Welcome to thursday, it is meet the press daily. Were going to begin our tap dance when it comes to the briefing. Im chuck todd, well continue the breaking News Coverage of the coronavirus pandemic for this hour and then some. Were standing by for todays update from the White House Coronavirus task force. The president is apparently going to also participate in this briefing. After he spoke to governors across the country about his new plan to contain the virus, which basically involves an attempt to split the United States into high risk and low risk areas. Perhaps as a way to potentially get the people back to work. A number of questions are being raised about that strategy. Its not clear whether this is a serious proposal or it could be overtaken by events or this is actually the plan that somehow is going everyone in the country, including the president is trying to wrap their arms around what to do next as we all grapple with what will happen next. Lets take a minute to digest where we are right now. Theres no better visual way to hammer home this daunting challenge of this moment than the graphic youre looking at on screen right now. The United States is about to have more cases than italy. We may be there already. But it is about to surpass italy, which is the current global epicenter of this outbreak. For many of us thats hard to grasp how suddenly we climbed this curve. Go back into your wayback machine. 20 days ago they were the economy was still humming, breaking records at the stock market. President trump was complaining about having to let a cruise ship ashore which, ready for this, would have added 21 cases to the national total. He didnt want more cases. Not only double the number of cases. Now there are more than 75,000 across the country. More than a thousand people have died. Millions of people have lost their jobs. Congress is passing the largest emergency relief bill in american history. This is all in the span of 20 days. New study from researchers in Washington State which was the epicenter of the country not long ago, its forecasting that 80,000 could die in the country over the next few months even if social distancing measures are obeyed. And there are plenty of reports suggesting that they are not. Look at this. You look at how weve crossed the thousand barrier. It took us nine days to get to this number. Some people look at it and think if thats all it is, its good news. 80,000 is not thats all there is. Thats a big number, folks. In other words, this is just the beginning of this national nightmare. Hospitals in the areas hardest hit, especially new york, are being overwhelmed. Some doctors and nurses say its like working in a war zone. Well talk to a doctor in one of the war zone in a minute. At elmhurst hospital, one doctor described it as apocalyptic. Mayor de blasio said theyre in a race against time. Were weeks away from the peak by every model. The president sent a letter to all 50 governors and suggested that a National Strategy would go county by county to determine if social distancing measures need to be tightened or relaxed. Remains to be seen how feasible that is. Are we going to have county Border Guards in certain states or how quickly it could be implemented. We still have not tested everybody in this country, let alone that many people in washington, d. C. It certainly seems as if the white house is trying to build some type of pal si, explanation, i guess, around the president s claims of an attempt to reopen the country by easter. We expect to hear more about this from the president and we hope from the expert as well when the White House Briefing gets underway shortly. Before we get to the briefing, i want to turn to doctors. Dr. Stavros is a general surgeon in teaneck, new jersey, as you saw the other day, i brought the mayor of teaneck on. This is a hard hit area of the country. Bergen county, northern new jersey. He operates in hospitals overwhelmed and chair of the new jersey doctor patient alliance. And dr. Gupta is a pulmonologist and pandemics consultant, former air force officer and now an nbc medical contributor. Lets start with you, doctor. You gave my colleague on the phone a firsthand account of just the situation. Its very hard obviously. We cant bring cameras to see this war zone. Describe this war zone to us, sir. Its scary. Its scary. You know, im fortunately a general surgeon, not in the icu like my colleague is every day. But its pretty scary. I have to do these mnl surgeries through the e. R. And youre pretty its startling to see the number, the sheer number of people in the e. R. Theyre having trouble breathing and theyre there for a legitimate reason and you know the resources are hanging on by a thread. The one thing i do have to commend, my hospital at teaneck, should be the role model for the state as the way theyre handling it. Theyve done a stellar job of turning entire floors, broke out windows, put up mega pressure vents and turns entire floors into negative pressure floors to house covid patients. The real crazy part and the sad part where i made the analogy to war with your colleague, when this whole thing started, i think we dropped the ball. The bomb has gone off on First Responders and nurses and the doctors. I know one hospital is 34 people out, 30 have tested positive. Thats our frontline. They were sent in to be told by everybody else in the cdc, the Hospital Administrators, you dont have to wear anything but a mask, surgical mask in the room with a covid patient. Turned out not to be true. We didnt learn it here. Tell me the equipment situation at your hospital right now and the best that you understand. How soon do you expect to run out of this personal Protection Equipment where you are . I know that theyre ongoing hunting, a lot of donations coming in. The biggest problem right now is we get a lot of leads that turn out to be not properly certified masks. Theres multiple certifications, theres a lot of companies in china trying to sell masks here at 10 or 20 times the normal price. Then they send an fda certificate thats fake. Ive had hospitals actually, they go all the way down the road to try to purchase more. And theres just they find out at the last minute its fake. I do know that its really dire. They estimate a day or two. But again, the hospital spokesman has to give an exact number. Theyre going through 1500 masks a day. The number changes. The state of ohios Public Health experts i think they said just on masks 5 masks alone, one owe 95 masks alone. One 24hour patient in ohio and the care for that patient ov over takes 13 and 95 masks. Does that sound right to you, doctor . I think thats conservative. I will say that theyve done great things of moving the iv poles out into the hallways so the nurses are putting one on and throwing it away every time they hang one. Its been inspiring. What i will say that no matter what it is, its not going to be enough. Not right now. Right now were hearing about stockpiles and millions of masks coming out. I havent seen any of them yet. Were at ground zero in new jersey. I havent seen it. I havent seen it come through yet. All i can say is beg and plead with our leaders in both d. C. And new jersey, get it to the hospitals on the front line now. This is why i wanted doctors on the frontline on the show today. Dr. Gupta, you just heard on the equipment front. There at ground zero, hes at ground zero, theyre not seeing anything. Is this obviously, we know this is an issue. It seems as if the federal governments got to be the person that procures and distributes, but it seems like that change is just a mess. Thanks, chuck. You cited the research out of university of washington just before the segment. You know, you would think in most National Security situations, we think about intel briefs. My military crew we would think about intel briefs. What are the geopolitical threats that exist. That research is an intel brief. 81,000 deaths probably are going to occur by july unless we have heroic measures now. Part of that part of the Inflection Point islet get ventilators where they need to be. To your point chuck, that means washington has to take control of this. We cant have states competing against each other and need something to be done with the defense production act. Lets make it happen. Dont make it a suggestion that companies should be potentially redirected to supply chains. We need them to do it and with intention with warlike capabilities. Thats how we need to be approaching this. Were just fundamentally not doing that. I will say, if i may, this notion that were going to do county by county i was about to ask you about this. You read my mind. Go ahead. I think its lunacy. Its the exact messaging we dont need. We need the quickest off ramp and we all want to normalize our lives. Theres not a certain american that enjoys this. The psychological impact is enormous on all of us. This notion that theres a quick way out is the wrong type of message to send to families, to americans, to providers. We need eight to ten weeks of a National Lockdown, not a county by county approach. Thats never going to get implemented. I want to play something that dr. Fauci said at yesterdays briefing. Im sorry that yesterday i didnt make a bigger deal of saying the following, which is sadly, the most important piece of information at the briefing was the last thing that viewers ended up hearing because they didnt let dr. Fauci speak literally until minute 55. Im going to play it again and dr. Gupta, i want to get your reaction on the other side. Here it is. Would this possibly become a seasonal cyclic thing . Ive always indicated to you that i think it very well might. And the reason i say that is that what were starting to see now in the Southern Hemisphere and Southern Africa and in the Southern Hemisphere countries is that were having cases that are appearing as they go into their winter season. In fact, if they have a substantial outbreak, it will be inevitable that we need to be prepared that well get a cycle around the second time. This gets at obviously this mixed messaging. Heres dr. Fauci warning us, were going to get hit a second time. Theres probably going to be a second peak in the fall before we get this vaccine, dr. Gupta. The question is, are we going to be prepared to both handle the ability to, i guess, scllow dow our social distancing but then come back and be able to fight this in six months. Whats your belief of how we prepare for what dr. Fauci is warning is coming . I think hes spoton. Any Public Health expert of any regard is saying the exact same thing. This is not going to magically go away forever. Hes exactly right. What we see with flu with that the Southern Hemisphere first has their seasonal affliction with flu and a few months later we get it. It gets cycled around the globe. So thats what were definitely fearful about what were seeing in the Southern Hemisphere. We need to be prepared, which means lets get a stockpile of ventilators and ppe up front while were also thinking about therapeutics and vaccine development. We need to be doing these in parallel because yes, winter, well have a harsh reality. Hes spot on. Dr. Chris tud yus. Do you feel theres a best practices in this emergency climate that your team there has been able to come up with in treating the most sick . Were still i mean, unfortunately, because of such a new virus, so Much Research is lacking trying to treat this is like trying to shoot a sniper rifle with the sights removed. We dont have the evidence necessary to treat adequately. Right now new york city is one of people know about the italian and the french have the study. Its all kind of on the go learning and on the go research because we havent had this virus to study in a lab under a microscope. Unfortunately, its happening realtime with real lives. It kind of puts a lot of onus on the medical profession now. People are scared. People are scared to practice. People are scared theyll get sued down the line because they dont know if it creates a side effect. One of the things i wanted to bring to light that really is a tragedy. A lot of the Health Care Workers when this first came out, they were told by the hospitals, youre not allowed to wear ppe except in a room where someone tested positive. The tests were lacking. You have somebody hacking up a lung, you know theyre covid positive and administrators are telling nurses and doctors, you cant wear a mask into that room. Not a protective mask. We we need whistleblower protections. Im being told by a Hospital Administrator im not allowed to protect myself. We need punishments for the administrators who are shortsighted who thinks its easier to replace ppe than a nurse or a doctor. Why did they i mean, i hate to say this. Was that policy put in because they were trying to preserve masks . Ive heard some pretty awful reasoning. One was because youre alarming other patients, some of them was because we need to keep our supply storage the really sick patients or the the problem is that whatever your reasoning is, its not more than important than safety of the frontline workers. If not because you actually care about them, but because youre going to need them working. What good is a ppe mask if theres no doctor or nurse to put it on. Its tragic when the poor nurses in particular. Theyre afraid to speak out. Theyve been threatened with their jobs. I know of a nurse outright dismissed because she said its not fair that i cant protect myself on social media. This is america. Were better than this. You know, we need youve got a couple weve been trying to protect, i know, some of youve talked about theres other hospitals in the region that youre concerned about and how theyre doing this. I appreciate you speaking out as much as you can. Dr. Gupta, before i sneak in a break here, were still waiting on the task force, sadly, while we were speaking, the official count put america past italy. Weve seen italy has been at this peak for some time. Its been a appears to be just a disaster zone there for the last ten days. Does this mean we just have six more weeks of what is just awful, awful recovery here . Short answer chuck, yes. Every modeler who has studied this says this is going to get worse before it gets better. Its going to continue to get worse if we do middle of the road approaches like county by county, determine whether or not you should be social distancing or not. So i am hopeful that we pursue a National Lockdown so that the worst of it, maybe we can avoid. Its going to get worse every modeling study that looks as this says its going to get worse. Because we dont have enough icu capaci capacity. Numbers will increase in terms of deaths in cases. We should anticipate that. Doctors, in teaneck new jersey, i appreciate your straight talk. Hopefully important people in washington are watching. Dr. Gupta, i know youve agreed to stick around as we await this. So thank you both. Heres a live look, by the way, at the white house where we expect to hear from some members of the Coronavirus Task force as well as the president. It will begin shortly. When that happens, we will bring it to you. Also ahead, facing a crisis inside the Nations Capital. How washington, d. C. Is trying to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Im going to talk with the mayor in washington, muriel bowser. Thats next. Im happy to give you the tour, i love doing it. Hey jay. Jay . Charlotte oh hi. He helped me set up my watch lists. Oh, hes terrific. Excellent tennis player. Byebye. I recognize that voice. Annie . Yeah she helped me find the right bonds for my income strategy. Youre very popular around here. Theres a birthday going on. Karl he took care of my 401k rollover. Wow, you call a lot. Yeah, well its my money were talking about here. Joining us for karaoke later . Ah, id love to, but people get really emotional when i sing. Help from a team that will exceed your expectations. Ok so, magnificent mile for me. I thought i was managing my moderate to severe Crohns Disease. Until i realized something was missing. Me. You ok, sis . My symptoms were keeping me from really being there for my sisters. announcement final boarding for flight 2007 to chicago so i talked to my doctor and learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease after trying other medications. And the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. And sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. But when youre with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, theres nothing to stop you from moving forward. A partner who makes sure every step is clear, today is the dawn of a new lawn. Thats because roundup for lawns has arrived. Now, there is a roundup brand product made just for your lawn. So you can put unwelcome lawn weeds to rest. Draw the line. With roundup for lawns theres no better way to kill lawn weeds to the root without harming your grass. Its a great day to be a lawn. Draw the line with the roundup brand. Trusted for over 40 years. Thats why lincoln offers complimentary pickup and delivery servicing. Well pick up your vehicle and leave you with a lincoln loaner. Thats the power of sanctuary. Welcome back. Our Nations Capital is reaching out directly to residents to urge social distancing. D. C. Residents, including several of our own meet the press daily team received this message last night imploring people to stay home and announcing the closure of nonessential businesses through april 24th. Thankfully our nbc News Washington bureau is an essential building and were going back and forth although practicing major social distancing. That is beyond president trumps easter target date to get the economy up and running. Joining me is the mayor of washington, d. C. Mayor bowser. Nice to virtually see you. You as well, chuck. Let me start with your order last night and how would you describe it . Is it a shelter in place, is it sort of similar to what new york city is doing or do you feel like you have one more one more arrow to shoot here if you feel its necessary . Well, chuck, we closed down all nonessential business in washington, d. C. This follows closing down bars and restaurants and theaters and arenas and our museums. And this follows us putting basically the entire d. C. Government on telework except all of those who have to have face to face interactions to do essential work. So our bustling economy, restaurant sector, Tourism Sector has all been shut down in d. C. Were telling people to stay home unless they have essential work to go to. They need food or medicine. Or theyre just going out with their own families to get some exercise. Otherwise, they should be staying home. No religious services either, right . Thats tough for a lot of people to hear. Thats been tough. Actually, that is some of our first advice regarded religious gatherings anyplace that had a mass gathering. We have a mass gathering order so no Mass Gatherings over ten. So we know a lot of people are staying in touch with their church and other organizations and schools via the internet and calling. We know that people want to stay connected to each other. But our message is clear. When we take this blunt effort and its difficult, shut down economy across the country and thousands in washington, d. C. Out of work. But we believe, as the experts say, it will get us to the other side much faster. I was surprised to see that d. C. Is only not even done 2,000 tests yet. Obviously, there was the testing shortage at the beginning. But at this point you are really flying blind if weve if in washington, d. C. Theres only been fewer than 2,000 tests even being given. Is there any way to speed that up and get more into the pipeline here . Well, certainly, just like every jurisdiction around the country, we saw that the early advice around testing and the lack of testing kits, i think, certainly testing has sped up in the Nations Capital and all of the areas that surround us. We do continue to urge people to call their doctors and to be tested according to a doctors advice. I think its very important that were sending people and were using our precious medical staff and supplies for people whose tests would indicate a change in how they were treated medically. I know you were on the call with the president with governors. In this case you were treated like a state. By congress you werent treated like a state. We can get into that as well, but i first want to hear from you because were about to hear from the president , we think. What did you take away from the president s call with governors today . Well, my message to the president was we need him to fix what came out of the senate bill last night. And that was treating d. C. As a territory. As you know, d. C. Is not a territory. In every way that in federal funding of all of our activities from education to housing to medicaid, any federal funding that we get, were treated just like every ill give you one more. We also have a president ial vote in d. C. Puerto rico does not. Not to sit here and say thats another difference from a territory. Thats a difference. But we also pay federal taxes. The territories do not. Another big one. Thats a big one. We pay more taxes than 22 state. We have populations larger than 22 state. We actually, as you know, are having positive tests in this region. Madam mayor, i have to interrupt you. Thanks chuck. Your most famous constituent is there. Thank you, madam mayor. Heres the president and well fact check the best we can coming up. Oh, boy. How the world has changed. How the world has changed, right . But its going to end up being better than ever. I want to thank you very much for being here and id like to update you on the steps were taking on our ongoing fight to defeat the virus this morning at 7 55. I spoke to the leaders of the g20. Had a great meeting. We had a lot of different ideas, lot of good ideas. Were working together. The leaders gathered virtually around the world to discuss the whole subject of the problem that right now 151 nations have got. We had president Alberto Fernandez of argentina, Prime MinisterScott Morrison of australia, president bolsonaro of brazil. Prime minister Justin Trudeau of canada. President xi of china. President macron of france. Chancellor Angela Merkel of germany. Prime minister mody of india. The president of indonesia. Prime minister of italy. Prime minister shinzo abe of japan. Congratulations on japan for making a good decision on the olympics, make it next year, 2021. President Andreas ManuelLopez Obrador of mexico. I want to thank the president of mexico for having done such a great job with respect to the military. We have 27,000 mexican soldiers on our southern border. Very few people are getting through, i can tell you that. We got to keep it that way. We have a great relationship with mexico now. President putin of russia. King solomon of saudi arabia. President ram pose a of south africa. President moon of, as you know, a country that we spend a lot of time in. South korea. Were working very hard on that. Prime minister sanchez of spain. President erdogan of turkey. Prime minister Boris Johnson of the united kingdom. President of the european commission, Ursula Vander lan. President of the European CouncilUnited Nations secretary antonio gutierrez. Worl Health Organization director. World Bank President david malpez and the international managing Fund Monitoring director. So thats a big group. But its a great group. They were all there. Every one of them. We talked about the problem and hopefully wont be a problem for too much longer. The United States is working with our friend and partners around the world to stop the spread of the virus and coordinate our efforts. We discussed how vitally important it is for all of our nations to immediately share information and data and weve been doing that to a large extent but well do it even more so and to inform our, i guess you could say from each of us on the fight that weve got going one way or the other, its a little bit different. But were handling it in different ways. But there is great uniformity. It was a terrific meeting. You had 20 countries plus the other people that i mentioned. Tremendous spirit to get this over with. After the meeting with the world leaders, i spoke with the governors of our 50 states and territories. Our team has been in constant communication with the governors and we had a terrific meeting. Somebody in the fake news said that one of the governors said oh, we need tom brady. I said he meant that in a positive way he said. We need tom brady. We got to do great. He meant it positively. They took it differently. They think tom brady should be leading the effort. Thats only fake news. I like tom brady. Spoke to him the other day. Hes a great guy. But i wish the news could be could be real. I wish it could be honest. I wish it werent corrupt. But so much of it is. So sad o to see. Just so sad to see. We had a great meeting. Im sure you have tapes of the meeting. Im sure you got tapes. See 50 governors plus. If you had tapes, you would see it was no contention. I would say virtually none. I would say maybe one person that was a little tiny bit of a raising of a voice, a little wise guy a little bit. But hes usually a big wise guy. Thats how much anymore we saw to it he wouldnt be any much anymore. A lot of folks in the back were there. It was a great meeting. Took place at about 12 00. So we went from the g20 to the governors. We also spoke about the Economic Relief with the governors and the package that were moving through congress to deliver muchneeded Financial Assistance to hard working families and Small Businesses. I want to thank the democrats and republicans in the senate for unanimously passing the largest Financial Relief package in american history. 960. I have to say, its the largest by far. Im profoundly grateful that both parties came together to provide relief for American Workers and families in this hour of need. The house of representatives must now pass this bill hopefully without delay. I think its got tremendous support. When youre at 960 and as you know, a couple of those people are quarantined and one, rand paul, hes actually got it. But hell be better. Hes been a great guy. Hes been a great friend of mine, actually. The massive 2. 2 trillion relief package includes Job Retention loans for Small Businesses with loan forgiveness available for businesses that keep their workers on the payroll. Thats pretty good loan forgiveness. Keep the workers on the payroll. Thats pretty good. Direct Cash Payments will be available to american citizens earning less than 99,000 per year. 3,400 for the typical family of four. Expanded unemployment benefits. The average worker who has lost his or her job will receive 100 of their salary for up to four full months. These are things that, by the way, we have plenty more to go. But there are things that nobody has ever had any package like this. I just want to thank them. Hopefully it will get approved equally. Easily in the house. Really, i think it will go through pretty well from what i hear. Virtually. Could be one vote, one grant stander. For that, well have to come back and take a little more time, a little pass. It will just take a little longer. Lets see if we have a grandstander. Critical support for the hardest hit industries with a ban on corporate stock buy backs. Tough new safeguards to prevent executive compensation abuse. Over 100 billion for our amazing doctors, nurses and hospitals. 45 billion for the Disaster Relief fund, more than doubling the amount available. This is tremendous stuff. 27 billion for the coronavirus response, including 16 billion to build up the Strategic National stockpile with critical supplies, including masks, respirators and all sorts of pharmaceuticals. 3. 5 billion to expand assistance to child care providers and child care benefits to Health Care Workers, First Responders and others on the frontlines of the crisis. And these are really brave, incredible people, i have to say. Some of them are getting sick and some of them are getting very sick. And some of them dont even recover. Theyre incredible people. 1 billion for protection act procurement. Were using the act only when necessary. We use it as leverage. We generally dont have to use it to accomplish what we want to accomplish. As of today, fema has shipped over 9 million n95 masks. 20 million face masks, 3. 1 million face shields, nearly 6,000 ventilators, 2. 6 million gowns. 14. 6 million gloves. And were sending more every day and weve got tremendous amounts of equipment coming in. A lot of Great Companies are making equipment right now. The ventilators, obviously, they take a little longer to make. But we have a lot of Companies Making them. Were going to be in great shape. We took over an empty shelf. We took over a depleted place in a lot of ways. As you know, the testing is going very, very well. That was obsolete and broken and we fixed it. Its been going really good. I think very importantly the stockpile, were really filling it up. We fill it up rapidly. But we get it out sometimes its sent directly to the states instead. Again, the state has to be doing this kind of a thing also. Were sort of a we look from behind a little bit and we look at how are they doing and if they need help, we do it. Its their first responsibility. Sometimes they just cant get it. But we load it up and we send it out. If we can, we have it sent directly to the state. We want it to go directly to the point where we want it. I can now announce something that i think is incredible what theyve done in the navy. Because the incredible Naval Hospital ship, the usns comfort which is incredible actually when you see it inside, will be underway to new york city on saturday. So its going to be leaving on saturday rather than three weeks from now. They did the maintenance quickly and it was going to be there for quite a while longer than three or four weeks. It should be arriving, i told the governor, 20 minutes ago, governor cuomo, that the ship will be arriving new york harbor on monday. I think im going to go out and ill kiss it goodbye. Ill go to its in virginia, as you know. I will go and well be waving together because i suspect the media will be following. John, are you going to be following . Maybe. You never know. Its very important its a great ship. A great vessel. If you want to go, ill see you there. If you dont, thats okay. After being fully loaded with medical supplies, its going to be its loaded up to the top. Its over at the Norfolk Naval base. Thats where it departs. It is expected then to were saving about three to four weeks by the incredible work done by the navy. And i actually look forward to saturday to see it go. The ship will arrive and i believe its going to get a little bit of a ceremony. Theres something very beautiful about it. Its incredible piece of work. Going to be landing at pier 90 in manhattan to provide hospital Surge Capacity for the new york metropolitan area. So its a Surge Capacity. They may use it for this or may have other people coming in from hospitals unrelated to the virus. And then they use those hospitals on land. Theyll use those hospitals for the virus. But well see how they do. They can do it either way. Which ever one is best. Its set up for a regular hospital. They may take people out of hospitals and use those rooms for the virus. The National Institute of health and the private sector working closely with the fda continue to collaborate to discover and test treatments and therapies that can effectively reduce the duration and symptoms of the virus and help, very much help people to recover. Im firmly committed to bringing these treatments to market very quickly. We have a lot of tests going on with regard to different medicines. And i hope we get lucky. I hope we hit a lot of talented scientists and doctors are working on therapeutics, a cure, vaccines. I think were doing very well. Tony may speak to that a little bit later. I think were doing well with regard to the vaccines. I think were doing well with regard to a lot of the things i just mentioned. Well have to see what happens. Were going to know fairly soon about a lot of them. Its very advanced and the vaccines are very advanced prior to, as you know, fairly reasonably long test period. In that case, over a year. Every american should be proud of the incredible spirit our country has brought to this effort. Its been incredible. Citizens from all walks of life have come together to turn the tide in this battle. Were witnessing the extraordinary power of american unity like a lot of people have seen. Even getting a vote. You talk about trillions of dollars and you get a vote of 960. Were waging war on this virus using every financial scientific, medical, pharmaceutical and military resource to halt its spread and protect our citizens. I want to express our tremendous thanks to the American People for continuing to practice social distancing. Like you people are practicing right here. I dont know. This room may never be the same. Maintaining good hygiene and follow government guidelines. Vice president pence lifts up that card every time. Its not very complicated. But hopefully you can do that. Your commitment will make all the difference in the world and thats one of the big ones will be for a while, stay home. Just relax, stay home. Making a lot of progress. As we continue to gather more information and accelerate the testing, where were doing record numbers of tests now, far more than any other country has done. I told you yesterday, eight days here, because you heard so much about south korea, the media kept to themselves in south korea. We have a great relationship with president moon in south korea. But when i hear so much about south korea, so in eight days, in eight days we do more testing than they did in eight weeks. Its a highly sophisticated test. Well be able to deploy more datadriven and targeted approaches to slow the ultimately, whats a devastating thing. We will vanquish this virus and a lot of progress has been made. Thats why earlier today i sent a letter to americas governors describing how well be using the data to update existing guidance on social distancing, which will be developed in close coordination with our nations Public Health officials and scientists. Because of the sacrifices of our great doctors and nurses and health care professionals, the brilliance of our scientists and researchers and the goodness and generosity of our people, i know that we will achieve victory and quickly return to the path of exceptional health, safety and prosperity for all of our citizens. We have to get back to work. Our people want to work. They want to go back. They have to go back. Were going to be talking about dates. Were going to be talking with a lot of great professionals. But this is a country that was built on getting it done. Our people want to go back to work. Im hearing it loud and clear from everybody. Well see what happens. Were going to have a lot more information early next week. Well be reporting that back. But i just want to leave it with you. We have to go back. This is the United States of america. They dont want to sit around and wait and theyll be practicing by the way, a lot of people misinterpreting when i say go back. Theyre going to be practicing as much as you can social distancing and washing your hands and not shaking hands and all of the things that we talk about so much. But they have to go back to work. Our country has to go back. Our country is based on that. I think its going to happen pretty quickly. I think its going to happen pretty quickly. A lot of progress has made but we got to go back to work. We may take sections of our country, may take large sections of our country that arent so seriously affected and do it that way. We have to process pretty soon. Well be talking to you more about that next week. And with that, if you have any questions, you can ask. Then im going to have Vice President stay behind and hes going to take questions and also introduce some of the people. You can ask them some questions. Mr. President . Unemployment numbers have i take it not a surprise. Not at all. But still a staggering number. Your perspective on that. Its nobodys fault. Certainly not in this country. Nobodys fault. We got very lucky when we made a decision not to allow people in from china at an early date. I say that because some people dont want to accept it. But this was a great decision made by our country. The numbers that youre talking about, were a big country. It would be far greater, far bigger. So when i heard the number, i heard it could be 6 million, could be 7 million. Its 3. 3 or 3. 2. But its a lot of jobs. I think well come back very strong. The sooner we get back to work every day we stay out, its harder to bring it back very quickly. Our people dont want to stay out. So i know those numbers, john. I think youll see a fast turn around once we have a victory over the hidden enemy, as i say. Its a hidden enemy. Sometimes a hidden enemy is a lot tougher than somebody that stares you in the face, right . So well see what happens. But i mean, theyre fully expected numbers. The u. S. Proposal to deploy some troops along the Canadian Border and why is that necessary . We have very strong deployments on the southern border as you know with mexico. We had some troops up in canada, but ill find out about that. I guess its equal justice to a certain extent. But in canada, we do have troops along the border. We have a lot of things coming in from canada. We have trades, an illegal trade that we dont like. We have very strong sanctions on some. We have very strong tariffs on dumping steel. We dont like steel coming through our border thats been dumped in canada. So they can avoid the tariff. I charge a lot of tariff for the steel. Its been great for our Steel Companies because now they can really you look at whats happened with steel. Its incredible. Weve taken in billions and billions of dollars in tariffs on steel. Much of it comes in from china. They come from the Canadian Border too. Were always watching for that. The numbers correctly, the United States has surpassed china as the country with the highest number of virus cases. Does this surprise you at all . No. I think its attributed to our testing. You know, the number one be, you dont know what the numbers are in china. China tells you numbers. Im speaking to president xi tonight, i believe. Well have a big conversation, im sure. But you dont know. What are the numbers . But i think its attributed to the testing. Were testing tremendous numbers of people. Every day, the way the system works, i want to thank especially roche has been fantastic. Great company. Theyve done a tremendous amount. I was hearing before theyve stepped up to the plate and done great. As have other of the companies. Theyre doing particularly well. Well see what happens there. Its a tribute to the amount of testing were doing. Were doing tremendous testing. Im sure youre not able to tell what china is testing or not testing. I think thats a little hard. Mr. President , on the 3. 3 jobless claims, you suggested 6 to 7 million. A lot of the workers i didnt say that. I didnt say that. I said some people were projecting that it would be 6 or 7. I believe its 3. 3. 3. 3. Millions of americans out of work. Some will be losing their insurance. Whats your plan to make sure, through no fault of your own, are you willing to plus up the subsidies in exchange, expand medicaid. Whats being considered . The things i just read to you are being considered and other things are being considered. People are going to be getting big checks. And its not their fault. What happened to them is not their fault. So were doing were doing a lot of Different Things on health insurance. We have meetings on it today. Were take caring of our people. This is not their fault what happened, and were taking care. Were starting off by sending them very big checks. I think for a family of four its about 3,000. And were taking care of our people. Were taking care of our workers. This was not this was not a financial crisis. This was a health crisis, a medical crisis. Were going to take care of our people. Please . The Restaurant Association came out restaurant. With a survey this morning saying that 3 of all restaurants in this country have shuttered for good in the past three weeks. And the projection is that 11 more are going to close in the next 30 days. So what do you say to a Restaurant Owner who is looking at his sheets and thinks he has to close in next 30 days . I know the business very well. I understand the Restaurant Business. Its a very delicate busy. Its a busy that is not easy. In a Restaurant Business you can serve 30 great meals to a person or a family and they love it. One bad meal, number 31, they never come back again. Its a very tough business. But theyre great people that run restaurants. And ive heard 3 could be lost but theyll all come back in one form or another. It might be a different restaurant. Its going to be a great business for a lot of people. And were making it easy for people to look, what were doing what were doing in terms of loans, what were doing in terms of salaries, theyll all come back. It may not be the same restaurant. It may not be the same ownership, but theyll all be back. Yes, sir, please . You mentioned pledges from American Companies to provide supplies. As we top 81,000 cases in the u. S. , does it make sense using the defense production act . I talked about the defense production act a lot. And ive you know, ive enacted it. I have it. I can do it with a pen. And we have actually used it on two minor occasions and then we could withdraw it. For the most part, the companies, we dont need it. We say we need this, and they say dont bother. Were dealing with ford, general motors, 3m, were dealing with Great Companies. They want to do this. They want to do this. Theyre doing things that frankly that. Dont need somebody to walk over there with a hammer and say do it. They are getting it done. Making tremendous amounts of equipment, tremendous amounts. And when this is over, were going to be fully stockpiled, which they would have never been except for circumstances. This was something that nobody has ever thought could happen to this country. Im not even blaming. Look, we inherited a broken situation. But i dont totally blame the people that were before me and this administration. Nobody would have ever thought a thing like this could have happened. But the production act, the defense production act is a wonderful thing. But i just havent had to use it. They know its activated. They know i can use it. Maybe that frightens them a little bit. Its got tremendous power. But i havent had to. Please . Thank you, sir. Question from me and another question if youll let me for some of my colleagues who are social distancing. Where are they . Theyre all outside trying to get in. First question has to do with cruise liners like carnival. They want this relief aid, but theyre worried because they offshored to places like panama, liberia and might not qualify. Senator holley said they should move back to the United States before they get a check. Do you agree . Should they pay u. S. Taxes to get u. S. Taxpayer relief . So im a big fan of senator holl holley, and i also like the idea. There were some senators that didnt want to do anything like carnival, a great company, but theyre based in different places. I wont tell you why. I can tell you exactly where theyre based, but i wont do that. But theyre based in more than one places. Ships are registered in different locations. I do like the concept of perhaps coming in and registering here, coming into the United States. You know, its very tough to make a loan to a company when theyre based in a different country. But with that being said, they have tho people that work there, and maybe almost as importantly, that work on shore filling these ships with goods and products. And the cruise line business is very important. And i know carnival, what a great job they do. Mickey arison, and i would think that we can stick with senator holley and look at that very closely. Look, its a great business. Its a business that employees tremendous number of people outside of the ship itself. I mean, you look at these ports. Its loaded up with shops and people that are involved with the ship. Were going to work very hard on the cruise line business, and were going to try and work something out. But i like the concept. Yeah, go ahead. Thank you, senator. The senate bill includes a, this directly tied to the airlines. And since before the pandemic, boeing was already suffering from the losses of 737 max airplanes, do you think its appropriate to use this legislation to sort of provide them with 17 billion of aid on top of 25 billion when they could qualify for as a Passenger Airline another 4 billion they could qualify as a Cargo Airline . Is that fair . So the Airline Business a very tough business over many years. Its been very, very tough. Its got everything. Its got labor. Its got very strong, powerful, you know, you look at the cost of these airliners. Everything is tough, very highly technological. You look at how complicated, how complex. Its got unions. Its got everything. The Airline Business generally speaking, its a very tough business. Always been a very tough business. With that being said, we have to keep our airlines going. And were going to be using some now maybe well take a piece of the airlines for the country, for our country where we loan money and we take a piece. Were all fully ready. Were ready to go. But if we didnt do that, wed end up with no airlines, and we cant do that. The Airline Business is very vital to our country. Its a tough business. We have to understand that. I could tell you other businesses that are different kinds of business. Theyre very good businesses. But airlines have always been very, very tough. Please . Mr. President three questions for you. I didnt call you. I called this just a moment. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Who are you with . Who are you with . Im with bloomberg. Mario how is michael . Mr. President , on monday, did you speak with chinese president xi before you urged americans to not blame Asian Americans for the coronavirus . We noticed that you backed off that language. I know youre speaking with him. No, im speaking to him tonight. Its scheduled to go tonight. Ill have a call with president xi of china. A very good relationship. No. I didnt like when they came up and it wasnt him. Somebody at a lower level, mid level we found out pretty much. But they made a statement that our soldiers brought it in to china. It came from china. And, you know, we just signed a very big deal with china. Theyre paying us a lot of money in tariffs and other things. They never paid us 10 cents. China has taken advantage of the United States until i joe biden and bush and everybody else. Im not blaming them. Im blaming everybody. They were allowed to 500 billion a year they were taking out. We had trade deficits that were so large, nobodys ever seen anything like it. And weve changed it. Look, now were and billions of dollars. And we gave some to our farmers because china, you know, they targeted our farmers. And our farmers are very happy. And our farmers got through a very rough period because of what i was able to do. Took the money from china and gave to it the farmers, and we had plenty left over after that. Now were going into a phase 2 negotiation with china. But were getting 25 on 250 billion, and were getting a lot money after that. So weve never had a deal with china that china took advantage of the United States. You know what . I dont blame china for that. I blame the people that were right here because they should have never allowed it to happen. But the relationship with china has been a very good one. John . Mr. President , did president xi ask you to calm that language down or to not use it . He never asked me to calm it down. Somebody might have spoken to somebody, but nobody spoke to member it. I think it was time, though, because, you know, i talk about the chinese virus, and i mean it. Thats where it came from. If you look at ebola, if you look at lyme, lyme connecticut, you look at all these different horrible diseases, they seem to come a name with a location. And this was the chinese virus. But i dont have to say it if they feel so strongly about it. Well see. But, you know we have we just made a great deal with china. Great hopefully for both parties. We made a great deal with china. Were going to do another one. They want to do it very badly. Maybe theyll want to wait, like iran. They want to wait to see whether trump gets beaten in the election, because would they love to negligeotiate with bide. That would be their dream. Some are waiting until after november 3rd, the election day. But i think were doing very well. It would be sad if we blew all of the advantages that we have right now. Because weve made unbelievable trade deals. Whether its mexico, canada, japan, south korea, china and others we have we have changed the whole thing around. Please . Mr. President , earlier today you sent a notification letter to the nations governor saying you would l soon come out with new guidelines about social distancing and other items. Do you have any