hey good afternoon everybody
appreciate everybody who's here and the
brief you're in today and then I
understand we have about a dozen
reporters who are on the phone line so
we will give our first crack at a tella
televised press conference so thanks for
being here as the situation continues to
evolve around the Cova 19 outbreak we
wanted to get you information about the
changes happening in the department
impacting our service members I'll give
a few updates and then dr. Friedreich's
and myself we'll take some of your
questions first I want to start with the
latest DoD coronavirus numbers as of Oh
500 today there have been 37 reported
cases 18 military 13 dependents three
civilian and three contractors we were
continuing to monitor the situation and
will provide update updates each day as
we receive them as you know on Friday
the deputy secretary Norquist's released
additional guidance on domestic travel
for servicemembers in DoD personnel
effective today through May 11th all
domestic travel for military personnel
will be halted unless it meets one of a
number of waiver criterias including
mission-essential travel or humanitarian
reasons this will also restrict DoD
civilian hiring on DoD installations to
persons who live within the immediate
commuting area of the facility the
secretary continues to state his top
priority during the outbreak is to
protect service members and their
families and maintain our ability to
complete our central missions and we're
going to take continue to take all of
those those efforts one to give a couple
additional updates today
the department has given authority to
the local commissary store directors to
impose restrictions on purchasing
high-demand products this will be done
in coordination with base leadership the
department is working to make sure that
service members and their families
living on base understand these changes
and have access to the goods that they
need finally I want to give you guys
some updates on what we're doing here in
the building starting today the
secretary in the deputy secretary are
remaining physically separated so we are
attempting to put a
lack of a better term a bubble around
the two of them that means that day and
their staffs will only interact via
teleconference we're screening people
that are entering the Secretary's suite
and limiting the number of people who
have access as well earlier today the
CMO team I think some of you may have
been on that posted at Ella town hall
for residents to the Pentagon
reservation to address some protective
measures that we've put in place they
got a bunch of really good questions
from people on the reservation which
includes this building as well as I
believe 78 other buildings in the
National Capital Region talking about
force protection health protection
measures we're going to do continue to
do events like that here and around the
country to keep our people informed at
this time I want to just thank a number
of people who can work on this problem
for for many weeks now so I believe
we've had teams at a number of different
bases working on coronavirus issues
providing HHS support to HHS at Dobbins
Miramar Lachlan and Travis those teams
have done an outstanding job and what
has been a very demanding situation and
they've continued to do a great job and
everyone here at the department
appreciates that and then last want to
thank the custodial staff at the
Pentagon they've been asked over the
last few weeks to really step up what
they've done to to help limit the spread
of any infectious disease here and so I
think as you guys have seen they're
increasing their rounds they're
increasing the type of work they're
doing and that is to everybody's benefit
here and we appreciate that so with that
I'll see if that general do you know I
would say let's go straight to questions
sir aside from what the National Guard
is doing and in many states is that is
the Defense Department considering
making available to civilian agencies
medical facilities medical equipment
medical personnel so I think you guys
are all familiar with how the requests
for assistance come into the department
and so so far we've received requests
for assistance from HHS specific to the
quarantine and housing of individuals
who were either evacuated from wuhan
hubei province or the Grand Princess and
the diamond princess and then
additionally for the eleven feeder
airports for individuals who flew back
into the u.s. you need to be quarantine
so that's the that's the one set of rfas
that we have fulfilled with regard to
coronavirus we've not received any other
ones at this time that we have responded
to and are doing we are looking at a
number of different options with regard
to resources and what we can do I would
point out that the big benefit of the
Department of Defense is logistics and
planning support those are two things
that we can we we are able to provide a
lot of assistance to there are other
things where we'll take a look at it as
they come in but at this time those are
the only RFA's that we've seen so far
okay so aside from the request itself
but you've made clear you haven't had
any of this of this type but you're
considering what you might do or might
be able to do in the area of so we've
done a look at our abilities and our
resources and what we can do and where
we think that we have capability to
assist the civilian sector in this whole
of government approach while still
ensuring that we have the resources that
are necessary to take care of our
personnel and their families and be to
focus on our mission is our central
missions that our strategic missions and
so we've we've done that analysis and
they're continuing to do it and we'll be
providing that Secretary has it and can
provide it up to the president White
House for help and making decisions as
requests come in and if I could just add
to that so as you well know during
hurricane season or other times we have
plans on the shelf defense support
called defense support to civil
authorities and so have we looked at it
absolutely I mean we do that every year
routinely preparing for a variety of
natural disasters so yes we do have
plans looking at the capabilities that
we have and then if we're asked to
provide them or if we're tasked to say
what's within the realm of possible we
can go back and look at those plans
plan that up under natural disaster it
is but again from the unit from the
department's perspective you know what
we do is we look at what capabilities we
have and how they might best meet the
requests that we get and that's why I
think this is really important that you
know if we're asked to do something we
look at what we have available and how
best to support them yeah sorry it's a
little just constrained this is the
closest I've been standing next to
somebody in about a week so it's
throwing me off so just back is there an
insert the military health system that
you can actually provide to the civilian
authorities and you know it they're
obviously not doctors just lying around
who are waiting to go to work they would
presumably come from civilian hospitals
you know how many respirators do you
have sort of lying around I mean how
much can you actually support if you're
asked yeah so that so those are great
questions and and those are the sorts of
analyses that we're going through right
now to identify what we can do and I
want to emphasize the point that people
have come up and said you know what
about this idea what about that idea
we're trying to step through each of
those questions that we receive and then
say here's what's within the realm of
possible if we do this then here's the
consequence a great one that's come up
is why don't we mobilize the garden
Reserve I think that's what you're
talking about right now the challenge
with that is you alluded to is if you
mobilize the garden reserve medical
personnel from their civilian jobs
they're no longer in their civilian jobs
and that directly impacts the community
where they worked and that's the
trade-off that you know whether it's a
natural disaster or the corona virus or
anything else that's part of the
trade-off that we look at as we offer
options going forward okay it general
give us some idea of the capacity that
is out there within the department
how many Hospital pitch how many doctors
if it comes to that so we have 36
hospitals in the United States and you
know from the standpoint of a domestic
response 36 hospitals within the United
States as many of you are aware they are
relatively small hospitals they're not
thousand bad hospitals so they range in
size
many of them are configured to support
as you might imagine our immediate
military needs so they take care of the
active-duty population and their
families and some retirees we have some
large facilities like here in the DC
area but Walter Reed that have much more
diverse services and we have a number of
smaller facilities in more remote
locations like Fort Wainwright in Alaska
has a small hospital that offers
obstetric 'el services and basic
community hospital type services so it
unfortunately the answer is it depends
on the community and what the
requirement was to support the
operational force in that community that
has determined the size of the hospitals
in that we have publicly asked for the
Corps of Engineers to start constructing
facilities what could the Corps of
Engineers realistically do all right as
a doc I'm not going to be able to answer
that question for the Corps of Engineers
I'd have to add yeah I mean well one
thing I just the first question point
out you know some of those hospitals
that we do have as a doctor kind of
alluded to is the way they're configured
a lot of neonatal pediatric care beds in
those hospitals out of that group of
beds our doctors are unsurprisingly
trained highly in traumatic injuries and
dealing with traumatic injuries and so
we have a much younger population that
we're dealing with treating in our
hospitals and so all of these kind of
factor into what is that capability we
have for a potential outbreak that
generally has been more devastating to
elder older persons who require a
different type of attention than we
normally do so that's all being looked
at is how we can take the the type of
services we normally provide or the type
of skills that we have
and see what we can do we're through
guard to the question about the
governor's comment where the governor's
comments we've not received an RFA or a
request to actually do any construction
that would be something that we would
look at at this time I think there are
some other options out there that that
we've seen private companies that are
able to do some of the construction
there's there are other facilities but
we have not been asked to take a look at
that yet but we're standing by to to
look at our phases they come in and work
with the White House on deciding how we
best support those Jeff former vice
president joe biden floated the idea of
the military building these ten
hospitals with 500 beds is that one of
the options that is being considered
right now so we we do have ten hospitals
they are deployable hospitals and much
as was just mentioned there the
challenge is they're designed to take
care of trauma patients and combat
casualties and so you know we we have a
variety of capabilities much like our
fixed facility hospitals are deployable
hospitals vary in size and the specific
capabilities are tailored to whatever
the mission is so we have supported
humanitarian operations as you're well
aware in the past we've supported relief
efforts during natural disasters what
what we're trying to be very careful of
is not over promising you know we want
to be factual about what we have are our
fixed facilities are designed to the
force that we have they're not thousand
bed medical centers all over the United
States they're for the most part small
community hospitals are deployable
hospitals range in size and range in
capabilities and are very much focused
and designed to take care of those in
combat so as those are useful if we're
asked to deploy them we have great
colleagues I'm very proud to to serve
with them and as mr. Hoffman said I
think you know they'll deliver excellent
care if asked to do so but the
colleagues that we have in uniform
primarily are focused on the specific
military needs that we have
to make sure the troops in Afghanistan
Iraq and elsewhere have enough tests for
coronavirus so I'm not aware of any in
fact I was on the phone with the CENTCOM
surgeon over the weekend I'm not aware
of any lack of tests the I believe
there's been some concern about the fact
that the equipment to run the tests that
specific machine is not in Afghanistan
and that's true you know we have a
relatively small footprint in
Afghanistan we have now 13 labs that are
up and running with that machine around
the world the closest one to Afghanistan
it's a military lab is our lab in
Germany there are also other nations in
the Middle East that have this specific
type of equipment so what we do with any
lab that we can't perform in a deployed
environment as we fly it or ship it to
the nearest lab that can perform it that
doesn't mean that they're not getting
tested and when we're doing the swabs
we're just not running the exact they
test itself in Afghanistan and to be
clear I had this conversation with
general McKenzie when he was here on
Friday NASA and that specific question
and I think CENTCOM has put out a
statement on this as well we're not
aware of any individual in Afghanistan
despite some reporting out there
otherwise that has indicated an
inability to get tested Russia I'm
pretty confident that they're they're
able to get tested be swab in country
the sample sent to lunch stall to be
tested and those test results are
reported back to the individual one
couple thing on the first question there
just point out I'm talking about tents
and in ten hospitals is once again the
limiting factor being personnel so even
if we were able to build tents for
hospitals we seunggi the doctors we need
the nurses we need the orderlies we need
the equipment and all that in there and
as the the doctor mentioned the general
mentioned those individuals from our
system would come from existing
hospitals or the reserves and as you
heard general Abrams discuss I think it
was on Thursday how he called up those
doctors who were assigned to him but but
we're not yet for deployed he called up
those doctors they went over to help
over in US forces Korea and many cases
they came from domestic military
facilities here and that's similar to
what would happen with with the hospital
like that
and then the other thing I've just asked
is you take a look at this and this the
framework of the civilians society and
how many beds and hospitals are
available on the civilian side versus on
DoD we have a surge capacity and we have
a capability that number is when you
look at what DoD can do compared to what
is existing in the civilian side I'm
good I don't know if you have the
percentage but it was a two or three
percent of the civility of the hospital
beds in the country or DoD beds so on
barbar and you think about this and plan
what is the latest information you have
about what the threat volume is
essentially that you're planning against
what is the data tell you now about how
many Americans including military might
need hospitalization also can you tell
us how many ventilators are in military
inventory and also my very other quick
question you mentioned I think that the
secretary and the deputy are no longer
may you know with an eyeball range of
each other what's your recommendation to
the chairman the vice chairman the
nuclear forces special ops this short
string forces that cannot afford to be
at other than full strength so we can
spend the next hour going through all
the details on that I'll see if I could
give an abbreviated response so yeah so
from a data standpoint the good news is
now that we're getting accurate data
from Italy and from Korea and from here
in the United States I think we're
getting a much clearer picture CDC is
doing an excellent job of updating that
data so that we understand how
widespread this is and as you you and
others have reported or your
organization's have reported this
disease is very easily transmitted and
so that you know Spectre pouches
commented on repeatedly one of the big
concerns on our part is not so much the
active duty force contracting the in the
illness because it does not appear to
make most younger people that's sick
it's the active duty force contracting
the illness and then spreading it to
someone else so we're really looking at
this from two lenses of those who
contract it how do we minimize the risk
of that
spreading it to others and also how do
we ensure that we're prepared to take
care of our own beneficiaries or if
asked take care of other patients as
part of a whole-of-government response
how many Americans how many Americans do
I think will get infected that's a
question for SI I think the CDC's skin
against the scenarios that you plant
you're planning so you must know have an
idea of what you're planning against
we're gonna leave that we're gonna leave
the predictive modeling to CDC we're
going to speak with one voice from the
government on that ventilators and can
you talk about this short notice forces
Chairman vice so I'll start with here in
the building my recommendation has been
at much as I shared with you all during
one of our last sessions that people
practice social distancing and where
they can avoid face to face meetings or
getting within six feet of each other
that they do so and I've provided that
advice for the last couple of weeks now
it's the same advice that CDC has been
providing so we put that out to the
whole workforce not just to the chairman
and secretary but to everybody that we
want to practice that social distancing
because that is one of the very unsexy
but incredibly effective ways to
minimize the spread and protect each
other from getting sick so that's not
unique to the senior leaders that's to
everybody here in the building as far as
the special forces or other units the
operational advice that we've given to
to the services across the board is to
look at those missions and identify what
that right risk balance is between the
medical risk and the operational
requirements and so different units have
come up with different solutions to that
to mitigate the risk to force while
preserving mission capabilities it's not
a one-size-fits-all it very much depends
on what that specific units mission is
and how best to support it going forward
but as we've looked at the plans I think
they're all solid plans at least the
ones that I've seen and then they
involve everything from doing shift work
or having certain people work together
for two weeks in a location and then you
know work from home trading teams in and
out much as commercial companies are
doing so that you don't have everybody
in one place at one time kind of common
sense things too
minimize the risk that an entire crew or
an entire unit might be impacted at one
time if someone gets second and we're
going to and we're looking to have
additional briefings this week with some
of the different combatant commanders I
believe and don't hold me to this but
we're attempting to have the Stratcom
commander connect with you guys
potentially tomorrow as well so I think
you'll be able to get into some of this
questions Barbara Ron Howard so right
now it's a number that we're not
prepared to give out so we because the
number deals with our deployable medical
capability which is a number that we're
not prepared to give out so we can get
back to you on that and we're working
through it so all right I'm going to try
something tricky here I'm gonna try to
go with somebody who's on the line and
see if I can do this so Matthew Cox from
military comm Thank You mr. Hoffman can
you hear me okay yep could you maybe
provide an update on how the recent
travel restrictions are affecting
shipping dates for basic training boot
camp for the services as well as any
deployment delays cancellation update so
on specific instances I would refer you
to the services because as the the
guidance was given is gives a lot of
flexibility to the service secretaries
and the combatant commanders to make
waivers but the the way the the guidance
was given was with the ability of those
individuals to issue waivers based on
mission essential necessity so the
commander's have that ability to
determine that if a certain deployment
or if a certain rotation or certain
training is mission essential they have
the ability to move forward with that we
are taking a look at the training
programs given the size of those
programs and the impact that a major
delay on training could have so we're
looking at that and it may have some
updates on that in the near future but
for the most part we believe that the
commander's at the 4 star level all the
way down to the one-star level have the
authority to minimize any disruptions to
their forces and that any individual who
is in that pipeline and
is looking for guidance on what to do
we've given the instruction we've tried
to be as transparent and thorough and
this as possible and instructing them to
reach out to their supervisor and their
chain of command to get some guidance
just as a quick followers there any
update on defender Europe I know that
the deployments were halted as of its
March June past couple days there's like
6,000 on the ground over there right now
but there were supposed to be 20,000 is
there any updates to that as far as more
troops are going to be spent or not no I
don't have any update for you on that I
would direct you Europe are you calm
they have the lead on making
determinations at the time we made the
announcement they did indicate that
there was likely some additional forces
that would be flowed forward to that to
that command or sorry to that exercise I
don't have an update on the numbers of
it but we are looking to although the
main exercise may be somewhat
constrained to look at individual pieces
of that exercise and continuing with
them to get as much benefit out of them
as possible thank you Guardsmen is a
doctor full-time in a local hospital
where there's that need what will be the
policy decision will that member of the
military still be called up and taken
away from that local civilian hospital
or would they be left to remain at the
civilian hospital so I think that's
exactly the you know one of the
calculate the calculations if you will
that have to be made in making a
decision to do that look you know I've
been wearing this uniform now for
30-some odd years I've done it whatever
it was that the country asked me to do
and I think that anyone wearing this
uniform would say the same thing fully
recognize that as those decisions are
made senior leaders are going to balance
if we take someone from here and send
them over there what's the impact is the
benefit greater over here than it is
over there from the military side you
know we're here to deter and defend and
support our civil colleagues but that
that is one of the key considerations
going forward so I can just say as a
reservist that I'm part of a tracking
that you do is you have to keep your
command updated about what your civilian
employment is and you know when there's
a crisis there's not a rush to deploy a
bunch of Jags so if we don't usually
have the same situation nobody wants to
get a bunch of lawyers out there at the
heart of a crisis so it's not the same
way but that is something that's being
looked at it's trying to get visibility
down to the individual level of how are
those no how are those medical providers
being used in their local communities so
that if we do have to make a decision is
that I've said that it's something that
balances what is going on in the local
community and that we're not disrupting
them may I just follow up you'd
mentioned that there was a surge
capability for building field hospitals
can you give us a sense of what those
numbers were could the military put up a
500 bed hospital in one of these
affected areas in you know a rapid
amount of time so we have we have
different deployable hospital capability
ranging from 25 beds up to much larger
than that I think the largest capability
that you've all seen is the hospital
ship which has hundreds of beds on it
and it then the question becomes what do
they need the challenge is as we
mentioned before if we build a 200 bed
or a 25 bed trauma hospital to take care
of people with coronavirus that's not
really a great solution to the
coronavirus challenge and so what we're
working through as we participate in
discussions is here's what we have
here's what it does very well which is
trauma care and acute care and emergency
care and you know we have not been
tasked to provide those to any specific
location but those are the types of
medical capabilities that we have we
don't have any 500 bed hospitals design
for infectious disease outbreaks that
does not exist in the inventory and then
the doctor mentioned the comfort and I'm
sure many of you been on the comfort of
the mercy and seeing how its configured
you have litters that are stacked for to
the ceiling with individuals you have
open bay rooms because they're intended
for trauma and for dealing with people
who have suffered some sort of trauma
not for an infectious disease
environment there are some beds for that
but it's a much smaller number so I just
want to clarify on all these
conversations
the Department of Defense is ready
willing able to support civilian
authorities to the greatest extent
possible at the direction of the
president we just want to make sure that
the conversation that's being had is
informed by the facts of what what is
possible and what is not and what those
trade-offs are we are engaged in these
conversations across the government
right now and how we can best support
and we'll be continue to be a part of
those and then follow the guidance set
out by the secretary how does that work
exactly and then my second question is
there's been mounting concern about
federal workers who are sick who are
still coming in to work so what are your
policies on disclosures and how do you
ensure that people who are safe aren't
coming in so on the first one we just
make sure I have this correct so you're
asking what is how are we promulgating
guidelines within the department so the
secretary is in charge on some issues
he's delegated that responsibility of
the deputy secretary so I think we saw
one of the memos last week came out was
from the deputy secretary PNR has the
overall look at things in the work force
civilian contractors or so enforce
health protection put the Pentagon
reservation WHS reports then but then
you ditional 'i have the services that
have the responsibility for for their
personnel so it's it's a it's a it's a
big building it's a it's a big
organization and we have a lot of
different people but it all runs up to
the Secretary of Defense making
decisions based on the guidance he
gotten and I'll tell you this morning we
had a we had a two-hour vtc everybody
we're not even in the three rooms
anymore we're in a bunch of different
rooms calling in to this and and we went
through a lot of those decisions with
the with the secretary and and looking
at the different policies that are being
evaluated and he was being briefed out
on all of them and teeing up different
decisions he may make in the next few
days
federal workers who are still coming in
yeah so you know we we put out very
clear guidance that if you're sick you
should not come into work if you see
someone who's sick send them home and
you know if they look like or sound like
they need help get medical help for them
so as you may be aware we have a small
clinic downstairs here in the building
and then there's a variety of other
military medical facilities around the
DC area where folks can go for care
depending on what they need but this
really starts with the individual and I
think it is not about policy at this
point it's about a shared commitment to
minimizing the impact of this outbreak
and each of us individually has a
responsibility if you're sick or if you
live with someone who's sick stay home
that's common sense it's good medicine
and that is the that's the message that
we're sharing with everybody
I've got two people in my office who I
have personally sent home because they
came in and I said you should not be
here go home but I got a lot of work to
do I said I don't care it could wait the
Sun will come up tomorrow I'm very
confident I would rather that we
minimize this outbreak then try and get
the next report done on time and and
that's an important distinction right
now this is recognizing that the
priority is minimizing the spread of
this outbreak as the Secretary has said
you know our first commitment is to
protecting the health of our
servicemembers and their families
that starts with our responsibility them
and their responsibility to stay home if
their say that's a change that's the
chain and risk assessment that we go
through every day so we have meetings
every single day where we look at what
are the numbers what's the risk to the
reservation what's the risk to the to
the workforce and we make changes so as
you saw last week we went from social
distancing to on on Monday to wednesday
i think we banned international travel
to friday we banned domestic travel
today restricted to today the buffet is
shut down you know there's there's
different levels in the risk that you go
tolerance that you go through
and we'll continue to work our way up
that as needed while still trying to
maintain the ability of the Department
of Defense to do those the strategic
essential missions I'm going to go to
the phone again
so we'll try this damn them off from the
Washington Post nothing at this time
thank you okay all right so I'll do
another phone one since Dan's question
literally Nick Schifrin PBS hey guys
thank you so much for for doing this in
terms of the secretary and the deputy
secretary you know I talked to entity
and state all the time neither of them
have made that distinction of separating
the top official from his or her deputy
so could you explain a little bit why
you've done that and and while you've
taken that specific task and then coming
back to Afghanistan
on Iraq I understand there's no lack of
tests although the labs are being
utilized elsewhere have there been any
positives any updates either quarantine
room within the war zones or any kind of
positives there
so I'll take your your last question
first if I may the short answer is no
we've not had any positive tests in
Afghanistan and you know thus far we've
not received any reports of anyone who
needs care who's not able to receive it
and I think from the standpoint of your
question about social distancing you
know we've been very transparent and
very proactive in implementing the CDC
guidelines my deputies working from home
this week that's not because I'm special
it's just it's the right thing to do
it's what commercial companies are doing
it's what nonprofits are doing it's the
right thing to do so I don't think that
we're doing anything particularly
unusual we're just implementing the CDC
guidance and I think you have to look at
each department in each agency on what
what the missions that they have and
what meetings or operations they have
ongoing at any certain time and the
resources available to make those those
measures take place and so at the
Department of Defense we've were set up
so that our commanders can and our
leaders can do do their jobs from
anywhere in the world at any time
and so we're able to take advantage of
that probably to an extent that that uh
that you know even major companies and
others aren't able to so we're going to
continue to do what we need to to
protect the leadership and protect the
the workforce so that we will have that
ability as this goes on to help help the
civilian government respond Jennifer
reservation any positive tests and also
can you clarify whether the government
is preparing for a national quarantine
and whether the US military has been
asked to prepare for that
so the pentagon question I think the
interesting but yeah so we have we've
had one contractor not in this building
but in one of the other buildings within
the Pentagon complex who was identified
he said he wasn't feeling well when in
was tested and he was positive and
co-workers have been appropriately asked
to stay home none of them are sick at
this point in time that was five or six
days ago and he's doing fine is the last
report that I heard and then we have the
one marine who is down at Fort Belvoir I
think those are the two that we've
mentioned has kind of in the reservation
area I think your other question was
about the Instagram or text message huh
Bob that went on last night about a
national quarantine a planning not not
familiar with anything on that I think
the White House put out a statement that
that was untrue and it's not something
that's under consideration at this time
so direct you to them okay and just in
terms of the Navy ships you have one
case onboard the USS boxer you have the
USS Carney in South Africa that is
pulled into port there and an ambassador
a US ambassador who was at mar-a-lago on
March 7th visited that ship and is seen
in Twitter pictures on board that ship
when are you going to either stop or is
it appropriate to stop port calls and
stop visitors from stepping on the ships
that are now vulnerable in the with
regards to the US Navy so I don't have
an update for you on what the Navy's
position is with the ships that are
deployed or at sea I have confidence
that the Navy will look at that risk
ladder and decide at a point when it's
best to to cease having a
or visitors but I do know they've taken
steps already with regard to the 14 days
at sea between ports to limit any
potential spread and allow them to
evaluate whether anybody on the ship has
come into contact at their last port
visit over the last contact with with
others so we'll continue to look at what
they're going to do but I'd refer you to
the Navy on what what they what they may
change up with that policy I haven't
seen any changes recently according to
quick follow-ups you said there have
been no positive tests Iraq and
Afghanistan can you say how many service
members or civilians have been tested
yes I can't so 495 total tests have been
done as of yesterday morning and I don't
have the breakdown by active-duty versus
family members versus retirees but in
the 13 labs that we have in DOD with the
capability to do this test we've done
495 tests and then of the globally yeah
right and then and again there's a lag
in this data so that's as of yesterday
morning the the update that we received
that was Friday's data part of that is
because we're collecting data we as I
mentioned in previous sessions we have a
lab in Germany we have a lab in Korea
that's written the tests and so want to
make sure we get their data and before
we say here's how many we ran on a
particular day so this was Friday's data
how many service members have tested
positive I'm tracking 15 service members
as of 5 o'clock this morning as we've
mentioned before that will continue to
change I'm sorry I meant specifically to
Iraq and Afghanistan there were no known
have been tested how many have been
tested there I don't know the numbers
that have been tested there but none
have been positive
okay so yeah that so this is why I said
at five o'clock in the morning it was 15
this was updated after I got my update I
this is the live o'clock morning update
this came out at 7 o'clock in the
morning and it was 18 so sorry so and
then one more thing for you doctor and
well then with those numbers we'll try
to every time we give you a number we'll
give you a timestamp of when it's
updated as of so you guys can be Beyond
Borders okay but the reason I went with
the 15 in case you're wondering about
that is I've got the details on the 15 I
don't have the details on the 18 I've
been in meeting since I got to be clear
on the hospital ships is there is there
any role the hospital ships can play and
outbreak oh and because it sounds as if
maybe it wouldn't be bringing people on
good equipment or personnel be taken
from the hospital ships I've brought two
so I you know we have supported our
nation in a number of ways and as
military medics one of the things the
hospital ship is really good at is
providing the sort of carrots designed
for so if for example a community has a
large outbreak and there is a need for
emergency room support or trauma support
hospital ships perfectly designed to do
that whether that's the right capability
to get to the right place
hard to get the hospital ship to st.
Louis but along the coast it's you know
it is an option to use hey what I and I
want to go back to something I said
earlier I would hate for anyone to miss
perceive my comments as saying that
we're not willing to help obviously if
the option is a surgeon taking care of
you or no one taking care of you you
want a surgeon taking care of you and
you know we're all in to help that's
been the message from the secretary from
day one and supporting the whole of
government response what we don't what I
personally would also feel uncomfortable
with is if we say the hospital ship is
designed to take care of highly
contagious infectious disease patients
as mr. Hoffman pointed out when you
stack people for deep and litters that
doesn't really limit the spread of
anything and so it's being honest about
the capabilities and trying to be as
transparent as we can about the
capabilities and what they're designed
to do is one of the things that's been
harder than past
24 48 hours is that there's a lot of
information out there specifically on
social media about the militaries that
mix us up with the military's
capabilities our versus what they
actually they're actually maybe
intention to do and us it's our
Jennifer's question on that Jonathan but
like there's other things beyond just
the idea of enforcing a mandatory
quarantine one of them was the military
potential international car being used
for to enforce nighttime curfew
something like that I know that that may
not be something that's been asked for
at this point but is there even a
discussion at this point about the
military being used for more of that
kind of law enforcement it wouldn't be
unheard of we saw it after Katrina
it's another natural disaster so I mean
is there even a discussion at this point
about oh just to clarify on the military
part whether it's National Guard or DoD
title 10 versus title 32 so I think the
governors have the the ability to call
it the National Guard as they see fit
and that's happened in a couple places
to assist with with that and I think we
saw today the governor of Maryland
activated a thousand Guardsmen to assist
with their response so you'll continue
to see that there get there a lot of
things as the general said we have plans
about how to play in and so we have a
lot of things that we can look at doing
and those things are being looked at
we're looking at what we're having
requests come in that we'll look at but
as of right now we'll come out to you as
much as we can and we'll be out in
public and it's transparent about it
coming to you guys when we have an
announcement on something that's being
decided but I can't get into like every
rumor or speculation about what it what
the military could do or might have been
asked to do or somebody I mean that this
weekend you know or what somebody on
some sort of text chain said they heard
from their friend who worked at this
place that's all a guy that said this
thing we can't be responding to all of
that so but we're gonna try to be as
transparent as we can about the things
that we are doing and you guys have been
good about whenever you hear something
coming to us and we'll get back to you
and let you know as soon as we can
whether something is is fact or fiction
and we're gonna get that out there we're
going to be doing briefings here as much
as we can I'm going to try to have
combatant commanders or the service
chiefs in here at least at least once if
not twice a day this week we're going to
be doing briefings and trying to get
information to you guys as much as we
can
one last thing just on the ships that
you mentioned
the ships don't have people on them so
we can get you a ship right now that
ship has a bunch of merchant mariners on
it who operate the ship there aren't a
thousand or 1200 medical professionals
with the ship waiting they have to come
from somewhere else so that gets back to
that that's staffing issues so the ship
is great but the personnel aren't on it
right now they're not sitting there
waiting to be deployed they're in a
hospital and Lackland or they're
somewhere else and a lot of times that
is also the hospital ships we we partner
with the civilian groups that will go
out with us to do some of the
humanitarian missions we do like we saw
the comfort to throughout South America
this last his last six months all right
we're gonna do one more no we gotta go
okay thank you so much how ready is the
Pentagon to build hospital beds if asked
whether the surge capabilities how fast
you know could that be spun up and is
there a ballpark figure of how many beds
can be built or provided I think on the
first question on the to build beds I
don't think we have a an estimate on on
building hospitals like constructing
hospitals found porn foundation and
concrete and things like that I don't
think we would have a number for you on
that that's not a request we've had
before and that we would we would be
have on the records for how to do that
or the numbers about what we would be
able to do we do have the numbers on the
tent and the field hospitals and things
like that
and how quickly we can do that and we're
looking into how how fast we can deploy
those yeah and you know again I think
the good news right now is as the as our
country as a whole is responding to this
outbreak we have not seen huge demand
signals coming to the DoD eff saying
that we've got a significant gap you
know I was here all weekend and I did
not receive anything specifically that
says we need this number of beds in this
location what we do have are these
tailorable packages and some of them can
move very quickly they can move by
airplane others are much larger like the
ship that you know takes a few days to
get underway and you have to bring the
crew to it what what we have tried to be
very clear about is
if folks need help let us know what it
is you know work through the White House
through the Department of Health and
Human Service that's the lead for this
and then we can offer here's what we can
do to meet that requirement with the
capabilities that we have and how
quickly it can move and and just finally
we've got a goats that general obviously
has a lot of important things to be
doing these here 14 hours a day every
day working on this I want to get him
back to back to his office but the
solution of coronavirus is going to be a
whole-of-government approach and DOD is
going to be a part of that so we'll keep
you guys updated on how we're going to
play a role in that and what we're going
to do thank you guys
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you