ventilators right now. it takes a period of time to build them. nobody could know a thing like this could happen. we're building thousands. we'll be fairly soon at a point we have far more than we can use, even after we stockpile for some future catastrophe we hope doesn't happen. we'll be distributing them, extras around the world. we'll go to italy, we'll go to france, we'll go to spain which is very hard hit. reporter: on that note, is there any truth reporting that your administration is stopping usaid stockpiles of pmia broad? >> no truth whatsoever. i would love china and other countries if they have additional supplies medical supplies to give to other countries. 151, why would i stop that? wouldn't it be terrible to stop that? >> the u.s. stopping shipments of our own stockpiles from usaid to other countries? >> whatever we have we committed to we commit. but we need a lot to ourselves. we're very focused on that until

we get over this. obviously we'll not ship too much. we have excess of certain things and don't have enough of others. i just had a great talk with doug mcmillan from walmart and i gave him a very, very big order for gowns, for protective gear for the doctors, for the nurses, for everything and he's actually very excited about it. he is biggest purchaser of this kind of thing, of anything probably in the world and and he is very excited about it. i said what size? almost unlimited. when you look at these hospital, the amount that they order, you almost say how could they possibly use so much whether it is masks or the protective gear but we supplying a tremendous amount and we just ordered a lot from walmart and he is taking this on personally. i said let it go, let it be shipped not to a warehouse, directly to the site of the hospital or wherever they need it because we save a lot of time

when we do that. so walmart, in addition to many other companies and people is now involved at the highest level. please. reporter: announcements made today curbing flow of narcotics into the country are you concerned that we're possibly losing ground on the drug crisis while we're -- >> i don't think we're losing ground but we don't want to lose ground. that's why we're doing it. i don't want to lose ground. it is a big fight. i have seen many families because they're wiped out because they lost a son, daughter, husband, wife or all of them. and we don't want to lose ground and we are heavily focused on the virus, very heavily focused and with this we never -- after this goes into effect which is essentially now we will never have been so focused on drugs coming into our country now. remember as the wall gets bigger that really helps us a lot, really helps us a lot. yes, please. reporter: is mexican government

or any latin american government working with this operation to help with the drugs -- >> many governments are, mexico in particular. we have 27,000 mexican soldiers on our southern border keeping people out of our country. very few people are coming into our country right now and as we complete, again the wall, in addition to the 27,000 soldiers, it is a very, it is a very tough place to come into. when i took over people were coming in and they were bringing whatever they wanted. they were bringing drugs of any type. now it is very hard for them and it will get harder and harder. but the president of mexico is a great guy who is really helped us a lot. 27,000 soldiers. 2thousand -- 27,000 mexican soldiers. you remember when i took over, all caravans coming up, 10,000, 15,000 people in the caravans marching through mexico. that is not happening anymore.

please? reporter: mr. president, militants of 57 front of colombia or maduro regime do you know if they're working in conjunction with the mexican cartels? is there any intelligence indicating that? >> i cannot tell you that. i know the answer to that, i believe, i do, but i cannot tell you that. we have information that would lead us to believe something very powerfully but i cannot tell you the answer to that. yeah, please. jeff. reporter: mr. president, have u.s. forces in iraq taken any precautions because of the particular attack and have you -- >> sure they're taking precautions and we are watching it very closely, if something bad happens it will be very painful for the other side. reporter: have you been in touch with the iraqi government about this? >> they know about it, they know about it. reporter: are they offering additional protection? >> we'll see what happens. we're down to a small force over the years. since i got -- we've been bringing smaller and smaller.

we're down right now to a small number we with you have very powerful air power there. we have the big base and which we're, you know, i mean nobody can get near it. nobody can even get near that but we really, largely left, you know, we've taken tremendous amounts out and we've deployed them elsewhere including bringing some back home. reporter: do you think tweeting about it will help prevent that from happening are -- >> it is social media. it gets out. i have hundreds of millions of people, number one on facebook. did you know i was number one on facebook? i found out i'm number one on facebook. i thought that was very nice, whatever it means. it represents something and when i can explain to people, just don't do it, you know. it is going to be bad if you do it. it will be really bad. they don't need to do it. iran has enough problems without doing that but we've been pulling back very substantially over the last year in iraq and,

so you know, that is the way it is. reporter: said before you don't want to give the enemy, whoever that is in this case a head's up. do you feel like maybe you did? >> no. i'm just giving them a warning. it is not a head's up. i'm giving them a warning. there is a big difference. i'm saying if you do anything to hurt our troops they will pay a price. they did last time ask per the question, they did last time. we didn't make a big deal out of it but we hit very, very hard five massive major ammunition sites and a lot of people went with it. a lot of bad people. a lot of enemy went with it and we didn't want to make a big deal out of it but they paid a big price. they will pay a much bigger price this time if they do anything. reporter: with admiral gilday here we can ask a question about what the plans are for the roosevelt, sir? >> sure. >> in terms of the roosevelt we're making great progress in terms of testing and also moving people off the ship.

so in the past day or so we've moved over a thousand. that number will increase to more than 2700 by friday. as we continue to increase the testing as well and fly those samples off. again after pretty, pretty quickly. reporter: will the ship remain fully operational? >> it is fully operational now. reporter: will remain so? >> will remain so. reporter: follow up on that, what sort of protocols are you putting in last to help mitigate the spread of coronavirus among servicemen and women -- >> across the fleet, before we have any ships getting underway for training exercises, for deployments, those sailors are spending 14 days in quarantine before they get underway. we increased amount of testing equipment as well as physicians on board the ships at sea. so we've taken additional steps since the beginning of -- >> people getting off various ports anymore. i think we. >> correct. >> we probably have decided on that. reporter: civilians?

>> no. military people. >> like to add one thing to that. there seems narrative out there we should shut down the united states military to address the problem that way. that is not feasible. with very a mission. our mission is to protect the united states of america and our people. so we live and work in cramped quarters whether an aircraft carrier a submarine a tank, a bomber, it is the nature of our business but the chain of command has very clear guidance and i'm confident between the commanding officers, senior non-commissioned officers they're taking every reasonable procution to make sure we practice as best we can social distancing, sanitizing environments, et cetera, consistent with that mission and that is what i trust admiral gilday, acting secretary movy and all other service chiefs and service leaders to do. keep in mind we have a job to do, we'll continue to do it, defend the united states of america. reporter: mr. president you mentioned the stockpile earlier. "the washington post" reported today u.s. stockpile is nearly

depleted of ppe isn't that the case. >> it is because we send it directly to hospitals. we have to take it from the stockpiles and send to it very russ states and hospitals. we asked the states to do this as much as possible. many of the states have people that whether it's that or clothing they make clothing, lots of clothing, many of different states. see if you can get it directly from those manufacturers. make a deal. we'll use the purchase act if we have to, by the way, so many people are, spirit is incredible. what they're doing, we've asked states where they have large manufacturers of different types of equipment to use those local factories, those local plants and have it made directly, ship it right into the hospitals. we're shipping things right in. we have almost 10,000 epventilators we need for flexibility. it is a lot. it sounds like a lot but it's not as you see on the board from

yesterday, scourge as this plague, this virus moves it moves very fast and we don't know yet whether we're going to need knit louisiana, in new york. wherever it may be. so we're ready for it, we're totally ready for the it. with. we all agreed to ship 1000 to different sites, different locations but we have to have the flexibility of moving the ventilators to where, to where the virus is going. we'll be able to see that, we'll be able to see that from charts a couple days in advance. we have a nice pile of vent ventilators. we have lot more coming in. we have 11 companies making ventilators right now, very good companies and they're making them. you know about ford, you know about general motors but we have a lot of companies making ventilators right now. now the question is, when you make one it doesn't get made in 15 minutes. it is not, a mask can go quickly. a ventilator takes time to build. it's very, very, as we

discussed, it is complex, it's big, it's expensive, et cetera but we'll be able to move, we have great flexibility. john in. reporter: i was going to say to you want to move on solely coronavirus or stick with? >> does anybody have any other questions for this great group of brilliant people? yes, please. reporter: according to secretary esper is the military personnel that's been fanned out across the country to help combat the virus is there any chance they're planning to see at some point half the military personnel treat or see covid-19 patients? >> well, excuse me as you know we have the hospital ships currently deployed, one in l.a., one in new york city. they will be, they could be treating patients as they come in. we're taking precautionary measures to screen them beforehand to make sure they're not exposed if you will. same with the military hospitals that we are deploying certainly again to new york, seattle, and other places but one thing we have to be careful of, where

we're is, that these are deployable assets they're unique. if we want military doctors, military hospitals around the country we have to preserve and protect them as best we can. that said we remain completely available to assist as need be as directed by fema, as the vice president and president asks us. that is what we commit to do to the american people to help safeguard them and protect them from this virus. reporter: as part of that will they be seeing coronavirus patients or strictly seeing other patients? >> they could be called upon. best use of them based on training and how they're structured and organized based on trauma. we can take load off hospitals with trauma patients and freeing up room. doctors who are respiratory nurses or doctors who treat infectious disease to treat those type of patients that is the best use of our resources f push comes to shove we're prepared to do what we have to assist the american people at the same time preserving the

medical capability we need to support our operation, and dough ploy forces abroad. >> we're looking two additional brand new hospital ships because these ships have really, they really struck a blow, very positive blow for what they're doing, going to los angeles, going into new york. so we're looking very seriously building two additional ships of about the same size. reporter: two new ones or deploying two? >> building. building two new ones or renovation of another large ship. this has really worked out well, so probably two brand new ones. reporter: mr. president -- >> is this concerning the gentlemen or you don't wan them to get back to work? capture all those bad people? reporter: follow up, mr. president. >> sure go ahead. >> secretary wilkie is on stand by waiting to hear if va hospitals need to be opened, the doors need to be opened to civilians.

are you talking about that? >> certain hospitals. reporter: when will that happen? >> can move very quickly. he is a very capable man. we're ready to move very quickly. as an example in louisiana they have a very big hospital so we're looking to move very quickly if we need them. hopefully we won't need them. reporter: soon? >> we'll find out pretty soon. we'll only know at the time it happens. we prepare for the worst. we are preparing for the worst. unfortunately that is the way we have to look at it. reporter: follow up on the purpose of naval ships you mentioned something about treating trauma patients i'm curious, what about things like giving birth? would mothers be expected in new york -- >> s aunderstand they're not doing that on the ship. that is the one thing they're not doing outside of the covid-19, they're not doing that the birth of a baby not be done on ships. reporter: okay. follow up question with attorney general barr, please? this has to do with the visa restrictions of [inaudible].

the administration considering easing restrictions or waving restrictions on doctors with h 1 or a-1 visas to help doctors? >> actually the immigration laws are no longer on the ad department of justice. i have not been participating in part of though. >> one more question. reporter: secretary perez, w.h.o., on top pick of coronavirus in coronavirus in iran, w.h.o. confirmed that iran is drastically underreporting coronavirus cases. might be 15,000 deaths. military commanders in dire condition or dead. 8% of the parliament down with coronavirus. is iran sounding aggressions

today that president trump tweeted about, do you think strategically is that a bluff on their part or is this a sign of very clear desperation? where are you strategically on that? >> well, first and foremost we empathize for the iranian people. they clearly have been hit hard. as you president spoken about it, secretary pompeo. we offered assistance, medical supplies, et cetera. they refused that. if the iranian regime put more interests in terms of taking care of their people and in context of this virus they would be better served. instead the iranian regime continues to want to spread the malign activities throughout the region. they want to continue to send out the quds force and others to cause problems throughout the region. we know one way, shape or form they're resourcing directing approving, whatever, operations for shia militia groups in iraq. they're targeting american forces. so i think at the end of the day, again i feel deep dern for the iranian people.

the important thing the iranian government should focus on them and stop this malign behavior they have been conducting over 40 years. entire region and certainly the iranian people would be better off for it? >> i happen to think they want to make a deal. they don't know really haw to start. they have been given bad advice by former secretary kerry. very bad advice i really think they want to make a deal which is the logan act. but we have to look at logan act. all you do take a look. they have been given very bad advice by secretary kerry. i think they're dying to make a deal. look, their country is in trouble. their economics are shot. they're in, they have a lot of bad things going. i think they would like a make a deal. they could get it settled very quickly. no nuclear weapons, no nuclear weapons. can't have nuclear weapons. very simple. okay. let's let the folks get back to work. is that okay? thank you all very much.

>> so as we deploy our servicemembers to combat both threats abroad, invisible enemy at home earlier today i spoke at the our nation's incredible warriors and military families. i spent a long time on the phone with thousands and thousands of families hooked in, in order to stop the spread of the virus some families delayed planned moves to next duty station. military families are waiting longer to welcome home heroes from deployment this is tremendous burden to bear and the families have been involved with us for so long and they are incredible. without the families they couldn't be the great servicemembers that they turned out to be and they understand that. and i must say protecting our

military families is our top priority so they understand what's happening with respect to the virus and, they understand it well. they have been fantastic. as commander-in-chief i'm deeply grateful for our servicemembers, their spouses and their children whose love, devotion and sacrifice keeps america strong. to make, procure and deliver crucial medical supplies to our doctors nurses and health care workers, my administration is leveraging the might of american manufacturing, supply chains and innovators across the industry and across every industry and i just told you about walmart and i could tell you about many more. hanes is making protective gear and masks and we're making tremendous amounts of product. there has never been anything like it. at the same time i tell the governors, get it yourself if you can from your local companies and your local warehouses and factories.

if you can do that you should do that. because of the actions that we've taken under the defense production act manufacturers and suppliers are sharing with fema and hhs their planned orders and allocations to states and to hospitals all over the region. this enables fema and hhs to work closely with states, local governments and private sector to allocate critical resources to highly impacted areas, working together we're entirely focused on getting materials to the right place at the right time. so we wanted to go directly to a hospital or directly to a certain state location and ideally not even hit the state's warehouses. if we can avoid the warehouses even better because they go directly into a hospital and one example of that is ohio, the great state of ohio. senator robb portman called today and he asked for some help and got us, did a tremendous job

along with mike dewine, the great governor of ohio, to facilitate a donation of 2.2 million gowns, 2.2 million gowns, think of what that is, 2.2 million, to the strategic national stockpile from ohio-based cardinal health. cardinal health, we appreciate it and they're making much more than that and different types of things. we're profoundly grateful for their contribution to protect the lives and safety of our health care professionals. cardinal has been working with us very well. fema and hhs formed a historic participate with the private sector called project air bridge to bring supplies from other countries to the united states including gloves, gowns, goggles and masks. these supplies will soon be distributed around the country. we have large cargo planes coming in from various parts of the world. every day new plane loads are landing in cities such as new york, miami, chicago,

los angeles. additional flights have been schedule and we're adding more and more and they're actually coming in ahead of schedule. a lot of these flights are coming in with a lot of material ahead of schedule. the amount of usage, the amount of need is something that nobody has ever seen before. we are getting so much but no matter how much we get they seem to use it up very quickly. more than 17,000 national guard personnel have now been activated all across our country. on tuesday the vice president sent a letter to the governors calling on them to have plans in place to use the national guard to move medical supplies from warehouses to hospitals. so a lot of times we'll deliver supplies to a warehouse in a state, someplace in new york or in new jersey or in connecticut or wherever it may be and they're having difficulty getting it moved. so what we're doing, if we don't bring it directly to the hospital, is we authorized, it was a special authorization, the

national guard to go into that facility and to move it for the states. so the national guard is moving a lot of this equipment and medical supplies into a hospital orp into an area where it is needed by the state. as i said yesterday difficult days are ahead for our nation. we're going to have a couple of weeks, starting pretty much now but especially a few days from now that are going to be horrific but even in the most challenging of times americans do not despair, we do not give in to fear. we pull together, we persevere and we overcome and we win. this week every american heart is joined with the people of new york as they continue to bear the brunt of the pandemic. to every new yorker please know we're by your side. i love new york and every day we will be with you and it could very well be others take over

from new york. there is some areas, some hot spots in other states that are really exploding. some like louisiana were very late. then all of sudden it was like an explosion. in confronting this deadly plague america is armed with capabilities never dreamed of in past centuries. you look at "1917", the pandemic, it was, it was something, ravaged parts of this country but ravaged europe, ravaged. they say 75 to 100 million, some people say 50 to 75 million people died. think of that. that was a long time ago, over 100 years ago. very, very, many books written about the knit 1917, 18 pandemic. they are designing potential

codes and therapies, vaccines. airplanes are lifting supplies from every corner of the earth. we're watching countries and they're watching us, to see whether or not, who is the first to come up with a cure or a remedy of some kind or even a help. if it can help, and of course a vaccine, we're looking very strongly for a vaccine. johnson & johnson is doing well and other companies are doing very well. but our most powerful asset, our greatest weapon in this effort is the spirit of our people and we want to keep away, keep a distance. if you don't get it, that solves a lot of problems. if you don't get it and you can't get it if you keep the distance. american spirit is unyielding, you ever unwavering, unbreakable, incredible. never seen anything like it the way people pulled together, the unity of this country. so together we're going to win this war and the sooner we do the sooner we can begin to

rebuild and we're ready to rebound and return to normal lives. we work for the best economy of the history of the world, the best economy that this country has ever seen, the best employment numbers we ever had, 160 million people working, almost 160 million, to a point where the professionals came to me and they say sir, you will have to shut the country down. i said what does that mean? they said, sir, you will have to shut it down. and we're going to build it up and i think we're going to build it up fast. i think we're going to have a tremendous rebound. there is a great energy and a great pent-up demand and as you know phase three was terrific and phase four, what passed in congress and phase four, if that happens, will be great. i already proposed paying almost zero interest on bonds and i proposed a two trillion dollar infrastructure plan which would

not only fix our roads and highways, bridges, tunnels, and other things but will also do something very good. it is called jobs. i'm also asking that restaurants and entertainment facilities go back to the old deductibility for corporations where corporations can buy because otherwise a lot of these restaurants will have a hard time reopening. takes a long time. they will have a hard time reopening. so we're asking going back for deductibility where corporations can buy, go out to lunch, pay, get a deduction what they eat, get a deduction on the bill, same with the entertainment. it will bring a lot of people back. i think it will open up the restaurant business. people forget that years ago they had that and when they got rid of it, ended it, for whatever reason, they ended it, many, many restaurants went out of business. many entertainment type of fa

facilities went out of business and now is a great time to bring it back. it was a terrible time for that business after they ended it. this is a great time to bring it back. it will keep our restaurants going. i think the restaurant business will be bigger and better than it is right now. we're also talking about that. now what we'll do, we'll take some questions. i see mike is back with some of the folks. that is great. dr. fauci. we will, oh, how are you? thank you, deborah. so we'll take some questions and, we make progress day by day, please. reporter: mr. president, yesterday you were talking about a friend you had was in a coma, sorry to hear your friend is going through that, but you said this is no flu. there is still some people who kind of think of this as the flu. over the past month you compared it to the flu sometimes, treat it like the flu or you know, treat it how we handle the flu, so what changed your thinking on that? >> i think the severity. also looking at the way, the

contagion, it is so contagious, nobody ever seen anything like this, where large groups of people all of sudden just being in the presence of somebody have it. flu has never been like that and there is, flu is contagious but nothing like we've ever seen here. also the violence of it. if it hits the right person, and you know what those stats are if it hits the person that person is in deep trouble and my friend was the right person. reporter: when you heard about your friend, was that a turning point? >> no, not a turning point, i knew how, i'm seeing numbers and i'm seeing statistics are not exactly very good, so but it hit him very hard. he is strong. very strong kind of a guy but he is older. he is heavier and he is sort of central casting for what we're talking about and it hit him very hard. i never seen anything like it. john. reporter: mr. president, maybe this question as well for

dr. birx or dr. fauci, senator lindsey graham tweeted last night, we checked today, flights are running between hot spots like new york and detroit, new orleans as well. number of flights were completed today. senator graham's point is, if you're going to declare mitigation, should it not be full mitigation, you stop people from traveling to hot spots? >> we're thinking about doing that, just to start the airlines, to start the whole thing over again is very tough, john, it's very tough. you have them going in some cases from hot spot to hot spot, if you notice. they're usually hot spot to hot spot. very few flights. new york to miami, and but, we're, we're thinking, certainly looking at it, but once you do that you really are, you really are clamping down an industry that is desperately needed. reporter: how do you make the calculation as to whether or not you keep the industry, risk spreading contagion? >> that is calculation we're

looking at right now. we're looking at it very strongly, please. reporter: let me follow up to that, mr. president. governor issued a stay-at-home order. all you made it very clear how important it is to stay home. that we're in a dire situation here and that is how you stop the spread, staying at home. >> sure. reporter: why not take the power out of the hand of the governors you issue a stay-at-home order for every state in this country? >> states are different. i understand governor of florida, great governor, ron desantis issued one today and, that's good, that's great. there are some states that are different. there are some states that don't have much of a problem. there are some, well they don't have the problem. they don't have thousands of people that are positive, or thousands of people that even think they might have it or hundreds of people in some cases. so, you have to look at you have to look at, you have to give a little bit of flexibility for

the state, in the midwest or if alaska as an example, doesn't have a problem, awfully tough to say close it down. so we have to have a little bit of flexibility. look, we're helping governors. we're really here to help governors. they are the front line of attack. that includes in purchasing by the way. we're here, we're backing them up. there has never been back up like we've given them. we've given them billions of dollars worth of things, medical supplies, thousand and thousands of ventilators, we have thousands under construction right now. we have thousands ready to go in case they need it. there has never been anything like this. they have done really, the people have done incredibly. we're building hospitals all over the country. we're building hospitals right now at a rate that has never even been contemplated ever before. they're mobile hospitals. they're really not mobile. they're incredible structures but we're building many hospitals. louisiana, new jersey, new york,

we just finished a massive hospital complex and we also have medical centers built in new york. we're building hospitals at the rate that this country has never done before. and hopefully it will all work out. reporter: follow up on -- >> go ahead. reporter: mr. president, want to make sure we're clear on planes, are you looking to curtailing between certain hot spots or broadly? >> we're looking at the whole thing because we're getting into a position now where we want to do that, we have to do that. so we're looking at whole thing. we may have, we may have some recommendations. reporter: my second question on economics, just with oil, oil prices are very low. saudis have increased production. i know you have spoken about liking low oil prices but also industry aspect. >> from 1950, these oil prices. that is when they had big dollars, big beautiful dollars. reporter: do you advocate cut,

advocate cuts to production? do you -- >> we have a great oil industry and the oil industry is being ravaged. russia, and i spoke to president putin. we had a great call, russia, saudi arabia, i spoke with the crown prince. we had a great call but i think they will work it out over the next few days, if you ask me i think it is just, it is too simple not to be able to. they both know what they have to do. so i think, i have confidence in both they will be able to work it out but it is it has ravaged an industry worldwide, not just here, but worldwide the oil industry has been ravaged. there was a lot of oil production to start off with. on top of it got hit with the virus and business went down 35, 40%. so that business is a tough one and you know, they have ships all over the sea. i told you yesterday, all over the sea, massive tankers that they're using for storage. they go it and they just sit

there. there is no place to go. they have massive amounts. now, gasoline will be 99 cents a gallon and less, you know that. that is already starting. that is popping up. 99 cents. that is like giving a massive tax cut to people of our country. when we try to get the airlines going, if fuel is costing much less, it helps with getting the airlines which is always a tough business, always has been a tough business. but with that being said, look, i want to get that industry back where it was. we were doing records in that industry also. we want to get it back to where it was. so i think that saudi arabia, russia, they're negotiating, they're talking and i think they will come up with something. i'm going to meet with the oil companies on friday. i'm going to meet with independent oil producers also on friday or saturday, maybe sunday. but we're having a lot of meetings on it. i think i know what to do to solve it but if they are unable to solve it, they were i think i

know what to do to solve it. reporter: give us a glimpse -- >> won't mention it now but it is tough. i think i know what to do to solve it. we have don't want to lose our great oil companies. we are the number unproducer of oil in the world. a month ago you said that it was great. today when you say it is not so meaningful. but i do believe there is a way that can be solved or pretty well solved and i would rather not do that. i think russia and saudi arabia at some point are going to make a deal in the not-too-distant future because it is very bad for russia, it is very bad for saudi arabia and it is very bad. i mean it is bad for both. so i think they will make a deal. the free market is a wonderful thing, it is amazing how it can work but i think they're going to make a deal. yeah? reporter: mr. president, a couple questions, for you.

people pay taxes through i.d. numbers yet will not receive any money in their stimulus package. no undocumented immigrants received any aid from the government during this crisis. how do you suppose they survive during the covid-19? >> well you know, what you're saying undocumented meaning they came in illegally, a lot of people would say we have a lot of citizens right now that won't be working. so what are you going to do? it is a tough thing, it is a terrible, very sad question, i must be be honest with you. they came in legally. we have a lot of people that are citizens much our country that won't be able to have jobs. i do think once we get rid of the virus i think we'll have a boom economy. i think it will go up rather quickly, maybe very quickly and maybe slowly. but it will go up. and it will all come back. i think it will come back stronger than what it was because of the stimulus but it's a really, sad situation and we

are working on it. i will tell you i will not give a hard and fast answer, i will tell you, it is something i think about, but it is something we're working on, please. please. go ahead. reporter: thank you, mr. president. question for dr. fauci, looking on the other side of this curve are we looking at living with some sort of social distancing guidelines essentially until there is treatment or a vaccine? for example, people looking forward to the summer talking about going to baseball games, going to concerts. we have political conventions over the summer, are things like that possible, or safe without a vaccine or treatment? >> i think if we get to the part of the curve that dr. birx showed yesterday when it goes down essentially no new cases, no deaths, that period of time i think it makes sense you will have to relax social distancing. the one thing we hopefully would have in place, and i believe we will have in places a much more

robust system to be able to identify someone who is infected, isolate them, then do contact tracing. because if you have a really good program of containment, that prevents you from ever having to get into mitigation, we're in mitigation right now. that is what the social and fist physical distancing is. the ultimate, the ultimate solution to a virus that might keep coming back would a vaccine. in fact i was on the weekly conference wall with the w.h.o. sponsored group of all the health leaders in the world who are dealing with this and we all came to the agreement that we may have cycling with another season, would be much better prepared. we likely will have interventions but the ultimate game changer in this will be a vaccine, the same way a vaccine for other diseases, that were scourges in the past, now we don't even worry about.

reporter: [inaudible] >> the vaccine as i said it is on target. we're still in phase one. there were three doses we had a test. we've been through the first two doses. we're on the highest dose now. when we get that data, it will take a few month to get the data to feel confident to go to the phase two. then a few months from now we'll be in phase two. i think we're right on target for the year, to year-and-a-half. reporter: you and dr. birx, have either of you received threats of any kind or have you been given a security detail, given you're out here every day on camera speaking? >> well i mean, anything that has to do with security detail i would have to have you refer that question to the inspector general of hhs rather than my answer to that. reporter: follow up on testing -- >> doesn't need security. everybody loves him. they would be in big trouble, you know, he was a great basketball player. did you know that. he was a little on the short side for the nba.

he was talented, he won a game unwinnable against a great team and his whole team said we can't beat this team, he went in, won the game. that was a couple years ago. >> a few years ago. >> the head never changes. attitude never changes. reporter: can i ask dr. fauci, i know he loves being behind the podium. >> he does. reporter: don't want to hit with you everything comes along, a lot of people heard from a researcher dr. jacob granville he came up with anti-body therapies, if you know anything about this, what you might tell people at home bit, or have you seen it? >> i don't know this individual what they're doing, there is a lot of activity centered around a passive transfer of antibodies in the form of convalescent plasma, one. get immune globulin out of the

plasma and one is monoclonal anti-body. it is same principle after the protective anti-body, could not only provide protection prophylactically, this is a old concept. immunology was born decades and decade ago with the concept of giving passive transfer of serum to a individual to protect them from infection. i wouldn't be surprised if he and a number of other people are pursuing this. this is the right thing to do. reporter: can i follow up on testing, dr. fauci. at one point can there expected to be widespread anti-body testing so we know what we're dealing with her, as well as other questions, what can people deemed to be healthy donate blood for example? >> okay, when you talk about anti-body testing there are a couple of things that you want to do. you want to find out if some one has been infected and whether or

not they will be ultimately infected. anti-body right now is not the first thing on our priority. something we need to do is testing to see if someone is infected. ultimately very important to get a feel for what the penetrants of society for number of reasons. get the feel of what the impact has been and get a better feel what the herd immunity would be so i could foresee in the future, when we get the facility we'll have for sure, ultimately you could get a test that could do this reasonably easy and do kind of what we call sero surveillance study. this is very analogous to dr. birx and i were talking about that a lot. that is back in the day when she and i were doing the hiv/aids issue, back when we first discovered the virus in '83 and had an anti-body test in '85, we

found out by serial surveillance represented by different populations that we were dealing with the tip of the iceberg when we saw individuals who were ones that actually got infected. it gave as you good feel how many people were infected, how many were doing well, how many were getting ill. i foresee we'll have the same sort of information which will be important information but right now that is not our immediate problem. reporter: i know not priority but can you -- reporter: follow up with that, because i think, as i discussed before we had great, i just want to thank all the epidemiologists and scientists out there who worked with us over the last four weeks on models. they really, many came forward and supported under the circumstances. we're in talks with a whole series of universities. we have the most brilliant scientists in the world in our universities in state after state. some of them public health universities, some of them basic science. all of them have received nih grants for hiv or other

development much assays in the past. i talked to a lot of them over the last few days to really ask them to develop these simple eliza tests that could be used rapidly in their health care centers because immediately with, it is easy to do. we all developed elizas. in a day or two after development they could screen the entire hospital that would be very reassuring to the health care workers who have been on the front line. we have been worried about them every day. i call on every university in every state to develop elizas. you can buy the antigens and controls online and work to test entire health care communities in your states and support them that way. at the same time we worked in sub-saharan sub-saharan africa, what we call dried blood spots. could we use it in point of

care. you dot blood on the paper and go into the lab to be analyzed? that would allow us to look in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities immediately. finally we reached out to developers of rapid tests, ones who develop the it for malaria and hiv. it is exactly same concept and process to ask them rapidly to develop these tests because i think we owe it to the front line health care providers but not only provide them rna tests but many have been on the front line for four weeks. may have become exposed. we now know there is asymptomatic, be able to tell them, peace of mind that would come to know you already were infected, you have the anti-body, you're safe from reinfection 99.9% of the time. this i think would be very reassuring to our front line health care workers. our universities can do that by friday. so i'm putting that challenge out to them, to really work on that, and do that.

that is what we did in the early days. we had elizas up and running within days of having the antigen. this is what is really possible. we're not waiting. we're asking for help now. reporter: potentially this could happen soon even within this month or -- >> it could happen soon within this month. if universities help us, absolutely. reporter: mr. president, on florida. governor desantis says he spoke with you before issuing his stay-at-home order. >> he spoke with me this morning. reporter: he had loopholes in that. >> he spoke with me this morning. very good governor. reporter: religious groups can meet together. >> who can? reporter: religious groups like -- >> he did speak to me this morning. we talked about it. please? reporter: full mitigation, sir, does that go ends against your model? >> i don't know i would have to look at what he did. reporter: health care workers following up with dr. birx as well, hazard pay you said you wanted that for the health care workers on the front lines.

secretary mnuchin has mentioned something about that. >> i like it. i like it. reporter: can you make it happen now? do we have to wait for a fourth -- >> i think it is something we're discussing in terms of bonus or bonus pay. it doesn't have to be called hazard pay. i watched those people go into hospitals i know, i talked about one of them, right? i watch them walk into the hospitals, and they walk in, men, women, young, middle-aged, not so many older ones and i watched them. they're almost like, and i think i take the word almost out, they're like warriors. they are going in. people are cheering, where there is building across the street people are screaming, they're clapping. they're like heroes. reporter: empire state building -- >> i think it is incredible. they're like warriors. they're like soldiers. and we're going to be doing something, whether it is bonus, you know, we're hopefully going to be over this relatively

quickly. it will be vicious for a period of time but hopefully we'll be over this. you have a lot of questions today. look at you. you know this young lady behind you? reporter: never met her before in my life. >> that is a good idea. good for a marriage. reporter: there are a lot of people who are worried about getting sick and they end up in a hospital, people who are uninsured, will they be crushed by medical bills. you were considering last month, last month, already, in march, reopening healthcare.gov exchanges. there is determination not to do that. can you tell us the rationale behind that. what and do you have under the as an alternative? >> they took that under the task force. mike, you want -- >> thank you, mr. president. and what i can tell you the president has made a priority from the outset of our task force work, make sure every american knows that they can have a coronavirus and don't

have to worry about the cost. now we were very inspired as well because of the president's engagement with the leading health insurance companies in the country that now, so far, two of the top health insurance companies in america have announced they're not only willing to wave copays on testing and now testing is fully covered because of the bill the president signed for every american. but also that these two insurance companies have waved co-pays on all coronavirus treatment. and i can assure you, as congress and president, and administration begin to discuss the next piece of legislation, we're going to make sure that americans have those costs compensated and covered. our priority right now is, is insuring that every american takes 30 days to slow the spread to heart. the best thing we can do for one another, for our families health, for the most vulnerable

among us is practice those mitigation strategies that the president outlined yesterday for the next 30 days. we're dealing with testing to make sure every american can have a test, that needs one. we're dealing with, we're dealing with supplies and we're making great progress in building personal protective equipment and insuring ventilators are available particularly for communities most impacted but the american people can be confident that as we move into this, we're going to make sure that our health care workers are properly compensated for their extraordinary and courageous work and, and we'll make sure that the financial burden on those who end up contracting the coronavirus and dealing with its most serious symptoms also can be, can deal with those issues and deal with those costs. reporter: understood, mr. vice president, but there will be people with no insurance who get sick before any

mitigation efforts are put into place. with that without opening health care exchanges where can they find insurance, people who are not insured by people covering cost of copays, where can people get health insurance if they get sick, before they get sick. >> all across america we have medicaid for underprivileged americans and at the president's direction, the center for medicaid and medicare services given unprecedented waivers for states to expand coverage for coronavirus testing and treatment. we've also extended waivers for medicare administration making sure that people have access to that coverage. but we'll continue to bring opportunities to the president. traditional systems of medicaid in particular for uninsured in reporter: would you expand that could cover middle class people? >> what we're seeing health insurance companies do today,

john is really inspiring that is the president approach here. reporter: for people already who have insurance. >> one thing animated and characterized the president's approach is the way he is encaged american businesses to step up and do their part. and as the president said many times, we're, we're inspired by the spirit of american businesses. i was at a distribution center for walmart today in southern virginia. and i saw the way this company that literally already hired thousands of people, these workers are coming to work, truck drivers are coming to work, farmers are working in the field, grocery stores made a commitment to the president a month ago no grocery store in america would close down. the food supply is strong. we're getting food on the table of every american. but it is because the president went to these leaders and said we need you to step up and do your part. we engaged health insurance executives early on in this process to wave, to wave copays

on coronavirus testing an because of the engagement, frankly because of that patriotic and compassionate spirit being reflected we've already seen two of the largest insurance companies in the country announce that they're going to providing full coverage free of charge for coronavirus treatment. i fully expect, the president does too, we'll see more for that people with insurance. we'll provide flexibility for medicaid for people that don't have insurance. we'll make sure medicare has the flexibility to meet this moment. for seniors, when we remember, that seniors with underlying health conditions are the most vulnerable to serious outcomes from the coronavirus. but, we'll get through this, using full weight of the federal government and the full strength of the american economy. >> i think it is a very fair question though, it is something we'll really look at because it doesn't seem fair, if you have it, you have a big advantage, at certain income level you do. i think one of the greatest

answers i ever heard. mike was able to speak for five minutes and not even touch your question. so i said that is what you call a great professional. let me just tell you, you really are, really a fair question, something we're looking at. reporter: in terms affair question or not, i always defer to ask questions, this is huge worry for people in the country in the doughnut hole, they don't have commercial insurance, they don't qualify for medicaid. what do they do. >> it is pretty big group. reporter: you spent entire 2016 election talking about doughnut hole, it is still there. i haven't been up there, the other people have been talking about it. reporter: this is 20 years ago we were talking about it. >> they're talking about it, they're talking about it in 2020 election too and nobody got into it. nobody gotten to it. i think we'll get to it. i think we'll get to it. i don't think the other group will get to it. they haven't even spoken about

it. it is a big group of people. reporter: are you committing -- >> i'm not committing but something we look at. i can't commit. i have to get approval. i have a thing called congress. but something we'll look at. we have been looking at it. >> you mentioned in the congressional bill, the next phase four, you would like to see something -- >> there is a phase four but we're certainly looking at certain things. we want to help restaurants, entertainment, we want to help, jobs, not just restaurants but jobs. tremendous amounts of jobs. so we're looking at that. we're looking at infrastructure. we think of it, we will have spent $8 trillion, you know, way back, we're way pulled back, we will have spent $8 trillion in the middle east. yet our roads are in bad shape, our bridges, tunnels, bad shape. and we're going to be the talk of the world again soon. but we want two trillion. we will have spent in the middle east and all we got out of it was death and cost.

but all we got out of it was death. millions of people, you have to look at the other side too, millions and millions of people killed. our great soldiers, thousands killed, so many wounded, hurt, and yet when we want to go and fix a road someplace, we want to do what we want to do in our country, it is time that we spend money in our country. that is what we're going to do. time we start spending on our road and our bridges and our schools, all of the things that we're supposed to be spending on. people are finally getting used to it. you could look at all of what we've done in the middle east. way back in so many different places. way back in other countries too, by the way. i have gone to other countries very rich. i said i'm sorry. you have to reimburse us for our cost. they don't know what i'm talking about. takes them 20 minutes to figure it out because nobody asked them to do that they are doing it. they have no choice. they have to do it.

so it is time that we start spending on the usa. okay. please. reporter: mr. president, this is question for the vice president. on march 9th, you said one million tested had been delivered and another four million would be delivered by end of the week. that clearly did not happen. what happened with those projections? what went wrong? >> well i think the test kits were delivered according to hhs but the difference is, between receiving a test and ability to rapidly produce a result of that test. frankly because of the public/private partnership that the president initiated now more than a month ago, with our massive commercial laboratories across the country, our team was reported today we're now doing -- elizabeth: okay, president trump launched latest coronavirus task force briefing with major assault on drug cartels. american forces doubling resources in the eastern ocean around the caribbean to fight drug traffickers trying to take

advantage of covid-19 and pandemic. then got in pretty fiery exchange with john roberts of fox news about whether or not to open up the obamacare exchanges, to help those who are laid off by insurance, with climate exchange there edward lawrence in washington with me as well. reporter: quite an exchange. the president said they're talking about it. the vice president basically did not answer the question you heard but interesting in this, dr. fauci everybody come to know says vaccine would be a game-changer. the president says they were going through a medical supplies faster than they can use them. they're trying to figure out how to get more to everybody. also the va hospitals, he may open them to civilians uses in hot spot areas. back to you, liz. elizabeth: all right. edward lawrence, thank you so much. that does it for us. thank you for joining us. thank you for having us in your home. thank you for watching. lou dobbs next right here on the fox business network.

[ cow moos ] >> a montana cowboy inherits a barren patch of prairie. >> this place isn't big enough to starve to death on. >> but beneath the parched soil, he finds prehistoric treasure. >> this is one of the most important discoveries in this century. >> i've got a year to try to see if i can survive with our ranch and selling dinosaur fossils. this is a jaw bone to a tyrannosaurus rex that i found. >> will this cowpoke's strange inheritance lead him to boom... >> whoo! >> [ laughs ] >> ...or bust? >> lightning doesn't strike the same place very often. [ chuckles ] maybe never. ♪