dobbs tonight. thanks for joining us. "the evening edit" with elizabeth macdonald is next. ♪. ♪. elizabeth: i'm elizabeth macdonald. "the evening edit" starts right now. you're looking at a live shot of the white house press room where any moment the president is expected to lead the coronavirus briefing for the nation. we will take you there live. attorney general william barr will be there as well. after another brutal day on wall street, even after the federal reserve launches historic, unlimited buying of treasurys and mortgage-backed securities, this is market history. it is the fastest 30% pullback ever in just 22 days. seven states now have shelter in

place orders for more than 100 million americans to stop the outbreak. joining us retired four-star general jack keane, dr. oz, former reagan advisor art laffer and texas attorney general ken paxton, what texas is doing. the other story tonight. a battle never the likes seen before, the senate floor erupted in outrage today, as senate democrats for the second time in 24 hours block a key vote on nearly 2 trillion-dollar coronavirus relief plan, in favor of house democrat majority speaker nancy pelosi's bill. anger escalating. republican senator susan collins of maine says, quote, democrats are playing with fire. at stake hundreds of billions of dollars of funds with hospitals and vaccine development and more. scientists find six drugs that may deal with the coronavirus. ibm computer?

77 drugs. there is live shot of rockefeller center. non-essential new yorkers ordered to stay home. the case the highest in the nation. edward lawrence in d.c. edward, set the stage for us. what is happening now? reporter: he had extrordinary on the floor. the senate literally opened fighting with senators. we haven't seen this in two decades. the democrats stopped the phase three stimulus package by voting no. the reason that could happen, five republican senators are underself-quarantine or have the virus itself. listen to this on the senate floor. listen. >> they ought to be embarrassed! this is not a juicy political opportunity. this is a national emergency. >> we democrats are trying to get things done, not make partisan speech after partisan speech. >> my friends on both sides of

the aisle, that we first assume the appropriate distance and then secondly, take a deep breath. >> just thinking that country was founded by geniuses but it being run by a bunch of idiots. reporter: not mincing words at the briefing, one huge topic to be discussed is medical supplies. new york governor andrew cuomo says he has enough supplies today for medical workers. in the future maybe not, because of a bidding war of what's available. >> today we can get masks to anyone who needs them and gowns. i can't promise you next week or the week thereafter. reporter: director of trade and manufacturing policy for the white house peter navarro says the president put him in charge of streamlining the effort to make sure the medical supplies go exactly where they need to be.

we'll see in coming days and coming weeks if he is able to do that with certainty, at least to governor cuomo's liking. elizabeth: great to see you, edward. thank you so much. let's bring in art laffer, economic advisor under president ronald reagan. art, your reaction to the democrats holding up 2 trillion-dollar aid package because they want things like more worker protection, more wind and solar tax credits, more power to unions? your reaction to that. the democrats are saying this effectively is setting up slush funds to bail out companies that the treasury department oversee. what is your take about all of this? >> i don't think the democrats are using the right reasons to slow this bill down. frankly a bad bill here would be very damaging, liz. you know this helicopter money, all that stuff, bailing out companies like boeing or so is not the right thing. there are two things should be done in this bill, very simply. we want to wave the payroll tax, both employer and employee for six months, period.

then you want to make sure that the treasury, the small business administration, hud, all these others have direct guaranties of loans for solvent companies that are having a liquidity problem. you know, this is a very specific, targeted and in times of crisis discount freely. make sure the solvent companies don't go under but don't use this as excuse for bailout, number one, give the day roll tax cut and everyone goes to work as fast as they can. that will bring the economy right back. elizabeth: targeted stimulus. hundreds of billions of dollars of drugs, for vaccines, drug supplies, new monies for hospitals and medical facilities. $110 billion for that. number of money to increase hospital beds and respirators. we saw republican senators susan collins of maine lit up in

anger. susan collins, for second time in 24 hours this rescue plan has been stalled by senate democrats in favor of nancy pelosi's plan. >> i cannot believe the answer to this crisis as we move to address the economic consequences that are so severe for the people of this country, that the answer from our friend on the other side of the aisle is delay, delay, delay. no sense of urgency. no you hurry. this is disgraceful. we do not have time. time is not on our side. let's get the job done for the american people. elizabeth: any minute now the president will walk out, take to the microphone. your reaction to what senator

collins said. >> i love susan collins. i think she is wonderful characters, spokesperson. very intelligent. i think we have a lot more time she says we do, to be honest. there is nothing worse. we have been in the crises -- elizabeth: i have to interject. hospitals and doctors say we don't have time. they need help now. >> do it in separate bills then. elizabeth: running out of time. >> helicopter, a billion dollar helicopter thing, trillion dollar helicopter thing will damage for generation. elizabeth: talking about health for hospitals. the hospitals need help. >> you don't spend $2 trillion or hospital help. elizabeth: they're not saying 2 trillion on hospital help. targeting hundreds of billions of dollars in hospital health. there is dr. shortage. why don't we have a special bill on itself see if it passes on that, unmodified? elizabeth: i hear what you're saying. >> that would be great. elizabeth: you've been through a number of crises. you've been around, you advised,

excuse me, john f. kennedy. what is your take what is happening now? >> my thought is, they have got way too many things in this bill. for the economic recovery, need a payroll tax waiver and guaranteed lines of credit. then we need a hospital bill to get the medical stuff done right now, quickly through the house and the senate. then we can sit there and argue about helicopter money and all this other stuff. elizabeth: okay. >> but i would love to see it done that way. no, they have to put everything in -- elizabeth: here is the task force as we noted. attorney general william barr is joining. as we await the president, he is about to enter any moment, do we have "dr. oz" on the line? if he is there. >> i'm here. elizabeth: your reaction to the delay in the bill? >> very perplexing, very disappointing. definite shortage in the hospital systems. we're at epicenter here in new york. it is crisis mode. if nothing else emotional support but physical support as well. we don't have masks. we're short on iv equipment.

not getting better. we don't have a lot of time. you don't know when the explosion of complications may erupt. we don't want to be italy, especially when we have the opportunity to intervene. elizabeth: we know that scientists identified nearly six dozen jobs to test against the coronavirus. the ibm supercomputer found 77 mixes. chloroquine, the drug of ma lar raw and z pack. they have obtained a lot of both to start the own drug trial. china found it did work, close row quinn and z packs. your reaction to that? >> i interviewed the physician who studied french study, i found the chinese study he based off his work off. he is adamant there should not be a clinical trial. i think we should do a clinical trial. i'm funding a trial at columbia to do the same thing. major academic centers should study it. meantime what will we do?

we have enough evidence that a lot of patients are saying just give me the drugs. i've been interviewing patients and doctors who argue it changed their lives for the better. it will be become part of clinical practice. we don't want that to happen in haphazard fashion. we need to do clinical trials. dr. fauci is right. we need pills for at risk populations. take advantage what is already being done in italy, for example, in france where they're reacting to research by saying we'll liberalize it, start using -- [inaudible] happening already in america. get it out in the open. elizabeth: doctor back in 2005 the national institutes of health published a report saying question, chloroquine is effective in treating the sars coronavirus in primates. this was a study on primates. it should have been, you know, this finding, i mean this is really what scientists are talking about. also the need to test a person's blood for antibodies to the new virus. that's important too, right,

doctor? >> it is a good way to figure out who has the infection. it is the best way you won't miss people. nasal swabs can be erroneous. you want to know who is i will ising virus out of their nose, you want to check in their nose. in the clinical trial from france, the doctor came on the show, was very articulate about what he did, he was able to demonstrate 100% of the cases could reduce viral load to zero within six days. something interesting you will remember forever. the way this got identified, they did cell cultures, experimented in test tubes. they noticed in china patients with lupus who came in the hospital did not have coronavirus. they didn't catch it. elizabeth: interesting. doctor, sit with us. here is the president. >> well, thank you very much. i see we have fewer people because of the virus problem and we appreciate you being here. this is getting to be more and more social distancing and

that's fine. so it should be and it's too bad. we extend our best wishes to the person affected and we feel sure that he or she will be better very soon. and thank you for being here. america continues to mobilize every segment of our society to turn the tide in the battle against the virus. i want americans to know that we will get through this challenge. the hardship will end. it will end soon. normal life will return and our economy will rebound very, very strongly but right now in the midst of this great national trial americans must remain united in purpose an focused on victory. to every single american please know that the sacrifice you're making at this time is saving lives. many, many lives. it is very important that we totally protect our

asian-american community in the united states and all around the world. they are amazing people and spreading of the virus is not their fault in any way, shape or form. they're working closely with us to get rid of it. we will prevail together. very important. from the beginning we have been working closely with our nations best scientists and medical professionals. we will continue to do so until we have defeated the virus. our public health experts who are terrific are studying the variation in the disease across the country and we will be using data to recommend new protocols to allow local economies to cautiously resume their activity at the appropriate time. we also have a large team working on what the next steps will be once the medical community gives a region the okay, meaning the okay to get going, to get back. let's go to work.

our country wasn't built to be shut down. this is not a country that was built for this. it was not built to be shut down. my administration continues to work with democrats and republicans to reach an agreement on an urgent relief bill for the millions of american workers and small businesses and large businesses that were badly affected by the medical deaf consult that we've had. if you had a viable business in january, we are committed to insuring the same is true in the coming weeks. in fact we want to make it even better than it was before. we're doing things to help in that regard. america will again and soon be open for business very, soon. a lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting. a lot sooner. we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. we're not going to let the cure be worse than the problem.

at the end of the 15-day period we'll make a decision as to which way we want to go, where we want to go, the timing. essentially we're referring to the timing of the opening. essentially the opening of our country. because we have it pretty well shut down in order to get rid of this invisible enemy. two weeks ago we moved at record speed to pass paid sick leave and paid family medical leave and approve $8 billion including money for the development of treatments and vaccines and we're doing tremendous work in both, on both fronts. the vaccines are coming along very quickly. now congress must demonstrate the same bipartisanship and join together to pass the senate bill as written, avoid playing anymore partisan games. they have to get together and just stop with the partisan politics and i think that is happening. i got a call a little while ago.

i guess they're getting closer. it should go quickly. must go quickly. they don't have a choice. they have to make a deal. this should not be a time for political agendas but rather one for focusing solely and squarely own on the needs of the american people. we are going to save american workers and we're going to save them quickly. and we're going to save our great american companies, both small and large. this was a medical problem. we're not going to let it turn into a long-lasting financial problem. started out as a purely medical problem and it is not going to go beyond that. just not going to allow that to happen. our country was, at its strongest financial point. we never had an economy like we had just a few weeks ago. then it got hit with something that nobody could have ever thought possible.

and we are fixing it. we're fixing it quickly and i want to thank the american people for what they have been through, for what they're doing. our country will be stronger than ever before, and we fully anticipate that. it won't be that long. let me provide you with an update on critical supplies. fema is distributing 8 million n95 respirator masks and 13.3 million surgical masks across the country right now. focusing on the areas with the greatest need. we shipped 73 pallets of personal protective equipment to new york city and 36 pallets to the state of washington. in the past 96 hours fema also received donations of approximately 6.5 million masks. we're having millions and millions of masks made as we speak and other personal protective equipment which we will deliberate to medical hot spots. we're focused on some of the hot

spots across the nation. we're seeing out pouring of creativity and innovative ideas widely shared between the federal health leaders, governors and mayors. the scientific community and members of the private sector really working together. everybody is working together. pleased to report that clinical trials in new york will be beginning existing, for existing drugs that may prove effective against the virus. at my direction the federal government is working to help obtain large quantities of chloroquine and, you can look from any standpoint tomorrow in new york. we think tomorrow pretty early the hydroxychloroquine and the z pack i think it is a combination probably looking very, very good and it is going to be distributed. we have 10,000 units going and

it will be distributed tomorrow. it will be available and is now, they already have it. they will distribute it tomorrow morning to a lot of people in new york city and new york. studying it very closely, watching it very closely. you probably saw a couple of articles today came out where a gentleman they thought, he was not going to make it. he said good-bye to his pham le. they had given him the drug a little while ago. he thought it was over. his family thought he was going to die and a number of hours later he woke up, felt good. and he woke up again and felt really good and he is in good shape and he is very happy for this particular drug that we got approved in record-setting time. there has never been anything even close to it. i want to thank the fda which has been incredible, and

dr. hahn, steven hahn, highly respected man but they're doing everything possible to increase production and available supply of these drugs, not only this drug but also others that are coming. remdesivir is coming from regeneron. a couple of others are also under study but the one that i'm very excited about right now is the one we just mentioned and i think there is a real chance, i mean, again, we don't know but there is a real chance that it could have a tremendous impact. it would be a gift from god if that worked. that would be a big game-changer. so we'll see. but distribution starts tomorrow morning early in new york and i think a lot of people are going to be, hopefully they will be very happy with the result but we're all going to be watching closely. it is something we have to try. it has been very, very successful on malaria. very, very successful.

countries with malaria have had interesting thing happen. they take this particular drug. it is a very powerful drug and, there is very little semblance of the virus in those countries and there are those that say because this drug is very prevalent because of the malaria. so we'll see what happens. i'm also announcing that we're postponing the deadline for compliance with real i.d. requirements at a time when we're asking americans to maintain social distancing, we do want to require people to go with their local dmv. we will be announcing the new deadline very soon. it is going to be announced in a very short moment. overnight we successfully brought home 103 american citizens after they had been stranded for 10 days in brazil following a cruise. we want to thank the brazillian government and their great president.

most of those returned were senior citizens. my administration in cooperation with governor greg abbott of texas and the private sector coordinated their safe return to the united states. so thank you to governor abbott. terrific governor, terrific man. earlier today i signed an executive or the invoking presidential authority under section 4512 of the defense production act to prohibit the hoarding of vital medical equipment and supplies such as hand sanitizers, face masks and personal protective equipment. we have a lot of face masks, a lot of equipment is coming in and we have some people hoarding and attorney general barr will be speaking about that in a second. we want to prevent price gouging and a critical health and medical resources are going to be protected in every form. under this directive the secretary of health and human services is authorized to

designate essential health and medical supplies are scarce. so they will designate certain supplies and medical elements as scarce and that means it will be a crime to stockpile these items in excess of quantities which is happening to a relatively small degree we think, but nevertheless it is happening. we can't let it happen. we can't let them resell them at excessive prices which some people are doing. very simply we'll not allow anyone to exploit the suffering of american citizens for their own profit. so we'll be watching that with our great attorney general very closely. the department of justice will be aggressively prosecuting fraudulent schemes related to the pandemic. yesterday federal prosecutors took action in their first case shutting down a website selling a totally fake vaccine if you

can believe that one. as president i will always fight against americans being exploited. frankly all across the country we're seeing acts compassion, benevolence and unity. construction companies are donating masks by the hundreds of thousands. manufacturing workers are transforming their assembly lines. citizens are volunteering to deliver food and medicine to the elderly. we're truly seeing america at its best. we're really seeing things that people never thought even could happen. frankly we never thought this could happen but the way most americans are working towards getting it solved and just doing what they have to do to make this go away has been incredible, it has been incredible. i want to thank a moment to thank the everyday heroes who are making our efforts against the virus possible. thank you to the health care workers and first-responders. these are very brave people.

thanks also to the hard-working men and women of federal express, ups, united states postal service and the truckers who are maintaining our supply chains and supply lines. we thank you very much, great job. we also want to give our regards and thanks to everyone at our grocery stores, working the night shifts so that shelves can be restocked and restaurant workers and delivery drivers keeping our families fed. so many of these restaurants, it is incredible, they're doing service where people come to pick it up, delivery, it has been incredible what they have been doing, totally different business than they were in. other than they cook food, other than that like a totally different business. most of all i want to thank the american people for rising to the challenge and showing incredible courage, determination, patience, grace

and grit, from new york to seattle, everywhere in between your acts of selflessness and sacrifice and ingenuity are a powerful testment to the american character. it is really being shown. it is showing up at a level that people are really respecting all over the world. the world is respecting. the world has problems. we're 148 countries, now. 148 countries are affected by the invisible scourge. and all of the uplifting reflections of the american spirit are out there for everyone to see. together we will care for our fellow citizens and we will win this war and we'll win it much sooner than people think. and we'll be back in business as a country pretty soon. you will be hearing about that also pretty soon. now i would like ask attorney general bill barr to say a few words. we'll take questions in a little

while, thank you. >> let me start by thanking you, mr. president and mr. vice president, for your decisive leadership in this unprecedented battle to save american lives. the department of justice, we're working hard to protect the health and safety of our personnel while at the same time keeping our enforcement efforts at full throttle. so i would like to thank all of my colleagues in law enforcement, not just those at the federal level but of all our state and local partners. the police officers, the sheriffs deputys who are protecting and serving their communities. often at great risk to themselves. what i would like to do here is start with a few remarks about the order that the president mentioned.

to insure the availability of critical medical and health supplies from hoarding and price gouging. on march 18th the president issued executive order 13909 invoking the defense production act with respect to the health and medical resources needed to the respond to the spread of covid-19 including ppe and ventilators. we have started to see some evidence of potential hoarding and price gouging. so earlier today the president signed a second executive order providing the authority to address if it becomes necessary, hoarding that threatens the supply of those necessary health and medical resources. under section 102 of the defense production act the president is authorized to prohibit the hoarding of needed resources by designating those materials as scarce or as material whose

supply would be threatened by persons accumulating excessive amounts. one specific materials are so designated persons are prohibited from accumulating those items in excess of reasonable personal or business needs or for the purpose of selling them in excess of prevailing market prices. it is a crime to engage in prohibited activity. in today's executive order the president is delegating to the secretary of hhs this authority to protect against hoarding by designating these critical items. no items have been designated yet and the department of justices going to be working wog with hhs to identify cases where hoarding may be impeding the supply of health and medical resources needed to respond to the covid-19 pandemic.

today we convened our first task force meeting, national task force, that will be working on these supply chain issues and specifically on the problem of hoarding and price gouging and we are designating in each of our 93 united states attorneys offices a lead prosecutor who will be responsible in that district for pursuing these cases. i will also want to say that we have not waited for this order to be signed. as we have received evidence recently, we have already initiated investigations of activities that are disrupting the supply chain an suggestive of hoarding. i want to stress we're not talking about consumers or businesses stockpiling supplies for their own operations. we're talking about people hoarding these goods and materials on an industrial can

scale for the of manipulating the market and ultimately driving windfall profits. if you are, have a big supply of toilet paper in your house this, is not something you have to worry about but if you are sitting on a warehouse with masks, surgical masks, you will be hearing a knock on your door. so with that, mr. president, i will turn it back to you. >> thank you very much. debra, please. >> thank you, thank you, mr. vice president. for start i want to really thank all the ministers of health around the world who have been sending us their at that he despite the fight they're in themselves. particularly your european colleagues. they continue to send us primarily the mortality data which is very critical because when you're in the midst of this level of fight, as many european countries are, following

mortality data will give you the best insight right now how the epidemic is proceeding in those countries because they really can't be testing at the level to understand the depth and breath of their new cases. in the mortality data opinion provided to us there has been no child under 15 that has succumbed to the virus in europe. there was one 14-year-old in china. so we still see there is less severity in children. so that should be reassuring to the moms and dads out there. to the generation z and my millenial colleagues who have been really at the forefront of many of these responses, less than 1% of all the mortality is less than 50. so this is i think also a very important point. that doesn't mean that individuals won't have severe disease. still 99% of all the mortality coming out of europe in general is over 50 and preexisting conditions. the preexisting conditions piece

still holds in italy with the majority of the mortality having three or more preexisting conditions. i think this is reassuring to all of us but it doesn't change the need to continue to protect the elderly. in order to protect the elderly we all need to continue to do the president's directiontives and guidance for the next week of the 15-day challenge. finally i wanted to really close by thanking the laboratory personnel that have been at the front lines. 250,000 tests have been run in the last seven days. this happened because of these large commercial labtoresries doing round-the-clock runs. remember all of them are being exposed to the virus in the same way from the swabs. let tirelessly they have worked on and on to get those results available. they are still getting more tests that they can run per day. we were primary expanded into

the roche through-put high core machine. those results are getting to the clients. we asked them to prioritize hospitalized patients there was a breakthrough today, i think you will see this from the fda. for all of those who were waiting for self-swabbing options, those are going to be available sometime this week, to be able to individuals do their own tests. that said, remember these platforms are keeping up with those who need to be diagnosed in the hospitals and all those who come to the emergency room quite ill so that hospital beds can be freed up. for those that don't have covid. so that will be critical, if you don't need a test if it doesn't change your clinical course, do not come in to be tested. i think that mortality data i gave you should be very reassuring to all of you. finally to conclude, new york city, the new york metro area of new jersey, new york city, and parts of long island have an

attack rate close to one in 1000. this is five times what the other areas are seeing. there, through the high-through put lab investigations we're finding that 28% of the submitted specimens are positive from that area where it is less than% in the rest of the country. so to all of my friend and colleagues in new york, this is the group that needs to absolutely social distance and self-isolate at this time. clearly the virus had been circulating there for a number of weeks to have this level of penetration into the general community. >> thank you very much, deborah. >> thank you, mr. president. the white house coronavirus task force met today but we also convened at the president's direction a conference call with the nation's governors and we focused on efforts at

mitigation, attesting and and supplies. we discussed the president's recent approval of disaster declarations for washington and california and new york. but we also assured governors who have submitted major disaster declarations that we will be reviewing them in a expeditious manner to insure the full resources of the federal government are brought to bear. the president wanted us to make it clear the federal government will do whatever it takes to support an effort that is local i executed, state managed and federally supported. we reiterated that to our governors today. listen to them about their specific needs and frankly, made it clear to them, that while the president has published at coronavirus.gov, the 15 days to slow the spread for every american and millions of americans are addressing these common sense guidelines, to prevent the spread of the

coronavirus in the days ahead, we made it clear to the governors that this president, this administration fully supports decisions that governors are making in communities and states that are particularly impacted by this spread of the coronavirus and we are grateful for their efforts. we also spoke to the governors about the importance of the legislation that is currently being negotiated on capitol hill. and, asked them to encourage members of the house and the senate to move very quickly. the bill that is currently being negotiated, the president said that he believes will be resolved soon. we're encouraged by it. we will speed direct payments to families. the average family of four will receive $3,000 directly. they will be payroll subsidies for small businesses around america to keep people on the payroll while they might be required to stay home. unemployment insurance benefits, assistance to hospitals and

major industries and we continue to urge the congress to act and ask the governors to engage their delegations. on the subject of testing we reiterated our thanks to states across the country rapidly expanding testing at drive-through sites and at community sites. and, as dr. birx just reflected because of the, because of the unprecedented public and private partnership that the president initiated with our commercial labs, we stand here today with 313,000 tests having been completed with test results delivered to americans and still, somewhat more than 41,000 have contracted coronavirus but this state-run effort is continuing to receive the full support of our team at fema. and at the u.s. public health service we're deploying personnel, we're deploying

resources and testing is literally expanding around the country by the hour. as dr. birx also mentioned, the fda has been in the process of reviewing less invasive methods of testing. the president and i both reflected on the fact that we have been tested and we've been working with the fda to make it possible for self-collected nasal swabs where individuals could at the end of their nasal passage collect a sample and i'm pleased to report that self-collected swabs can now be collected in clinics and drive-through testing sites. this will expedite the testing process of course but it will also reduce the risk to health care providers, for exposure to the coronavirus and, it will minimize the drain on personal protective equipment. with the current test that goes pretty significantly up the nasal passage, people have to

wear gear and then change out the gear. in this new self-administered test, we'll actually not require the drain on personal protective equipment and it is all a part of our effort as admiral pelov-crek will discuss in a few moments to pleat supply needs across the country but meet them with efforts of conservation as well. on the subject of testing, it is important to remember of as the old book said, not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. if you don't have symptoms you don't need to get a coronavirus test. we encourage every american to adhere to that so that the testing resources are available for people that are symptomatics. we will also issue today from health and human services new guidance to direct all commercial labs to prioritize testing for hospitalized

patients and that guidance is going out tonight. we also reminded the governors today that all state laboratories, all hospital laboratories are now required by law to report the results of coronavirus tests to the cdc. on the subject of supplies in our meeting today at people marks we received a report of the new supply chain stabilization task force. rear admiral john pelovch u.k. is leading that at fema. the task force is working to supply medical supplies that exist in the marketplace today, to evaluate the national stockpiles and working with industries around the country to produce even more of the critical medical supplies. as the president said businesses across america are stepping up maybe as never before in our history. 3m in fact diverted 500,000 n95 masks from commercial customers.

they are being delivered today to new york and seattle. facebook we acknowledge, donated emergency reserve of over 700,000 n95 masks to health care workers. these are a few examples of generosity of businesses. we're seeing companies step forward to repurpose their manufacturing facilities to create ventilators, to create equipment and i know i speak for the president i say how grateful and proud we are for that. we also discussed with the governors a real break through on the availability of ventilators. we called on the governors to survey all outpatient surgical centers and hospital operating rooms because surgical ventilators that anesthesiologists use because of an fda decision rendered this last weekend, those can be easily converted now to ventilators that can be used for people struggling with severe

illness from the coronavirus. and sew we called on our governors in conversations with state leaders to survey all of their surgical centers and hospital operating rooms to identify that equipment and with a new fda guide lines, they will be able to convert those who help meet the needs of ventilators across the country. we're eight days into the president's 15 days to slow the spread and the american people are rising to the challenge. we're doing this. but in the stays -- days that remain now and end of the 15 days, we need every american to take these seriously. listen to state and health authorities there may be additional stronger guidance in areas where the coronavirus spread has been more severe but for every american, the part thaw do, that your family does, that you do in your community to put into practice these principles of social distancing, using a drive-through at the local restaurant, will make an enormous difference in lowering

the trajectory of the coronavirus spreading across our country. it will take all of us, but with the on going cooperation of the american people, with compassion, with the ingenuity of american industry, with dedicated leadership at the state and federal level, i know that we can slow the spread, we can protect our most vulnerable and we will heal our land. >> thank you, mike. >> thank you, mr. vice president. i'm rear admiral john palovcek, task force lead at fema. my task is to increase the supply of critical medical supplies which include personal protective equipment and ventilators. items like that. i just want to take a few moments to explain the organization, that we've stood up this week and the last few

days and our approach. so we have a chart behind me. i have a focus, focus leads. one on personal protective equipment, medical supplies and a focus lead on ventilators. operating under four lines of effort, first line of effort you see is preservation. leaders tonight have talked about that, ability to make our stuff last longer. focus around the globe for personal protective equipment, figuring out where it is, figuring out if we just need to buy it or just transport it to get it here faster. we have a line of effort called reallocation. we're working with our industries partners to illuminate the supply chain. there are many vendors, many distributors, all on separate system. nobody has one site picture for that supply chain.

we've brought our industry partners in. we're weaving that together to make better allocation decisions and understand where it is and where it needs to go. we have a line called expansion. you heard some of that today. if those that wanted to convert plants, those that want to get into the business, we have the tools to help them go do that. two focus areas right now, ppe, and ventilators. four lines of effort working the problem of the task to get more here, increase the supplies. >> thank you very much. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. if i could -- total deaths today crossed 100 for the first time. this morning your surgeon general on "the today show" said he wanted americans to understand this will get really bad. do you share that prognosis? >> of course i do. it is going to be bad. we have a lot of people dying

from the flu as you know. we have a very bad flu season on top of everything else. it is very bad. looks like it could be over 50,000. and certainly this is going to be bad. and we're trying to make it so that it's much, much less bad. and that is what we're doing. i think we're doing a very good job of it. if you look at other countries what they have been through, look at kind of numbers, compare them to ours, a much larger country than most, the numbers are pretty amazing. it started with the fact that we stopped people from coming in from highly affected area and infected area and, that was a good thing to do. so yeah, it's bad and it is going to, obviously numbers will increase in time. then they will start to decrease and we're going to be opening our country up for business because our country was meant to be open and working with others but especially for our workers

and the engine for that system we have to have companies. these companies are loved by their workers because they're paying bigsalaries and big dollars to our workers. we'll get it all going again very soon. hopefully, very, very soon. please. reporter: trying to reconcile the two things you just said. one things going to be very, very bad and two, that you want to get the country open back up as quickly as possible i guess my question is, if in a week, dr. birx or dr. fauci are telling you we need to continue these measures for the health of the vulnerable populations of the country, are you going to say the economy is too important? >> we'll see what happens. i understand the question very well. it is a great question but we can do two things at one time. i will is a this, our country has learned a lot. we learned about social

distancing. we learned about the hands. we learned about staying a way at least during the time this is even a little bit around. this disease or, whatever you want to call it, many different names. call it many different names. the virus while it is around and we can start thinking about, as example, parts of our country are very lightly affected, very small numbers. you look at a state, great governor, pete ricketts in nebraska, you look at kind of numbers they have out there. they have one of the great, one of the great hospitals there too relative to what we're talking about but you look at nebraska, you look at idaho, you look at iowa, you look at many, i could name many countries that are handling it very, very well and are not affected to the same extent or frankly not even nearly to the extent of new york

which is really, i'm dealing with governor cuomo an we're dealing very well together. we'll be sending that ship up by the way, as you know. we have a ship going to los angeles. we also will be -- a ship coming out of a very large repair, ready to go, will be. next three to four weeks will come up to new york harbor. it will be fully supplied. they're working on that right you no. reporter: maybe dr. birx, can speak to this do you share the president's optimism we might have a situation saying there a few hot spots -- >> i didn't say a week. i said soon. it will not being three or four months as some people were saying. a lot of people thought originally but i would -- reporter: are you worried cities that haven't had infection yet are lagging indicator we're going to start seeing it? >> two important issues. one, i think you all know a lot

of our tasks have had to go to hospitals at this time so we diagnose people at risk, with options, therapeutic options. if you don't know the diagnosis, we have been very much focused on that. w thermofisher, hologic, and cepheis is the new platform, match the through put to what kind of equipment you have. now we have all the platforms moving simultaneously, we can go back to case finding and surveillance in areas with the most lower numbers as well as doing mitigation more aggressively, places that have higher numbers. we wept out with a very blunt force. we have to all be honest, i agree with that virus, where it

is going. we're concentrated figuring out exactly where the virus is and making projections where it is going of our impacted mitigation. we learned this, and tackling epidemics around the world. you have to focus the resources and intervention and structural prevention interventions in the areas where the virus is circulating. otherwise people never understand why you're doing this and they don't have any virus. so it has to be very tailored geographically. it may have to be very tailored by age group, really understand hog is at the greatest risk and understanding how to protect them. reporter: three months that the president we won't need broad, follow these broad guidelines -- >> the only data that we all have, you know what it is, two areas moved through their curve is china and south korea. so those are the two countries that we're learning from.

those were eight to 10 weeks curves. each state and each hot spot in the united states is going to be its own curve because the seeds came in at different times. so washington state is on their curve. they're about two weeks ahead of new york. and so each of these have to be done in a very granular way to understand where we are. it is the charge that the president has given us, is to use all of our data analytics and all of our data inputs to really define those issues about where the virus is, where is it going and what predictions we can make where we are in the bell-shaped curve. >> that's a great definition. i will say we're watching our senior citizens very closely. we'll watch certain hot spots like new york. within new york, you have areas which are troubling and we'll be working with the governor and the mayor and everybody else on those spots.

but at the same time at a certain point we have to get opened and we have to be, we have to get moving. we don't want to lose these companies. we don't want to lose these workers. we have want to take care of our workers. so we'll be doing something, i think relatively quickly but we've learned a lot during this period. this was a very necessary period. tremendous information was gained. but we can do two things at one time. you know, again i say, we have very active flu season, more active than most. it is looking like it is heading to 50,000 or more deaths, not cases, deaths, 50,000 deaths which is, that's a lot. and you which are far greater than any numbers. not telling anybody more driving of cars. we have to do 2006 to get our country open, this is incredible learning of announcements over

fairly short period as to the timing. john, please. reporter: mr. president, want to ask bide lines on testing. rand paul tested positive for coronavirus but he was not in contact with nick who was known positive and didn't have any major symptoms. under your guide lines outlined here he may have not gotten a test. he got one anyway. if he hadn't gone in defines of the guidelines got tested he might still show up to the senate right now and infecting the whole u.s. senate. >> that is why this was important. that's why this recommendation to the american people was important. because we have been saying there is a level of asymptomatic or mild spread. and that is why each person has to be responsible. each person has to be responsible in the way that they decrease their interaction with others, six feet, you're all

very social distanced, thank you. but also, assuming that everyone that you're interacting with could be positive. that gets into the hand washing piece and that gets into the other piece we talked about is surfaces. i think until we really figure out the respiratory transmission versus transmission, and this hard surface transmission, not fabric, we'll be really critical because that is a way that the virus spreads on subways, metros, people would be holding on to things that other people recently held on to. that is the real question. reporter: keep with the example of rand paul, obviously many other people would be in similar, keep with this one example if he hadn't gotten that test, he would still be showing up to the senate every day at his place of work. >> if he had been following these guidelines he wouldn't have been infecting others because of the social distancing, washing your hands,

doing everything that we talked about. so we talked about also how people make choices because of their jobs but they have to come in. you will notice i was not here over the weekend. i think this is a part that we really need to take personal responsibility for. saturday, had a little low-grade fever. >> uh-oh. >> so, actually probably a gi thing but you know, i'm meticulous. i'm a physician. i looked it up. i ended up piggybanking, from walter reed. i got a test late saturday night, i'm negative. i stayed home another stay just -- >> thankthank you for saying th. >> just to make sure. that is how we protect one another. so you know, unless everybody is taking their temperature every day, we can't say that he had no symptoms. these are the kinds of things which have to do for one another this is the personal responsibility that i'm talking about, that we all have to practice.

reporter: president, you don't want the cure to be worse than the problem itself. >> the problem. reporter: are you saying that if we kept these measures that we're doing now in place for a couple of months -- >> they will be in place. at some point we'll open up our country. it will be i am not looking at months, i can tell you right now, we will be opening up our country and we will be watching certain areas and we will be practicing everything that debra is referring to. we will be watching this very closely. keep it closed for the next years, this is going away, we will win the battle but we also have tremendous responsible de, we have jobs, people get tremendous anxiety and depression and you have suicide

over things like this when you have a terrible economy, you have debt, indefinitely in far greater numbers than the numbers that we are talking about with regard to the virus, we have an obligation, a double obligation. >> were coming into the recapping part of the show before we talk to lou dobbs. moments there between the president and doctor dr. birx said she was feeling feverish and the president was social distancing on camera and tried to laugh and it seemed like an awkward moment but it's unclear whether she has it, she did say she was running a fever. let's get a recap, the big news, the new york state area and new york new jersey long island it is one and 1000, five times more than other areas, 28% are testing positive. the president saying cor cork te

moving fast on this, we will stay on the story for you again tomorrow night. lou dobbs next on fox >> a letter arrives in the mail with news of a strange and lucrative inheritance. >> the letter goes on to say, "if i got a letter like this, i would think it to be a scam." >> and i was like, "why are we named? somebody's scamming us." >> so, is it a scam? >> i said, "you know, ray, there's a fine between genius and idiot." he'd say, "yeah," and he said, "i cross that two or three times a day." >> who is this mysterious benefactor? >> he was a hidden man. >> he didn't have the family life. he didn't have a friend to talk to. >> he really, truly was a fan. >> but an inheritance? >> that's a strange inheritance and a stranger story still. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ]