Transcripts For MSNBCW The Beat With Ari Melber 20200423

As the president mentioned, well youll receive a report that our task force received formally this week from bill bryant of the science and Technology Director at the department of Homeland Security. He will outline as the president said encouraging news about the impact that heat and sunlight have on the coronavirus, which will increase the confidence that we feel about the coming summer. On the subject of testing at the present moment we have reports of 4. 93 million tests having been performed across america and encouraging news as states have been engaging commercial labs at a higher level across the country. Yesterday our commercial lab system did more than 100,000 tests in a single day. So were beginning to activate all of the capacity. And tomorrow at the president s direction, our task force will convene a Conference Call with all of the nations governors to talk about their progress that they are making on testing and were going to hear from governors about the practices and methods that they are employing to significantly increase testing following our briefing about capacity and laboratories this past monday. For instance, Governor Mike Dewine Just Announced that ohios testing has been greatly expanded after the fda approved thermofishers new extraction reagent as saying, in his words, the reaction probably doubled, maybe even tripled testing in ohio virtually overnight. Governor tim waltz of minnesota announced along with the States Health care tonight, the mayo clinic, he described what is a breakthrough for rapid widespread testing. Able to test more than 20,000 people using a molecular test per day. Governor kim reynolds of iowa launched the Test Iowa Initiative that will triple Testing Capacity by partnering with nomi health and domo. She also worked with the university of iowa hospitals to leverage further capacity. And Governor Eric Holcomb and bashir of indiana and kentucky respectively, both announced additional drivethrough testing locations. Our priority has always been to focus first on those impacted by the coronavirus and then on those Extraordinary Health care workers administering to their needs every day. And i know, mr. President , how proud you are that our men and women in uniform have come alongside our Health Care Workers in communities most impacted. And i know the American People are proud as well. As of today, fema reports that 35,000 National Guard have been deployed across the country to aid in our coronavirus response. Governor kevin stitt of ohio deemployed the National Guard to hospitals across the state to evaluate protective equipment and Hospital Capacity and report it into state Emergency Management and fema. And Governor Greg Abbott of texas actually mobilized more than 1200 National Guard and 45 teams to provide greater access to testing. Along with the National Guard at the president s direction today, more than 4,500 active duty military doctors, nurses, and medical assistants have been deployed across the country. Yesterday, 1,013 medical professionals in our military were actually deemployed to 19 hospitals in seven states to support those amazing Health Care Workers. And with 4. 4 million more americans filing for unemployment in the past week, i join the president in welcoming passage in the house today of the pay protect program. It will support working families, allow Small Businesses to keep people on the payroll for a period of two months. But it also, as the president requested, included 75 billion to assist hospitals across the country. And in that spirit, the president and i will continue to urge states across the country given the unique burden on hospitals. We are now encouraging states to restart elective surgeries wherever possible, either statewide or on a countybycounty basis. We recognize the role elective surgeries play in finances for local hospital, and well be working with states to enable that. In that vein, governor doug ducey ordered elective surgery for hospitals that meet certain preparedness criteria and indianas Governor Eric Holcomb is allowing elective clinical procedures to begin on april 1. Finally the task force received our first report on state reopening plans. At the present moment, 16 states have released formal reopening plans. 13 of those were actually released since you unveiled the opening of america guidelines to our governors and to the nation last week. And to your point, mr. President , states are beginning to make those plans. And were encouraged to see so many states embracing the phased approach to reopening their economies thats contemplated in our guidelines for opening up america again. For instance, governor mike parson of missouri announced the show me strong recovery plan, has two initial phases intended to protect the most at risk. Governor tom wolf announced the plan for pennsylvania that would begin may 8th. Will end the stayathome order for just portions of pennsylvania, but the plan, again, requires regions to have fewer than 50 new positive cases per 100,000 for a period of 14 days, and it also lays out a phased reopening road map. Governor kate brown of oregon updated their framework for reopening, doing three phases, again, on a county by county basis. And Governor Brad Little of idaho released rebound idaho in just the last few days that will consist of four phases and require specific criteria that idaho and businesses need to meet to begin to reopen. Mr. President , with the guidelines to open up america again, states are making plans. And at your direction, our task force will continue to work very closely, providing them with the data, providing them with the resources to be able to implement those plans in a safe and responsible way. So with that, let me just end where i began, and to say thank you to the American People. The progress that we are seeing is a testament to what all of you have done to our Extraordinary Health care workers. Partnership between the federal government and to state and local official, and im confident also owing to the prayers of millions of americans each and every day. All of that combined, were slowing the spread. Were protecting the most vulnerable. Were saving lives. And every single day we are one day closer. To opening up america again. With that, mr. President , id be pleased to call bill forward. Bill bryant leads the science and Technology Director at the department of Homeland Security and now will make a presentation on their recent study. Thank you, mr. Vice president , thank you, mr. President , for the opportunity to do this today. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is bill bryant, and i lead the science and Technology Directorate at the u. S. Department of Homeland Security. Over the last several months, weve intensified the departments r d efforts to identify and deliver information that informs our response to covid19. Snt is working to identify, develop, deploy and deploy the tools and information to support our response to this crisis. As part of our efforts, were leveraging the unique capabilities of the National Biodefense analysis and Countermeasure Center to study the biology of the covid19 virus. This center is a high Biocontainment Laboratory located in frederick, maryland. It was established in the early 2000s in response to the mir anthrax attacks and where we downer marks for biological threats to the homeland. We work closely with the hhs and our department of defense colleagues and many others. Yesterday i shared the emerging results of our work that were doing now with the Coronavirus Task force, and today i would like to share certain trends that we believe are important. If i may have the first slide, please. And while thats coming up, our most striking observation to date is the powerful effect that solar light appears to have on killing the virus, both surfaces and in the air. Weve seen a similar effect with both temperature and humidity as well, where increasing the temperature and humidity or both is generally less favorable to the virus. So let me illustrate with this first slide. If you look to the right, youll see that term halflife, with a bunch of time stamps on there. First, let me tell you what a halflife. We dont measure the virus how long it will live on the surface. We have to measure the decay of the virus in terms of its halflife, because we dont know certain elements. We dont know how much a person e sneezes. We dont know how much virus is in there. That has a bearing on how long the virus is going to be alive and active. So we measure it in halflife because halflife doesnt change. If youre looking at an 18hour halflife, what youre saying the life of the virus is cut in half. So if you start with a thousand particles of the virus, in 18 hours youre down to 500. 18 hours after that youre down to 250 and so on and so forth. Thats important, as i explain the rest of the chart. If you look at the first three lines when you see the word surface, were talking nonporous service, door handles, stainless steel. As the temperature increases, as the humidity increase, no sun involved, you can see drastically the halflife goes down on that virus. So the virus is dying at a much more rapid pace just from exposure to higher temperatures and just from exposure to humidity. If you look at the fourth line, you inject the sunlight into that, you inject uv rays into that, the same effects on line two as 7075 degrees with 80 humidity on the surface, and look at line four, but now you inject the sun, the halflife goes from six hours to two minutes. Thats how much an impact uv rays has on the virus. The last two lines are aerosols. What does it do in the air. We have a very unique capability. I was discussing this with the president prior to coming out. He want node convey it to you on how we do this. I believe were the only lab in the country that has this capability. If you can imagine a 5 gallon home depot bucket. Were able the take a particle, and this was develop and designed by our folks at the nbac. Were able to take a baarle of the virus and suspend it in the air inside of this drum and hit it with various temperature, various humidity levels, multiple different kinds of environmental conditions to include sunlight. And were able to measure the decay of this virus while its suspended in the air. This show we do our aerosol testing. We work with Johns Hopkins applied physics lab and we deploy a larger drum to do more testing thats four times the size of that. This is the capability we bring to this effort. So in summary, within the conditions we tested to date, the virus and droplets of saliva survives best in indoors and dry conditions. The virus does not survive as well in droplets of saliva, and thats important, because a lot of testing being done is not necessarily being done, number one, the covid19 virus, and number two, in saliva or respiratory fluids. And thirdly, the virus dies the quickest in the presence of direct sunlight under these conditions. When you look at that chart, look at the aerosol as you breathe it. You put it in a room 70 to 75 degrees, 20 humidity, low humidity, it halflife is about an hour. But you get outside and it cuts down to a minute and a half. Very significant difference when it gets hit with uv rays. Mr. President , while there are many unknown links in the covid19 transmission chain, we believe these trends can support practical Decision Making to lower the risks associated with the virus. If i could have my next slide. And while they comes up, youll see a number of some Practical Applications. For instance, increasing the temperature and humidity of potentially contaminated indoor spaces appears to reduce the stability of the virus. And extra care may be warranted for dry environments that do not have exposure to solar light. Were also testing disinfectants readily available. Weve tested bleach. Weve tested iso propylalcohol on the virus directly in saliva or fluids. Bleach will kill the virus in five minutes. I i isopropylalcohol will kill it in five seconds. Were looking at other disinfectants, specifically looking at the covid19 virus in saliva. This is not the end of our work. As we continue to characterize this virus and integrate our findings into Practical Applications to mitigate exposure and application. I would like to thank the president , the Vice President for their ongoing support and leadership to the department, and for their work in addressing this pandemic. I would also like to thank the scientists not only in snt and nbac, but the larger scientific community. Thank you very much. A question that probably some of you are thinking of if youre totally into that world, which i find to be very interesting. So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous whether its ultraviolet or very powerful light. And i think you said that hasnt been checked, but youre going test it. Supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And i think you said youre going test that too. Sounds interesting. And then i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do Something Like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number in the lungs. It would be interesting to check that. Youre going have to use medical doctors with that, but it sounds interesting to me. And so well see. But the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, thats pretty powerful. Steve, please . Will be in a better place by early summer. Does that mean youre going to immediate to extend the social distancing guidelines until then . Well, we may, and we may go beyond that. Were going have to see where it is. I think people are going know. Youre going know. Im going know. I think people are going to know just out of common sense. At some point we wont have to do that. But until we feel its safe, were going to be extending. You have 23 cases 23 states where new cases are undeclined. What does that mean about when the country can be safely opened to a more normal life . It means were going watch those cases very carefully. I think weve all gotten very good at it. Weve gotten good at tracing. We see where the cases are, where theyre going, and were going to be watching it, and its called containment. At a certain point, were going to be able to contain. You know, when you see this, a lot of people have been talking about summer. Maybe this is one of the reasons that weve i once mentioned that maybe it does go away with heat and light. And people didnt like that statement very much. The fake news didnt like it at all. And i just threw it out as a suggestion. But it seems like thats the case, because when its on the surface that would last for a long time, when that surface is outside, it goes away very quickly. It dies very quickly with the sun. Yeah, go ahead. You said yesterday that youre going to look into senator mcconnells suggestion for to declare bankruptcy . Weve been looking into it. Ive been talking to a lot of the different senators, but i dont want to talk about it now. That was a very interesting presentation. Go ahead. I want to talk about mcconnells suggestion that aid to the states i just told you were not talking about it now. Well talk about it later. Id like to talk about something that is of more interest to people. Can i ask mr. Bryant a question . Yes, you may. Thank you. When you started your presentation, you described this as an emerging result. Does this mean your study is conclusive . Is there more work to do . Were continuing with that. For example, on the aerosol side, you notice the figures were 20 humidity. Were looking at higher humidity levels. Were looking at other types of disinfectants. And so this is a as a scientific community, were continuing to study the virus to continue to understand its characteristics. Mr. Bryan, can you explain why some hot spots youve seen in the u. S. That are hot and humid, like new orleans, for example . Let me explain. If you look at the coronavirus as a chain, with many links, what weve done through our study is weve identified some of the weak links in that chain, that the transmission of the virus depends upon. We identified that heat and humidity as a weak machines the chain. We identified sunlight, solar lying, uv rays is a weakness in the chain that doesnt take away the other activities, the guidance from the white house, the guidance from the cdc and others that steps people need to take to protect themselves. This is another weapon in the fight that we can add to it and in the summer we know that summerlike conditions are going create an environment with a transmission can be decreased. And thats an opportunity for us to get ahead. The president mentioned cleaner and bleach. There is no scenario that could be injected into a person, there . Negativ no. Im here to talk about findings we have in our study. Well dont do that in our labs. Talking about almost a sterilization of an area. Maybe it works. Maybe it doesnt work. But it certainly has a big effect if its on a stationary object. Are we ftoo much by sayin it will be better with the warmer weather and people will be outside instead of staying inside their homes the house. It will be irresponsible for us to say that we feel that the summer just going totally kill the virus and that its a freeforall and people ignore those guidances. That is not the case. We have an opportunity, though, to get ahead with what we know now and factor that into decisionmaking. So youre saying surfaces, the heat, the hot summer and whatever other conditions, humidity and lack of humidity. Yes, sir that. That would have an impact. So that on surfaces where it can be picked up, it will die fairly quickly in the summer where as in the winter it wouldnt die so quickly. Yes, mr. President. When its exposed to uv ray, take playground equipment. It will hill the virus when it hits on the playground equipment. But underneath where the sun does not hit, if someone touched that and had it on their hands, it could still be there. It has to be in direct light of the uv rays. The suns on somebodys hands and they havent touched their face if theyre outside, right. And the hands are exposed to the sunday . Will that kill it as though it were a piece of metal or Something Else . Not i dont want to say it will at the same rate, because its a nonporous surface. What we do know is we looked a the worst case scenario, and the virus lives longer on nonporous surfaces. So porous surfaces, it doesnt live quite as long. In theory what you said is correct. Mr. Bryan, how wait, wait, wait. How should governors who are opening their states working on that incorporate the findings of this study into the guidelines . I will leave that up the governors. This is a decision this factors into their decision process. As i mentioned, with knowing this knowledge and having this knowledge, as we continue to study and further know what the virus does and how it react, it could impact the way a governor would look at how he opens a state, how he opens it and what environments these things are opened up. But i leave that up to the governors to make that decision. The advice and stay at home. By the summer could we be flipping that and saying youd be much better being off outside with the uv rays and the humidity that washington brings in august . I would not go contrary to the guidance that has been issued right now. I think if im having an event with my family, im doing it in the driveway or the backyard, not inside my house with my children. Moving outside to the rose garden. Its a very interesting question, actually. How much more research, how much more time would it take to have conclusive results that could be used in these emerging results . We first were able to receive the virus back in february is when we started testing. And it is a sciencebased approach. Science is a process. The doctor can attest to that. It doesnt necessarily line up with goals and targets and other things. It is what it is. But we are now starting to get results. And every week or two weeks, were starting to find out something new and something different. And in talking to the task force and the Vice President , hes already asked us to come to him every time weve come up with some new discoveries that we could share to the public. Do you compare notes with your counterparts in other foreign governments or private industry who might have been studying the same thing, and do their findings show the same result that you found here . We do. We have a very partnership with a lot of our allies. We work closely with them on this particular topic. Fe issued a master questions list. Weve had about 17,000 hits on this document. It actually outlines what all the countries in the world are doing to fill the certain gaps of knowledge that dont exist within the virus. And what we do know. And that is really what targets and drives the Science Community oh what dont we know newspaper so we dont duplicate what other people have done. Weve championed that document. Its well referenced, and i would encourage you to look at that. And we are working with other countries on vaccines, as you know. Yeah, good ahead, please. Thanks, element. If there is a summer ebb with this virus, what would the federal government need to do to take advantage that of time . In the beginning, what . If is there a summer ebb with this virus, what would the federal government need to do to take advantage of that time to be better prepared for a possible resurgence in the fall than we were the first time . I tell you one thing, i think a lot of people are going to go outside all of the sudden. People are going to want to go outside. To me this is really a very interesting meeting covered in great detail. And these are incredible people at that we can call it a a laboratory, because thats essentially what it is. Its a super laboratory. A lot of things going on at that laboratory. A lot of very interesting things going on at that laboratory. What would you and other areas of the government need to do on testing, for example, to be prepared if it came back . And how would you take advantage of the summer . Its actually a very good question. Its something the task force has begun. Discussing, that we are if a combination of factors, let me say again. As states put into practice the guidelines to open up america again, implement a safe and responsible plans to open up their economies along the lines that the president unveiled a week ago today, as people continue to properly exercise social distancing as is related in each phase, that in combination with some of these findings could well give us a summer respite from the coronavirus. And our team is already speaking about working on a continuous basis through this summer. Every single day, were increasing testing. Every single day air bridge flights are coming into the country. I can promise you, at the president s direction, there will be no letting up on making sure that our hospitals have the equipment, have the personal protective supplies for medical personnel there will be no letting up on the development of therapeutics by our great pharmaceutical companies or driving toward a vaccine as soon as it is possible make available to the public. And there will be no letting up on continuing to scale testing. Already more than anyone in the world. But by next fall, well have a broad range of testing at a variety of different means. Thats why we say with confident that should the coronavirus reemerge at any point next fall or next winter, we will be prepared to deal with it. Identify it, do the Contact Tracing and isolation to ensure that we deal with this epidemic in the man theyre we deal with infectious diseases. Okay. Mr. President , on the subject of medical research, why have you stopped promoting hydroxychloroquine as a cure . I havent. Well see what happens. Weve had a lot of very good result, and we had some results that perhaps arent so good. I dont know. I just read about one, but i also read many times good. So i havent at all. And its a great for malaria, for lupus, for other things, and well see what it is. But i guess, deborah, they have many studies going on that. So well be able to learn. There is a veteran study that shows the death rate is higher. I have not seen it. Go ahead, please. Mr. President , were now over 26 new jobless claims over five week. Yep. How the Vice President talked about this summer getting better, but what do your economists tell you about the time its going to take to you in the u. S. To create i know a lot about economists. August, september . October . Sure. We know the rest of the question. I know a lot about economists, and the answer is they have no idea. I think i have as good an idea as anybody. I think our economy will start to pick up stubstantially. Its happening as were speaking. Its very exciting and people are thrilled to see it. Because our country has to get back to work. They want to get back to work. You see that whether its a demonstration or just in talking to people. Theyre going get back to work, and theyre going get back to work very fast. States are advanced. I look at gavin newsom. Newsom was very nice today. He wrote a beautiful statement about we sent him a lot of things that he needed, okay. Different things that he needed. We got it taken care of. Theyve done very well in california, as you know. Theyre doing really well in florida. Theyre doing well in a lot of places. New york and new jersey got hit very hard. Theyre doing very well. I spoke again with Governor Cuomo, with governor murphy. Theyre doing a great job. And heres the thing. We have to see. They got hit hard. Everyone close together, tight end. People dont realize new jersey is very tight. You realize that because youve been covering it for a long time. But very tight. New york obviously is very tight. Theyre doing a terrific job. I think for the most part, ill be able to tell you when its all over. But a lot of the governors have done a really terrific job. Some i dont think have, to be honest. But well be talking about it in the future. Yes, go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. In a new interview today with time magazine, dr. Fauci said that the u. S. Is not in a situation where we can say where we want to be with regard to Testing Capacity. He said we need much more Testing Capacity as well as tests. So why do you keep saying we have a tremendous Testing Capacity . And do we are have a National Strategy that goes beyond tracking just what the states are doing . The answer is yes, and the answer is, as you know, and as ive said many times, were very advanced in testing. Other countries are calling us to find out what are we doing. And by the way, within two week, youll see numbers, and youll see different forms of testing, just like we came up with the Abbott Laboratories machine, which gives it to you in five minutes, that everybody wants. Everybody is asking can we get that . They can only make them so fast. But as you know, weve done more testing than every other nation combined, and thats a big statement. And, you know, when they talk about different tests and different things, were also a bigger nation than most. And so when they look at statistics, because statistically, were doing phenomenally in terms of mortality. In terms of all of the different elements that you can judge. When you look, germany and ourselveses are doing very well. We are very accurate in the reporting of numbers. In fact, ill go a step further. As you know in new york, they actually added quite a few deaths to a list. That was done in new york. And they added a number of deaths. Were very highly accurate. And then you look at certain lists of other countries. Some are so obvious just to look at where obvious the number is ridiculous in the form of low. Because theyre not accurate counts. Theyre not even close to accurate counts. In fact, theyre insulting to look at them. So weve done very well. Again, testing, were doing very well on testing. Weve tested far more than anybody else anywhere in the world. And within a short period of time, youll be hearing about new tests that are coming out that are going to be incredible. Dr. Fauci that were just not there yet . I no longer agree with him. Were doing a great job on testing. If he said that, i dont agree with him. Yes . Considering ways to ramp up production of that abbott test. Yeah, well, theyre doing it. I tell you, steve, theyre doing it at level that theyve never done it before. Abbott is a great company. Its a very big, highly respected company. They came up with this machine where they do it. Ive done it both ways. Ive done hit the way, and i didnt like it. And ive done it the abbott way where you literally touch and five minutes later you know the answer. And we use them in the white house. I think you folks have been given that opportunity, which is much more pleasant than the first way that they looked at you, right . Were making them hundreds of thousands of machines. The advantage through the other tests and the laboratory tests, we can get millions and millions of those tests done. It takes a day or two days, because its really a delivery situation more than anything else. The test itself goes quickly once it gets to the laboratory. But as we have found and i think shown everybody in the room, we have many laboratories. We have so many laboratories. A lot of the governors did not know that we had this capacity, but we have many laboratories all over our country. Every state has laboratories, and some have a lot of them. So i think we will come up with things as time goes by. Again, when i started, we ended up we started with nothing essentially. We started with a broken test, a test that didnt work. We started with a test that did very few people, not millions of people. The problem is if we did 350, if we did 350 million tests, one each person, the media would say oh, you should have done two for each pierre person. No matter what you do, it doesnt make a difference. Its like the ventilators. Nobody ever mentioned ventilators. One of the hardest things is a ventilator. And now were making thousands a week, thousands of ventilators. And theyre calling from mexico. Theyre calling from many countries. Ive received today four calls, would it be possible to send ventilators, all right . I got four calls today. I got three calls yesterday. No country is equipped like we are. We have 11 different places making ventilators. Our country, as you know, doesnt need them now. Our governors are very happy. But thats different than test, because with the test you can always say oh, we need more. No. I think weve done incredibly well with obviously ventilators. We also have 500 Million Masks. 500 Million Masks that are very shortly going to be here. Weve made millions of masks. We have ordered millions of masks that have arrived and been distributed. We gave one hospital in new york city three 100,000 masks before the virus. Say were using 10,000 and now we got them 300,000, and they got rid of them very quickly, which i sort of say how did that happen . Why . Because they became very valuable, the masks. So i say how did that happen . Weve done an amazing job, and weve worked with the governors. The governors are the first line. When they werent able to get Something Like ventilators. They couldnt get ventilators. You have bought them, but most of them chose not to. So they all needed ventilators, and we got the job done. We have ill be introducing the team when were finished with this whole nightmare, this whole curse, this whole plague. But the team that worked on the ventilators was incredible. And the team its a little interchangeable, but the team thats working on the testing is truly an incredible team. These brilliant people. And theyre doing it for the country. Theyre not doing it for other reasons. Some have been very successful. Theyre doing it for country. The house has now passed since you aired the relief bill. Probably passing it season. Is there no aid to states and localities in that bill. Mitch mcconnell, of course, has talked about states seeking bankruptcy protection. Hes also his Office Referred to this as the idea of aiding states, a blue state bailout. What do you say to that . Or do you agree with Governor Cuomo that this is a vicious attack on the states. Vicious attack, but certainly some people do look at it that way. Ive spoken to mitch about it. Ive spoken to numerous senators about it. And were working with senators that are on the other side of the issue, and well see what happens. But were looking to do whats right for the people of this country. Were looking to do whats right for a particular state, and well see what maps. Its certainly going to be the next thing were going to be discussing, because some states have not done very well for many years, long before the virus came. We cant blame the plague, this horrible plague that came in that all of the sudden they cant blame that. You look at illinois. Hes got a lot of problems long before the virus came in. So well be talking about it. It will be a subject for a period of time. Right now weve made this incredible deal for the workers and for small business. Im very happy that harvard didnt get covered we actually never sent them the check. But they were very nice about it. We never sent them the money. The oldfashioned way is the check. The new way is send them the money. And we didnt send the money. But they were very understanding and they were very nice about it. So was princeton. So was stanford. So were a number of other schools that you just dont associate with this money. So were big companies, as you know. You know many of them. It was a relatively small amount of money compared to the whole, a very small amount of money compared, but we want it to be fair. We want to it go the people its supposed. Im open to ideas that are going to be great for the people of this country. And if we can help states, were always going to help states. Now there is different ways of helping states. Some ways are better than others. So were looking. It is interesting that the states that are in trouble do happen to be blue. It is interesting. If you look around. The states that seem to have the problem happen to be democrat. New york and new jersey got hit by this virus. New york and new jersey were in an amount of trouble long before the plague game. They had a lot of problems long before the plague game. I spoke with Governor Cuomo about it. Spoke to governor murphy about it. Spoke with gavin newsom about it. And im speaking to a lot of people about it. Because its probably going to be the next thing on the list. A lot of people understand very well what mitch is saying, and they also understand the other side of the problem. And ill be speaking about it. Were going the the right thing for our country. The right thing for our country and for a lot of great people. Okay . Mr. President , after the presentation we just saw about the heat and the humidity, is it dangerous for you to make people think they would be safe by going outside in the heat considering that so many people are dying in florida, considering that this virus has had an outbreak in singapore, places that are hot and are humid. The new headline is trump asks people to go outside. Thats dangerous. Here we go. Same old group. You ready . I hope people enjoy the sun, and if it has an impact, thats great. Im just hearing this, not really for the first time there has been a rumor, you know, a very nice rumor that you go outside in the sun your have heat and it does have an effect on other viruses. But now we get it from one of the great laboratories of the world, i have to say. It covers a lot more territory than us. This is an easy thing relatively speaking for you. I would like you to speak to the medical doctors to see if there is any way you can plcan apply and heat to cure. You know, if you could. Maybe you can, maybe you cant. Im not a doctor. Im a person that has a good you know what. Deborah have, you ever heard of that, the heat and the light relative to certain virus, yes, but tropical warelative to this . That is a treatment. Certainly fever is a good thing when you have a fever. It helps your body respond. But ive not seen heat or light. I think its a great thing to look at. Okay . Respectfully, sir, youre the president. And people tuning in though these briefings, they want to get guidance. Theyre not looking for rumor. Im the president and youre fake news. And you know what else ill say to you . Ill say it very nicely. I know you well. I know you well, because i know the guy. I see what he writes. He is a total faker. Are you ready . Are you ready . Are you ready . Its just a suggestion from a Brilliant Lab by a very, very smart, perhaps brilliant man. He is talking about sun. He is talking about heat. And you see the numbers. So thats it. Thats all i have. Im just hear to present talent. Im here to present ideas, because we want ideas to get rid of this thing. And if heat is good, and if sunlight is good, thats a great thing as far as im concerned. Go ahead. Mr. President , you talked a moment ago about vaccines and that were close. How close . The Oxford University says they could have one by september. Do you think the pharmaceutical companies in the u. S. They could have one of what . Have a vaccine ready. Oxford is one. Johnson johnson is working. Theyre also working together. You have Many Companies working together on a vaccine. Do you think they can scale up production and pharmaceutical companies will be able to do that quickly . If we had a vaccine, it will be scaled up very quickly. In fact, some of the companies, Johnson Johnson is one, is scaling up already before they have the final answer. A number of companies are doing that. Youll save a lot of time. Normally as you scale up after. I have to say, the fda has been fantastic. Steven hahn, dr. Hahn has been fantastic. Theyre moving along rapidly, rapidly. Would you say put a time scale . No, i dont want to put a time scale because then the media, the socalled media, lame stream media will say he said a time. I dont want to say times, because every time i say a time, if you dont hit it. I dont want to talk about time. I will say there has been tremendous progress made over the last month. Could i just ask a quick question . You spoke to Boris Johnson this week. I did. I wonder how he sounded, how he was. When you think hell be back at work. He called me a few days ago. I will tell you he sounded incredible. I was actually surprised. I thought hed be like oh, donald, how you. He was ready to go. Im very surprised, to tell you this. Its like the old boris. Tremendous energy, tremendous drive. I was very surprised, because he called me almost, you know, pretty close to when he got out of the hospital. I think he is doing great. I think see doing great. He was so sharp and energetic. Pretty incredible. He is an incredible guy. He is a friend of ours and a friend of mine. He loves our country. He loves his country a lot. But he loves our country. He respects our country. And theyre lucky to have him over there. Please . Mr. President , you a couple of days ago said that you might reach out to kim jongun directly, but also you were working to find out if those reports about him being in possible medical trouble were true. Im wondering if you i hope he is not in medical trouble. Have you heard anything . I get along very well with him. Here we are. You would have been in a war with north korea if i didnt get elected president. Remember, i was going to be the one that took us into war my first day in office, okay. Here we are. Look at whats happened. Withdrawal. Were bringing people home. Were not going serve as policemen all over the world. I dont want to be policemen all over the world. And rebuilt our military to another level thats its never been built at before. Recognized by the fake news. Go ahead. Have you been able to use that relationship to get more information about the status . I think the report was incorrect, let me just put it that way. I think the report was done by a network that was incorrect. Im hear thanksgiving used old documents, but thats what i hear. I hear the report was an incorrect report. I hope it was an incorrect report. When is the last time you heard from him . I dont want to say, just a quick question about that. So you havent made any contact trust to clear . With who . The north koreans. I dont want to say. We have a Good Relationship with north korea. As good as you can have. We have a Good Relationship with north korea. I have a god relationship with kim jongun, and i hope he is okay. And somebody oh, thats terrible. No its not terrible. I hope he is okay. And i think it was fake report, done by cnn. So can what do you have. No, thats enough. Go ahead. The problem is you dont write the truth. I want to go to the next. Can i ask you a question no, not cnn, please. I told you, cnn is fake news. Dont talk to me. Please . He says he was retaliated against. Thats why he was removed from his job. Do you have a response to that . Okay, next question. Mr. President , have i two questions, one on behalf of a colleague who is not here because of social distancing. Just one, please. Can you talk about your decisionmaking process on georgia. The controversy . Well, no. You said yesterday you told the governor of georgia you were concerned. I had a good talk with the governor of georgia. But in a week you did not convey i didnt like the fact that he is leaving certain things. I want the states to open more than he does. Much more than he does. But i didnt like to see spas at this early stage. Nor did the doctors. Is that a correct statement, deborah . I didnt like to see spas opening, frankly. I didnt like to see a lot of things happening, and i wasnt happy wit. And i wasnt happy with brian kemp. I wasnt at all happy, because and i could have done something about it if i wanted to. But im saying let the governorses do it. I wasnt happy with brian kemp. Spas, beauty parlors, tattoo parlors, no. And by the way, i want them to excuse me, excuse me. I want them to open, and i want them to open as soon as possible. And i want the state to open, but i wasnt happy with brian kemp. I will tell you that right now. Yeah, go ahead. You surprised he defied you on that . No. He didnt defy me at all. Thats your language. He didnt defy me. You know what happened . I said you make your own decision. I told him that. I said youre not under guidelines, but im letting you make your own decision. But i want people to be safe, and i want the people in georgia to be safe. And i dont want this thing to flare up because youre deciding to do something that is not in the guidelines. And i went to deborah and dr. Fauci and other people, and they werent thrilled about it. And i could have stopped him, but i decided and we all agreed, they got watch it closely. So well see what happens. I told him very distinctly, mike was there, i said you do what you think is best, but if you ask me, am i happy about it . Im not happy about it, and im not happy about brian kemp. Go ahead. A question for dr. Birx, if i may, mr. President about the rate of the decline of the curve in the u. S. You and the Vice President tonight talking about meaningful progress, promising progress. Can you speak to the rate of decline of cases in the u. S. . If you can do that quickly, that would be great. And if youre satisfied with the decline. And if you have any information from other countries that would inform us about the decline. So many of you, and ive spoken to all of you from this podium about there is weekends difference in reporting. Often a spike on monday. If you look at mondays over mondays, if you look at sevenday reporting, we are starting to go down. We have a long flat peak, largely driven of course by new york, which is about 45 or so percent of the cases. As new york goes down, so will the rest of the country have a decline, even more accelerated. I want to say, though we have had outbreaks. Weve had outbreaks in specific prisons. Weve had outbreaks in specific nursing homes. Weve had outbreaks in specific plants. And when that happens, that adds 200, 300, 400 cases on that single date. So we track very carefully not only what the country is doing, but what each state is doing, each county is doing, and we look at delta changes across all of the counties so that we find Early Warning signals for these types of outbreaks. Because we want to we want the whole country to go down, but we also want to prevent the outbreaks before they occur. Mr. President. Go ahead, please. Yes, thank you. Looking forward to november to the election, given the risks of the flu and the coronavirus. Yeah. That could be a problem. Do you think that it is a risk that there will be some there will be lack of agreement like legitimacy of the results in a very close election and people start saying well, a whole bunch of people couldnt go and vote . I cant tell you whats going to happen in an election. Great question. I can tell you whats going to happen. We have a sleepy guy in the basement of the house that the press is giving a free pass to who doesnt want to do debates because of covid, and lots of things are happening, right . And i watched a couple of interviews and i say oh, i look forward to this, but theyre keeping him sheltered because of the coronavirus. And he is not moving around. He is not moving too much. And then i watch what the press does to the republican party, and to me in particular. We had the greatest economy ever put together. This is a month and a half ago. We were doing numbers the likes of which weve ever done. African american, asian american, hispanic american, best employment numbers ever in the history of our country. Our employment numbers the best in the history of our country. Almost 160 million people. The stock market, report numbers many, many times during my tenure. Many, many times. But now we have a country that we had to close because of this. And frankly, if we didnt close it, we would have lost millions of people possibly. But certainly we would have lost a million people. You take the high number and cut it in half, cut it in half again. But whether it would have been 600, 700, 800, you take a look at the travesty that there is. You take a look at this the tr. You look at this horrible, horrible scene of hospitals and black body bags, multiply that times 10, 15 andy 20. Because that would have happened. So we did the right thing. So far, we did the right thing. So far weve called it right. Weve mobilized like it was a military operation and it was largely a military operation between ventilators and testing and so many other things. Weve had a lot of good partners. Not all good partners. A lot of good partners. Gavin newsom thanked us, california, thankd us for getting him all the things he needed to keep going and doing a good job. We got it to him today. Tomorrow we got him even more. It would have been harder for him to get it that us. We agreed to get it. On time. He said promises made, promises kept. He actually said that in a statement today. Weve gotten very little credit because of the media. The media is not an honest media, much of it. Not all of it. We have some great reporters i have tremendous respect. Much of the media is not honest. So i cant tell you about the election. You have a Democrat Party and you have a large portion of the media automatically giving the guy a pass. Hes been given a pass whether or not hes going to be the nominee. I have no idea. But hes getting a pass and the media isnt covering the great job that weve done. Whether its mikes task force, which has been incredible. Whether its the way we mobilized in a warlike operation to build these incredibly complex and very expensive ventilators. Theyre very expensive to build and very complex. The job weve done has been an amazing job. Im not talking about me. Im talking about everybody, the admirals, the generals, debra, tony, now bill. I mean, something we hasndnt heard today. So i cant till whats happening with the election. I think had we not gone through a fake russia, russia, russia deal, impeachment hoax. From the day i got elected. You know, it wasnt the day, it was many months before i got elected, this has been a witch hunt that was illegal. It was an illegal witch hunt. It was illegal and with all of that, im doing fine. Because the people see were doing a great job. You know what, well continue to do a great job. If we had an honest press, this country would be even greater. Thank you, thank you very much. So an interesting and varied briefing today. A lot to get through. Lets dive right in. The president started out saying that these reopening measures that does not mean we are letting down our guard. But that later in the conversation about georgia, he indicated thats exactly what georgia and other states are prepared to do. There was a presentation by a guest from Homeland Security on the effect of sunlight and warmth on this virus. And it is clear and not at all partisan analysis to point out at this point the president badly wanted and wants the story line to be as he has put it in the past with the sunlight, with the warm weather, the virus may go away. Summer is coming. Get outside. The gentleman from the department of Homeland Security made points about sunlight and disinfectant, which then got us on the strangest exchange of todays briefing. Once the president heard disinfectant killed the virus, some cases on contact, he asked the government expert if disinfectants couldnt be injected into people. Once he heard that uv light had an effect on the virus, he asked if light couldnt be introduced inside the human body. He asked dr. Birx if we could apply heat and light to the body, wanted to know from you the medical experts, he repeated for the benefit of all of us, he is not a doctor. He did say today he knows a lot about economists. And he said they have no idea. He said he knows as much as the economists. He was presented with a quote from dr. Fauci were not there on testing. He said, flatly i dont agree. He said a lot of governors didnt know we had this Testing Capacity. He has been saying that for the better part of the three days. Flatly an inaccurate statement, we started with a broken test that did not work. There was no test for covid19, because covid19 did it not exist before this period. So thats a common hobby horse. He again indicated that there may be a black market for masks at new york hospitals. He talked about the extraordinary number 300,000 masks, he said they suddenly became valuable. How the id that happen, he asked, that they went through that many masks . Equally on blue states, discussion of mitch mcconnell, saying that its potentially possible that states could declare bankruptcy. The president said a lot of states having trouble happened to be blue. New york and new jersey happened to be democratic. He had a spirited exchange with phil rutger, who went back at him about the sun and heat, the sudden summer thats on the way. The president said, there has been a rumor that these things help you. He said, hey, im the president and you are fake news. Directly at phil rutger of the washington post. He says, its just a suggestion by a very, very smart person, perhaps brilliant man, pointing to the expert alongside. Just looking through other random comments before we get to our guests, quote, you would have been in a war with north korea if i had been elected. He has said that report before. He declared cnn fake news. Then towards the end they got on to Governor Brian Kemp of georgia. The president made clear four times he is unhappy with brian kemp. He made clear that what Governor Kemp was planning to do in georgia went too far. The president recounted his phone call with him. He said, i dont want this thing, meaning covid19, to flare up. But do what you think is best. He said to brian kemp, but again today, quote i wasnt happy with brian kemp. I wasnt happy at all, went on to say that again, took a couple swings at joe biden, quote, we ve a sleepy guy in the basement of his house. Hes not moving around. Hes not moving too much. But finally ended with an aim of credit. We did the right thing so far we called it right. Gavin newsom gets the award with the democrat with the most mentions today. Because he complemented the president. He received multiple name checks by the president. With us now is dr. Irwin redletter, a pediatrics physician and professor with the school of Public Health at colombia in new york and happens to be the director of colombias National Center for Disaster Preparedness with an expertise in pandemic influenza. Doctor, again, you dont need to be a physician or a psychiatrist to realize that the president s goal here is to point out sun good, summer good, warm temperatures good and disinfectant will kill this virus. So, brian, i dont quite know where to begin. But everything that this scientist talked about from Homeland Security was basically incoherent, nonsensic am. Not really supported by evidence and quite contrary to a lost things we know about some of the things he was saying. First of all, people do get covid19 and have been getting it in warm clients in new orleans and other clients vp countries having warmer client right now. Second of all this issue with uv light is hypothetical. Also uv light can be very, very harmful. And we did not hear anything resembling a balanced discussion what the evidence is for and against uv light. But its certainly not ready for prime time. And the very fact that the president actually asks somebody about what sounded like injecting disinfectants or isopropyl alcohol into the human body was kind of jaw dropping. I dont know, its hard to know how to characterize all this on a family show like this. But let me just try to say that it was incoherent. Filled with misinformation and misstatements from one end to the other. Brian. Yes, doctor, i was that was a quick exchange, but i was taking notes along with you and i wrote, ask the government expert if disinfectants can be injected into people. Asked if light couldnt be introduced inside the human body . And he couched it all the same way, im just putting it out there. I would ask the doctors, im not a doctor, myself. But there is the kind of thing that you will forgive the phrase, gets into the water. Yeah. It does, brian. You know, i think its like when he was promoting the antimalarial drugs hydroxychloraquine and chloraquinn and many, many other things. This is a president who has gone as antiscientific antievidence as possible throughout his administration. Thats coming back to bite him right now. Because hes got people around him, some of whom are fine, dr. Birx. Dr. Fauci, are very, very respectable members of the Public Health community. But this person from the