[laughter] connell: i am most antisocial, you're right. melissa: all right. we're looking at the white house there, they're getting ready for that task force briefing. we will bring it to you live. "lou dobbs tonight" starts now. ♪ ♪ lou: good evening, everyone. protests flaring up across the country today as some states begin to partially reopen during the wuhan virus pandemic. the number of demonstrations against stay-at-home lockdowns is rising. hundreds of demonstrators descended on the wisconsin state capitol in madison after the governor there extended restrictions until the end of next month. in michigan the republican-led state legislate eture taking up the possibility of launching a committee to review democrat governor gretchen whitmer's response to the wuhan virus and possibly strip her of some

powers. protesters there angry at whitmer's decision to extend the state's stay-at-home orders until the middle of next month. meanwhile, in states like georgia the governor there allowing gyms, hair salons, that to too parlors and some other -- tattoo parlors and some other nonessential buzzes to reopen -- businesses to reopen. a number of virus-related elements to report to you. we begin with the death toll in this country. the chinese coronavirus has now killed more than 50,000 americans and infected almost 900,000 nationwide. more federal help is on the way for small business and their workers, and more money for hospitals and testing. president trump has just signed that mammoth $484 billion relief package that will give more financial support to struggling small businesses across america. the relief package provides $310

billion for the paycheck protection program, $60 billion for disaster loans, $75 billion for hospitals, $25 billion for more testing. during today's signing event the oval office, the left-wing national media pushing the president about his knowledge of dr. rick bright and his dismissal as the lead official in the vaccine division of the department of health and human services. saying he plans to file a whistleblower complaint over his claims that he was removed from his position. he says after disagreeing with the president about hydroxychloroquine. here's what president trump had to say about that. >> i don't know anything about him. until yesterday i never heard of the gentleman. >> have you asked anyone to look into the -- >> not yet. at some point i will. >> mr. president -- >> i guess they moved him to a different group. lou: and politico reporting facts that dispute bright's

claims and the reason for his firing. politico's report suggests dr. bright's ousting had been in the works for quite some time. messages showing as early as january 2nd dr. bright was already expected to be removed for his job for, quote, incompetence and insubordination. as president trump would say, not good. for bright and his left-wing national media boosters. the radical dems and the left-wing national media also trying to make much of president trump's remarks at last night's coronavirus task force briefing, particularly his comments on disinfectants and ultraviolet light that might work to treat the wuhan virus in the body. in the to oval office today, president trump said he was just being sarcastic, and the left-wing media was just being who they are, fake nudes. . -- fake news. >> i was asking question of the gentleman who was there

yesterday, bill. because when they say something will last 3 or 4 hours or 6 hours, but if the sun is out, it goes away less than a minute. i was asking in a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. lou: well, the radical dems expect left-wing know-nothings might want to slow down just a little bit because the fact is president trump may be on toking something here. it turns out to idea of alling that violate light as a therapeutic within the human body is actually being tested. a colorado company by the name of a2 bioscience this week unveiled its new product used in combination with a ventilator tube that takes uva light into the trachea. this video shows animation of how the process would work. the working principle is that

the uv light destroys the coronavirus and bacteria in the upper part of the lung. the device is called the heal light, that's h-e-a-l. according to a press release on the company's web site, quote: preclinical findings indicate the technology's significant impact on eradicating a wide range of viruses and bacteria inclusive of the coronavirus. president trump's little friends in the white house briefing room just can't seem to keep up with the president. on any subject, it appears. as the president is using every tool available to him to fight the wuhan virus and to rescue the economy and, of course, offer tutorials on the side to the slower white house reporters, there are growing signs of on the much in america's largest hot spot. that's new york. and governor andrew cuomo today

once again announced a decline this daily deaths and a significant decline in hospitalizations as well. governor cuomo also backing president trump over husband criticism of the world -- his criticism of the world health to organization. for more on the much warmer relationship between the governor and the president, we turn to correspondent david lee miller in new york. >> reporter: lou are, governor cuomo said that the coronavirus has been in new york longer than had been previously thought. he says more than 10,000 new yorkers likely had the disease before the first confirmed case back on march 1st. according to cuomo, between january and the european travel ban in mid march, approximately 2.2 million people i a arrived -- arrived in the new york area on 13,000 flights from europe. the governor cited recent studies that showed it was travelers from europe, not china, who brought the disease to new york.

it was also the statewide survey that now shows 13.9% of new yorkers, 2.7 million people, likely had covid-19. the governor says more should have been done to protect americans. >> whose job is it to warn us of these global pandemics? the president says it's the world health organization. and that's why he's taking action against them. not my field, but he's right to is can the question. to ask the question. >> reporter: cuomo again hashed out at majority leader mitch mcconnell for suggesting states declare bankruptcy rather than accept a federal bailout. cuomo dared mcconnell to try to pass a change in the law. he says doing so would signal wall street that the country is, in his words, real trouble. the health crisis has left new york with a $13 billion budget shortfall. preliminary results from 600 very ill patients in new york

suffering from the virus or show high driving while intoxicated city e chloroquine -- high driving while intoxicated is city chloroquine did not make an impact. the study shows the initial results to not speak to other potential uses of the drug. as for prevention of infection. and in just the last day, the governor said 422 more lives were claimed by the virus. the death toll statewide including both confirmed and presumed deaths is now approaching nearly 21,000 in new york state. lou? lou: david, thank you very much. david lee miller reporting. well, joining us now, dr. may met oz, direct kerr of columbia university's integrated medicine center. doctor, good to have you with us. let's start out with the idea that there would would be an ultraviolet light that could be used within the body to go to at least the trachea, the upper

respiratory area to fight viruses and bacteria. what do you think of the concept? >> lou, i haven't reviewed any of that data. at first glance, i think we have more important things to focus on especially at the conference yesterday. there were some interesting insights about the role -- if i could say one thing on this thing, please do not ingest compounds that you don't understand into your body, antiseptics and the like. i know there is a rumor about that. that is not a wise move. there's no medical indication for it. and if we're making such progress now understanding this virus and the role that it's playing in our body so we can at least begin with our best scientists working day and night to try and get ahead of it. let's not take a step back. but, lou, if i could speak to some of the insights shared last night, and i also have reviewed some data on the weather -- lou: why don't we do this, doctor? doctor?

if i may, why don't we do this because we covered everything on that testing on this broadcast last night when the president and the corona task force ors it's really remarkable. i'd like to get, if i may, simply your reaction to those statistics that show the half-life under sunshine of this virus, i mean, it's just -- sunshining is lethal to the coronavirus, isn't it? >> more than i appreciated. and, again, i haven't seen the raw data that was presented, the summaries of which were presented yesterday in the press conference. but if you can, in fact, take it from an hour in the lawyer to a minute and a half -- an hour in the air to a minute and a half with sunlight and humidity, it would be fantastic. the warm, dry air also hinders or actually changes the ability of silvia, those hair-like projections in our areaways, to expel particles. it's possible more humidity would help our bodies' ability

to naturally mechanically defend itself. all this good information for folks who are hoping that we'll get a little respite from this as the warm summer months come. lou: right. and that had been suggested by many because in that respect at least this virus shares something in common with influenza. we depend on the seasonality for relief from the flu every year. and i wanted to go back to ultraviolet light, because it is important for a number of reasons. one is that not only is this company testing it for internal use within the body, but because it is so important in the ability to extend the life of n-95 rest are -- respiratory, respirator masks. i mean, this could extend the life, if ultraviolet light is successful in killing that, those viruses that may be in that mask, we might be able to relieve some of the pressure if on manufacturers, on the health

care system, don't you think? >> it'd be beneficial to the masks. i also think, lou, we're going to want to get smarter about how we deal with small spaces. for example, if you're in a restaurant even if you socially distance yourself from everybody else in the restaurant, we now have data that an air conditioner could bounce the breath from one person who's infected around the restaurant and catch others. maybe there's a way of using ultraviolet light to help with some of the purification systems in crowded spaces. all these ideas i'm excited by, and i see scientists working aggressively rethinking how we do things in groups. subway cars, elevators, these are are all places we want to revisit the purity of the air. think about a car. each though usually you know the people in there, if you're in a drive-share, you might not, and how do you protect those drivers. these are opportunities for innovative folks to be wiser about the air we're breathing in and out. lou: well, speaking of innovative folks, you and your colleagues at columbia

university have got to be very proud and excited and anxious to proceed with your studies on the use of plasma from recovered patients to provide they are therapeutics to more victims of this virus. tell us where you are tonight. >> well, i interviewed a famous virus hunter, epidemiologist at columbia. he's one of the folks who's been teaching me about plasma therapy and all therapy, it was currently used 100 years ago for tuberculosis, used in 1918 for the spanish influenza. basic concept, you take antibodies from people exposed, use it for treatment on people who are ill, and they're now collecting serum. the new york blood bank is working with dr. lipkin and his team, and this is a trial that i think could help many parts of the country revisit the care of

some of the sicker patients. but i did not even think about the idea of prevention, but it's an idea that might catch on at least until we have a good vaccine. lou: well, and that vaccine, we understand that everyone is working at warp speed trying to get it. when i say everyone, i'm talking about the, all of these firms. i mean, we're talking about dozens and dozens of firms. do you have a sense of which path is the most, offers the most potential for the quickest and most effective solution? >> there's two that i like the most which i think the audience can understand because they're fairly straightforward. one is they take that spike protein that we know helps the virus invade ourselves, and you put it on a benign virus and let that virus expose that spiked protein to your immune system. the other idea is put a little plasma, a little circle of dna into your body, into your cells

and allow your body to trade antigens that look like the virus even though they're not so your cells get immune. very clever ideas. thankfully, we're taking advantage of innovative concepts started for other diseases, ebola, sars from years ago, and those concepts even though they were not completed gave us a head start. so being able to graft onto those ideas, i think, will help a lot of this research go faster. again, i'm hopeing for a year from now which is what a lot of experts are starting to come around as a potential finishing date. lou: dr. oz, always great to have you with us. thanks so much. we appreciate it. coming up next, radical dem playing a duringty trick -- dirty trick and going after, by the way, a duringty trickster -- dirty trickster christopher steele who, for some reason it turn it is out, his primary source for the dossier has

somehow disappeared, the transcript. we'll take that up and much more with investigative reporter peter schweizer and author, best selling author, i should add. and secretary of state mike pompeo is not mincing words about china and the obama administration. we'll take that up and more right after the break. asian affairs expert gordon chang with us. we're coming right back. ♪ ♪ i just love hitting the open road and telling people

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♪ ♪ lou: breaking news tonight, canada's health department reporting it bought one million respirators from china that are unfit for health care workers. a million of them. the so-called kn-95 masks are a chinese model similar at least outward appearances to the n-95 mask. canada receives 70% of its personal protective equipment from china, and word is they're furious at what the chinese have done to them. china's cover-up of the wuhan virus is just another example of the communist regime's dangerous distortions and lies. back in march of 2006, a secret cable from the u.s. consulate in

china detailed how china covered up a death from the avian or bird flu. that cable noted a chinese misinformation campaign that was put together quickly after a man died who had contracted a virus after visiting a number of marketplaces. does all of this sound familiar? we're talking about who the chinese are and have always been, it seems. the chinese government kept u.s. health officials and the world health organization in the dark, well, 14 years ago as well as now. secretary of state mike pompeo today condemned the obama administration for its foreign policy failure to stop the growing communist china threat. >> the previous administration allowed china to walk all over us and gain trade, create wealth and trade benefits for china. this president's taken fundamentally 180 degrees

different approach with respect to how we respond to the challenges that china presents to american security. >> so you're suggesting that the previous administration was soft on china or dealing with them chg. >> relative to this administration, they were wildly soft. lou: well, joining us tonight to take this up and more, gordon chang, columnist, author, senior fellow at the gatestone institute. gordon, good to see you. let's start with the secretary of state saying directly that much of the problem that we faced today is that the obama administration exercised what it used to term strategic patience rather e than asserting u.s. national security and interests in the chinese relationship. >> the secretary of state is correct. the obama administration did not oppose china's territorial ambitions at scarborough shoal in early 2012.

it actually brokered a deal and then did not enforce the deal it put together. as a result, the chinese became emboldened. they then started to reclaim those islands in the separatelies, the artificial islands. then they started to pressure other philippine futures in the south china sea and and went after japan in the east china sea. it really told the chinese that the united states was not going to oppose their aggressive ambitions, and i think that really set a pattern which, unfortunately, held until the trump administration. lou: president trump, had he not been elected in 2016, do you have sense as, frankly, i do that this country right now would have just been run over by president xi and the communist regime of china? >> yeah. i don't think that a democratic president would have imposed the

tariffs that president trump did on intellectual property, and also they probably wouldn't have gone after huawei. of course we wouldn't know. it's not just a question of the views of secretary clinton versus those of president trump, the real problem is that democratic party has a number of foreign policy establishment types that would be advising the president, and they have all the wrong assumptions. the most important thing that president trump did really was to say to the american people and, indeed, to the world that we were no longer going to go along with the idea of engagement, that it failed the united states for four decades. he challenged those working assumptions, and that really was an important thing. and if that has set trump policy at least since march of 2018. that's a great thing, lou. lou: it is a great thing. it's absolutely -- by the way, an essential policy choice that the president made, campaigned on and was straightforward about it. confronting directly the chinese

on trade issues, making certain that we would not be playing chump to their expansionist foreign policy. in fact, right now in the south china sea the uss america and other u.s. navy ships to assert u.s. strategic interests and, indeed, the interests of global shipping in that area, all nations. your thoughts about the strong response of the president to the chinese direct confrontation? >> you know, it's been very good that there have been these freedom of navigation transits and the transits through the taiwan strait. the reason is since the middle of february china has pick picked up the tempo of moves against south china sea and east china sea neighbors. there season bumping and other incidents with japan, taiwan,

philippines, indonesia and even malaysia. malaysia being a supporter of china's positions across the board. so we've got to be very careful. this is going to be a day-on-day thing because we have seen china take these aggressive positions with regard to almost all of its neighbors. and by the way, lou, china's diplomats are even talking about how kazakh substantiation an independent country to the west of china, really is a a part of the people's republic. we had a chinese diplomat say that the kazakhs wanted to be part of china. this is really bold, audacious, ludicrous, but this is the way chinese diplomats are thinking, and that's a real danger sign. lou: well, there's a danger sign there that expands exponentially because that would be an affront as well against russia. your thoughts about that. >> yes. right now this partnership between russia and china that i've worried about and others seem to be on hold.

and partly it's because they've started to seal the border between the two countries. there's been a lot of coronavirus cases between the two, and china then did something that russia didn't want which is, as i mentioned, to stop travel. this is going to be ongoing controversy over them, and as china expands its ambitions in central asia, we're going to see, i think, more confrontation between moscow and beijing which would really tear apart this whole notion of china and russia getting together as an alliance. lou: gordon chang, good to have you with us. stay safe, good to see you. we'd like to hear your thoughts an on all of this -- you bet, gordon, thank you. and we'd like you to get ahold of us on twitter @lou dobbs, on facebook and instagram @loudobbs tonight. and a programming note, congressman doug collins, judicial watches tom fitton among our guests here monday.

we hope you'll be with us then. and next here tonight, christopher steele revealing that somehow his primary source transcripts were, well, they've e just gone away. were they wiped out by him? i don't know. he put it in a pass i voice, no active declaration of what he did back this january of 2017. well, this bombshell from a newly-released steele deposition in a british court. steele admitting he doesn't have the information related to his so-called debriefings with his so-called lone source. steele also claiming his z contacts with fusion gps were scrubbed on january 4th to be precise, five days before his dossier was published by buzzfeed. well, joe biden predicting president trump will try to delay the 2020 election this year. biden telling an online campaign event, quote: mark my words, i think he's gonna try to kick

back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can't be held. that's the only way he thinks he can possibly win. well, what a, what an idea. what a conjuring on the part of the prospective democratic presidential nominee. joining us tonight is peter schweizer, president of the government accountability institute, author of the bestseller, "profiles in corruption: abuse of power by america's progressive elite" with considerable attention paid in the book to the biden family. and congratulations on the book, peter, and we recommend it to our audience highly. it's good to see you. first, your thoughts about, if we may, pompeo directly calling out china and the obama administration. >> no, i think it's absolutely a fair comment. i mean, look, there was always kind of a split within the obama administration as it relates to they that. on the one -- china.

on the one hand, you had very soft, pass i policies laid out primarily by barack obama and joe biden, and then you had people like secretary of defense gates and others that were more concerned about china, and you had actually this pivot to china where our entire defense posture was adjusted to the pacific. but at the end of the day, china got primarily what they wanted if the obama administration, and i think part of the reason for that has to do with joe biden and the fact that his family got very lucrative commercial ties with the chinese. they've done this with other political leaders in places like australia, they did it in the united states, and it worked for their benefit during the obama administration. lou: and the biden, the biden comments about china being just a competitor in a commercial sense, certainly not in a geopolitical or military sense,

a preposterous statement but one that appeared to be heartfelt at least based on the amount of money that his son hunter was making as a result of his status as vice president and relationship with china. >> no, you're absolutely right, lou. and here's the interesting paradox for joe biden. you know, when he was in the senate foreign relations committee in the '80s and the '90s and the 2000s, you know, he wasn't a hawk towards china, but he was certainly more suspicious of china. particularly after tiananmen square. when he joined the obama administration and his son started seeking out commercial ties in china as did other members of his family, his posture changed. not only did he say that they are simply a competitor, he actually said quite openly we welcome the rise of china. the rise of china is a good and healthy thing.

the problem is that was joe bind's posture, what was -- joe biden's posture, what was china saying and doing? well, according to the obama department of defense, china saw themselves as a rival to the united states, they still do. they saw themselves as seeking military advantage over the united states. so, you know, joe biden, i think, has some explaining to do as to why he underwent this sea change in his attitude towards beijing, and he needs to be asked directly by the media the timing of that transition because that timing curiously occurred, lou, at the time that his son was negotiating and securing deals with the government in beijing. lou: well, truthfully i think the obama/biden administration has a lot of questions to answer on a host of foreign policy issues, and foremost among them, i believe, is china. this is, to me, an interesting

question of politics. here is biden saying the president wants to push off the election, he just conjured that up. there's nothing that would provoke him, prompt him to say such a thing. for some reason he is, his campaign, i think, starting to understand that china may be one of his principal vulnerabilities in this election. your thoughts about its, the importance of it and the potential impact in advantaging president trump. >> well, i think even before the coronavirus was upon us china was going to be an important election -- an important issue in this election. lou, i think it's going to be a central issue in the election now not only for the issues we've discussed before on your program about trade and the military adventures, but the whole issue of covid-19 and the fact that at best, the best that

china can say is that they bungled this and they covered it up, and they hid it from the rest of the world. that's the best thing they can say. the evidence, i will argue, is probably going to point to things even worse than that. and i i think when we get past the shutdown, when we get past the immediate impact of what has just happened to us, a lot of people are going to be wondering how did we get into this situation. and the key reason i believe we got into this situation is this virus originated in china, they did not share with us, they did not share with their own people -- it's very akin to 1986, you remember, in chernobyl when the nuclear disaster occurred and the kremlin tried to cover it up for all of europe. this is ten times worse than chernobyl because the ramifications have been global not just in the region of europe. and i think there's going to be a lot more evidence coming out as relating to where the virus came from, that it came from one

of these labs and that china knew a whole lot more and purposely did not alert the west, and there's been enormous cost to us because of that. lou: well, peter, you're exactly right. it's great to see you, and we want to point out that at the very least the chinese covered up and refused to warn the world that they had unleashed this deadly virus on us all. it is, they have much, much to account for, and as secretary pompei quo has said this -- pompei owe has said this week, there will be an accounting. peter schweizer, always good to see you, thank you so much. up next, former national security adviser h.r. mcmaster tries to downplay the role of the deep state. why would he do that? the deep state's trying to undercut, to overthrow president trump. but mcmaster's comments expose something about the deep state's

trump resistance that he didn't intend. i don't think he should do much work in covert operations. k.t. mcfarland with me right after the break. stay with us. let's be honest. quitting smoking is hard. like, quitting every monday hard. quitting feels so big. so try making it smaller, and you'll be surprised at how easily starting small can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette. confident financial plans, calming financial plans, complete financial plans. they're all possible with a cfp® professional. find yours at letsmakeaplan.org.

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lou: well, we've receive word that the president and his corona tasking force will be stepping forward momentarily. we want to bring you up-to-date about h.r. mcmaster, the former national security adviser, he says it's damaging

to the national security council but unwittingly he undercut his own argument. in his interview mcmaster said, quote: one of the interesting dynamics within the trump administration has been how the national security council staff is regarded. i think there are those who felt as if the national security council staff is part of the deep state problems where you're going to have civil servants who cast themselves in the role of resisting the president of saving the country from the president like this anonymous writer. mcmaster, spilling the beans perhaps. we'll tell you more about that. the president on the stage, we go to him now. >> -- evidence that our aggressive strategy is working and working at a very high level. nationwide the percent of tests that come back positive has declined very significantly. last week roughly 38 of the tests in new york -- 38% of the tests in new york were positive, this week that number is down to

28%. new cases in new york are down 50% compared to the week ago. and fatalities are down 40% over the same period. in louisiana the rate of positive tests from 25% to 15% in the last seven days alone. eighteen states now show a decline in the number of positive tests in the last days. so over the last seven days, very, very significant progress. half of all americans live in states that have now taken steps to open their economies. just yesterday governors gavin newsom, california, tim waltz of minnesota and bill lee of tennessee announced additional plans to restart certain sectors. we ask every american to maintain vigilance, hygiene, social distancing and voluntary use of face coverings. we're opening our country, it's very exciting to see. we have a lot of talent involved

from governors down to people that just stand there and help you with the doors. there's been tremendous talent involved and tremendous spirit from our country. country is a great place, and it's going to be greater than ever before. i really believe that. i think there's going to be a tremendous upward shift. i spoke with tim cook today of apple, and they have a good sense of the market, and he feels it's going to be a v. the v is sharply upward later on as we actually get it fully opened. ed today i signed the paycheck protection program and health care enhancement act providing $320 billion to keep american workers on the payroll. $30 billion of the paycheck pex funds will be reserved for small financial institutions including those that serve minority and distressed communities extending vital relief to thousands of african-american and

hispanic-american small business owners and their employees. the bill also delivers $75 billion for hospitals, is badly need for hospitals. they've taken a very big hit. and medical providers in lawyers less affected by the -- areas heads affected, hospitals and doctors should work with their local and state officials on ways to resume elective medical treatments and care. under the cares act, we're sending direct payments to millions of american workers, more than 80 million americans have already received their payment. $3,400 for a typical family of four. $3,400. that's great. and you deserve it the cowers act require -- cares act requires that the federal government send out a notice of what benefits americans are receiving to fulfill the requirement the treasury department is mailing a letter to me. it will include the amount, their economic impact statement,

how it will arrive, direct deposit, check or prepaid debit card as well as a message to the nation letting each american know that we are getting through this challenge together as one american family. and that's what's been happening. the whole world is is watching us. you have 184 countries out there that have been hit, and now it's probably higher than that. but they're all watching us. they're all watching, and they're calling and they respect what we're doing so much. i spoke with the leaders of numerous countries today, they're asking if we can send them ventilators, and i'm agreeing to do it. we have tremendous capacity, now overcapacity of ventilators. we're filling up stockpiles for our states and for ourselves. federal government has over 10,000 ventilators, and we could have a lot more if we wanted to do that, but we're helping mexico, honduras, indonesia, france. we're sending to france, we're sending to spain, we're sending to italy. and we'll probably be sending to

germany should they need them. over the last three years, we built the strongest economy and the most successful country the world has ever seen. great economy the world has ever seen. nobody's ever done anything like what we were able to do. and we will rebuild that economy. our economy in the not too distant future, i really believe with all that we've learned and all that we've done, will be just as strong and maybe stronger than ever before, even stronger than it was just two months ago. some interesting note is that the fda approved the first at-home covid-19 test kit. just got approved, and dr. steven -- where is steven? steven han, steven, is going to say a couple of words about that and some other things. i want to thank steven. the fda's been incredible. they've been approving not only this, but they've been approving many things at a pace that's never happened before.

and they're being very safe about it, as steven told me. he's told me very strongly, but at the same time they're approving things at record numbers in a record, at ard record rate. and it's really been helpful. many tests are going on, many vaccine tests and tests of every different kind. and things are happening, just like this event, things are happening rapidly, and i'd like to have steven tell you a little bit about it. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. first, the opportunity to tell you about what's happening at the fd a a. we had a team of more than 18,000 employees including 10,000 scientists, doctors, pharmacists and nurses, and they're been working around the clock because as you probably know, many of the medical products that are being used for the covid-19 outbreak are, in fact, regulated by if fda. the staff have been hard at work. as part of these efforts to support diagnostic test development during this global

pandemic, the president has asked us and under his leadership to actually cut down as many barriers as we possibly could to get medical products into the medical community, and we have done that. of course, recognizing the urgency of the situation of. i do want to emphasize what the president said, that we are very much paying attention to safety and with respect to test validity and reliability of those tests. and i think it's really important to understand how far we've come in just a few short months. the academic community, which i come from, the private sector, the government, we've come together to develop diagnostics for a completely new infectious disease. and it's really important, we've heard from many test developers or both in academia and in the manufacturing world, this normally takes years to develop. you've heard dr. birx talk about the fact that hiv tests have taken many, many years to develop. this has happened in weeks and months. we've been laser focused on working with both industry and academia to actually make this

happen. today under our emergency use authorization approach, we've quickly reviewed and authorized 63 tests. we've had several point of care tests, and that's important because those can be done in the emergency room, in a doctor's office, etc., and much more convenient for the patient. and this week we authorized the first at-home it's by a company called lab corpses. this is a test -- lab corps, a test can be mailed the a patient and the patient can perform the self-swab and mail it back and get the results all under the guidance of a licensed physician. and we're not just letting up with these 63 tests we've approved. we are working with more than 400 test developers who are pursuing authorization for their diagnostics under our current policies. and under our regulatory approach which is quite flexible, many other tests are becoming available. we have heard and have reported

to us 220 labs around the country have begun patient testing using their own validated tests. this has allowed us to increase significantly tests around the country. i updated you earlier this week on she serological tests to detect natural immunities and the fda's approach to make these available. these are just one part of our larger response effort, they can play a role in helping move our economy forward by helping health care professionals identify those who have immuningty to covid-19. and just finally, when it comes to therapeutics, we are leaving no stone unturned this finding treatments. you do know we don't have any currently approved, but we are actively involved with both the academic and the commercial and private sector to find those. 72 trials of they are pilot thee underway in the united states under fda oversight and 211 are in the planning stages, so we expect to see more.

this includes convalescent plasma as well as antiviral therapies. work continues on vaccines, and two firms have announced that the fda has authorized their trials to go forward, one which we've mentioned here before. and finally, in response to the task force's request, we've stood up the coronavirus treatment acceleration program. we are leaving no stone up turned, as i said, and we're working around the clock to develop these they are therapeutics for the american people. thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] >> just a question. it's timely, just about an hour ago a subcommittee released some findings that the fda doesn't have any review of the antibody tests that are on the market, there are no guidelines to tell which one should be out there, and there's no way to test their a act rahs is city. they're -- accuracy. these -- they're quite worried because they weren't reviewed before they were approved. is that true?

>> so under our policy we've provided flexibility. what we've told manufacturers is in order to market in the u.s., they have to validate their tests, they have to tell us that they validated their tests, and then in the package insert they have to let people know and users, labs, etc., that those tests were not authorized by fda. we've authorized four. as e mentioned, more are in the pipeline, and these tests that have come in without any information to us but have been self-validated, as i mentioned at the podium a couple days ago, we are working with the national cancer institute as well as cdc to perform our own validation of the tests that have been sent to us. so we'll provide as much information as we possibly can, and there is transparency on our web site about those testses and also the tests that we have authorized. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. from early in this effort, president trump has called for a whole of government response to

the coronavirus epidemic in america. and by that, the president made clear when he asked me to lead the white house coronavirus task force not merely a whole of the federal government, but a full partnership with state and local governments across the country. and today we've renewed that with our latest conference call with governors all across america. we have met with them today specifically to speak about the progress that our governors are making expanding testing across the country, and we were plead pleased to -- pleased to hear about extraordinary and rapid progress that governors are making. at the, at the outset of the call where we had more than 50 of our nation's governors we, of course, had pete gaynor of fema report, a 5,000 active duty military deployed in ten states, and we were also pleased to report that fema, hhs and the private sector have coordinated

the delivery of shipments to states around the country including nearly 67 million n-95 masks, 105 million surgical masks, surgical gowns, shields, gloves, more than 10,000 ventilators and more than 8,000 federal field medical station beds. beyond the proreport that we proked -- provided to the governors, we assured them this is one team, one mission, and we made it clear to the governors that we know we're all in this together. and the partnership that we have forged together really guns with mitigation -- begins with mitigation efforts. it moves to making sure our health care workers have the support they need, but also testing is in the forefront of all of our minds. we're working to make it possible for every governor to access the existing capacity to enable our states to be able to reopen responsibly under the phased approach that the

president unveiled one week ago. a little bit of context, you may recall that one month ago all of the testing that had been done in america, 80,000 americans had been tested. but as of this morning 5.1 million americans have been tested for the coronavirus. a quick reminder to our fellow americans, and this was something from our scientists today at the task force. we reminded governors of this as well, that as testing increases dramatically across the country, cases will increase as well. but people should not be discouraged by those numbers. we are looking at very positive trends in hospitalization, in emergency room entrances, and we continue to see as we've said at this podium every day over the last several weeks, we continue to the see positive progress not just on the west coast, but even where the coronavirus epidemic

is has most deeply impacted in areas of greater new york city area, new orleans, detroit and elsewhere. on our nearly two hour phone call today with those governors, we heard of the progress governors were making in implementing the resources that we've been working to provide them. not just the medical equipment with, but also as you recall that map a week ago that showed where all of the equipment is all across the country in all 50 states. above cuomo joined us for the -- governor cuomo joined us for the call, he spoke favorably of his meeting here at the white house, mr. president, and his recognition that testing is is a partnership between the federal and state governments. as governor cuomo said today, he understood that the federal government works with national manufacturing and supply chain, and the governors deal with the labs to expand and implement testing at the state level. governor cuomo also explained how he's using his licensing

authority as a governor to stand up the more than 300 labs that can do coronavirus testing in the state of new york. and we congratalatedded him for his leadership in that, urged other governors to use their authority similarly. in tennessee governor bill lee told us that he's deployed the national guard to stand up more than 20 drive-through test sites. they're testing 10,000 people a day, have already tested more than 130,000 people in tennessee, and they expect to surge another 15,000 people in testing sites this weekend in tennessee. massachusetts is an area we're continuing to watch very closely as cases have not yet stabilized. and governor charlie baker, after he thanked us, prime minister, for the army corps of engineers deployment of four field hospitals, he describe how they have rapidly expanded test all across massachusetts. we commended him for that. and in the beginning of march he said they had just one testing site in the state of montana and now, thanks to governor -- of

massachusetts, and now they have more than 30 testing sites. minnesota governor tim walz reflected on the call today about the pickup he's forged with the mayo clip irk, the university of minnesota. they're actually collaborating to perform 20,000 molecular tests and 15,000 antibody tests per day. and i'm looking forward to traveling to the mayo clinic in minnesota on tuesday of next week to learn firsthand from the governor about their efforts across the state to expand testing. iowa governor kim reynolds gave us an update, mr. president if, on her progress. she's literally tripling testing capacity in her state through a partnership with the private sector with the university of iowa and iowa state university. she also launched the test iowa.com web site which actually creates an access point for people to fill out a questionnaire about whether or not their symptoms or circumstances would justify a test. she said in the first 72 hours

150,000 people went to the test site to receive an a assessment, and iowa's now testing 4,500 people a today in their state. in indiana i spoke also today with governor eric hold couple, they've tested72,000 hoosiers to date. they're adding drive-through sites, they'll have ten established before the end of the weekend, and as other governors have done, the governor last week opened up half of their elective surgery sites in hospitals across the state, and they'll be opening up the balance of their electoff surgery sites next week. in maryland, another area that we're watching very closely, governor larry hogan expressed appreciation for federal support as he's continuing to scale testing. he had been in touch with the national institute of health which is opening up its laboratories for maryland to do testing, and we were also able to confirm to him that walter

reed hospital's laboratory capacity is available to maryland. and in utah, mr. president, governor gary herbert told us that he actually diverted 1200 state employees to do contact tracing in their state. in the last 36 hours, 23,000 residents have also signed up the for what their calling their healthy together app, and they have 50 different testing locations across utah and have tested 82,000 people in the state already. other state example, mr. president, were just as inspiring. governor phil murphy of new jersey has forged a partnership with rutgers university working closely with the fda. they've authorized a saliva-based test that is being deployed just at that site that's expanding their ability to track what continues to be a very challenging environment in new jersey. and governor mike parsons of missouri, mr. president, also told us how they've worked with google marketplace to create an

online portal for more than 200 companies in missouri who have repurposed their manufacturing lines to create medical supplies to meet their need within the state. and in connecticut governor ned lamont spoke about positive trend lines in connecticut which really has been at the center of the outbreak, but he also said they were hoping to double testing over the next week. mr. president, that's just a sampling of what we heard today. i know it's an encouragement to you, and i trust it's an encouragement to people all across the country that at your direction we are implementing a testing strategy that is sported at -- supported at the federal level, but it is deployed and managed at the state level. and we want to -- lou: that's it for us tonight. you're watching the corona task force briefing. president trump, vice president pence leading that briefing

today. and we want you to know that monday congressman doug collins and judicial watch's tom fitton will be joining us. we hope you'll be with us monday. we hope you have a great weekend. thanks for being with us this evening and all week long. good night from sussex. ♪ ♪ >> citizens to practice the kind of mitigation and social distancing efforts that are really making real progress. we're one team, one mission, and that's to save lives. because of all the efforts that have been made at the state level and the strong guidance that's come from the federal level, because of the amazing health care workers across this country and our first responders, but mostly i believe because of the cooperation of millions of americans who have put the guidance into practice. their cooperation and their prayers is have set us on a path where we are slowing the spread, we are protecting our most vulnerable. and i truly do believe the day will soon come when