stuart: many thanks to all of our viewers who sent in comments about the show in our friday feedback. if you are not careful we will do it again. we thank all of our viewers. time's up for me this friday, neil, it is yours. neil: i'm glad mine got through. i was worried he would not get my e-mail. thank you very, very much. i thought it was funny. have a wonderful weekend, in the meantime take a look, we have a selloff going on, we were down a lot already unconcerned about the number of cases building in the united states, roughly 40000 back-to-back days, we have not seen that through the whole ordeal. and the fact that so many states, half a dozen were seen of taking cases by about 10%, the real news came out of texas because up until now, the state governor has either slowed down

or delayed their plan phase reopening. in texas reversing that saying it must force bars to close today and only remain open for takeout and delivery, that saying that restaurants with indoor capacity right now, let's cut it down from 75% they have been getting used to but the last couple of weeks to 50% and anything to do with rafting and tubing, that stops immediately. so those actions, reversing earlier actions, the first time we have seen it got the markets attention and the fear that other states that have seen a similar uptick in cases with the real test availability and we might do the same. we have gotten hints out of florida that maybe that could be the off thing but that is way too soon to tell. again, the drill on wall street, you sell first and begin to ask

questions and get clarification later. we are also waiting to hear from the presidents coronavirus task force, we have not seen them in a public setting like this in almost two months, they're gonna be speaking again were told around the bottom of our we will monitor that, i had jackie deangelis on the fast-moving developments. >> good afternoon, the market is watching this very carefully, you look at half of the states in the united states and they say the case rates trend upwards, we see several states report new record and as you mentioned your florida and texas saying let's pause. in texas you mentioned bars were closed today, the restaurant keep in c is coming down, governor abbott also said he suspended elected surgeries, texas is in phase three of the reopening plan. in florida governor desantis is not moving to phase three until phase two is working properly. one of the restrictions in place is no alcohol will be served at

bars, right now it's going to be food only if you're going out, and los angeles the mayor asking residents to stay home and so is the governor of arizona. what we do know, the rate of coronavirus cases is spiking since the start of the outbreak and there is evidence that the people being infected are younger people and more likely to fight the virus without serious issue but what does raise concern is the risk of infecting the older more runnable population and that is the issue, we see stores like apple trying to be open and reclose their stores in texas and florida to try to better cope with this, that is what the market has feared that reopening will stop. positive notes to look at, consumer sentiment from michigan, a 78.1, a measure of how consumers feel about the economy and their purchasing power and consumer spending with eight-point to percent which was a rebound in may, we will see we can hold these as we move forward, here in new york city were still in phase two, phase

three set for july 6. neil: jackie, thank you very much, jackie deangelis, were getting an update from the white house, the president wants to go to new jersey today, he has a golf club there and resort and a home, he has canceled those plans, we don't know much more than that, we know blake burman is at the white house at the healthcare tax force briefing, the coronavirus task force reassemble for public comments. i guess the first time since around the end of april if i might. >> many, many weeks that we will actually have a briefing on camera from the coronavirus task force. their meeting behind closed doors at the health and human services headquarters and after that roughly half an hour from now is when will see members of the task force on camera answering questions from the media absurdly there will be questions about testing as doctor anthony fauci has raised

new concerns about where we stand in this country right now with testing, he gave an interview to the washington post and said the following, something is not working, you can do all the diagramming that you want but something is not working, he talked up the idea of pool testing which involves a group of people spitting into a cup horrible and that way if that sample turns out negative, you know all those people turned out negative well you tested 12, 15, 25 at a time, whatever the number you can get a group test all at once. if there's a positive then you take the individuals in that and give them individualized test. so you get group testing and also reduce the amount of test that you need to go one by one, they are considering the idea for dr. fauci is talking up the possibility that could be beneficial to sports teams and offices who need to test in

mass. on the issue of safety, we will keep her eyes over on the white house as there is a closed-door meeting with the vice president mike pence and executives from the airlines as they will talk about safety measures with their airlines that includes the leaders of united, american, delta, southwest and jetblue. they will discuss temperature checks, facemasks, contact tracing, that is an issue that has been between airlines and government and someone on a flight is tested positive for covid-19, what do the airlines and what information on the passengers do the airlines want to get to the government for contact tracing purposes. this afternoon the president will be signing an executive order as it relates to federal agencies and hiring that executive order was stressed the need to focus on skills-based hiring at the federal government level and not necessarily whether or not you have a diploma or what the diploma might be. you mentioned the president, he was supposed to leave the white house for new jersey, the white

house told us moments ago that is not going to be the case, they did not provide a reason as of yet, i will submit to you you see what is going on around the country right now especially in certain hotspots in covid-19 testing. and you have to wonder whether or not it was the right move to go to new jersey and clearly the white house has made the calculation that it is not. neil: thank you my friend, blake burman at the white house he will update the conditions in the briefing a little less then 25 minutes or so away. doctor with this right now, best-selling author, obviously there is been a reversal in a change in developments and that has got folks worried in the medical community that the surgeon cases and some of the states is not isolated to some of the state. i'm wondering what you make of that, particularly texas is reversed course not just slow

but reversing a couple. >> when we get new information, we have to act upon that, it is hard physically to get on the train and start moving forward, not just stop and take steps backwards, this is necessary to protect the health of our country, this is more dynamic than it appears on the surface, we had a record-breaking number of cases and at the same time the director warned this may be for every case reported maybe ten times more, we may have had 400,000 new cases yesterday and this is not due to increased testing but it is due to community spread, what's concerning about it, we know how covid-19 has passed, from person-to-person from respiratory drop but people are not heeding the advice that medical professional sent from the get-go. neil: you talk about community spread, we know the spread that they're getting an arizona and such that half of all the new

cases being reported are relevantly or 40s in their accounting for disproportionate waves, what do you make of that? >> many young people are doing their personal risk assessment saying i am young, healthy, i met a low likely that something major will happen to me. they say i'm going to live my life, i do not care, that's the wrong way of thinking because these people can serve as a reservoir to infect people who are older and not every young healthy person is immune to this, i take care of people and i pronounced death on young people. so nobody is completely immune, we have to be cautious about this and if it means were not going to go to the bar or we cannot gather with more than ten indoors and taking wise choices, these are important things we need to do. as a nation what we do over the next several weeks is very important. neil: we will watch very closely. i appreciate you taking the time

and as a doctor was speaking, we are getting confirmation from a number of states that there's a little bit of tit for tat going on where northeastern states and allowing those flying from some of these affect the state like in arizona and florida and texas, whether they would have to quarantine if they were to go to new york or new jersey or connecticut, the read on this from tori, the executive vice president of travel, i'm looking at some of these states that are imposing the new rules, whether that is going to impact travel and whether people from these states that might be quarantines are say to heck with the option cancel my travel plans. >> i think it's really clear, we need two things economic and job recovery. one we need state government, not to restrict travel and we

need everyone to wear masks, the safety is absolutely paramount and people are going to gather they need to do it safely but we need to get the economy back on track over a third of the job loss and a result of the pandemic are in travel industry and without getting people moving again in the health and safety way we will not be able to bring the jobs back. >> it is interesting, the government is doing a lot of it's time to provide the funding to get back on their feet, even with 80 or so billion dollars committed, the airlines are saying it's not enough for not changing where things are going, do you agree with those in congress who are contemplating a travel credit to be given and to incentivize to travel about $4000 what do you think about. >> we absolutely think that is an important idea, we think there needs to be stimulus for travel businesses to bring the

jobs back into get people moving. we have lost over 8 million jobs in this industry and the only way that we will bring them back is to get people moving and we think the tax credit being considered by congress and the administration is something supported on both sides of the aisle and could be meaningful as we head into the fall, i argue that a lot of the trouble that is happening is a dry cycle and opening up as a legion and travel that claim is down 84% year-over-year and were still not seen it in the airline industry. neil: i'm wondering if it's a double wheel me from the european union looking and lumping the united states and with the likes of brazil and russia for whom it would be careful allowing them into the region, i'm wondering if there citing it in a spiking cases in the u.s. to lump it would brazil

and russia were far more dramatic problems there as far as percentage basis and what all of that. that is not just sweeping but a little alarming. what do you think. >> absolutely, we are very clear with the right health and safety guidance in place, wearing masks is really critical, using hand sanitizer if you don't have handwashing capabilities out and about to make sure that you stay home if you're sick, but to see travel restricted by governments is not what's going to bring the economy back. there is a way to make a decision to put forward the public's health as well as the economics growth of our country which is absolutely necessary right now. so we absolutely think it is important to help folks move about again in the stimulus incentive is important and we

don't think there should be restrictions throughout the state and ultimately it's going to be important to open up the borders, we hope countries around the world work with the government and our government to make sure we have the right practices in place to keep americans health first and foremost but to move again will be important and eventually in the shorter-term at all be important to open up the international borders as well. >> we will watch it closely, in the meantime, thank you very, very much. good health and safety to you. we will keep an eye on that. but a lot of thoughts, not just in the travel industry are taking on the s&p 500 sectors are as well. a lot of this has to do with the spiking cases in texas, the reversal of what had been a fairly orderly opening reopening process there. but governor abbott saying for

the better part of the dollar it is time to close things down for bars and related trips, not just around the road, like immediately to see how things go. were also on top of other things as the days go by, what's happening with real estate industry, what's happening to people who might be contemplating buying a home, you would not know it with everything going on but that has gotten to be one of the stronger stories in the whole virus come back, barbara joining me for a special town hall on the ninth of july, when we get into this issue in more detail and see the strength of this country and notably where they're not as strong, what's happening in urban areas like new york when multimillion dollar penthouses go begging. the virus used to be there in a nanosecond. they are not there anymore. we will explore that in more important guest on a special town hall coming up on july 9.

right now we leave you with the dow down 588 points, will be exploring the settlement with the legal ratification of which they will be doling out $10 billion when all of this is said and done. ken will have a very big role with the distribution of money. all of that ahead. (announcer) carvana's had a lot of firsts.

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>> the country is in dire need, we formed a solution together with the plaintiff side and with a great help of ken feinberg to put this behind us, it is safe and absolutely nothing wrong with the product. neil: that was stuart varney, a $10.9 billion settlement to put the weedkiller issue behind it, ken feinberg will be in charge of disturbing those funds and key rolls in doing so whether you're talking about the rise in oil still going back to 9/11, funds from that. and a host of others, very good to have you back, this is a huge amount of money, how do you

begin this process. >> it's unique in the sense that the other settlements like bp or 9/11, you had settlements with 25 separate law firms. this is a tribute, the general counsel of monsanto who realized instead of one law firm, you have to go in corral 95000 claims by getting 25 different law firms to sign on and they did. now those law firms have to distribute the money, they have to get release that will in the litigation, there are still about 25000 cases outstanding that have not settled, they will, you will recall in 9/11 two thirds of all the outstanding 9/11 claims were filed, the last three months of

a 33 month program, people wait and watch but in the end i suspect just like gm, just like bp, they will all come in and i do not believe based on experience that they will be any further trials in this matter. >> obviously that was the hope to begin with that it could get this with a huge chunk of money to do so. but i'm wondering in dealing with the two dozen law firms, obviously each one as a different number of cases with parties involved, how do you look into to distributing the money among these? >> look, each of those law firms will distribute the aggregate amount of money and help them allocate money, huge inventories. i will help them allocate the funds designed to give them

funds so they voluntarily sign a release that they will not litigate and that would in roundup monsanto litigation. neil: for those, heidi look at that how you distribute those serially affected in those loved ones in the case of those who passed away and also the economic background, maybe that was famously put to the test when you are handling 9/11 distribution of funds and obviously a worker major brokerage rather the firefighter, there's different about compensation based on compensation potential that was lost tragically through their death, how to handle that here. >> same way, same way. partridge went out, different agreements with 25 different firms based on their inventory,

how many are seriously injured, how many are moderately injured, how many in remission, how many don't have much of an injury, our work with each of the 25 firms to allocate the money based on economic loss, financial background, made sure of the medical illness that collaborated, all of those factors, i will work with the lawyers of those 25 firms to make sure that the aggregate amount of money that partridge negotiated with each of those firms is distributed in a manner that will maximize the likelihood that they will all accept it, they'll accept my recommendation and that of the plaintiff lawyer, they will sign and the money will be distribute it. neil: we will watch it closely. ken feinberg, thank you very, very much. once again playing instrumental role -- >> figure very much. neil: think you can very much.

with the weedkiller had bought monsanto and hired the legal that came with that, this is the company's way of putting that to rest. by the way we told you earlier that the president cancel his plans to go to new jersey, a lot of people immediately thought that new jersey had travel restrictions from those from arizona and the president had been to arizona and were told by sources at the scene that has nothing to do with that in the president's cancellation. i throw that out there, bottom line he is not going to new jersey. and right now the white house seems to be saying will leave it right at that. more after this. ♪

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neil: a very busy day for travel airline news for example all the major heads of the airlines from american, united, delta,

jetblue, they will be with the vice president of the united states at the white house, this on the same day we have news from american airlines on july 1 it will remove its limit on passenger capacity, right now i believe they have been half-full, keep the middle c open, it is a little roomy, it won't be after july 1. about to pack them like sardines back in the planes. i don't know that's bad but if you're an average size person i'm sure you're fine like that, if your person like me you take a look around the plane and get off. edward lawrence is following the incentives that they are kicking around, the help your to help people travel . . . early rematch over the travel industry official about a check for $4000 to get you out of the house of doing something. where does this all stand. >> you're talking about a bill that martha mcnally is introducing, the tax rebate incentive program, she is giving

$4000 per individual to travel in the united states for expenses, $8000 for a joint filer with an additional $500 per child, this is retroactive meaning it includes all of the year for 2020, all of the year for 2021. what isn't it, it includes the lodging, expenses related to meals, and includes transportation, food and beverage, live entertainment which means sporting events, expenses related to a conference or business meeting, right now the senate finance is reviewing the proposal to be considered a vacation or trip and expenses must take place more than 50 miles from a person's primary residence. donald trump has been talking about tax breaks for business expenses like meals and entertainment. mix always bill includes business conferences, congressional sources are saying there is another bill related to promoting travel coming out next

week, that one will have bipartisan support, sponsored by nevada senator catherine cortez masto and kevin cramer from south dakota. cramer's office tells us they do not have an announcement on the bill just yet but i'm hearing it will involve tax breaks for travel, that bill according to sources on capitol hill may have more support to make it through to a vote because the bipartisan nature and catherine cortez masto is on the services committee, that may have a better chance but it looks like a tax rebate is being considered to go forward in congress. neil: thank you very, very much, were looking around the market right now and excessive lows, the dow down 626 points, it's a spike in cases that folks are worried about and were also waiting to hear of the coronavirus task briefing, the first time we have seen them all, april 27 last time we saw that. even in states not reporting any urgent spikes in new jersey for example, they are looking at

some trends that was a read, we got from the new jersey governor phil murphy yesterday, we do not know whether the comment that he had in the travel restrictions to get those coming from these affected states like arizona had anything to do with the president canceling his plans to go to new jersey this weekend, the white house is saying that was not the case and again, were reaching out to new jersey governor phil murphy's office to find out if there's anything on that front but joining us right now the woman, that's challenging governor murphy and the election, the former lieutenant governor of the beautiful state of new jersey. , very good to have you, thank you for taking the time i want to talk to you about, i'm sure you been watching and monitoring how they're going in the garden state and how the governor is handling things, your thoughts? >> thank you for having me i'm

not going to comment on what the governor is doing, that is his job to handle all of what is going on here in new jersey, i don't in be his job, i don't have access to the information he has access to, my job now is to try to see the people who are currently unemployed as a result of the virus, not because anything the governor has done that because he had to shut down the states and make sure people stay safe, the states have been shut down, they're beginning to open up, they have been shut down for more than 100 days in here the food bank at the jersey shore, we have seen a surge of hungry people coming to the food bank directly and we seen about 100% increase, 16000 more meals per day they were seen last year end that's clear from the pictures all over the united states but especially clear here

in the jersey shore where the economy relies on hospitality and everything shut down, about 105 days ago but it slowly beginning to open up but i think the virus has affected all of us and it will continue to affect all of us as they move the $600 bump of unemployment and another surge and then as these businesses can't stay open at 25% or 50%, will see another surge and if there's another second wave new jersey, we will see another surge in need. all of that around a presidential election will make life pretty interesting for people like me who provide services to the food insecure and hungry, it will be a real challenge for all of us as we going to a budget season in new jersey and the governor is working now on a budget, i don't see any money in that budget for food banks right now, even

though we've seen all the food bank in new jersey have seen a 40% increase in demand and if your people are listening and want to help us out go to nj.org and other food banks throughout the united states. we need to feed the demand. neil: what i like about what you're doing on that an economic privatproblems are one thing, iu cannot eat that's another thing, you're getting something that is basic. i am curious, when you look at this and what is going on is it your sense in the spiking cases, on the right or the left or democratic, governors or republican governors, and states across the country particular texas, arizona now, this is not

to be pretty serious. what do you think? >> it's impacting the way people are levelin living, i was in utk ago now i cannot go to utah. i was in florida a month ago. neil: i am very sorry, mike pence right now the coronavirus task force just assembling the stage to update us on where things stand for the first time in two months. >> good afternoon into our fellow americans out west, good morning. we just completed today's meeting in the white house coronavirus task force and i'm pleased to be joined by many members of the task force with us for this briefing. i want to thank secretary azar, doctor birx, dr. fauci, doctor redfield of the cdc and our attorney general doctor gerard of the u.s. public health

service and doctor hahn. we will make a series of presentations to update the american people on the status of the coronavirus pandemic. in the country and be able to take questions. but we very much appreciate the attendance of all who are here and all of you who have made time to tune in. as we reported today, we have now more than 205,000 mark is under contract to the coronavirus. sadly we have lost more than 126,00126,000 of our countrymeno this disease. i speak for the president and for every american when we express our sympathies and deepest condolences to all the family 12 lost loved ones. despite those losses, since the end of our 45 days to slow the

spread in the beginning of efforts to open up america, thanks to the cooperation of the american people, the efforts of governors and state health officials and efforts i want to probably say of the entire federal team under the leadership of president trump, we have made marco progress in moving our nation forward. and we see the encouraging news as we open up america again, more than 3 million jobs created in the last jobs report, retail sales are rolling. and of course the extraordinary progress in newark, new jersey, connecticut and new orleans, areas in just a matter of a month ago were struggling of the week of this pandemic. they have now arrived at a very different place.

as we stand here today all 50 states and territories across this country are opening up safely and responsibly but with cases rising vertically over the past week throughout the south, president trump, directed our task force to brief the american people. on several topics, first we want to share with you as doctor birx will what we are seeing in the rise of new cases that today sir mounted 40000 new cases in a single day. , secondly we want to speak about what we have done and what were doing at the federal level to support the state efforts particularly where we see rising cases, we will talk today about how this moment in the coronavirus pandemic is different and what we saw two months ago, to better equip the american people, to respond and ultimately we will speak about what every american can do to

play their part in reducing the spread and the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. for our part, i spoke to governors in arizona in the last 12 hours, doctor birx and i will travel on sunday to texas to arizona and all travel to florida on thursday of next week to get a ground report. and of course on monday we will conduct what are 26 weekly call with the entire white house coronavirus task force and all of the nation's governors as we meet this moment. as i mentioned it is important gathering today, i think we take a step back and think about how far we have come as a country.

when the president asked me too leave the coronavirus task force, he said we have one mission, to save lives. president trump's decision to suspend all travel from china, january to stand up the white house coronavirus task force, february to declare a national emergency to halt travel from europe and even travel from other places around the country, all contributed to giving our nation time to stand up a broad-based response, the whole of government response that we spoke about so many times at the podium throughout this pandemic. the state department also correlated the repatriation of 95000 americans and then came the moment where we brought this chart to the president of the united states on the council of our very best scientists. the president was presented with

the decision that if we did nothing, no intervention, the possibility existed at that moment in time that we could lose between 1.5 million in 2.2 million americans. but with intervention and with mitigation, calling on the american people to embrace the mitigation efforts, social distancing that were called upon first in the 15 days to slow the spread that would become 45 days to slow the spread, our best scientists believe that we could reduce the number of americans totality's to a number ranging between 100,240,000. the president made that decision and we unveiled the 15 days that became 45 days to slow the spread. and arguably as we see where we are today as a nation because of

what the american people have done in the incredible work of our healthcare workers because a partnership with governors in every state, we did just that. we slowed the spread, we flatten the curve, we save lives. in the midst of that we exponentially scaled testing capacity partnering with commercial laboratories, we have now reached 30 million test across the country conducting 500,000 test a day. in that partnership with governors also, the president directed us to make sure states had what they needed, when they needed him. at this point, i am pleased to report that the federal government both delivered and facilitated the delivery of billions of supplies of face shields, gallons, gloves and masks and we continue to be on track to construct more than

100,000 ventilators in 100 days. and as i spoke to governors last night, they confirmed again what fema has reported, we have no outstanding requests from any state at this time for personal protective equipment or medical supplies. let me say that again, in the affected areas, particularly the states down south that are seen rising cases, we have no outstanding requests. as i told the governors, were ready at a moments notice to search personnel, supplies, to expand capacity and support the healthcare response. in the midst of all of that, i think it always bears saying because of the great work of our healthcare workers in american manufacturing, no american who required a ventilator has ever been denied a ventilator in the united states. i consider that nothing short of a national accomplishment.

we also searched hospital capacity in areas of the greatest anticipated need, we sent military and national guard personnel and these charts showing the progress that we have made in new york and new jersey and new orleans all demonstrate the efforts of the people of those states and the cooperation with federal government and all the great healthcare workers to show the progress that we have made in areas that were once deeply impacted. we extend our thanks to the people of each of those states for the sacrifices that they have made during those great and challenging times. but at the close of the 45 days to slow the spread, we unveiled a plan to safely reopen america again and now all 50 states and territories are moving forward. as i said we see america go back to work and did much of the

country, we are seeing jobs expanding economic activity expanding. but our focus today is very much on the advent of our rising series of new cases across the american south, but where our first mission was to save lives, once we came out of the 45 days to slow the spread, what are task force has been focused on over the course of the past few months is to partner with states to save lives and safely reopen. the fact that we have had 17 meetings of the white house coronavirus task force in the intervening days since we began the process of opening up america again and we've been working very closely with states to move the agenda forward but as the president has made clear, we want to open our economy out

and we want to move america forward even while we take and continue to take the steps necessary to protect lives and the health of the american people. we stand here today because with the rising cases among southern states, president trump asked us to brief the american people to get details on what we are seeing, what we are doing and how it is different from two months ago. as you may recall, after seeing overall cases drop from 30000 a day average in april to 25000 a day average and may, the first few weeks in june saw cases averaging roughly 20000 new cases a day, we've now seen cases rise across the south. in fact, 34 states -- let me

make sure i have my numbers exactly right. as we reported early on, 34 states across the country are experiencing a major of stability that is accredited to all the people of the states. when we speak about a stability, were talking about not necessarily states where there's 1 million cases but these would be states where there are no new cases and no raising percentage or no combination of those two things. there may be states across the country that are seeing a modest increase in cases but there percentage of positive remaining very stable. and nevertheless there are 16 states with rising cases and rising percentages. and we will be focusing on the states today. the first thing we would share with the american people is while there is a pension and the national debate to use a

broadbrush and to paint an entire state one color, if there is rising cases in the portion of the state, this is a better picture of the data that we literally analyzed every single day. doctor brix will take a few moments to unpack the specific outbreaks in texas, ford, arizona and california. but the first thing we would convey to the american people is from this new positive result in the last three days, you can see the concentration of new cases and specific parts of states and of course very specifically in parts of countries -- in parts of the country. secondly we want the american people to understand, so most inarguable that more testing is generating more cases. to one extent or another, the volume of new cases coming in is a reflection of a great success in expanding testing across the

country, as i said at the top, we are testing more than ever before, 500,000 people a day and perhaps we could go to the testing chart if it is there to show you the acceleration of testing that is taking place over the course of this pandemic in the united states. it is truly been a remarkable and public and private partnership from the very outset, one thing that we are seen among the cases and we hear this in florida and texas and elsewhere, roughly half of the new cases are americans under the age of 35 which is at a certain level very encouraging news as experts tell us, we know so far in this pandemic that younger americans are less assessable to series of outcomes of the coronavirus. the fact that we are finding more younger americans who have

contracted the coronavirus is a good thing. we will speak about the testing and the admiral is here and can detail any questions that you might have about testing going forward. thirdly we will talk about what these new numbers mean, how we can address them in dr. fauci will speak about that in just a moment particularly in the affected areas and the other area that we spent a great deal of time thinking about is hospitalization, not only do we track new cases every day on a county by county basis but we also track hospitalization and the map on the left of your screen represents -- the coronavirus cases over the last 14 days, the map on the right shows you how we look at it.

and how we ensure that hospitals and healthcare workers have the resources and support that they need. again in a matter of new cases, you can see the hospitalization is highly focused and highly detailed and highly specific. secretary azar will speak about hospitalization, the work of hhs to make sure hospitals around the country have the capacity to meet this moment but as doctor brix may reflect, we are encouraged that two months ago we were seeing 15% of new cases being hospitalized, now that number is averaging 5% around the country which is also encouraging news to say the least. so while we have 16 states that

we are focusing on, i would reiterate to the american people the most useful thing to know is where it is happening seek and take the steps necessary to do your part but rest assured in our conversations with governors and all the most impacted stat states, we continue to be assured the hospital capacity remain strong and they know the federal government stands ready to provide them with the personal protective equipment or supplies or expanded capacity and personnel to meet at any moment. but at this point in time we are told that in all of the states with a hospitalization remains very broadly available. finally, i want to speak about the progress that we have made as a country on the most difficult aspect of this, i said at the beginning that our hearts and our prayers go out to the families who have lost loved

ones in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, i noise become behalf of everyone in this country and i extend our sympathies to the more than 126,000 families that have lost loved ones. this president has said many times, one life lost is too many. nevertheless, i believe at this point in the course of the pandemic, we can still take some comfort in the fact that fatalities are declining all across the country, there literally was a day two months ago when we lost 2500 americans in a single day. this week because of the extraordinary work of our healthcare workers and the availability of new medicines like remdesivir and steroids and because of the cooperation of the american people heating the

guidance that we gave at the federal level and state and local officials gave this week, there were two days where we lost less than 300 americans. you can see from this chart what has been a decline from some of the worst moments of this pandemic as the impacted areas of new york and new jersey in the northeast. and i have a heavy heart anytime i recite these numbers. but the fact that we are making progress in reducing the number of americans that we have lost and are losing, my hope is encouragement because as we see new cases rising and were tracking them very carefully, there may be in attendance of the american people thinking we are back to the place where we were two months ago, that were in a time of great losses into

great hardship on the macon people. the reality is, were in a much better place with the efforts president trump mobilized at the federal level, with the efforts of this team, the whole government approach, the efforts of governors across the country, are incredible healthcare workers in the cooperation of the american people, were at a much stronger place, the truth is we did slow the spread, we flatten the curve, were able to stand up the resources and the capacity in our healthcare system to be able to meet the coronavirus in a way that would put the health of all of our country first. but we have also cared for the most vulnerable and continue to focus resources and testing and supplies among the most vulnerable, seniors with serious underlying conditions. i believe with all my heart that we have continued to save lives, we created a solid foundation for whatever challenges come, either in the days ahead or in

the months ahead. that is that's a credit i believe to our president, our federal team, our state partners, but mostly it's a credit to the american people and our health care workers. so we stand here today, we believe we made progress but as we are reminded as we see cases rising across the south, that we still have work to do. so we say to every american, particularly those in counties and in states that are being impacted by rising cases, that now's the time for everybody to continue to do their part. and i think you will hear from this podium today a particular message to younger americans. younger americans across the sun belt and the role that you can play in protecting the vulnerable, making sure that while the coronavirus doesn't represent as significant a threat for a serious outcome to

a younger american, none of us would want to bring the disease back to our parents or grandparents, moms and dads and elderly friend, or a friend who has an immunodeficiency and cause a serious outcome as well. so we leave you just with the guidelines for all of the phases. when we put out the guidelines to open up america again, we laid out at the outset guidance for responsible reopening and states across the country, as i mentioned, are doing just that. 34 states are reopening safely and responsibly and seeing low and steady cases and not seeing a rise in the percentage of positives, and in the 16 states that are being impacted, particularly those we will focus

on here today, we would just encourage every american to follow the guidelines for all the phases. continue to practice good hygiene, wash your hands, avoid touching your face, disinfect frequent frequently. people who feel sick should stay home and when it comes to businesses, social distancing, protective equipment, temperature checks, testing and isolation. these are the guidelines for all of the phases. and they are good practices to implement. if you are in a community that's affected or even if you are not, because we are all in this together. the progress that we made that you saw illustrated in those charts in places like new york and new jersey, connecticut and new orleans was a result of the american people stepping forward, heeding the guidance of federal, state and local authorities. and we encourage you to continue to do just that.

at home, at work and in your community. but for those in the areas most affected, we just want to encourage you to listen to and respect the guidance of your state and local authorities. i recognize that this is different than two months ago, both in our ability to respond and in the nature of those that are being infected and that younger americans have a particular responsibility to make sure that they're not carrying the coronavirus into settings where they would expose the most vulnerable. and lastly, as i prepare to bring dr. birx to the podium, i just encourage every american to continue to pray. pray for all the families that have lost loved ones, pray for our health care workers on the front lines, and just continue to pray that by god's grace,

every single day, will each of us do our part to heal our land. with that, i will introduce the coordinator of the white house effort on the coronavirus, dr. deborah birx. >> thank you, mr. vice president. thank you for that great introduction. just to remind everybody where we have come from in the last four months, we have a great deal of understanding now about the differential disease. differential infections, we believe everyone is susceptible to infection but we know infection leads the a spectrum of disease and we have much better details about who is vulnerable and why they are vulnerable, and as the vice president said, at one time, we were diagnosing people in the icu after they came into the emergency room. and thanks to the millenials who have been heeding our guidance, they have been coming forward and getting testing, so whereas

before we told them to stay home, now we are telling them to be tested, and this is a great change for us, because it allows us now to find the asymptomatic and the mild diseases that we couldn't find before. as dr. redfield talked about yesterday, from the serology tests, we have a great understanding of what was happening in march and the number of asymptomatic and mild conditions that led to individuals to have antibodies but never come forward with significant disease. we now know who's at risk for significant disease and we now know it's particularly the elderly individuals over 80 and individuals with comorbidities and remember those comorbidities span the entire age group. we do know we have people in the younger age groups with significant type i diabetes and may also have individuals with significant obesity. we know that those are risk factors so risk factors go with

your comorbidity, not necessarily with your age. so as we call on individuals to protect one another, by passing someone on the street, you don't know what comorbidities they have, and this is why we have been focused on trying to protect one another. we also know who's at risk for the highest mortality and because of that, we have been able to -- the clinical care has dramatically improved and i want to thank nih, who has been working constantly to update the clinical guidelines so physicians around the united states and frankly, around the world who are using those have the most updated information about how to actually improve disease courses of those that are in the hospital. we of course have improved treatment in the hospital that we didn't have in march and april, with improved methods of oxygenation which is really quite important, improved treatment of acute respiratory distress, that's so that individuals on the ventilator, we know now will respond quite well to steroids, then research that is ongoing in what we call

the acute cytokine storm, that is often when in that later stage when people are on ventilators, the seriously ill may need steroids and other items and that's being researched, and the work that's being done on clotting research by the nih. we also have new therapeutics that have been used both as compassionate use like convalescent plasma and now remdesivir that we just reallocated and ensured it was available to these states that are facing the increased hospitalizations as well as monthly allocations that we have been sending out. we can go to the first slide, please, and start where the vice president left off. really, this disease is tackled community by community. testing at the community level and working with community groups to understand the spread in those communities, so we have spent the time to really map this epidemic and new positives down to the level of communities to understand where spread is occurring so that we can match

our prevention interventions to those areas. next slide, please. as we discussed, it's difficult for you to see on this graphic because the top line is new york and we should remember where we were in that slope, that early slope that you can see in the case of the new york cases, that rapid acceleration. on the same slide, you can see california, that is the blue line that is just passing the orange line and also on the slide is texas in green, florida in orange and arizona at the bottom. as dramatic as these slopes are, they are not equivalent to the original acceleration that we saw in new york. that doesn't mean that we aren't absolutely focused on working with the governors in those communities to stop the spread of the virus in those four states. next slide, please. this shows you through the entire country that we are tracking state by state, now

obviously this axis is vastly different than the one on the prior slide because that slide included all of the cases in new york city, but you can see on this slide that we have been tracking very closely north caroli carolina, a team has been in north carolina working with the state and local public health authorities to really respond to the changes there as well as south carolina at the bottom. next slide. i will just go quickly through these so you can see oklahoma is at the bottom of this slide and next slide, you can see on this slide idaho and oregon. those are the ones in the light blue and dark green, where you see an inflection in their slope. these inflection points and understanding when they occur and why they occur are critical for understanding how to prevent the spread. next slide. what the vice president talked about is we have created an alert system that brings together what we just talked about, rising cases with an

understanding of test positivity. so this really, this chart which is difficult for you to see, those states on that far side that have the highest test positive that you can see at the higher level of the graph, those are the states that we have concerns about because of the rising number of cases and the rising tests positive. this explains the extent of community spread in states that have increasing cases but falling test positive, it tells us they are getting into the communities to find the asymptomatic cases. so these are the things we have put together to understand the full picture. next slide, please. so this really puts on one slide the states that we have that we have been talking about across the south where we have our greatest concern. the two top states with the largest increase in test positives are texas and arizona followed by florida,

mississippi, south carolina, alabama, georgia, louisiana, nevada and utah. those last states are still under 10% but we are tracking them closely as we look at that individually. finally, next slide, you can see on this slide we are tracking, this is where you hear about we have a certain 2% or 3% of the counties under specific alerts, so it doesn't matter the size of the county. we are tracking the increase in the rate of increase of new cases at the county level. we currently have about 130 counties out of the 3,100 in the united states in that category. next slide. this shows you case positivity by the metros and the number of tests that have been done. next slide. then this shows you specifically the change over time of test positivity and the largest metros where we have concerns. this is austin, phoenix,

houston, dallas, san antonio, tampa, orlando, miami, riverside, california and atlanta at the bottom. so this is how we continue to integrate data on cases, data on testing and data on hospitalizations so that we can work with the states for a comprehensive integrated response. next slide. i know many of you will be interested in seeing how high the test positivity rate became in april and -- well, march and april. so that top line is new york city metro and you can see it reached over 50% on a series of days for almost two weeks, 50% of the tests were positive for covid-19. underneath that, you see new jersey and minnesota and a whole series of individuals. detroit is the second large mountain. next slide. so quickly to show you how we look at this at the state level, and work with the governors and local health authorities.

so this is florida. we track testing, it's the number of test positives in the blue line, the total number of cases seen in the black bar and what we call this syndromic presentation of early respiratory diseases and pneumonias. next slide. this then, we look at the county level to look for changes in the slope of the number of new cases. so you can see that top county that has the largest increase in slope in cases is miami, miami-dade followed by broward and palm beach. all the other counties are lower in their daily case increases. this allows us to focus resources and testing along with the state into these specific sites. next slide. that all comes together to keep -- to create this graphic so that individuals can understand and we can understand precisely what the rate of growth is and where the rate of growth is occurring by the

shading of the boxes. i'm going to quickly take you through texas because it's the same story. next slide. so this shows you the exact same graphics now shown for texas, showing a continued rise in the daily tests performed but also a rise in the test positivity, the blue line. you can see throughout may after opening, their test positivity continued to decline as their testing increased. it was in the last two and a half weeks that we saw this inflection of rising test positivity along with rising testing, but it was the increase in test positivity that alerted us along with the increased cases that this was becoming an alert. you can see in the red boxes, everything is heat-mapped so at a glance, you can tell those two boxes that are in the middle that are red, that the heat map is showing this has rising cases

and rising test positivity. next slide. even in texas -- next slide, please. this gives you a map of texas or shows where the cases are and where they are rising the most rapidly. finally, i'm just going to go through arizona very quickly along with california. next slide. same situation that we are showing here with arizona, rising number of tests being performed but also rising test positivity, rising cases. next slide. arizona is unique, they have essentially one county that is primarily represented by the depth of the new cases. this is in the phoenix area. next slide. next slide. so this is california. so you can see california over the last week has had that increase in test positivity. you can see that dramatic increase at the end of that bar, in the blue line, along with still increasing test positive -- testing that has

been done, and we just want to thank all of the governors and all of the work in all the laboratories that has allowed us along with hhs and bret giroir to ensure supplies were there and really increased these orange lines. you can see in each of these cases, these orange lines have dramatically gone up over the last four weeks. next slide. like new mexico, the primary infections right now in california at the highest level are in the l.a. area but because l.a. is a large metropolitan area, next slide, you really need this kind of more specific and local graphic to really show that it's also increasing in the central valley. this gives us the ability to focus resources among agricultural workers to improve testing and isolation for those who become positive. i just wanted to take you through how we have been looking at data, how we consolidate that

data, then monday reported out to the governors. we hope over the next week to be able to really have this data available in realtime on the white house website so that everybody across the country can see where the cases are because in the end, we really want to call to action, when we started talking about what can be done, we said the most important thing that would change the spread and i'm going to turn that over because i know tony will talk about it, is really individual behavior and our respect for one another through social distancing, wearing a mask and ensuring that we are protecting the most vulnerable that may be in multi-generational households and i just want to end by thanking again the millenials who have come forward and i know during the protests we asked a lot of them to go forward and get testing and we see those testing rates really improving in the under 40 age group. that is going to be important to continue to accelerate testing among the under 40 age group because that's the age group most likely to have asymptomatic

spread, and be spreading the virus unknown to them and i want to really make it clear, no one is intentionally spreading the virus but they don't know that they're positive, they don't have symptoms and need to be tested in order to have that awareness. so we really want to thank them again for coming forward and really enriching the amount of testing that has been done in the under 40-year-old age group and to our older population, you know if you have co-morbidities, you know if you are over 80, we ask you in these hot spots, in these states that are having expansion in cases, to continue to shelter as much as you can and use your grandchildren to go and do your shopping. >> thank you very much, dr. birx, and thank you, mr. vice president. so i want to extend just for a couple of minutes some of the comments that were made both by the vice president and by dr. birx and it has to do with the situation that we find ourselves facing right now.

it's very clear from the maps that you saw that there are certain areas in the country, states, towns, cities, regions, that are doing very well, that followed the guidelines and are opening up in a prudent way that's been effective. however, as you can see, we are facing a serious problem in certain areas. now, when you look at the map, it's very interesting because you see some dark parts of the map and some light parts of the map. we have a very heterogenous country but that does not mean we are not intimately interconnected with each other. so what goes on in one area of the country ultimately could have an effect on the other areas of the country. so let's take a look at this problem that we are facing now, this resurgence of cases. i don't think there's time enough now all day to try and analyze and figure out the multi-faceted elements that went into that. you know, everything from maybe opening a little bit too early on some to opening at the right

time but not actually following the steps in an orderly fashion, to actually trying to follow the steps in an orderly fashion but the citizenry did not feel they wanted to do that for a number of reasons, likely because everyone feels the common feeling of being pent up for such a long period of time. so we're not going to say blame, we are not going to try and analyze it but there is something that's very important about it that i would like to get a message to the country in general. when you have an outbreak of an infectious disease, it's a dynamic process that is global, so remember, what happened in china affected us. what happened in europe affected us. what's happening here is affecting others. we can't get away from that. it's interconnected. so therefore, if we are an interconnected society, we have got to look at the fact of what our role is in trying to put an end to this. everybody wants to end it. everybody wants to get back to

normal and everybody wants the economy to recover. i think we all are pretty common in that. that's a given. so what can we do? what i think upon talking to a lot of people and reflecting on it, we have such an unusual situation because in all of the decades that i have been involved in chasing infectious diseases, i have never seen anything that is so virulent in its ability to make people sick or not. there's no other infectious disease that goes from 40% of the people having no symptoms to some having mild symptoms to some having severe, some requiring staying at home for weeks, some going to the hospital, some getting intensive care, some getting intubated, some getting ventilated and some dying. so that depending on where you are in that spectrum, you have a different attitude to this particular thing. but anyone who gets infected or is at risk of getting infected, to a greater or less degree, is

part of the dynamic process of the outbreak and i know because i can understand when i was at a stage in my life when i said well, i'm invulnerable so i'm going to take a risk, i think what we are missing in this is something that we have never faced before. is this a risk for you is not just isolated to you, because if you get infected, you are part, innocently or inadvertently, of propagating the dynamic process of a pandemic because the chances are that if you get infected, that you are going to infect someone else and although you may feel well and because we know if you look at the numbers that you are probably here later on, the overwhelming majority now of people getting infected are young people, likely the people that you see in the clips and in the paper were out in crowds enjoying themselves, understandably, no blame there,

understandably, but the thing that you really need to realize that when you do that, you are part of a process so if you get infected, you will infect someone else who clearly will infect someone else. we know that happens because the reproduction element of the virus is not less than 1. so people are infecting other people. then ultimately, you will infect someone who's vulnerable. that may be somebody's grandmother, grandfather, uncle, who is on chemotherapy, and who is on radiation or chemotherapy or a child who has leukemia. so there is what i call, again, i just want to bring this out without making it seem that anybody's at fault, you have an individual responsibility to yourself but you have a societal responsibility because if we want to end this outbreak, really end it, then hopefully when a vaccine comes and puts the nail in the coffin, we have to realize that we are part of

the process. so when the vice president went back, pulling back a couple of months ago when we showed about the guidelines to safely reopen the country, we've got to make sure we drop back a few yards and think about that, that this is part of a process that we can be either part of the solution or part of the problem. so i just want to make a plea with people when they understand the stress that they're under, as we try to tackle not only those states, but the light-colored part of the country even though they have done well, they may have gotten hit badly like new york and then came down, or they may not have got hit badly at all, they are vulnerable, if we don't extinguish the outbreak, sooner or later even ones that are doing well are going to be vulnerable to the spread. so we need to take that into

account because we are all in it together and the only way we are going to end it is by ending it together. thank you. >> well, first, thank you all for joining us here at hhs to update the american people. i want to begin by thanking everyone around the country working to defeat this virus. all of the health care providers, on the front lines, those working to reopen our economy safely, the american people who have sacrificed so much in this fight and the incredible numbers of our hhs team who have been working tirelessly to protect the health and wellbeing of all americans. before covering today's topic, i want to mention a major milestone for global health yesterday. the end of the second largest ebola outbreak in history in the eastern democratic republic of the congo. we congratulate the government and all the health care workers and government workers involved, some of whom i had a chance to meet and thank last fall.

under president trump, the united states was proud to play a bigger role in this major public health victory than any other single nation. now thanks to the president and the vice president's leadership and the hard work of our team, america has never been readier to combat covid-19. we built up our readiness under the strategy we developed to address surges, save lives and in time defeat the virus. we are in a much stronger position to support states, hospitals and individuals as they fight back. there are six parts to the strategy, surveillance, testing, containment, health care capacity, therapeutics and vaccines. first, we have been strengthening surveillance so that we can be aware of and respond to surges. that means for instance, being able to track more cases among younger americans that we never would have caught earlier in the pandemic. second, we have the world's greatest testing capabilities enabling us to confirm the presence of the virus when it crops up and we are confident that capacity will continue to

rise in the coming months. third, states are building the capacity to track and contain outbreaks of the virus. with federal help, many states have substantially expanded their own capabilities and were deploying knowledgeable experienced cdc and hhs public health teams to the areas now seeing increases, with a focus on community testing and community-based interventions. fourth, we are helping health care systems secure sufficient capacity and supplies. we have dramatically expanded american manufacturing of ppe and the fda has authorized new technologies to sterilize equipment for reuse. we have spoken with hospitals and states that are building up their own ppe reserves, many of them getting up to 60 or 90 days of supplies. through the strategic national stockpile we have far more visibility into the supply needs across the country, including centralized coordination capabilities that we lacked just a few short months ago. visiting health care providers

around the country have seen how they're adapting to bring patients back while taking appropriate precautions. america's hospitals are ready to get back to business while maintaining their readiness for covid-19. the fifth and sixth elements of the strategy are thanks to the president's operation warp speed. we now have promising therapeutics that are benefiting tens of thousands of american patients and in all likelihood have already saved thousands of lives. we have identified two very promising pharmaceutical treatments, remdesivir and dexamethasone. as of today we have allocated more than 120,000 courses of remdesivir to all of the 50 states. we have added dexamethasone, a very low cost steroid, to our treatment guidelines and we believe it's reasonable to assume that other corticosteroids which may be more readily accessible in some places, would have similar immunological effects. another promising therapeutic, convalescent plasma, has been

used to treat more than 25,000 americans at more than 3,000 sites across the country. there are no certainties in science but with more than 140 clinical trials under way in the u.s., it's a pretty safe bet that more good news on therapeutics is on the way and on the way soon. finally, we have announced large investments to support three different vaccine candidates all the way through to manufacturing. these candidates are now in human clinical trials. some with the potential to start delivering safe and effective doses before the end of the year, and we'll be adding support for several more candidates. we are expanding manufacturing capacity and already making the vials, needles and syringes we may need. our capabilities have grown exponentially in the time allowed by the patriotic sacrifices of the american people. we have a much better grasp of the virus as dr. birx said and much more data with which to model it. with that data as you have heard today, we can focus on local trends. we have some very concerning hot spots and we can track when

other hot spots emerge as we expect they may. we are focused on the states and the counties within those states. just 3% of counties that represent hot spots. it's important for the american people to be aware of this ability in variation across the country. americans need to understand their local trends because we want to help people make the right decisions for themselves. making decisions for yourself has to be based on three axes of risk as our surgeon jugeneral td us. assess who you are, who you live with and what activity you are thinking about doing. there are gradations of risk within each of these. going to an outdoor restaurant in montana is a great deal different from a crowded indoor bar in houston. when you interact with fewer people in an activity, when you interact with them for a shorter period of time, your risk is reduced. individuals can balance these kinds of factors. what i have laid out today is

remarkable progress by the president's administration and a particular credit to the team here at hhs. we have got a lot of work ahead of us but americans can be confident that we have a rock-solid foundation to help us get safely back to work, back to school, back to worship, and back to health care while we tackle surges of the virus where they occur. thanks to president trump's leadership, we have got the capabilities, the knowledge and the strategy to protect americans' lives and livelihoods at the same time. and every american should feel proud of that. thank you. >> thank you, mr. vice president. i wanted to add some comments. once again, i want to stress and thank all americans to embrace the importance of social distancing recommendations to slow the spread of covid.

as i have said before, we are not defenseless. these are, in fact, very powerful weapons and it's our collective responsibility to recommit ourselves to put them into routine practice. again, to stay six feet apart from each other as much as possible, to wear face coverings when we're in public, and to practice vigorous hand hygiene, and to commit to do so as we have heard today to do our part to protect the vulnerable. i also want to appeal to the millenials and those that are under 40. it's really important that this group really commit themselves to these practices to protect those at risk and it's not just the elderly that are at risk. many of us may have friends and colleagues that are younger that may not advertise their underlying co-morbidities, as the case would be with, say, type i diabetes or an underlying

immune deficiency. again, asking this team, millenials and younger people in this country, to come and commit themselves. i agree with ambassador birx, we are very thankful that the group is now coming forward to get tested, but i also want this group to put into practice the importance of our social distancing. the one thing that i wanted to stress, though, is that there are differences in what we're experiencing today than what we all experienced in march and april and may. and one of the things i want us to focus on is not the cases, per se, but the consequences, the impact of those cases. it wasn't long ago, probably within two months ago, it's hard to believe, i don't think many people realize that 27% of all

deaths that occurred in the united states actually died of pneumonia that was a pneumonia could have been influenza, could have been covid. 27%. one in four of all the deaths in the united states just two months ago was caused by pneumonia. i'm happy to say today, the deaths to pneumonia in this nation is back to baseline, about 7%. it's a big difference. a lot of those pneumonias that were dying were actually covid infected individuals that were the elderly, nursing homes and individuals with co-morbidities. we are seeing, despite these increased cases, we have seen progressive decline in deaths over the last say two-week average, deaths in the united states now is around 650 and as you heard the vice president, it wasn't long ago that sadly, we were losing 25,000 individuals a day.

so i think it's critical that we continue to focus on that, the consequences. it's part of that why it's important that we continue also to look forward to how we deal with and contain and control the covid infection but as we also change the consequences of the impact it's had on education in this country or as an economy and business. so again, as i close, i want to just re, re, reemphasize how important for now for individuals to really think seriously as tony said about the responsibility to others that we have, because this infection pathogen really does have the capacity to cause quite serious illness in individuals at high risk and embrace our nation's recommendations that the vice president put up again that we have for all phases of reopening in america. again, i also want to thank the younger groups for stepping forward and getting tested.

clearly what we are seeing now is this age group is much more likely to be asymptomatic and again, to make that commitment to do their part to protect those of us that, whether we're young or old, have a co-morbidity and would be more vulnerable to serious illness from this virus. thank you very much. >> thank you, dr. redfield. questions? yes, please. reporter: all of the experts within the task force are stressing the importance of social distancing and also the threat of crowds. yet your campaign has held two massive rallies, no social distancing, no masks. can you tell me, even dr. fauci has talked about not gathering in large crowds, can you tell me why you continue to do this? why your campaign continues to hold these rallies? >> well, the freedom of speech, the right to peaceably assemble is enshrined in the constitution

of the united states and we have an election coming up this fall, and president trump and i believe that taking proper steps as we created screening at recent events and giving people the very best counsel that we have, we still want to give people the freedom to participate in the political process. we respect that. i was pleased to see that now the better part of a week since we were in oklahoma, i think their positivity rate is actually declined as of today, and that's great testament to the fact that people are using common sense, they are being responsible. they know and understand what's happening in the community in which they live and our emphasis today is really to say that we think it's most helpful if the american people understand that what we're seeing across the

south today is really outbreaks, they're outbreaks that are in specific counties, in some cases they're outbreaks that are in specific communities and we surged cdc personnel, hhs personnel -- i didn't mention before, but three weeks ago when we were seeing similar activity in north carolina and alabama, we sent personnel into those states and we have actually seen declining numbers beginning in both of those states. so the important thing is that not one size fits all. the overall guidance to every american to practice good hygiene, to practice the measures that we recommended at home and at work, stand, but our focus today is to make sure that in those areas of the country where we're seeing a significant not only increase in cases but an increase in positivity level, that the american people know just how important it is to listen to what their state and local health officials are

directing them to do. please. reporter: it seems like the wearing of masks has kind of become a political statement or i guess the decision not to wear a mask. are you concerned about that, and is there a message that you would like to send to people about the importance of wearing masks? >> well, we think that the first principle is that people ought to listen to their state and local authorities. i have to tell you, president trump and i couldn't be more grateful for the partnership we forged with governors around the country. i spoke to the governor of florida, of arizona, of texas, just within the last 12 hours, and i told them that from this podium today, we would remind their citizens to heed the guidance and the direction of state and local officials. in some cases, there's statewide guidance with regard to facial coverings and with regard to events and gatherings.

in other cases, there is specific county-wide or city-wide directives and we just believe that what's most important here is that people listen to the leadership in their state and leadership in their local community and adhere to that guidance, whether that has to do with facial coverings, whether it has to do with the size of gatherings. we'll continue to reinforce that message. please. reporter: you mentioned the importance of listening to state and local authorities. what is the correlation between the spike in cases that we are seeing in states like texas and florida and the way those states handled their reopening? was it too much, too soon? secondly, i wanted to ask dr. fauci, you said in an interview that quote, something is not working. what isn't working and did you all in your meeting today come up with a plan to fix whatever isn't working? >> well, let me respond first, then i will let dr. fauci address it as well.

dr. birx may as well. i think there will be a temptation for people to look at these sun belt states that have been reopening and putting people back to work and suggest that the reopening has to do with what we're seeing in the last week or so, but frankly, in the case of each of these states, they reopened in some cases almost two months ago. and their test cases, their new cases from testing was low and steady, their positivity rate was low. what we're observing today and i have heard this from florida, i have heard this from texas, and some other states, along the sun belt, is that we are seeing more and more young people under the age of 35 who are testing positive. in many cases they have no

symptoms. but they are coming forward and confirming that they have contracted the coronavirus. we are working with the states. you speak about our plan. we've got cdc personnel imbedded in every state in the union. we are surging more cdc personnel as requested to each of these states to help them unpack what the data is suggesting. i know the governor of texas announced some new measures this morning which we fully support, but what we're going to continue to do is give our state leadership the very best information, the very best counsel that we have and if there's one message that comes through today, i hope it is saying to younger americans in these states and in these counties in particular, that they are a big part of the numbers that we are seeing in new cases and while there may not be a significant threat of a

serious health outcome to them, i know of no young person and i've got three 20-somethings in my immediate family, no young person would ever want to inadvertently expose a mom, a dad, a grandmother, grandfather or someone who is vulnerable to a serious result and so alerting them that there's been spread among that age group urging them to take countermeasures and heed what their governors and local officials are directing would be our continued strategy. dr. fauci, did you want -- >> what i meant by what is not working, and this is not anybody's fault or any institution's fault, is that what we're dealing with right now is community spread in the context of a substantial proportion of the people who are getting infected do not know they're infected, they're not symptomatic. they are asymptomatic

individuals. the classic paradigm of identification, isolation and contact tracing to actually contain that is very difficult to make that work under those circumstances. you superimpose upon that the fact that even with identification, isolation and contact tracing, often the dots are not connected. if you get on the phone and talk to people who are in some of these communities, you find that a lot of it is done by phone. and when it's done by phone, maybe half of the people don't even want to talk to one who they think is a government representative. if you live in a community that is mostly brown or black, you are in a different situation that maybe 70% of them don't really want to talk to you. you can identify a contact but you don't isolate them because you don't have the facility to isolate them. that is what's not working. so what we are going to do, and we are doing, and you are going to be hearing about this, flooding the area of a community to get a feel for what's out there, particularly among the

asymptomatic. so in other words, it's a paradigm shift because we are dealing with young people, people who are going to be asymptomatic, and people who are getting infected in a community setting, not an outbreak setting where you know who to identify, isolate and contact trace. that's what i meant. reporter: i just want to -- >> i want to expand his thought for just a second. about three months ago we talked about how important it was to have community at the center. i think when you talk about what's going to be different, part of the reason why the president and vice president have asked me to go out to texas, new mexico and arizona, is to not only meet with the state and local health officials but to meet with the community groups so that the community groups can help us support community-specific messaging. public health messaging, when you just keep saying the same thing over and over again and

the people get tone-deaf to it, it's because it's not tailored to their specific circumstances and they don't see that message resonating in their lives. we have had to do this across the world. i have done this over and over again for hiv, tb and malaria. at the center of this has to be the community. the community will help us identify who needs to be tested, help us identify which households have the most vulnerability in them and how we can really go into those communities and support that response at a very local and ground level. when we started this, we were very much facility-based. we know facilities carry us a long way. but if we want to change the transmission rates in these metros, in specific communities and specific parts of those metros, we've got to walk side by side with our community leaders and our community groups that know how to translate our scientific dogma and information down to a level where people

will understand it, hear it and act on it. i know when they hear it and understand it, they will act on it. so that's -- when you ask what's going to be different, that has already started and it's already going to be different. >> let me answer that. that's exactly what we did with hiv30 years ago. we got the community involved in helping us to outreach. i think that's very important to underscore what dr. birx said. that's exactly what's being planned to do to get people who know the community, who live in the community, who the community trusts. reporter: do you expect the death rate to go up in the next three or four weeks just like we are seeing the rate of infection go up now? >> well, our hope and our prayer is that is not the case. we have seen, as you noted, we have seen a precipitous decline in fatalities and again, one is too many. we grieve the loss of every

american life. but the fact that two months ago, we had lost 2500 americans in a single day and two days this week, we lost less than 300 americans is a testament to our health care workers, to all the medicines that secretary azar just described being available in all 50 states, it's testament to the efforts of the american people and we hope as we continue to engage, that we will continue to see those numbers decline. the other reason we are encouraged is because at this point, when we look at our losses, roughly 2.5% of all of our losses took place in people under the age of 25. younger americans in each case or at least 90% of the cases,

they were people with pre-existing conditions, underlying conditions that contributed to the sad outcome. so as we see that in florida and texas, they have reported to us that half or even more than half of the new cases that are showing up every day are people under the age of 35 or younger americans, in most cases asymptomatic, our hope is that those younger healthy americans like most have already will continue to go through the coronavirus, will recover, but our message today as we have spent so much energy in the last four months protecting the most vulnerable. we have deployed testing resources, we supported states' efforts, states across the country in the last month have answered our call to test all the residents of their nursing homes, to set up a plan to test all of the staff on a regular basis, we need to protect the

most vulnerable and we want a message going out to younger americans, particularly those along the sun belt in these counties where we see new cases on the rise, positivity on the rise, to know that we need them to do their part to make sure and protect the most vulnerable so that we can -- so that we don't see those losses rise. but it's in the hands of the american people, particularly young people in this country. reporter: question for the doctors. on the campaign, it really does sound like you are saying do as we say, not as we do. you are telling people to listen to local officials but in tulsa you defied local health officials to have an event that even though you say it didn't result in a spike, dozens of secret service agents, dozens of campaign staffers are now quarantined after positive tests. and in arizona, one of the hardest hit states, you packed a church with young people who weren't wearing masks. so how can you say the campaign

is not part of the problem that dr. fauci laid out? >> well, i want to remind you again that freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble is enshrined in the constitution of the united states. even in a health crisis, the american people don't forfeit our constitutional rights. working with state officials as we did in oklahoma and as we did in arizona, we are creating settings where people can choose to participate in the political process and we will continue to do that. i think it's really important that we recognize how importa important -- how important freedom and personal responsibility are to this entire equation, that allowing younger americans -- allowing younger americans to understand particularly in the counties

that are most impacted, the unique challenges that we're faci facing, at their age group, we think is important but look, it's so important that we recognize that as we issued guidance to reopen america now two months ago, and now as all 50 states are opening up our country again, people are going back to work, american everyday life is being restored kind of one step, one day at a time, i think it's important that we remind ourselves this is not a choice between the health of the american people and a strong economy. there are profound health implications to the lockdowns through which we just passed. i heard a statistic not long ago at a task force briefing that in

one jurisdiction, there had been a 50% increase in the number of people presenting at emergency rooms having attempted suicide. there are profound mental health issues. there are profound economic issues. people needing to be back to work. and so our objective here today is just to make sure the american people know in 34 states, the cases are largely stable and there's no combination of rising cases and rising positivity rates. that's a tribute to the american people. in the 16 states we're focused on today, we simply want to equip particularly young people with the knowledge of the part that they can play in stemming the rising tide of new cases. not because the coronavirus represents a significant threat to them. in most cases it doesn't, if you are a younger american. but because we don't -- no younger american would ever want to spread the coronavirus to

someone who would have a serious outcome. but i'm grateful for the time today. we hope this has been helpful. we'll be back with more information as time goes on. thank you. neil: you have been listening to the president's coronavirus task force briefing, minus the president. the vice president outlining some things. fascinating developments here in this discussion. this as we got news that texas has reversed course on a lot of phased openings. governor abbott there shutting down bars, scaling back restaurant dining, massive outbreak there. we have seen similar outbreaks in arizona and in florida. one interesting development that we didn't realize until we heard from the briefing members, dr. birx, dr. fauci, is the disproportionate number of young people who have been testing positive, particularly in arizona, where they make up

about [ inaudible ] of the cases, those in their 20s, 30s and up into their 40s. not all millenials, but a reminder that the age shift, and they couldn't explain exactly what accounted for that outside of maybe some anecdotal evidence that when young people de-sheltered, they tend to be in larger crowds or maybe exhibit more risky behavior, not that, you know, going out in crowds is risky behavior, but that it is indeed a new development here, that more young people are being diagnosed with the coronavirus. we are also getting reports in florida that it is closing down on bars that serve liquor which obviously a lot of bars do, trying to police that. that is the largest extent to which governor desantis there has sort of dialed things back a little bit. let's get a read on this with dr. louisa petrie. doctor, what do you make of this

latest development here? more young people that are popping up in these cases and in the case of arizona, more than half the latest wave of cases. what's going on? >> yes, neil, which is not surprising for a few reasons. number one, these states we are seeing the surge of cases, they reopened maybe too soon. they did not follow the federal guidelines when it comes to [ inaudible ] the number of cases. number two, [ inaudible ] celebration of recreation parties from father's day and memorial day weekend. the third, those are the states that did not really reinforce the social distancing and wearing the mask. it's not surprising we are seeing a lag of two weeks later, 14 days when these cases are actually surging. again, they are still doubling from a week to another and that's concerning. we don't know where the peak is going to be yet.

they are hitting a pause right now on reopening but there is still more to come. we are still looking to see what's happening in another three weeks. neil: you know, a lot of people worry when they hear reports of more cases discovered. so far, minus texas, maybe arizona, hospitalizations, intensive care unit beds, are on the rise, or the use of them, but we have not seen a dramatic uptick in deaths and i'm wondering if because we're better at dealing with this or more effective at dealing with it early, is it your sense that at least the fatality count will not be as severe as some fear, even with these increasing cases? >> there are two explanations here. one, it's too early. we know it takes about three to four weeks between hospitalization admissions to

see the fatality rate. that's number one. number two, on the flipside, we do have better treatment options. we understand better how to treat these patients. we have better understanding how to monitor the ventilators, we have two treatments and a third one on the pipeline. so we know how to handle the patients better. neil: all right. doctor, thank you very very much for taking the time here. i apologize for the delay i am encouraged by what do you say, it's too early to make general statements but as the doctor indicated, we are waiting to get a better sense. in the meantime, we have a cello going on, pretty much everything to do with the spike in cases in particular he and texas reversing informally reverse reopening plans, normally a number of governors have stalled their phase reopening's in texas

they went back to look at bars and other activities shutting those down as well. and sort of going that works on capacity use of dining complaining about 75% going back to 50%. that was obviously seen as a sign that the recovery that a lot of people want to see particular in the financial community could be delayed or stalled a little while. robert wolf on that. what do you think. >> i thought that was a brutal meeting. i'm glad doctor birx and dr. fauci are back on tv again. but remember president trump said in the warm weather this would be behind us, texas, georgia, florida and arizona, something they all have in common is warm weather, you and i have been talking about it, i

recall saying this is not about blue state or red state, this is happening nationally. i think my biggest concern, the cdc and hhs have given guidelines, what about listening to the guidelines about reopening. now we have a reopening and now we are going to be closing. you and i talked last week, we have 20 million more people unemployed since it began. we have small businesses closing by the day, if we don't understand what reopening is in the safety guidelines are being taken more seriously by all the governors then the ritz recovery is not going to bmv and may not be a you, we really have to work together nationally to make sure were following the guidelines and listening to the health professionals. charles: is having a lot of time to your point keeping politics out of this, people will not listen, there is a lot of zingers that millennial's and

younger folks who will refuse to wear masks and avoid crowds and distancing provisions, they governors next move right now and some of these states could enforce that policy or demand everyone wear masks. i was talking to the ohio governor who has strong recommendation that everyone wear masks but if they ignore that, they could demand it. will that be the next phase more forceful measures? >> i'm hoping that we don't have this federal mandate but if we need it then we have to do it. i believe that people will listen to the governors who institute real rules and policies. it has to start with the president, i totally disagree with vice president pence, he's acting like the chief, you don't have to promote rallies where were standing next to each other and say oh my god this moment, we know that his social spreading. -. neil: we will watch very closely. i'm jumping on you rudely because i'm out of time on my

show. thank you for your patience. this will be a question that robert raises, how we go about locking things down, not lockdown per se but get a handle on this. you either make the voluntary call or you force the issue. charles payne, so far no one is forcing the issue not yet. charles: not yet, but it's a problem. neil: that's a big problem. charles: that is a big one. good afternoon i'm charles payne, this is from yesterday's, microsoft is about facing retail scores, texas is on bars and verizon another companies on facebook and then there's the fed which did a huge amount on banks. meanwhile the -- for banks and nike led to the way t