Trump And Coronavirus Task Force Brief From White House | NBC News (Live Stream)

governors are issuing stay-at-home orders here in Florida population 21 million that mandate has not been ordered but we discovered families like the LaFave are doing just that staying at home and they say easier said than done in the age of coronavirus kids like nine year old twins Addison and Aiden have been spending a lot of time at home on the computer studying older sister Kaylee an eighth grader is cut off from friends except on FaceTime now more than a week and to stay at home the LaFave

kids in Central Florida like adults say they get it it's spreading too fast and we have to stop it from spreading so we stay home but for you what's that like we take you now to the White House for the coronavirus briefing nothing but communicate with the various officials including that we've been spending a lot of time with New York officials because that really is by far the hottest spot they've got a number of very tough weeks ahead of them the governor's doing a very good job I spoke to the

governor Governor Cuomo last night and this morning and he mentioned that in his remarks that he's using the that we are using and I think he feels because he understands negotiation he thinks we're using very appropriately the defense production act and we are we're using it where needed it's a great point of leverage it's a great negotiating tool but I'm really I will tell you this tremendous spirit from people and tremendous spirit with respect to these companies and I don't have to use it v

ery much at all they want to do it as you know General Motors is involved Ford's involved 3m s involved others are involved and they're all working very hard to produce product different all different products we had very little product when we came we built it up and we've we give it away as fast as we can to the different states we're also as you know building numerous hospitals and medical centers throughout certain areas in New York it's at the Convention Center the Javits Convention Center

we're doing for hospitals and we're doing throughout the state for medical centers they're somewhat different I want you to know that I'm doing everything in my power to help the city pull through this challenge I'm working very hard in New York it's really by far our biggest problem maybe it will be maybe it won't be but there's a lot of good capable people working on it with us and our teams are working very well with the state representatives we're also doing some very large testings througho

ut the country I told you yesterday that in South Korea this is not a knock in anyway because I've I just spoke with president moon we had a very good conversation about numerous other things but they've done a very good job in testing but we now are doing more testing than anybody by far we do more in eight days and they do in eight weeks and we go up on a daily basis exponentially so it's really good by the way while I'm on it I'd also spoke with Prime Minister avi of Japan last night and I co

ngratulated him on a wise choice I think it's going to be a fantastic Olympics 2021 I think it's going to be a fantastic Olympics it was the absolute right decision to delay it for a full year and now have a full beautiful Olympics it's going to be very important because it's probably the first time maybe ever or certainly in a long time that it was on a year so we've done an even year they tell me but he's gonna have a fantastic success and now that I've even more time he didn't need any more t

ime everything was perfectly ready what a job they've done but Japan and I want to congratulate Japan the IOC and prime minister are you on a great decision I think it's going to be a fantastic Olympic site I'll be there I'll be there as we fight to protect American lives we're also protecting American livelihoods Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are very close to passing an emergency relief bill for American workers families and businesses this legislation in addition to the two bills I

signed this month that includes you know sick leave and we have all sorts of things and for the workers for families but we have a tremendous paid sick leave provision for workers at no cost at all to the employers and that's a big thing no cost to the employers we want to get everybody back working together this 2.2 trillion dollar legislative package is bigger than anything I believe ever passed in Congress perhaps relatively speaking if you go back look during the FDR New Deal days there was

something that if you time value it you could say it was bigger I don't know but this is certainly in terms of dollars by far and away the biggest ever ever done and that's a tremendous thing because a lot of this money goes to jobs jobs jobs and families families families the Senate bill as you know includes 350 billion dollars in job retention loans for small businesses with loan forgiveness available for businesses that continue paying their workers they continue paying their workers that's w

hat we want we want them to keep their workers and pay their workers this while businesses keep workers in the payroll that allow our economy to quickly accelerate as soon as we defeat the virus 300 billion dollars in direct cash payments will be available for every American citizen earning less than 99 thousand dollars per year that would be three thousand four hundred dollars very quickly for the typical family of four nothing like that's ever been done and country up to 250 billion dollars in

expanded unemployment benefits the average worker who has lost his or her job will receive 100% of their salary for up to four full months unlike normal unemployment benefits independent contractors and the self-employed will be eligible so you have independent contractors and self-employed people will be eligible for this over 100 billion dollars to support the heroic work of our doctors nurses and hospitals they've been incredible 45 billion dollars for disaster relief fund so we are setting

up a fund to 45 billion dollars for disaster relief that's more than doubling the amount available to support my national emergency and disaster declarations it's a doubling up 27 billion dollars to build up the strategic national stockpile with critical supplies including masks respirators pharmaceuticals and everything you can imagine because it was very depleted like our military was depleted now we have a brand new military Nevada military like this we have equipment either coming or it's al

ready come for the most part it's already come but we have a lot of things that will soon be coming planes missiles rockets lots of things but the stockpile was very depleted like everything else this will also include significant funding for the development of vaccines on top of the eight billion dollars we approved several weeks ago over five hundred billion dollars in support for the hardest-hit industries with a ban on corporate stock buybacks which is something I insisted on and frankly I t

ell you the Republicans wanted that and the Democrats wanted that we want them to use the money for the companies and the planes or whatever they may be helping to get over this rough patch and I don't think it's gonna end up being such a rough patch I think it's gonna when we open especially if we can open it sooner the better it's gonna open up like a rocket ship I think it's gonna go very good or very quickly and you're gonna have some tough new limits or an executive compensation also they n

eed the money they're gonna have to sort of just make things work because we're interested in the workers the jobs and weren't just in the companies because that's really what what feels the workers in those great jobs and we also have 16 billion dollars in funding for the purchase of personal protective equipment you know about that such as masks and respirators through the strategic national stockpile I encourage the house to pass this vital legislation and send the bill to my desk for signatu

re without delay I will sign it immediately we will have a signing and it'll be a great signing and a great day for the American worker and for American families and frankly for American companies some of which were having the best years they've ever had his last few years and then a little bit less than a month ago they went into a position that they haven't seen because of the hidden enemy the virus earlier today I spoke to the leaders of many of America's amazing nonprofit organizations I tha

nk them for their unwavering and unwavering devotion to American people to American families to our nation and they have been fantastic they've been collecting supplies distributing food supporting health care workers caring for vulnerable workers and families I encourage them to continue to do it but I'll tell the nonprofit's have been fantastic they've been great they're great people actually I know a lot of them finally I want to provide a brief update on the critical supplies through FEMA th

e federal government is delivered or is in the process of shipping nine point four million n95 respirators think of that nine point four million 20 million surgical masks and we have others that we think are going to be delivered quickly the whole world you know it's not just us it's not just the states the whole world is trying to get these things so come in competition with many many countries I believe today you broke the 150 mark for the virus we have a hundred and fifty countries over a hun

dred and fifty countries where you have this virus and nobody would ever believe a thing like that's possible nobody could have ever seen something like this coming but now we know when we know it can happen and happen again and if it does somebody's going to be very well prepared because of what we've learned and how we've done it's been incredible how we've done remember there's more tests than anybody by far and the news the reporters the media it was likes to bring South Korea they called me

and they told me it's amazing you're testing procedures are amazing plus we have a test that's a very high level test and it's a test that's very accurate 3.1 million facials 2.6 million surgical gowns 14.6 million gloves and almost six thousand ventilators which go to the areas of greatest needs we sent over the last day four thousand ventilators to New York and I spoke with the governor about that he was happy I spoke with the mayor also about that Merida Blasio he was very happy it's hard no

t to be happy with the job we're doing that I can tell you throughout this national emergency every day heroes continue to step forward and demonstrate the extraordinary character of our nation including the people behind me by the way these people are amazing they are amazing people and they become I don't know maybe I should just speak for myself but to me they've become friends maybe they don't like me maybe they don't maybe they do I don't know all I can tell you is if they're talented peopl

e they work very hard in Maryland a seven-year-old boy used his own birthday money to buy meals for dozens of senior citizens in Nevada a college student recruited 90 of her friends to help deliver groceries and supplies to the most vulnerable this is happening all over the country thousands and thousands of instances I could stand up here all day and tell you about other things in Minnesota hundreds of medical students have volunteered to provide child care for hospital workers helping to keep

our doctors and nurses on the frontlines fighting to save lives these inspiring Americans remind us that we all have a role to play in winning this great national battle and it's really a worldwide battle we're dealing with other nations all the time the people here are I am a little bit I take calls from a lot of people they're in trouble a lot of countries are in big trouble so now we will hear from our great Secretary of the Treasury he's been working rather hard I will tell you Steve Medicis

is a fantastic guy and he loves our country and he's been dealing with both sides Republicans and Democrats he sort of lived over in that beautiful building it's a very beautiful building to me one of the most beautiful buildings actually in the world that he's gotten to know it Steve very well so if we could have a little update state would be fantastic as to how we're doing and what it's looking like thank you thank you very much mr. president and first let me say I would like to thank Mitch

McConnell for his leadership and I'd also like to thank Chuck Schumer for the enormous bipartisan support we had on this bill and the many senators both Republicans and Democrats that work tirelessly over the last five days on all the task force the president said I got to live in the LBJ room for the last five days and we couldn't be more pleased with the unprecedented response from the Senate to protect American workers and American business in this situation the president has outlined many of

these but let me just quickly go through them again small business retention loans this will cover roughly 50% of the private payroll in small businesses where we will immediately make loans that will supply eight weeks of salaries as long as they keep workers employed and overhead and those loans will be forgiven at the end of the period as long as they keep workers employed these are SBA loans but the Treasury will be issuing new regulations authorizing almost every single FDIC insured bank t

o make these I expect by the end of next week we will have a very simple process where these can be made and dispersed in the same day so this will be a very simple system to get money into small business hands for companies that don't qualify that we have a economic program of tax incentives to retain workers and as the president said we have enhanced unemployment insurance for people don't fit into these two programs that will be administered through the states we also have economic impact pay

ments these will be within the next three weeks direct payments into most people's deposit accounts and for those that don't have it we will be having the the checks in the mail our treasury will have additional authorities we have five hundred billion dollars that we can use to work with the Federal Reserve for emergency programs that will create up to an additional four trillion dollars if needed to support American business and American workers in an unprecedented way and then finally the pre

sident mentioned a hundred billion dollars to hospitals and 150 billion dollars to states that have specific coronavirus expenses as well as many additional things mr. president I especially want to thank you and the vice president you were constantly available to us we spoke constantly throughout the day you gave us guidance and quick decisions on many issues and again thank everybody for this great bipartisan work this is going to be enormous help for the American workers in the American econo

my the president was very determined that Congress would move swiftly to protect hardworking Americans in business in this unprecedented situation thank you great day day and night what day and that we was that was there's a lot of work and we'll see how it all goes we still need a vote Steve don't really hand you have a question yes you think this bill will keep the economy afloat hopefully a long time we have to go back we have to go back we're gonna take care of the American worker we're gonn

a take care of these companies that fuel this country and make the country great it's not their fault it's not their fault but we think hopefully this war will be won quicker but we expect that this is a significant amount of money if needed to cover the economy and don't forget a lot of this is going to be to keep companies that are very strong triple-a rated companies previously to keep them going and it's gonna be in the form of loan so the money's gonna come back this buddy's got a lot of th

is money's coming back separately let me ask you about something you said yesterday you said we should never be reliant on a foreign country for the means of our own survival what did you mean that froze well we're relying too many countries where we give up our supply chains we give up our factories we give up our production facilities and we can buy at someplace else for a little bit lower price but it's really costing us more when that happens because we lose jobs we lose everything and we lo

se our independence and we can't let that happen so we'll be making some changes we have been making those changes in executive order to basically ban the export of medical equipment I don't really we'll need that but I think it's happening by itself I think a lot of things are happening well some people we make the best medical equipment in the world and you have some people like the European Union they don't take it because they have specifications that don't allow our equipment in because it'

s designed in a different way even though it's a better way it's designed they're all they're all playing games against us okay they've been playing games against us for years and no president has ever done anything about it but the European Union you look at medical equipment we make the best medical equipment in the world but we can't sell it because or not appropriately and yet we take their medical equipment in our country we're changing things Steve all this is changing but they have specif

ications so that our equipment designed specifically so that our equipment can't come into their countries it's a very terrible thing that's happened to our country and let me tell you some of the people that took the biggest advantage of us our allies you know we talk about allies they took advantage of us in many ways but financially as well as even militarily when you look at look I got if you look at NATO the abuse that was given to our country or NATO where they wouldn't pay and we were pay

ing for everybody we're print now because of me they paint a lot now they paid a hundred and twenty five hundred and thirty-five many billion dollars more and then ultimately Secretary General Stoltenberg well I think what you would say is maybe my biggest fan we got them to pay an additional four hundred billion dollars billion other countries and but but you know that and then there's the trade they make it they make it almost impossible for us to have a fair deal they know this they know I'm

just waiting we have all the advantages by the way it's gonna be easy when I decide to do it but this isn't the right time to do it but we've been treated very very unfairly by the European Union mr. mr. president four Republican sinners have indicated and two extra $600 for unemployment insurance may encourage workers to leave their jobs even though you can only collect unemployment if you're fired curious what you think of that in science well I know the issue very well we talked about it just

a little while ago I'll look Steve on it like you maybe discussed that short no the president I spoke to several of those senators today but let me just explain the issue which is we wanted to have enhanced unemployment insurance most of these states systems have technology that's 30 years old or older so if we had the to customize this with much more specifics we would have this was the only way we could assure that the states could get money out quickly in a fair way so we used $600 across th

e board and I I don't think it'll create incentives most Americans what they want they want to keep their jobs and I said for 50% of these these businesses they will have the businesses keep those jobs so this was in our number one issue was how do we make sure that American workers who needed to keep getting paid this is no fault of their own that businesses have been shut down the president and vice-president wanted to make sure those hardworking Americans got money and this was the most effic

ient way of doing it she spoke with are they in agreement now I'm not gonna comment on the specifics of where they are but I would say you know our expectation is this bill passes tonight and gets to the house tomorrow and they pass it we need to get this money into the American economy and American workers that's the importance of this good thing when you think about that people would get actually more money but we don't want to give a disincentive but they have been talking about that it's a g

ood question actually thank you the family of on another subject the family of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson says that US officials have concluded that he's in Iranian custody free aware of that and shining US officials yeah you know I've been very much involved in that and he was a great gentleman and a great family it's just I mean I have to say this and they've been making the statement to the family I believe but it's not looking good he wasn't well for years anyway in Iran it's not look

ing promising we've gotten so many people back we've got two people back this week but Robert Levinson who was outstanding he was he's been sick for a long time and in had some rough problems prior to his detainment to a capture and we feel terribly for the family but I don't accept that he's dead I don't accept it I mean I'm telling you it's not it's not looking great but I won't accept that he's dead they haven't told us that he's dead but a lot of people are thinking that that is the case twe

eted earlier linking the closing of the country to your election success in in November is this Easter timeline based on your political interest action success notes you said that the media wants the country remain close to know the media would like to see me do poorly in the election I think I think what is that plan based on just so you understand are you ready I think there are certain people that would like it not to open so quickly I think there are certain people that would like it to do f

inancially poorly because they think that would be very good as far as defeating me at the polls and I don't know if that's so but I do think it's so that a lot of that there are people in your profession that would like that to happen I think it's very clear I think it's very clear that there are people in your profession that write fake news you do she does there are people in your profession that write fake news they would love to see me for whatever reason because we've done one hell of a jo

b nobody's done the job that we've done and it's lucky that you have this group here right now for this problem or you wouldn't even have a country left okay I'm a CBN and my second question is we are hearing about pushing for April six payments issues with taxpayers I would say our expectation is within three weeks we will have direct payments out where we have depository information and we're looking to get a lot more information and we have procedures to do that so three weeks for that and I

would say the end of next week we want all the banks to be able to originate loans same day Thank You mr. president I have two questions for you one is this that's morally speaking with the g20 leaders and I want to know if you're gonna lead an effort to crack the wolf-like ban on wild animal markets so as to prevent another pandemic given that Koba 19 is a zoonotic that was transferred to humans in trade or exotic Adam yeah I don't know that that subject should have come up there is a lot of ta

lk that that's how this all happened came out of China and they say that's how it happened in China so it's something maybe will be talked about but it's not the top of my list and also a doctor a cheese shop who's the head of Harvard's Global Health Institute says the key to getting this economy open as soon as possible is to test everyone who needs testing so we can quarantine all infected individuals and allow everyone else to go back to work immediately would you subscribe to that strategy n

o but I we have tested more than anybody if not how many deaths are acceptable yeah how many none okay how many deaths are acceptable to me and none okay none if that's your question look I saw him I saw his statement we have tested by far more than anybody we're testing more than anybody right now there's nobody even close and our tests are the best tests are the most accurate tests but if you're saying we're going to test 350 million people I watched his statement I disagree with it we can go

to certain states I could name him now but I'm not gonna do that but we can go to certain states right now they have virtually no problem we're a very small problem we don't have to test the entire state in the middle west or wherever they may be we'd have to test the entire state I think it's ridiculous we don't have to do it a lot of those states could go back right now and they probably will because at some point in the not-too-distant future certain states are gonna come off the rolls maybe

New York can't and maybe California can't maybe the state of Washington can't although if you look at them their biggest problem was in one nursing home yeah go ahead but the states aren't silent and so I mean somebody if you test one state and then the person moves over to the other states well then you know you're gonna just look at that but if you take a look at the states and many states that I'm talking about they don't have a problem we have some big problems but it's confined to certain a

reas high density areas so why would we test the entire nation 350 people with that being said I'm gonna say it again we tested far more than anybody else we are we have the ability to test I mean we've come a long way from an obsolete broken system that I inherited we have now tested with the best test far more than anybody else want to see anybody else I'm talking about other countries no country is even close they came out with a statistic I guess yesterday that I heard from dr. Burks where i

t's four eight eight days here more than eight weeks in South Korea and South Korea's done a good job we did in eight days more than South Korea did in eight weeks that's a big number and we're getting I said before exponentially better every day is going up substantially we have an incredible apparatus built now but no I don't want to test three hundred and fifty million people I think it's ridiculous yes please because as the g20 countries to do for more resources for a coordinated stimulus pa

ckage ban on tariffs we've all sanctions to try to prevent what they call and apocalyptic pandemic would you consider those measures and with respect to what Arabs and also related also to weight tariffs and also we're strong waters and would you consider to join this global effort so before I came here we weren't into borders we had a country people could come in we had a whole different deal now we're up to almost a hundred and sixty four miles think of that one hundred and sixty four miles of

wall big beautiful wall and in those areas it's very very tough to come in we've been very tough on the borders I mean where we have the wall built where nobody's getting through now they're going around but that's a long trip they're going around that's the way they get through but now I'm very strong and borders and I don't want people coming in here I what I want is if they're going to come in to have to come in Legally they have to come in through merit we're not having the people that you'

re talking about come into our country question for you then perhaps you'll let me both Republican and Democrats packages the stimulus included 25 million dollars worth of funding for the Kennedy performance arts center here in Washington DC shouldn't that money be going to masks respirators no what I approve that and I knew it was 35 million and we actually took off 10 but I'm a fan of that although I haven't spent time there because I'm far too busy I'd love to go there evenings but I'm too bu

sy doing things because that's more important for me than going there but the Kennedy Center has suffered greatly because nobody can go there it's essentially closed and they do need some funding and I said look that was a Democrat request that was not my request but you got to give him something it's something that they wanted you know it works that way where the Democrats have treated us fairly I really believe that we've had a very good back-and-forth and I say that with respect to Chuck Schu

mer I spoke to him a number of times but you know they had requests also so that was a request there were 35 yes you know and it came down to 25 we got it down to 25 we agreed I said that's a lousy two soundbite that's not a good sound bite but that's the way life works with that being said the Kennedy Center they do a beautiful job an incredible job David Rubenstein does a fantastic job he's very much involved and he puts up a lot of money and he does things that a lot of people wouldn't be abl

e to do or do but they've been essentially closed they have tremendous deficits that are built up I mean this thing has been devastating to it so I didn't have a big problem with it but this was a request from the Democrats because of the fact that they have a facility that's essentially closed up another question serve I wanted to go there tonight to look at Romeo and Juliet I'd love to see Romeo and Juliet tonight you know what happened they said sorry 250 people or 50 people whatever it might

be down to good and then earlier today Senator Marco Rubio told RCP that quote the World Health Organization showed favoritism to China on flow and then representative Michael McCall the ranking member the House Foreign Relations Committee he questioned the integrity of the World Health Organization's director saying quote that there were several red flags in his past with respect to his relationship with China do you agree do you think the World Health Organization showed favoritism and then o

nce all the dust settles do you think that the United States should restore its relationship with the World Health Organization I think there is a lot of certainly a lot of talk that has been very unfair I think that a lot of people feel that it's been very unfair it's been very very much sided with China and a lot of people are not happy about it at the same time doctor foul chair myself and other people there are people on there that we like and we know a lot of I think your friends are there

a lot of good people a lot of good professionals I don't know be interesting to hear if you'd like to talk about the world WHL but the fact is that I have heard for years that that is very much biased toward China so I don't know you want me to get you into this political message no I don't want you to do that but I will so Ted Rose is really an outstanding person I've known him from the time that he was the Minister of Health of Ethiopia I mean obviously over the years anyone who says that the

w-h-o has not had problems has not been watching the w-h-o but I think under his leadership they've done very well he has been all over this I was on the phone with him a few hours ago leading a whu-oh call no I'm not true I'm not talking about China you asked me about Ted Rose will help organization praising China for its transparency and leadership on their response the pandemic you know I I can't comment on that because I mean that I don't have any viewpoint into it I mean I don't I don't eve

n know what your question is you know let me just tell you I have heard that for years I spoke to him yesterday seems fine to me I don't know but we're the ones who gave the great response and we're the ones that kept China out of here and if we didn't do it you'd have thousands and thousands of people died would have died that are now living and happy if I didn't do that early call on China and nobody wanted that to happen everybody thought it was a just unnecessary to do it and if we didn't do

that thousands and thousands of people would have died more than what's happened so that's it right maybe one more Steve guy when you have this g20 meeting tomorrow what sort of coordinated response are you expect we have a meeting with the 20 nations total including us and there'll be it'll be a conference call tomorrow morning sometime I look forward to people I know I like I think in every instance I like every one of them but it'll be an interesting call you'll be the first to know next wee

k when the 15 day period ends what should we expect there are you gonna extend it for another what we're talking now I'll be speaking I'll be speaking with Tony I'll be speaking with Deborah be speaking with some of the people that they like and respect and they're gonna bring along with them we'll be speaking to vice president Mike Pence and Steve and we'll be speaking everybody I'm not gonna do anything rash or hastily I don't do that but the country wants to get back to work our country was b

uilt to get back to work we don't have the country where they say hey let's close it down for two years we can't do that it's not our country so we're gonna be talking and it could be will do sections of our country there's big sections of our country that are very you know little affected by what's taking place then there are other sections that are very heavily affected so there's a big difference but no I would say by Easter we'll have a recommendation and maybe before Easter and at the end o

f the fifteenth day or even during the fifteenth day I think we'll have some kind of a recommendation but our country wants to get back to work Steve I have had so many people and they want to practice social distancing and they want to practice no hand shaking no hand shaking they're not going to walk around hugging and kissing each other in the office when they come back even though they may feel like it they're gonna do they're gonna wash their hands more than they've ever done they're gonna

do all the things you're supposed to do but Steve you know what it's it's time they want people want to get back to work I'm having I get you know I get it from both sides in all fairness and maybe it's a combination of both Tony said before combination of both is sometimes very good but there are areas that possibly probably they won't qualify there are other areas that qualify almost now so we're gonna have to see what happens but it'll be an interesting period of time I'd like to get our coun

try back I have tremendous numbers of people wanting to go back you have store owners where the store is sitting there they don't know what's happened they got to get back your businesses that are going to be closed the longer we stay out the longer we do it we want to go quickly to longer we stay out the harder it is to bring this incredible we were having the most successful years that we've ever had in the history of our country you saw what happened yesterday with the stocks and today they'r

e up I'm telling you if Steve gets the deal done the incredible incentive to is going to take care of people it's gonna take care of our workers gonna take care of companies that employ all these workers small and big by the way I would say we spend more time on the small company Steve then we get into big companies you know people ask about that we spent more time thinking about the small businesses than the big and that's but you know that really fuels our country we want to get back and the p

eople want to get back we want to get our country going again and we'll be able to do that so the vice president is going to stay with you and gonna take a few more questions specifically and I will see you tomorrow thank you very much [Music] well thank you all report on today's action by the White House coronavirus task force the president and our entire team continue to be inspired by the way people all across this country we're putting into practice 15 days to slow the spread we are 10 days

into the 15 days and let me say again to every American if you're in an area that's been impacted by the coronavirus it's absolutely essential that you listen to state and local authorities for guidance but for every American what you can do is implement the practices outlined in the president's coronavirus guidelines today because we truly do believe that as millions of Americans have done and will continue to do that we can significantly impact the rate of growth in this epidemic in our countr

y we can spare Americans from exposure to the corona virus and we can save lives and so on behalf of the President and our entire task force I want to say thank you to the American people thank you for your cooperation thank you for embracing the principles in 15 days to slow the spread we heard about that cooperation today in a series of conference calls we spoke with equipment manufacturers who are stepping forward as as never before to assist us in developing the medical equipment that is ess

ential whether it be masks or other medical supplies or ventilators FEMA reported to our Task Force today that hundreds of companies have stepped forward to be involved in the supply chain and we are we are vetting nearly 70 of those countries for specific repurposing of their manufacturing to produce everything from masks to gloves to gowns and of course to ventilators we also had a very we call with secretary Betsy DeVos with education leaders from around the country today and let me say on be

half of the President and a grateful nation thank you to all of our teachers many of whom are now home teaching children from afar even in many cases while they have their own kids home from school you are truly heroes and the Department of Education as well as your State Department of Education are grateful to each and every one of you who find yourselves educating out-of-home and the Department of Education has a helpful website on coronavirus recommendations Edie govt / corona virus and as we

mentioned before secretary Betsy DeVos and secretary sonny perdue will be joining us at this podium on friday to speak about distance learning recommendations that have been made not just for secondary or for college education but also for K through 12 education we're opening up avenues creating new flexibility so that not only college students can continue to be involved in learning from afar but children K through 12 can do the same secretary of Purdue will also be here to talk about the food

Lunch Program and free and reduced lunches today the president and I also spoke to over 150 CEOs of the top nonprofit organizations in the country we thanked them for their ongoing work supplying the needs not only of people impacted by the corona virus but the most vulnerable among us in our communities organizations like Red Cross the Salvation Army feeding America are all still working every day and we promise to urge every American if you have the means and have the ability continue to be g

enerous to nonprofit organizations that are helping those most in need in your community the president marshaled a whole-of-government approach that means working with our governor's today the president I were in direct contact with governors of New York California Washington State New Jersey Michigan and others and we continue to be inspired and impressed by the leadership that governor's are providing in their States making tough choices leading their states and the president and I are truly g

rateful the task force made a recommendation and FEMA has assembled a team for to provide technical assistance to the state of New York and that team was welcomed by Governor Cuomo will be arriving on the ground there very soon along with all the other resources that the president recently announced would be flowing to New York and to Washington State and to California in my conversation with governor Gavin Newsom of California I was pleased to speak to him and hear that our FEMA team is literal

ly at the table with the State of California's team working to meet their supply needs working to work on capacity and I want people to know in the states that are most impacted by the corona virus that we are with you and we're going to stay with you we're going to continue to work around the clock to make sure your courageous health care workers your health systems and your state governments have the resources to support your response on the subject of testing dr. Burks will reflect on what th

e data is showing in just a moment not including local labs and hospitals we are at four hundred and thirty-two thousand tests completed and we're pleased to see that they're literally drive-through and community sites around the country and the US Public Health Services assisting States in standing those up each and every day we do remind hospitals and labs around the country and the moment the president signs the bill that it that it is absolutely essential that they provide the results of the

tests to us it gives us visibility into what's happening on the ground but because of the public-private partnership president Trump initiated with these vast commercial lab networks around the country we are adding tens of thousands of tests every single day on the subject of supplies before the end of the week we'll talk a bit more as the President did moments ago about the supply chain I was at last night and literally saw a room full of people with laptops and cell phones we are literally l

eaving no stone unturned as I told governor's today to find medical supplies whether it be whether it be a mask or gowns or gloves or ventilators and the team is working around the clock to meet those needs a few smaller items first and foremost the CDC is developing guidance which we'll be publishing tomorrow about the best way to utilize our natural resources at our parks it would be several weeks ago that our Park Service waived all entrance fees and we've directed the CDC to produce guidance

for how people can still practice social distancing and common sense but be out of doors and enjoy our natural parks we'll also be sharing that guidance with the vast state park systems around the country and encouraging their support with that let me let me last say again there's nothing more important for the American people to do to slow the spread than to heed your state and local guidance in areas impacted by the corona virus and for everyone else to put into practice the 15 days to slow t

he spread dr. Fauci will reflect on the importance of mitigation and the impact that we believe that it is having around the country but it is the people ask me time-to-time what can I do and I say from my heart to every American this is what you can do not just to protect your own health and that of your family but no American wants to inadvertently spread the corona virus particularly to those that may be vulnerable to serious health consequences remember that the risk of serious illness to th

e average American remains low I mean the vast majority of people that contract the corona virus will have mild symptoms - flu-like symptoms and and and will recover but for seniors with serious underlying health additions or with people with immunodeficiencies everyone needs to practice the principles of 15 days to slow the spread the president announced this week that we are looking forward to the day that we can open up the country and this team will be bringing in recommendations about how w

e can safely and responsibly do just that but for every American that wants to see America back in business you can hasten the day by putting into practice the 15 days to slow the spread go to coronavirus cotton gov for details and I truly do believe if all of us will do all that we can do we will slow the spread we will protect the most vulnerable and we will heal our land with that let me recognize dr. Tony Fauci and speak about dr. Burks please Thank You mr. vice president and thank you all f

or listening to us talk to the American people we've been watching the testing results very oh it's very critical to us it's very critical to be looking at that very carefully let me tell you two things that are going on in parallel our system to look at flu-like illnesses is still up and running and in County after County and state after state and why is that important for those who've been following the flu epidemic this year you'll remember we had flu a then we had another peak of flu B and t

hose systems that are in every single state and local government is the platform where we can see whether there's any increase in flu-like illnesses so if you have very few cases in your state and in your counties maintain your flu surveillance system that you work closely with the CDC on and look for changes in your slope of new flu light illnesses and there are enough test kits and there's particularly enough of the CDC test kit where we started that runs on your flu surveillance platform to b

e constantly surveilling what those flu-like illnesses are in our states and counties that have very low number of cases we have counties still with zero to one cases but they can participate in their surveillance that we need to have out there now by using their flu-like surveillance system and we thank all of the states who have that up and running if you go to CDC gov and go to flu surveillance you can see state by state and you can be looking at those curves with us it's what we're looking a

t day by day in addition to the testing results that are coming in for the testing results still there's four counties that constitute the majority of both the current cases and new cases I think you know those are New York City Westchester New York Suffolk's and Nassau County those are the four counties all associated with New York in the New York metro area there's a few counties in New Jersey but this is still where 56 percent of the cases are and 56 percent of the new cases it's very importa

nt that people look at the number of new cases per day remember we told you was going to take us a while to work through the testing backlog I think we are close to working through the testing backlog so that you can interpret the number of cases per day and you will see in New York City that the number of cases per day has been relatively constant over the last three days those are the number of new cases per day this is a real call to every person in New York City in the New York metro area to

continue every one of these 15 days to slow the spread and to do that part of it at the same time that they're following the mayors and governors piece yesterday we talked about people that may have left the metro area that were residents residents of the metro area that may have gone to secondary homes or other places went to her side and we've asked all of them to carefully monitor their temperatures and self isolate from the communities where they went just to ensure their own health and the

health of their communities while they people move around the country finally why this is so important it's very important to me personally because my grandmother for 88 years lid with the fact that she was the one at age 11 who brought home flu to her mother named Leah for which I am named when her mother had just delivered and her mother was succumbed to the great 1918 flu she never forgot that she was the child that was in school that innocently blot that flu home this is why we keep saying

to every American you have a role to protect each and every person that you interact with we have a role to protect one another it's why we are social distancing and your social distancing but to every American out there when you are protecting yourself you're protecting others and if you inadvertently I know brought this virus home to someone with a pre-existing condition I can tell you my grandmother lived with that for 88 years so this is what we're trying this is the message that's important

to everybody this is not a theoretic this is a reality you can see the number of deaths that are occurring we all have a role in preventing them so thank you for the work that you do to get our message out to others to really ensure that every American understands how important their role is as we move through these next five days to not let up for an instant I hear some reports that someone said oh oh the new cases in New York are increasing or the hospitalizations are increasing the number of

new cases over the last three days have been consistent but not rising any more than a consistent day over day rise you will see hospital cases continue to increase because they are reflection of what happened one to two weeks ago before the full mitigation efforts were put into place so each person in every place no matter what County what community which state can work with us to ensure that we prevent the spread of this virus to others so thank you Thank You mr. vice president I just want to

spend a couple of minutes telling you a little bit about some information that I got on our weekly call that we have at least once a week with the W with WH o which is led by dr. Ted Rose and Mike Ryan who's the point man there to give us some information and in that regard I want to apologize for my career response to you when you asked me about the China deal because I shouldn't have done that that's not my style but what I really wanted to say is that my job is that I'm a scientist I'm a phy

sician and I'm a public health person and I don't like to get involved in that stuff so anyway getting back to the WHL so we learned some really interesting information because obviously the other countries like China and others have had been hit prior that we did one of the things that was striking to me and I just throw it out because it's something that we will face we're not facing it now but we will face our Chinese colleagues are very concerned because they went through the entire cycle of

the curve to come down they have very very few cases but what they're starting to see as they're relaxing the constraints on travel that they're getting imported cases and they wanted to warn us that when we get successful make sure you very carefully examine how you're going to release the constraints on input so I know we're gonna be successful in putting this under control but I think we're gonna have to remember we don't want to import cases in that's the first thing for today the second th

ing that was important is that it was something that dr. Burks mentioned and that is when you look at the inflection of the curves we now have multiple different countries that have gone through various phases of their individual outbreaks and you can learn something from them about where you are in your own outbreak for example when China went up what happened is they just didn't turn around they went from going to I'll just take an arbitrary number 500 new cases a day the next day it was a tho

usand cases than 1500 and then 2,000 but once the number of new cases each day starts to flatten out that's when you get to that point where the inflection goes down so if you what things we want to look for the things that dr. Burks had mentioned that doesn't mean you declare victory when it does that but you know you're at least on the way to where you want to go and I think that's really very important the third and final thing that I think gets back to the question that many of you in the au

dience have asked of us is about would this possibly become a seasonal cyclic thing and I've always indicated to you that I think it very well might and the reason I say that is that what we're starting to see now in the southern hemisphere in southern Africa and in the southern hemisphere countries is that we're having cases that are appearing as they go into their winter season and if in fact they have a substantial outbreak it will be inevitable that we need to be prepared that we'll get a cy

cle around the second time what does that mean for us in what we're doing it totally emphasizes the need to do what we're doing in developing a vaccine testing it quickly and trying to get it ready so they will have a vaccine available for that next cycle in addition to do the randomized controlled trials of drugs so that we will have a menu of drugs that we have shown to be effective and shown to be safe because I know we'll be successful in putting this down now but we really need to be prepar

ed for another cycle and what we're doing I believe will prepare us well thank you I'll take a few questions today they suggested that there's only 16,000 in the national stockpile can you just give us some clarity how many ventilators do you have the national stockpile who else is making them and how long will it take for them to make a critical mass because based on this Center for Public Integrity it appears there aren't enough if you are going to die as a result ventilators is eveni a singul

ar focus of a good portion of our supply chain stabilisation task force at FEMA since the president stood up FEMA's National Response Center and we're making progress in a variety of ways first there there is the national stockpile which you refer and depending on what's been distributed we just delivered 4,000 ventilators to New York including ventilators that we sent to New York City but there's that that number of some some 20,000 less than 20,000 I won't dispute your number beyond that there

literally are by most estimates more than a hundred and fifty thousand ventilators in the broad healthcare system all across the country we also working with anesthesiologists and there was a very important conference call today we have determined several weeks ago that the devices that anesthesiologists use for outpatient surgery can be converted with the change of a single vent to a very useful ventilator I actually spoke to Governor Cuomo about that today he's in the process of surveying all

of his surgical centers as governor's around the country are doing we literally believe there's tens of thousands of ventilators that can be converted now that the fda has given guidance and dr. Burks can probably speak to that in a moment we actually have produced a helpful video to explain how quickly those devices can be converted but we're also working with General Motors and and other companies to immediately spin up production those contracts are being reviewed we're vetting their capabil

ity but one of the other ideas as we look at areas of the country that most impacted and now more than half of the cases for coronavirus are in New York State and in the region around there but will focus will want to focus our resources including ventilators on where where communities are struggling the most with coronavirus and so one of the ways that we're working through that at FEMA now is by spinning up production and at the same time working with the existing national supply maybe from ar

eas that don't have a particular burden yet with the coronavirus and making sure that we're manufacturing back filling and meeting that need but what I can tell you is we've got an extraordinary team Admiral pelagic is a two-star Navy admiral who's doing an incredible job we literally are Dennis identifying resources around the country and around the world we're contracting and arranging transportation for those but maybe maybe dr. Burks you can speak to those so I just want to thank dr. Mary Pe

terson and the whole team of the American Association of anesthesiologist because they immediately when we asked them could these be modified they went to immediate work on it they've done they're gonna have Q&A ZUP for but more importantly every anesthesiologist in every city has been working with their state and local health officials to really work with them how to change this and I think it's not only the ventilators that they'll be supplying they have the people that run those ventilators t

hat are not any longer doing elective surgery so changing that electrics elective surgery piece over a week ago has freed up a lot of additional resources when I talk to you about how we are we've done some things that are very horizontal across the country but we're collecting data now in a county-by-county granular way so it's like any epidemic it's not equal everywhere there are places that are very spared and there's paces where there's more we have a very vast country with a lot of capacity

and a lot of infrastructure and so looking very specifically about where the virus has been where is it going who's got freed up resources from where it has been because it didn't hit all it hit Washington State earlier than it hit New York and looking at all of those pieces to really ensure how we can innovatively move equipment around based on the need and so I know that it has become a place where people are looking at numbers rather than what is needed because if you do these projections wh

en you got to those projections that said like in Germany and others that implied that sixty percent or fifty percent of the population would get infected the I want to be very clear the only way that happens is is this virus remains continuously moving through populations in this cycle in the fall cycle and another cycle so that's through three cycles with nothing being done and so we're dealing with cycle a right now not the one that could come in the fall of 2020 are though we're getting prep

ared for it by the innovations that are being worked on and not the 2021 we're really dealing with the here and now why we're planning for the future and I think the numbers that have been put out there are actually very frightening to people but I can tell you if you go back and look at Wuhan and who Bay and all of these provinces when they talk about 60,000 people being infected even if you said oh right well there's asymptomatic sand all of that so you get to 600,000 people out of 80 million

that is nowhere close to the numbers that you see people putting out there I think it is frightened the American people I think on a freely on a model that you just run full out you can get to those numbers if you have zero controls and you do nothing and we know that every American is doing something and so I think what our job right now is is to carefully detail on a hospital by hospital state by state county by county to outline what the infrastructure needs are and ensure that we're meeting

them both from the stockpile and from the generosity and movement of the American people and other house a lot of folks out there well-intentioned are sewing cloth masks and donating that the hospitals in your doctor pouchy can you weigh in on that because obviously people have great intentions but there's some mixed feedback on whether that's a good idea I'm sorry so clothing manufacturers volunteers dropping them off at hospitals is that necessary is that helpful is it something you'd recommen

d well I mean you would only recommend that on the desperate situations if you don't have any masks but what we're seeing now is as you've heard is a rather significant inflow of masks that are coming in that are going to be available I mean obviously if you don't have a mask and you need a mask and it's appropriate for you to be aware it you do what you can but I don't see that now as a necessity giving what's going on right now states that are trying to apply this necessary equipment on to pri

vate market and the governor graham kentucky said yesterday that his state was in line to buy some equipment but FEMA came in and bought it purchased it from under them so he says this is creating a real problem for space because on the one hand they're being recalled to get the equipment themselves if they can but on the other hand the federal government is buying up the supply chain so is this a problem that you're hearing about and what is your advice to states like Kentucky they're having th

is issue I actually spoke to the governor of Michigan today governor Whitmer and I about just that and we put our FEMA regional representative right on the case we want to make sure that we are we requiring every bit as much as we can through FEMA but as we've worked with the supply chain we want to have full coordination with the states and the requests they're making in hospitals that they're making and and we're looking into those matters but make no mistake about it this FEMA team at the pre

sident's Direction is leaning into this effort leaving no stone unturned literally searching not just the nation but the world all these critical supplies and and as the president just reported to you we're in the process of shipping nine point four million in ninety five respirators 20 million surgical masks 3.1 million face shields and the list goes on and we're gonna be shipping those every single day but as I told a governor Whitmer today who's leading her state through all of this with grea

t energy we want to partner with her we want to partner with every governor and make sure that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing in terms of acquiring resources report their masks shortages when with timelines it predicts for making sure everyone well I'm gonna let dr. Burks address that as well but let me say again I just received a report we're gonna be detailing it before the end of the week where we might we've literally identified significant resources not just around the cou

ntry but around the world of the mass that can be used by healthcare workers and but as dr. Burke said we are focusing those resources in the areas where health care workers are most exposed to the prospect of contracting and the coronavirus president's made it clear from early on right after seeing in the needs of Americans who are struggling with the coronavirus making sure they have the support that they need on the same level of priority we want our health care workers to have the personal p

rotective equipment to be able to do their job safely and we're working on that I will tell you I spoke about this today to several governor's not only the governor of Michigan governor of Indiana and president of Trump and I couldn't be more grateful the way governor's around the country are joining us in calling on businesses to go back to their warehouses and identify industrial masks and 95 mass that because of the change that President Trump insisted on in the law can now be used by hospita

l workers and they're they're perfectly acceptable to protect a healthcare worker from the possibility of a respiratory disease but we're calling on and our governors are joining us in calling on every business across America during this time of great challenge where many businesses are idled go back to your storehouses identify n95 industrial masks and as I told our governors today they can call FEMA they can call the state the state health care services or they can just load them up on a flatb

ed and drive them over to their local hospital and literally we hear stories in every state in the Union people doing that and so it's it's happening all at the same time and we'll be detailing the progress we're making on masks anything further I just wanted to add one piece and this is really a call to every state out there in every County that has been doing community-based testing the FDA put out new guidance we talked about it several days ago that people can do self testing in the drive-th

rough where you give them the materials to do it in their car and you pick it up in a biohazard bag this would free up all of that PPE that you see being utilized in those drive throughs back to the hospitals and back to the clinics that need it the most we have to move to the new technology worked FDA worked tirelessly to get that out there so that it could be sparing of gowns and gloves and full respiratory on n95 this is the moment to move to that self testing front of nose with the new appli

cators that can be utilized so that every single bit of the n95 s can be put into hospitals that need it let me just let me just say we look forward to seeing you all tomorrow we'll be back here with further progress and news but if I could just say to every American we'll get through this we'll get through this but we'll get through this together every American needs to understand that whether you are in an area that's impacted by the corona virus or an area where there's very few cases if you

do your part to put into practice 15 days to slow the spread you will do just that you'll love you'll impact the spread of this coronavirus epidemic in our country these experts tell me that we can significantly reduce the number of Americans that would be exposed to the corona virus as every American continues to put these guidelines into practice and we just know that with all of the extraordinary effort that's being done at the federal level by this tremendous team and all of our agencies all

the great leadership by governor's in both parties across the country with all the incredible and courageous work by healthcare workers with the cooperation and the prayers of the American people we will get this done we will we will not only we will not only slow the spread would protect the vulnerable and will heal our land thank you [Music]