4/9/20: Members of the Coronavirus Task Force Hold a Press Briefing

Thank you very much to all. I would like to start by saying that we just completed a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steve Minuchin and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on proposals related to airlines and the airline business, and we are working very closely with probably many different people will be submitting a proposal to give you some of the details of some of the most powerful details over the weekend. It is advancing rapidly. The airline business has been hit hard, as everyone knows, and we are going to be in a position to do a lot to help them keep their employees and save their businesses and that will happen.

I think you can say that over the weekend we may even have discussions with some of the airlines or all of the airlines over the weekend and I think it will be a very acceptable package, it is a very large package and a very acceptable, it will be good for our country, good for the airlines, good for a lot of people, in the same way, I just spoke with the president. of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the king of Saudi Arabia, King Salman, and we had a great conversation about oil production and OPEC and how to make our industry do well and the oil industry do better than it thought. is doing now because the numbers are so low. that there will be layoffs around the world, there will certainly be layoffs in this country, we don't want that to happen, we built a great energy business in the United States, so we have tens of thousands of jobs, we had a very good conversation, we'll see what happens , but as you know, OPEC met today and I would say they are getting closer to a deal, we will find out soon, so that was a conversation we just had, so we have had a very busy hour and a half and let me start by ex

press

ing My sincere thanks to the American people.

Millions of chickens are making deep and difficult sacrifices in their own lives because they know it will save the lives of countless people and that is exactly what they are doing. Do you see what's happening? Where we are, where we are and hopefully we will open up. We can quote the opening very, very, very soon. I hope that together our people are writing one of the noblest chapters in our nation's proud history. Americans are also encouraged to learn that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been taken out of intensive care, it is a tremendous statement and we continue to pray for him and his speedy recovery, which is a very positive development as the metropolitan area of New York continues its battle against the outbreak with the full power of the federal government is there to support them, as you know, the Javits Center has now been fully converted into a 3,000-bed hospital, one of the largest in the country, and for the incredible professionals, I have to tell the Corps of Engineers what they can do.

It is simply incredible that they have done a fantastic job building 21 hospitals and temporary care facilities across the country, adding 17,000 hospital beds and they did it all in a very short period of time. It's incredible what the Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA have done. It's been fantastic, our extensive airlift operation to keep doctors and nurses supplied with protective equipment. The airlift project continues to expand with over 24 flights already completed and 49 additional flights scheduled in the near future, so it has been very successful in that equipment and those equipment are being delivered as they arrive, they are going to directly point out that the American medical system continues to perform beyond our highest expectations, reminding us that the United States has been blessed with the most advanced health care and the most skilled health care workers anywhere on the planet.

Countries are paying attention to what we are doing and our testing operation has now become by far the most sophisticated anywhere, and we want to thank all the frontline heroes as they fight to save American lives. We are at the top. of the hill pretty sure we are at the top of the hill and now we are going down, in some cases we have already started that process today. I spoke to hundreds of mental health leaders and advocates from around the country to discuss the vital work and the vital work they are doing we had the best doctors in the country, some international doctors, mental health is an important factor not only because the virus inflicted immense physical suffering on many people, but also mental and emotional suffering, even though If we stay physically apart, no American is alone and we are all in this together, but doctors and mental health experts are a big decision .

It was a very interesting call. They are working very hard. We are also seeing encouraging signs in our career. to develop innovative treatments and therapies Pfizer revealed today that it has found a promising new treatment that could prevent the virus from replicating and that it hopes to begin testing it in clinical trials very soon. It will be very, very soon. They have great feelings about this particular therapy and think there are a lot of good things happening through the FDA's

coronavirus

treatment acceleration program. There are now 19 therapies and treatments being tested and 26 more are in active planning or clinical trial, so we currently have 19 therapies in testing and 26 more are in active clinical trial planning, that's a big statement, there are plenty of trials to go around.

The announcements of Gili, the severe anti-rival pharmacological remedy continued and the company has also expanded emergency use for new patients obtaining good initial results due to the way the companies that manufacture hydroxychloroquine are. massively increasing production, as you know, many people strongly recommend z-pak, decapitated z-pak and also zinc, and the federal government continues to build up our stockpile and distribute millions of doses for doctors to use as they see fit , and I'm happy. To let you know, we have a lot of good things happening, but we'll have to see how it all works out, but we have purchased and stored millions and millions of doses and we are distributing them.

The states wanted Michigan a lot, we just sent a lot to Michigan and other areas, reporting today that we passed 2 million tests completed in the United States for the first time almost anywhere in the country. It is a milestone for our country. It is a milestone anywhere. No one has done it anywhere nearby. some tests are very sophisticated and very precise, at the same time that we are making important progress on the economic front of this war, in a few moments the Secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia, will explain the new steps we are taking: your American workers will quickly receive unemployment benefits and paid leave and for employers to protect the health and safety of all workers, including essential workers at work, by working closely with workers and employers to provide the economic relief that the Federal Reserve announced this tomorrow that will provide up to $2.3 trillion in support to businesses Six hundred billion dollars in loans will be available to states and local governments for mid-sized businesses with up to ten thousand employees and half a billion dollars will be available to states, counties with more than two million residents and cities with a population of more than 1 million, my administration is also working with Congress to replenish the very successful and incredibly successful Paycheck Protection Program that is enabling hundreds of thousands of small businesses keep your workers on the payroll, which means you'll keep those businesses open.

We need both Democrats and Republicans to come together to complete this legislation and it looks like it's on the way, but we need both and it should be for the people who work for the workers and if you look and see, we have a lot of people who are affected by this and it's a very positive development so we have to get bipartisan approval and hopefully that will happen today. The Department of Education is also announcing the availability of more than $6 billion in emergency grants to help. college students affected by canceled classes and suspended housing many people had many things suspended housing is one of them previously we waived student loan payments for six months so student loan payments were suspended for six months and we will discuss it later, it may go further, although this medical war has separated our citizens for a period of time, it is also united to our entire nation.

I think I can say like almost never before that Americans are moving forward with common purpose and shared resolve, determined to defeat the virus and lift our nation to even greater heights, we have supreme confidence in the magnificent future that awaits the people American and with that, before we invite our vice president our great vice president and Jeanne Scalia to speak, we will answer some questions and then I'm going to get back to the oil and airline negotiations, yes, please, and a very good conversation, there is a lot of production, no one knows what to do with it, that's how it works, Saudi Arabia and, as you know, Russia.

It is well known that we are producing a lot and perhaps they were fighting each other over the production and the amount of oil that is produced and, frankly, there is not enough space to even store it. Our storage is now full, very soon it will be our national strategic. storage is, I said it's a good time to fill it up, load it up with oil that, frankly, has a price that no one has ever seen before. I don't think we've seen this probably since the 1950s, which was big dollars, so we'll do it. look what happens, the conversation was very good, they are getting closer to an agreement that is OPEC and many other countries outside of OPEC and we will see what happens, you know, I think they were getting along very well, we had a very good we had a very good call I think it was a very good call, let's see what happens, but it was a very good call, they will probably announce something today or tomorrow, one way or another, it could be good, it could not be so good, but I think of one way or another, go ahead, discuss the possibility of reopening the country when the administration does not have an adequate national testing system for this virus.

Don't you need a national testing system for the virus before you realize we have a great testing system? I have the best right now, the best testing system in the world, but there are certain sections, there are certain sections in the country that are in phenomenal shape, other sections are already online, other sections are falling and we, in addition, are giving millions. of testing and every day we do it exponentially, we are increasing and what we will do in the very near future is go to certain areas of our country and do mass testing, it is not necessary, but it would be a good thing. having to make sure people are safe coming back to work you don't want to send people back to the workplace we want to have it and we're going to see if we have it you need it no, it's a good thing To do it, yes, we're talking about 325 million people and that is not going to happen as you can imagine and no, it would never happen with anyone else, or other countries do it, but they do it in a limited way, we will probably be the leader. of the group, please, what do you say to the 16 million Americans, more than 16 million Americans who have lost their jobs in the last three weeks and were afraid that the economy would not recover as you said?

Well, I think the economy is going to do very well now, that's just my feeling, it's a strong feeling. I've had good feelings about a lot of things over the years and I think we'll do well, we're doing like we're on the low end. of the sidewalk in terms of death, which is a terrible word, a terrible, dark word that we have experienced in a way that has never been seen before in this country. I mean, we have numbers that are terrible, but when you look at the lowest levels of a hundred lowest prediction levels of one hundred and twenty thousand to two hundred and twenty thousand or if we did nothing down to 2.2 million people we're looking at a much lower level. that the level of I hope the level of a hundred thousand, so we're going to see, we're going to have that you will never be able to, you will never be able to do anything about the people who lost their loved ones and loved the loss of their friends and I mean to great friendships and I'm not sure about many. of people will be the same again, but I believe that our country, from an economic point of view, will end up being stronger than ever.

We have tremendous encouragement. We have tremendous stimulus plans. We have things in the works that I really think are going to fire the country. that what's going to happen is we're going to have a big rebound instead of a small rebound, but we'll come back and, honestly, I think our country will be back from an economic standpoint, they'll never be able to replace the people that were lost. and for their families it will certainly never be possibledo something like that, but we will have been successful in many ways, hopefully, keeping the number well below our minimum numbers and also from an economic point of view, you know, today we met with the mental health people and that takes a tremendous mental cost for many people and I think we are going to open up strongly.

I think we are going to open very successfully and I would like to say even more successfully than before, please what? It was trading today at about twenty-three dollars a York barrel, what would you like to see the price for? Do you want it? thirty forty fifty dollars a beer. Well, I want to see it where there is a certain market, but I also don't want to. I don't want to see where the people are, I have no idea, you know we are opening, we will open areas for oil storage, massive areas for oil storage because oil is not sold today and what happened is that the virus eliminated the forty percent of the market immediately, you know you know the number forty percent, now there was a lot of oil but it was very controllable, suddenly they lost forty percent, you look at the road, you look at the car, look what is happening, there is no one driving, there's no reason for it right now, that will start to come back, but we are storing millions of barrels of oil that no one thought would be possible.

Frankly, the boats turned out to be a good deal for some. people because they are filling up tankers and sending them out to sea without telling where to go, they just sit there loaded with oil, so we want to save our energy in this country, we want to make sure that our energy companies and the employees, the workers stay strong, that's how I'm involved and I think that's going to happen, so right now, if you look, you're probably talking about twenty-three twenty-five, if they announced a deal, we can do it, we need a minimum number so that the companies don't close, so they're not going to lay off all these energy workers that are important to our country and you know, we're energy independent now, we could do something right, we just use our oil, but I think the long term benefit is being able to just keep going. the market and everything will be fine if you look three weeks ago, as you know, we talked about it three weeks ago and two weeks ago this was catastrophic.

I think it's really bottoming out and I think we've bottomed out but now at twenty-three dollars and twenty-five dollars and probably going up at the same time we save our energy and we also produce very cheap energy and we save our jobs yeah screening program because every day we hear to small business owners and they tell us that their banks don't know how to access this money that they are trying to request. I can't understand it, so where? the fault line is many banks. I don't think there's any problem with them making record amounts of dollars.

They are dealing with a lot of community banks. They are dealing with Bank of America. Citibank. And a lot of Wells Fargo, as you know. is very involved and they are dealing with the bankers, they can't go that fast, but I have heard it is a very very successful implementation, they didn't want changes to applications, they want changes to loan requirements etc. but they are taking thousands of millions. and billions of dollars in loans and in the very near future the banks will relieve the money and pay the withheld money, please still hope that the US The MCA will come into effect on July 1 and considering the fact that The auto industry is suffering these days, are you ready to postpone what we have an agreement?

Yes, the agreement is with Canada, with Gillis's Mexico, we have an agreement and obviously the agreement is different from the point of view that production will be lower, but we have an agreement, it is a signed agreement, it is an agreement that says that one One of the worst deals we've ever had was NAFTA, one of the worst trade deals ever made by any country anywhere or will end. That and the New Deal are very important to our country, so that's something that now, again, We get hit by the virus and we'll see where it all goes, but certainly car production will slow down for a while, but ultimately it will be good for our country. farmers great for our farmers, we will help our farmers because of the way we will have money for our farmers in the fairly near future that has to do with you, look what happened, farmers were hurt badly by all of this, people are eating less. from the point of view that there are no restaurants open, there are no businesses open, there are no hotels open, they will start to come back, but we are going to help our farmers, yes, the new wagon full of razors.

RealClearPolitics, you mentioned the skybridge project earlier and we're hearing that through that project, a lot of the PPE that was sent to other countries will be coming back to this country, do you know when we'll be able to bring most of that back and then you're frustrated because it's allowed US aid? First of all, a lot of that help is going to go out the door, right? I'm not because we are in very good shape. You'll talk to Mike Pence about this and a little while you look at the hospitals. Look what's happening. I spoke to yesterday.

I spoke with the governor of Louisiana. I'm saying: do you think we need those thousand extra beds that were in the process of being built? And we are really in good shape. Aren't you listening to people? We really need ventilators, in fact, we are going to start helping other countries with ventilators. We will end up having a lot of ventilators for the future, in case something happens so that the hospitals, ideally, will keep them and have them, but no, I think we are in a very very situation. good shape we have calls with the governor all the time and the governor is in very good shape now that we have helped we have sent billions and billions of dollars between ventilators equipment protective equipment masks we have 500 million masks coming 500 million from a group 500 It will be three hundred and two hundred million in a short period of time.

No, I think we're in pretty good shape. Please, speaking of testing, some experts, including Scott, have talked about 750,000 tests per week being needed before the economy recovers. open, can you address that? Do you agree with those numbers? If not, how many tests per week do you think we should have before that? Because I don't like to use the word necessary because I don't think it's necessary, but I think we're going to try to reach a number like that, it's a very high number, but we're going to try to reach it and we can probably do it.

Please go ahead. Thank you Mr. President, today Democrats pushed for more bailout money for states and hospitals that complain they needed to fight the corona virus pandemic. Do you think hospitals and states need this money? When you saw that I support and support something, but I support it for The next phase is much simpler in the next phase, whether that phase is infrastructure or whatever, so I'll leave you now with Mike Pence and with Eugene Scalia and If you wish, I hope to see you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. I think there is a lot of very important news to report.

We've had a tremendous day. I believe in what is happening with the energy industry and I believe in what is happening with the airlines. I hope to see you. Thank you all very much, thank you very much. In the afternoon, everyone here, we have now approved over two million tests across the country and I am pleased to report that we are testing over a hundred thousand people a day, but we are working around the clock to scale. the new types of tests the FDA has approved in record time and all Americans can rest assured that we will continue to build that structure in the weeks and months ahead.

Right now there are over 450,000 Americans who have tested positive for the corona virus and sadly over 16,000 Americans have lost their lives and as President Trump just said, our hearts go out to the families who have lost their loved ones and I want assure you that all of us who work at all levels understand These are not numbers, they are lives and our deepest condolences during this heartbreaking week go out to all the American families who have lost a loved one to the corona virus. It's been a difficult week, but as dr. Burks will reflect in a moment as we look at the data, literally, county by county, every day we continue to see evidence that in the areas where the epidemic has hit the hardest the New York City, Louisiana metropolitan area, Metro Detroit.

In the Denver Metro we continue to see evidence of stabilization and it appears as dr. bird suggests that we are near the peak in each of those highly impacted areas. We also ex

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gratitude and appreciation for the people of California in Washington State who continue to be low and steady in the number of cases emerging there. You're looking at the Chicago metropolitan area or the Boston metropolitan area and as dr. Burks will argue that we simply continue to urge all Americans to practice the president's

coronavirus

guidelines because all the evidence indicates that from the West Coast to what we are beginning to see in the major outbreak areas on the East Coast, the United States United is working and it is working because it is and we encourage you to keep going because today the White House coronavirus

task

force

met, but most of the team also met with Republicans and Democrats in two separate conference calls from the Secretary of the United States Senate, Minuchin, our health experts, Admiral Paul de consult dr.

Hahn and joined us as we discussed a wide range of topics, the Treasury Secretary touched on the Paycheck Protection Program now on a day five reporting that $125 billion has been approved so far, 30,000 new individual users and Three hundred and nine hundred lenders are participating, we also discussed that the Treasury Department will be issuing a new frequently asked questions (FAQ) document tonight to clarify how seasonal businesses can participate in the Paycheck Protection Program, as well as Regarding direct payments to Americans, the Secretary of the Treasury assured senators and we assure all Americans that we remain on schedule in which the first payments in direct deposits will be made at the end of next week for the average family of four people, which will represent three thousand four hundred dollars in direct financial support and will undoubtedly be good news for anyone.

Anyone interested in additional information about any of these programs can visit Treasury gov or sba.gov. Since we last spoke, I spoke with Governor Laura Kelly of Kansas, Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, I also spoke with the governors of Texas and Rhode Island, I assured everyone. One of them, as we continue to work through the process of making sure we distribute resources at the point of need, is under the direction of President Trump. Our goal working through FEMA is to make sure states have what they need when they need it. and seeing the progress that we have made, which the president just reflected on in New York and New Jersey, Louisiana, and the partnership that we forged with the governors of those states of California and Washington before that we trusted gives confidence to the governors and state leaders from across the country.

Most importantly, our dedicated healthcare workers will be there to meet that need should a need arise at the current time. FEMA reports that the president has approved fifty-four major disaster declarations and states across the country have submitted 29,000 to the National Guard 11,000 of which are fully funded by the federal government under title 32, also speaking of our military in this moment, today we received a report from the Department of Defense that 4,100 active duty military medical personnel have been deployed to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and There are personnel who are working ashore at the Javits Center, working of course on the ship USNS Comfort, but because at this point the utilization of both temporary facilities has been quite modest, the Department of Defense worked with the city of New York to establish what amounts to a uniform temporary service they called it a bullpen and today they literally deployed from the ship and from the Javits Center to 75 medical staff

members

to relieve the dedicated healthcare workers within the New York City hospital system and we will continue to do so. that we will make sure that those temporary federal hospitals and the Javits Center are fully staffed, we will make sure that the USNS Comfort is staffed, but the doctors that those military personnel will be deployed throughout the city to provide the services that are so desperately needed. they need. relief for our healthcare workers in our system from the VA standpoint, we have opened VA facilities in New York City, East Orange, New Jersey, Detroit, Michigan and we are opening VA facilities to coronavirus patients in Shreveport, Louisiana, finallyI mentioned today surpassing the more than two million tests that have been done across the country and also literally working with the US Public Health Service.

States across the country have set up hundreds of drive-through testing sites and Just this week FEMA and the U.S. Public Health Service announced it will give states an option to transition from a federal testing site, of which dozens have gathered across the country, to a site run by the state. I want to emphasize that this is an option that we believe gives states greater flexibility in designing sites or managing sites. in areas they consider most important, but we are also processing applications for continued federal involvement in states from New Jersey to Louisiana, Illinois, Colorado and Texas, and we want to assure people in communities across the country that we will continue to partner with the States to the extent that they prefer us to be part of them regarding the airlift.

Three flights were scheduled to arrive today in Chicago, New York and Dallas. Fort Worth. 49 flights are scheduled for the next three days and we continue to work supplies we literally leave no stone unturned throughout the United States and around the world, we are literally in the process of acquiring tens of millions of supplies that are being incorporated into a distribution system organized outside of FEMA and focused on the area's neediest. We are also bringing real innovation and at the White House Coronavirus Task Force today we

task

ed the FDA and CMS with reviewing the feasibility of allowing hospital workers to wear cloth gowns to perform procedures.

It was noted that twenty years ago most doctors and most surgeons wore cloth gowns every day and washed them, but the transition was made to disposable gowns and we are working very quickly in the next 24 hours and will have guidance for hospitals and health care workers about the ability to recycle gowns.and make sure we have the supplies we need, as the president mentioned today, the president, the first lady, my wife Karen and I, we are honored to be part of a conference call with mental health professionals from across the country and We know that while there are families who are battling the coronavirus and grappling with heartbreaking loss from the coronavirus, we understand that this is a very challenging time for all Americans, but especially for Americans who struggle with mental disorders or struggle with addiction, and the president brought something incredibly We were with them from the beginning, the president expanded access to telemedicine and we have also issued guidance on the use of technology to stay connected to social support groups and we simply urge everyone who may be feeling an emotional problem. a burden or a vulnerability during this time to reach out to the many resources that are out there and know that you are not alone, that we are with you and we will get through this and we will get through this together, so despite the heartbreaking losses that continued this week in communities from From New York to New Jersey and Louisiana there are sounds of progress and hope abounds, the reality is that we see new projections from the experts and if the projections are correct it is because the United States is working, it is because the American people are putting it into practice social distancing taking care of your neighbors, your loved ones and your family

members

and putting your health first and we just want to urge all Americans to continue to practice those principles and guidelines every day with that I'm going to invite dr.

Deborah Birx is ready for an update and Dr. Pouchy we will listen to the Secretary of Labor and answer some questions. Thank you Mr. Vice President um I wanted to cover today not only what we're seeing in the United States but also some of the testing data to make sure of the previous question. If we're looking at it, I'm sure you're tracking our numbers every day and the amount that we're increasing between a hundred and eighteen thousand to a hundred and twenty thousand a day is being tested, so we're well over 750,000 a week currently. We have some statistics that we remember that we require this thanks to Congress.

We report that we have about seventy-five percent of the data from those tests. About 1.5 million such tests have now been reported. I just wanted to give you some ideas because sometimes we think we're just testing in hospitals and this should give you an idea. idea of ​​the number and types of tests that have been done, so we have tested more than 200,000 young people up to 25 years old, they have a positivity rate of approximately 11%. More than half a million people between 25 and 45 years old have a positivity rate of 17%. Now remember. To get tested you have to have symptoms, so this gives you an idea of ​​the number of people who have symptoms who are not infected with the corona virus, another and almost half a million people between 45 and 65 years old, their positivity rate It is 21 percent, another almost. 200,000 between 65 and 85 years old, 22% positive and a small group of approximately thirty thousand people over 85 years old and they have a positivity rate of 24 percent, so this gives you an idea that we are testing all age categories.

I see a lot of men. In today's hearing I just want to remind you of the importance of taking care of the health of the ratio between men and women. 56 percent of the people who get tested are women, 16 percent are positive, 44 percent are men and 23 percent are positive, so again it gives you an idea of ​​how. Men often do not present to the healthcare system until they have major symptomatology. This is for all of our men, regardless of age group, if you have symptoms you should get tested and make sure you get tested, we appreciate you taking part.

That and also really recognizing the issues around comorbidities and making sure we address them. I've had a number of great calls with about 17 states that are in our most rural areas, specifically around our indigenous peoples and tribal nations, it's a very reassuring call. and you know we're testing across the country, we have about 63% of states that have less than 10 percent positive results despite significant testing and within indigenous peoples and tribal nations they are seeing the same thing as We are seeing it all over the country. The problems with the surge are wrong for those with comorbidities and those of seniors, but also the problems in nursing homes, so they are really proving that many of these states are still capable of doing full contact tracing, so so they've been doing contact tracing in nursing homes. outbreaks and other outbreaks really gives us a clear impression that no matter what we do in the future, we really need to make sure that nursing homes have Sentinel surveillance.

So what do I mean by that we are actively testing in nursing homes both the residents? and the workers at all times that's where and that's how we saw this at the beginning that's what we saw in Washington state and that's what we're seeing in many of the states that have very low case attack rates the other thing I want To leave you, I want to say that we certainly know how desperate and difficult the situation has been in New York over the last few weeks and we have been counting and talking about how this would be the most difficult week due to the large proportion of cases coming from the New York metropolitan area, which has encouraged us those first states outside of Washington in California, which still have extraordinarily low attack rates because of their level of mitigation, all the new areas that are having a new increase in cases We talked about them yesterday in Washington and Baltimore and the Philadelphia metropolitan area that includes Camden Wilmington and the counties around Philadelphia.

We are seeing that the number of cases is what we will reach in terms of attack rates, we are talking about one in every seven in a thousand in New York that are being measured, these are reaching even with their progress upwards in their curve in the range from one to two per thousand, which shows that when you start mitigation early, it has a very different impact. All this data is being gathered. the testing rates the SERO positivity the age groups that actually need ICU hospitalization the innovative pieces that come from us we heard a great report from Louisiana this morning on the phone call where they talked about a minimum of now 40% of people who They come out of the ventilators alive and out of the hospital.

This is very encouraging for us. It really shows amazing clinical progress in each of these hospitals and the reality from what we're learning and sharing across all the hospitals, but it really shows us that the original outbreaks were very large, but the newest ones that we're talking about. in Washington and while Philadelphia and Baltimore look like their attack rates and tack rates in Denver and some of these other states that we've been talking about are much lower than New York and New Jersey and this gives us hope that really understand how to integrate this information together not dealing with a model but with the real life cases that are happening and understanding how to move forward together to really have a different future, so thank you very much, thank you very much mr. vice president, so reflecting on what we've been doing the last few days, remember last weekend when we made the forecast that this was going to be a really bad week, as I mentioned yesterday and the day before, in the sense of deaths, it's a bad. week, in fact, every day, this seems to be a record number of deaths compared to the day before, in fact, New York today again had another record of I think the city itself was about eight hundred and twenty deaths, but what we were predicting with the increase and the actual compliance with physical separation the guidelines that the vice president talks about physical separation at the same time that we see the increase in deaths, we are seeing a pretty dramatic decrease in the need for hospitalizations as I think it was something like 200 new hospitalizations yesterday and it's up to 1,400 at one point, so it's going in the right direction.

I say it and I always remember it when I say that it means that what we are doing is working and therefore we should continue doing it I know I sound like a broken record that's good I want to sound like a broken record let's keep doing it I get a lot of questions dr. Burks and I on these numbers, the projections that you went from 100,000 to 200,000 are now down to 60,000, that's a sign that, as I keep saying, when you take the data that you have and put it back into the model, the model modifies the data , the model is real, it is a hypothesis.

Well, that's what you have to do and that's what I think we're seeing. The other thing is overall good news from a scientific standpoint that there are many potential candidate therapies that are entering clinical trials now. that we are sponsoring at the NIH the types of clinical trials that will give us the answer if they are safe, if they are effective and what is the ability to use them in what circumstances as prophylaxis as treatment in early disease, in late disease, so that the As time passes and we have the public health measures to try to contain this, we are doing a lot from a scientific point of view so that when we get to next year, next fall, next winter, hopefully we will have something that we can offer. in addition to the very important public health measures, so I will be happy to answer questions later, mr. vice president, thank you and thank you to the task

force

, of course, thank you to the president for your leadership, the important public health measures that have been discussed so much in these

briefing

s in this room have had a great impact on American workplaces, We saw it again today as the Department of Labor released figures showing that 6.6 million new unemployment claims were filed last week.

We are all aware that the president mentioned that the American people are making difficult sacrifices that include getting laid off or having problems with small businesses. That said, American workers can be encouraged by the speed and breadth with which the President and Congress have responded. Three weeks ago, the United States had never had a law requiring paid sick leave in American businesses, but three weeks ago the President signed the first family response to the coronavirus that did provide paid sick leave, as well as expanded family and medical leave. for employees of small businesses, which are reimbursed dollar for dollar for having provided that leave last week and the Department of Labor issued rules to implement, but these leave requirements of the first act of the family and We have been in contact almost constant with employers and employees to help them understandthe law and, in several cases, already to help workers understand that they were entitled to another unprecedented benefit for workers that was provided in the care law less than two weeks ago that the laws you know include $600 per week plus unemployment benefits that states provide, we have millions of unemployed Americans who are making a sacrifice for our national well-being, these bonus payments and their unprecedented benefits that the government has never provided. an increase in unemployment, pay them this way, these payments are intended to compensate those workers as closely as possible.

This temporary benefit was available not only to employees but also to self-employed and gig economy workers before the president signed the gig worker care law. Independent contractors were not available for unemployment compensation today. They are in the apartment. Our team has worked around the clock to enable states to make this benefit available. I'm pleased that several states are now making those additional $600 weekly payments. More states will follow in their footsteps. In the coming days, the time it will take will vary by state. Some systems will take longer, but we at the Department will continue to support them.

We have already distributed $500 million to states to help them with their systems to make these payments. We have another half a billion dollars that we are ready to release and for workers who do not receive this benefit when it is first due, states will be able to recover it later when their computer systems are capable of making these payments. Add that we at the Department of Labor are also aware that many Americans remain in the workplace, including those on the front lines in our hospitals, as well as our emergency responders. My department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA has been providing guidance to employers and employees about coronavirus since the early days of this health emergency we are taking and answering calls from workers concerned about their health and sometimes from workers who believe they have been unlawfully disciplined by their employer for expressing health concerns we will not tolerate retaliation OSHA will continue to work with workers and employers to keep workplaces safe using all tools available to us, including law enforcement if necessary.

I wanted to finish by commenting on the Paycheck Protection Program that we heard about earlier, administered by the Small Business Administration, of course, it's small business loans. to allow them to cover certain costs including utility rent and most importantly from my perspective payroll as you know if these companies that receive the loans keep their low wage workers on the payroll these loans They are largely forgivable. Here's why that program is so important from my point of view. For perspective, we are seeing jobless claims right now like we've never seen before, but these numbers are not the result of an underlying weakness in our economy.

Our economy has been vibrant, incredibly strong just a few weeks ago, as we've heard. again today, if we are disciplined now and carefully follow the guidance provided by health authorities, we will recover that economy. the president spoke at the State of the Union about the blue-collar boom that we were we want to lay the groundwork now for a blue-collar recovery. We will achieve this in part by helping companies retain their workers, which is what the Paycheck protection program keeps them on the payroll for when companies are ready. to reopen they have the workers they need and Americans have jobs we will continue if the department I know here in the White House will focus on American workers and jobs until this is done so thank you very much great we will take some questions just to clarify on federal funding for testing sites in states.

Are you saying that federal funding will continue for those sites and remain at their current levels? It's not just federal funding, but in many cases we provided US Public Health staff the service and also flowed in supplies of personal protective equipment that was required for some of the early forms of testing, but which today is It requires less with the new testing formats, but it is an option and, as I have made clear to several governors, we will do it. We will continue to partner with our states, but I have to tell you that the way the states are stepping up and stepping up with the concept of drive-thru and community testing is really inspiring on our part, working with FEMA and our great team at the Public Service.

U.S. Health Service, we have set up almost 50 different drive-thru testing sites across the country, but there are literally hundreds that have been implemented by states, hospitals and local healthcare providers, but in this case we wanted to at least give them the option to take control of that, but we will continue to provide them with staffing supplies and any other support they need in the future and present this information from the CDC in South Korea today that shows that they are seeing evidence of reinfection at some point. people who have been cured of the coronavirus and what that means for our understanding.

I don't know what you're talking about now, but they've clearly been anecdotal in mentioning what appears to be reinfection. You have to be very careful when you say reinfection because, and we were dealing with this even with Ebola during the time of Ebola, someone could still, when someone tests them, do a PCR on a body fluid of some kind and be able to detect which are. probably nucleotides that are not replication competent so if you're selling if you're telling me which I don't think they're saying that someone has coronavirus disease, gets sick, it's documented, gets better and then about a month later get sick with documented coronavirus disease.

I don't think that's what they're saying, but I don't want to jump the gun until I see the data. Yes, yes, we are reactivating. What it means is that it depends on what you want to say. by reactivating it, if someone is clearly sick and has the virus isolated, they may have a prolonged course. I would like to see how long they reactivate, I mean if they were sick and that virus documented and then three months later they had the virus documented is that reactivation or is that infection with another virus III. I would like to see the data before I actually comment that you had a discussion with dr.

Burks and the other public health experts on two things that you understand, can you discuss what the medical criteria are that you're discussing for reopening the government? Where are the medical criteria? Well, it's less medical criteria than public health criteria and that's and and I think it's really important because often people say reopening the government like it's a light switch that goes on and off across the country. We have a very large country with really different patterns of diseases and outbreaks in different parts of the country, so it's not going to work. to be a one size fits all, what the kinetics of an outbreak will be, is that on the way down, essentially, it's still burning and possibly increasing.

I think you'll have to take it individually. yes, well, i will allow dr. Burks to give just my own opinion. I don't think they are benchmarks that are consistent from one to the other, for example, I wouldn't want to go back at all in New York until I was clear that the curve was actually doing what we've seen in other countries: a very steep drop. and we had the ability, if there was a resurgence, to have everything in place to be able to do containment instead of struggling with mitigation with what we've done. What I've been doing is different than a relatively smaller city or whatever in the Midwest or mountain regions, which is generally very well controlled.

What I would like to see is if we have the ability to do isolation contact tracing and suppression, so it really varies. different, so I don't think there's a medical criterion, but that's what I tried to cover in the brief presentation that I did in talking to the 17 states that have indigenous populations and tribal nations and discussing with them what they were doing in general and what What were they doing. doing specifically through Indian Health, they discussed the ability to find new cases and do full contact tracing, so they have strike teams, they are very well organized, you don't hear about them every day and I read that swai wanted call.

They are really doing an incredible job in their public health institutions with their governors and mayors and they are really in full contact tracing, yes, they are doing social distancing, but they are also doing full contact tracing and understanding all aspects of their epidemic, so we're looking at those pieces, just like when I was talking about dulling, really when you're starting to go up that curve and having that incredible dulling where you just get obvious attack rates and I want to be very clear about that when we see cases, these They are symptomatic and have been diagnosed.

We clearly believe in people we don't see and that's why the antibody test is going to be helpful for us to really define that, so those are the pieces that we're putting together to really. Analyze what he meant by saying that the president is talking about the more than one hundred and fifty countries that are experiencing what we are experiencing. I just wanted to make a call: we have Americans around the world in every embassy who are working with those countries now. This scarf came from Africa. He's one of my public health colleagues there. I just want to recognize public health colleagues around the world who are doing all this work together to change the course of their epidemics in every country in the world.

Let me go. to another question, yes I can, but in response to that, just so you know, what the president tasked us with doing is that there are a number of working groups that are looking at not only how to reopen the country, but also how to reopen the country. We're staying open and I think most of America knows that no one wants to reopen America more than President Donald Trump, but the president told us that we need to do it responsibly and we're going to follow the data that we're following. This morning, the county by county data literally presented us with information from every county that had over a hundred new cases and as you know, it went the other direction if you knew less than a hundred that day. before it's really noticeable and I think what you hear the health experts say will inform the president's decision and timing, but make no mistake about it: the best thing we can do to reopen America is to put the coronavirus behind us to reach the objective. the end of that curve with as little loss of life or hardship as possible so that soon we believe that we will have the kind of therapies that I call medications that will make you feel better by this summer and to have more widespread testing that we are expanding every day and also to have the kind of guidance that the CDC is developing even now for businesses large and small, for families and for schools for the day we reopen questions in the United States.

Getting back to mitigation, there is a study done in Los Alamos this week that I hope you saw. It's on the CDC website and it discusses this question of whether it's a technical term that you understand that has to do with the reproductive rate of The virus that the study shows is not for the coronavirus is not between 2 and 3 s. It was thought that it is actually closer to 6, meaning that one person on average is infecting six others, so with this information, how does that affect a model? How can you start thinking about when to reopen society if it's more contagious than we thought before?

Well, I can tell you that he is a layman on stage. We've known all along that this is at least three times more contagious than me and the flu. I think that fact alone has informed our projections in the model, but now I'll let the experts respond well as a team, so when we've been talking about the asymptomatic group and that's why I gave you the testing data where eleven percent. of young people under 25 tested positive, many of them with very low-grade symptoms. What we're triangulating for you is the testing data with the hospital admissions and then you can start to see the spectrum of the disease because what you're not seeing in The Spectrum of the Disease are people who don't even think that this is something significant, that what they have, we are seeing significant cases when testing is done, you can see that we are getting a lot of people with symptoms that are not positive and so we actually find let's find out what they are, it's not six, it'sfive, and the only way to do that right now is to get out the antibody testing and go to these places that had significant disease when we're talking about seven percent attack rates. thousand like New York and five four thousand in New Jersey and test the health care workers, the first responders, all the nursing homes for antibodies and really answer your question because right now it's still theoretical and we understand that they are modeling this and we You'll get the data to look at, you'll see what others have been presenting, so you presented the six.

What others are presenting. The important thing is that they are modeling what is happening with mitigation and they are publishing that they are not with mitigation. 1.3 and 1.5, so think about what it would be like if there were six and then with the mitigation we have it in the ones that really show the power of the American people, no one has changed, they are not like that without a vaccine, but this is what is happening With really the power of the American people, do you know everything that Dr. Burke said, but I couldn't help but think that when you took it away you know what the worst enemy of a zero R is physical separation for the foreseeable future because the president talked about two million tests, will we have the testing capacity to do?

Americans feel comfortable returning to their workplaces. I mean, I think it's a pretty critical question right now, people won't want to go back to work if they think their coworkers might be carrying the virus that we're not. enough evidence, how do we know it is safe to return? I think the American people see the incredible progress that has been made after President Trump brought in the world's largest commercial labs to do testing at scale like we've seen. Dr. Burke said more than a hundred thousand Americans are tested every day. We have an antibody test that is available online.

Abbott Laboratories has literally thousands of machines across the country. We are working with hospitals and laboratories across the country to activate those machines over the 15 years. minute testing and we have enough testing right now, let me tell you that we are moving every day towards that moment, but let's be clear in reopening the country, as the president is very eager to do in the The first responsible moment will be through a combination of facts. First, it would be that we are at the end of the coronavirus for most major communities. Another part of that is that we have therapies for Americans to take medications if they get the disease.

Another part of that. There is CDC guidance for public institutions and businesses large and small on how to behave safely and responsibly and testing is also a part of that and as Admiral Schwa has reflected, we are spending a huge amount of time to expand testing. Today, there is more and more testing across the country every day, but we are also working to scale testing so that as we move through this summer and into the fall, we have the tests we need to do what these doctors called non-diagnostic tests. which is testing a person who has symptoms but using surveillance testing so that we can identify people who may have had it and who may be immune versus people also who we just need to know if they were ever exposed or not. we're not exposed how about one more quick question here?

If I can, I think I had one right here or I'll come to you back. Thank my Lord. Vice President, in the next few weeks the Supreme Court is said to be ruling on daca, which I know, on deferred action for the arrival of children and about 30,000 of those people who are under that program, our health care workers from front line, is the administration ready in any way to protect them if the ruling comes out in their favor and takes away their protection and they can no longer work in the health field as they need to right now, well I think the president has been very clear in their desire to reach a solution on that issue with Congress, but let me say whether the health care workers or the people who work in the food supply and other people who work in critical infrastructure were incredibly inspired by the way the peopleAcross the country are taking steps to keep people with healthy air and high-quality care available even in areas deeply affected by the corona virus and also, as we said the other day, hard-working people in our food supply, from the farmers to processors to distributors, truck drivers to grocers, we received good news that in recent days we have seen a significant drop in major business and absenteeism.

We issued new guidance from the CDC on how people who may have been around someone who had the carota virus could return to work sooner than 14 days if they did not have a fever if they were tested twice a day and returned wearing a mask but the dedication of people to keep working is truly inspiring and I know that as we move forward we will work on a wide range of national issues, but we will be incredibly proud for a long time of the way people across this country responded to this moment So thank you all very much.

I see you tomorrow