mean, obviously it sounds very simplistic but wash your hands as often as you possibly can. I know youre not always in a position to be able to wash your hands. But wash them as much as you can. If you dont have the alcohol wipes, try and get them. If you cant get them try as best as possible to do it. Youve got to do the best you can. Just general preparedness, you know, you want to wash your hands, you want to keep distance from people. If youre around someone sick, keep away from them. Basic, basic public health. Now, these guys are selling a
lot of toilet paper, toilet paper is not an effective to prevent getting the coronavirus, but theyre selling out. Hot water, soap, 20 seconds, thats how you do it. One more, go ahead. Reporter thank you very much, mr. President. You have a great team, of course. Thats true. Thank you. Reporter my question, mr. President , are you happy from the chinese response, what they told you what really happened in those days . And second, Prime Minister modi or india has closed borders until april 15th. If you have spoken with the Prime Minister of india. And if they have needed any help. And finally, sir, any message for the Small Businesses, because they are losing some business because of this. Thank you, sir. On Small Businesses, the Small Business administration is now stacked with money to help them. And were going to make the money readily available if they need it, Small Businesses. We had a great time in india. It was an incredible two days. And hes a great friend of mine, hes a great friend of his people, because he was greeted incredibly warmly, as was i, in that stadium, it was an incredible event and i loved being with him, say hello to him. We talked about everything, we talked about far more than just borders. And as far as president xi, likewise hes a froiend of mine. I believe were dealing in good faith. We just worked, as you know, as i just said, we worked an incredible deal, one of the biggest deals ever made at any time, even big by standards of some of the people here, the deal with china. They want to get to the bottom of things also. Our pharmaceutical companies are working very closely with china and with india, as you know, and with all over the world, and theyre all over the world, these are magnificent companies that are very, very knowledgeable. Were very lucky to have them
because i think youre going to come up with whether its therapeutic or whether its just help, help in getting better, and ultimately a vaccine which takes a little bit longer because of the test periods and a couple of other reasons, youre going to have it very quickly, because of the great knowledge. And theyll have it very quickly. Theyve made a tremendous amount of progress. Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Reporter can you explain why that didnt happen . Youve been watching President Trump, an odd press conference where he gave very discordant messages. On one hand the president declaring a National Emergency, what he called, quote, two very big words. On the other hand, suggesting that this crisis has been handled very well. Its the same kind of disconnect that we saw from President Trump saying in 2016 i alone can fix it at the Republican National convention to his answer today about the lag in testing, saying
i dont take responsibility at all. But the headline from todays press conference, the president taking an action that he says would open up 50 billion of funds to help combat the coronavirus pandemic. Cnns chief White House Correspondent jim acosta is back with us from the rose garden. Jim, the president talking about testing for the coronavirus, which has obviously been lagging behind, the u. S. Reporter right. What are the concrete steps the president announced today that can help speed up the process for testing and the process, if anything was laid out, for improving the ability of hospitals to take in any sort of surge in patients . Reporter yeah, jake, i think you heard the president there and these various officials from the Coronavirus Task force lay out these next steps. The question is how long are these steps going to take in terms of getting the testing system moving. They are saying and the president was saying this along with other officials, that theyre going to be waiving regulations to make sure that
the private lab industry, for example, can run thats tests more quickly, that theyre going to be setting up a website were people can go on a website, sort of like obamacare, it sounds like, healthcare. Gov. People will say whether they have symptoms and theres a flowchart. Dr. Debbie birx was talking about that. Theyre also talking about setting up testing areas at various retailers around the country where people can pull into a parking lot and presumably get a test. Jake, i think the question a lot of viewers at home are going to have is how long is that going to take, when is that going to take place, when can i see that in my community and this president was just not getting into those kind of details. As we saw during the conference, this is the take no responsibility president. He said at one point he doesnt take responsibility. He was blaming previous administrations, not really making the case, obviously, or coming to grips with the reality that the buck stops with him. I do think one other thing that needs to be pointed out, i think its significant, the president saying there during the press conference that he probably will or likely will undergo a coronavirus test. The white house has been really digging in its heels in talking about this issue because of the president interacting with brazilian official at maralago last weekend. Now the president seems to be saying, after being questioned a couple of times about this, that yes, hell probably undergo that test. That will be a fascinating moment for this entire country, jake, i think probably the entire world wondering whether or not the president will come up positive, jake. Jim acosta, thanks so much. Some of the other details from the president s press conference, as jim said, the president declaring a National Emergency, which will release about 50 billion in funds, he said, that he would take action to release some of the rules and regulations that have kept testing from happening. He talked about enacting any hospitals ability to activate
their procedures, creating tests that would be available in a month, of course four weeks is a lot of weeks when youre in the middle of a pandemic. There will be pressure on him and the administration to speed it through. There will be drivethroughs in the walmarts, walgreens, target parking lots throughout the country but no specific date on that. The president talked about waiving the interest on federal Student Loans which would be some help. He talked about releasing some oil from the Strategic Petroleum reserve. He also talked about during the question and answer period about perhaps a bailout for industries that are affected, whether its the travel and Tourism Industry or cruise ships although he said no concrete plans there. Let me bring in dr. Sanjay gupta. Sanjay, whats the most important thing you heard from the president and whats the most important thing you did not hear from the president . Well, i mean, you definitely ticked off some of the major points. Obviously this was trying to be a show of force, a
public private partnership, talking about this record time approval for a fda test for roche laboratories. They said it would lead to 500,000 tests next week. The timeline for when these other tests will be available is still a bit unclear. He also i mean, one of the things that came up near the end, as a point that weve been talking about quite a bit, jake, it has to do with the capacity for these hospitals to be able to take care of patients that may be getting sick over the next several days and weeks. And where are in there he said, we ordered a large number of rest per ate respirators. Thats the first time ive heard that, ive been talking to people in the government whether we have breathing machines for respirators, this is the first time ive heard about purchasing
more of these rhys per aof thes. That was an important point. He also did talk with a little more clarity on these passengers that would be returning from europe. U. S. Citizens returning from europe besides the uk will undergo a 14day quarantine. Maybe that had been mentioned before, but i think the president sort of clarified that a little bit. And also gave a little bit of a timeline here. He said he anticipates this to be about an eightweek sort of thing here, which wasnt a particular timeline that was rooted in anything, you know, some objective data. But it was interesting that tony fauci, dr. Tony fauci sort of reiterated that when he went to the lectern as well. Those are some important points. Just one other thing, this is a little bit of a nuance thing, we have been saying, they have been saying, the task force, for some time, the risk of anyone contracting this virus is low. You probably heard that a dozen times over the last several days. Today for the first time the language changed a little bit. I caught this from Vice President pence, the risk of developing serious illness from the virus is low. I think its a little bit of a concession that look, the virus is circulating, the chance of people becoming exposed, becoming infected is not low. That doesnt mean theyll necessarily get sick. But that was a change in language, jake. The governor of the state of ohio, republican governor mike dewine, they said there are 100,000 people anticipated in ohio to be carrying the virus, maybe some symptoms, maybe knoll non, but 100,000 just in that one state, sanjay. Thats right, i always preface by saying theres a context that, you know, we will give around this, but, you know, what were hearing from Many Public Health officials is that within this next several weeks, you know, 40 to 60 of the
nation could become infected. You heard other countries, Angela Merkel talk about 70 in germany. Those numbers could apply frankly to at least the Northern Hemisphere of the world, jake. You start doing the math on that, youre talking about 150 Million People, possibly. And then you start to figure out how many of those people will need medical care, how many will need icu care, ventilators and the whole graph that youve been showing about the curves. Thats whats informing those numbers. And we dont know how many people are infected because we havent been testing. Hopefully that improves shortly, as were hearing. We still dont know for sure, jake. Thats right. Just a reminder as i take this back to the studio with dr. Beth cameron, when we talk about 170 million americans potentially getting it, thats not 170 million americans getting sick. The sickness is probably one in six of those who contract the virus. And the hospitalization may be one in 20. But thats still a lot of people that are going to require
hospitalization. And that was a point that you reacted to also, because the president didnt really speak about this until he was asked about it by a reporter, and an jays been talking about this quite a bit. Are the hospitals going to be ready, are they going to have the bed space, are they going to have the ventilators. So one concern that many of us have had in looking at this crisis is the things that people arent thinking about, the things that were not getting ahead of, for example, the ventilators. For example, personal protective equipment. And theres reportedly going to be shortages. Ppes, just to point out, thats what doctors and nurses and First Responders wear. Yeah, masks, gloves, things that you need to be able to take care of patients, especially when youre a health care worker. Theres also reports that some of the reagents in the test kits themselves are in shortage, theres a report from the American Society of microbiology that is nervous about this. Im nervous about the things that i didnt hear that we should be anticipating and we
need to get ahead of now. The great Yamiche Alcindor from pbs news hour asked a potent question that President Trump of course called a nasty question but it was a solid and excellent one, which was that the president had disbanded the Pandemic Center at the National Security council, interestingly enough, we have you, you were senior director for Global Health at the National Security council under president obama through President Trump, until they eliminated the position. Why is it significant . Do you think if you had been there or if you had been replaced by somebody with the same position, maybe the Trump Administration and others would have begun to have this press conference that they had today back in january, when the first patients started showing up in the United States . I absolutely think it would have made a difference. First i want to say its graiea news that tony fauci and debbie birx are on tv making a pitch to get this under control, thats excellent, we have scientists and we have scientists with
factbased guidance driving part of the press conference today. But would we have gotten more ahead of this if the office had still been intact, i think absolutely. So during the obama administration, during the ebola crisis in 2014, a day did not go by when the president or National Security adviser or ron klain when he was the Ebola Response coordinator didnt ask, what are with he not thinkiwher personal protective equipment . At the end of the day, many of those commodities that which may run out of are things were sharing with our partners or allies. I think we would have been able to get ahead. Do you think a press conference like this where businesses came together, tony fauci spoke, et cetera, the First Community based transmission, meaning not from somebody who got it overseas, not somebody who got it directly from somebody with a diagnosed coronavirus, but just they got it from somewhere, we dont know where, that was january 30th at
the cdc. Yes. Should this press conference have happened at least around then . I cant say for certain whether a National Emergency should have been called at that point, but i absolutely think the press conference that should have been held in january should have been looked much more like this one. Let me go to Cnns Kaitlan Collins at the white house. Kaitlan, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been trying to work out a deal with the treasury secretary, steve mnuchin, she and the president dont speak anymore. Reporter yes, we dont think the president and nancy pelosi have spoken about the coronavirus one on one. Whats noteworthy is we did not get a lot of detail about what the president wants to see in this bill. Jake, tens of billions of dollars are at stake here in this bill, these discussions that are happening between democrats and the white house right now. The only thing the president said there in the rose garden is that democrats, he doesnt not feel, are giving enough in this bill. But he did not say what he wants
to be added or taken away from the democratic request in the bill thats happening right now. There are still a lot of questions here because we know that even though the treasury secretary and the House Speaker spoke during that press conference, while it was going on, its not clear what the president himself would back. And of course he has scuttled bills that his own aides have worked on before and told lawmakers he was committed to only because he didnt like them in the end and of course there the president not giving a lot of information, so its not clear where those talks will go. Kaitlan collins, thank you so much, we heard dana bash talk about a vague denunciation of the democrats by President Trump but no real details about what he wants. And we know from reporting what they want is less broad than what democrats want on the specific notion of paid leave, that is going on in an intense way behind the scenes. What we saw more broadly, as close to, akin to a war effort as we have seen in a long time. When i say war, it is something
that you were involved in on a much smaller scale, the government partnering with private Sector Companies that do this and doing it in a way that i think will make people feel a lot better, at least the show of force, at sanjay called it, than we saw from the oval office a couple days ago. More on our breaking news and the latest white house response to the coronavirus right after this. At visionworks we guarantee
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approaches