Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Coronavirus Pandemic President Trump Virtual Town Hall 20200325

Federal stockpile are arriving now to helpg new york city. Ir directing all schools to be closed until may 1st, we may have to close permanently. I want americans to know that thisll get through challenge, the hardship will e end. Good afternoon and welcome to our fox news virtual town hall with President Trump and his Coronavirus Task force. So glad youre with us. Im Harris Faulkner in new yorke and i bill hemmer live in the rose garden here at the white house. Over the next two hours the president , Vice President , and the officials tasked with leading our nations response on the virus pandemic will join us to answer your questions all across america. This is the virus continues to c spread around the world. At the moment there were nearly 400,000 cases confirmed. In more than 17,000 have died. Here at home, cases are also on the rise, more than 46,000 confirmed cases and at least 592 deaths. Just yesterday american deaths topped more than 100 in a single day for the first time. With me, the Vice President mike pence, who is leaving the, task force from washington and thank you for your time today. Good to see you, welcome to the white house. Its an honor to be here and hope for the people at home to get some value over the next few hours, we h will try and get thm some answers. Moments ago new yorks Governor Andrew Cuomo is imploring the constructionw immediately of up to 30,000 ventilators to be shipped to new york. What would be the hold up on that you met well, let me say first and foremost that is the president announced action earlier this week for new york, for washington state, for california, that from very early in this process President Trump has forged a Seamless Partnership with our governors. The way that we respond to Health Crises in this country is as femas mission describes, its locally executed, the Health Care Workers, and at times Law Enforcement on the ground, Community Officials that are in the lead. Its statemanaged, bill, and then its federally supported. And from early on weve been working that formula, empowering our governors, making sure they have the resources and the support that they need. Andpo its one of the reasons wy weve been weve been searching resources. The president announced in new york that we c are helping o build out about a thousand beds and field hospital. The president approved a major disaster declaration and we are working aroundtheclock on making sure that they have the masks, the medical supplies, and the ventilators to meet that need. You with the president upset consistently that Many American companies have come c to you offering the resources that you need. Yet fema today says it will make a request for test kits starting today and it will use the dpa, the defense production act. How close are you to employing matt for, lets say, the ventilator request from new york city . First, let me just say if the American People could see what ive seen, both in this president s leadership and in the response of American Businesses, they would be inspired every day. The president did initiate the defense production act, that allows the president of the United States to mandate production of particular items o at times of war our national crisis. The reality is though whether it be masks, tens of millions are being produced, which spun up Production Companies like 3m and even haynes has stepped forward to manufacture masks whether it be ventilators, and equipment that are Hospital Personnel need. But the president and i have witnessed consistently is that every time weve asked american industry to step forward, they said yes. No one has said no yet. And we are working now through the structure of fema through managing the supplies chain at fema to make sure that we are harnessing the full energy of the american government, just as we are harnessing a whole of government approach at the federal, state, and local level to confront the coronavirus. What we have done starting last night as we reached out to our viewers all over america asking them to file questions with us in many of these questions come by way of video. So i want to get to those right now. I know in this interactive sensn we want to try and bring the American People tohe the white house and vice versa. Eo thats why we are heree today. So let me respond on the ventilator issue. Just to be very clear. The national stockpile, as we indicated, has some 20,000 ventilators and weve been making those available to states particularly we have been focusing resources, ventilators and masks and gowns on the states most impacted, those would be seattle where this major first outbreak occurred. California, and really whats become the epicenter of the coronavirus, the threat in this country in the state of new york and the Greater New York city area including new jersey. We will continue to prioritize those resources but the American People should understand and be encouraged to know that when it comes to ventilators, which those devices when people reach a point with theor coronavirus where they have severe respiratory struggles that there are most accounts more than 150,000 respirators and hospitals and clinics across the country today. Its not merely whats in the national stockpile, bill, but also because the president brought together the leaders of all of ourur medical groups in e country, we could go we were able to inform governors that anesthesiologists have a piece of equipment that they use for outpatient surgery for administering anesthetics for anyone thats ever been put under. And working quickly with the fda, we were able to inform governors that those devices have been quickly converted for respirators for coronavirus, people struggling with coronavirus. The fda had to approve the change of a single event. Yesterday again speaking with a la governors across the country, where calling on governors. In every state. To survey all their Outpatient Clinics and identify what we also know are today tens of thousands of ventilators. General motors working with a subsidiary with a commitment to repurpose some of the manufacturing lines. We are seeing industries step up and i want the American People to know that because of our cooperation with medical professionals around the country, we are identifying all new resources, all new equipment that can be converted, that can add the supply of tens of thousands of ventilators and we will continue to meet this moment with creativity and with the resources of the American People. Just want to give our viewers at home an opportunity to get evanescent, and i appreciate the answer, we will come back on that a bit later. From Merritt Island florida has the first question. I think a lot of us right now im just wondering what is the potential for a national stayathome order . Is it something that national stayathome order. How much have you considered that . I can tell you that at no point has the white house Coronavirus Task force discussed what some people call a nationwide lockdown. Or as you described, a stayathome order. What weve done is publish the president s coronavirus guidelines. Ive got them right here and i recommend them to everybodysdy attention. Its 15 days to slow the spread. This is what we believe every american should be doing during what remains of the next week or so because we think we have the chance to significantly reduce the spread of the coronavirus and the threat that it presents to the most vulnerable among us. Its important to remember that most t americans, even those tht contract the coronavirus, will fully recover. But those who are seniors with a serious Underlying Health condition or anyone within immunodeficiency, the coronavirus represents a serious threat to theirru health. So the president is calling on every american to avoid groups of more than ten, do not eat in restaurants, used by drivethroughs, avoid discretionary travel. We believe this can significantly reduce the spread of the coronavirus. But that being said, let me say as states like california and illinois and of course new york and elsewhere have only taken strong measures. President trump and i on our team fully support the decisions by your state and local officials that may be stronger than this. But we believe this is the right prescription across the board to slowes the spread and we walk recommended to single american. We are around day nines or next monday is officially the 15 day mark. I want to bring my colleague Harris Faulkner, who is with us as well. Harris, hello again. Well hello, bill, and good to see you, mr. Vice president. Just kind of an open question and then absolutely and then i will get to another viewer question because the power of the people, their voice is so important today. To i want to follow up with though on this ventilator hospital search type of support for particularly the three hardest hit states. Washington, california and new york in hearing from Governor Cuomo, as we have, and he is want to update the nation every day, about the talk, as you say, the administration is not saying no. Hes saying with the administration is saying know about that stockpile of ventilators. Those are needed, as you said, mr. Vice president , when this thing kicks in and it attacks your lungs and it becomes pneumonic. It is powerful stuff and we need to gear up. So if the spike now is doubling the number of cases in new york every three days, which is what Governor Cuomo has said, were almost at what we thought would be an apex and we are not there yet, he calls it a bad combination of how many cases people who are actually getting sick and how willfully illprepared we are in a number of ventilators. Why not just released that stockpile now . Well, what i can tell you and your viewers, harris, is that we are doing just that. We are in the process of literally sending the entire nationalra stockpile out and i want the people of new york to know that we are putting a w priority on the state of new york and of course on washington and california where the outbreak has been the mostve severe. The president all right. We will continue to detail that. But i can promise you and our conversations with Governor Cuomo and our conversation, the president of my had with mayor de blasio, just the day before yesterday, we want to assure them that were going to make those resources available, we are going toil identify resources tt are in the private marketplace, but we are calling on our governors to identify those respirators in their Outpatient Clinics that anesthesiologists and now the fda have said can be converted if literally harris would add tens of thousands of respirators to our Health Care Facilities and we renew that call to our governors and we continue to share that message, a we turn into a makeshift hospital. Whats faster . Going back into the system of the stockpile . Just a quick answer on that and i will get back to it. The president says its all above. We want to identify resources that are already in the marketplace. Concluding with the fda has approved. The we are spinning up in the street. The process made it clear, he is fully prepared to make this an act. An executive order. What he made yesterday was based off of the Surgeon General. Industry is moving forward. Are g going to meet this challenge as americans together. All right, real quickly can we go to that viewer question from cory b. What can we look toward longlasting changes . Go right ahead. Its a great question. The president reflected on the fact that there may be some really good changes and practice. Just in our culture. Going forward, as we dealt in this a unprecedented threat of coronavirus. But we are working toward it, in this 15 days, is to literally lower the number of americans that will be exposed to the coronavirus. I am inspired to see literally reports of people all across this country, not just in areas that have seized outbreak, but areas that have been limited numbers of outbreaks. We have every confidence that in her health the system slowly moved threat. The president has asked that our entire team bring him recommendations about what is next. And the president made it clear that while we stay completely focused on our most vulnerable, on people for whom the consequences of contracting the president said we want to find a way, as hehe said, to open amera backup. To get American Business opening again. The president asked her team for recommendations, not how we do one or the other, but how we do both. And over the months ahead, we will focus on our mostt vulnerable. By that, we put america at works in weeks, not months. As the president said. Laura another excited to hear back about the future. If he puts his finger on, what everybody is concerned about, but thank you for the question, thank you for being here. Our coverage continues in a moment. Were here live at the white house for the next 45 minutes. Ur hopefully President Trump will join our conversation. Other members from the task for us, and we will continue to take your questions. All of that is straightahead here. As we turn more inside, connection is more important than ever. Tmobile has increased Network Capacity and given customers more access to unlimited data. Weve increased data allowances for schools and students and expanded roaming access for sprint customers to help everyone work, learn, and connect. Weve been asking, are you with us . We want you to know, were with you. Dr. About the ms whyspread of coronavirus . Are well we know that people with underlying medical conditions over the age of 60 are at highest risk, but theyve got to get it from somebody. Dr. Deborah birx so were asking everyone to be selfless for others so that we can protect those who are most susceptible. Dr. Anthony fauci not going to bars, not going to restaurants, it all just means physical separation, so that you have a space between you and others. Dr. Jerome adams for more information on how you can social distance please go to coronavirus. Gov back here, welcome back everyone. We are at the rose garden white house. President trump will join our virtual count. He will be up here. Other members of the task force will be here. We will get their input as to where we are now. The Vice President was describing the 15 day coronavirus spread. It started about nine days ago. We are well into that now. We will get a sense from the experts. Based on the data numbers, not just here at home but around the world. In the meantime,inim john rober. Good afternoon to you. We could almost hear it. One of the big topics of conversation as we saw last hour was the governor of new york, as we saw with the president yesterday, how do you start to reopen parts of the American Economy . You have the health part of th this, in terms of wrapping out the testing. The mayor is the economic track as well. The stimulus package we expect from congress soon. How long can we take long parts of the American Economy likeke this . They are now looking at a plan where theylo can reopen sectorsf the economy and get people back to work. Heres what the president said about it is the coronavirus broke last evening. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem. At the end of the 50 day period, we will make a decision as to which way we want to go. The timing. An essentially where we are referring to the timing. Essentially, the opening of her country. To speak of the president has gotten a lot of criticism. How can you send them back to work with the spread of the virus. If you can isolate vulnerable populations, then perhaps you can let younger people go back to work. The medical community, the president medical advisors, hopefully a good role in this. What they can get from the medical community and his advisors that whether or which he would take it . This is the president if it werent for the doctors, we would shut down the entire wor world. Elm so lets shut down the entire world. And when we shut it down, that would be wonderful. We cant do that. You cant do that. Especially, the number one economy in the entire world. One of the things that it is good to be key is whether or not ese development. The current test we have tells you if you have an active infection. Or if you could be infected. They are hoping to develop a blood test. They would tell if you had antibodies. And there is an idea that if you get a widespread test, and if they did they were covered. Those of the first people that could potentially go back to work. We will see how this all goes. A lot to talk about the president coming up. This self test, thank you for that. Thank you for the Vice President. Specifically when it comes to the ly economy. The cure, making sure its not worse than the problem itself. If day 15 is monday, and the president has sent the signal, i guess if you are evaluating our bases clearly what would be the trigger mechanism . Lets begin with the fact that the 15 days to slowow the spread was a recommendation of the president. We believe that when you think about this curve of the epidemic that we were at the early point in the curve, and that if americans were really in to step up and embrace these practices that we could literally, we could lessen the impact of the coronavirus. And ultimately savean lives. The great news is that of millions of are doing this. With our top health experts, and they can evaluate the progress that wegr have made and bring te president recommendations. Or how we could begin to open america up in the weeks ahead. But the most important thing for you to understand is that people are wondering what can i do . What difference can i make . Its literally by avoiding groups of more than ten. Not eating in bars and restaurants. Avoiding unnecessary travel. These are all the kinds of practices that will prevent the inadvertence. And i dont ultimately lowered the amount of americans exposedo this. The truth is, the risk of the average american from the coronavirus, the risk of serious illness, remains low. Because its three times more contagious than the flu. And because, as we study numbe numbers, it is particularly seniors. Seniors with serious Underlying Health conditions. We have to be particularly careful. Thats why the 15 days to slow the spread was put into effect. But as the president looks forward now, as he said, he is looking for recommendations about how we can responsibly reopen america while taking care of ourselves. In the meantime, harris has one of our excellent viewer questions. Back to harris for that now. It is so true. They have their polls on the economy right now. Ce mr. Vice president , you are right on time i thought. This is on facebook. The employed eight people who have been loyal. They have promised to take care of it for another 15 to 30 days. Its going to be veryyo difficu. For us to survive, what are you prepared to do for Small Businesses like ours . Mr. Vice president , dominic. Let me say that right after saying to the health of the safety of the American Public, early on to make sure that the American People have access to free coronavirus testing. Working with insurance companies. To work with congress to get bona fide support. Right now, congress is negotiating a braille that will get ae payment of 3,000. Speaking about those great employees that i can tell you really love and cherish all business owners. Congress also has a division that would provide direct support to Companies Like yours. To keep people on the payroll, even if the business has closed. For a period of the next few it is an effort for resources available. Businesses across the country can weather the storm. We are also can have facilities lending facilities that make it possible for vital hotels, airlines, those have been so impacted. Have access to capital. But for Small Businesses, companies with less than 500 employees, they will be that payroll support. Which is all designed to make sure we can weather the storm. Congress is working on it rightn now. The president said again last night that we remain hopeful. Congress will come together, maybe even before the end of the day. To pass the care act. It is absolutely essential for our workers, for businesses, that Congress Comes together and has legislation that will help American Families and american workers. I know, as the president of the senate, i am curious to know when you will shake them up on capitol hill. The American People are waiting. I can tell you, what has been encouraging so far is the bills that the president has passed. It is been bipartisan. Our team on capitol hill tells us that what we are really getting down to we are hoping for the vote in the senate today. I spoke to a member of the House Democrat leadership last night. He said this is just a time where the president wants to see they want toss see the dw make them come together. For workers, businesses, families, and we are continue to drive toward that. We continue to remain helpful. We have many more questions, so standby here. Rose garden of the white house. The president will join our congress as well. We will answer our virtual town hall. This is never been donee before. We shall, throughout the afternoon. Life, back at the lighthouse neminic white house. Spouse shall addition on the fox news channel. I bet youve never seen a sandwich do yoga before. Ommmmmmmmmmmmm. Introducing the new papadias, for just six bucks. Better ingredients. Better pizza. Better than a sandwich. Papa johns. And platelet donations and asks all healthy donors to schedule an appointment to give. Now, with the corona virus outbreak, it is important to maintain a sufficient blood supply. Your Blood Donation is critical and can help save lives. Please schedule an appointment today. Download the blood donor app. Visit redcrossblood. Org or call 1 800 red cross today. You can make a difference. We were paying an arm and a leg for postage. I remember setting up shipstation. One or two clicks and everything was up and running. I was printing out labels and saving money. Shipstation saves us so much time. It makes it really easy and seamless. Pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and its ready to go. Our costs for shipping were cut in half. Just like that. Shipstation. The 1 choice of online sellers. Go to shipstation. Com tv and get 2 months free. Welcome back to our virtual town hall. President trump will join us in minutes. We will continue to take your questions. Here in the rose garden in the white house, my colleague joins us as well. We will get back to harris momentarily here. At theic Vice President continus to be with me here. Every morning when i wake up, i go to the Johns Hopkins global map. I am studying numbers from various countries. China, italy, spain. What is the first bit of data that you look for the moment you wake up . It really is how we begin every meeting in the white hou white house. The Coronavirus Task force. Typically, the leading expert on infectious disease. I picked up the phone and told her she needed to come to the white house. Shes been my right arm every step of the way. Would she be the person who brings you the first . The first of information. Every day. Our entire approach, we want every decision that we bring to the president io to make to be informed by the data. To be informed by the experiences. To be informed of what we know of china. But we have been carefully studying south korea, carefully studying whats happening in italy. We have been trying to apply those Lessons Learned here. For instance, and italy at this point the average age of death is a 80. What dr. Burkend said as amog the majority of those it up who died in italy they had at least three preexisting conditions. It is what we see. The average age of contracting the disease and italy is 60. And at this point, no one under the agent of 30. No one under the age of 30. Has died of the disease. Of course, there death rath has been much higher of any other country. Ours has been relatively low. Right around 9. 3 . Can i also say that in our hearts they go out to every family who has lost someone to coronavirus. Its one of the reasons that the president early on we changed all of the guidelines. Every scene home inin america. We deployed all of our inspectors across the country to force guidelines on the spread of infectious diseases. And thats why we essentially sent no visitors to Nursing Homes anymore. Except in hospice care. We dont want to deny families a lot of strain. We know at this point who is the most burnable. Whatever this decision that the president makes about reopening america, as he said in weeks, w we are going to contine to focus on the intention and compassion of the American People. And our Health Care Providers. On people that are most burnab burnable. Vulnerable. That brings us to the next question. Heres what brett wants to know. My question to you is how long do you think it will be before all of the United States could get testing for the coronaviru coronavirus . We are doing better. But it is their answer today . N its a great question, whati can tell you is literally testing exi is expanding. Tens of thousandsf every day. You might be encouraged to know that as of last monday, we had tested roughly 50,000 people in this country. Who had gotten the results. But because President Trump brought together the top commercial labs in america, the better month period and ask them to have the immense ability to do testing, the report i used yesterday was that in one short week we had done more than a quarter of a million tests around the country. And we will soon be at a place that testing is going to be broadly available all across the country. We t are getting there. At the fda actually just approved a swab test that can be self administered. And you can contact your doctor about how to use that test yourself. We are developing new methodology. The most important thing to say is that while the testing is important, and to be especially are telling every commercial lab every state governor, we want to prioritize tests for people who have been hospitalized, we issue that guidance from hhs. The reality is that every american can make a difference by putting into practice the 15 days to slow the spread. And for anyone who has a vulnerable senior in your home, i live with the doctor said not long ago that is to keep them safe, you should just conduct yourself. If you have someone in your home it was the senior with a serious Underlying Health condition, act like you have the coronavirus. Social distancing, Clean Services on a regular basis. Thats how we protect. So many tens of millions of people. It was jarring at the beginning. If you have your experts, we have some good ones too. The next panel right here, Panel Doctors who have been here from the beginning. They have questions for the Vice President. Host of the doctor oz show nyu, dr. Nicole saphier also a fox news contributor. As i say hello to you guys from various places, dr. Oz why dont you start. Mr. Vice president , the main issue conducted, malaria drug which is a basically a malaria pill stops the coronavirus. You told me on the show that denying these modifications is unethical. The fda appropriately desires Clinical Trials for proof to guide the medical community. How can we accelerate these Clinical Trials while also satisfying the demand for positions. Who want these pills for their patients and themselves. China and france are already using them. And a personal question, would you take these pills if you felt ill today . First off, let me think you for your encouraging words and theo American People throughout the coronavirus. Frankly, that would go to every one of the doctors on this panel. We are on grateful. The good newsfu is, the medicatn we are actually deployed in the state of new york. Resources are available. Im pleased to tell you that the fda is approving off label use for the hydrochloric right now. Which you know is a perfectly legal and approved malaria medication. The doctors can now prescribe this for that off label purpose of dealing with the symptoms of coronavirus. We are making that clear across the country. As you know, and im sure the president will say this when he joins us in a bed, the president is a very optimistic. He is very helpful. I want to assure you there is no barrier to access this drug in this country. We are working to add to that supply. Even as we speak. We are working with Companies Like a bear, that produce vast amounts of this drug. But at the same time, for your point, we are engaging in a clinicalca trial why will make this broadly available for off label use. Because we do want to take the opportunity. We are doing not a new york state. To study the results of this so we can better understand the impact going forward. You have an answer this qquestion have on whether you would take it. I would follow the advice of my physician. And i would recommend not approach. Okay, here is a followup. Thank you bill. It just a couple of things. For the Vice President , and dr. Oz. Dr. Oz, i want to start with y you. The drug, im curious, do we know where this is manufactured . China is loading a back online, so many of our pharmaceuticals are made there. Can you ensure that they are going to have more of it . What can you tell me . I know from the task force that there is some drug that is available and that is coming online relatively rapidly. You need about 20 pills for a therapeutic dose to t take it or the 710 day period. I do believe for folks watching this could make a meaningful w difference. Contagious the viruses, and also how sick you get with it. We dont know that for sure, the Vice President didnte say. I would love to hear with the Vice President has heard from the task force on the ability to link what to tel for people whoe near those patients. And also doctors and nurses on the front line who sometimes can protect themselves. Emergencies. Well, its a great question, obviously i spoke to him just the other day about the availability of this drug in the american marketplace. And he saw that there is a significant amount available we have the fda approve off label use. It is a malaria medication. They can prescribe it. They can prescribe it for coronavirus. But to dr. Ozs point, we have also been working with manufacturers overseas. I haveee personally spoken, as e president has come into the ceo of bear. Hley produce this drug. Theyve been working with us to brings back literally millions f doses from overseas. Manufacturing facilities, that is happening as we speak. We will focus those on areas where we have outbreak, where we have people that are struggling with coronavirus now. But to dr. Ozs point, we are also going to work to speed up manufacturing. For any american who doctor might think that it might be helpful. Its being tested in new york city . Thats where it began this morning, we distributed thousands of doses across new york. And itf is a its a priority. Washington state, california, new york, that have seen significant outbreak. Whether it be testing, whether it be supplies, we are going to work to continue to make testing supplies and medicines more broadly available for every american. Dr. Siegel . Mr. Vice president , our Health Care Workers are hurtingo they are fearful, worried, they are on the front line. And they are heroes. I want to talk to you about vaccines. Boi know youve a little confidence in a lot of these vaccine candidates, but they have one that is going into clinicalal trials, germany has one, nobel husband. He feels confident that in the year we are going to get something that will work . My question to you is can you see a scenario where we would offer it way earlier of the month to Health Care Workers who are at great risk . Well, its a great question. I will telll you that this is another example of President Trump and why he brought together theow private sector it would be weeks ago. At the president brought in all of the pharmaceutical companies. And not just the largest in the next country but the largest in the world. And he said i want you to get straight to work. I want you get to work on vaccines, i want you to get worn on whats called therapeutics which are medicines that will bring relief, and links to the incredible efforts of these pharmaceutical companies anddi e fda, as you know, we got to Clinical Trials. 62 days. Thats a american record. Thats just phase one of the child. They have told me again and again that to make sure these medications arere save that the vaccine itself could be as much as a year and a half away. We will follow the science on that. But the good news is that the therapeutics we expect a little bit later this spring to have some breakthroughs. Therapeutics will be available that willl bring relief toin americans that are struggling with the coronavirus. And also, in the bill the senate is considering right now, there is a provision that is championed by senator steve daines, a greatat senator, and championed by others, that will create resources to allow the manufacturer of different therapies in different approaches so that we are ready with the supply once we determine which one is most effective. Thats another reason why we need to get that bill in the senate passed. Not just for american workers, americant businesses, small and large, but also because we are going to continue to feel that innovation in the development of therapies and vaccines. Thank you dr. Siegel, dr. Nicole saphier with your question. Dr. Godr ahead. Speak a high, do so much. Thank you for taking a question i have a quick question regarding hisis question. They seem to be taking a much more traditional approach to some of these experimental medications. As opposed to whats really saw in thehe past with hiv. Why are we not using parallel tracks, right now our hospital h systems are being overrun and thats where we are getting some of these medications for treating the severity of the symptoms. We wont necessarily need as many respirators. But that is just something thats food for thought. My actual question formy you is and its from Health Care Workers all over. To handle the increased volume right now, which is obviously leading to a large shift, is there a plan to help the Health Workers . Despite this massive shift in resources . Its really a terrific question. In the senate that is beingqu debated right now, the last timn i checked there is about 100 billion for hospitals. That would recognize we are asking americans we are asking hospitals to postpone elective surgery. And to frankly millions of americans. Thats freeing up at tremendous amount of supplies, masks, especially those critical ventilators. But the impact on the hospitals is very real. Thats why it is and the senate bill. Let me speak though, i want to be very clear. What i hear from both doctors is that we are on a dual track. Whether it be the hydrochloric or other medications. We are working with fda to be used for off label prescriptions by doctors. That they can use for coronavirus. We are also at the same time we are doing clinical tasks. Soca we can be straight with the American People about what we know is happening. I want all the viewers to understand that it is a dual track. At this the president thought it is all of the above. He wants all the resources to be brought to bear. Federal, state, local. And one last word if i might bill, our Health Care Workers have just done an incredible job. Amazing. And washington state, new york city, california, all across the country. Men and women that are coming in that are providing Compassionate Care to people that are struggling with the symptoms. In doing so, often times with long hours, great difficulties. I just want our Health Care Workers to know that other than the patients who have contracted this disease, especially the most vulnerable, at the same level of priority this president has placed her Health Care Workers. It is one of the reasons that in our last bill we insisted that they change the laws so that industrial masks, the n95 masks, now be sold to hospitals. It has freed tens of millions of people. It is now being distributed all across the country, sold to hospital systems. And lastly, doctor, you mention the ventilators. I just received word i know we started our conversation is our and the subject of ventilators, the challenge is that the state of new york faces. And i was so pleased to confirm that earlier today fema, from the national stockpile, shifted 2,000 ventilators to the state of new york. And tomorrow, there will be another 2,000 bundleow leaders shifted from the national stockpile. We haveon a ways to go yet, its the reason why we are marshaling all the resources, not just from the national stockpile, but from our existing supply. And notn equipment that can be converted. Co i want to let the people in new york know that earlier today 2,000 ventilators were shipped directly to new york. It is true at the epicenter of the new coronavirus epicenter of the country. When you talk about projected year, we started this hour with ventilators. I will be some relief. But we have a ways to go. Even yesterday, the governor of michigan was saying that they have enough to get us to the next shift. We dont have enough to get us to the next day. Can you address their concerns . What i can say is that we are spinning up american industry. They make these protective masks, they are called and95 masks. But the president dead and asking congress in a bipartisan way to change the law, to extend liability connection, has now made it possible for tens of millions of masks used on construction workers. To be used in hospitals. I believe that the combination of more production that is happening from companies around the country, from our national stockpile. It is extraordinary. Companies like apple Just Announced that they are donating 6 million of the industrial masks to keep it coming. 3 million to our states. It is inspiring the way businesses are donating supplies to her hospitals. We are grea grateful for a t. For next hour, our virtual town hall continues. Now, President Trump. Of respiratory diseases. Wash your hands. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Stay home when you are sick. Cover your cough or sneeze. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects with household cleaning spray. For more information, visit cdc. Gov covid19. This message brought to you by the National Association of broadcasters and this station. Of broadcasters resa place to celebrate,been to take a first date, to grab a meal between soccer practice and piano. And even though tables are empty at the moment. The kitchens are full, prepping everything so its just right. Keeping customers safe. And making the food as delicious as ever. Theyre still there for you. Now you can be there for them. While the doors may be closed, the kitchens are open for delivery. Motor . Nope. Not motor . Its pronounced motaur. For those who were born to ride, theres progressive. Welcome back to our fox news virtual town hall with President Trump and members of his Coronavirus Task force. Im bill hemmer in the rose garden here at the white house. And im Harris Faulkner in new york. The administrations 15 day plan commutes of the Vice President holding that up several times. The plan is to curb the spread of covid19 in the United States and its set to expire in less than a week from today. Now President Trump and his task force are plotting the way forward for all the nation. In the next hour, joining us to talk all about that, President Trump. And still with us, Vice President mike pence. The white house correspondence dr. Deborah birx and jerome adams for your thank you all for being here. Unusual circumstances. While you are trying to come indicate with the American People, we are trying to bring the American People a little closer to you and get some answers. To you, mr. President , when was the moment that you thought emma weve got to move on this question marks vehicle well, when i started reading and seeing about china and seeing what was going on in china, wuhn specifically, seem to mostly cot of their, the province, and when i saw thd i saw the kind of death they were talking about on televisi television, in the papers, i started reading all about it, and when i really had to make a decision, do i stop people from china and specifically that area, but from china to come into the country and everybody was against it, almost everybody i would say was just absolutely against it. Weve never done it before, we never made a decision like that. Did somebody come to you with a bit of information and a piece of data . Was it a world leader, wasnt a member of your own team . We had a large group of people are behind me in the oval office and i considere conh mike but i made a decision to close off to china. That was weeks early and honestly i took a lot of heat. Sleepy joe biden said its xenophobic. I do not know if he knows what that means, but thats okay. He said its racist, what i did. Thousands and thousands of more people, probably tens of thousands, would be dead right now if i didnt make that decision and i must say, doctors, nobody wanted to make that decision at the time. It was very, very early. Call it luck or call it talent, it doesnt matter. We made a great decision. I took a lot of heat from china, they werent happy with it. Now they understand it. They were really just doing just fine, but they were not happy with it. Bringing the conversation to present day, the past day and a half, you got a lot of attention for this. A tweet i think that went out late at night, we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. I really didnt get you start to look at this 15day period, day 15 is next monday, arguably day nine. What are you trying to gauge and how you can open the country back up again . When you say i took a lot of heat for that, essentially i didnt really. Our country is not supposed to its not built to shut down. Our people are full of vim and vigor and energy. They dont want to be locked into a house or apartment or some space. Its not for our country. We are not built that way. And i said i dont want the cure to be worse than the problem itself. The problem obviously being the problem. And, if you know, you can destroy a country this way by closing it down, where it literally goes from being the most prosperous we had the best economy in the history of our country three weeks ago. And all of a sudden we are supposed to shut it down. And we are supposed to pay people not to go to work. We never had that. We used to pay people to go to work right, but this is a Government Order to stay home. Its tricky though when you try to turn the faucet back on. New york should be different from utah, louisiana should be different from arizona. How do you go about making that decision . You have to make the decision. Look, we lose thousands weve brought some numbers here. Weve lost thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu. We dont turn the country off. Now, when i heard the number you know, we averaged 37,000 people a year. Can you believe it . This year, we are having a bad flu season. But we lose thousands of people a year to the flu. We never turn the country off. We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We didnt call up the Automobile Companies saying, stop making cars, we dont want cars anymore. We have to get to work. With all of that being said, its incredible what the American People have done and honestly the American People have learned and weve all learned together between the shaking of the hands in the washing of the hands, i used to wash my hands i always wash my hands a lot. I was never a big believer in shaking hands. Once you become a politician can you shake hands and get used to it. Immediately when i see you i shouldve apologize that im not shaking hands. We exchanged air albos. I never like to see that, actually. Right on capitol hill, youve got members of the Senate Debating a 2 trillion bill. Did you think. It blows away the ability for us to imagine that they could pass legislation in excess of 2 trillion. Who knows whats behind the curtain there . Who knows what is stacked into 2 trillion . How much concern do you have, you could be facing criticism president obama faced in 2009, about sweetheart deals for Certain Companies that democrats would argue . I canceled the deal. Im not going to sign the deal because nancy pelosi came and then put a lot of things in the deal that had nothing to do with the workers, that had to do with an agenda theyve been trying to get past for ten years. I came in, i told mike, i told a lot of people, no way im signing that bill. I was getting calls from john kennedy, ben sasse, many, many people, lindsey getting calls from lots of people. Tom cotton. This deal is terrible. What theyve done. They took a deal, almost had to deal the day before, and it was between schumer and mitch. It was really a good, solid deal. All of a sudden, they start throwing the Green New Deal stuff in, right . The boardrooms, what they look right. We want green energy. Lets stop drilling oil. They had things in there that were terrible. Windmills all over the place and all sorts of credits for windmills that killed the birds and ruin the real estates. With 2 trillion, its hard to avoid some of the trapdoors. But we have great things not only for companies, forget the Companies Come in the companies are nothing other than they are, and employer of thousands and thousands of people, they pay them very well. We want to protect our workers. I want to protect our workers. Workers first. But you have to protect Companies Like boeing. They had a really bad year, lets face it, with the problems, they were in trouble before this, and all of a sudden this happened. We cant lose boeing. We cant lose some of these companies. Some of these companies that were solid, like aaa companies, because of whats happened over the last couple of weeks, they go from aaa to being like they could use a hand. Tough times. We cant lose those companies. If we lose those companies, we are talking about hundreds and thousands of jobs, millions of jobs. The faster we go back, the better its going to be. We have a pent up energy thats going to be unbelievable. We are going to bring it back fast. I got a lot more questions, so does my colleague Harris Faulkner print i will allow her to rejoin the conversation now. Do i have a near plug your . Ill help you out. I will relay and translate. Hello, mr. President. So good to see you. This is a bit to relay. I understand you are going back and forth on the economy and employers, but more than 66 of people are employed by Small Businesses. The vp talked a little about this, we hear you talking to a companys names. The question is how do you show up both as you move forward . Speak of the questions are a good one, good point when you talk about boeing and twothirds of American Businesses being Small Businesses and you think about what they are trying to do in terms of adjusting to this new reality that has been thrown on them. What will you do for Small Businesses . First had to say that harris is one of my favorite people and i didnt hear aware that she said and i hope it wasnt too devastating a question, but she is a fantastic person. I have to say that, okay . Now that i said that, i cant hear harris, my bill is focus on the Small Business person, its focus on Small Companies including restaurants and all sorts of Small Companies. What people dont realize, talking about these we have the greatest companies in the world. You add them all up, and the Small Businesses are just about equal in size to these Massive Companies with which we have many also. Its the engine of our country, Small Business. This bill is absolutely aimed at the Small Business and the worker and the workers of those Small Businesses, and the owners. The owners are going to need help, they are going to need loans, we are going to be able to take care of them. We dont want those Small Businesses to go out of business nor do we want the big menaces to go out of business. When they said, mr. President , we have to shut this down, how much did you push back . Ive never heard such a thing that we lost as many as 78,000 people in one year. They came in, and they said to me, sir, we are going to have to close the country. I said, what are you talking about . Well, we have a virus coming and i knew that, i made the early decision with china so i already closed it off to china and that was a long time before they came in. But they came in, experts, they said we are going to have to close the country. Said, weve never close the country before. This never happened before. Im he saying it, are you serious about this . We are going to take this country thats fully employed or we have 160 Million People working and youre telling me we have to close it . And people are going to go out of business and they are going to go bankrupt and they are not going to have jobs . What are we talking about here . Dont forget them of this is never been done. Weve had flus before, viruses before, so this is something new and thats why i have to say, i gave it two weeks be by monday or tuesday, its about two wee weeks, well give it some more time if we need a little more time but we have to open the country up. When they came and had the conversation with you, how long did it take you to accept that new reality . I accept things, i understand things very quickly. I understood what they were saying. But we can socially distance ourselves and go to work and youll have to work a little bit harder. You can clean your hands five times more than you stupid you dont have to shake hands anymore with people. I must tell you as a politician, its much warmer when you walk into a crowd and shake a lot of peoples hands. I agree with you. I love them and they love me. Its a little colder. You wont be shaking hands for at least a while. And things will happen. We have to put the country to work. Look, you are going to lose number of people to the flu, but youre going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression. You are going to lose people. You are going to have suicides by the thousands. You are going to have all sorts of things happen. You are going to have instability for you cant just come in and say lets close of the United States of america, the biggest, most successful country in the world by far. You know, when i came in, when i was elected and you knew this one, china was over going to overtake us in the year 2019. We went way up and they didnt. They pay us a fortune in tariffs and yet we have a Good Relationship with them. We are number one in the world by far. And now a few people walk into the oval office and say, sir, we have to close up the country. I said, what are you talking about . That, mr. President , mustve been a very difficult thing to accept. One of the most difficult decisions ive ever made because i knew who do it as soon as they did it, they are talking about 2025 points of gdp . No ones ever heard of 25 points. If we went down by a point, thats a big deal. All of a sudden you are basically turning the country. This has never been done before. We understand it, have hot spots. But weve had hot spots before. Had horrible flus. Think about it, we average 36,000 deaths im not talking about cases, im talking about deaths. 36,000 deaths a year. People die 36 from the flu but weve never closed on the country for the flu. So you say to yourself, what is this all about . How did you process that . Not good. I wasnt happy about it and i also knew that i had to do it look, with turkey, i give this as an example. And syria. I said, sign a deal with the kurds, makepeace. I have a very Good Relationship i said sign a deal. He didnt really wants to. The kurds didnt really want to do. It went on, the same socalled safezone, i said signt it done. They didnt want to. All of a sudden they start fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting. It was vicious. Other countries got involved. Other countries said, sign a deal. We needed a period because if i wouldve not done it, we wouldve been unbelievably criticized for not doing it. But its never been done before. Somehow the word got out that this was the thing we were supposed to be doing. We had some really bad epidemics and other things. We call this a pandemic. But weve had bad epidemics im sure they couldve been called pandemics. But weve never done a thing like this before. But we had to do it. Its been very painful for our country, and very destabilizing for our country. We have to go back to work, much sooner than people thought. And people can go back to work and also practice good judgment. One question and we get back to our viewers here too. The cdc had an initial test and failed. February, you said it was perfect. It wasnt perfect. What happened there in the early stages. What was perfect was my conversation with the head of ukraine. That was a total nonsense, total witch hunts. This one is a much different thing. We had other administrators, not just the last one, they built up a platform. They built up a test. But the test was no good. It didnt handle large numbers of people, it was okay for a very small group. We have to break it down did the cdc screw up, did you screw up . I dont think the cdc screwed up either. They had a test that wouldve worked for a small group of people. In other words, for a normal problem. I dont think anybody in all fairness, the cdc. This is a Big Government agency and very good people are in there but nobody ever expected anything like this. Nobody would ever see millions and millions of people wouldve been tested. What we did is we broke that egg, we broke that system and we created a new system that now we are doing unbelievably big numbers. Its set for the future should we ever need it again. I hope we dont need it again. Thank you for your time. We will bring in the others in a moment. Take you for being patient. We will get to you. So many questions not only from our network but from millions of people across the country. Questions here in a moment as we continue to live in the rose garden in the white house with the president and his task force in washington. As we turn more inside, connection is more important than ever. Tmobile has increased Network Capacity and given customers more access to unlimited data. Weve increased data allowances for schools and students and expanded roaming access for sprint customers to help everyone work, learn, and connect. Weve been asking, are you with us . We want you to know, were with you. Welcome back his Coronavirus Task force. Excited to finally get to be able to talk oneonone with him now. We got our tech problems worked out. I want to at first ask you, mr. President , about the idea of the Political Division thats going on in capitol hill. You are talking about these bills, phase one, two, three of the stemless bill like they will fix so much of the economy and people are literally fighting like cats. What can you do to bring them back together . We had a bill that was done the other night and all of a sudden somebody else injected herself in and we didnt have anything that was really remotely assignable. But now i hear from a few minutes ago that they are doing well and its for the workers and it should have been, i watched Governor Cuomo and he was very nice, we are building some hospitals, building medical centers, complaining about probably more definitely than anybody else, and i was talking about the ventilators. He shouldve ordered the ventilators, he had a chance. Because right here i just got this out, that he reviews to order 15,000 ventilators. I will show this to bill. Take a look at that, bill. What does that say . This says new york Governor Cuomo rejected buying recommended 16,000 ventilators in 2015 for the pandemic for a pandemic. Establish death panels and lotteries instead. He had a chance tell buy in 201,516,000 ventilators of a low price. He shouldnt be talking about us. He should be buying his own ventilators but we are going to hell. But if you think about governo Governor Cuomo, building for hospitals, building them for medical centers. We are working very, very hard for the people of new york, working along with him and i watch them on the show complaining, had 16,000 ventilators he couldve had a great price and didnt buy them. I heard you going back and forth and Governor Cuomo said you regularly talk and had a Good Relationship. Bringing us they are right there in the rose garden. I want to get to a viewer because the peoples voices so huge right now and always. Joyce submitted a question on facebook about the stimulus checks. I want to get your reactions. Im fortunate i continue to work, i telecommute. There are people who are losing jobs, they are losing an entire income for households, and rather than receive a check, i would just like to pay it forward and have the government pass mind of someone else. Is that great. You obviously come from west virginia. I love that state. Tell you what, joyce. I wish i had more people like joyce, i tell you. Its good to be a substantial amount of money, about 3,000 for a family are for of four assuming wecan get demo. That would be great. Joyce, i think that such a nice gesture. I appreciate it. Thank you. Before you and i began talking a few minutes ago, breaking news fast and it looks like the juggernaut might be moving on capitol hill to try to push towards that stimulus bill, so well be watching for that. You know, mr. President , im watching the dial, as youve been talking and formally with the Vice President , its up more by 1500 points. What do you watch for each day. Do you keep your eye on that, is it companys calling you small and large, what is your barometer that, okay, things are doing better . I think the dow was up by the fact that there were theories that we were going to stay out for 45 months and you cant do that. That would destroy our country if you did a thing like that. We are going to be opening relatively soon. If our time comes up monday or tuesday, the allotted two weeks, well stay a little bit longer than that but we want to get open really soon. I also think that the senate and the house, we seem to be getting along as much as you can get along. We seem to be getting along on a bill. I think its even more of an impact that we are opening up this incredible country. Because we have to do that. Id love to have it open by easter. Id love to have it open by easter. I will tell you that right now. Such an important day for other reasons. Ill make an important day for this, too. I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by easter. Thats april 12th. We will watch and see what happens. Im going to toss it back to my cohort, build. Thank you, harris. That would be a Great American resurrection two and a half weeks from now. Dr. Birx, a couple of questions here. Has a question by way of facebook about possible mutation. Watch. My question is this. If you were to get the coronavirus, can it mutate and can you get it again . Dr. Birx . Thats a great question and the very smart question. Because its an rna virus, it can mutate and constantly mutate. Whats been good about the coronavirus in general is they keep their structural spaces pieces very similar. The outer code, the envelope and the inside part of the virus has stayed very constant. Its similar to sars which we have not seen since 2003. Both for the vaccine and for myocardial antibodies are those constant sites and we believe anybody who becomes and makes effective antibodies, there are those who make good antibodies, if you make effective antibodies you cant get reinfected. The medical positioning of this questioning, but the virus is trying to figure out a way to survive. And thats where it comes run and mutates. Suggesting a possible second wave and that island nation. How do you gauge that. In singapore, they took the president s guidelines because they can see china next door. They saw those enablement to those guidelines. Very few people came infected in single core singapore. So if you affected have been in singapore, you dont have what you call her community. When we get through this current pandemic, which we have seasonality, we hope and believe it could. If he gets to this current season, itd be everyones best interest to do as the president has recommended, work on vaccines to work on additional therapeutics, really getting to pre and postprophylaxis so the Health Care Providers can get a shot potentially that can protect them, we would call it preexposure prophylaxis. Although it was things are being worked on to prepare us for the next season. So we are focused today what we need today to get through this current epidemic. And we are also getting prepared in case he comes back in the fall or in case it comes back in the fall of 2021 when we have a vaccine. I want to bring in the Surgeon General on this and to the both of you. Ive been listening to you carefully for the couple of weeks and you say we want to be the model of south korea. South korea has flattened the curve to steal a phrase in the death rate is about 1 2 . This morning, or death rate was right around the same market, 1. 3 . To the Surgeon General, what does that tell you, or how much do you consider the death rate here at home when we try and make decisions for ourselves . Thank you for that, bill. I think there are a couple of things important for the American People to remember. The first thing, of all the people that weve tested so far, only about 90 of those folks do not have the coronavirus. They test negative for most people even when they have cold and flu symptoms do not have coronavirus, number one. Number two, 98 89 of people are recovering. People need to understand that, yes, some people will get coronavirus in many communities across america, but most of them will recover. Thats very important for people to understand. Beyond that, we are trying to help people understand the importance of stopping the spread. And the president , when he come in nine days ago, listened to his health providers, his health consultants, he said, what do we need to do right now, i said, we need to lean into this the next two weeks to stop the spread and we need to reassess and one thing i can tell you for certain is ive been on the task force for three weeks and the president listens to tony fauci. He listens to dr. Birx, when i, dr. Carson, dr. Hong, or dr. Redfield speaks up. He also listens to the governo governors. We will figure out the most appropriate thing to do and based on my experience in the task force so far, the president will make an appropriate decision based on all the data. Thank you for that answer. Is everything cool with you and dr. Fauci . He wasnt there last night for the briefing to him he wasnt here today . He has other things, thats it. We get along really well. Your relationship is good . You wouldve heard about it if it wasnt. Other people too. They say, why isnt dr. Birx at a meeting, is there a problem . I i said, deborah, can you pleasee meeting, do you mind . Deborah is its ordinary, tony is extraordinary. I get along with all of them. They have other things to do. Yesterday we were not really talking about what he is an expert on, we were talking about other things, a lot of other things. You are good, thats the point . We are fine. Dr. Birx, the massive testing in south korea, 96 came back negative. I think thats an important point to convey again to the American People. Noah from maryland has a question now. His question is about Health Care Workers at the front lines. He works in the health care field. What can you and your team can do putting in risk every single day i was a result of the coronavirus . Excellent question. Dr. Birx . I love that question because my mother is a nurse. Shes 91 so shes not practicing but we have to remember that a majority of hospitals and majority of places, it are the nurses that are the front line. They are the one working every moment to ensure that they do well, they are the ones at the bedside, providing comfort, the one providing medical intervention and the first priority, is why work so hard to get the protective, personal protective equipment out there. I think what we didnt often talk about is really with the changing guidelines for testing, that is going to free up all the personal protective back into the hospital and clinics for nurses and doctors and thats going to make millions of more mask and ppe, as we call it, available to the hospital workers who needed the most because now people can self test. Can i jump in on that really quickly . I want people to know that im still practicing anesthesiologist at walter reed. The Vice President and i, we first met during ebola. And i went into the hospital, i put on ppe. I know how scary it is when you have the proper equipment to put on a infectious disease, im getting phone calls and Text Messages from across the country, and i Want Health Care professionals in america to know that we are fighting for you each and every day to make sure that you get what you need from the stockpile, to make sure you get what you need from manufacturers across america, to make sure you are getting the decreased demand, which is why we put out our new guidelines and elective surgeries. Its not just about increasing the supply. We arent going to supply our way out of the problem as important as supply is. We can also lower demands by decreasing unnecessary and a game changer that came out this week was the new fda self swabs. The Vice President and president talked about that. Thatll utilize less ppe. We are making sure that supply gets were used too. How can someone watching this right now require a self test . Right now, the fda is making them more available but we are seeing self testing when you look at last week from monday to friday the amount of testing increasing tenfold, so we are seeing testing increase. The concern of it is using up more ppe which is what we want to prioritize testing for the people who are most in need, the Health Care Workers, the people who are vulnerable, and why we are pushing. The fda has lowered barriers like none other to make sure we can get these new testing modalities available that use less ppe and more tests. Back to harris for another question now. Back to you, harris. You know what . I want to stay on this home testing topic with dr. Birx. You know, the home tests, is there a place where people check a box and say im positive or not . How are you going to keep up with people to test themselves and you need that information, dr. Birx, to know where the clusters are in the country. Great. Its not a home test, is a self test but what do i mean by that . I mean the individual can drive up, receive the item because, again, we want to test people with fever and symptoms that really need to be tested. They can sell swab the front of their nose. Put it in the container. And the person can collect it with gloves, gloves alone with a biohazard bag and get it in. I want to speak to americans for just a second, though. We have to make sure we are still testing even though probably by today we wouldve done more test than south korea did in eight weeks in the last ecodays. In the last aco days, weve done more testing than south korea. But we did that because weve transformed the Testing Process as the president spoke to. We dont want people who are just worried to go get tested. If you dont have a persistent fever, if you dont have a cough, if you are not in the risk group, if you are not a nurse or doctor, we want the drive to testing to very much still be focused on the people who need it because theres only so much, even though its what machines are doing, they are doing 50, 60, 70,000 test per day now. They could potentially get to 150,000 per day. But you want to make sure that we are testing in the areas that really have the problems. Yeah, but failed. And thats different between the home go right ahead. Thanks, harris. American people are asking all the time, the president and i hear it all the time. What can they do to make a difference. In addition to the 15 days to slow the spread, the American People can take dr. Birxs advice. Its not the healthy who need a doctor, its the sick. One of the ways you can help is that we want to focus people getting symptom spirit although according to the test now from the Surgeon General, 90 of people tested for coronavirus dont have it. We tested more than 320,000 people, and thats an encouraging number. May be concerned but not be symptomatic, one of the way you make sure that testing is available for people who have systems and just as importantly for our Health Care Workers that we want to make sure have all the protective equipment that they need to come up you can recognize that if you dont have symptoms, dont do a test. Harris, one thing i might add that to me is so important. Again, we took something that was broken. I just heard the number for the first time from deborah, short period of time weve done more testing, you wont read that in the newspapers because they do not like to write that. Ill say that one more time. Thats a big number. Weve done more than south korea in a short period of time and we are doing more. What was that number . They are probably around 290,000. Almost 300. We are way over 300,000 but we reachieve that in the last 78 days. We have to do more. They did that over eight weeks. We are going up proportionately. We are going up very, very rapidly. What was our negative texts to rate the moment . Was it 90 or higher . Im glad you asked because this gets in with where is the virus right now and where is it expanding . Across the country, our test rates are well under 10 except for one place, new york city. Metro new york. New jersey, close to new york city. Those rates are coming in any 28 range. Right now, new york, the case attack rate we are talking about the number of people getting infected, is fourfive times any other place in the country. Why is that . Density, population . Part of it is density, part of it is a spread that may have happened on Metal Services like on the subway and people on the subway. Part of it may be a large number of people came back from asia that didnt get caught up in the closure. Do you blame the governor for that . Part of it could be the europeans who come back subsequently. Obviously its a big area of world trade and global transit, so i think the virus probably was quietly expanded. Until it gets into an older population, you dont really see in the same way. Thank you for that. Going to get a quick break here. More of your questions from across america here in the white house, in the rose garden after this. Doctor bob, what should i take for back pain . Before you take anything, i recommend applying topical relievers first. Salonpas lidocaine patch blocks pain receptors for effective, nonaddictive relief. Salonpas lidocaine. Patch, rollon or cream. Hisamitsu. Im finding it hard to stay on a faster laptop could help. Plus, tech support to stay worry free woory free. Boom boom get free business day shipping. At office depot, officemax and officedepot. Com welcome back to our fox news virtual town hall with President Trump and members of his task force. We are at the rose garden in the white house and a real honor to be sitting here with you all and i hope together we can kill the virus and give a lot of people hope to give regular folk back to their regular lives. Im sure a lot of people being keen on. You said, im paraphrasing now, youd like to be back to normal by easter sunday. Thats 19 days from now. Is that true, is that possible . I think thats possible. Why isnt it quick that we never close the country before. Weve had some pretty bad flus, pretty bad viruses and i think its absently possible. People are going to have to practice all of the social distancing and dont shake hands and wash her hands and all the things we are doing now, but weve got to get our country back to work. Our country wants to be back to work. That was not a controversial thing i said the other day, our country wants to go back to wo work. Again, the cure, its, like, this cure is worse than the problem. Again. A lot of people, more people if we allow this to continue. You have said consistently as the first order of business is to kill the virus. So when you look at the data from around the world and across our country, how do you determine that 19 days from now, it was safe and there were millions of people who are watching this now who have their family fortune on the line. They have their family fortune on the line the other way too. Never going to make it back, lose their businesses ever to get them back, we want to start up as soon as we can because well have a very quick comeback. If we delay this thing out, youll lose more people than youre losing with the situation as we know it. So i think its very important for our country to go back and ive had many, many people you know, when you said it was a little bit controversial, not to most people. Most people think im right about it. By the way, whether locked in a room or in our office and practicing all the things we are supposed to be practicing, staying away from each other, not shaking hands, washing your hands all the time. Our country has to get back to work. Otherwise its going to be very hard to started up again. We cant lose the advantage that we have. What we are trying to figure out in this whole scenario here is how deadly the virus is in so far its highly contagious but not very deadly. We can agree on that based on the data, correct . Yes. When you take the answer of easter sunday, do you see that as realistic, possible . My job and what i think is really important, a lot of what weve done is weve tackled this epidemic the way people was said we should have tackled the flu in 1918. They compared st. Louis, who took this kind of approach to philadelphia. What we are trying t to do is ue 20th Century Solutions and get data down to the most granular level so we understand whats happening in the area of the spread. Even today, there are counties throughout the United States that dont have their first ca case. Our job is to make sure that they never have their first case, and ensure our focus effoe focused where they are standing for that can be done because we have that level of granularity. Thats what the president has asked us to put together. To use these two weeks to get all the data from around the country and all the data around the globe and really understand whats working and its really important that americans now i know the Vice President cover this very clearly in the first hour. But every american needs to continue the president s guidelines for these next six days or seven days. We have to have them following those guidelines. Speak of the Surgeon General is shaking his head in agreement. Bill, you cant compare this to 1918 were close to 100 Million People died. This was a flu a little different, but thats a flu where if you got it you got a 50 50 for down a chance, very close, you were dying. We are close to 1 chance because people who are Getting Better art reporting. We are still a little bit above 1 . When you have the millions of people who to get fodder theyll make better, we are out 1 . There is a 3 , 4 from a 5 , this is a very big difference. We had to put our country back to work. We have a few minutes left and i want to bring in our panel of experts in. Dr. Mehta want to give you some questions there were doctored dr. Oz. Why dont we start with dr. Siegel. Mr. President comeau with the death going over 600 today, i want to see the fear coming out of this, you need leadership to fight the fear, so i was really encouraged reaching out to Governor Newsom, making liaisons that were not there before. You want to know that kind of movement where other people work with you will help us to isolate the virus in the epicenters where they are, to separate those epicenters and therefore squash the virus . I do. I think its a very good thing and Governor Newsom and i have been getting along really great, the great hospitals as you know. We are doing very well with almost all the governors for the most part, its become something we are dealing with almost every day, speaking to each other, whether its conference calls, usually will have 50 governors on the call at the same time. I think we are doing very well. Its a twoway street, they have to treat us well also. They can say, we should get this, we should do that. We are doing a great job where like in new york i said we are Building Four hospitals, we are literally building hospitals and medical centers and i hear that there is a problem with ventilators. We sent them ventilators and they couldve had 15 or 16,000, all they had to do was order them two years ago but they decided not to do it. They can blame us for that. Dr. Oz is up next. Go ahead, doctor. President trump, a good surgeon knows after the surgery when the patient can be discharged in these 15 days are like a big operation out of america. If we can meet the goal of fixing america and getting back on his feet by easter, whats going to indicate we have to pull back a tiny bit in case we have a relapse . I think, doctor, i thing like that can happen, but i really believe we dont like and what we are doing and we can do it from a Work Environment instead of an environment where everyone is locked up and everybody is saying, oh, the business is gone, the business is gone, everyone is suffering, depression. You know better than anybody about depression. I know when i watch about depression. It causes death and causes a lot of problems. They want to save their busine business. They dont want to be locked up in some room or house and in the meantime their restaurants close, the businesses close, they want to be saving the business and i believe very strongly you are going to lose former people going that way if we kept is going. I mean im sure weve got doctors who would say, lets keep it closed for two years. Okay . Lets close it up for two years. Weve got to get it open. Our people want it open. Thats the way this country was built. Dr. Nicole saphier now. Go ahead with your question. Thank you. President trump, i believe as a nation we are beholding to you for your decisive swift action in the beginning with the travel ban. I think we wouldve been in a much different time or situation had to not happen. We did still have a lag in the testing which did not have anything to do with you. But my question is for dr. Birx and the task force but we see that some people are not able to get tasks. I have colleagues who still cant tell some of their patients. Is there a plan to fasttrack or even parallel track testing to try and get this out there so we can mobilize more pbe and hospital beds by doing more testing and being able to isolate those people quickly . Thats a very good question. So right now, the test that we have are all best on the rna of the virus. And so we are utilizing the platforms. Thank goodness we are utilizing the platforms that were developed really to work and support hivpositive clients. This are the machines that have been used to detect their viral loads for the last more than a decade in the United States. Those machines right now are being utilized for this test and a high throughput way. Weve asked developers to work on a pointofcare fingerprint test that can be used for antibody and antigens, but the Antibody Test will only tell you if youve been infected. Even if we can get ign, itll be probably recovery phase, and we are working with companies to work on getting rna tests that are pointofcare. They are really critical tests that are element people are working on right now. But in the meantime, we are using we have today. I want to thank the American People and physicians who have let us prioritize we didnt have this platform until eight days ago. Weve done all of these diagnoses for inpatients primarily so they can get on the appropriate therapy and we pride our testings to hospital patients. We will over the next few weeks be able to make more tests available to the actual American Public with symptoms and two doctor offices as you requested. Nicole, its important to member that weve done more testing eight days in south korea has done in a coweeks. Our tests are better. They are highly sophisticated. Frankly, i took one. Not the most pleasant thing in the world, i will tell you that. We will have a much simpler test very soon. We have a really good test and weve done more in eight days i just heard this number a few minutes ago. I learned it being on your show. The way you described it is of the nasal package and took a right at the eye. Hang a right at the eye. All of you stand by. Few more moments left. Our virtual terminal continues. To all the doctors, we very much rely on you on a daytoday basis. So thank you for being a part of this today. Quick commercial break. Back to the rose garden in a moment as our town hall continues. Back here in the rose garden. Im bill hemmer along with my colleague Harris Faulkner. Along with the panel here, the president , Vice President , dr. Birx, and the Surgeon General. I see this as a Public Service but also how to figure out what the facts are in thats the reason we came here but you were just saying, mr. Vice president , during the commercial, the way you can achieve your objective is how . The president made it clear yesterday that we want to open up the country as soon as we c can. But the key is that more americans and tens of millions are, bill, more americans put into practice the president s coronavirus guidelines. Read those off, its hard to see. What is it, wash your hands . Personal hygiene. If you are stick, stay home. If someone has the virus, stay home, avoiding groups of more than ten, avoiding unnecessary travel. Dont eat in restaurants during this period of time. Use the drive through. These are all the principles that every american can do. There are going to be the americans who have different guidance from their state and local officials that are more stringent. We defer to that, we respect that. But the more americans that do this, sooner or as will be able as the president said get back to work. We have to be a patient nation. Mr. President , thank you for your time. I will see you a bit later on the bill hemmer reports 3 00 eastern time. Mr. Vice president mike pence, thank you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us today. That is it from here at the white house. And, harris, i will see you back in new york very soon. I hope the last two hours held some value for a lot of our viewers across the country and around the world, harris. I can tell from social media it absolutely did. Thanks to the president forgetting that you was womens Football Team home as well. Ill see you tomorrow. We begin with breaking news. For millions of people, it is significant. The u. S. Senate and the Trip Administration appeared to have struck a deal on a Coronavirus Response deal. Im trace gallagher, 11 00 p. M. In los angeles, 2 00 a. M. In the west coast. In the upcoming hours, well update you on the latest development surrounding covid19 and the federal response. The worldwide cases surpassing 400,000, with the number in america over 55,000. In new york, frightening news from Governor Andrew Cuomo, saying the amount of cases are doubling every three days. And it apparently appears