follow me on twitter, like me on facebook, follow me on instagram @loudobbs tonight. see you tomorrow. good night from sussex. ♪ >> that he is repurposing the white house opportunity and revitalization council to focus on the impact of the coronavirus on minority communities. secretary carson will convene the council tomorrow and will be reporting tomorrow afternoon on their progress. we want to thank the more than 270 leaders of organizations dedicated to housing homeless necessary and improving the lives of people across our urban communities, not only being with us today, for the way they have partnered with our administration and partnered with state and local officials to put the health of all of their constituencies first. as the president mentioned we'll, you will receive a report that our task force received

formally this week from bill bryant, the science and technology director at the department of homeland security. he will outline as the president said encouraging news about the impact that heat and sunlight have on the coronavirus which will increase the confidence that we feel about the coming summer. on the subject of testing, at the present moment we have reports of 4.93 million tests having been performed across america. and encouraging news, as states have been engaging commercial labs at a higher level across the country. yesterday our commercial lab system did more than 100,000 tests in a single day. so we're beginning to activate all of the capacity. and tomorrow at the president's direction our task force will convene a conference call with all of the nation's governors to talk about their progress they are making on testing and we're going to hear from governors about the practices that, and methods that they are employing

to significantly increase testing following our briefing about capacity and laboratories this past monday. for instance, governor mike dewine just announced that ohio's testing has been greatly expanded after the fda approved thermofisher's new extraction reagent saying in his words that the action, quote probably doubled, maybe even tripled testing in ohio virtually overnight. governor tim waltz of minnesota announced with the state health care system, mayo clinic and the university of minnesota what he described as a breakthrough for rapid widespread testing. they were able to test more than 20,000 people using a molecular test per day. governor kim reynolds of iowa, launched a triple testing capacity with nomi health and domo. worked with university of iowa hospitals to leverage capacity and governor eric holcomb and

andy beshear of indiana and kentucky respectively announced more new drive-through testing locations. our focus has been to focus on those impacted by the coronavirus and on those extraordinary health care workers administering to their needs every day. and i know, mr. president, how proud you are that our men and women in uniform have come alongside our health care workers in communities most impacted and i know the american people are proud as well. as of today fema reports that 35,000 national guard have been deployed across the country to aid in our coronavirus response. governor of ohio deployed the national guard to hospitals across the state to evaluate protective equipment and hospital capacity and report it into state emergency management and fema and governor greg abbott of texas actually mobilized more than 1200 national guard and 45 teams to provide greater access to testing. along with the national guard at the president's direction today

more than 4500 active duty military doctors, nurses and medical assistants have been deployed across the country. yesterday 1013 medical professionals in our military were actually deployed to 19 hospitals in seven states to support those amazing health care workers. and with 4.4 million more americans filing for unemployment in the past week i join the president in welcoming passage in the house today of the paycheck protection program. it will support working families and allow small businesses to keep people on the payroll for a period of two months t also, as the president requested, included $75 billion to assist hospitals across the country n that spirit the president and i will continue to urge states across the country, given the unique burden on hospitals we are now encouraging states to restart elective surgeries

wherever possible, either statewide or on a county by county basis. we recognize the role elective surgeries play in finances for local hospitals and will work with states to enable that. in that vein governor doug ducey issued and executive order allowing elective surgeries for may 1 for hospitals that meet criteria and indiana governor eric holcomb is allowing elective surgeries to begin on april 21st. finally, mr. president, the task force received the first report on state reopening plans. at the present moment 16 states released formal reopening plans. 13 of those were release since you unveiled the opening up america guidelines to our governors and nation last week. to your point, mr. president,

states are beginning to make those plans. we're encouraged to see so many states embrace the phased approach to reopen economies contemplated in our guide lines for opening up america again. for instance, governor mike parson of missouri announced the show-me strong recovery plan. it has two initial phases intended to protect the most at risk. governor tom wolf, announced the plan for pennsylvania that would begin may 8th, will end stay-at-home order for just portions of pennsylvania but the plan again requires regions to have fewer than 50 new positive cases per 100,000 for a period of 14 days and it also lays out a phased reopening road map. governor kate brown of oregon updated their framework for reopening doing three faces again on a county by county basis. governor brad little of idaho released rebound idaho in the last few days that will consist of four phases and require specific criteria that idaho and businesses need to meet to begin

to reopen. mr. president, with the, with the guidelines to open up america again, states are making plans and at your direction, our task force will continue to work very closely, providing them with data, providing them with resources to be able to implement those plans in a safe and responsible way. so with that, let me just end where i began and to say thank you to the american people. the progress that we are seeing is a testament to what all of you have done, to our extraordinary health care workers. a partnership between the federal government and to the state and local official and i'm confident it is also owing to the prayers of millions of americans each and every day. all of that combined we're slowing the spread. we're protecting the most vulnerable. we're saving lives and every single day we are one day closer to opening up america again. with that, mr. president, i would be pleased to call bill forward.

bill bryant leads the science and technology directorate of department of homeland security and will make a presentation on the recent study. >> thank you, mr. vice president. thank you, mr. president, for this opportunity to do this today. good afternoon, everybody. my name is bill bryant and i lead the science and technology directorate at department of homeland security. s and t is work owing develop deploy and tools and information to deploy our response to this crisis. as part of our efforts we're leveraging the unique capabilities of s and t's national biodefense analysis and countermeasure center to study biology of the covid-19 virus this center is high biocontainment laboratory located in frederick, maryland t was established in the early 2000s in response to the

anthrax attacks where we study, analyze, develop counter measures for biological threats to the homeland. we work closely with the cdc, fda and hhs and department of defense colleagues and many others. yesterday i shared the emerging results of our work that we're doing now with the coronavirus traffic force and today i would like to share certain trends we believe are important. if i may have the first slide, please. while that is coming up our most striking observation to date the is powerful a effect that solar light appears to have on killing the virus, both surfaces and in the air. we've seen a similar effect with both temperature and humidity as well where increasing temperature and humidity and both is generally less favorable to the virus. le meet illustrate with the first slide. if you look to the right, the term, half-life with a bunch of time time stamps. we measure the decay of the terms of the virus in its

half-life. we don't know certain elements. we don't know how much a person expectorates when he spits or sneezes whatever the case may be. we don't know how much virus is in there. that has a bearing how long the virus will be alive an active. we measure in half-life, half-life doesn't change f you look 18 hour half-life. basically saying every 18 hours, the life of the virus is cut in half. if you start with 1000 particles of the virus in 18 hours you're down to 500. 18 hours after that you're down to 250, so on, so forth. that is important as i explain the rest of the chart. if you look at the next three lines, surface, talking about non-porous surfaces, door handles, stainless steel. as temperature increases humidity increases with no sun involved you see how drastically the half-life goes down on the virus. the virus is dying from rapid pace just from exposure to higher temperatures and just

from exposures to humidity. if you look at fourth line you inject sunlight into that, you inject uv rays into that, same effects on line two 70, 75 degrees with 80% humidity on the surface, look at line four, now you inject the sun, the half-life goes from six hours to two minutes. that is how much of an impact that uv rays has on the virus. the last two lines are aerosols. what does it do in the air? we have very unique capability, i was discussing this with the president prior to coming out, he wanted me to convey it to you, how we do this i believe we're the only lab in the country has this capability. if you imagine a home depot bucket, five gallon home depot bucket, we're able to take a particle that was developed and designed by our folks a the npac. we're taking a particle of the virus and suspend it in the air inside of this drum and hit it with various temperatures, various humidity levels, multiple different kind of environmental conditions to

include sunlight and we're able to measure the dei can of that virus while suspended in the air. this is how we do the aerosol testing. we work with johns hopkins applied physics lab. we applied a larger drum to more testing four times the size of that. this is the capability we bring to this effort. so in summary within the conditions we've tested to date the virus in droplets of saliva survives best indoors and dry conditions. the virus does not survive as well in droplets of saliva, that's important. because a lot of testing being done is not necessarily being done, number one with the covid-19 virus and in saliva or as paer to fluids. number two, the virus dice quickest in presence of direct sunlight in those conditions. if you look at aerosol as you breathe it, put it in a room. >> 70, 75 degrees, 20% humidity, low humidity, half-life is been an hour. but you get outside and cuts down to a minute 1/2. very significant difference when it gets hit with uv raise.

mr. president, while there are many unknown links in the covid-19 transmission chain we believe these trends can support practical decision making to lower the risks associated with the virus. if i could have my next slide. while that comes up, you will see a number of some practical applications. for example, increasing the it will ture and humidity of potentially contaminated indoor spaces appears to reduce the stability of the virus and extra care may be warranted for dry environments that did not have exposure to solar light. we're also testing disinfectants readily available. we tested bleach. we tested ice eisnaugle sew propoll alcohol. bleach kill the virus this five minutes. alcohol will kill it with 30 seconds. you rub it, it goes away even fast tore. we're looking at other

disinfectants. we're looking at covid-19 in saliva. we're enat that greating our findings into practical applications to mitigate exposure and application. i would like to thank the president, the vice president, for their on going leadership to the department. and for their leadership in addressing the pandemic. take the scientists and s and t and npac and larger scientific and r&d community. thank you very much. reporter: mr. bryant? >> thank you very much. a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you're totally into that world which i find to be very interesting. so supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it is ultraviolet or very powerful light you says that hasn't been checked but you will test it. supposing you brought the light inside of body you can do either through the skin or in some other way? i think you said you're going to test that too.

sounds interesting. >> [inaudible] >> i see the disinfectant knocks it out in a minute, one minute. and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or, or almost a cleaning? because you see it gets into the lungs and does a tremendous number on the lungs. be interesting to check that. you will have to use medical doctors. but sounds interesting to me. so we'll see. but the whole concept of the light way it kills it in one minute, that's pretty powerful. steve, please? reporter: [inaudible] better place by early summer. does that mean you will need to extend the soaks distancing guidelines until then? >> we may. we may go beyond that we'll very to see where it is. you will know, people will know, i will know, we will know out of common sense. at some point we won't have to do that until we feel it's safe we'll being extending. reporter: you have 23 cases where new cases, in 23 states

where new cases in decline. what does that mean about when the country can be safely reopened to a more normal point? >> it means we'll watch those cases very carefully. i think we've all gotten very good at it. we've gotten good at tracing. we see where the cases are, where they're going and we're going to be watching it and it is called containment. at a certain point we'll be able to contain. when you see this, a lot of people have been talking about summer. maybe this is one of the reasons, i once mentioned maybe it goes away with heat and light and people didn't like that statement very much. the fake news didn't like it at all. i just threw it out as a suggestion but seems like that is the case. when it is on a surface that would last for a long time. when that surface is outside it goes away very quickly, it dies very quickly with the sun. yeah, go ahead. reporter: you said yesterday that you're going to look into senator mcconnell's suggestion for allowing states to declare

bankruptcy versus -- >> we'll look into it. i have been looking into it. i've been talking to a lot of different senators but i don't want to talk about it now. that was a very interesting presentation. go ahead. reporter: i want to talk about mcconnell's suggestion -- >> i told you i'm not talk about it now. i will talk about later. i would like talk about something more interesting to people. reporter: can i ask mr. bryant a question? >> yes. reporter: thank you, when you started your presentation you described this as emerging result. does this mean you're study is conclusive? is there more work to do? >> we're continuing to do that. on aerosol side figures are 20% humidity. we're looking higher humidity levels. we expect would have greater impact on the virus. we're looking at other types of disinfectants. this is a, as scientific community we're continuing to study the virus to understand its characteristics. reporter: can you explain some

hot spots in the u.s., hot and humid like new orleans for example? >> let me explain, if you look at coronavirus as a chain with many links, what we've done through our study, we've identified some of the weak links in that chain. that the virus transmission of the virus depends upon. we identify that heat and humidity is a weakness in that chain. we've identified that sunlight, solar light, uv rays is a weakness in the chain that doesn't take away the other activities, guidance from the white house, guidance from the cdc and others on the actions and steps that people need to take to protect themselves. this is just another, another tool in our tool box, another weapon in the fight. that we can add to it and in the summer we know that summer-like conditions are going to create an environment where the transmission can be decreased. that is opportunity for us to get ahead. reporter: president mentioned idea of a cleaner, preach -- [inaudible] there is no scenario that could be injected into a person, is

there? >> no i'm here to talk about findings within the study. we don't do that at our lab. reporter: [inaudible]. talking about almost cleaning sterilization of area. maybe it works, maybe doesn't work t certainly has a big effect on a stationary object. reporter: are we simplifying too much by saying it would be better with the warmer weather and sun coming out more and more that people would be outside instead of staying inside of their homes confined to the four walls of their house? >> it would be irresponsible for to us say that we feel that the summer just going to totally kill the virus and it is a free-for-all and people ignore those guidance. that is not the case. we have an opportunity though to get ahead with what we know now and in fact adding to the decision making for what opens and what doesn't. >> saying on surfaces the heat, hot summer, and whatever other conditions, humidity an lack of humidity that would have an

impact so that on surfaces where it can be picked up it will die fairly quickly in the summer as in the winter it would not die so quickly? >> yes, mr. president. >> suppose ever expose towed uv rays, take playground equipment, the kill the virus when hits on playground equipment. underneath, sun hasn't touched where someone touched and has it on their hands it could be still there. has to be direct sunlight with the uv rays. >> touching somebody's hands and haven't touched their face? >> exposed to the sun. >> if they're outside, right. their hands are exposed to the sun will that kill it as though it were a piece of metal or something else? >> not, i don't want to say it will at the same rate because it is a non-porous surface, but what we do know is we looked at worst-case scenario the virus lives longer on non-porous surfaces of the porous surfaces doesn't live quite as long. in theory what you said correct. >> [inaudible]

>> yes, mr. president. [reporters shouting questions] reporter: how should governors opening their states working on that incorporate the findings of this study into those guidelines? >> i will leave that up to the governors. this is a decision, this factors into their decision process. with knowing this knowledge, having this knowledge as we continue to study and further know what the virus does, how it reacts it could impact the way a governor will look what he opens in a state, how he opens it, what environments these things are opened up but i leave that up to the governors to make that decision. reporter: obviously ad haves stay at home. by summer could be flipping that you would be much better off outside with uv rays all the humidity, that washington brings in august? >> i would not go contrary to the guidance that has been issued right now. i think though to tell you if, if i'm having an event with my family, doing it in the

driveway, backyard, not inside of the house. >> looking to move outside in the rose garden. interesting question, actually. okay. reporter: how much more research, more time to have conclusive results -- [inaudible] >> we, we first were able to receive the virus back in february when we started testing. it is a science-based approach. science is a process. the doctor can attest to that. it doesn't necessarily line up with goals and targets and other things. it is what it is but we are now starting to get results and we're every week or two weeks we're starting to find out something new and something different. and in talking to the task force and the vice president, he is already asked us to come to him every time we come up with some new discoveries that we could be, that we could share to the public. reporter: sir, have you compared notes with your counterparts in other foreign governments and private industries who might have been studying the same thing and do their findings show

the same results you found here? >> we have. we have a very good partnership with a lot of our allies. we work closely with them on this particular topic. we actually taught thored a document called the master questions list. if you go to dhs and s and t's website we had 17,000 hits on this document. it outlines what all the countries in the world are doing to fill certain gaps of knowledge that don't exist within the virus and what we do know and that is really what targets and drives the science community what we know now so we don't duplicate what other people done. we championed that document, it is well-referenced. i encourage you to look at that. >> we are working with other countries on vaccines as you know. go ahead, please. reporter: thank you, mr. president. if there is a summer ebb with this virus what would the federal government need to do to take advantage of that time? >> say at the beginning? reporter: if there is sort of summer ebb with the virus what would the federal government need to do take advantage of that time to be better prepared for possible resurgence in the

fall than we were the first time? >> i think a lot of people will go outside all of a sudden. people that didn't want to go outside. to me this is really interesting meeting, covered in great deal and these are incredible people at that, we can call ought laboratory, that is essentially what it is. it is a super laboratory. a lot of things going on that at laboratory. a lot of very interesting things going on at that laboratory. yes? reporter: what would you and other areas of government need to do on testing for example, and other things like that to be prepared if it came back? >> go ahead. >> actually very good question, it is something the task force already has begun discussing that we are, if, combination of factors, let me say again, if states put into practice the guidelines to open up america again, implement a safe and responsible plans, to open up their economies along the lines that the president unveiled a week ago today.

people continue to properly exercise social distancing as recommended in each phase, that in combination with some of these findings could well give us summer respite from the coronavirus and our team is already speaking about working on a continuous basis through this summer. every single day we're increasing testing. every single day air bridge flights are coming into the country. i can promise you at the president's direction there will be no letting up on making sure that our hospitals have the equipment, have the personal protective supplies for medical personnel. there will be no letting up on the development of therapeutics by our great pharmaceutical companies. they're driving toward a vaccine as soon as it is possible to make available to the public. and there will be no letting up on continuing to scale testing. already more than anyone in the world but by next fall we'll

have a broad range of testing, variety of different means and that's why we say with confidence that should the coronavirus reemerge at any point next fall or next winter we will be prepared to deal with it, identify it, do the contact tracing and isolation to insure that we deal with this epidemic, in the manner that we deal with infectious diseases. >> okay? reporter: mr. president, on the subject of medical research why have you stop the promoting hydroxychlorquine -- >> we'll see what happens. we had a lot of very good results. we had some results that perhaps aren't so good, i don't know. i read about one but i also read many times good. so i haven't at all. it is a great, for malaria, lupus, for other things, we'll see what it is deborah, they

have many studies going on on that. so we'll be able to learn. reporter: veterans study that shows the death rate is higher? >> i have not seen it. go ahead, please. reporter: we're over 26 million new jobless claims over five weeks. >> yeah. reporter: how, the vice president talked about this summer getting better, what do your economists tell you about the time it is going to take u in the u.s. to create -- >> i know a lot about economists. reporter: september, october? >> let me go. we know the rest of the question, right? i know a lot about economists and the answer is they have no idea. i think i have as good idea as anybody. i think our economy will start to pick up very substantially as soon as states get open. that is happening as we speak and it is very exciting, people are just thrilled to see it. because our country has to get back to work. they want to get back to work. you see that, whether it is a dem station or just talking to people. they are going to get back to work and they're going to get

back to work very fast. states are advanced. i look at gavin newsom, was very nice today. he wrote a beautiful statement about, we sent him a lot of things that he needed, okay? things, different things that he needed. we got it taken care of. they have done very well in california as you know. they're doing really well in florida. they're doing well in a lot of places. new york, new jersey, got hit very hard. they're doing very well. i spoke again with governor cuomo, with governor murphy, they're doing, they're doing a great job and here's the thing, we have to see. they got hit hard. everyone close together, tight in. people don't realize new jersey is very tight. you realize that because you've been covering it for a long time, but very tight. new york is obviously very tight. doing a terrific job. i think for the most part i'll be able to tell you when it's all over but a lot of governors have done a really terrific job. some i don't think have to be honest but we'll be talking about that in the future.

yes, go ahead. reporter: thank you, mr. president. in a new interview today with "time" magazine dr. fauci said that the u.s. is not in a situation where we can say we are where whatever want to be with regard to testing capacity. he said we need much more testing capacity as well as tests. so why do you keep saying we have a tremendous testing capacity? and do we have national strategy that goes beyond tracking just what the states are doing? >> the answer is yes and answer is as you know, and as i said many times we're very advanced in testing. other countries are calling us to find out what we're doing. by the way in two weeks, you will see numbers and see different forms of testing just like we came up with the abbott laboratories machine which gives it to you in five minutes that everybody wants. everybody is asking, can we get that? but you can only make them so fast. but as you know we've done more testing than every other nation combined and that's a big

statement. and you know when they talk about different tests and different things we're also a big nation than most and so when they look at statistics because statistically we're doing phenomenally in terms of mortality and in terms of all of the different elements that you can judge. when you look, germany and ourselves are doing very well. we are very accurate in the reporting of numbers. in fact i'll go a step further. as you know in new york they actually added quite a few deaths to a list. that was done in new york and they added a number of deaths. we're very, highly accurate. you look at certain lists of other countries, some are obvious to look at, obviously the number is ridiculous in the form of low because they're not accurate counts. they're not even close to accurate counts. in fact they're insulting to look at them. so we've done very well. again testing, we're doing very well on testing.

we've tested far more than anybody else anywhere in the world and within a short period of time you will be hearing about new tests that are coming out that will be incredible. reporter: dr. fauci said we're just not there yet. >> i don't agree with him on that. no, i think we're doing a great job. if he said that i don't agree with him. yeah. reporter: considering ways to ramp up production of that abbott rapid test? >> they're doing it. i'll tell you, steve. they're doing it. at a level they have never done it before. abbott is a great company. it is a very big, highly respected company. they came up with this machine where you do it. i've done it both ways. i've done it this way. i didn't like it. i've done it the abbott way literally just touch and five minutes later you know the answer. we use them in the white house. i think you folks have been given that opportunity, which is much more pleasant than the first way they looked at you, right? we're making them hundreds of thousands of machines. the advantage with the other test and laboratory test so we get millions and millions of

those tests done. it takes a day or two days but, you know because it is really delivery situation more than anything else. the test itself goes quickly once it gets to the laboratory but as we have found and as we have i think shown everybody in the room, we have many laboratories. we have so many laboratories, nobody, nobody, a lot of governors did not know that we had this capacity but we have many laboratories all over our country. every state has laboratories. some have a lot of them. so i think we will, we will come up with things as time goes by. again, when i started we ended up, we started with nothing essentially. what we started with a broken test, a test that didn't work. we started with a test that did very few people, not millions of people. the problem is if we did 350, if we did 350 million tests, one for each person, the media would say, oh, you should have done two for each person. no matter what you do doesn't

make any difference. just like the ventilators. i talk about it all the time. nobody ever mentions, one of the hardest things ventilators now we're making thousands a week. thousands of ventilators. they're calling from mexico, calling from many countries. i received today four calls, would it be possible to send ventilators all right? i got four calls today. i got three calls yesterday. no country is equipped like we are. we have 11, 11 different places making ventilators. our country, as you know doesn't need them now. our governors are very happy but that's different than tests because with test always say oh, we need more. no, i think we've done incredibly well with obviously with ventilators. we also have 500 million masks. 500 million masks that very shortly going to be here. we've made millions of masks. which have ordered millions of masks that arrived and been

distributed. we gave one hospital in new york city 300,000 masks. before the virus they were using 10,000. now we got them 300,000. they got rid of them very quick, quickly. i sort of say how did that happen. why? because they became very valuable the masks. i say how did that happen. we've done an amazing job and we worked with the governors. and when the governors weren't able, they're the first line, they weren't able to get something, like ventilators. they couldn't get ventilators. they could have bought them. you could have bought them but many of them chose not to. they all needed ventilators. we got the job done. we have, i will be introducing the team when we're finished with this whole nightmare, this whole curse, this whole plague but the team that worked on the ventilators was incredible. and the team that worked, it is a little bit interchangeable but the team that's working on the testing is truly an incredible

team. these are brilliant people. they're doing it for the country. they're not doing it for other reasons. some have been very successful. they're doing it for the country. reporter: mr. president, house passed the relief bill. >> signing it probably tonight. reporter: as you know there is no aid to states and localities in that bill. mitch mcconnell of course has talked about states seeking bankruptcy protection. he also, his office referred to this as idea of aiding states as a blue state bailout. what do you say to that? do you agree with that? do you agree with governor cuomo that is a vicious attack on these states? >> not a vicious attack but certainly some people do look at it that way. i've spoken to mitch about it. i have spoken to numerous senators about it and we're working with senators that are on the other side of the issue and we'll see what happens. but we're looking to what is right for the people of this country. we're looking to what's right for a particular state and we'll see what happens. certainly next thing we're going

to be discussing because some states, in all fairness, john, some states have not done very well for many years, long before the virus came. you can't blame the plague, this horrible plague that came in, all of sudden, they can't blame that. you look at illinois. he has got a lot of problems long before the virus came in. and so we'll be talk about it. it will be a subject for a period of time. right now we've, we made this incredible deal for the workers and for small business. i'm very happy that harvard didn't get covered. we actually never certainty them the check. but they were very nice about it. we never sent them the money, the old-fashioned way is the check. new way is send them the money and we didn't send them the money but they were very understanding. they were very nice about it. so was princeton, so was stanford, so were a number of other schools you don't associate with this money. so were big companies. as you know many of them. it was a relatively small amount

of money compared to the whole, very small amount of money compared but we want it to be fair. we want it to go to the people that it is supposed to go to. reporter: are you open to idea of state and local -- >> i'm open to ideas that will be great for the people of this country. if we can help states we're always going to help states. now there is different ways of helping states. some ways are better than others. we're looking. it is interesting that the states that are in trouble do happen to be blue. it is interesting. you know if you look around. the state has seem to have the problem happen to be democrat and -- reporter: new york and new jersey got hit by this -- >> new york and new jersey were in a lot of trouble long before the plague came. they had a lot of problems long before the plague came. i spoke with governor cuomo about it. i spoke to governor murphy about it. i spoke with gavin newsom about it. i'm speaking to a lot of people about it, because it is probably going to be the next thing on the list. a lot of people understand very well what mitch is saying and

they also understand the other side of the problem and i will be speaking bit. we'll do the right thing for our country, the right thing for our country and the right thing for a lot of great people, okay? reporter: mr. president, after the presentation we just saw about the heat and the humidity is it dangerous for you to make people think they would be safe by going outside in the heat considering that so many people are i doing in florida, considering this virus has had an outbreak in singapore, places that are -- >> wer we go. the new headline trump asks people to go outside that's dangerous. here we go. same old group. are you ready? i hope people enjoy the sun. if it has an impact that's great. i'm just hearing this, not really for the first time. it has been a rumor for, very nice rumor thaw go outside in the sun or have heat it does have an effect on other viruses. we get it from one of the great laboratories of world, i have to say, covers a lot more territory than just this. this is probably an easy thing,

relstiffly speaking for you. i would like you to speak to the medical doctors to see if there is any way that you can apply light and heat to cure, you know? if you could, maybe you can, maybe you can't. again i say maybe you can, maybe you can't. i'm not a doctor. i'm like a person that has a good, you know what? have you ever heard of that, the heat and the light relative to certain virus, yes, but relative to this virus? >> not as a treatment. certainly fever is a good thing when you have a fever, it helps your body respond. but notes i have not seen heat as -- >> i think it is a great thing to look at okay. reporter: respectfully, sir, you're the president, people tuning into the briefings want to get information and guidance and want to know what to do and not rumors. >> i'm the president and you're fake news. you know what else, i will say very nicely i know you well, i know you well, because i know

the guy, i see what he writes. he is a total faker. are you ready, are you ready? are you ready? it is just a suggestion from a brilliant lab by a very, very smart, perhaps brilliant man. he is talking about sun, he is talking about heat. and you see the numbers. so that's it. that is all i have. i'm just hear to present talent. i'm here to present ideas because we want ideas to get rid of this thing. if heat is good, if sunlight is good, that's a great thing as far as i'm concerned. go ahead. reporter: mr. president, talked a moment ago about [inaudible]. how close do you think the oxford university study says they could have one by september. do you think pharmaceutical companies in the u.s. -- >> they have one of what? reporter: have a vaccine ready. >> johnson & johnson is working. they're also working together. you have many companies working together on a vaccine. reporter: don't you think the scale up production and pharmaceutical companies will be able to do that quickly?

>> we'll scale it -- if we had a vaccine it will be scaled up very quickly. in fact some of the companies, johnson & johnson is one is scaling up already before they have the final answer. a number of companies are doing that you will save a lot of time. normally you scale up after. itch to say the fda has been fantastic. steve hahn, dr. hahn has been fantastic. they're moving along rapidly, rapidly. reporter: would you put a time scale? >> i don't want to put a time scale because then the media, so-called, so-called media, lame stream media will say he said a time. i don't want to say times. every time i say time, if you don't hit it, they will say -- i don't want to talk about that there has been tremendous progress over the last month. reporter: very quickly. spoke to boris johnson this week? >> i did. reporter: how he sounded, how he was, when do you think he will back at work? >> called me a few days ago. i will tell you he sounded incredible. i was actually surprised, oh,

donald. he was red he did to go. i'm very surprised to tell you this it is like the old boris. tremendous energy, tremendous drive. i was very surprised because he called me almost, you know, pretty close when he got out of the hospital. i think he is doing great. i think he is doing great. he was so sharp and energetic, pretty incredible. he is an incredible guy. he a friend of ours and a friend of mine. he loves our country. he loves his country a lot but he loves our country and respects our country and they're lucky to have him over there. please? reporter: mr. president, you a couple days ago said you might reach out to kim jong-un directly but also you were working to find out if those reports about him being in possible medical trouble were true. i wonder -- >> i hope he is not in medical trouble. i hope he -- reporter: have you heard anything. >> i got along very well with him. you would have been in a war with north korea if i didn't get elected president. remember i was the one to take

us into war my first day if office. here we are. look what happened, withdrawal, we're bringing people home. we're not going to serve as policemen all over the world. i don't want to be policemen all over the world. we rebuilt our military to a level never been built at before -- fake news. reporter: have you been able to use that relationship to get more information about his status? >> i think the report was incorrect, let me just put it that way. i think the report was done by a network that was incorrect. i'm hearing they used old documents. but i, that is what i hear. i hear the report was an incorrect report. i hope it was an incorrect report. reporter: when was last time you heard from him? >> i don't want to say. reporter: you pointed to me. just a quick question about that you haven't made any contact to make sure? >> with who? reporter: north korea. >> i don't want to say that. we have a good relationship with north, as good as you can have,

we have a good relationship with north korea. i have a good relationship with kim jong-un and you hope he is okay. somebody said oh, that's terrible. i hope he is okay. i think it was a fake report, done by cnn. no, that is enough. reporter: that was my question. >> the problem is you don't write the truth. so you know as far as i'm concerned. i want to go to. reporter: can i ask you a question. >> not cnn. i told you, cnn is fake news. don't talk to me. reporter: you he said he was retaliated against yes he was removed from his job. do you have a response to that? >> okay. next question. reporter: mr. president, two questions, one on behalf of the colleagueses, one please. >> first one, can you talk about decision-making process on -- >> my what? reporter: georgia. >> the controversy? reporter: you told governor of georgia that you were concerned. >> i had a good talk with the governor of georgia. reporter: early you spoke and did not convey that kind of

message. >> i didn't like the fact, i want the states to open more than he does, much more than he does but i didn't like to see spas at this early stage in order of doctors, is that a correct statement, deborah? i didn't like seeing spas open frankly. i didn't like seeing a lot of things happening and i wasn't happy with it and i wasn't happy with brian kemp, i wasn't at all happy and i could have done something about it if i wanted to, but i'm saying let the governors do it. but i wasn't happy with brian kemp. spas, beauty parlors, tattoo parlors, no. that, by the way i want them to open -- excuse me. excuse me. i want them to open and i want them to open as soon as possible. and i want the state to open but i wasn't happy with brian kemp. i will tell you that right now. yeah, go ahead. reporter: are you surprised he defied you on that? >> he didn't defy me at all. that was your language. he didn't defy me.

you r you know what happened you make your own decision. i said you're r you're not in the guidelines i'm letting you make your own decision. but i want people to be safe and i want people in georgia to be safe. i don't want this thing to flair up because you're deciding to do something not in the guidelines. i went to den bore raw and dr. fauci and other people and they weren't thrilled about it. i could have stopped him, i decide, they all agree we'll have to watch it closely. we'll see what happens. i told him very distinctly, mike was there, i said you do what you think is best but if you asked me am i happy about it, i'm not happy about it and i'm not happy about brian kemp. go ahead. reporter: question for dr. birx if i may, mr. president, about rate of decline of the curve in the u.s. you and the vice president tonight talking about meaningful progress, promising progress, could you speak to the rate of decline of cases in -- >> do that quickly, that would be great.

reporter: just -- >> you see the charts. you have to ask the question but you see it on the charts. reporter: if you have any information from other countries that would inform us about the key klein? >> yes. so, many of you i've spoken to all of you about this podium, different in weekends on reporting, a spike on monday. look at mondays over mondays, if you look at seven-day reporting we are starting to go down. we had a long flat peak largely driven of course by new york which is 45% or so by the cases. as new york goes down, so will the rest of the country have a decline, even more accelerated. i want to say though we have had outbreaks. we've had outbreaks in specific prisons. we have had outbreaks in specific nursing homes. we've had outbreaks in specific plants and when that happens that adds 2, 300, 400 cases on that single date. so we track very carefully not

only what the country is doing, not only what state is doing, each county is doing and we look at delta changes across all of the countyies so we find early warning signals for these types of outbreaks. we have want the whole country to go down but we also want to prevent the outbreaks before they occur. reporter: mr. president? >> go ahead please. reporter: thank you. looking forward to november, the election, given the risks that flu and coronavirus -- could be a problem. do you think that there is a risk you will be, there will be some, will be lack after agreement, lack of legitimacy of results in very close election and people start saying well a whole bunch of people going to vote? >> i can't tell you what will happen in election. great question. i can't tell you what will happen. we have a sleepy guy in a basement of a house, that the press is giving a free pass to. who doesn't want to debates because of covid. and lots of things are

happening, right? and i watched a couple of interviews. i say, oh i look forward to this but they're keeping him sheltered because of the coronavirus. and he is not moving around. he is not moving too much. and then i watch what the press does to the republican party and to me in particular. we had the greatest economy ever put together. we were doing, this is month 1/2 ago. we were doing numbers the likes of which we never done. after fran -- african american, asian-american, hispanic-american, best employment numbers in history of our country. almost 160 million people. the stock market, record numbers, many, many times during my tenure, many, many times. but now we have a country that we had to close because of this. and frankly if we didn't close it we would have lost millions of people possibly but certainly we would have lost a million people. you take the high number and cut it in half, cut it in half again

but whether it would have been 600, 700, 800, you take a look at the travesty there is, you take a look at this horrible, horrible, scene of hospitals with bodies and black body bags, right? multiply that times, 10, 15 or even 20 because that would have happened. so we did the right thing. so far we did the right thing. so far we've called it right. we have mobilized like it was military operation and it was largely a military operation between ventilators and testing and so many other things. we've had a lot of good partners. not all good partners but a lot of good partners. gavin newsom today thanked us very much, gaff vin newsom, california, thanked us sew much getting a all things he needed so he can keep going. tomorrow we're getting him even more. would have been harder for him to get it than us. we agreed to get it. we got it on time. he said promises made, promises kept. he actually said that in a

statement today. we've done a good job. we've gotten very little credit for the great job we've done because of the media. because the media is not honest media much of it, not all of it. we have great reporters that i have tremendous respect but much of the media is not honest. i can't tell you about the election. you have a democrat party, and you have a large portion of the media automatically giving a guy a pass. he has been given a pass. whether or not he will be nominee i have no idea but he is getting a pass. and the media isn't covering the great job that we've done, whether it is mike's task force, which has been incredible. whether it's the way we mobilized in a war-like operation to build these incredibly complex and very expensive ventilators. they're very expensive to build and very complex. the job we've done has been an amazing job. i'm not talking about me. i'm talking about everybody. i'm talking about the generals, the admirals, deborah and tony

and now bill. i mean something we hadn't her today. so i can't tell you what's going to happen with the election. i think that had we not gone through a fake russia, russia russia deal and impeachment hoax, it was a total hoax, from the day i got elected, it wasn't the day, it was many months before i got elected this has been a witch-hunt that was illegal. it was an illegal witch-hunt. it was illegal. and with all of that i'm doing fine because the people see we're doing a great job. you know what? we'll continue to do a great job. if we had an honest press, this country would be even greater. thank you. thank you all. [reporters shouting questions] reporter: whistle-blower complaint, are you concerned about that? elizabeth: i'm elizabeth macdonald. welcome to "the evening edit. president trump wrapping up the

coronavirus task force briefing. gilead treatment remdesivir did not improve patient conditions. let's bring in fred flp eitz. listening to the presser. your reaction tote push back the president just did with the press just now? >> well, the press won't give up in trying to blame him for the coronavirus or foretrying to blame him for putting forward treatments not been proven. in my view this is a president trying everything to save the american people. he never told people to use the antimalaria drug. he thought it should be tried, liz, there is no proven drug to treat this virus right now. and the president is as desperate as the rest of the country to find a way to cure it. elizabeth: yeah, so we had 800

drug trials to fight covid-19 around the world. you know, there is pushback again against the president tonight about hydrochloroquine. president says, see what works. we have 200 drug and vaccine trials in the u.s. either underway or coming. also studies coming out that uv light destroys the virus as well. the president trying to present the information, getting pushback again from the press on the information he is relaying and his doctors at presser again. your reaction to that? >> well, i think the president has been more cautious on hydroxychlorquine than the press will give him credit. he made the point that uv light and heat apparently kills the virus. there is reason to believe the situation could get better in the summer but just whatever he says, the mainstream media tries to pick it apart. i just think the american people are seeing through this. they see a president who is striving very hard, to try to

find solution to the situation here. the media won't give him any credit. elizabeth: fred fleitz, thanks for your input. come back soon. we're running out of time. we have another guest. fred fleitz, thanks for being here. >> good to be here. elizabeth: for his reaction, governor of alaska, great to have you on your honor. sticks states have plans to reopen and can you tell us about that and what is going on with your state? >> alaska is up here in the northwest part of north america and we've been, working at opening up our state. as you know we have some of the lowest, if not the lowest numbers in the country. we've done a pretty good job of keeping our people safe. we're probably going to see increase in infections like everyone else as we start to work towards opening up the economy. we have got health care, elective surgery opening up on may 4th. we're working at opening up retail even more than we have already. we're going to be working on our

restaurants here, starting on friday. also barbers and hairdressers will start on friday. again what we're going to watch is the data, very, very carefully. we have low numbers. we're going to watch our icu bed count, our ronot factor, those that recovered very carefully, if we have to pull back in some areas we will. if not we'll start looking at other phases as we go forward. elizabeth: you know the imperial college of london which shocked the world saying 2.2 million deaths in the u.s. now scaled back, ihme says 66,000. it was 60-k thousand, they said, never shut down entire economy. yes, shut down certain businesses, certain large-scale events, shut down schools but not entire economy. imperial college of london is saying that. we have the university of oxford moving to a vaccine by september.

novio. we want to follow the vaccines, drugs, positive news coming out on fighting covid-19. your take on that? >> no, absolutely, we always said this will not be the end of the world, right. the end of the world predicted how many times? we come out of these issues, these wars, these pandemics, and we become stronger and better. we know that. this is certainly a setback. this is certainly a economic setback. again we'll come out of this, we'll come out of this stronger. we have to watch where this goes until the vaccines are proven and actually work t will take a little bit of time. we absolutely have to start looking making sure that our economy stays intact, on a if that means opening up a little bit after time which we're doing in alaska, i know other states are doing. there is wide -- >> we have more, more than 26 million people filing jobless claims. that is wiping out all the job

gains since 2009. you know here's the other interesting take that's happening today. new york state did an antibody study finding one out of five new york city residents already exposed to the covid-19. one out of six or seven tire state of new york doctor seeing same thing out of l.a. county, san francisco county, way more exposure, way more infection, way more cases than previously realized. studies show 60% of the uk is exposed. maybe a lot more people that do have antibodies matters for blood plasma treatment. your take on those findings? >> i think it would be great news. i do agree i think a lot more people have been exposed. this is a very transmittible virus, very infectious. but again, even a couple weeks ago, if not further back, the medical profession was saying there may be a lot of people have been exposed and asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms.

if you remember when it first came out we were very happy to hear it really did not impact children. it was really our elderly and those with underlying health conditions that seems to be holding as we speak. we may find out a lot more of us have it than we thought. that may be good news. because that means we could move faster. elizabeth: governor of alaska, mike dunlevy, thanks for joining us governor, come back soon. >> thank you. elizabeth: i'm elizabeth macdonald. you're watching "the evening edit" on fox business. that does it for us. thanks for watching. joining us tomorrow as we stay on this developing story. have a good evening. thanks for joining us. ♪. ou back here at the

same time tomorrow. "lou dobbs tonight" starts right now. [♪] lou: good evening, tonight we begin with breaking news in the southwest regional of the country and louisiana as a severe weather system has produced powerful storms that killed at least 7 people in texas, oklahoma and louisiana. the storms generating two dozen tornadoes that struck those states. the storms are moving across the south and headed towards the carolinas. the storms downed power lines and trees and damaged 100 hours homes and businesses. one tornado hit