I would like to speak about what the department of defense is doing in response to the coronavirus. I want to remind everyone that the United States military is is remains ready and capable of meeting our requirements. I just returned from a visit to fort detrick seeing how theyre advancing treatments for the coronavirus. I was tpwhreevend Army Medical Research cutting edge covid19 response and then visited the Army Medical Research institute of Infectious Diseases to learn about its ongoing experimentation and testing. The armys work on a vaccine is one of the many ways the department of defense is supporting president trumps whole of government approach to fight the virus and substantially slow its spread. Many of the policies and guidelines we have released go hand in hand with the president s 15day plan. We have issued international and Domestic Travel restrictions to all d. O. D. Personnel and families that should dramatically reduce exposure to the virus. Inside the pentagon we are practicing social distancing, minimizing persontoperson interaction and wherever possible conducting virtual meetings. Mes who exhibit any symptoms of the virus are instructed to seek appropriate medical treatment, stay home and telework as needed. Yesterday i held two sessions with Department Senior civilian and military leaders and briefed Vice President pence, secretary azar and other Task Force Leaders on recommendations for how to provide additional medical and Logistical Support in this National Health emergency. Id like to highlight several of those today. First the department of defense will make available up to five million n95 respirator masks and other equipment from our own Strategic Reserves to the department of health and Human Services for distribution. The first one Million Masks will be made available immediately. Next we are prepared to distribute to h. H. S. Up to 2,000 deployable ventilators for use as needed. These machines are different if the civilian equivalents and require special training to operate but we are committed to supporting h. R. S. s requirements in any way we can. Third the department has made our 14 certified coronavirus testing labs available to test nond. O. D. Personnel as well and we will soon offer additional labs for that purpose. We hope this will provide excess capacity to the civilian population. Finally, we are considering activated National Guard and reserve units to assist states with planning, logistics and medical support as needed. In my conversations with governors and members of congress about d. O. D. s resources, i have made it clear we will continue to support the administrations comprehensive efforts and the country every step of the way while ensuring our nations security remains the top priority of the department of defense. I recognize our decisions Impact Service members and their families and i want them to know were all in this together. If we can dramatically reduce the spread of the virus over the next 15 days, together we can help restorse Public Health and the economy a and and hasten a return to our normal way of life. As circumstances evolve over the coming days and weeks well continue to take every necessary precaution to protect our forces and safeguard National Security capabilities and support the president s whole of government fight against this virus. These are d. O. D. s priorities and we remain focused on them. Thank you and i will open it up at this time for questions. Reporter mr. Secretary, you mentioned youre consider, i believe you said, activated the ational guard. Are you talking about federalizing the National Guard . And what about what they said about calling on the army corps of engineers to help with construction of renovation of facilities . Secretary esper we are looking at requirements as they come, in were funneling those to a central point. We have 18 states and over 1,500 guardsmen activated around the country. Well look at activated if activating if we need to at the federal level or reserves. Whatever the case may be. We want to be supportive with troord prioritization. With regard to your second question, i did not have a chance to observe the news conference. But my view is im more than willing to send the army corps of engineers out to work with states and see what we can provide what we can offer. The corps of engineers is a contracting body that does Program Oversight work. If we can be useful if we can help, certainly willing to rovide that service. Reporter what are we talk about in terms of magnitude . 10,000 . 20,000 . 30,000 . Are homent navy ships preparing to assist with noncoronavirus cases . Secretary esper right now we are focused on guard and reserve. There hasnt been a need yet for active duty. So well take all these requests in due time. With regard to the hospital ships, there are two as you know, the comfort son the east coast, the mercy on the west coast. In norfolk and san diego, respectively. The comfort is undergoing maintenance and the mercy is at port. Weve already given orders to the navy a few days ago to lean forward in terms of getting them ready to deploy. They provide capabilities but much like what d. O. D. Does provide, our capabilities are focused on draw mafment so whether its our Field Hospitals whether its our hospital ships, they are focused on draw mafment they dont have necessarily the space, the second regated spaces you need to deal with Infectious Diseases. Oner of the ways by which you can use either Field Hospitals, the hospital ships or things in between is to take the pressure off of civilian hospitals when it comes to trauma cases to open up civilian hospital rooms for Infectious Diseases. For us, the big challenge isnt necessarily the availability of these inventories, its the medical professionals. All those doctors and nurses either come from our medical Treatment Facilities or they come from the reserves which means civilians. And so weve got what weve got to be conscience of and careful of as we call up these units and support them use them to support the state that were not robbing peter to pay paul. What i dont want to do is take reservists from a hospital where theyre needed to put them on a ship to take them somewhere else that theyre feeded. We have to be conscious of that as i have spoken to a couple of governors today we talked a little bit about that and people are beginning to understand what that tradeoff means. Reporter they said lets focus on the hot spots, presumably california, Washington State, new york, is that what youre looking at . Secretary esper the guard is available to the governors. What we want to do is make sure they thuns ecapability of the guard, how it may best be used. I had a chance to talk to the director of the National Guard bureau. We talked a few times. Hes talking to the tags, hes having multiple phone calls each week, so that is available to them. In some way, we want to be the last resort. Were the ones, when everything really is needed we can come in, rather than being the first and help enable through the guard and reserve to play that role initially. Im hearing theres talk of maybe appointing a senior officer, maybe a threestar, to coordinate among all various federal agencies. Is that something youre considering . Highesty esper the two level are general hiten and secretary norquist. The general can tap into all of d. O. D. As he seats fit. We have norcom, but this isnt like a hurricane where you can pick a general. This is nationwide soifpblg what youre going to see is, youll see whether its local commanders or tags in this case, stepping up. For their states and counties challenges. Reporter can you see more about the deployable ventilators, im assuming that takes union ford officer trained to operate, how many would that take, where are they coming from and can you say where theyre going yet . Presumably new york. Secretary esper i cant say where theyre going. We made them available to h. H. S. They are in stock, we have to get you more detail on where they are. They are spread out to support our medical deployability. They require some special training. What we have to do, i informed, wheny talked about this the other night with the Vice President and his task forcing we have to do a train to trainer, to make sure the civilians who would use them know how to use them properly. Theyve got single use functions in some cases. They are different than what youd find on the civilian end. Theyre meant to be deployable. Reporter presumably the 2,000 ventilators, would that be 2,000 Service Members . Secretary esper no, i would say more than one person could train. I dont think the number, we could do the math and get back to you. Reporter is there an update about what fort detrick has found in terms of vaccine, how far along are they . Since youre encouraging people to telecommute why did you feel the need to be there and have petings in person . Shouldnt that telecommuting start now . Cretary esper were doing telecommuting, i telecommuted with the secretary of defense from my office to his office. The chance to the talk to the doctors facetoface, i want to see their labs see where theyre work, is helpful to me to get an understanding of what theyre doing. We put the precautions in place. If anybody know house to do it, they know how to do it. What i will tell you, theyre working on a number of fronts. As many of you know who have been here before, theyve been very successful in the past whether its dealing with ebola or zero ka, they are well knitted into the aerosidgetcy efforts, the relationships with dr. Birx and dr. Fauci are remarkable. In erm terms of their ability to understand the virus and what it does, theyre at the point to soon purchase machines that could do the testing at incredible levels of capacity and through put is one of the things they briefed me on that should be coming online in a couple months or. So how far along is the vaccine . Secretary esper they gave me the same numbers they gave you 12678 to 18 months. Theres some private actors out there who think they can do it quickly but in term of how we do it, were looking at 12 to 18 months. And of course where they can provide support is if somebody does develop a vaccine we could run it through our system very quickly as well and support those efforts. Reporter two questions, could you bring us up to date, when you talk thebt corps of engineer, what are the next steps with the state of new york because Governor Cuomo has been so open publicly about his request. But first, i want to ask you, you talked about using the u. S. Military active duty, defense department, as in your words, a last resort, not the first resort. I want to press you a bit on theasm country is being told this is unprecedented, really dire potentials are being sketched out to the american public. Is it in your view, is it time to think in no traditional ways about using the active duty force . Should it be the last resort . Secretary esper i dont mean people per se, im thinking about our medical capacity with regard to Treatment Facilities, things like that. We have to treat our own populations. Our own populations will likely be in terms of beneficiaries susceptible at the same rates as the civilian population. We provide a little flex. If you compare us to v. A. They have many, many more hospitals. Thats kind of how i think about it. Weve got the guard available to handle stuff. And the acting component will stand. Were ready to support in any way we can. Im suggesting, i think a lot of this has to begin at the state and local level in terms of helping enable them. Reporter do you think the military operation, described often as young and healthy is susceptible at the same rate . And i would like you to address new york. Secretary esper dont tell me into a doctor, im not. We have a very young and healthy and fit military population. Which seems to imply based on what weve seen so far that they are less likely to contract and show symptoms at the rates of people older than them. Now of course many of them another part of our population are dependents an beneficiaries who range from young kids to senior citizens. So ive got to worry about that population as well. Thats about 3. 8 Million People who live within 40 miles or so of our 36 military Treatment Facilities. Im look at that population as well. With regard to the uniformed people, i do think they are very fit. I think that they will fare well throughout this we watch them and protect them and as need be test them. Again, i think in terms of the military population it will be fine. With regard to new york i hope to have a call with the governor here sometime soon. Ive been trying to i spoke to two governors today. Fine out what his needs are. As i speak to governors, i say, tell us what your needs are, well figure out the best ways to meet them, whether its logistics, planning, or what not and we can look at the ways to approach it. Is National Guard the first place . If not, reserves active component is there we triage the problem to make sure we understand what the tradeoffs are. What i think has been explained to you all about Field Hospitals and hospital ships and the simple fact that many of those medical professionals who staff those units come from the private sector is something that most people are not aware of. Weve got to be careful that we again, we dont take from one part of new yorked me kohl praffingsals who are needed to stand up a Field Hospital simply to help another part of new york unless the governor recognizes that and we can also do statetostate stuff where states share. I had a conversation earlier today about that. Were looking at putting everything on the table. Were going to try to go to the phone line. I think our first question is from jeff. Reporter thank you very much. It has come to our attention that despite the fact that the pentagon is teleworking, commanders continue to have all hands for town halls to discuss a variety of topics. Will the defense departmented or aeromoratorium on all large gatherings like town halls and all hands formations. Secretary esper the short answer is no, not at this time. I trust commanders to take care of their unions appropriately. That has not been raised as a problem at this time. My view is commanders have the authorities they need to take whatever precautions while at the same time ensuring readiness of the troops and capabilities of formations. Reporter thank you. Secretary esper can you talk about the testing of Service Members thats being performed now . According to the recent numbers, the most recent numbers have been about 500 people tested. Do you think that that is adequate in order to detect the spread of the virus within the military community and what are the criteria for testing . Secretary esper we can get to the joint chef surgeon back up here to talk about that to give you the exact details my view is if you are symptomatic you should be testing. Theres no plans to test all one million or so active duty personnel. That is i dont believe thats something we need to do at this point in time. I rely on the joint Staff Surgeon to give us to fill you in with regard to how that is. If youre symptomatic you should be tested. In some cases if you have been xposed you should be tested. Reporter mr. Secretary, could you give us some sense of timing here . How long does it require you to activate a reserve unit . The governor of new york wants you to get the army corps of engineers contracting to renovating hospitals or build thats still a contracting process that takes time. So how long would it be before the u. S. Military really started having an impact in terms of hospital beds . Secretary esper thats another great point. Lets take the second part first work the corps of engineers. They do great work. Very good program managers. But they have a number of federal rules and regulations they follow. They have a very expansive contracting process and that takes time. The corps of engineers does not build projects. They contract others to do the projects. So my hunch is, it would probably be quicker if its done at the state or local level. Nonetheless i dont mind offering up the corps of engineers to come to a state to talk to whoever a governor wants them to speak to with regard to renovating buildings or what not to see if we can do it quicker, we should were prepared to do that. But i think at this point the key is speed. But again, i need to have those conversations with the governors and others. With regard to your first question, youre right. I spent a lot of years in guard and reserve. It takes time to activate people. Depending on the type to have unit, you have to activate the person but you have to draw equipment, you have to do any number of things. Then in all cases you have to again be very careful youre not pulling somebody out of a part of the civilian sector where theyre needed. We keep talking about medical professionals, but it could be law enforcement. Could be firefighters. Whatever the case may be. That takes a little bit of time to make sure were making the right decisions with regard to who we draw up. It sounds like it will take weeks not days . Secretary esper it could, i dont have any hard requests well, maybe one or two. If youre thinking about calling up the guard or reserve, its not hours or days, its probably days or weeks, probably weeks. Depends on the type of unit where theyre located what they have to bring to the mission. Let me go to someone else. Reporter at the White House Briefing today the president suggested that theres actually been some discussions about potential sites for Field Hospitals. Have you been advising on where these sites could potentially be . Maybe Washington State . And secondly on the ventilators, with the 2,000 that youre sending out, can you give us a sense of if theres greater need than that, if this gets worse, how much can d. O. D. Surge before it needs to reach out to the private sector or other places . Secretary esper second question first. We can offer up to 2,000. Thats why i like to say the key thing right now, when you look at the numbers of people projected that may need ventilators, 2,000 doesnt make much dent to it. We can offer what we have. The private sector, the manufacturing side who whoever makes medical machines of this type, is how do you prime that pump to get the production, because were not going to be able to to meet the demand from some of the profiles weve seen in the c. D. C. Brief. Location of Field Hospitals, again, i think its a casebycase basis. It has to depend on the conversation with the governor or the state or local authority. My view is, the best view, the best use of our Field Hospitals, because theyre geared toward, is trauma. Ideal lie what youd cois locate near a hospital where trauma patients come, in instead of going into the hospital they go into the Field Hospital where we could treat the broken legs, laceration , the falling down hit your head type of stuff, we could handle them in our big open base. We have doctors that can do that. If you come in for a covid weve now freed up rooms for you to go inside the hospital where you have segregated rooms with bathrooms and all those things you need to treat infectious patients. Not a doctor, i was an infantryman not a medical professional but my hunch is youd want to do a colocation next to medical facilities. But that has to be worked out with local, state or municipality, to see how can we best support that if thats the support they need. Reporter 2,000 is the upper limit . Secretary esper. Thats what we can offer right now. Reporter somebody has a program to develop an antigen, like a vaccine, but it can shield troops or whoever from the disease until a vaccine becomes available. Can you describe what the Readiness Level is or level of preparedness for any sort of covid therapeutic that may be in development by the military. Secretary embing sper im not sure, i hope to see them soon to find out where they are. With regard to where i was today theyre work on two part , the vaccine and then the treatment piece. Which is the therapeutics and that tissue so theyre moving along on both fronts. I didnt get too detailed of a briefing on the second part. I focused a lot on the vaccine side. Thats something we can get the joint Staff Surgeon to come and brief you all about. Reporter can you speak about iraq . Secretary esper. Well do that another day. Today my focus is coronavirus. Thank you all. Its easy to follow the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak at cspan. Org coronavirus. Track the spread throughout the world with interactive maps and charts. Watch briefings and hearings with specialists, any time, unfiltered at span. Org coronavirus. Its another tuesday, another set of president ial primaries in three states. In florida, arizona, and illinois. In ohio, the governor there has postponed that primary due to the coronavirus. Theyll move it to june 2. I want to remind you that president ial candidates senator Bernie Sanders and joe biden not doing any Public Events due to the outbreak. Also, well have coverage this evening online at cspan. Org of the results. O to cspan. Org campaign 2020. Crveragets spans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that affect you. Wednesday morning well discuss the coronavirus and the u. S. Response to the outbreak with the with Michael Greenberger on the federal, state and local response. Then efforts to slow down the spread of the virus with Population Health Program Director drew harris of Thomas Jefferson university. Join the discussion. The winners are in for this years student cam competition. E asked what issue do you want candidates to address in this campaign . With our winners tells uhs the most important issues are climate change, gun violence, college affordability, the opioid crisis, Mental Health and immigration. Now its time to announce all of our first prize winners. Our first Prize Middle School inners are eighth graders una, sna from Eastern Middle School in silver spring, maryland. Their winning video is titled blackout misinformation in the age of social media. It doesnt mat who you associate with. It doesnt matter who you end up voting for. If you have internet it will influence your vote. Where to keep an eye on e get our information. High school east is thomas mckenna. By reening in executive power with reining in executive power we can make sure power remains balanced amok three branches of government. I ask the 2020 canadas how will you put a halt ott runaway train f executive overreach. High school rize west winner their documently is about the opioid crisis. Johnson johnson overprescribed opioids and as a result oklahomans became addicted, creating this nuisance this opioid epidemic. The first prize High School West goes to 10th grader pia kathleen. From long Beach Public High School where cspan is available through spectrum. Their documentry is titled vision 2020. The more you get money from certain types of sources the more youre beholden to those sources. You want to be free enough to make decisions based upon what you think is in the best interest of your district and the nation. And now its time to announce our 5,000 grand prize winners. They are 11th graders jason lin, amar karoshi and sara yen from the harper sool in san jose, california. They won the top prize for their documentary titled command delete technologys damaging effect on democracy 2020. In 2016, cambridge an lit ka collected data to influence the 2016 election from 87 million facebook users of which only 270,000 consented. This time were not faced with music piracy, were faced with personal information piracy. Congratulations to our grand prize winners. None of us have taken formal Video Production class, we all just got together as friends, we didnt do this for credit for class. Were at the horper school, this is one of the top schools in the country. Everyone arn us is doing projects, everyone is thinking about working for Tech Companies but we were thinking that sometimes, you know, there are issues, data breaches and all of that stuff and we thought bringing a voice to the concerns of many, about day ba breaches and privacy breaches was important. Were in the center of the Tech Companies, so this is a big deal. Cspan has awarded thousands of dollarsf