[Music]
I'm glad to see that you're practicing
social distancing that looks very nice
it's very good I want to thank everybody
for being here today this morning I
spoke with the leaders of the g7 g7
nations and they really had a good
meeting I think it was a very very
productive meeting I also spoke with our
nation's governors in this afternoon
we're announcing new guidelines for
every American to follow over the next
15 days as we combat the virus each and
every one of us has a critical role to
play in stopping the spread and
transmission of the virus week we did
this today and this was done by a lot of
very talented people some of whom were
standing with me and that's available
and dr. Burks will be speaking about
that in just a few minutes it's
important for the young and healthy
people to understand that while they may
experience milder sinners symptoms they
can easily spread this virus and they
will spread it indeed putting countless
others in harm's way we especially
worried about our senior citizens the
White House Task Force meets every day
and continually updates guidelines based
on the fast evolving situation that this
has become all over the world so all
over the world it's incredible what's
happened in such a short period of time
on the guidelines of the task force the
new modeling conducted by dr. Burks
and our consultation with governor's
we've made the decision to further
toughen the guidelines and blunt the
infection now we'd much rather be ahead
of the curve than behind it and that's
what we are there for my administration
is recommending that all Americans
including the young and healthy work to
engage in schooling from home when
possible avoid gathering in groups of
more than 10 people avoid discretionary
travel
and avoid eating and drinking at bars
restaurants and public food courts if
everyone makes this change or these
critical changes and sacrifices now we
will rally together as one nation and we
will defeat the virus and we're going to
have a big celebration all together with
several weeks of focused action we can
turn the corner and turn it quickly a
lot of progress has been made I'm also
pleased to report today that a vaccine
candidate has begun the phase 1 clinical
trial this is one of the fastest vaccine
development launches in history not even
close we're also racing to develop
antiviral therapies and other treatments
that we've had some promising results
early results but promising to reduce
the severity and the duration of the
sender of the symptoms and I have to say
that our government is prepared to do
whatever it takes whatever it takes
we're doing we're doing it in every way
and with that I'd like to just introduce
dr. Burks who's going to discuss some of
the things that we strongly recommend
thank you Thank You mr. president I
think you know over the last months
we've taken very bold action to stop the
virus from coming to our shores and
because of that we gained time to really
get together and understand the progress
across the globe of what has worked and
what hasn't worked we now need to appeal
to every single American so that they
can have their role in stopping the
spread of this virus we've talked about
things before about washing your hands
but we really want to focus on if you
are sick no matter who you are please
stay home if someone in your household
is diagnosed with this virus the entire
household should quarantine in the house
to prevent spread of the virus to others
the reason we're taking these strong and
bold steps is because we know there is
virus spread before you develop symptoms
and then we know that there's a large
group we don't know the precise
yet that actually is asymptomatic or has
such mild cases that they continue to
spread the virus if your children are
sick please keep them home now to our
older population or those with
pre-existing medical conditions everyone
in the household needs to focus on
protecting them everyone in the
household I want to speak particularly
to our largest generation now our
Millennials I have the mom of two
wonderful millennial young women who are
bright and hardworking and I will tell
you what I told to them they are the
core group that will stop this virus
they're the group that communicates
successfully independent of picking up a
phone they intuitively know how to
contact each others without being in
large social gatherings we're asking all
of them to hold their gatherings to
under 10 people not just in bars and
restaurants but in homes we really want
people to be separated at this time to
be able to address this fire as
comprehensively that we cannot see for
which we don't have a vaccine or a
therapeutic the only thing we have right
now is the amazing ingenuity and
compassion of the American people we're
appealing to all Americans to take these
steps to protect each other and to
ensure that the virus doesn't spread
these guidelines are very specific
they're very detailed they will only
work if every American takes this
together to heart and responds as one
nation and one people to stop the spread
of this virus thank you
thank you very much dr. Burks so just to
connect with what I mentioned to you in
previous discussions in this room and
dr. Burke said it very well that in
order to be able to contain and curtail
this epidemic to not reach its maximum
capability we have a two pillar approach
one of which I believe has been very
effective in preventing the substantial
seating and namely the travel
restrictions that we've discussed many
times in this room the other equally if
not more important is when you have
infection in your own country which we
do and you know I could be that a
numbers but they're really essentially
what we've seen yesterday incremental
increases both globally as well as in
the United States with the curve doing
that
so therefore the kinds of things that we
do are containment and mitigation this
what we're mentioning now the guidelines
when you look at them carefully I
believe if the people in the United
States take them seriously because they
were based on some rather serious
consideration back and forth some may
look at them and say they're gonna be
really inconvenient for people some will
look and say well maybe we've gone a
little bit too far theywill
well-thought-out and the thing that I
want to re-emphasize and I'll say it
over and over again when you're dealing
with an emerging infectious diseases
outbreak you are always behind where you
think you are if you think that today
reflects where you really are that's not
where it's peak it means if you think
you're here you're really here because
you're only getting the results
therefore it will always seem that the
best way to address it would to be doing
something that looks like it might be an
overreaction it isn't an overreaction
it's a reaction that we feel is
commensurate which is actually going on
in reality so take a look at the
guidelines read them carefully and we
hope that the people of the United
States will take them very seriously
because they
will fail if people don't adhere to them
we have to have as a whole country
cooperate and collaborate to make sure
these get done thank you
if Americans really were to band
together I do what the White House is
suggesting how quickly you could turn
this point my favorite question I ask it
all the time how many times Anthony I
think I asked him that question every
day and I speak to Deborah I speak to a
lot of them I just get the opinion so it
seems to me that if we do a really good
job will not only hold the death down to
a level that is much lower than the
other way had we not done a good job but
people are talking about july-august
something like that so it could be right
in that period of time where it I say
wash it washes through other people
don't like that term but word washes
through this the new normal until the
height of the Sun we'll see what happens
but they think August could be July to
be longer than that but I've asked that
question many many times yes Americans
today and looking forward or living with
so much anxiety and so much fear facing
uncertainty right now I'm curious how
are you talking to your own family about
this how are you talking to your
youngest son do you empathize with this
sense of anxiety people are really
scared yeah no I think they are very
scared
I think they see that we're doing a very
professional job we've been working with
the governors and the frankly the
mayor's local government at every level
we have FEMA totally involve him has
been you know usually we see FEMA for
the Hurricanes and the tornadoes now we
have FEMA involved in this they've been
doing a fantastic job locally working
with people that they know because they
worked like as an example in California
in the state of Washington they work
with them a lot on other things and
they're very familiar so they're working
on it
what you can do and all you can do is
professional totally confident we have
the best people in the world we have
really the greatest experts in the world
and someday soon hopefully it'll end and
we'll be back to where it was but this
came up but it we came up so suddenly
look he was surprised we were all
surprised we heard about it we heard
about reports from China that something
was happening and all of a sudden we did
make a good decision we closed our our
borders to China very quickly very
rapidly there was a was a otherwise
would be a number yes Estonia said
numerous times we'll be in a very bad
position much worse than we would be
right now you look at what's happening
in other countries Italy is having a
very hard time but I think that I think
that what we do and I've spoken actually
with my son he says how bad is this it's
bad it's bad but we're going to we're
going to be hopefully a best case it's
not a worst case and that's what we're
working for yes one is about your own
tests the other is about containment
efforts is the administration
considering more aggressive containment
options like a quarantine a national
curfew
well we have that very much yeah we have
that very much and we are we've been
pretty aggressive we were earlier with
Europe but we were very very early with
China and other places and fortunately
we were and as far as containment here
we are we're coming out with strong
suggestions and you know it's becoming a
little bit automatic you look at people
they're not doing certain things for
instance that obviously not I wouldn't
say the restaurant business is booming
in bars and grills and all the people
are self containing four to a large
extent we look forward to the day where
we can get back to normal besides that
cars are you are you considering
instituting a nationwide lockdown a
nationwide quarantine the NSC knocked
that down but there's still some
questions about how it all at this point
not nationwide but well there's some
point you know some places in our nation
that are not very effective there fall
but we may we may look at certain areas
certain certain hotspots as they call
them we'll be looking at that but at
this moment no we're not
a virus test Friday night though the
White House doctor's office put out a
statement around midnight Friday saying
that no test was indicated so when
exactly was your test administered well
I had my test I was late Friday night
and the reason I did it was because the
I had no symptoms whatsoever so the
doctor said you have no symptoms so we
don't see any reason but when I did the
press conference in flight everybody was
going crazy did you do the test did you
do the test so very late on Friday night
I did the test and he may have put out
or the doctor may have put out something
at it I don't know what time the letter
went out maybe it was put up by somebody
else but the results came back I believe
the following day and we tested negative
implying that you hadn't had one when in
fact you had well I told them that and I
went totally by what they said the
doctors more than one they said you
don't have any of the symptoms they
checked what you're supposed to check
and that I didn't have symptoms but I
did it I did a test late on Friday night
and it came back probably 24 hours later
or something they sent it to the labs
came back later yeah please mr.
president you had a teleconference with
the nation's governor's today and even a
teleconference you told them if they
need things like respirators or masks to
try to get it on their own
what did you mean by that and they can
get them faster by getting them on their
own in other words go through a supply
chain that they may have because the
governor's you know during normal times
the governor's buy a lot of things not
necessarily through a federal government
if they are able to get ventilators
respirators if they were able to get
certain things without having to go
through the the longer process of
federal government we have stockpiles
now or we're ordering tremendous numbers
of ventilators respirators masks and
they're ordered and they're coming and
we have quite a few at this point I
think Mike we have a lot but if they can
if they can get them directly it's
always going to be faster if they can
get them directly if they need them and
I've given them authorization to order
directly
mr. president one of the big weaknesses
in our health care system is search
capacity for medical facilities and I
wanted to ask what precautions what what
plane is being done to get China was
able to build hospitals in a matter of
days
are you prepared to use the Corps of
Engineers or FEMA to start building
search capacity that we may need in a
couple weeks well first of all we hope
we don't get there and that's what we're
doing and that's why we're taking a very
strict look at this but we also are
looking at areas and not only looking
we're expanding certain areas we're
taking over buildings that aren't used
we're doing a lot in that regard we hope
we don't have to get there but we are
doing a lot in that regard
no one should worry about losing a
paycheck in place stay home when they're
sick but the House bill exempts
companies of 500 employees or more from
the paid sick leave real requirement and
that's 54% of the American workplace why
is it a good idea to only one buyer
small businesses to provide me well we
look into that and we may be expanding
that we are looking at that we want
fairness we wanted for everybody know
we're looking at that through the Senate
because as you know the Senate is now
digesting that bill so we may very well
be I can get back to you with that
number we've ordered a lot we have quite
a few but it may not be enough and if
it's not enough we will have it by the
time we need it hopefully we won't need
them we'll give you we could give you a
number if it's important we'll give you
another day yesterday you said that this
was under tremendous control do you want
to revisit that statement if we are
going to experiences experiencing this
until July or August five more months
control I'm saying we are doing a very
good job within the confines of what
we're dealing with we're doing a very
good job there's been a there's been a
tremendous amount of the the the way
they're working together they're working
hand
and I think they're doing really a great
job and from that standpoint that's what
I was referring to yes I'm not referring
to it meaning the yeah if you're talking
about the virus no that's not under
control for any place in the world I
think I read I think I read now I didn't
know I was talking about what we're
doing is under control but I'm not
talking about the virus yes please stock
market took another hit today
is the US economy heading into a
recession well it may be we're not
thinking in terms of recession we're
thinking in terms of the virus once we
stop I think there's a tremendous pent
up demand both in terms of the stock
market in terms of the economy and once
this goes away once it goes through and
we're done with it I think you're gonna
see a tremendous a tremendous surge
we're not really we hope we don't have
to see if we we think that hopefully we
won't have to do that but it's certainly
something that we talk about every day
we haven't made that decision are
telling us across the board and they're
terrified of this virus of the fact they
get it or the fact that they might take
it home to their families what can you
say to assure health care providers in
this country that the federal government
is doing something today to ensure that
they get personal protective equipment
to protect themselves and their family
well I think the federal government's
doing everything that we can possibly do
we made some very good early decisions
by keeping people out by keeping both
countries out certain countries where
the infection was very immense I noticed
a lot of people are talking about South
Korea because they've done a good job on
one side but on the other side
tremendous problems at the beginning
they had tremendous problems and great
numbers of death I think that we've done
it a fantastic job from just about every
standpoint with that being said you look
no matter way you look this is something
it's an invisible enemy and but we are
speaking all the time not only with the
people but also the professional people
the nurses the doctors they have been
doing a fantastic job we are also
working very much on getting them the
kind of equipment that they need and for
the most part they're either they either
have it or they will be getting it
but remember this we want the governor's
we want the mayor's we want them locally
from a local standpoint because it can
go quicker we want them to work and we
we had a great talk with the governor's
today I think it was a really great talk
there's a tremendous coordination
there's a tremendous spirit that we have
together with the governor's and that's
pretty much for the most part bipartisan
yeah I guess you just told Steve when he
asked you about a possibility of
recession you said it may be I'm curious
if there is a recession when do you
think that well I don't I don't number
one determine recession I just say this
we have an invisible enemy we have a
problem that a month ago nobody ever
thought about nobody in a you know I've
read about it I read about many years
ago 1917-1918 I've seen all of the
different the different problems similar
to this that we've had this is a bad one
this is a very bad one this is bad in
the sense that it's so contagious it's
just so contagious sort of
record-setting type contagion and the
good part is the young people or they do
very well and healthy people do very
well very very bad for older people
especially older people with problems my
focus is really on getting rid of this
problem this virus problem once we do
that everything else is going to fall
into place yes last night that you were
going to put in a national curve for you
watching right exactly me too your
people were saying this is a foreign
disinformation campaign that's what's
going on are people messing with us on
the Internet well I don't know I mean
that I can't tell you if they are or not
I think a lot of the media heck actually
has been very fair I think people are
pulling together on this I really think
the media has been very fair I think it
could be that you have some foreign
groups that are playing games but it
doesn't matter we haven't really
determined to do that at all and
hopefully we won't have to
it's a very big step it's a step we can
take but we have not decided to do it
Jennifer go on one on Airlines and with
Jeff Bezos can you talk a little bit
specifically about what you'd like to do
to help the airlines first of all and
then second of all we heard that Jeff
Bezos has been in contact with the White
House of daily can you say what he's
been asking for proposals well I've
heard that's true I don't know that for
a fact but I know that some of my people
of as I understand have been dealing
with them or with him and that's nice
we've had tremendous support from a lot
of people that can help and I believe he
was one of them as far as the airlines
are concerned the airlines we're going
to back the airlines 100% not their
fault it's nobody's fault unless you go
to the original source but it's nobody's
fault and we're going to be in a
position to help the airlines very much
we've told the airlines we're gonna help
them we're gonna help me we're gonna be
back stopping the airlines we're gonna
be helping them very much we're going to
be looking at it very strongly we have
to back the airlines it's not their
fault
in fact they were having a record season
everybody was they were having record
seasons and then this came out and it
came out from nowhere so not their fault
but we're gonna be back in the airline
yeah continue to fall today support-
just a second over the stock market is
we have to get through this crisis
that's what I can do that's the best
thing we can do that's what I think
about once once this virus has gone I
think you're gonna have a stock market
like nobody's ever seen before
the other day he'll be back in a second
get your knee back the second I think
the question that I think maybe John
asked about until July the guidelines
are a 15-day trial guideline to be
reconsidering it isn't that these
guidelines are now gonna be in effect
until July what the president was saying
is that the trajectory of the outbreak
may go til then make sure we don't think
that these are is solid in stone till
July yeah that would be the outside I
think it even better look they're
working together very well with the
house they're working very much in
unison like the question before they're
working to only enhance it and make it
better and make it fair for everybody
and that's what we're looking to do so
we may go back and forth with the house
a little bit but both will be in a very
positive fashion please these new
guidelines say avoid social gatherings
and groups of more than 10 people the
CDC's recommendations yesterday work for
people to avoid gatherings more than 50
people what's involved and you and your
team's thinking in just the past 24
hours
and also what exactly do you need to see
well let me just have the professionals
thank you then thank you for that
question
so we have been working on models day
and night around the globe to really
predict because some countries in our
very early stage like the United States
we've been working with groups in the
United Kingdom so we had new information
coming out from a model and that what
had the biggest impact in the model is
social distancing small groups not going
in public in large groups the most
important thing was if one person in the
household became infected the whole
household self quarantine for 14 days
because that stops a hundred percent of
the transmission outside of the
household
and as we talked about early on it's
silent
we had another silent epidemic HIV and I
just want to recognize the HIV epidemic
was solved by the community the HIV
advocates and activists who stood up
when no one was listening and got
everyone's attention we're asking that
same sense of community to come together
and stand up against this virus and if
they've everybody in America does what
we ask for over the next 15 days we will
see a dramatic difference and we won't
have to worry about the ventilators and
we won't have to worry about the ICU
beds because we won't have our elderly
and our people at the greatest risk
having to be hospitalized Thank You mr.
president very productive call today
with governor's we talked about the new
rollout of testing that we described
yesterday and drive through in
community-based testing and I know how
grateful the president is for the the
efforts that governor's are making and
now with the Admiral and the United
States Public Health Service as well as
FEMA we made great progress today and
coordinating those efforts but the other
issue that was raised with the president
today was personal protective equipment
and the reason I mentioned testing is
because one of the recommendations that
we have for States is that these remote
testing sites make a priority of two
groups one would be people over the age
of 65 that have symptoms we don't want
them to go to hospitals or emergency
rooms we want them to go to a remote
site in a parking lot or at a isolated
community location but the other
category is our health care workers we
want to make sure that our health care
workers have the opportunity to be
tested and using that new
high-throughput test that the president
arranged with our major commercial labs
we'll be able to do that much more
expeditiously so we're putting a real
priority on our extraordinary health
care workers that are that are at this
very hour coming alongside people that
are struggling
with the coronavirus and people that are
concerned that they may have been
exposed the other piece is we're
grateful that the legislation passed by
the House of Representatives includes
liability protection for n95 masks
produced by companies like 3m in
Minnesota by Honeywell literally tens of
millions of masks are produced every
year for industrial purposes for
construction but the health experts say
they can be used just as readily to
protect healthcare workers from
respiratory ailments 3m and other
companies were not able to sell those to
hospitals but the president negotiated
with the Democratic leadership of the
House and Senate we've added a provision
to the bill that will literally from one
company alone add another 30 million
masks per month back to the marketplace
we're strengthening the supply chain and
health care workers around America can
be absolutely certain that the president
and our entire team are going to
continue to put the health of America
first and put first our health care
workers across this country that are
meeting the needs of the people of our
country kids have been sent out and how
many people can actually be tested so
thank you very much for that as we
talked about yesterday we're really
entering a new phase of testing at first
we were at the initial phase where the
CDC developed test was only available in
public health laboratories in the CDC
works very well for a few thousand tests
per day after it gets running we're now
moving into a phase that the big
commercial laboratories with high
throughput screening have availability
so as we talked about last week because
of the historic efforts of the FDA a
Roche test and as the president
predicted a thermo Fisher test were both
produced last week under an emergency
use authorization 1.9 million of those
tests will be sequentially into the
ecosystem this week from the information
we have right now 1 million tests are
available with all the reagents
everything ready to go primarily at the
reference labs called quest lab core and
a couple others now it doesn't matter if
they are not in your neighbourhood
because every day when people get tests
a little white box goes out in front it
gets shipped by an incredible
distribution system the test result and
it's electronically reported so these
are available to people nationwide we
expect more and more than 1 million
coming on board this week as the
reagents come up in his people with the
testing capacity validate that in their
own hospitals and other and other places
and in the future we expect at least 2
million next week and at least 5 million
the week thereafter there are also a
whole growth of what's called laboratory
determined testing or laboratory derived
testing where individual laboratories
because of the regulatory deregulation
of the FDA can develop their own test
and start using them so if you're a CLIA
certified lab with complexity you can do
that so the point is testing is now
entering sort of what we normally do in
the healthcare system where big labs in
a high-throughput basis receive these
through normal channels so that part of
it is really underway how many Americans
have actually been tested you haven't
known there is a number I don't have
that number because I've been working on
setting up this distribution system so
this is where we are the state and
public health laboratories in the CDC
are published every day on the CDC
website the CDC gets feeds from lab from
LabCorp and quest and they get that on a
daily basis what is not being received
right now and ambassador birx is fixing
is that these homegrown tests in highly
complex labs don't necessarily get
reported in the system however as we
move forward particularly in the high in
the commercial phase of where we are
right now we expect about 80 to 85% of
the tests to flow right into the CDC we
know them that's not good enough for
Ambassador Burk she wants 100 and we'll
work on that
so I think just to put it a different
love a lot of testings have been going
on and I don't believe anybody's been
able to do what we're doing and what we
will be doing and let me just say that
we talked about the drive through
testing yesterday I want it to be clear
to everybody this is just another tool
for states and local public health
systems and healthcare systems to use
it's not replacing testing that it goes
on in a doctor's office or in a hospital
or if you go to your doctor and wants to
get tested in that office this is just
another tool that we're hoping the
states to have and again as we talked
about this is modeled on the FEMA base
points a distribution system optimized
for testing we expect this week we now
have gear people being shipped right now
today that will be in over 12 states
with multiple sites many of many of
States having multiple sites to start
augmenting the local capacity and really
providing the state and the local people
what they need as another way for people
to get tested before that's never been
done and certainly not on a level like
that and I will say that I think I can
speak for the professionals that if you
don't have the symptoms if your doctor
doesn't think you need it don't get the
tests don't get the tests I think it's
very important not everybody should run
out and get the tests but we were able
to handle tremendous numbers of people
today New York said that he believes
that Hospital hospital capacity soon
will be overwhelmed and implored you to
call on the Army Corps of Engineers
to build temporary facilities to house
patients is that something we're looking
into it we've heard that we've heard it
from really two places there are two
places that have specifically New York
being one and we are looking into it
very strongly yeah
take account if you are you washing your
hands in the world I've always worked my
hands a lot I wash my hands a lot
probably maybe of anything more
certainly not less not not something I
want to do every day I can tell you that
it's you know it's a little bit of a
it's a little bit of good doctors in the
white house but it's a test it's a test
it's a medical test nothing Pleasant
about it in a tweet Governor Cuomo
should be doing more what I think he
can't do more but I think you I think
you can do more and you know it's an
area of the country that's very hot
right now I think New Rochelle and place
I'd know very well threw up right near
New Rochelle I think it's a it's a very
now I think it's an area that has to be
tamp down even more because it's a
hotbed there's no question about it so I
think they can look at doing it but
we're getting along very well we've had
a very in fact I noticed he made some
statements just now that the
relationship with the federal government
has been good that federal government
has done everything they've wanted us to
do but we can I think I think it's very
important that all of the governors get
along very well with us and that we get
along with the governors and I think
that's happening and being a bubble to
avoid the spread of the disease and to
protect the chain of command is that
something you and the Vice President
should be doing and has there been any
talk about having to have a 25th
amendment we haven't thought of it but
you know I will say this that it's we're
very careful
we're very careful was with you know
being together even the people behind me
are very they've been very strongly
tested I've been very strongly tested
and we have to be very careful but
everybody should be vigilant we have to
be vigilant yep
two simple questions from this before
you okay I don't know if this is a
question for you or for dr. parks but
dr. Burke said that it is the
Millennials who are gonna lead us
through this and that now is the time to
look out for the older people in our
home older might be a state of mind not
necessarily an age so for those
Millennials of us who have parents who
are in their 50s 60s 70s
what is older what should we tell them
at this point well if I was dr. Falchi I
would tell you there's a physiologic age
and a numerical age so older people with
pre-existing conditions and what do we
mean by that you know significant heart
disease significant kidney disease
significant lung disease any
immunosuppression
any recent treatment for cancer any of
those pieces and any household now why
do I think the Millennials are the key
because they're the ones that are out in
the bout and they're the most likely to
be in social gatherings and they're the
most likely to be the least symptomatic
and I think we've always heard about the
greatest generation we're protecting the
greatest generation right now and the
children of the greatest generation and
I think the Millennials can help us
tremendously by having a plus they need
to communicate with each other public
health people like myself don't always
come out with compelling and exciting
messages that a 25 to 35 year old may
find interesting and something that
we'll take to heart but Millennials can
speak to one another about how important
that is in this moment to protect all of
the people now you could be 40 and have
a significant medical condition and be a
substantial risk you could be 30 and
having come through Hodgkin's disease or
non-hodgkins lymphoma and be of a
significant risk so there are risk
groups in every age group but the eight
there's more Millennials now than any
other cohort and they can help us at
this moment
mr. president the other day you said
that you were not responsible for the
testing shortfall very simple question
does the buck stop with you and on a
scale of one to ten how would you rate
your response to this crisis I'd read it
a tenth I think we've done a great job
and it started with the fact that we
kept a very highly infected country
despite all of the even the
professionals saying now it's too early
to do that we were very very early with
respect to China and we would have a
whole different situation in this
country if we didn't do that I would
rate it a very very I would rate
ourselves and and the professionals I
think the professionals have done a
fantastic job as far as the testing you
heard the Admiral I think the the
testing that we've done we we've really
took over an obsolete system or put it
maybe in a different way a system that
wasn't meant to do anything like this we
took it over and we're doing something
that's never been done in this country
and I think that we are doing very well
we took the system we worked with the
system we had and we broke down the
system purposely we broke it down in
order to do what we're doing now and
within a short period of time and even
now we're testing tremendous numbers of
people and ultimately you're saying it
will be what it will be up to how many
people will be able to test we certain
we certainly expect with the high
throughput testing that that's no longer
a barrier the barrier is actually doing
the test on a person and I'm sure as the
president will would inform you in order
to do the test a health care provider
needs to dress in full personal
protective equipment a full personal
protective equipment and there's a swab
that's put in the back of the nose all
the way to the back of the throat it's
called a nasopharyngeal swab which is
then put in media the next person who
has to get tested that healthcare
provider has to change all the personal
protective equipment when you put that
in it's highly likely a person coughs or
sneezes so you're at risk so that's what
we're trying to fix now by the mobile
platforms by all the things we're doing
is to enable sort of high throughput of
this swabbing and we're doing some
technological things too that might be
breakthroughs to make it much much
faster but we certainly expect that from
thousands of people per day we will we
will be at the tens of thousands of
people per day this week according to
those who are normally but I think when
you hear the you know this has never
been done before in this country if you
look back you know take a look at some
of the things that took place in oh 9 or
11 or whatever it may have been
they never did nobody's ever done
anything like what we're doing now I
will also say ed well I think we can say
that we're also getting this ready for
the future so that when we have a future
problem if and when and hopefully we
don't have anything like this but if
there is we're gonna be very we're gonna
be starting from a much higher plateau
because we were at a very very low base
we had a system that was not meant for
this it was a smaller system it was
meant for a much different purpose and
for that purpose it was fine but not for
this purpose so we broke down the system
and now we have something that's going
to be and and is very special and is
ready for future problems I think we can
say that very strongly
yes to shutting down America's northern
border and could you also speak to the
fact about the elections that are
supposed to be taking place tomorrow is
it it your advice at those states
postpone those elections
well I'd leave that up to the states
it's a big thing postponing an election
I think to me that really goes to the
heart of what we're all about I think
the postponing and election is a very
tough thing I know they're doing because
they've been in touch with us they're
doing it very carefully they're
spreading people out very at great
distances as you can see and I think
they'll do it very safely I hope they do
it very safely but I think postponing
elections is a very it's not a very good
thing they have lots of room and a lot
of the electoral places and I think that
they will do it very well but I think
postponing is unnecessary think about it
we think about it if we don't have to do
it that'll be good we have very strong
emergency powers when it comes to
something like this both on the southern
and the
northern borders and we we are talking
about different things but we'll see
right now we have not decided to do that
Steve dr. pouchy to talk about the
vaccine file today and whether the
timetable for vaccine has is it possible
accelerators are still 1218 thank you
for that question the vaccine candidate
that was given the first injections for
the first person took place today you
might recall when we first thought it I
said it would be two to three months and
if we did that that would be the fastest
we've ever gone from obtaining the
sequence to being able to do a phase 1
trial this has been now 65 days which I
believe is the record what it is it's a
trial of 45 normal individuals between
the ages of 18 and 55 the trial is
taking place in Seattle there will be
two injections one at zero day first one
then 28 days there will be three
separate doses 25 milligrams 100
milligrams 250 milligrams and the
individuals will be followed for one
year both for safety and whether it
induces the kind of response that we
predict would be protective and that's
exactly what I've been telling this
group over and over again so what's
happened the first injection was today
who may have felt sick but then feels
better so you had symptoms but no you no
longer do your fevers going away how
long would you stay home after that
point that's not clear for me well if
you are if you are positive for the
infection if you have corona virus it is
less how you feel then whether or not
you're still shedding virus so the
general issue about letting people out
of a facility who for example a hospital
or whatever who have been infected you
need to negative cultures the same way
that was just described 24 hours apart
the market the market will take care of
itself the market will be very strong as
soon as we get rid of the virus today
the pregnancy was one of those
underlying conditions do we say that too
there's very little data and pregnant
women I think I about a week ago I said
that reports that came in from China
from the Chinese CDC of the nine women
who were documented to be pregnant and
have coronavirus in their last try
semester delivered healthy children and
they themselves were healthy and
recovered that is our total sample size
and we will be getting more data from
countries while countries are in the
midst of this crisis like Italy it's not
to bother them frequently should get us
their data we try to get it just weekly
from the countries that are in the midst
of responding to the epidemics so that
their focus is on their individuals in
their country which goes directly
against you know I haven't heard that I
haven't heard that from Devon or anybody
else stop saying that but I have to see
what they said but right now we don't
have an order one way or the other we
don't have an order but I think it's
probably better that you don't
especially in certain areas Oklahoma
doesn't have a tremendous problem
Oklahoma do what the professionals are
saying that's what you're saying in your
guideline people should know checkers
I'll take a look at it absolutely
I don't know who would be best to answer
this question maybe secretaries or dr.
pouchy schools school districts across
the country are closing down yet for the
most part daycare centers remain open
and considering that children can
sometimes be asymptomatic carriers again
and go home to older individuals are
there any recommendations about daycare
centers that's a good question in in in
the original guidelines as they were
they were presented it was schools not
daycare I think it's very important we
should probably if you have not the site
go back and discuss that in some detail
about whether or not that's equivalent
to school a good question the question
about the sort of underlying public
health strategy behind some of these
guidelines telling people to avoid
restaurants and bars is a different
thing than saying that bars and
restaurants should shut down over the
next 15 days so why was it seen as being
imprudent or not not necessary to take
that additional step offered an
additional guidance I think we have to
say the data had that has been coming
out and I'm sure you're also up to the
date up to date on how long the virus
lives on hard surfaces and that has been
our concern over the last two weeks he
was my mentor so I'm going to have to
let him speak the small print here it's
really small print in states with
evidence of community transmission baws
restaurants food courts gyms and other
indoor and outdoor venues where groups
of people congregate should be closed
are you telling governors in those
states then to close all their
restaurants well we haven't said that
yet one recommending but we're
recommending things no we haven't gone
to that step yet that could happen but
we haven't gone there yet please so on
the election you're saying bad things if
you got the ten person maximum
of you know guideline in a practical
sense can you have rallies can you
primaries shortly Gavin long time well
hopefully there's gonna last through and
hopefully that will have everybody will
be going to restaurants and flying and
being on cruise ships at all of these
different things that we do and it will
very very hopefully be in a fairly quick
period of time but where we're taking a
tough stance we may make certain other
decisions we may enhance those decisions
we're going to find out as per the
question that you were asking some of
those decisions may be handsome how
about one more on HHS is there any
reason to believe that they were trying
to hack into the system and gather
information donuts in soon and also is
there any reason so were they trying to
hack to get information or and also wait
do you have any reason to think that it
could have been Iran Russia do you have
any any reason to leave as a for next so
in the previous 24 hours we saw a great
deal of enhanced activity with relation
to the HHS HHS computer systems and
website fortunately we have extremely
strong barriers we had no penetration
into our networks we had no degradation
of the functioning of our networks we
had no limitation of our capacity for
people to telework we've taken very
strong defensive actions the source of
this enhanced activity remains under
investigation so I wouldn't want to
speculate on the source of it but there
was no data breach or no degradation in
terms of our ability to function and
serve our important mission here one
thing like you said it's very important
to get out that this is for the next
what we're talking about much of what
we're talking about is for the next 15
days my good I've not been tested yet
I'm in regular consultation with the
White House physician and he said I've
not been exposed anyone for any period
of time they heard the corona virus and
that my wife and I have no symptoms but
we're checking our temperature regularly
every day and we'll continue to follow
guidance which I think may be a good a
good place to land at the end of the day
and that
as we expand testing rapidly around the
country through the new public-private
partnership that the president
facilitated we want the test to be
available for people who have symptoms
people that who have symptoms and are in
vulnerable populations and our health
care workers to make sure that they can
have the peace of mind that they're
doing their jobs and they're properly
protected and so our best counsel the
council the experts is if you have a
question call your doctor call your
health care provider and ask whether or
not you should be tested and that's what
my family is doing as well let me just
emphasize one more point if I can the
president asks the taskforce to
continuously review the data and the
information that we have not only in
this country but from around the world
to give the best guidance to state
leadership and local health care
leadership and all of the American
people about how to keep themselves
their family and their community safe
this guidance for the next 15 days is
what our experts say is the best
opportunity we have to lower the
infection rate over the entire course of
the coronavirus just as the President
did by suspending travel from China just
as he did with travel advisories and
screening from Italy and South Korea and
just as we've done with Europe and and
at midnight tonight with the UK and
Ireland will continue to take very
decisive steps to lower the spread of
the coronavirus but we want every
American to know and we would ask all of
all of you in the media just spread the
word of the American people that this is
advice on behalf of the President of the
United States to every American what you
can do over the next 15 days to prevent
the spread of the corona virus and we're
calling on every American to do your
part because together we'll get through
this and we'll find our way forward
yeah I know did you say what was the
upshot are you still gonna be able to
meet that Camp David well it looks like
it men are you confident in their
responses very confident too they're
they're in a position that some of them
are in a rough position if you look at a
couple of them and some are heading
toward pretty rough territory we had a
very good conference it was a
teleconference everybody was on the
phone every leader and almost a hundred
percent was devoted to the subject that
we're talking about today and they are
working very hard and if you know
they're very concerned obviously but
they're working very hard but I would
say just about all of it was Steve all
of it was devoted to what we're talking
baby I think so I mean so far it seems
we have it we didn't even discuss that
still a ways off but it was a very good
discussion and they have there's a great
camaraderie there's a great togetherness
I think it was I think I can say that
very very strongly thank you all very
much thank you thank you
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you
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