President Trump holds coronavirus press conference (FULL LIVE STREAM)

President Trump will address growing concerns about the

coronavirus

in just a few minutes that we will watch

live

at the White House this Wednesday night. President Trump is scheduled to make a rare appearance tonight in the Brady Briefing Room and will be accompanied by federal health officials. I'm Libby Casey and this is

live

coverage from The Washington Post. I'm joined here in our studio this afternoon by a health policy reporter. He refers to abu-taleb. Thank you very much for being here. What do we know about what the

president

expects? to reach out tonight, yasmine, so I think what we're hoping for is that President Trump wants to calm the markets, he wants to calm the fears about the

coronavirus

, the markets have collapsed in the last few days, they fell deeply three and a half percent . on Monday, which has a lot of White House officials concerned, so I think this is the first time we're hearing kind of a broader fad from President Trump, so far we've only gotten tweets from him about the coronavirus that have been quite restrained in his public comments, we haven't really heard much from him beyond kind of a statement here and there, so this is the first time we'll hear from him at length about the virus and I think he'll try to calm the public saying that Your administration has this under control, there is no reason to panic and they have it contained, so calming the markets is one thing, but reassuring the American public that there is a plan in place or that there is a plan that is you.

We know that it is activated to protect people and make sure that supplies are plentiful and that there are resources for people who have concerns and need information or are sick and the treatment is a little different, that's how Alex, your Tsar, your Secretary of Health and Human Services, has been leading. the coronavirus response so far and he's been on the hill several times this week, he's spoken at length about this publicly, other types of administration and health officials have been there pretty regularly briefing the public and members of Congress about his plan, you already know.

He plans to have personal protective equipment and all these things that would be needed in a kind of public health response, but this is the first time we're going to hear from Trump and I think he's trying to send a message that it's okay. We have it under control, there is a plan in place, but he has his officials who are talking in more detail with both Congress and the public about the details of that plan. You see there a live shot of Brady's briefing where so many media As we're gathered, we don't see a lot going on from this room these days, yeah, I mean, we don't see the

press

secretary or the communications director giving

press

conference

s let alone the

president

of the United States speaking from here, who else will be with the president?

Why is it important that he not only be alone but have health officials with him? I think he'll have his health and human services secretary, Alex, a czar who heads the coronavirus task force, brief him. I'm not sure who else. is going to be with him there, but this task force that the MEP there and I are calling what the White Horse calls it, the White House is calling it a task force to address the coronavirus correctly and they have representatives from each department that would have some kind of involvement in this. He has departments of representatives from the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, White House advisors from the NIH, his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, is part of the task force, so which is a pretty wide swath of The people that you have there and I think the teachers are trying to send, you know we have this robust interagency response, but you know there have been mixed messages from all of those people in the last few days and that has caused a sort of There was a lot of confusion.

I think some officials came out later yesterday trying to calm the markets, but it didn't work, so I think today they are trying to send a message that everyone is in unison, they are unified and this is This is what they are doing, that Unity is significant because we have been hearing different messages from different actors, so let's listen to some of the messages that have emerged from so far away from the White House team. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, a tsar, testified. Today, in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, let's hear how he characterized the risk.

The immediate risk to the American public remains low, but there is now community transmission in several countries, including outside Asia, which is deeply concerning. We are working. closely with state, local and private sector partners to prepare to mitigate the potential spread of the virus in the United States as we expect to see more cases here, so they say he expects to see more cases here yesterday and has been testifying as you mentioned. repeatedly on the hill we really listened to senators from both sides of the aisle, the Republican senator also joined in and asked questions that he didn't have answers to all about do you know how much money needed to be budgeted to have supplies available and he went from there was a call from attention to the White House, you know, the events that preceded all these hearings that a czar had previously scheduled on the hill because the administration recently released its budget, so the timing is either fortunate or unfortunate depending on how.

If you look at it, these hearings were going to happen anyway and now a lot of them have become kind of an interrogation about the administration's response to the coronavirus and what the plan is and what money they need. On Monday, the administration submitted a supplemental request for about $2.5 billion for the coronavirus, but much of that, about half, is simply moving existing funds, money set aside to deal with Ebola because there is an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, other public health priorities and both Republicans and Democrats are not enthusiastic about the White House request, they do not believe it is enough, they do not believe it can address all the needs that they have, so it is he has repeatedly asked the tsar at these audiences.

I think he's had three on this one. point maybe more why they asked for so little why they are moving funds between these other public health priorities and even Republican senators and members of the House of Representatives have said that maybe a more appropriate number is four billion or six billion or There are different amounts floating around out there, so congressional appropriators are working on their own package that I think will almost certainly be more than what the White House asked for now. I want to contrast the message we heard from Secretary Hazard with what's coming out of the White House economic advisor, Larry Kudlow Smouse, he was on CNBC yesterday and said the threat to public health was controlled and limited.

Listen to this even the US is worried when you look at this, I mean you have a little bit higher infection count because of the cruise ship people going out. We have contained this, we have contained this. I won't say air type, pretty close to airtight, we've done that. a good job in the United States I take my hat off to our public health people, so I guess what it means to contain the virus is seen with that terminology. I think what Kudlow meant by that is that it is not spreading within the US and in some countries, including Italy.

In South Korea you're starting to have outbreaks, you know, sustained transmission of the virus from person to person, not just from people returning from China. What he is saying is that the virus is not spreading here. Yes, the United States has cases, but the vast majority are people. who have been repatriated from China or from a cruise ship where there was an outbreak of the virus that is not actually spreading among people in the communities and those people are quarantined, so it's saying you know we're essentially not going to have a outbreak and that's It's a bit of a dangerous message to send because the consistent message from public health officials has been that we expect the number of cases to increase.

I mean, you have to properly prepare the public for that, it doesn't mean that nothing is going to happen. happen and then everyone freaks out when you start having more cases or if you have an outbreak, if you're just tuning in, we're waiting for President Trump to make remarks at 6:30 Eastern Time, which is the scheduled time for he. I'll be in Brady's briefing room so you can see that on his screen we're watching the room for when the president and other health officials come to make remarks to these assembled reporters. Yeah, I mean, let's talk about some of the basics of The Coronavirus and what we know so far about mild cases versus more severe cases, so let's look at what we know.

I think the really important thing about the coronavirus and what has a lot of people nervous is that we know that we don't know more. From what we know, this virus has never been seen before, so we are learning as we go in this outbreak, so what we do know is that, at least in the US and generally around the world, most cases are fairly mild cases. It seems that if you have the flu or pneumonia and most people recover, the people who are most at risk are older people or people who have other health conditions that could put them at greater risk, the same way the numbers show like over 50. right, it's not that funny, we're not talking about 90 year olds, we're talking about the risk that grows even in middle age, really true, I mean honestly, there's a lot of things we just don't know, no It is quite clear what causes someone.

To have a more severe case versus a mild case, it seems that younger, healthier people who get the virus generally seem to recover, but the other scary thing about this virus that has been learned recently is that even people who don't show any cases . Symptoms can be positive for the virus and they can be carriers and they can still spread it that way and that's really scary because they don't have obvious symptoms so they wouldn't necessarily have them if they don't meet the criteria for someone who has returned. from China and need to be tested or what, or had contact with someone who is infected, I wouldn't necessarily think about getting tested.

There have been some tragic and high profile deaths of healthcare workers in China, including the doctor who tried to raise the alarm and inform the wider community about what was happening, these were not elderly people, so what do we know about the risk to healthcare workers and why they might suffer these deaths even if they are not in the risk zone in terms of age and health, so some of these healthcare workers who have died in China, the fact of that they have succumbed to the virus indicates that sustained transmission or sustained exposure to it can put someone at greater risk, so in a way you have someone where someone sneezed within two feet of you and you could contract it that way, probably It's going to be a mild case unless you have some other kind of health conditions which we don't know for sure but it seems like that's how it's developing but if you're a healthcare worker treating tons and tons of patients with the virus it seems that the more exposed you are to the virus, the greater risk you could be.

I mean, what questions do you have for the president and his team? If you were in the meeting room tonight, what would you like to hear from them? What would you like to ask? Well, you know, there were some reports today that the White House was thinking about naming a coronavirus. Is there someone in the White House sort of overseeing the entire response and there have been mixed messages on that, so I'd like to know if you think you need another key person on this or if you think you need someone in the White House to coordinate? all these departments and a lot of external people.

I said, where is the person in the White House? We need someone from the White House to lead this response. I'm kind of like Obama did when we had the Ebola outbreak: he appointed an Ebola czar who had

full

authority and was the undisputed face of the outbreak. I would like to know if they are planning more travel restrictions if they are going to do more screening and more testing given the way this outbreak has grown. I'm not sure we're going to get answers to all of them tonight. but those are things we're wondering as we try to learn more about how the administration is responding to this last night there was a Democratic debate in South Carolina and the candidates attacked the Trump administration's response to the corona virus. so let's look at a section of last night's intense debate on CBS, what he would do immediately is restore funding, he cut funding for the CDC, he tried to cut funding for the NIH, he cut funding for the entire effort and this is the deal that would do. talking on the phone with China and making it clear that we are goingyou need to be in your country, you need to be open, you need to be clear, we need to know what's going on, we need to be there with you and insist on it and insist, insist I insist that you could do it, no one up here has ever tried at the level international with any of these world leaders.

I'm the only one who has Senator Sanders in the White House today in the White House, today we have a self-proclaimed great genius. and this great genius has told us that this coronavirus is going to end in two months. April is the magical day that this great scientist that we have in the White House has determined. I wish he was joking. That's what he said. What do we have to do if the issue of climate change, which is clearly a global crisis that requires international cooperation or is contagious, diseases like corona bias require international cooperation, we have to work and expand the World Health Organization, obviously, we have to make sure that the CDC, the NIH, our infectious departments are

full

y funded, this is a global problem, we have to work with countries around the world. to resolve it from the democratic debate last night, of course, Senator Sanders, former Vice President Biden, Yasmine, which caught your attention in your criticisms and comments, so they are implying things that many people have criticized for several weeks.

The big gap in the administration's response is that in 2018, John Bolton, then the Security Advisor, disbanded a team in the White House that was responsible for exactly this type of thing where preparation and response to a pandemic and you had that structure in place. In case there has been an outbreak, because without interruptions it is not a question of if it will happen, it is a question of when, so that has been a big point of criticism for the administration for the fact that they got rid of the structure to handle this president. Trump has also had a fairly light touch with China throughout this whole matter, even though many public health experts and even other members of Congress and members of his administration have pressured China to be more transparent.

China was late in revealing the extent of this outbreak. They still feel like they're not getting transparency from China and enough information about the breadth of the virus, we don't really know what to think about the case counts they're reporting and US officials have had a hard time getting into it. Chinese sites you should access to better understand this. They are trying to develop a vaccine very quickly. They need to start security testing. So you know, a couple of weeks ago we reported that President Trump's soft Trump on China was turning a lot of people off. his administration was uncomfortable and wanted him to take a harder line, tweeting reassuring messages about how President Xi was doing and how he was being handled well;

It was nothing but praise for President Xi and one of the things that plays into that is that there are still a lot of delicate negotiations going on over a trade deal that he didn't want to scare the markets even more. Many countries, including the United States, are extremely dependent on China for production and manufacturing, so there are a lot of political dynamics at play that somewhat hinder some parts. of the public message, so let's talk about a vaccine, you mentioned that's something that's being worked on and where the progress is, so Tony Fauci, who heads the infectious diseases division at the NIH and has also been a big face of this response, he said yesterday that We are about a month and a half away from starting, you know, the first clinical safety trials for a vaccine, which would be a record time to obtain the sequence of the virus and then develop the vaccine to begin testing it , but we are still in the short term.

Year, year and a half before the vaccine is widely available for everyone to receive. Yeah, I mean, we're watching before the President walks into Brady's briefing room and I'm letting our viewers know that they're coming back to us later to give us something. context and let's go over what the president and his health team are saying, so stay with us, yeah, I mean, Abu Talib, here at the Washington Post, let's go now to the White House and a Brady briefing room while this team shows up and they're watching it live. the Washington Post's assistant secretary's coverage is up front, yeah, I mean, who else are we seeing flanking him in Brady's briefing room, so the person right behind him is the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, which one is also in? the task force behind him is another senior HHS official, Bob Kavlock, he leads emergency preparedness and HHS, so he's a big part of this response as well.

There has been criticism that the team assembled for this, the so-called coronavirus task force, is made up almost exclusively of white men, it's all white. men actually and yes, there has been a lot of criticism about the fact that there were some people who put the picture of Obama's Ebola response team next to this task force, so there has still been a lot of criticism about the fact that There are some women at the CDC. who have been public faces of this, but they're generally hoarse, they're all men exactly, yeah, it's generally not a very diverse group, so Brady's briefing room is full of reporters.

We've seen very few press announcements here, addresses much less the president's statements coming into this. so even though he is making comments, he will face a sea of ​​journalists who will be very eager to ask questions. Yes, this will be a very interesting test because we have not heard the president speak at length about the coronavirus. In fact, we have reported several times. It's sometimes remarkable how restrained he's been in his public response to it given the way he talked about Ebola when he was a private citizen, where he was, you know, a fear-monger. He has taken a very different tack this time, there are other important people.

In that scenario, the woman next to the microphones is shocked and is a senior CDC official. She has also been present quite a bit in this response. She can't be seen on camera, but Tony Foutch, oh, there he is next to her. an is Tony Fauci of the NIH and he is in every administration presented as the face of the outbreak response to assure people that everything is going to be okay. The Washington Post has a live updates page where you all are featuring all the latest stories and I just want to share some of the reports this afternoon that a new case of corona virus was confirmed in the United States today, as several others Countries have also confirmed cases and deaths.

We are seeing reports of the death of a French citizen. As the epidemic is growing in Europe, countries like Spain and Germany, in Greece and France and of course Italy, we have heard a lot about Italy, which is dealing with this and facing this, what are the places that are not do we know? I mean, there are so many questions about Iran and what the situation is there. Yes, Iran reported over the weekend a big spike in cases, although it's a little unclear how bad the outbreak is there. There has also been a large increase in cases.

In South Korea there are many cases. Japan has many cases. Singapore is not as bad as South Korea, but there are quite a few cases there, so one of the reasons why the markets panicked this week is that over the weekend we saw Italy have a big outbreak and and you saw a kind of sustained human-to-human transmission and cases that were not directly related to someone who had just arrived from China to countries outside of China and that's a new development, yeah, I mean, it certainly seems like the White House has a number of jobs to do and one, as you said, the president hopes to reassure the markets, but there are some basic questions that Americans have about where can I find supplies, like what am I supposed to prepare for, how am I supposed to think about this in my community, who are the people who are going to answer those questions maybe tonight maybe not tonight, but generally who have the responsibility to answer the questions and interact with the American public about this, so they really are the main ones health officials.

The CDC provides regular briefings so people know what to expect, how things are developing, what precautions people should take, so some health officials have said it's not necessary to walk around with a mask on, it's not that bad. . here, but you know, wash your hands, be careful with the surfaces you touch, the virus can't spread that way, you know, take the kind of precautions that you would take for a bad flu season that we're also having and the another thing I believe. Many people are waiting to see how well the administration is communicating with state and local authorities, looking at the open room door and everyone stood at attention, we are waiting for the president to enter the breeding room. briefing room to join the task force and other health officials to talk about the coronavirus and the growing concerns in this country.

What are you watching for in terms of the virus in the United States? Will they be alert to notifications that the virus is spreading from person to person? person and we talk about cruise passengers and other people who have been under quarantine or who have been under surveillance and there is the president in the United States, so we will talk about that, yes, I mean, after he speaks, he is joined by the Vice president. President, let's go live to Brady's briefing room. Thank you very much before starting. I would like to express my deepest condolences to the victims and families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Earlier today, an evil killer opened fire at a Molson Coors Brewing Company plant, taking his own life. of five people several people were injured some seriously injured our hearts break for them and their loved ones we send our condolences we will be with them and it is a terrible thing, a terrible thing so our hearts go out to the people of Wisconsin and to the families, thank you very much . I just received another briefing from a great group of talented people about the virus that is circulating in various parts of the world. We've made some very good early decisions, decisions that were actually ridiculed at the beginning.

We close. above our borders, two flights coming from certain areas, areas that were affected by the corona virus and it was quite tough and we did it very early, a lot of people thought that we shouldn't have done it so early and we did it and it turned out to be a very good thing. and the number one priority from our point of view is the health and safety of the American people and that's how I looked at it when I made that decision because of everything we've done, the risk to the American people remains very low We have the greatest experts in the world, really in the world, right here, the people that other countries turn to when things like this happen.

We were ready to adapt and we are ready to do whatever is necessary as the disease spreads. spreads, as most of you know, the level that we have had in our country is very low and those people are improving or we believe that in almost all cases they are improving, we have a total of 15 that we take. some from Japan found out because they are American citizens and they are in quarantine and they are also getting better, but we felt like we had an obligation to do it, it could have been up to 42 and we found out that we were it was just an obligation that we felt like we had, we could have left them and that It would have been very bad, very bad.

I think the American people and they are recovering from the 15 people, the original 15, as I call them, eight of them have returned. their homes to stay in their homes until they fully recover, one is in the hospital and five have fully recovered and one thinks he's in pretty good shape and he's between the hospital and going home, so we have a total of 15 people and they are in the recovery process and some have already fully recovered. We start by analyzing certain things. We have been working with the hill very carefully and very forcefully and I think we have a very good bipartisan spirit for the money we were. asking for two and a half billion and we think that's a lot, but the Democrats and I guess Senator Schumer want us to have a lot more than that and normally in life I would say we'll take it, we'll take it if they want. to give more we will, we will spend what is appropriate, hopefully we won't have to spend as much because we really believe that we have done a great job keeping it to a minimum and again we have had tremendous success tremendous success beyond what people would have thought now at the same time time there are some outbreaks in some countries Italy and several countries are having some difficulties China you know where it started I spoke with President Xi we had a great talk he is working very hard I have to say he is working very very hard and if you can count on the reports thatThey come out of China, but that spread has slowed quite a bit, the infection seems to have decreased in the last two days instead of increasing, it's actually gotten smaller in a case where we think we may be, it's somewhat reliable, it seems to have become a little smaller with respect to the money that is being negotiated, they can do whatever they want, I mean, they can, we will do the tuna.

We are asking for two and a half, some Republicans would like us to get four and some Democrats would like us to get eight and a half and we will be satisfied, whatever it is, tomorrow we will bring in a specialist, very highly regarded specialists. who actually works at the State Department has tremendous talent for doing this. I want you to understand something that surprised me when I saw that I spoke with dr. Fauci on this and I was really shocked and I think most people are shocked to hear that the flu in our country kills 25,000 to 69,000 people a year, which was shocking to me and so far, if you look at what we have with 15 people and they are recovering, one is quite sick but hopefully will recover, but the others are in very good shape, but think about between 25,000 and 69,000 in the last ten years we have lost 360,000, these are people who have died because of the flu of what we call the flu, hey, did you get a flu shot?

And that is something that we have now done: we have prevented non-US citizens from coming to the United States from China, that was done very early, we are screening people and We have been screening at a very high level people coming into the country from infected areas. We have quarantined those infected and those who are at risk. We have many excellent quarantine facilities. We are rapidly developing vaccines and they can talk to you. Professionals can. tell you about that the vaccine is progressing well and then talking to the doctors we think this is something we can develop quite quickly, a vaccine for the future and coordinate it with the support of our partners.

We have excellent relations with all the countries that were talking about something pretty good. A large number of countries, some are one person and many countries do not have any problems and we will see what happens, but we are very, very prepared for anything, whether it is going to be a major breakup or whether we are going to know that we are at that very low level and we want to keep it that way so we are at the low level as they improve we take them off the list so that very soon we are down to five people. and we might be with just one or two people in the next short period of time, so we've had very good luck.

Johns Hopkins. I guess it's a great, well-respected place. They did an exhaustive study on the country's best and worst prepared for an epidemic and the United States is now ranked number one we are ranked number one for being prepared this is a list of different countries I don't want to get in your way, especially since does such a good job this is a list of the different countries United States is ranked the most prepared United Kingdom Netherlands Australia Canada Thailand Sweden Denmark South Korea Finland this is a list of the best ranked countries in the world by Johns Hopkins we are doing something else that is important to me because he has been great in many ways, but he is also very good at healthcare and we really follow him very closely.

Many states do it when Mike was governor. Indiana's Mike Pence. They have established excellent medical care. They have a great system. Your system is a lot. Many other states have really looked at and changed their systems, they wanted to base it on Indiana's system. He's very good and I think he's really very expert in the field and what I've done is I'm going to be announcing exactly right now that I'm going to put our Vice President Mike Pence in charge and Mike is going to work with the professionals and the doctors and everyone else. who are working on the team.

He is brilliant. I spend a lot of time with the team. the last few weeks but they have been totally brilliant and we are doing very well and Mike will be in charge and Mike will report to me but he has a certain talent for this and I will ask Mike Pence to say a few words please thank you Thank you mr. President Trump made clear from the first stage of this administration that we have no higher priority than the safety, health and well-being of the American people and from the first word about a corona virus outbreak, the president took unprecedented steps to protect to the American people from the spread of this disease, has been briefly told, but the establishment of travel restrictions, the aggressive quarantine effort of returning Americans, the declaration of a public health emergency and the establishment of the task force The president has taken a whole-of-government approach as the former governor of the state where the first case of MERS emerged in 2014.

I know well the importance of presidential leadership, the importance of of administration and the vital role of state and local associations. Governments and health authorities in response to the potential threat of dangerous infectious diseases and I look forward to Mr. President to serve in this role, I am bringing together all members of the corona task force that you have established HHS CDC DHS on Department of Transportation and State this team has been under your direction Mr. The president will meet every day since it was established, my role will be to continue to bring that team together to provide the president with the best options for action to ensure the security, well-being and health that the American people will also continue to extend. to the governor's state and local officials, in fact, in recent days, the White House met with more than 40 state county and city health officials from more than 30 states and territories to discuss how to respond to the potential threat of the corona virus that we will be working with them in renewed ways to make sure that they have the resources to be able to respond and as the president said, we will add additional staff here at the White House to support our efforts on behalf of the president, we will work with them as well.

Members of Congress to ensure that resources are available for this entire government response and we will work very closely with Secretary Azar and his team who have done an excellent job communicating with the public to ensure that the American people have the best information. . on ways to protect themselves and their families and also for the public to have the most timely information about the potential threat to the American people, mr. President, as we have been informed while the threat of a spread of the corona virus to the American public remains low, you have directed this team to take all necessary measures to continue to ensure the health and well-being of the American people and the The people of this country can be assured that under your leadership we will continue to bring the full resources of the federal government to bear in coordination with our state and local partners to ensure the health and well-being and effective response to the corona virus here. in the United States of America with that the president has asked me to recognize the Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex a zar and also the deputy director of the CDC a dr. and Chaka for the Vermont well, thank you mr. vice president and thank you mr.

President for bringing together your public health experts here today and for your strong leadership in keeping America safe and I just want to say that I couldn't be more delighted that you've asked the Vice President, my old friend and colleague, to lead this whole thing. government approach. with us under emergency support function number eight as of today we have 15 cases of kovat 19 that have been detected in the United States with only one new case detected in the last two weeks we also have three cases among Americans repatriated from Wuhan and 42 cases among repatriated Americans who had been trapped in the Diamond Princess in Japan.

The president's early and decisive actions, including travel restrictions, bought the United States incredibly valuable time. This has helped us contain the spread of the virus. Handle the cases we have and prepare for them. Faced with the possibility that we may need to mitigate the broader spread of infections within the United States, the president's actions taken with the strong support of his scientific advisors have proven to be appropriate, sensible, and well calibrated for the situation. We are grateful for the hard work that health care workers, first responder communities, and state and local leaders have participated in the response so far because of this hard work and the president's leadership.

The immediate risk to the American public has been and remains low. Our containment strategy has been working at the same time. What each of our experts and leaders have been saying for more than a month remains true: the degree of risk has the potential to change rapidly and we can expect to see more cases in the United States, which is why we have been reminding The CDC has recommended that the American public, and especially state and local governments, businesses, and other organizations, educate themselves about how they would respond in the event the situation is different, we are encouraging Americans to learn what future steps they might take. be necessary to stay safe in their communities.

Knowing these possible steps now can help keep the risk low for you in your community. Americans can find helpful information at cdc.gov. /co vyd co VI d 19 and we are working closely with government and private sector partners to educate them on preparedness. We have finally begun working with Congress to secure the funding we need. There are five top priorities in the White House's request to Congress that the White House made on Monday. These priorities are first, expanding our surveillance network, second, support for state and local governments, third and fourth, development of therapeutics and vaccines, and fifth, manufacturing and purchasing personal protective equipment such as gowns and masks as chair of the coronavirus task force.

I am committed to providing regular updates of our coordinated interagency process. We have had our top public health leaders, like those who joined me here today, speaking to the media many times a day to inform the American public that the Trump administration is going to continue to be aggressively transparent by keeping the American people and the media informed about the situation and what everyone can do about it. I'm going to leave the floor to dr. and he shook it, the doctor shook it, is the senior career official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the principal deputy director with a career of more than 30 years at the CDC in public health and as a member of the Corps in charge of the United States Public Health Service.

The doctor shuddered and I will hand him over. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, as you know, this has been a difficult and challenging time and our hearts go out to the people who have been directly affected by the virus and to all those who have been working tirelessly to respond to our aggressive response strategy. containment here in the United States. has been working and is responsible for the low levels of cases we have so far, however, we expect more cases and this is a good time to prepare. As you heard, it's the perfect time for businesses, healthcare systems, universities and schools to take a look at their pandemic preparedness plans, dust them off and make sure they're ready, and we have a lot more information on the website. the CDC and in partnership on how to do it, but it's also a very good time for the American public to prepare and for you to know what this means for you.

The coronavirus we are talking about is a respiratory virus that spreads in a similar way to the common cold or influenza. It is spread through coughs and sneezes and therefore those sensible everyday measures that we tell people to take every year. with flu are important here covering your cough staying home when sick and washing your hands tried and true measures not very exciting but really important ways to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses so this is the trajectory of what is very uncertain to look at weeks and months ahead, but many of the steps we have taken over the past 15 years to prepare for pandemic influenza and our experience during the 2009 H1n1 influenza pandemic remind us of the types of steps our healthcare system our businesses our school communities may need to take we are in this together all government the public and private sector and the CDC wants to make sure you have the best information available every day thank you just want to give a very quick update on my name is dr.

Tony Fauci I am the directorfrom the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, just a very quick update on the development of countermeasures in the form of vaccines and therapeutics. I told this audience at a recent press

conference

that we had a number of vaccine candidates and a prototype to give you an idea of ​​the time frame of a vaccine and what its impact could be now and in the years ahead, I told them that we would have a vaccine that we would test to see if it is safe and if it induces a response that you would predict would be protective in about three months, I think it will be a little less than that, it will probably be closer to two months, which would then take about three months to determine if it's safe and immunogenic, which gives us six, then you go from a trial that is phase one of 45 people to a trial that involves hundreds, if not thousands, of people to determine efficacy as soon as possible and the efficacy trial would take an additional six to eight months, so although this is the fastest we have gone from a virus sequence to a trial, it still would not be applicable to the epidemic unless we really wait between a year and a year and a half, that means two things: one, the response to which contains public health measures, we cannot rely on a vaccine for the next few months or a year;

However, if this virus, which we have every reason to believe, is quite conceivable to happen, it will last more than one season and will come back and recycle next year if that is the case we hope to have a vaccine and then finally in short therapies there is a series of antiviral drugs that are being tested a few days ago we started a randomized controlled trial of a severe death quorum drug that has antiviral activity in vitro in an animal model the good news is that it is a randomized trial to receive placebo or standard treatment and standard medication and treatment, which means we will know reasonably soon if it works, and if it works, then we will have an effective therapy to distribute thanks to the scientific and medical team behind I'm George, able to keep America safe, mr.

President, where do we go from here? That depends on us and our concern and also mr. President, you are very famous in India and very famous in America, we won't talk much about that other than me. I just laughed like it was a long flight. He is a great gentleman, a great leader. It is an incredible country. They treated us very well. very good and we really enjoyed it, tremendous progress was made in terms of relationship, our relationship with India is extraordinary right now and we are going to do a lot of business with India, they are sending billions and billions of dollars now to the United States, but I would prefer to talk about this right now, but when do you agree with that assessment?

Well, I don't think it's inevitable, it probably will, it possibly will, it could be on a very small level or it could be on a broader level, whatever happens, we are fully prepared, we have the best people in the world, already You see that, according to the study, we have the best prepared people, the best people in the world. Congress is willing to give us much more than we are. asking is good for a change but we are totally ready willing and able is a term we use is ready willing and able we have we are going to be very well under control now it can grow and make it a little bigger it may not get bigger we will see what happens, but regardless of what happens, we are fully prepared, thank you, tell me first about the supreme acres that you put in the travel restrictions that you can impose to burn China right now. the virus is present Italy and South Korea, do you plan to add those countries?

Well, Justin, you know I'm the president of the United States, I'm not the president of other countries, other countries, some on the list are very respected in what they do. in terms of what we're talking about, but I really want to be responsible for this country if that means putting a very strong situation on the border so that people can't come into our country from a country that's infected, that's us doing that or We have already done it with numerous countries but we have to focus on this country. I don't think it's right to impose ourselves on others, but if others don't care or we believe they are doing it incorrectly.

We know that we are dealing with global health and we have great people and the CDC helps other countries give them recommendations on what to do, but they are working in their countries, that we are working in our countries and so far from our simple, it really worked very well, can you clarify if you are considering restricting travel to and from South Korea, Italy and other countries that have been affected? At the right time, we can do it now. It's not the right time, but it is at the right time. We're screening people as they arrive specifically for the issue we're dealing with, so we're screening a lot of people coming from South Korea.

Italy has been quite difficult. China is obvious. What happened in China. but again the numbers seem to be stabilizing and going down in China, which is very good news, so we will see what happens today. One czar testified that he didn't think it was necessary, that they were going to remove him from HHS and you have been downplaying this, so why are you now selecting the vice president? I guess I'm the vice president of Missouri, he's in the administration, but I make everyone report to Mike. Mike has been very good, very knowledgeable, anyone who knows anything about healthcare. look at the Indiana model and it's been a huge success, it's been a tremendous model in terms of healthcare and this is really an offshoot of that, so this is blue.

I don't see my kazar Mike as part of the administration, but I am having them report to Mike Mike, well, report to me, in some cases they will report to both of them as well. I will go to meetings quite a bit depending on what they want to do and the message we want to convey, but I have really done an extraordinary job when you look at a country this size with so many people coming, being number one in the world in number of people coming to one country, by far, and we have a total of 15 cases, many of which almost largely within a day I will tell you that most of which are fully recovered.

I think it's actually a pretty impressive brand. We took in 40 people who were Americans and they are also recovering, but we brought them in, so I call I have a different one. group, but we felt that we had an obligation to American citizens outside of the country that we are trying to return to, we thought it was very important. The market has taken a big hit in recent days, what can be done about it and whether the CDC is right in saying that the spread is inevitable. Are you going to be dealing with stock market and economic issues for some time?

Well, I really think that the stock market, if it's something that I know a lot about, I think that it was affected, maybe for two reasons. I think they look at the people you saw debate last night and say if there's even a chance that that could happen, I think he was really affected by that and he was certainly affected by this and I understand also because of the offer. chains and various other things and people coming in but I think the stock market will recover the economy is very strong a consumer is the strongest it has ever been or the consumers are amazing there and it's amazing that's why we are doing well in others countries, not even before the virus, we were doing very well, other countries had not done very well, a consumer is very, very strong, very powerful economically, foreign cities as we saw in China and what would have to happen for you , we have much, much plans. on a larger scale if we need it, we are working with states, we are working with practically all the states and we have plans on a larger scale, if we need it, we don't think we are going to need it, but you know, we always have to be prepared and again the Congress is talking to us about funding and we are getting much more than we asked for and I think the best thing we can do is accept it, we will accept it.

Are you willing to give it to Congress if you are? It's going well, we'll see, but we will deal with the states because the states are working very hard, we have hospitals and states that are making rooms available and they are building quarantine areas, areas where you can keep people safe, we are really working. Well, with the States it is a very important part, so you know my attitude, if Congress wants to give us the money so easily, it was not very easy for the wall, but we achieved it if they want to give us the money and we.

We'll take the money, we'll do a good job with it. Yes, should Americans go out and buy protective equipment like massive missiles and such? By doing to increase mass production, we can get a large quantity, in fact, we have ordered a large quantity in case we need it, we may not need it, you understand, but in case we are facing the worst of the cases. we're going to be ready very quickly, but I don't think we're going to be close to that, I really don't think we're going to be close to our borders being very controlled, our flights from certain areas that we're talking about are very controlled.

I don't think we'll ever be close to that place. Back to the stock market by the second, travel-related stocks have been especially hit here in recent days. What would you say? Telling Americans who right now are looking forward to summer or the next few months and saying to themselves, should I make plans for summer? Should I travel abroad? Well, I hope they can do it, we think we hope it's They'll be in good shape by then, but you know they'll have to stay a little bit flexible. Yes, I would say that travel-related businesses would certainly be hurt right now by the time this ends.

Hopefully it will end sooner rather than later and I think the business they lost will pick up at a later date, but you know, now I think they probably won't go to China. We're not going to go to certain countries where the problem is much bigger than in the United States, what we're going to do is keep people at home and they're going to travel to places where we have the biggest, it's the most touristy country in the world. , so instead of leaving our country and leaving our shores, they will stay here and again when you have 15 people and the 15 in a couple of days will be reduced to almost zero.

It's a pretty good job. I've done it, Speaker Pelosi is incompetent, she lost Congress once. I think she will lose him again. She raised my poll numbers up to ten points. I never thought I would see that so quickly and so easily. I'm leading everyone. We are doing very well. I don't want to do it that way, it's almost unfair if you think about it, but I think she's incompetent and I think she's not thinking about the country and instead of making a statement like that where I've been routinely hitting her on everything. Instead of making a statement like that, I should say that we have to work together because potentially we have a big problem and maybe it's a very small problem.

I hope it is a very small problem, but we have to work together. Instead, he wants to do the same with Brian Shep Schumer. He comes out and says that the president is only asking for two and a half billion dollars and that he should have eight and a half if this is the first time they tell me that I should take more normally it's that we have to take less and we should work together, he shouldn't do statements like that because it's very bad for the country and Nancy Pelosi, I mean, she should go back to a district and clean it up because she's number one, if you look down the percentage, she was one of the best in the world and now you look at what's happening and I'm just saying we should all work together.

She is trying to create panic and there is no reason to panic because we have done so well, these professionals behind me and here and there and here and in some conference rooms I just left a group of 45 people who They are the most talented people in the world. In some parts of the world they ask us in a very It's a good way that they can participate and help them, something that Nancy Pelosi should not do and she knows it's not true, she knows it, all they are trying to do is get an advantage politics, this is not about political advantage, we are all trying to do the same thing.

The right thing is that they shouldn't say this is terrible. President Trump is not asking for enough money. What a stupid thing to say if they want to give us more money. Alright. We will accept more money. Some Republicans think we should have more money. - okay, we will accept more money, but they should not degrade the people who are on stage, who are the best in the world, they are not degrading me, they are degrading the best health professionals in the world and the people who do exactly what we're talking about your campaign today, sue the New York Times over an op-ed, yes, is that your opinion or is it your claim that if people have an opinion contrary to yours, they should be sued well when get the opinion? completely wrong as the New York Times did and, frankly,They have been wrong a lot in recent years so we will see how that allows that to work in court if they see that it goes beyond an opinion that is not an opinion that is much more than an opinion they did something wrong and more will come Tokyo destroyer leader why do you expect what we can be?

I hope so because Shinzo Abbey is a very good friend of mine. I love the people of Japan. and I hope everything is in good condition, since you know that there are several people in Japan who have been infected. I heard that they are doing a very professional job, which doesn't surprise me at all with Shinzo and all the people. I know Japan very well. I think they're going to handle it very well. He's a little tight. You know, he's a little tight. They spent billions of dollars building one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and your Prime Minister is very. proud of it I hope everything is fine, we hope so the president, the CDC doctor just talked about dusting off preparedness plans, but coming from you and it carries more weight, do you think that US schools?

Should they prepare for the spread of the corona virus? I think so. I mean, I haven't specifically talked about it with the different doctors, but I think so. I believe that all aspects of our society must be prepared. I don't think we're going to get there, especially with the fact that we're going down, not up, we're going down substantially, not up, but yeah, I think schools should prepare and, you know, prepare just in case the words are just in case we don't think we're going to be there. I don't think we're going to be close and again if you look at some countries it's going down it's starting to go in the other direction this will end this will end look at the flu season I said 26,000 people I would never have heard of a number like that 26,000 people going up to sixty-nine thousand people doctor, you told me before. 69 thousand people die every year from the 26th to the 69th every year from the flu, don't think that everyone's results so far are incredible. this thing that everyone is reading about and part of the thing is you want to keep it the way it is you don't want to see panic because there's no reason to panic but when I mentioned the flu I said I actually asked the Several doctors I said this It's like the flu because people die from the flu and this is very unusual and it's a little bit different, but in some ways it's easier and in other ways it's a little bit harder, but we have it very well under control.

I mean we've really done a very good job. You mentioned the stock market earlier, to get back to that, just to be clear, the Dow Jones fell over 2000 points this week. Are you suggesting that was overblown? Our financial markets overreacted here. I think the financial sector. The markets get very upset when they see the Democratic candidates who are on that stage making fools of themselves and they say, "if we ever have a president like this." and there's always the possibility that it's an election, you know. , who knows what will happen, right, I think we are going to win, I think we are going to win by a lot, but when you look at the statements made by the people, they are behind those podiums.

I think that has a huge effect. It has to do with the crown. I think so. I think so. But I think you can add a little bit of liquidation to what they're saying because they're seeing the potential. Now you know. I think we are going to win, I am very confident in it, we have done everything and much more than what I said we were going to do, look what we have done, what we have done is incredible with the tax cuts and regulation. cutting and rebuilding our military, taking care of our veterans and giving them choices and accountability, all things we have done to protect our Second Amendment.

I mean, they see that the Second Amendment that they were, they're going to destroy the Second Amendment when people look. In that they say this is not good, then you add that I really think it's a factor, but no, this is what we're talking about, it's the virus, that's what we're talking about, right, I think that's what I believe in terms. from CNBC and in terms of Fox Business, I think that's a factor, yes, and I think after he wins the election, I think the stock market is going to grow like it's never grown before, just like it did, by the way. , after I won the last election.

The stock market the next day went up like a rocket, that's what saved us. If I hadn't alluded to Mike, if I hadn't made the decision from the beginning not to accept people from a certain area, we wouldn't be talking this way. I would be talking about many more people having been infected. I received a lot of pressure. I mean, some people call me racist because I made a decision very early and we had never done that before as a country let alone early, so it was a you know. bold decision turned out to be a good decision but I was criticized by the Democrats they called me racist because I made that decision if you can believe we have to all work together we can't say bad things and especially when we have the best team in the world and we really gave it an early start , we gave it a very early start, we can get money and we can increase if we know all the people, we know all the good people, it's a question I asked the Before the doctors, some of the people we cut have not been used for many years and if we have a need we can get them very quickly and rather than spend the money and I'm a business person I don't. like having thousands of people around when you don't need them, when we need them, we can get them back very quickly, for example, we will bring in some people tomorrow who are already in this great government that we have and very specifically for this we can develop it very, very quickly and We've already done it, I mean we've really developed it, we have a great staff and I'm using Mike, I'm doing it because he's in the administration and he's very good at doing what he does and doing the stuff around this and the officials at Health officials are wondering if that is enough compared to other countries that have tested more than tens of thousands of people.

Are you planning to test more people well? We are evaluating everyone that we need to evaluate and we are I found very little problem very little problem now you treat this like the flu in fact I could ask one of the doctors to come and explain it to you do you want to wash your hands a lot do you want to stay if you don't feel good If you feel like you have the flu, stay inside, quarantine, don't go out, but there are certain steps you can take that won't even be necessary. You know, in many cases, when you get infected, chances are you won't get it.

They don't even know there's a problem, sometimes they just get a cold, sometimes they just get something that makes them not feel well and sometimes they feel really bad, but that's a bit like the flu, it's a bit like the common flu. that we have flu. vaccines and essentially we will have a flu vaccine for this in a fairly rapid manner. Will move on two weeks ago, mr. The president, you are the acting director of the OMB, you were in this room and you were talking about what you expect GDP growth to be for next year, you said it was three percent and we've talked about the effects of the corona virus in the supply chain going up in the financial markets are you still confident that you will see that kind of economic growth? we are going to have tremendously low unemployment, we are setting records and that was, in fact, the administration, as you know, the lowest average unemployment of any administration in history and our numbers are very low very good 3.5 3.6 but you can't really see what this does in terms of GDP, it could affect it, but that's irrelevant compared to what we're talking about, we want to make sure it's safe. security number one, but this would let you know an impact on GDP, but we're still very, we're doing very well, but this will have, like I'll tell you what has a big impact Boeing has a big impact, how did that happen?

A year ago all of a sudden that happened, I think that took half a point off us to some extent, even you know it's a huge undertaking. I think Boeing we had the General Motors strike that had a huge impact on GDP and of course we are. pay interest rates I disagree with the head of the Federal Reserve. I'm not happy with what that is because he has kept interest rates that President Obama didn't have close to the numbers and yet if you look at what happened, he was paying zero. now we're paying interest, it's more conservative, and frankly, people who save their money now get a return on their money instead of getting nothing, but I think you know where, with the highest of all, we should pay the lowest. interest rates and when Germany and other countries pay negative rates, meaning they literally get paid when they put money in.

I mean, they borrow money and get paid when it's paid back. Who has heard of this before? He said first, but us. don't do that so I totally disagree with our Fed. I think our Fed has made a terrible mistake and it would have made as good a difference as we have made even without the two thousand points and we started at 16,000 and we will be 28,000 without We are going to exceed 30,000. We have had surges like no one has seen before, but we are doing well, but we have to watch, we are doing well anyway. In other words, even despite the 2,000 points, it sounds like a lot and it is a lot but it is nothing compared to what we have raised but we will be watching it very closely but we have been hurt by General Motors we have been hurt by Boeing and we have been hurt by we have been In my opinion, very hurt by our own Federal Reserve, which has also created a very strong dollar, which is a good thing about a strong dollar, but it makes it much more difficult to do business outside of this country.

Thank you sir, several of your online followers have accepted it. these theories or beyond these theories that the CDC may be exaggerating the coronavirus threat to harm you politically. Rush Limaugh the other day said this has been advanced to weaponize the virus against you. You don't need my followers, you mean my people who are there. I don't think I support it and I would like this to end. I think people know that when Chuck Schumer gets angry, he did the same thing with a couple of trade deals that are phenomenal deals. Now everyone has recognized a phenomenal dose before seeing the day when I didn't even know we were going to make a deal, they said, what do you think of the China deal?

I don't like it I don't like it he talked about tariffs I left the tariffs at 25% when 250 billion dollars said he removed the tariffs, I didn't even know about the agreement and I was out there criticizing it because it's a natural thing, but when you talk about something like this , we have to be on the same team. too important we have to be on the same team the CDC is trying to hurt you that no, I don't think the CDC is like that no, they have been working very well together, they really are, I think they are professionals they beyond that they want this disappear they want to do it with the least disruption and they don't want to lose lives.

I see the way they work it there, that's how general it is, these people behind me and others who are in the other room. they are amazing people no I don't see that at all thank you tonight you are minimizing the risk of danger from the virus are you telling Americans, except those who are sick, not to change any other view of their behaviors? I think you always have to look. I do it a lot anyway, you've probably heard: wash your hands, stay clean, you don't necessarily have to hold on to every handrail unless you have to, you know you do certain things that you do when you have the flu.

I mean, I see this the same way I see the flu when someone sneezes. I mean, I try to rescue as much as possible with this sneeze. A man approached me a week ago. I hadn't seen him in a long time and I said you're doing it, he said okay honey, he hugs me, he kisses me, I said are you okay? He said no, he said I have the worst fever in the worst flu and he hugs me and kiss, so I said, excuse me. I went to see Sutter, of course, so you have to do it. do that, you know this is, I really believe, doctor, you want to treat this like you treat the flu properly and you know that's the way it will be, that's the way it will be, don't ruin it with a bad question throughout the crisis, you said you wanted an appointment. without quotation marks. total travel ban you said Obama was a quote unquote porn idiot not for doing it you said just stop the flights you fools you also said it was a total joke quote unquote appointing someone to lead the Ebola response with, in quotes, zero experience in the medical field now.

You hope they listen to a lot of what he had to say. I said you heard very well because this is a very different problem than Ebola. Ebola, you disintegrate it, especially at the beginning. They have now made a lot of progress regarding Ebola. but with Ebola we were talking about it before you disintegrated, you have Ebola, that was it, this is different, very different, it is a flu, this is like a flu and this is a very different situation from Avala, but we are working on a ball. Right now, the way we are working in certain areas of the Congo, the Congohas Ebola and this is largely due to the fact that they have war and people can't get there.

Now we can treat Ebola because at the time it was infectious and couldn't be treated, no one knew anything about it, no one had heard of anything like it, so it's a very different situation. Over the past few minutes you have questioned some of what officials working in your administration say. behind you has said about the risk of the crota virus and its spread, do you trust your health officials to give you good information? Australia sucks. I don't think I did, they said it could be worse and I said it could be worse. - are you all something?

No, I don't think it's inevitable. I don't think it's inevitable. I think we are doing a very good job in terms of maintaining the borders and turning in terms of letting people in, in terms of controlling people and also, that is one of the reasons why I am here today to run the voice, so that people can know that they are going to know. No, I don't think it's inevitable. I think there's a chance it could get worse. There is a chance it could get substantially worse, but nothing is inevitable. Brazil, right, Brazil, and there are many Americans now in Brazil for Carnival, what are your concerns and what are the procedures and practices you plan to implement while those Americans are trying to return?

Yes, we have a lot of pressure on people who come from Brazil. Now he only has one case. It is a big country, but it only has one case. But still it is a case. We deal very well with Brazil. In fact, the president is a very good friend of mine. What followed exactly is called making Brazil great again, that's what followed, we got along very well. I know you're very excited to know that we get along very, very well and we're working with Brazil, but we have much worse cases than Brazil, you know, you have Italy and other countries where they have much more than one person, they have one person right now, like If a moment ago there was a person in Brazil, but Italy is a deeper problem and we.

We are looking very, very hard at people coming from those and at some point we may cut that, you know, at some point, depending on what happens, we may cut certain additional countries like we've had to do with China and we hope to be able to open . It's up to China as soon as possible and we and we hope that the numbers that we've been getting are true in China where it's really plateaued and started to go down because eventually sometimes that happens. You've repeatedly said many times that you think the federal government is very prepared, that you're ready for this, yes, but if you think the secretary and czar is doing a great job, why did you feel the need to make a change? and putting Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the federal response, it's very strange because I think the secretary is doing a fantastic job, but he also has a lot of other things going on.

I mean, we're working together on a lot of things, if you look at it. on his agenda of what he's doing, including drug prices, and I think it's maybe the most complicated job we have in government and I want him to be able to focus on that and Mike is very good at it, they're going to work together. We are going to work very closely together and they are both in management. I see them all the time, so it really works. This is a nazar. This is not going to happen and get someone who has never been in administration.

I have two people who are very talented and it's something I feel good about. I do not want it. I don't want to spare the horses. I have very talented people. I want to use them. This because I wanted to stay low or as low as possible. China at the beginning of this outbreak, the Chinese Communist Party covered it up. That has been the general consensus of everyone. How can President Zine and the sunniest region of China now be legitimately trusted? It's the fourth coming and the fourth, well, I can tell you this. I spoke to him and I spoke to him very recently and he is working very hard on this problem.

He is working very hard and they are very tough and very smart. A significant group of very talented people who are working and are calling Dr. Fauci are calling our people, we are dealing with them, we are giving them certain advice that we actually have through global health, we have them there as well and we have Many of our people forming that group that went there, no. he's working very hard so it's very easy for me to tell, you know, no matter what he says, I can really tell you that he's working on idle log2 with him the other night, he's working very, very hard and he wants it to go away.

China and it disappears quickly we don't know exactly a week and the flu is higher than that the flu is much higher than this is spreading it is going to spread maybe within the steps of the community can wait for admission does that worry you because that's not because we're ready for this is what it is we're ready for this we're really prepared we have like I said we've had we've got the best people in the world we're very ready for this we hope that's the case it doesn't spread there's a chance that it doesn't spread as well and there is a chance that it will, so it's a question of at what level so far have we done a great job when you have 15 people with this whole world coming to the United States.

States and 15 people are better or close to better, that's pretty good, we will try one more time, there have been many cases of price gouging in sales of medical equipment masks etc, should the government investigate that time ? I think they have a message. If you told me that was happening, we would definitely investigate. We don't want us to also work with China. We just signed the largest trade agreement in history. We made two of them between us, the MCA and the agreement with China. It is the largest in history, the relationship with China is very good and I can tell you that again President Xi is working very hard, he wants this problem so work as hard as you can, thank you all, thank you if you could clarify, I think that they are not understanding.

The point here is that I am still chair of the task force. Mick Mulvaney has actually played an invaluable role for me as acting chief of staff, helping to coordinate across the government with my colleagues and the entire approach to government that the vice president brings. To me, the biggest stick that one could have in government in this whole approach to government, in the slightest, when print won, when this was mentioned to me, I said I was delighted to be able to have the vice president helping them in this way. I'm absolutely delighted that you're watching the Washington Post's live coverage tonight.

The president said the rest of his team would stay to answer questions, but they're out of there, so we'll talk to my colleague, yes, I mean, Abu Talib, about what we heard tonight. is live coverage from the Washington Post newsroom, President Trump downplays coronavirus concerns and says we're really prepared as a nation, we have the best people in the world and we're ready for it and he also puts the vice president Pence in charge of coronavirus. I don't want to say task force because that's not their job, but in charge of the coronavirus response, Secretary Yasmine, a tsar, makes an effort to get up to the microphones and say: I have not been replaced.

I have not been removed from leadership. task force, but there is a real question about who is doing what job and it may seem like something internal to DC baseball, but it is important because the American public will look to the right person for guidance on messaging and the rest of the internal governance will look to the point, the person should be the authority on this, so what does it mean for the vice president to be in charge? I think what the president was trying to say is that now everyone will report to the vice president, so he's a little confusing.

I'm not sure we have much more clarity. I mean, the big news from this conference is that Vice President Pence will lead the response instead of the HHS secretary and the czar. I think they'll probably reject that and say oh. There are still no assistants in charge of the task force, but the reality is that a tsar was, you know, before, a few minutes ago, he was the one they said was in charge, he is leading the task force, he is reporting to the president, Now they say everyone. I'm going to brief Pence, so I don't know if that means Pence will have to make the final call.

We've reported on some departmental fights over decisions related to the response and that's been really confusing and a lot of people have been clamoring about it. someone in the White House will be in charge so that it is clear who has the final say. I'm not entirely sure this makes it completely clear that we know everyone is going to report, it depends. I don't know if that means he'll be able to make the decision. final call or what and Trump at one point even said oh the report depends but maybe they will also brief them both so there wasn't a lot of clarity here and you heard that Secretary Hayes is trying to change the narrative a little bit from him . there because a big part of the takeaway from this was that he was essentially being replaced or demoted in the power structure, but he was trying to say no, no, I'm still an important part of this, even when the president was making comments that we had broken. news in the Washington Post that the first US case of coronavirus has been reported to the CDC here from the United States in Northern California of unknown origin, so, first of all, it means what does it mean to have a case of unknown origin, so before you know it, our reporters told this story, all the cases that were in the US, it was very clear where they came from, or they were people who came directly from Wuhan, many of them are people who were repatriated from the cruise in Japan where there was a large outbreak, most of the cases in the US at this time and the rest for people who had returned from China and we had two cases where someone he had spread it to his spouse, so it was very clear who he contracted it from or how these people could have contracted the disease in China. they were on the cruise they were in the middle of an outbreak, it makes a lot of sense why they would.

This case is a little worrying because they are saying or what our reporters discovered is that this person had not recently traveled to a foreign country, so they did not appear to be at the center of an outbreak and they also do not know that they have not been able to trace if they entered in close contact with someone they already knew was infected, which may suggest that the virus is beginning to spread in a community, you can follow our coronavirus live blog and live updates on Washington Post com for more information at As this story develops, the president kept talking about only 15 cases, but we've been talking here at The Washington Post about 60 cases, can you clarify those numbers for us?

Yeah, so all of these cases are in different categories right now, which can be a little confusing, so the way it breaks down is we have 42 cases as of today that are people who repatriated from the cruise ship and Japan. , where we know there were hundreds of cases because people were quarantined there for several weeks, so that's 42 of the 60 cases in the US right now, we have three cases that were people who came directly from Wuhan , that puts us at 45 and then we have 15 cases, 15 that were just confirmed today that our people will not. 14 I suppose who had traveled to China, not necessarily to Wuhan or the Bay Area, but to other parts of China. and then now this 15th case where it seems like we don't know exactly how this person contracted the virus.

Did this press conference answer the questions you had? I think I'm a little more confused in a lot of ways. I'm not at all. clear how the structure works with VP Pence now in charge, especially that they went to great lengths to say no, no, a tsar is not being demoted, he is still in charge of the task force, but everyone reports to Pence, that is not completely clear. To me, what exactly does that mean. I still don't know who makes the final decision when two departments disagree on how to handle a specific situation and you know Trump was still contradicting what his top health officials had been saying publicly. and even at that press conference you had a czar that you had and you brought it out of the CDC saying you know what we have under control we expect to see more cases and our reporters ran this story as the conference went on but now we have got this case which indicates that there could be you know the virus is spreading in a community and at the same time Trump said no, okay, okay, we're preparing just in case, but it's not inevitable that that will happen even though his officials of health they said. that yesterday, so we still have a lot of mixed messages, some of them over the course of that one press conference, the question has also arisen of how much money would go into dealing with this, from fighting it to educating the public and just getting supplies working in efforts ofvaccines and things like that and as you mentioned, Secretary Hazard has been on the hill having to answer tough questions before members of Congress these last few days, so we're hearing that the president is not going to resist the money for In this, he was throwing a a bunch of numbers and basically giving the green light to congressional budget requests on this entitlement, so the White House requested two and a half billion and, crazy, about half of that is money that will somehow be moved from other business priorities. public health and didn't you say that one of them is Ebola?

Yes, one of them is Ebola, which I'm just making a footnote about. I'm so glad you pointed out Yasmine because the president talked about Ebola, how? It's a big concern and how is there money for that, but everything is going according to plan now that the money will be moved from Ebola to this exactly, there is a little over half a billion dollars reserved for Ebola responses, but part of the The White House asks for an explanation of how they are going to get all this money: they would move that five or five hundred and twenty-five million dollars reserved for Ebola to the coronavirus response and, to be clear, that does not mean that they are going to use all this money, they say that these are the funds available to us and they say that we have not yet taken advantage of all the resources that we have before we have to enter into some kind of supplementary agreement. budget request, but on the hill you know that a czar was pressured by congressional budget guys and members of Congress have said why they didn't ask for more.

This doesn't seem like enough, so today we were informed that it looks like a package could be coming from Congress. between four billion and eight billion dollars and the president mentioned those numbers and it didn't seem like he was going to resist that, it was like two or four eight, you know, which is significant because that could generate a real becoming a real fight for process and a fight for money at a time when there is some unity on Capitol Hill about just trying to move forward and get the funds approved right and being prepared for this, that we don't know how it's going to end. develop and you don't want to be scrambling at the last minute for additional funding if you suddenly have a much larger outbreak than you were prepared for, so a jolt who is the CDC's principal deputy director gave some steps on how Americans should try to avoid contract the corona virus, but much more of what we heard today did not focus on the practical practices that the president did was able to give his personal advice which was wash your hands, do not grab handrails avoid people who are sick what is the process messaging to help Americans figure out what to do, especially if you live in Northern California, tell where there is news that the CDC has been informed of a case of unknown origin, I think they are What I'm trying to say is take the same precautions you take to try not to get the flu, cold or pneumonia, but I think people are still very concerned because we generally know how the flu behaves, we generally know how pneumonia behaves, there are vaccines and there are treatments for that, the protocols are still unclear, the way it will infect people, whether it will mutate, all of that is unclear, so, we have received a lot of questions from readers about whether people need masks and we need to stock up on masks and I think it's still not clear to people and there is a lot of fear simply because when something is unknown, it is inevitably scarier than something known like the flu, where there may be many more cases in the US, but people More or less know what to expect.

Yeah, I mean, if you're sick, how do you know if you just have a common cold or flu or if you have a corona virus? What is the government telling the public right now? who should get tested, when you should get tested, what you should pay attention to, so this is one of the big challengesWith the current response, widespread corona virus testing is not happening in the US at this time. moment are basically people who have recently traveled to China or someone who has been in close contact with someone who is infected, so the symptoms of the corona virus manifest themselves quite similarly to pneumonia or the flu, you know, cough, sneezing, flu-like symptoms, so there is talk of expanding testing so that if you have those symptoms and you are going to get tested for the flu and the result is negative, they will test you for the corona virus, but in That's not actually happening yet and there's no way to know for sure. if you have it because it looks like other diseases other than getting a test, then it sounds like that might have been something that they could have addressed today at this press conference and officials have been talking about the fact that they want to expand testing capacity . but one of the big challenges right now is that there is no diagnostic test that works well and it is not widely available to states.

There have been delays because the test does not work well, it is not very reliable and that has been something very important. that has been hindering part of their response and has a lot of people concerned because we are not testing everyone and identifying all the cases here. The president was asked about quarantines and the possibility of quarantines and big cities along the lines of what has happened in some places. like China or Hong Kong and he said we have plans, what do we know about the plans that the federal government has to deal with any kind of quarantine school closures, etc., in case there is an outbreak of cases?

To be honest, we don't know. We know that the government is federally quarantining people who returned from China or the cruise ship in Japan and were in the middle of the epicenter of an outbreak, and that people who recently traveled to China must be in self-quarantine to be stay home and report symptoms and temperature to a local health official, but we don't know the plan yet, if there is a large scale outbreak, are everyone who tests positive quarantined? Whether it's the facilities, if that happens, that's all we still don't know, the president kept comparing this to the flu and then a reporter gave some statistics that said the mortality rate for the flu is 0.1 percent and that the coronavirus death rate is 0.1 percent.

This point is believed to be two to three percent, so we're talking about point 1, verses 2 and 3, the president downplayed it and actually said the flu is less than that. I don't know where you got your statistics from, but it seemed like I really want to draw a parallel between the flu, something that we're all familiar with, that we know how to fight and that we know how to treat, and this virus, and I think part of that is because Because the flu comes every year, you're always going to have a case of the flu and people generally don't panic unless it's a particularly bad flu season, but the truth is that there are so many things we don't know about the flu. corona virus that you know is not as fatal as SARS was in 2003, which was kind of a similar infectious disease outbreak, but it seems to be much more contagious, we have many more cases than ever of SARS, SARS, there was a little bit more than 8,000 cases, we have more than 75 thousand, maybe more cases of corona virus, it seems to be extremely contagious, so there are comparisons with the flu and the symptoms are similar, sometimes the disease seems to develop in a similar way, but there are much less understanding of the corona virus than the flu, so this press conference raised a lot of questions, although we did get some answers.

Some idea of ​​what the plan is in terms of Vice President Penn taking on a leadership role. Of course, we got a glimpse of the team of people who continue to work on this under the mantle of the White House, but it sounds like you have a lot of questions. Going forward, I think we all want to know exactly how this answer is going to work. I mean, there's been so much confusion. What exactly is Vice President Pence's competence as head of his response? Is he who is going to do it? the decisions whether they want more travel restrictions, who can make that call, who will brief the president every day or how often they discuss the latest news on the coronavirus and how prepared they are in case there is an outbreak in the US U.S. which doesn't seem that unlikely, I mean, yesterday the CDC said an outbreak is pretty inevitable, the president tried to control it, but I think the reality is we're going to see more cases, you know, all the health officials public were saying that and that means there could be an outbreak and it's still unclear how far they're going to go to try to contain an outbreak, especially if there are hundreds of cases in a community.

Thank you very much for joining us. He is a former Abu Talib reporter covering health policy and is one of many reporters filing stories on this coronavirus live blog you can find at the Washington Post. His stories and those of other colleagues are being archived there and, of course, simply. in the Washington Post quiet and shared on social media, so thank you for taking the time tonight to watch this with us, thank you and thank you very much for watching with the Washington Post newsroom at times the public health concerns for the which is important. us so we can ask questions and provide you with information, so please take a moment and hit the subscribe button on our home page or on youtube so you can support our mission and stay informed on this important topic.

I'm Libby Casey, good evening.