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The Situation Room
Trump Considering Scaling Back Social Distancing Measures?; White House Holds Coronavirus Task Force Briefing. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired March 23, 2020 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:02]
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are no domestic travel restrictions really in place right now in the U.S., but what the governor of Florida just did comes pretty close.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WATT (voice-over): This massive Manhattan convention center about to be converted into four field hospitals, 1,000 beds between them.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): We have not even begun to see the influx of patients. This is still the relative quiet before the storm.
WATT: Every hospital in New York was just ordered to increase bed capacity by 50 percent.
New York state now home to around half the confirmed cases in this country, now more than 20,000, that's tripled in three days. And more than 150 have died already.
BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: If we don't get the ventilators in particular, we will actually start to lose lives that could have been saved.
WATT: The state says many cases are ages 18 to 49. Experts suggest vaping might be a factor.
CUOMO: You can get it. The numbers show you can get it if you're a young person.
WATT: And there is yet more conflicting messaging from the administration. Here is the surgeon general on "The Today Show."
DR. JEROME ADAMS, SURGEON GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: I want America to understand, this week, it's going to get bad. It means everybody needs to be taking the right steps right now, and that means stay at home.
WATT: But just last night, the president on Twitter suggesting strict rules on staying inside might be relaxed just a week from now.
The restaurant and food industry alone estimates seven million could lose their jobs. Jay Bokan (ph) already has.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are not going to be able to support their families.
WATT: And stay-at-home orders still spreading, Ohio, Louisiana, Connecticut, Indiana, West Virginia, and Michigan among the recent additions, but not everyone, apparently, taking social distancing seriously enough.
DR. LARRY BRILLIANT, ENDING PANDEMICS: We can't have the kind of social distancing that parts of Italy had, or we will turn into Italy with those case counts or those death rates.
WATT: More than 6,000 have now died in Italy, among them, more than 20 doctors. Here, thousands of retired health care workers now heeding the call to come back to work.
DR. ANNE SAKS-BERG, RETIRED DOCTOR RETURNING TO WORK: I feel I have a moral obligation to share my skills. We can't imagine what it's going to be a like a week or two from now.
WATT: So, many places now struggling for supplies.
GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): We just received our allotment from the federal government's national strategic stockpile. The allotment of personal protection equipment for one of our hospitals, that allotment is barely enough to cover one shift at that hospital.
WATT: Disaster declarations declared now for New York, Washington state, and California. FEMA working to bring an extra 5,000 hospital beds to those states, and Mercy, the Navy hospital ship with 800 personnel aboard, today setting sail for Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT: Now, here's an interesting juxtaposition.
Just a few hours after the president tweeted that he might consider easing some of that social distancing, our own Amara Walker got ahold of a letter written by a bunch of doctors in Georgia to their governor, begging him to implement a 14-day quarantine.
These eminent infectious diseases doctors claim that Tuesday is a tipping point for the state of Georgia, unless social distancing is put in place. They say that they will get -- the spike of cases will be higher there and will come sooner, to the point where the state cannot handle it.
Now, the governor of Georgia has, I suppose, met them halfway. He says he is going to ban meetings of 10 people or more. He's telling the older and the infirm residents of Georgia to shelter in place -- Wolf, back to you.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Nick Watt in Los Angeles. See very few cars behind you over there. Same thing here in Washington, D.C., by the way, very few cars on the streets right now.
As we stand by to await the White House briefing from the Coronavirus Task Force, let's bring in our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.
Jim, this briefing comes as we're told the president is getting rather impatient with all the social distancing measures because of the impact on the economy.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Wolf.
And we can tell you that the president, as long -- as well as top White House officials, are currently discussing the idea of easing back on these social distancing guidelines when the current 15-day period for these measures comes to an end early next week.
But, you know, one of the things I think really sparked this discussion inside the White House was this tweet that the president posted late last night. We can put it up on screen and show it to you, just to give you an example of what he is thinking right now.
He says in this tweet: "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. At the end of the 15-day period, we will make a decision as to which way we want to go."
[18:05:02]
Now, Wolf, in addition to that, in addition to the president losing patience with some of these social distancing guidelines because of the impact that they're having on the economy, I was talking with a source close to the White House earlier today who said the president has been looking at some of these beach scenes down in Florida, where beachgoers are ignoring a lot of the social distancing guidelines, and the president has been remarking to aides, well, what good are these guidelines if 20 percent of the public isn't paying attention to them?
So, he's definitely focused on this. But, at the same time, Wolf, we should note Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the administration's top doctors, has been arguing the other point of view.
He has been arguing, according to our sources, that many of these social distancing guidelines need to remain in place and that, at this point, as these discussions are under way, he's been essentially advocating for these appropriate public health guidelines to continue.
But, according to the source I just spoke with a short while ago, all options are on the table, including easing back on those guidelines. And, Wolf, as we should point out, as this briefing is about to get going here any moment now, we should note that people are being put at a greater distance apart from one another inside the White House Briefing Room.
That is because a White House reporter -- this just from White House Correspondents Association -- is suspected positive for the coronavirus. You are going to notice a big change when the task force gets going here in just a few moments.
These journalists in the room are further apart. We're outside the White House, a block away, because of these precautions being taken -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Which is very, very smart.
All right, Jim Acosta, stand by.
This briefing, we're told, is about to begin.
Let me ask Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who's with us.
Is there something specific you would like to hear, Sanjay? The members of the task force, they walk out first and then, after a little while, the -- presumably, the president and the vice president will walk out together.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I think some clarity on sort of where things are headed, because I think the country's hearing two different things.
You know, this timeline of 15 days is what I think a lot of people have in their head now in terms of people think that, at 15 days, is this going to all ease up and get better? Or are things going to stay the same, or maybe even have more stringent recommendations?
So I would be curious if they address that at all. That's a big one.
And also, you know, there is a lot of discussion around these medications, these trials.
And, look, I think there's -- there's -- everyone wants to be hopeful about these. And I think that some of these trials can start very early, with large numbers of patients potentially, so that could be potentially very beneficial to people out there who may be dealing with coronavirus right now.
I would like to hear how that's going. We heard a little bit from New York Governor Cuomo about the trials starting in New York state. But is this going to be something that's going to be available to people around the country, potentially, as well?
So those are some of the big topics. One point I will make as well, Wolf, just since we're waiting here for a second is that, you know, the idea that that we still think that there's significant community spread in the country, I think, is an important one.
And people hear that sometimes and think, well, why are we doing these social distancing strategies if there's already so much community spread? Well, the reality is -- and people have heard this term I think now for sure -- this idea of flattening the curve means, even though there is an expectation, I think, among many public health officials that much of the country will likely ultimately be exposed to this virus, 40 to 60 percent, I have heard from some of these officials, the question is the pace at which it happens.
They want to slow that down, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, it looks like the attorney general is there, as well as Dr. Birx, who has just walked out. She's in charge of the Coronavirus Task Force.
And it's interesting. Very -- you know, Sanjay, fewer people up there. A lot of people were complaining when there were six or eight people up there, they were right on top of each other.
GUPTA: Yes.
BLITZER: The president's talking about social distancing. We certainly didn't see that then. Two more people, we assume the president and vice president, will be walking out there, not necessarily though six feet apart.
Is that a problem, Sanjay?
GUPTA: No. Well, I mean, you know, it is one of these things where you certainly want to practice what you preach here, I think. And a lot of people do see that and think, well, why are we advocating for people to be six feet apart in our daily lives, if we're not seeing it there?
To be fair, you know, if you look at the guidelines carefully -- and I have read these, as you might imagine, Wolf, many, many times -- they keep changing, by the way -- they say, in terms of medical sort of concerns, that you should stay six feet away from someone who has known COVID, known coronavirus.
The social distancing thing, obviously, being recommended for everyone, but the specific guidelines, you know, six feet away from someone who has known coronavirus. Obviously, I don't think anybody at the lectern, on the stage will have actually been diagnosed with this, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, but there are people who have it, Sanjay, as you well know, who don't have any symptoms at all, right?
GUPTA: That's right, Wolf, absolutely. In fact, that's a significant number of people.
[18:10:02]
I think I just read today, Wolf, that I think half the people that were diagnosed with the coronavirus on that Diamond Cruise ship were actually asymptomatic at the time that they were confirmed to have the coronavirus.
So it is true. A lot of people can have this virus and not know it, be asymptomatic. And I think that's part of the point earlier. Again, I think this is far more widespread than we realize. A lot of people will be exposed to this.
There may be people watching right now that have been exposed to it, may have gone through it, may have recovered already and not really even known it or thought it was a cold or something else.
So, you know, and keep in mind, Wolf, that's -- you know, in a way, that's good news, in the sense that the vast majority of people who do come in contact with this will recover without any additional treatment or hospitalization.
So, it is worth reminding people of that constantly, because I understand there is a lot of fear out there. But most people will recover from this.
About, you know, depending on the statistics, 15 percent or so will become more seriously ill, 5 percent or so more critically ill -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And let me get Dana in.
Dana, the attorney general of the United States, all of a sudden, shows up at a Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the White House. Do you have any sense of why he's there today?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It could be a number of reasons.
You know, there are lots of discussions about how the judicial system in this country is going to and should operate.
There's the president.
BLITZER: All right, hold on, Dana. Hold on.
Here comes the president of the United States and the vice president of the United States. And the president will open up with a statement.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, thank you very much. And I see we have fewer people because of the virus problem. And we appreciate you being here. And this is getting to be more and more social distancing. And that's fine. So, it should be, and it's too bad, we extend our best wishes to the person affected. And we feel sure that he or she will be better very soon.
And thank you for being here. America continues to mobilize every segment of our society to turn the tide in the battle against the virus. I want Americans to know that we will get through this challenge. The hardship will end, it will end soon, normal life will return and our economy will rebound very, very strongly. But right now, in the midst of this great national trial, Americans must remain united in purpose and focused on victory.
To every single American, please know that the sacrifices you're making at this time is saving lives, many, many lives. It's very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States and all around the world.
They're amazing people, and spreading the virus is not their fault in any way shape or form. They're working closely with us to get rid of it. We will prevail together. It's very important.
From the beginning, we have been working closely with our nation's best scientists and medical professionals, and we will continue to do so until we have defeated the virus. Our public health experts who are terrific are studying the variation in the disease across the country, and we will be using data to recommend new protocols to allow local economies to cautiously resume their activity at the appropriate time.
We also have a large team working on what the next steps will be once the medical community gives a region the OK. Meaning, the OK to get going, to get back, let's go to work.
Our country wasn't built to be shut down. This is not a country that was built for this, it was not built to be shut down. My administration continues to work with Democrats and Republicans to reach an agreement on an urgent relief bill for the millions of American workers, and small businesses, and large businesses that were badly affected by the medical difficulty that we've had.
If you had a viable business in January, we are committed to ensuring the same is true. In the coming weeks, in fact, we want to make it even better than I was before, and we're doing things to help in that regard America well again and soon be open for business very soon.
And a lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting. A lot sooner, we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. We're not going to let the cure be worse than the problem.
At the end of the 15-day period, we'll make a decision as to which way we want to go, where we want to go, the timing, and essentially, were referring to the timing of the opening. Essentially the opening of our country. Because we have it pretty well shut down in order to get rid of this invisible enemy.
Two weeks ago, we moved at record speed to pass paid sick leave, and paid family medical leave, and approve $8 billion including money for the development of treatments and vaccines. And we're doing tremendous work in both -- on both fronts, and the vaccines are coming along very quickly.
Now, Congress must demonstrate the same bipartisanship again, and joined together to pass the Senate bill as written, and avoid playing any more partisan games. They have to get-together and just up with the partisan politics.
And, I think that's happening, I got a call a little while ago, I guess they getting closer, it should go quickly, and must go quickly. It's not really a choice, they don't have a choice, they have to make a deal.
It should not be a time for political agendas but rather one for focusing solely and squarely on the needs of the American people. We are going to save American workers. And we're going to save them quickly. And we're going to save our great American companies, both small and large.
This was a medical problem. We're not going to let it turn into a long-lasting financial problem. Started out as a purely medical problem and it's not going to go beyond that. We just not going to allow that to happen.
Our country was headed strongest financial point, we've never had an economy like we had just a few weeks ago. And then, it got hit with something that nobody could have ever thought possible.
And we are fixing it fixing, we're fixing it quickly. And I want to just thank the American people for what they've been through and what they're doing. Our country will be stronger than ever before. And we fully anticipate that and it would be that long. Let me provide you with an update on critical supplies. FEMA is
distributing 8 million N95 respirator masks and 13.3 million surgical masks across the country right now. Focusing on the areas with the greatest need.
We have shipped 73 pallets of personal protective equipment to New York City and 36 pallets to the State of Washington.
In the past 96 hours, FEMA has also received donations of approximately 6.5 million masks. We're having millions and millions of masks made as we speak. Another personal protective equipment, which we will be distributing to medical hot spots. Were focused on some of the hot spots across the nation.
We're seeing an outpouring of creativity and innovative ideas widely shared between the federal health leaders, governors, and mayors. The scientific community and members of the private-sector really working together. Everybody is working together.
I'm pleased to report that clinical trials in New York will begin existing for existing drugs that may prove effective against the virus.
At my direction, the federal government is working to help obtain large quantities of chloroquine. And you can look from any standpoint tomorrow in New York. We think tomorrow pretty early, the hydroxychloroquine, and the Z pack, I think is a combination probably is looking very, very good, and it's going to be distributed way of 10,000 units going. And, it will be distributed tomorrow. It will be available.
And is now, they already have it, they going to distribute it tomorrow morning to a lot of people in New York City and New York.
We'll studying it very closely, watching in it very closely, you probably saw a couple of articles today came out, where a gentleman they thought he was not going to make it, he said good-bye to his family. That given him the drug just a little while before. But he thought it was over. His family thought he was going to die.
And a number of hours later, he woke up, felt good, and he woke up again, and he felt really good, and he's in good shape. Then, he's very happy for this particular drug that we got approved in record- setting time. There's never been anything even close to it.
And I want to thank the FDA, which is been incredible, and Doctor Hahn -- Stephen Hahn, highly respected man. But they're doing everything possible to increase production and available supply of these drugs. Not only this drug but also others that are coming.
Remdisivir is coming from Regeneron. A couple of others are also under study. But the one that I'm very excited about right now is the one we just mentioned, and I think there's a real chance.
I mean again, we don't know but there's a real chance that it could have a tremendous impact. It would be a gift from God if that worked. That would be a big game-changer. So, we'll see. But distribution starts tomorrow morning early in New York. And I think, a lot of people are going to be -- hopefully, they'll going to be very happy with the result that we're all going to be watching closely.
It's something we have to try. It's been very successful malaria. Very, very successful. And countries with malaria have had an interesting thing happened. They take this particular drug, it's a very powerful drug. And there is very little semblance of the virus in those countries.
And there are those that say because this drug is very prevalent because of the malaria. So, we'll see what happens.
I'm also announcing that we're postponing the deadline for compliance with real I.D. requirements. At a time when we're asking Americans to maintain social distancing, we do want to require people to go with their local DMV. We will be announcing the new deadline very soon. It's going to be announced in a very short moment.
Overnight, we successfully brought home 103 American citizens after they had been stranded for 10 days in Brazil. Following a cruise, we want to thank the Brazilian government and they're great president.
Most of those returned were senior citizens. My administration in cooperation with Governor Greg Abbott of Texas. And the private-sector coordinated their safe return to the United States. So, thank you to Governor Abbott. Terrific governor, terrific man. Earlier today, I signed an executive order invoking presidential
authority under Section 4512 of the Defense Production Act to prohibit the hoarding vital medical equipment and supplies, such as hand sanitizers, face masks, and personal protective equipment.
We have a lot of face masks, a lot of equipment just coming in, and we have some people hoarding. And Attorney General Barr is going to be speaking about that in a second. We want to prevent price gouging, and critical health and medical resources are going to be protected in every form.
Under this directive, the secretary of Health and Human Services has authorized to designate essential health and medical supplies as scarce. So, we'll designate certain supplies and medical elements as scares. And that means it will be a crime to stockpile these items in excess of quantities which is happening to a relatively small degree, we think. But nevertheless, it's happened, and we can't let it happen. And we can't let them resell them at excessive prices, which some people are doing.
Very simply, we will not allow anyone to exploit the suffering of American citizens for their own profit. So, we're going to be watching that with our great attorney general very closely.
The Department of Justice will be aggressively prosecuting fraudulent schemes related to the pandemic. Yesterday, federal prosecutors took action. In their first case, shutting down a web site selling a totally fake vaccine, if you can believe that one.
As president, I will always fight to protect Americans from being exploited. Thankfully, all throughout the country, we are witnessing extraordinary acts of compassion, benevolence, and unity.
Construction companies are donating masks by the hundreds of thousands, manufacturing workers had transforming their assembly lines, citizens are volunteering to deliver food and medicine to the elderly.
Were truly seeing America at its best. We're really seeing things that people never thought even could happen. Frankly, we never know that this could happen, but the way most Americans are working toward getting it solved and just doing what they have to do to make this go away is been incredible.
It's been incredible. I want to take a moment to thank the everyday heroes who are making our best effort against the virus possible. And thank you to the health care workers and the first responders. This are very brave people.
Thanks also to the hard-working men and women of Federal Express, UPS, United States Postal Service, and the truckers who are maintaining our supply change and supply lines. We thank you very much. Great job.
We also want to give our regards and thanks to everyone at our grocery stores, work in the night-shift so that shelves can be re-stocked, and the restaurant workers and delivery drivers keeping our families fed.
So many of these restaurants, it's incredible. They're doing a service where people come and they pick it up delivery. I mean it's been incredible what they've been doing. Totally, different business than they were in other than they cook food. Other than that it's like a totally different businesses.
Most of all, I want to thank the American people for rising to the challenge and showing incredible courage, determination, patients, grace, and grit, from New York to Seattle, and everywhere in between. Your acts of selflessness, and sacrifice, and ingenuity are a powerful testaments to the American character.
It's really being shown, it's really showing up at a level that people are really respecting, all over the world, they're respecting. And the world has problems where 148 countries now -- 148 countries are affected by the Invisible scourge.
And all of the uplifting reflections of the American spirit are out there for everyone to see. Together we will care for our fellow citizens and we will win this war, and we'll win it much sooner than people think. And we'll be back in business as a country pretty soon. You'll be hearing about that also pretty soon. Now, I'd like to ask Attorney General Bill Barr to say a few words and we'll take questions in a little while. Thank you.
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me start by thanking you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President for your decisive leadership in this unprecedented battle to save American lives.
At the Department of Justice, we're working hard to protect the health and safety of our personnel, while at the same time, keeping our enforcement efforts at full throttle.
So, I'd like to thank all of my colleagues in law enforcement, not just those at the federal level, but of all our state and local partners. The police officers, the sheriff's deputies, who are protecting and serving their communities, often at great risk to themselves.
What I'd like to do here is start with a few remarks about the order that the president mentioned to ensure the availability of critical medical and health supplies from hoarding and price gouging.
On March 18th, the president issued Executive Order 13909 invoking the Defense Production Act with respect to the health and medical resources needed to respond to the spread of COVID-19, including PPE and ventilators.
We have started to see some evidence of potential hoarding and price gouging. And so, earlier today, the president signed a second executive order, providing the authority to address if it becomes necessary. Hoarding that threatens the supply of those necessary health and medical resources. Under Section 102 of the Defense Production Act, the President is authorized to prohibit the hoarding of needed resources by designating those materials as scarce or as materials who supply would be threatened by person's accumulating excessive amounts.
Once specific materials are so designated, persons are prohibited from accumulating those items in excess of reasonable personal or business needs, or for the purpose of selling them in excess of prevailing market prices.
It is a crime to engage in prohibited activity. In today's executive order, the president is delegating to the secretary of HHS, this authority, to protect against hoarding by designating these critical items.
Now, no items have been designated yet, and the Department of Justice is going to be working with HHS to identify cases where hoarding may be impeding the supply of health and medical resources needed to respond to the COPVID-19 pandemic.
Today, we convened our first task force meeting a national task force that will be working on these supply chain issues, and specifically, on the problem of hoarding and price gouging. [18:30:10]
And we are designating, in each of our 93 United States Attorney's Offices a lead prosecutor who will be responsible in that district for pursuing these cases.
I also want to say that we have not waited for this order to be signed. As we have received evidence recently, we have already initiated investigations of activities that are disrupting the supply chain and suggestive of hoarding.
I want to stress that we're not talking about consumers or businesses stockpiling supplies for their own operations. We're talking about people hoarding these goods and materials on an industrial scale for the purpose of manipulating the market and ultimately driving windfall profits.
If you are -- have a big supply of toilet paper in your house, this is not something you have to worry about. But if you are sitting on it -- on a warehouse with masks, surgical masks, you will be hearing a knock on your door.
So with that, Mr. President, I'll turn it back to you.
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
Deborah, please?
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. To start, I want to really thank all the ministers of health around the world who have been sending us their data despite the fight that they're in themselves, particularly our European colleagues. They continue to send us, primarily, their mortality data, which is really very critical. Because when you are in the midst of this level of fight that many of the European countries are, following mortality data, will give you the best insight right now on how the epidemic is proceeding in those countries, because they really can't be testing at the level to really understand the depth and breadth of their new cases.
In the mortality data that has been provided to us, there has been no child under 15 that has succumbed to the virus in Europe. It was the one 14-year-old in China. So we still see that there is less severity in children. And so that should be reassuring to the moms and dads out there.
To generation Z and to my millennial colleagues, who have been really at the forefront of many of these responses, less than 1 percent of all the mortality is less than 50. And so this is, I think, also a very important point. That doesn't mean that individuals won't have severe disease.
So still 99 percent of all the mortality coming out of Europe, in general, is over 50 and pre-existing conditions. The pre-existing condition piece still holds in Italy with the majority of the mortality having three or more pre-existing conditions. I think this is reassuring to all of us. But it doesn't change the need to continue to protect the elderly. And in order to protect the elderly, we all need to continue to do the president's directives and guidance for the next week of the 15-day challenge.
Finally, I wanted to really close by thanking the laboratory personnel that have been at the front lines. 250,000 tests have been run in the last seven days. This happened because these large commercial laboratories are doing round-the-clock runs. And remember, all of them are being exposed to the virus in the same way from the swabs. Yet, tirelessly, they have worked on and on to get those results available.
They are still getting more tests than they can run per day. That's because we are primarily expanded into that what we call the Roche high throughput tri-core machine. Those results have been getting to the clients and we have asked them to prioritize hospitalized patients.
There was a breakthrough today and I think you will see this from the FDA in -- for all of those who are waiting for self-swabbing options, those are going to be available in sometime this week, to be able to, individuals, do their own test.
That said, remember, these platforms are keeping up with those who need to be diagnosed in the hospitals. And are those who come to the emergency room quite ill so the hospital beds can be freed up for those that don't have COVID. So that will be critical that if you don't need a test and if it doesn't change your clinical course, do not come in to be tested. And I think that mortality data that I gave you should be very reassuring to all of you.
Finally, to conclude, New York City. The New York metro area of New Jersey, New York City and parts of Long Island, have an attack rate close to one in a thousand.
[18:35:00]
This is five times what the other areas are seeing. There -- through the high throughput lab investigations, we are finding that 28 percent of the submitted specimens are positive from that area. Where it's less than 8 percent in the rest of the country.
So to all of my friends and colleagues in New York, this is the group that needs to absolutely social distance and self-isolate at this time. Clearly, the virus had been circulating there for a number of weeks to have this level of penetrance into the general community.
TRUMP: Thank you very much, Deborah. Your turn, Mike.
MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. The White House coronavirus task force met today. But we also convened, at the president's direction, a conference call with the nation's governors. And we focused on efforts at mitigation, at testing and supplies. We discussed the president's recent approval of disaster declarations for Washington and California and New York. But we also assured governors who submitted major disaster declarations that we will be reviewing them in an expeditious manner to ensure the full resources the federal government are brought to bear.
The president wanted us to make it clear that the federal government will do whatever it takes. To support an effort that is locally executed, state managed and federally supported. We reiterated that to our governors today, listened to them about their specific needs and, frankly, made it clear to them that while the president has published at coronavirus.gov, 15 days to slow the spread for every American and millions of Americans are addressing these commonsense guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the days ahead.
We made it clear to the governors that this president and this administration fully supports decisions that governors are making in communities and states that are particularly impacted by the spread of the coronavirus. And we are grateful for their efforts.
We, also, spoke to the governors about the importance of the legislation that is currently being negotiated on Capitol Hill and asked them to encourage members of the House and the Senate to move very quickly. The bill that is currently being negotiated, the president said that he believes will be resolved soon. We're encouraged by it. We'll speed direct payments to families. The average family of four will receive $3,000 directly. There will be payroll subsidies for small businesses around America to keep people on the payroll while they might be required to stay home, unemployment insurance benefits, assistance to hospitals and major industries. And we continue to urge the Congress to act and ask the governors to engage their delegations.
On the subject of testing, we reiterated our thanks to states across the country that are rapidly expanding testing at drive-through sites and at community sites. And as Dr. Birx just reflected, because of the -- because of the unprecedented public and private partnership that the president initiated with our commercial labs, we stand here today with 313,000 tests having been completed, with the test results delivered to Americans, and still somewhat more than 41,000 have contracted coronavirus.
But this state-run effort is continuing to receive the full support of our team at FEMA and at the U.S. public health service. We're deploying personnel. We're deploying resources. And testing is literally expanding around the country by the hour.
As Dr. Birx also mentioned, the FDA has been in the process of reviewing less invasive methods of testing. The president and I both reflected on the fact that we have been tested. And we've been working with the FDA to make it possible for self-collected nasal swabs, where individuals could, at the end of their nasal passage, collect a sample.
And I'm pleased to report that self-collected swabs can now be collected in clinics and at drive-through testing sites. This will expedite the testing process, of course. But it will also reduce the risk to healthcare providers for exposure to the coronavirus. And it will minimize the drain on personal protective equipment. With the current test that goes pretty significantly up the nasal passage, people have to wear gear, and then change out the gear. [18:40:00]
And this new self-administered test will actually not require the drain on personal protective equipment. And it's all a part of our effort, as Admiral Polowczyk will discuss in just a few moments, to meet the supply needs that we have across the country, but to meet the them at efforts at conservation as well.
On the subject of testing, it's important to remember, as the old book says, it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. And so if you don't have symptoms, you don't need to get a coronavirus test. We encourage every American to adhere to that so that the testing resources are available for people that are symptomatic.
We also will be issuing today from Health and Human Services new guidance to direct all commercial labs to prioritize testing for hospitalized patients. And that guidance is going out tonight.
We also reminded the governors today that all state laboratories, all hospital laboratories, are now required, by law, to report the results of coronavirus tests to the CDC.
On the subject of supplies and our meeting today at FEMA, we received the report of the new supply chain stabilization task force. Rear Admiral John Polowczyk is leading that up at FEMA and the task force is working to identify medical supplies that exist in the marketplace today to evaluate the national stockpile, and also working with industries around the country to produce even more of the critical medical supplies.
And as the president said, businesses across America are stepping up, and maybe as never before in our history. 3M, in fact, has diverted 500,000 N95 masks from commercial customers. And they're being delivered today to New York and Seattle. Facebook, we would acknowledge, has donated their emergency reserve of over 700,000 N95 masks to healthcare workers. And these are just a few examples of the generosity of businesses.
We're also seeing companies step forward to repurpose their manufacturing facilities to create ventilators, to create equipment. And I know I speak for the president when I say how grateful and proud we are for that.
We also discussed with the governors a real breakthrough on the availability of ventilators. We called on the governors to survey all outpatient surgical centers and hospital operating rooms because surgical ventilators that anesthesiologists use, because of an FDA decision, rendered this last weekend, those can be easily converted now to ventilators that can be used for people struggling with severe illness from the coronavirus.
And so we called on our governors in conversations with state leaders to survey all of their surgical centers and hospital operating rooms to identify that equipment. And with the new FDA guidelines, they'll be able to convert those to help meet the needs of ventilators across the country. We are now eight days into the president's 15 days to slow the spread. The American people are rising to the challenge. We're doing this. But in the days that remain between now and the end of the 15 days, we're going to need every American to take this seriously.
Listen to your state and local health authorities where there may be additional and stronger guidance in areas where the coronavirus spread has been more severe, but for every American know that the part that you do, that your family does, that you do in your community to put into practice these principles of social distancing, using a drive- thru at the local restaurant will make an enormous difference in lowering the trajectory of the coronavirus spreading across our country.
It's going to take all of us, but with the ongoing cooperation of the American people, with compassion, with the ingenuity of American industry, with dedicated leadership at the state and federal level, I know that we can slow the spread, we can protect our most vulnerable and we will heal our land.
TRUMP: Thank you, Mike.
REAR ADM. JOHN POLOWCZYK, SUPPLY CHAIN TASK FORCE LEAD, FEMA: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. So I'm Rear Admiral John Polowczyk. I'm the at FEMA. My task is to increase the supply of critical medical supplies, which include personal protective equipment and ventilators, items like that.
I just want to take a few moments to explain the organization that we've stood up this week, these last few days and our approach. So we have a chart behind me.
[18:45:00]
I have a focused -- two focus leads. One on personal protective equipment, medical supplies, and a focus lead on ventilators. Operating under four lines of effort -- first line of effort you see is preservation. And the leaders tonight have talked about that, the ability to make our stuff last longer.
Acceleration, we have a team of people that are searching the globe for personal protective equipment, figuring out where it is, figuring out if we need to buy it or just transport it and get it here faster. We have a line of effort called reallocation. We are working with our industry partners to illuminate the supply chain. There are many vendors, many distributors, all on separate systems. Nobody has one site picture for that supply chain. We brought our industry partners in. We are weaving that together to make better allocation decisions and understand where it is and where it needs to go.
We have a line called expansion. You heard some of that today. If those that have wanted to convert plants, those that want to get into the business, we have the tools to help them do that. Two focus areas right now, PPE and ventilators, four lines of effort working the problem of the task to get more here and increase the supplies. Thank you. TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. If I could, "The Washington Post" is reporting that the total deaths today crossed 100 for the first time. This morning your surgeon general on "The Today Show" said he wanted Americans to understand that this is going to get really bad. Do you share that prognosis?
TRUMP: Of course, I do. It's going to be bad. And we have a lot of people dying from the flu, as you know. We have a very bad flu season on top of everything else. It's very bad, it looks like it could be over 50,000. And certainly, this is going to be bad. And we are trying to make it so that it's much, much less bad. And that is what we are doing. I think we are doing a good job of it.
If you look at other countries, what they have been through and you look at the kind of numbers and compare them to ours, which is a much larger country than most, the numbers are pretty amazing. And it started with the fact that we stopped people from coming in from a highly affected area and infected area. And that was a good thing to do.
So yes, it's bad, and it's going to -- obviously, the numbers are going to increase with time, and then they're going to start to decrease, and we're going to be opening our country up for business because our country was meant to be open and working with others, but especially for our workers. And the engine for that whole system is we have to have companies, and these companies are loved by our workers because they are paying big salaries and big dollars to our workers. And we're going to get it all going very soon. Hopefully very, very soon. Please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, I'm just trying to reconcile the two things that you just said. One that things are going to be very, very bad, and two, that you want to get the country up and back as quickly as possible. So I guess my question is, if in a week Dr. Birx or Dr. Fauci are telling you, we need to continue these measures for the health of the vulnerable population of the country, are you going to say, I'm sorry, the economy is too important?
TRUMP: You'll see what happens. I understand the question very well. It is a great question, but we can do two things at one time. I will say this -- our country has learned a lot. We've learned about social distancing. We've learned about the hands. We've learned about staying away, at least during the time that this is even a little bit around, this disease or whatever you want to call it. Many different names. You can call it many different names. But the virus, while it is around.
And we can start thinking about, as an example, parts of our country are very lightly affected. Very small numbers, and you look at a state, great governor Pete Ricketts in Nebraska, you look at the kind of numbers they have out there. They have one of the great hospitals there, too, relative to what we're talking about.
But you look at Nebraska, you look at Idaho, you look at many I can name are handling it very, very well and that are not affected to the same extent or, frankly, not even nearly to the extent of New York, which is really -- I'm dealing with Governor Cuomo.
[18:50:02]
And we're dealing very well together. We'll be sending that ship up, by the way, as you know. We have a ship going to Los Angeles. We'll also be -- the ship is coming out of a very large repair, so ready to go and very soon will be. And over the next three or four weeks, it will be coming up to New York, will go to the New York Harbor, and it will be fully supplied. So they are working on that right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you this, do you share the president's optimism that in a week we might have a situation where we can say, there's a few hot spots, but --
TRUMP: I didn't say a week, but I said soon. It's going to be soon. It's not going to be three or four months, as some people were saying, and a lot of people thought originally, but I would certainly --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And are you worried that some of these cities and states that haven't had the effects are lagging indicators and we're going to start seeing cases?
BIRX: So you raised two important issues. One, I think you all know a lot of our tests have had to go to hospitals at this time so that we can diagnose people who are at risk to give them options to get these new therapeutic options. None of these therapeutic options are available if you don't know your diagnosis. So we have been very much focused on that.
With adding Abbott, Thermo Fisher, Pelagic, and now Sepiad (ph) platforms -- Sepiad (ph) is that new platform that is point of care but slower. So you have to match the throughput, the need to what kind of equipment you have. Now that we have all of those platforms moving simultaneously, we can go back to doing case finding and surveillance in the areas that have the most lower numbers, as well as doing mitigation more aggressively in the places that have higher numbers.
We went out with a very blunt force. We have to all be honest, we had to do that because we weren't sure where the virus was and where it is going. I think over this week, we are concentrated on figuring out exactly where the viruses in making projections about where it's going and the impact of our mitigation pieces.
We learned this in tackling epidemics around the world. You have to focus the resources and the intervention and the structural prevention interventions in the areas where the virus is circulating. Otherwise, people never understand why you are doing this, and they don't have any virus. So it has to be very tailored geographically. And it may have to also be very tailored by age group, really understanding who is at the greatest risk and understanding how to protect them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- in three months, as the president said, we won't need to follow these broad guidelines. BIRX: The only data that we all have, and I think you all know what it
is, the two areas that have moved through their curve is China and South Korea. So those are the two countries that we are learning from. Those were eight to 10 weeks curves.
Each state and each hot spot in the United States is going to be its own curve because the seeds came in at different times. So Washington state is on their curve. They are about two weeks ahead of New York. And so, each of these have to be done in a very granular way to really understand where we are. And it's the charges that the president has given us is to use all of our data analytics, and all of our data input to really define those issues about where the virus is, where is it going, and what predictions we can make about when and where we are in that bell-shaped curve.
TRUMP: I think that is a great definition, and I will say we are going to be watching our senior citizens very closely. We're going to be watching certain hot spots like New York. And within New York, you have areas which are troubling, and we will be working with the governor and the mayor and everybody else on those spots.
But at the same time, at a certain point, we have to get open and we have to get moving. We don't want to lose these companies. We don't want to lose these workers. We want to take care of our workers. So we'll be doing something I think relatively quickly, but we've learned a lot during this period. This was a very necessary period. Tremendous information was gained. But we can do two things at one time.
And again, I say, we have a very active flu season, more active than most. It's looking like it's heading to 50,000 or more deaths, deaths, not cases, 50,000 deaths, which is -- that's a lot. And you look at automobile accidents, which are far greater than any numbers we are talking about. That doesn't mean we will tell everybody no more driving of cars. So we have to do things to get our country open. But this has been an incredible period of learning, and we'll have announcements over the next fairly short period as to the timing. John, please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, I want to ask about these guidelines on testing.
[18:505:02]
Obviously, Senator Rand Paul has tested positive for coronavirus. But he was not in contact with anybody who was a known positive, and he didn't have any major symptoms. Under your guidelines, and the guidelines that have been outlined here, he would not have gotten a test. He got one anyway. So what do you say to him? He has pointed out that if hadn't gone basically in defiance of these guidelines and got tested, he might still be showing up to the Senate right now infecting the whole U.S. Senate.
BIRX: So that is why this was important. That's why this recommendation to the American people was important, because we have been saying that there is a level of asymptomatic or mild spread. And that is why each person has to be responsible. Each person has to be responsible in the way that they decrease their interaction with others, the six feet. And you are all very social distanced, so thank you. But also assuming that everyone you are interacting with could be positive. And that goes into the hand-washing piece, and that gets into the other piece we talked about is surfaces.
I think until we really figure out the respiratory transmission versus the surface transmission, and this hard surface transmission, not fabric, will be really critical, because that is a way the virus could spread on subways or metros where people would be holding on to things that other people had recently held onto. So that is the real question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But if we can just keep the example of Rand Paul, and obviously there are many other people that would be in a similar situation, just keep with this one example. If he had not gotten that test, he would still be showing up to the Senate every day at his place of work. You wouldn't want that, would you?
BIRX: If had he been following these guidelines, he wouldn't have been infecting others because of social distancing, washing your hands, doing everything that we've talked about. So we talked about also how people make choices because of their jobs that they have to come in. You will notice I was not here over the weekend. I think this is the part that we really need to take responsibility for.
Saturday, I had a low-grade fever. So, actually, probably a G.I. thing, but I'm meticulous. I'm a physician. I looked it up. I ended up piggybank from Walter Reed, so I got a test late Saturday night, and I'm negative. I stayed home another day just to --
TRUMP: Thank you for saying that.
BIRX: Yes, just to make sure, that is how we protect one another. So, unless everybody is taking their temperature every day, we can't say that he had no symptoms. These are the kinds of things that we have to do for one another. This is the personal responsibility that I'm talking about that we all have to practice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Mr. President, when you say you don't want the cure to be worse than the problem itself, so are you saying that if we kept these measures that we are doing now in place for a couple of months --
TRUMP: Well, they will be in place. At some point we're going to open up our country, and it is going to be fairly soon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Weeks or months?
TRUMP: I'm not looking at months, I can tell you right now. We're going to opening up our country. And we're going to be watching certain areas. And we're going to be practicing everything that Deborah is referring to right here. We're going to be watching this very closely. But can't keep it closed for the next -- for years. OK? This is going away. We're going to win the battle.
But we also have tremendous responsibility. We have jobs. We have people that get tremendous anxiety and depression. And you have suicides over things like this when you have terrible economies. You have death. Probably, definitely would be in far greater numbers than the numbers we are talking about with regard to the virus.
So we have an obligation, we have a double obligation. We have a great country. There is no country like in the world, and there was no economy like this in the world. We were just blazing. We were coming out with numbers that -- some numbers weren't even reported because already this had happened. They were meaningless. I got numbers about myself that were meaningless because by the time the numbers came in, it's a whole different world with this.
But I will tell you that we can do both things, John. We can do them both at the same time. That's OK. What we have gone through is a tremendous learning process. And we have also solved a lot of problems, but we have gone through a tremendous learning problem situation now. We are building hospitals in New York. We are building hospitals in California. We are building hospitals in the state of Washington. We have been in touch with the governors. Today, I spoke with a man I happen to like. I spoke with Phil in New Jersey, and we're going to be doing something meaningful in New Jersey.
