Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
President Trump & Coronavirus Task Force Hold Press Briefing. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired April 04, 2020 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's a total disgrace.
QUESTION: Did you run by your decision to dismiss the inspector general by senator --
TRUMP: We'll get off this because people want to talk about what we're talking about but let me just tell you something. That's my decision. I have the absolute right.
Even the fake news last night said, he has the absolute right to do it.
But ask him why didn't you go and see the actual conversation? There was no rush. He said, oh, we have to rush it.
He even said it was politically biased. He actually said that. The report could have been -- you know who the whistle-blower is and so do you and so does everybody in this room and so do I.
Everybody knows, but they give this whistle-blower a status that he doesn't deserve. He's a fake whistle-blower. And frankly, somebody ought to sue his ass off.
All right. It's enough of the whistle-blower.
Go ahead, please.
QUESTION: The governor of New York today said that he is still desperate for ventilators and that he has accepted a thousand of them from the Chinese government. Are you concerned --
TRUMP: What he didn't say is -- OK, let me tell you what he didn't say. Two very good friends of mine brought him those whistle-blower -- brought him those ventilators, right? Two very good friends of mine. They brought them.
If you'd like their name, I'll give you the name.
QUESTION: But should states (INAUDIBLE)
TRUMP: The governor didn't mention that. It came through the Chinese -- the country of China, but they were given by two friends of mine, but he didn't tell you that.
Now, the governor also -- you'll see when you read the letter, the governor also asked for 40,000, 40,000. He wanted 40,000 ventilators.
Now the governor, as you know, had a chance to get 16,000 a few years ago. He decided not to get that.
The state of New York has asked for help. I've given them four hospitals, four medical centers, then I gave them an additional hospital, then I gave them military people to operate the hospital. They were not supposed to be COVID hospitals.
The boat, the ship is not -- interesting thing happened with the ship. People aren't in accidents because there's nobody driving, there's nobody taking motorcycle rides down the west side highway at 100 miles an hour. People are away. So people aren't being injured.
Now they're asking whether or not we could open up the ship for COVID.
We have given the governor of New York more than anybody has ever been given in a long time, I'll just say. I was going to say in history, but in a long time.
And I think he's happy, but I think that -- because I watched what he said today, and it was fine. I wouldn't say gracious. It wasn't gracious. It was OK.
I must tell you, Gavin Newsom has been gracious. Los Angeles, California, the job we've done, and all of California.
QUESTION: Why does that matter if they're gracious or not gracious?
TRUMP: It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter but I think when we've given as much as we've given to New York, somebody should say, nice -- I'll tell you who's been very nice.
Mayor de Blasio has been very nice. He understands what we've given him. We brought him some more ventilators too yesterday, but nobody has been given like New York, and I think -- I know he appreciates it, he just can't quite get the words out, but that's OK.
QUESTION: So when he says -- but when he says that he needs 40,000 --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Come back to Dr. Fauci's comments --
TRUMP: To which one?
QUESTION: Dr. Fauci's comments on mitigation. On the reproductive value of the virus, the WHO had it, I think, 2 to 2.6. Others had it a percentage point or two higher. Do we have a new number now based on those mitigation techniques? Have we managed to bring it down?
TRUMP: Well, Deb, I think you should answer that, Dr. Birx, please. Yes, sure. Go ahead.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE COORDINATOR: You know, it's an excellent question, and it's why all of the modelers and I really want to thank them again, they're reevaluating all of their models in light of the level of the impact of the mitigation. Remember, none of us had really been through this before.
So when we modeled school closures and distancing, and staying at home and all of these pieces, that had never really come into the model before. They're working on that very diligently now. Of course, just to be clear, we won't know how valid the models are until we move all the way through the epidemic.
What we're triangulating right now, and instead of working on R0, we're looking at testing and triangulating testing, test positive cases, hospitalizations, ICUs and the whole -- and the, of course, the recoveries because that's also very important to us.
I think it's very important that the American people know that there are equal number of states with less than 5 percent positives, despite high levels of testing. So there are states that are mitigating and making this work. They're also the states that you know of, the 18 states that have the larger outbreaks, and we're watching them very carefully, triangulating for them all of the information to ensure that clients who come to the hospital are cared for.
[17:05:03]
And then, there are states in the middle that we're trying to figure out, are they changing or not? Each of those states and each of those epidemics within those states may have a different R value, and that is what we're trying to figure out and it -- it's very, variable on each of these factors.
But the bottom line is, and I think going into this weekend, it's really important for the American people to know this -- Spain and Italy are moving through this. They are seeing their number of cases drop. They're seeing the number of people in hospitals drop. We are about, on our models, and on the actual data, about 12 days behind them.
At the same time, we see, in the United States, really good case studies of the impact at Washington state, of California, and then a series of smaller states where we're trying to learn from them how to do surveillance and with these new HHS Abbott ID NOW kits, and I just want to thank Admiral Giroir for getting them out, being able to look at testing in a more comprehensive way so we can be doing surveillance and mitigation simultaneously so we can answer that very question.
It's going to be very difficult to answer at this moment, across the United States, because each metro cluster is on a different pathway as they move through -- move through the epidemic, and I think we just really ought to emphasize, through. Because we see Italy, we see Spain moving through, and we hope to be in that same position.
At the same time, as the president said, he's concerned about every single person that is succumbing to this virus. We all are. That's why we're making sure that in this triangulation, they're tracking minute by minute -- when we say FEMA and HHS is tracking minute by minute the ventilator, hospital, and ICU bed need, that's exactly what's happening.
And also being flexible and responsive -- to have DOD take a thousand healthcare providers out of their Medical Corps is a very big deal. I was in the Medical Corps for 29 years. We never did that.
So, this is saying, we respect and understand the importance and value of the American lives and doing that, but the R values will be variable by state.
QUESTION: A week ago, we were talking about county --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Before I do that, you had breaking news last night. You know that. You saw that, where I think the probable presidential candidate for the Democrats will be Joe Biden, and he agreed that I was correct when I stopped people from China very early, very, very early, from coming into our country.
And Dr. Fauci said that was a very big moment because it would be a much different picture we have right now had we allowed thousands and thousands of people from a specific area -- I don't have to go into it -- from China to come in highly infected. It would have been a very different thing.
The other thing -- so, I appreciate the fact that he did, because I was called xenophobic, racist, I was called many things when I did that very early.
And I got a lot of credit for it in "The Federalist" because "The Federalist" covered the whole journey and they said Trump was -- I didn't speak to the author, respected author. They said, Trump was right at every single move and on top of that, he was going through a fake impeachment, a hoax. I was going through a hoax when I made the decision. And that does take a little time, and certainly a little thinking time.
But I appreciated the fact that Joe Biden announced last night that he now agrees that I was correct. You saw the report come out that I was correct when I stopped people from China coming in at a very early stage.
QUESTION: Mr. President, can you talk about Captain Crozier of the USS --
TRUMP: Which one? What?
QUESTION: Captain Crozier that was removed, the captain that was removed as the commander of USS Roosevelt.
TRUMP: Yes. QUESTION: I don't know if you saw the videos of sailors cheering for him as he left. Our reporting shows that some sailors have said that they are worried to reenlist because they are not convinced that commanders are taking care of their health and taking care of them.
TRUMP: Yes.
QUESTION: What do you say to that?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Well, I don't know much about it.
I can only tell you this. Here we have one of the greatest, here we have one of the greatest ships in the world, nuclear aircraft carrier, incredible ship, with thousands and thousands of people, and you had about 120 that were infected.
Now, I guess the captain stopped in Vietnam and people got off in Vietnam. Perhaps you don't do that in the middle of a pandemic or something that looked like he was going to be, you know, history would say you don't necessarily stop and let your sailors get off, number one.
But more importantly, he wrote a letter. The letter was a five-page letter from a captain, and the letter was all over the place.
[17:10:00]
That's not appropriate. I don't think that's appropriate.
And these are tough people. These are tough, strong people. I thought it looked terrible, to be honest with you.
Now, they made their decision. I didn't make the decision. Secretary of Defense was involved. And a lot of people were involved.
I thought it was terrible what he did, to write a letter. I mean, this isn't a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that's nuclear powered, and he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter. He could call and ask and suggest.
But he stopped in Vietnam, a lot of people got off the boat, they came back, and they had infection.
And I thought it was inappropriate for the captain of a ship to --
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)
TRUMP: I don't want -- I don't want to comment as to whether or not, but I agree with their decision 100 percent.
In the back, please?
QUESTION: Joe Biden actually just attacked you in a tweet. I don't know if you have seen it. TRUMP: He just what?
QUESTION: Attacked you. He just said --
TRUMP: Well, he didn't write anything. Look, he has people -- he has professionals from the Democrats writing.
QUESTION: Mr. President, let me just read what he said. He said, Donald Trump is not responsible for the coronavirus, but he is responsible for failing to prepare our nation to respond to it. How do you respond to that, sir?
TRUMP: OK, he didn't write that. That was done by a Democrat operative. He doesn't write.
He doesn't -- he's probably not even watching right now. And if he is, he doesn't understand what he's watching.
But just so you understand, it was very nice what they wrote. I don't know -- you know, they released it at a strange time, you know? Sort of a strange time to release something like that, but he admitted I was right.
And if you read "The Federalist" story, which most of you won't, because you don't want to, but you'd learn something because if you go -- it goes through a chart, time. I was early.
Dr. Fauci, I think -- I don't think he's changed his mind but he said it was a very important step when we stopped China from coming in, from the specific area that was heavily infected. We'd have a whole different thing right now.
So, I don't really know what Joe Biden said. I don't really care. And again, I see every once in a while, I'll say something, I'll make a speech, and then it will be critiqued and I get this beautiful, brilliant critique.
Joe Biden didn't write that. Joe Biden didn't write that. He wished he did but he didn't.
Go ahead, please. Back.
QUESTION: Sir, I wanted to ask Dr. Fauci a quick question.
China has warned over a resurgence of the virus. Has the U.S. developed a plan if, in fact, a second wave of the virus does, in fact, occur here in the country?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: Yes, we do. I mean, one of the things that obviously is parallel with thinking about the possibility, as I mentioned a little while ago, about mitigation, allowing us to turn the corner, very much on the front burner is what happens when we do because the risk of there being a resurgence is real.
So what we need to do, and I believe I said this before, but it's worth repeating, that what we need to have in place, and we will have that in place, is that as you then pull back, you have to have the capability of, in a very pristine, precise way, do the kind of containment when you do see it. Because remember, when you get to mitigation, containment takes the backseat because you're just struggling to mitigate.
But when you get it down, you need to make sure it doesn't resurge. That will require the ability to test, to identify, to isolate, and to do contact tracing. That's what we have to have in place and hopefully we will at the time that we then pull back.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: A question for Dr. Hahn from FDA.
You mentioned the plasma, sir. So these are -- plasma from people that that were infected that now either recovered or are doing well enough and they're transferring it to family members? Can you walk us through if that's working and is it a case by case basis from hospitals? What are the results from that? I was not familiar with that.
HAHN: So, this is a situation where someone who's recovered from the virus doesn't have the virus in their system at all, you can take plasma. And this is a pretty routine procedure, you can actually donate a couple times a week, a couple of times a months, frankly, and give that plasma. That plasma contains the proteins in the blood that have the antibodies against the virus.
You can take that, process it and then give it to someone who's ill. And so that allows you to transfer that immunity. It doesn't have to be matched by family or anything like that. Since last Tuesday, the Tuesday before last, we've allowed academic centers and other laboratories and hospitals around the country to do this on a compassionate use basis.
What we did was we pulled this together in what's called an expanded access program and run it through the Red Cross because they've got the greatest system and capacity for doing this and this allows us to scale up so that when people get sick, we can actually have these donated plasma packs given to the patients who are sick.
QUESTION: So are people -- do people need to be donating plasma? Some of us don't know if we've had it and recovered. What should people be doing?
HAHN: So, we've started with the Red Cross in this program. We made an announcement yesterday. We are planning to scale that up and have more information this week, because we want to make sure we have the systems in place. It's a superb question.
QUESTION: Thank you.
TRUMP: Go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President, can you clarify the situation with 3M right now?
[17:15:00]
Germany said that it was an act of piracy that 200,000 masks were apparently diverted from Thailand to the United States instead of to Berlin.
Is that miscommunication -- did that actually happen, and should 3M be fulfilling contracts --
TRUMP: We're very disappointed in 3M. They should be taking care of our country, and they can sell to others. But they should be taking our -- care of our country. The people that have dealt with them have dealt successfully with many companies over the last month. They don't like the way 3M has treated our country. They don't, frankly, like the representatives of 3M. And no act of prior (ph) -- you said piracy, right? Piracy?
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
TRUMP: There's been no act of piracy. No. There's been no act of piracy. It's the opposite.
3M has not treated our country well. And if they do, great. And if they don't, they're going to have a hell of a price to pay. OK?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I say it that way. And I watched him on television, on something, talking about how this could be so hard to believe, so hard to fathom. They ought to get their act together. Because I got involved and I looked at what happened. And they have not -- 3M has not treated our country well.
QUESTION: Can you just clarify about that German order? (Inaudible.)
TRUMP: Go ahead, please.
QUESTION: Was that diverted, sir, or was that (inaudible).
TRUMP: We'll get you the information.
QUESTION: And (inaudible) for Dr. Fauci.
I was wondering about what you're seeing as far as new (ph) patients in regards in coronavirus. I know the President mentioned this earlier, but what does the medicine say.
FAUCI: What is the question? Is that -- what is the incidence of coronavirus?
QUESTION: Yes. If you have lupus, do you have a greater chance of getting coronavirus?
FAUCI: Yes. Yes. There's -- right now, this is being looked at in a natural history study. We don't have any definitive information to be able to make any comment that that -- it's an obvious good question, because it might be a way for us to get some interesting and potentially important data as to the role of those medications. But that's something that is now being looked at. But we don't have any data to be able to say anything definitively.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.) tell me about --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
TRUMP: And I hope they use the hydroxychloroquine. And they could also do it with Z-pak, subject to your doctor's approval, and all of that. But I hope they use it because, I'll tell you what. What do you have to lose? In some cases, they're in bad shape. What do you have to lose? It's been out there for a long time. And I hope they use it.
And they're going to look at the -- with doctors, work with doctors, get what you have to get. But we have it stockpiled and it's -- we have a lot of it. And we're getting more of it. And I told you, I spoke to Prime Minister Modi. We're getting more of it. But we have a lot of it. And I hope they use it, because it's been used for a long time. And therefore, it's passed the safety test.
FDA has been terrific. Dr. Hahn, I appreciated very much, too. But I've seen some results.
Now, it's early, I guess, it's early. But -- and you should -- they should look at the lupus thing. I don't know what it says, but there -- there's a rumor out there that -- because it takes care of lupus very effectively, as I understand. And it's, you know, a drug that's used for lupus.
So, there's a study out there that says people that have lupus haven't been catching this virus. You know. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. Why don't you investigate that?
And there's also other studies. You know, with the malaria, that the malaria countries have very little people that take this drug for malaria, which is very effective for malaria, that those countries have very little of this virus. I don't know. You're going to check it out.
But I think people should -- if it were me -- in fact, I might do it anyway. I may take it, OK? I may take it. And I'll have to ask my doctors about that. But I may take it.
Yes, please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President, the last -- lastly (ph), the last couple days you've been really optimistic about Russia and Saudi Arabia coming together on a deal on oil. But in the last 24 hours, the OPEC (inaudible) has been pushed back, but trade (ph) (inaudible).
TRUMP: Well, OPEC can do whatever -- look, I've been against OPEC all my life, because, what is it? It's an illegal-- you could call it a cartel. You could call it a monopoly, you -- a lot of different names for it. But it broke down very violently, very violently. So, I don't care about OPEC. I really don't. I couldn't care less about OPEC.
(CROSSTALK)
Let me just say -- no, no. I think they're going to settle it. You know why? Because they're going to be destroyed. They're destroying themselves if they don't. Russia, it's a very important -- and we hade a very good conversation, President Putin and myself. Very good.
But Russia, a big part of their economic wellbeing is from oil. Well, oil is at a record low. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. It's actually lower than you even think. And it's to their advantage. Obviously, it's to Saudi Arabia's advantage. They told me, they were discussing -- Saudi Arabia went much further than that. He thinks that a deal is going to be made at 10 million barrels reduction and maybe more than that.
He actually indicated it would most likely be much more than that. So we'll see what happens. I mean, we're going to see what happens.
[17:20:00]
But as far as OPEC is concerned, I mean, I was against OPEC for years and years because I thought it was very unfair to our country. The beautiful thing is we have built one of the great, you know, one of the things we've done is created so much we produce. We're the number one producer in the world right now.
I don't like it for a different reason, because it's going to hurt a lot of jobs in our country, this price. It's going to hurt a lot of jobs.
Now, with all of that being said, people are going to be driving, paying 90 cents a gallon. Did you ever hear of that? What's that, 1952, or something? All right?
So, from that standpoint -- but, you know what? I am a big believer in our great energy business. And we're going to take care of our energy business. And if I have to do tariffs on oil coming from outside, or if I have to do something to protect all (ph) our thousands and tens of thousands of energy workers, and our great companies that produce all these jobs, I'll do whatever I have to do.
QUESTION: Are you going to --
TRUMP: OK? Yes, ma'am. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Yes. You tweeted a little while ago about how sad it is for kids. They don't have Little League right now. But I'm wondering if you're willing to share about your youngest son and how he's dealing with life in sheltering in place, not going to school, no sports.
TRUMP: Well, he's a good athlete, and he loves soccer. And he's like everyone else. I mean, everything is shut down. He's in his room. He's happy. But he's not as happy as he could be. He'd like to be playing sports. Barron. And let's see what happens.
But we have to get back. We have to get back. Remember that. We have to get back. And we have to get back soon. OK? (CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: On the -- on the jobs reports numbers that --
TRUMP: Do you guys ever stop? Do you want to keep going for a little while? Huh? I mean, do you ever stop? How many times you ask -- and in many cases it's the same.
Actually, a lot of good questions. Go ahead.
QUESTION: In the jobs report --
TRUMP: But keep going, yes?
QUESTION: Yes, sir.
TRUMP: So, you're not going to blame me, that I kept it going too long? People said, "Oh, he kept--" -- every time you'll ask it --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
TRUMP: --no. I mean, no, it's amazing. Tony (ph). Every hand went up. I thought we'd gone through the -- every -- I think every single hand went up the last time.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
TRUMP: You know what it shows you? It shows you that you love what you do.
Go ahead.
QUESTION: We do love what we do, sir.
TRUMP: You do. No, you do. And some of you do it well. Not all of you.
Go ahead. I'm not looking at you, by the way.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) get the jobs reports numbers yesterday. Obviously, that's kind of a small portion because it's only the first half of March. Was there anything in there that was any sign of optimism? Obviously, we all saw the numbers. You know, down in retail, down in hospitality. Was there anything that you said, "OK, maybe with this virus, we will see some sort of net gain," or something?
TRUMP: Look. The job numbers are what they are. We asked everybody to go home. Don't work. So, the numbers are going to be, you know, astronomical. We understand that. I understood that. I know somebody said the mee (ph) -- the numbers are meaningless, and then they took that to mean, "Oh, jobs don't mean anything." And, you know, it was just another fake news story.
It wasn't me that said it, by the way. It was a very smart person, but they meant it by saying it really is what -- that's why I answered your question very carefully. The numbers are what they are. We know the numbers were going to be massive, because we told everybody to go home and lock your door, essentially, right? Don't come to work. you can't come to work. Don't go outside. Don't breathe. Don't do anything.
We're going to open up our country. But I know -- I know that it's coming back. And in my opinion, it will come back very strong. There's a tremendous energy. There's a tremendous demand. And some good things have happened.
I mean, I don't know, you know. There's one habit that, as you know, most of you -- a lot of you have covered me a long time before I did this. I was never a big believer in shaking hands. But I decided if you don't shake hands, you're not going to be winning a lot of contests. What (ph) right now, I'm not sure you have to shake hands anymore.
A couple of people have told me -- Debbie (ph), you told me, that if we didn't shake hands, the incidence of flu -- flu is a big deal also. And that flu might be cut down in half.
Who knew that shaking hands was such a bad thing? I felt it. I mean, I always felt it. And, you know, I was never to a point where I can't shake somebody's hand. I knew people like that, too, but there weren't too many of them.
But when I ran for office, all of a sudden, I'm shaking hundreds of hands. And if I don't, I wouldn't even be standing here. But I think that's a custom that maybe people don't have to -- we have to get close together. We have to sit together at the stadiums. We have to sit next to each other in restaurants. All that stuff is going to happen.
But I think the concept of shaking hands, maybe, is something that's going to be a little bit from the past. Let's see what happens. Maybe they'll go right back to shaking hands.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) about that.
TRUMP: Good.
QUESTION: Is there anything you want people to do to show their support -- especially, we have two doctors up there, to show their support for the medical community? Is there something that -- we've seen people clapping when nurses leave --
TRUMP: Well, we've seen a lot of that. You might say something there (ph). I have seen such support. I saw this morning where everyone's (ph) -- they're clapping for Fire Department. They're clapping for peace (ph).
But they are really -- these people are -- you know what they're like? They're like -- they're like warriors. They're like warriors. They were going into Elmhurst Hospital, which has been tragic, right near where I grew up in Queens.
[17:25:11]
Going in, and the people in buildings, there's going -- I mean, they're the rock stars. They're warriors. Nurses, doctors, first responders, what they're going through. And they don't even know what's going to happen. I mean, to go in. and, by the way, even if they have great equipment, they're catching it. You know, great equipment. They have good equipment, they catch it. They catch it with good, with bad. It is evil.
But, Tony, you might say something. And, Mike, you may say something about that.
FAUCI: Yes. I'm glad you brought up that question, because I don't think people can really fully appreciate the extraordinary effort of these people. I mean, it's amazing. I -- you know, I did all of my medical training in New York City, in a big, busy New York City hospital, at a time when it was just what you normally see in a hospital.
I came to NIH, and I spent about five to eight years in the very early years of the AIDS epidemic, which was just the darkest years of my life, because almost every single one of my patients died. And yet, as we knew, epidemiologically, that there was very little risk -- it was a small risk, but very little risk of getting infected from a patient, to see now what these brave warriors are doing in the hospitals, not only giving life-saving treatment to people, but every single day putting themselves at risks for themselves and their family. I just think that the American public owe a phenomenal debt of gratitude for these people.
QUESTION: I (inaudible) show that.
FAUCI: And they should just salute them at every -- every way you can.
You know, when we were at war, and at the height of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, when you were at an airport and you'd see somebody with a uniform come buy, everybody would do that. I think that's what we should do when we see healthcare workers, just applaud them.
TRUMP: Pretty much what's happening. Mike, please.
PENCE: The stories are incredibly moving about what healthcare workers are doing every day. It's not just that they're going back into the hospital in places like New York and New Jersey, earlier than that in Washington state and California where this first began. It's not just that they're providing care to people but, because of the nature of how contagious the coronavirus is, they're also supplementing for family. I mean, that's what -- that's what gets to me.
When I hear the stories that, understandably, in nursing homes and in hospitals, they're restricting visitors, and they should, to prevent the spread of the virus, to be brought into the hospital or to be brought out. And so, to hear the stories of healthcare workers who are holding up an iPhone while someone who is critically ill with the coronavirus may well be saying their last good-byes to their family. And then to be there in those moments.
I mean, our healthcare workers are -- they're not just doctors and nurses today. They're supplementing for family, for people all across the country. And I just think -- tomorrow's Palm Sunday. It's Holy Week in the great Christian tradition. And I have people ask me from time to time, send me an e-mail, or on the many conference calls that we have, they say, "What can we be praying about?"
And my first thought is with the families who have lost loved ones, and the patients who are struggling with coronavirus. But during this very special week, I just encourage people to pray for our healthcare workers. Pray for them and their families. They are really the hands and feet every day, not just of healthcare, but at the heart of the American people. And we are all grateful for them, every hour of the day.
QUESTION: Thank you.
TRUMP: And think, also, about the Army Corps of Engineers. That's a little different, depending on where they are and where they're working. But the Army Corps of Engineers, throwing up a hospital in New York City, 2,500 beds in three days? I mean, think of that. And FEMA, what they're doing. And the National Guard is now delivering for the states, because the states were unable to get -- we'd drop it at a big warehouse where we're told to drop it. And the states were unable to -- some of the states were unable to bring it from the warehouse to the site.
So, we got the National Guard to become a delivery service, if you can believe it. And they would bring it -- and some of those sites were dangerous sites. There were very dangerous sites. Think of that.
[17:30:00]
It's been amazing. It's been amazing. I just think -- I've never seen anything like it. I'm so proud of this country.
And -- and, really, it's a world problem. And some -- some countries in the world are just handling it so well.
You know, again, I keep saying, it's 151. That was as of two, three days ago. It's probably more. Some people said they didn't know there were that many countries. That's how big this is.
And Mike said something else, so -- you have Palm Sunday tomorrow. Think of it. We're not going to churches on Palm Sunday. But think of next Sunday, Easter.
And I brought it up before. I said maybe we could allow special for churches. Maybe we could talk about it. Maybe we could allow them, with great separation, outside on Easter Sunday. I don't know. It's something we -- we should talk about.
But somebody did say that, well, then you're, sort of, opening it up to that little, you know, do we want to take a chance on doing that when we've been doing so well? But Easter Sunday -- Palm Sunday, I'm going to be watching tomorrow, live from Riverside, California, great church. But I'm going to be watching on a computer, right, on a laptop. I think, on Easter, maybe I'll be watching from a laptop as opposed -- so how sad is it that we have Easter Palm and Easter Sunday, and people are watching on laptops and computers. It's sad.
But -- but the job that this whole country has done is amazing. But I'll say this. Our medical professionals, what they have done, because they are -- they walk into those hospitals, you see them putting on their gear and they're putting it on as they're walking through the front doors. And some of those people are going to die. They're going to die. You know, it's, like, incredible. And we can say what we want, Tony and Deb, about young and medium-aged and plenty of those people dying, too.
You know, it's -- it generally hits the older people where they have problems. It hits young people, too, and it hits middle-aged people, too. But these people are walking into hospitals. And I watch -- I can't -- I think it's -- it's incredible.
And they're putting their outfit -- they're getting into -- and they're going in, they're going -- it's like -- it's like a -- it's like a war. Again, there's never been anything so contagious as this. In -- in 1917, it was vicious if you got it, but it wasn't contagious like this.
Now, in 1917, had they had the Internet and all the means of communication, they could have practiced distancing, you know. By the time people started thinking in terms -- in those terms, they lost, I guess, 75 to 100 million people. So that's modern -- you know, that's a modern-day great thing that happened.
Please?
QUESTION: Yeah, just on antibodies, to what extent do you think that you can use antibody tests to determine who can go back to work and how quickly?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know. I'd rather leave that to the doctor.
Doctor, do you have an answer to that?
QUESTION: We think it will be tool for (OFF-MIKE)
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: We think it will be a tool to help us get people back to work. It will be additional information. Because, as you know, if you have an antibody, that means you were exposed and have recovered from it. That, with the information about diagnosis, should help.
QUESTION: But how quickly can you scale up this testing to determine on a large scale how many people can go back to work and have these antibodies? QUESTION: So, as you know, a couple weeks ago, we provided a great deal of regulatory flexibility around this. A lot of great developers have been working on this. Dr. Birx put a call out to the academic labs around the country to do this, and we've been working very closely with a number of manufacturers. So we think that it can be scaled up relatively quickly.
QUESTION: Mr. President?
Mr. President, a question for Dr. Fauci.
In a recent interview, you had said that you knew the 15-day guidance would not be enough. I wanted to ask your confidence level about the 30-day guidance and whether it will be enough?
FAUCI: You know, it's tough to talk about levels of confidence, but I can tell you one thing that I feel strongly, that if we do, in a very proactive way, what I said in my opening comments, and people literally across the country as a baseline have that physical separation, and as we've mentioned up here, there will be varying degrees of that depending upon whether you're in New York City or you're in a place that's less.
But every place, everybody should be doing some degree of this physical separation. If we do that, again, I have confidence that what we will see is the turning around of the curve. Whether or not it will be all the way down where we want, it's impossible to say. I would be -- I would be foolish to say that.
But the one thing I am confident in -- so let's take this to the bank, that mitigation works. [17:35:03]
So, it does. We've seen it in other countries. We've seen it in our own country. And that's the reason why I keep coming up at every chance I get to plead with the American people to please take a look at those guidelines that the vice president keeps putting up with his chart. Because every single one of those points has something to do with physical separation.
TRUMP: And mitigation does work. But again, we're not going to destroy our country. We have to get back. Because, you know, at a certain point, you'll lose more people this way through all of the problems caused than you will with what we're doing right now.
What we're doing right now, I think it's going to be very successful.
QUESTION: (inaudible)
TRUMP: But you know what? I don't know. We're going to -- we have a big decision to make at a certain point. OK? We have a big decision to make. We went this extra period of time, but I said it from the beginning, the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.
And we cannot let that happen. We have an incredible country. We were having the greatest period in our country's history from an economic standpoint and in many other ways. We cannot let this continue. So, at a certain point, some hard decisions are going to have to be made.
Go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President, ventilator manufacturers are doubling, tripling, even quadrupling their production, in some cases.
TRUMP: That's true.
QUESTION: And yet, medical experts and some of these manufacturers are predicting that there will still be shortages of tens of thousands of ventilators. Is it time for you to level with the American public that there likely will be shortages of ventilators in some cases?
TRUMP: Could be. I mean, it could be you have shortages, and it could also be that you have some that have way overestimated the number of ventilators they need.
We think that, you know, we have a good -- a good amount ready to move. I mean, literally, like an army, they're ready to move to any hot spot. But some of the ones that you're talking about -- always a nasty question from CNN, but some of the ones--
QUESTION: Why is it a nasty question?
TRUMP: Yeah, because I think that, frankly, you know--
QUESTION: Should Americans know--
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Because you know what? You've asked that question about 10 times over the course of about a month. Look, we're mobilized and ready to go. We have a lot of ventilators ready to go, and if we had given them all out, we wouldn't. And you would be overstocked in many areas.
What we're doing is we have a very good plan to take from some areas, even though we have the 10 -- or almost the 10,000, we're also taking from areas that won't be as badly hit as today we think they will be. There will be some areas hit harder than we think.
And there's nothing that Deborah or Tony or any of these professionals can do about it. This thing moves in a lot of ways. But what we're going to do is we are going to have, as -- and you look at us compared to a lot of other countries, we're in much better shape. But these professionals have done an amazing job.
Now, over the next week, and two weeks, it's going to be a very, very deadly period, unfortunately. But we're going to make it so that we lose as few lives as possible. And I think we're going to be successful. I think we already are successful in that regard.
When you look at that graph, and you see all of the -- the bumps, if you want to call it, at a very low level, and you see a couple at a higher level -- they were tough -- but you see all of those levels, you know, when you look -- and when you hear about Italy and then you hear about France and then you hear about -- you know what we have, is we have many Italys all over. We have -- they're like countries. California's a country; New York is a country -- if you look at them from the standpoint of what we're talking about.
We have many, like, country spots. Some are hot spots. And there's nothing we're going to do about it. One of the biggest surprises is Louisiana, because it started off so good and then all of a sudden it shot up like a rocket. But we are going to try and have ventilators wherever we possibly can.
TRUMP: Jeff, go ahead.
QUESTION: Despite the Herculean effort of some of these companies to ramp up production as fast as possible, it still won't be enough.
TRUMP: Well, New York wanted 40,000 ventilators, OK, 40,000. Think of what 40,000 is. It's like cars. It's a big project; it's an expensive product. I mean, some of them are $50,000 apiece. I saw one the other day, $55,000. That was before they started playing the games with supply and demand, OK?
Some are very, very -- you'd call them luxury. Some are not. But frankly, these are very expensive products. These are very high-tech projects and products, and they take a period of time.
We have thousands of them being built right now. Some will be ready. And we're going to have extra. And we'll keep them at hospitals. But a lot of hospitals -- a lot of states had the chance of getting ventilators and they turned those ventilators down for -- so they could spend their money on something else.
And in a way, I understand that because who thinks a thing like this -- it's not -- it's not a knock. If I'm told, like, perhaps, New York, you can spend $1 billion on ventilators and get 16,000 or a massive number of ventilators that they've been offered over the years. [17:40:11]
Or you can build a new bridge or road or something, I mean, I understand how that works. I'm not blaming anybody.
I'm just saying a lot of the states had chances of stockpiling a lot of ventilators. They didn't do it. And I think we're doing a very good job in helping them out.
Please, Jeff?
QUESTION: Mr. President--
TRUMP: And it's a very fair question. I understand that question very well.
Yeah?
QUESTION: Just to follow up on what you and the others have been saying today about it being a deadly week or two coming, can you give us a sense of, perhaps Dr. Birx, of what that means, numerically? TRUMP: Sure. I'd like to ask also -- I'd like to say we know pretty much the line of attack. We know the numbers -- the numbers are the numbers. They seem to be checking out, unfortunately, or in some cases, you know, they're on the low side, which we're very happy. We want to keep them on the very low side, and that's where we're headed. And I think that's, maybe, where we're headed.
But I'd like to ask, maybe, you and Tony, what are -- where is the -- where is the week or the number of days of greatest attack? What will be our worst day, if that's possible to determine? I think that's what you're asking, right?
QUESTION: And -- and how many deaths, exactly, are you expecting?
BIRX: So, as you can look in the places that are the most difficult hit right now, the Detroit area, the New York area, the Louisiana area, and we are doing it by the counties in those states, because there are -- mostly it's metro areas and the bedroom communities around those metro areas, because people went to work and got exposed and came home and exposed others.
If you look out in New York now, you see that it's in Long Island and it's out in Suffolk County and Nassau County.
All of those counties, Wayne and Oakland, they're all on the upside of their curve of mortality. So, you know when you get to the peak, you come down the other side.
TRUMP: And when will that peak be?
BIRX: So, by the predictions that are in that healthdata.org, they're predicting, in those three hot spots, all of them hitting together in the next six to seven days.
QUESTION: Are you thinking tens of thousands of deaths in that period of time?
BIRX: You can go to the website. It's variable. Each one of those communities is different. But you know where New York is, how much their mortality has been. And you know -- what we're seeing today are the people who were infected two or three weeks ago.
If mitigation in New York worked -- and we believe it is working -- the cases are going to start to go down. But the mortality will be a lag behind that, because of the co-morbidities and other conditions.
So that's why all of the predictions are that this next week -- and I think we said this last Sunday when we talked about the charts. And it's difficult to -- and we tried to prepare the American people to understand that you have to -- as much as you go up, you have to come down the other side, because coming down is a reflection of the cases that were coming in before.
QUESTION: Would you rather not say a number?
BIRX: I'd rather not say a number, but the numbers are available if you go to the website. I mean, you can see that there are several hundreds per day in New York. And I think Governor Cuomo has talked about that increasing still into the five, six, 700 range a day.
So, you know, that's very concerning to us. We, again, applaud the health care workers who are doing every single thing humanly possible to save more lives. And we are ensuring, on a ventilator by ventilator, day by day, to get them there so that we can say and we can be there when they need it. Because we are supposed to be that group that comes in after all other resources are exhausted.
And we really applaud what Oregon did, and we really applaud what the governor is doing about moving between the states, between the different counties, to bring them to New York. Because that's what's needed today. A different place will be needed tomorrow.
QUESTION: You mentioned -- just to follow up on something apparently you said yesterday, that you had some concerns about Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington, D.C. Could you expand on that?
BIRX: We're watching them because they are starting to go on that upside of the curve. We're hoping and believing that, if people mitigate strongly, the work that they did over the last two weeks will blunt that curve and they won't have the same upwards slope and peak that New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and part of Rhode Island are having.
[17:45:00] So this is a very important -- the next two weeks are extraordinarily important, and that's why I think you've heard from Dr. Fauci, from myself, from the president and the vice president, that this is the moment to do everything that you can on the presidential guidelines. This is the moment to not to be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe, and that everybody doing the six-feet distancing washing your hands.
FAUCI: I mean, ditto to everything that Dr. Brix said, but also to emphasize why it's so important to do that because we're looking at three or four really key hot spots that are still going up - it's absolutely essential that the ones that are down at that lower level, that Dr. Birx showed the other day, those communities where they're still going up, we've got to make sure we don't have multiple waves of peaks.
That's going to be the answer to the question of when we can start pulling back, because if you keep having multiple peaks, and different waves, that's going to make it very difficult.
QUESTION: (Inaudible).
FAUCI: Put your foot on the - exactly what I said, just before, and I keep repeating. Just make sure everybody does at least the minimal amount of that physical separation, because the virus has no place to go if you're physically separated.
TRUMP: And one of the reasons that I keep talking about hydroxychloroquine, is that the question never asks, and the question that I most hate the answer to, is, what happens if you do have a ventilator, what are your chances? And I just hope that, hydroxychloroquine wins, coupled with, perhaps, the Z-pak as we call it, dependent totally on your doctors and the doctors there, because you know the answer to that question.
If you do have the ventilator, you know the answer to that question. And I hate giving the answer, so I don't want to get them there - I don't want to get them there. There's a possibility - a possibility, and I say it, what do you have to lose, I'll say it again, what do you have to lose, take it, I really think they should take it, but it's their choice, and it's the doctor's choice, or the doctors in the hospital, but hydroxychloroquine, try it, if you like.
If you have a heart condition, I understand, probably you stay away from the Z-pak, but that's an antibiotic, it can clean out the lungs, the lungs are a point of attack for this horrible virus. But when you have a ventilator, don't ask the answer, because I hate it. If you have it, and it's working beautifully, I don't like the answer because it's not a very high percentage. So, I want to keep them out of ventilators. I want to keep them, if this drug works, it will be - not a game changer - because that's not a nice enough term, it will be wonderful, it will be so beautiful. It will be a gift from heaven if it works.
Because when people go into those ventilators, you know the answers, I know the answers, and I'm glad you don't write about it. Mike, please?
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well you've heard from the experts what our task force has heard, that it's going to be a difficult week for the American people. That you will see testing increase around the country and so cases are going to continue to rise across America, and before I give a few facts relative to an earlier question about ventilators, let me add my voice to what the president just said and what all the physicians who've spoken have said.
Even though we see the losses rising, in the days ahead, do not be discouraged, because there's evidence across the country that Americans have been putting the social distancing and mitigation into practice, and it is making a difference. We are seeing it in the new cases that are being reported because, remember, people - families that experience loss, up to this day and into the next week, have a loved one who contracted the coronavirus - in most cases - more than two weeks ago, in many cases, before social distancing and mitigation efforts were put into effect. [17:50:02]
And so, we want to encourage you, believe in the president's coronavirus guidelines for America. Go to coronavirus.gov, print them off again, put them on the refrigerator and remind yourself and put them into practice. On the subject of ventilators, if I can amplify the point the
president made -- our team at FEMA is doing a remarkable job working with governors, state health officials, and local hospitals particularly focused on our priority areas.
We would prefer the New York metro area, which includes New Jersey and Connecticut. We're focused on the New Orleans metro area and Louisiana. We're focusing on Detroit. We're focusing on Chicago.
These are the areas where we see the significant rise in cases. And we are -- we are surging supplies, specifically ventilators, but all personal protective equipment from FEMA to those areas. And just to give you a couple of examples, I spoke to governors in New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan and Maryland today alone.
And in those cases, Governor Cuomo is actually assessing all the available ventilators. We sent 4,400 ventilators already to New York. As has already been referenced, they're going to receive a shipment of over 1,000 from overseas.
And allow me to say as I told personally today, the governor of Oregon, Governor Kate Brown, her unilateral decision to send 140 ventilators because Oregon -- they felt Oregon today is in a place where they could give those ventilators to New York to me was in the very highest tradition in loving your neighbor.
And when I talked to Governor Cuomo, Mr. President, he told me they never asked Oregon for the ventilators, and Governor Brown hadn't even called him to tell him she was doing that. It really is remarkable.
When I talked to Governor Hogan today and when the president and I will be speaking to all of America's governors again, I told him how inspired I was and how we ought to spread to other governors in areas where they can -- where they can spare resources to be joining with us at the federal level and providing them to states at the point of the need. But just a few for instances, as we track New Jersey, as I told Governor Phil Murphy, we deployed 200 ventilators to New Jersey today.
Louisiana, we're monitoring literally hour by hour what's taking place in New Orleans with some encouraging news but still great challenges. Yesterday, you heard the president say that we've deployed 330,000 gowns that have been delivered to the public health systems and hospitals there, 200 ventilators.
I spoke to Governor Charlie Baker today and was able to inform him we're watching Boston area very closely, 100 ventilators are deploying today.
I spoke to Governor Gretchen Whitmer today. Detroit is experiencing a significant number of cases. We're watching it carefully, and today, FEMA directed 300 ventilators to Michigan.
Again, as the president said, we're all working our hearts out. What I want to say to American families, and what I want to say to health care workers is that we are going to identify the resources, leave no stone unturned, and we are going to -- we are going to focus resources on those areas in the order that they emerge.
Now, the last thought is back on mitigation. We are hoping that we do not see other major cities in the country experience what Seattle experienced, what greater New York City areas are experiencing, what New Orleans is experiencing. And that's all in the hands of the American people today. So, I just want to encourage -- again (ph), coronavirus.gov. Put into
practice the president's coronavirus guidelines, and you will do your part to save lives, protect the American people and ensure that we will have the resources to meet this moment wherever the need should arise.
QUESTION: Mr. President, you said earlier the SBA loan program got money yesterday, but we're hearing from a lot of small business owners, a lot of concerns of whether they will get this money. Some say -- some of the banks weren't ready yesterday to start processing loans and some banks were --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: We're way ahead of schedule. The banks have been great. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, they're so far ahead.
This is typical with you in particular. We're either behind with -- they're not behind.
[17:55:03]
It's been a flawless -- it's been flawless so far, far beyond our expectations.
You should say -- I hear you're doing well but maybe -- I don't even hear of any glitch. They've done billions of dollars of loans to small business, and these are great loans. These are loans that get immediately paid off. These are loans that get businesses back.
I wish you could ask a question where something's working so well. Now, maybe things won't work well and I don't mind that kind (ph). But when something is working so well and you ask that question in such a negative way. It's doing great.
Yes, go ahead.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)
TRUMP: It's doing great. Really good.
Maybe it won't in two weeks, and I'll respond differently, but it's doing great. You know it and so does everyone else. Everyone's shocked how well it's doing.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) has mentioned --
TRUMP: Who did?
QUESTION: Dr. Birx.
TRUMP: Yes.
QUESTION: Some demographics such as seeing men might be more susceptible to the virus, seeing in Europe more cases among -- between 30 and 50. Has the data that you've seen in the past two weeks changed that assessment? Are men more susceptible?
TRUMP: I don't think it's changed much, has it?
BIRX: Yes, same pattern as Europe.
TRUMP: Same pattern, same answer that we've given you for the last month.
QUESTION: -- (INAUDIBLE) between 30 and 50 being more adversely affected than what we've seen in Asia?
BIRX: No, I -- tomorrow, I'll bring you all the graphs back, so you can see it.
TRUMP: We can bring enough, any graph but it's very similar.
Yes?
QUESTION: Mr. President, a few days ago, you talked about possibly restricting flights from hotspots. Where are you on that?
TRUMP: We're looking at it very seriously. Right now, we're dealing with governors. We're dealing with airlines. We're dealing with a lot of different factors. That's a very difficult decision.
We're also testing, getting into planes, very strong testing. States are doing testing on people that leave planes because they don't want to have people coming in who are infected.
So, understanding that and the level of testing has been enormous, OK? And some states are saying you have to go on quarantine for two weeks if you come from certain areas. So, knowing that, we're working with the governors.
QUESTION: Mr. President, what kind of tests -- when you say testing, do you mean domestic travel or people coming in from other countries?
TRUMP: Both, both. Some states are doing -- when they land, they're doing very strong, very powerful testing.
Please go ahead.
QUESTION: Some airlines, sir, and they say they don't know what you're talking about.
TRUMP: OK, well, you check up again.
QUESTION: One last question on ventilators.
TRUMP: Governments are doing it, too. Our government.
Go ahead.
QUESTION: One last question on ventilators. The governor of New York said that he received donation in ventilators from Jack Ma of Alibaba, which I think is your friend. Would you call on the business community to donate ventilators not necessarily to New York but other states like Louisiana?
TRUMP: No, Jack Ma, he's a friend of mine and he's made it very possible to get about a thousand ventilators from China, but that was from him and my other friend. That was really a gift, and we appreciate it very much. It was very nice of them.
All right, I think we've had a enough. We'll be seeing you very soon. And I'm sure that -- you know, that all of us are going to be working very hard. We're working very hard.
We are really coming up to a time that's going to be very horrendous. Probably a time we haven't seen in this country, wouldn't say? I mean, I don't think we've seen a time like this in the country, and we're getting to that point where there's going to be -- some very bad numbers. We want to keep those numbers a lot lower than they would have been, and we will do that.
We have tremendous talent working, we have tremendous people, and that includes governors, that includes everybody. Everybody is working.
But, unfortunately, we're getting to that time when the numbers are going to peak and it's not going to be a good looking situation. I really believe we probably have never seen anything like these kind of numbers, maybe during the war, during a world war -- a World War I or II or something, but this is a war all unto itself, and it's a terrible thing.
We will be seeing you soon. We'll keep you totally abreast. We're also going to be releasing new ventilator numbers because we have a lot of them coming and a lot of them going to different locations. And we appreciate it very much.
Thank you. Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: All right. I'm Ana Cabrera, in New York. You were just listening to the press briefing from the White House Coronavirus Task Force. It lasted nearly an hour and 45 minutes.
Let me bring in CNN's Chief Political Correspondent, Dana Bash, CNN reporter and fact checker, Daniel Dale. Also with us, Dr. Carlos Del Rio, who is an infectious disease expert and an associate dean at the Emory School of Medicine. And Dr. Anne Rimoin, who is an infectious disease expert at UCLA.
Dr. Del Rio, I want to play something the president said right at the beginning of this press conference. Because it is important. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This will be probably the toughest week, between this week and next week. And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done. But there will be death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
