locations, this is sometimes what happens. we will keep you posted on that and also keep you posted on others reacting to the president's goal, may be to unwinding a little too soon. we will be debating that but for now, here comes "the five." ♪ >> dana: hello everyone, i dana perino along with jesse watters, juan williams, greg gutfeld and katie pavlik. we are here in new york city and this is "the five." president trump telling the country that we have to go back to work and he's hoping to have the economy back open by easter which is just about two and a half weeks from now. we are also awaiting a white house coronavirus task force briefing which comes as worldwide cases of covid-19 top 400,000. more than 50,000 of those cases are here in the united states.

over 600 people have died. the world health organization's warning that america could become the epicenter of the outbreak. and trying to find a balance between public safety and protecting the economy and jobs. >> it's not built to shut down. people are full of vim and vigor and energy, they don't want to be locked into a house or an apartment or some space, that's not for our country. you can destroy a country this way by closing it down where it literally goes from being the most prosperous. we have the best economy in the history of our country three weeks ago. they were going to shut it down, but we could socially distance ourselves and you can clean your hands five times more than you

used to. >> dana: white house coronavirus response courtney or dr. deborah birx says testing in america is ramping up. >> in the last eight days we had more testing than south korea. but we did that because we transformed the testing they could get to potentially 150,000 a day but we want to do the testing where we have the problems. >> dana: but we knew the testing would increase and we knew then that the positives would increase so you are seeing those numbers. they are pretty stark but she was saying that part of that is in the plan. >> greg: so right now america is playing defense and in two or

three weeks we will start playing offense. we are crouching down but we are ramping up to eventually kill this thing. with mobilize the army corps of engineers. fema. the national guard. we are unleashing the private sector in a way that hadn't been done before and now we are starting to get serious with the test. about 300,000 tests conducted in about a week and 90% of the people to get tested are clean. and of the 10% that are not the mortality rate is now dropping below 1% it looks like. so those are really good numbers and also good numbers that look like they are coming out of italy, indicating that this thing may have peaked there. we are not sure yet but that's what the indication is. in a couple of weeks you will get the self swab test which you can purchase and use at home or you will have the finger prick test which will give you immediate results. so that's a good thing. andrew cuomo also agrees with the president that we are going

to have to soon start pivoting to getting back to work. that doesn't mean everything opens up all at once, things will be different in seattle and san francisco and new york but we will work smartly and roll it through. people will be washing their hands and cleaning all surfaces, we will be fist pumping out all that stuff. greg isn't going to sit on everyone's lap, you have to work smartly. >> dana: i've been waiting for this day! [laughs] >> jesse: finally. and remember the motto, see something, say something, everyone. when they see their grandparent doing something silly or see their college student doing something ridiculous, they have to say, knock that off, that's not the right way to do it. we are all learning from this we can't overwhelm the hospitals if we have a sniffle. things will get back to normal, not in a matter of months but we hope in a matter of weeks. >> dana: rag, talk to us about your thoughts on the desire for

americans to get back to work. there's a concern if you do it too early risk to health relapse and if you do it too late you could have even more damage. if we had more data and more information we could may be pinpointed a little bit more. >> greg: first, if you see something, wash it. [laughs] what we are talking about is, we talk about the prison of two ideas. it's a war between two straw men. no one wants to destroy the economy and no one wants to let the virus ravaged the population. the media however loves to create that illusion that there are only two choices because then they can hit fauci against trump and they have a lot of clicks from that. but you cannot be forbidden to pass the important questions. it doesn't make you heartless to ask when people can go back to work because when you have 330 million people at home doing nothing there are risks for other things that go up including suicide which a lot of experts have been talking about, or if your business is ruined.

the economy and the epidemic don't have to be sophie's choice. i hope i'm using that correctly. it's not war or peace. there are a number of phases between shut down and open for business and smart people understand the flexible tea which will factor in your age, health status, family status, type of business for example. maybe some types of businesses can open and others can't. i have two weird analogies. the economy is like a transformer. right now we have folded it up and now depending on risk we will start unfolding it again. it reminds me of my mom's dining room table. she could extend it when people were coming over and then she'd shorten it when it was just us. our economy is incredibly flexible and it will return in phases. so stop thinking about either or, it doesn't exist. >> jesse: what do they call that thing that you slide into the table?

it was i a leaf or something. >> greg: the leaf. we have economic leaves everywhere. >> dana: president trump address this question about whether there is tension between him and dr. fauci and he said this. >> is everything cool with you and dr. fauci? he wasn't here last night for the briefing and isn't here today? >> president trump: because he has other things to do, we get along very well. you would have heard about it if it wasn't. i respect all of these people, they are great people and deborah is extraordinary and tony is extraordinary, i get along with all of them. >> dana: it's always tempting to try to see what's going on from a personality standpoint, but i think there is a risk of the media constantly asking if there is a rift between dr. fauci and president trump. i think they will disagree on some things but for the most part, doesn't look like they are

getting along? >> juan: i think the big item here dana is there appears to be a disconnect between what the president is doing in terms of pushing in the direction so quickly of getting the country's economy back up, and what the officials -- you know, the doctors and the scientists like dr. fauci have been saying because i think that from the scientific medical community's point of view, how does it help the economy if we have a large number of people continuing to get sick? it's not a matter of hyperbole. there really are facts and data that indicate that right now, 40% of the people in the hospital are between 22 and 54. so it's not just saying, we can push grandma or granddad to the side and move on. there are lots of working people, productive people in the middle of their careers who would be hospitalized. so i think there's a lot of questions. dr. oz today on the fox special with the president asked just that question.

how can you make a decision now about what will be in reality two and a half weeks from now? the president said we will keep an eye on things. at this moment we have lots of people like dr. fauci who are a little bit unsure about this rush to get the economy and get things reopened. >> dana: and of course, katie, we need more information and we need to be more flexible and we need to have a goal. i think letting people know that there is an end in sight probably helps a little bit. the gallup poll today showed president trump at a 60% approval for his handling of the virus. >> katie: and as you know presidents have to speak to different audiences on a variety of topics especially something as important as this. he's been speaking to everybody that was scared of what the virus could do to them, and that's something they've been addressing for weeks on end.

now he is pivoting to discuss and target and specifically address concerns from people who are saying, we've all gone along with the 15 day period where we are all supposed to follow these guidelines and we are willing to do this. the private industry has stepped up and on all of those things, but we want to see whether we are going to be able to go back to work. as dr. burke said yesterday if you give people a deadline they are more willing to work towards hunkering down and making sure that what they have to do in that time. works. so having a deadline is a good thing that the president and talk to both groups of the same time and have empathy for what people are going through whether it's being scared of being hospitalized or loosing their entire livelihood due to the economy. >> dana: all of us can be flexible in the meantime. members of the coronavirus task force will be holding a press conference and we will take you to that when it

happens. up next, congress nearing a coronavirus stimulus deal finally on the democrats are now changing course after being called out. ♪ alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. almost done. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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♪ >> greg: welcome back. a live look at the white house where the coronavirus task force is set to hold a briefing moments from now and we will take you there once it starts. in the meantime lawmakers say there are a lot closer to the deal in a $2 trillion aid package after democrats blocked of bill two days in a row. chuck schumer and nancy pelosi are now optimistic about working with republicans but only after being exposed. president trump calling out the democrats were pushing elements of the green new deal the negotiations.

>> president trump: we almost had a deal the day before and it was between schumer and mitch and it was a good solid deal. all of a sudden they start throwing all of the little green new deal stuff in them. in the boardrooms and what they look like. we want to green energy, we want all the stuff. let's stop drilling oil. they have things in there that were terrible. windows all over the place and all sorts of credits for windmills. they killed the birds and ruin the real estate. lots of problems, i mean a lot of problems. >> greg: and even though nancy pelosi's own bill was filled with wind and tax credits, $35 million for the kennedy center and corporate board diversity standards, the speaker claims that's not the case. >> that's not a bill i would have written in terms of family medical leave or worker protections, ruling on worker protections but that can be done next administratively, we can find other ways.

not enough money for elections et cetera at this time. everything we are suggesting relates to covid-19, not about making law for the future. >> greg: katie, takes a lot of you know what to shoehorn some of the stuff in there. did they think no one was going to find out what the strategy was? katie? >> katie: oh, sorry jesse, there was a break in your microphone. i think the strategy was that nancy pelosi saw an opportunity to walk all over chuck schumer in the senate and say we are going to push a lot of these unrelated pork projects into the bill because no one is going to question us on it because it's an emergency. it's a good thing republicans were paying attention because $35 million to the kennedy center is an affront to taxpayers everywhere. americans are losing their jobs and they want to take hard-earned money from them and give it to the kennedy center

when they could be doing private fund-raisers. the other issue that is alarming is the pushing throughout the federal lysing of our elections with the ballot harvesting and the long-term effects of the early voting they wanted to push through on this. i mean nancy pelosi has seen an opportunity here and chuck schumer who said sunday that everything was going along just fine let her walk in and walk all over him and blew up the whole system on behalf of democrats seeking power rather than working on something that will help everybody regardless of whether they are republican or democrat. >> greg: juan, dana made that point the other day, everything was going swimmingly until nancy showed up and made check kind of cater to her every whim at the last second and rocked the markets. do you think chuck schumer saw that coming or was he taken by surprise? >> juan: i think this whole description that we are going through right now is a caricature. i think what's going on is democrats are out about protecting america's workers.

and i think the sticking point has been that there was money being set aside for corporatio corporations, the big corporations, to make sure they didn't go under, but that the democrats want to transparency and accountability for that money. they didn't want those big corporations to simply get locked into buybacks and executive pay raises, they want to make sure those companies are protecting and keeping workers during this time. and i think that is what we saw now from the democrats. >> greg: what does that have to do with the green new deal though? >> juan: it does, the way we presented it this evening as a caricature of what's really going on. >> greg: oh, i didn't notice that. >> juan: i think the president is quick to say he can put democrats at a disadvantage by making it seem as though they are involved in some kind of power grab or self-promotion of some wild agenda, but you go

back and you look at tarp, you know the troubled asset relief program from 2008 and you will see similar protections are in there and again, so many americans felt the big business is too big to fail. they've got money. but the average person, and jesse, you and i agreed on this yesterday. you have to put more money in the average person's pocket to spend. >> greg: i didn't know that's what they were trying to do. it's been one of the reality is they need more for unemployment relief. >> jesse: i got you. greg, what are your thoughts on this relief package? >> greg: the only way you can find a virus is through diversity. so i'm happy that's a priority. look, we are all making sacrifices, i've said that before. but what's depressing is the very same people are up to the

very same tricks even when times are urgent and ugly. like i get it with the normal stuff. when you do the normal budget sneak all the stuff in that you can to get reelected but that's not this time. what's doubly depressing as we honestly don't know who's doing it. we could say nancy flew in and said, stop it! but she probably didn't write this stuff. she didn't do it, chuck didn't do it, they would have been happy to sign it and go back and have a glass of wine. so no one ever knows who is screwing this up. it's not democrats and it's not all republicans, who are the people that are making this so complicated and where is the media? that's a great story. rather than screwing up every story about the virus, try to find out who the people are who are mocking this up. then, we can fire those creeps. >> jesse: is probably the lobbyists but what do i know. dana, it would be like if republicans try to jimmy in defunding planned parenthood. if that happens, the media would

go wild. >> dana: the media would find that one. that would not be hard for them to find. the $35 million for the kennedy center is the new bridge to nowhere, remember that? like why are we doing this? i'm all for the arts but this is not the time or the place. if nancy pelosi thinks that this wasn't something she wanted in there, then she has to police her troops a little bit better because they look really bad. i think the democrats came -- if you think about the schumer shut down, every time they want to fight against the president they end up with egg on their face. >> jesse: she is fighting for the workers, the workers at the kerry center. >> katie: nancy pelosi would write a check to the kennedy center if she had the money to do it. >> jesse: and the post office, don't forget. the coronavirus task force will be holding a press briefing very

soon. next up, greg tackles misleading media reports on the virus pandemic. it's a good one. ♪ coln offers complimentary pickup and delivery servicing. we'll pick up your vehicle and leave you with a lincoln loaner. that's the power of sanctuary. here hold this. follow that spud. [ tires screech ] the big idaho potato truck is touring america telling folks about idaho potatoes. and i want it back. what is it with you and that truck?

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and leave you with a lincoln loaner. that's the power of sanctuary. ♪ >> greg: you probably don't need any more evidence that the media is a joke but i got some anyway. apparently, a man died after you needing a chemical used to clean fish tanks. it made the news. why? he did it to prevent coronavirus but it could also be blamed on trump. buzzfeed and even forbes claimed he took a drug that trump had touted in and headlines said "arizona man died after absorbing chloroquine in an attempt to prevent coronavirus." not really, he took something else, chloroquine phosphate

which is not the same. when president trump incorrectly announced the fda ahead fast tracked approval of the drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of covid-19 company he added, the nice part is it's been around for a long time so we know if things don't go as planned it's not going to kill anyone. except it did, adds the writer. well, no it didn't. like the guy who ate the fish tank drug, the writer replaced the drug with something worse. trump killed someone finally and didn't even shoot him on fifth avenue. this isn't even normal trumped arrangement, it's derangement that might cause people to avoid treatment out of fear. all drugs carry risks in the companies put them on the label. maybe it's time for the media to have a warning label, too. warning. can be mistaken for truth, only take with a grain of salt.

oh, what a clever ending if i do say so myself, dana. >> dana: so do you miss sitting on with us at the table or are you happy by yourself there? >> jesse: let me tell the audience and you, he's going crazy down here. every commercial break he screaming at the top of his lungs, weird stuff. he's crazier than normal. >> dana: are you taking notes for your book, jesse? [laughs] >> jesse: some of this stuff is too hot to handle. [laughs] >> dana: i go back to this whole thing of, and americans cannot expect the government to do everything for them. the government is not going to save you. this idea that president trump killed the guy because he mentions one chemical that turns out to not be the same chemical,

again. anyone that is ingesting any sort of chemicals, you should do that if a doctor advises you to. i don't care if the president tells you to do something. only take chemicals into your body if it is recommended by your doctor. >> greg: or a good friend like me. what do you think jesse? >> dana: as i was saying that i was thinking, greg will totally disagree. >> jesse: it's always about drugs with greg gutfeld. this is what this would be like. if nancy pelosi told the country we need a green new deal and the next day some guy in order to reduce his carbon footprint hung himself, and fox news came out with a headline, nancy pelosi's climate hysteria drives demand to suicide. hopefully we've never written a headline like that but, that's what that would be like. remember the example of the headline that said, i.c.e.

agents arrest immigrant couples on the way to the hospital to deliver the baby? and at the last paragraph it turns out, the guy driving the car was an illegal immigrant wanted in el salvador for a double homicide. that's what they do, they are cheap shot artists. have you ever played basketball? some guy can't shoot, can't rebound, all he does its value and hacks you and trip seal. he's terrible. that's the media, they can't play and they just take cheap shots. >> greg: you know, i can understand screwing up on chemical labels because they do sound a lot o alike. but what drives me crazy is they copy the same mistake. one guy sees it and copies it, it doesn't read or think i should fact-check this. that's what drives me more crazy than the actual mistake is the copying. >> jesse: i think it was a terrible mistake by the media obviously and i think you called

him out on it. to my mind though, the real tragedy is that somebody lost their life and it was a fatal error in terms of this person. so what the wife has said is, they heard about this drug and they heard it on television, and then she is looking at the fish cleaner and sees that it has that similar name in it and that's why she and the husband ingested the drug. obviously, it killed a man and that's pretty shocking. but again, to my mind and from my perspective the tragedy here is the death. i think that people, picking up on what you guys have said, i think people should not be listening to tv to get medical advice, even from the president, i think the prescription should come from a doctor, or someone in the medical community. not in passing saying this drug will kill you. we don't know, we have some

anecdotal stories about this but we don't know for sure because we've never tested it. so we shouldn't be like test animals for somebody saying, this might work. well we are all looking for a miracle cure now. >> jesse: well governor cuomo just ordered like 10,000 doses of it, there is promise in the drug. >> juan: i didn't say there wasn't. >> katie: this is an opportunity for the media to do something good. to your point you could do some research and you should be shouting from the rooftops about how these two things are not the same. the media could be writing fact checks about how you should only be taking prescriptions from your doctor, like the task force at the white house has been saying and dr. fauci has been saying. by the way, new york governor democrat andrew cuomo has been saying. also they should be highlighting stories of the real drug that has been used in america for people who have covid-19 coronavirus that has helped them

in their own testimonials, but instead they are so focused on fearmongering over this and getting at the president for some reason, i'm not really sure what their goal is. do they want people to think that there is never going to be a treatment that we have seen work in other cases for american citizens? what's the point of this? >> jesse: it's just to dump on trump, that's it. >> greg: what we are still awaiting the task force briefing that coming up, a desperate joe biden trying to get back into the spotlight by attacking president trump and we will show you what he said on "the view" today. ♪ your heart, courage and commitment has always inspired us and now it's no different

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>> juan: welcome back. you are looking live at the white house whether coronavirus task force is set to hold a briefing at any moment. we will take you there once it starts. in the meantime, joe biden increasing his media appearances an apparent bid to take the spotlight back from president trump during the coronavirus outbreak. the former vice president went on the view today and had some critical comments about president trump. >> the number one thing i'm concerned about is misinformation. listen to the scientists, listen to the doctors. listen to what they have to say. the president should not make assertions based on hard science and i don't agree with the notion that somehow it's okay to let people die, and i'm not sure that would happen. i heard earlier comments in your show. because, to make sure the economy is there for our kids.

>> juan: so katie, when you hear the former vice president speaking out, is it all about getting attention for himself or do you think he has a legitimate role as, now he is the democratic nominee? >> katie: this is all about joe biden trying to make himself relevant at a time when he is completely irrelevant. i saw a headline saying trump trump-biden duel in coronavirus press briefings. there is no duel here. he's taking up all of the oxygen as he showed at this point. he has scientists every single day at the white house briefing the country in the media in that room to talk about what they are doing and how they will move forward. there's new information every single day and almost so much information that you can't cover it all. joe biden is coming undone. he's doing it by himself, he doesn't have dr. burks or dr. fauci to back up some of the

things that he's been saying or if this group of experts that he's been working with at the white house to reassure the country that we are going to get through this. when you are joe biden and you are only criticizing during a crisis and you look at the president whose poll numbers have gone up as a result of this, you are certainly losing the argument and criticizing rather than giving praise such as andrew cuomo has done as a governor of new york and talked about how they can work together on this. i think it doesn't give him any good services and doesn't help him politically. >> juan: jesse, when you see joe biden, he's not saying he's all about the criticism. he saying there have been some lapses, and when all know about the testing at all the rest. is it legitimate to point these things out if you are in fact going to run against the sky for president? we haven't stopped the election. >> jesse: it's legitimate.

i don't know if you want to do it on "the view. i have advice for joe biden and he won't listen but here's the advice. you can criticize but you could also help out a little. mr. biden, you've been in government 40 years. you can't call a buddy in industry and come make some masks? you can't call your other buddy barack obama and put out a video to raise money? how about call on your supporters or your staff and send them to go donate blood? there's a thousand creative things that this guy could do to help america through this crisis instead of sit back and criticize on "w." the other thing i think tactically he's doing wrong with the criticism is he is saying i'm going to be president and when i'm president i'm going to do what i'm told. i'm going to do whatever the scientists tell me and the generals tell me, i will do what they want. no. you're supposed to listen to the advisors as the commander in chief or the president take decisive action and execute it with vision. that's what he should be doing.

he shouldn't say when i'm there i'm going to be a puppet and listen to all the experts and then, after the first term i will leave. that doesn't inspire confidence or project any sort of leadership. i know it's hard to project leadership because you don't hold office and you are quarantined in your own library but yes to do better than what he's doing. >> juan: it's interesting dana, i didn't think he was lacking there, i think that he is not the president and the president has used as jesse was saying, the bully pulpit to have a daily tv show basically and to promote the idea that he has express behind him. >> dana: i think here he comes now. >> president trump: i want to thank the american people for the incredible sacrifices that they are making on behalf of our nation. and i want to encourage everyone to keep following are guidelines on social distancing, avoiding large gatherings and hand washing and all of the

other things that everybody knows they are supposed to be doing. ultimately, the goal is to ease the guidelines and open things up to very large sections of our country as we near the end of our historic battle with the invisible enemy. it will go on for a while but we will win. i said earlier today that i hope we can do this by easter. i think that would be a great thing for our country and we are all working very hard to make that a reality. we will be meeting with a lot of people to see if it can be done. easter is a very special day for many reasons. for me, for a lot of our friends, it's a very special day. and what a great timeline this would be. easter is our timeline, and what a great timeline that would be. my first priority is always the health and safety of the american people. i want everyone to understand that we are continuing to

evaluate the data. we are working with the task force and making decisions based on what is best for the interest of our fantastic country. in order to defeat the virus, we must continue to be very strong. your resilience and spirit has been inspiring to everyone. right now, the virus is attacking 149 countries and everybody looks to us and is watching us and i'm very proud to be your president. i can tell you that this tremendous hope as we look forward and will begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. stay focused, stay strong. my administration and myself will deliver for you as we have in the past. let me provide you an update on critical preparations and

supplies. and a war on the virus. through fema, the federal government is disturbing more than 8 million n95 respirators. 14 million surgical masks and many millions more are underwater and will be arriving soon. 2.4 million face shields, 1.9 million surgical pounds. 13.5 million gloves and more than 4,000 ventilators to the areas of greatest need have already been sent and we have 4,000 being delivered to new york. at the federal government is using every resource at its disposal to acquire and distribute critical medical supplies. at the core element of the strategy is my executive order authorizing the use of the defense production act, which has as you know already been activated, actually quite a long time ago. private companies are heating our call to produce medical

equipment and supplies because they know that we will not hesitate to invoke the dpa in order to get them to do what they have to do. it's called leverage. you don't have to use it from the standpoint of actually, it's been activated but you don't have to use it. but the threat of it being there is great leverage and companies are doing as we ask and companies even better than that are coming through and calling us and it has been something to see. this morning ford, 3m, general electric health care are making tremendous numbers. they have already started, of respirators, ventilators and face shields. they are working together, we didn't have to exercise or utilize the dpa in any way. the fact that we have it helps but we didn't have to, and for the most part, we won't have to. we are is receiving full cooperation from companies with

the understanding that the federal government stands ready to compel cooperation if need be. we haven't found that to be the case. it has been really amazing to see these big, strong, powerful and in some cases very small companies, family-owned companies, step up and make a lot of great product for what we are going through and what we will continue to be going through for a while. the army corps of engineers and the national guard are building for hospital facilities in new york city at the javits center, which will be operational very soon. in addition they are building four separate medical facilities in different parts of the state. we are dealing with governor cuomo on that. so we will have four hospitals and for a medical facilities at the highest level. temporary, but incredible. we are also deploying the u.s. navy hospital ship and that will

be arriving in new york harbor in the not-too-distant future. it's finishing its maintenance, they are doing a very big maintenance and what we have done it is condensed it very seriously. these are incredible ships, already on its way to los angeles. so we are in frequent contact with state officials and getting a lot of work done. likewise we are building hospitals in los angeles and we are working also with the state of washington. we are working with the governor of the state of new jersey. we are building a medical facility, a hospital facility and doing a lot of work. i want to thank the great people from fema and also the army corps of engineers. secretary mnuchin and members of my administration continue to work closely with congress and i'm pleased to report that we

are working on passing the biggest and boldest relief package in american history. senators will soon hopefully vote on a $2 trillion bill that will deliver direct cash payments to struggling americans. no fault of their own, this came out of nowhere and nobody can imagine that this even happened. but it's not their fault. we want to protect and we will all of the things that a person gets protected and the family needs protected. we are working on job retention loans and extended unemployment insurance for laid-off workers. the legislation will also include billions of dollars for additional resources, and really her heroic doctors, nurses, as well as support for hard-hit industries such as the airline industry and the cruise ship

industry which employ tremendous amounts of people and obviously serve very important functions beyond that. with very tough protections for the american taxpayer. the loans will be very secure and they will be very profitable and at the same time they will bridge -- they call them bridge loans in many cases, there will be bridging these companies in good health. these are companies that four weeks ago didn't have a problem. i'm also confident that the democrats will do the right thing. i feel very confident, they are working very hard together right now and they are getting very close to a fair deal and a great deal for the people of our country. today as you probably saw the dow surged over 2,100 points, that's the all-time record and history of the exchange. this is very encouraging and i think part of the reason is they are looking at what is close to being passed and i think a very

big part of it is stacy we want to get our country open as soon as possible to see we are working very hard on that. that's a very big factor i think in today's historic gain. the legislation developed in the senate is the first step to restoring confidence and stability to america's economy as we look ahead to the time and that's going to be very soon. we have a team of public health experts, and we want to know them as well as i want them. also economists and and one based on the best science and the best modeling and less research there is on earth. great people have been, especially when it comes to our

public health experts and officials have been helping other countries, dealing with other countries. in constant touch with other countries and helping them out because many of them have never seen anything like what's happening. our decision will be based on hard facts and data and i'm also hopeful to have americans working. again, by that beautiful easter day. rest assured every decision we make is grounded solely in the health, safety and well-being of our citizens. this is a medical crisis, this isn't a financial crisis, but it's a thing that nobody has seen for many, many decades. nothing like this. marshaling our economic strength is a key feature of defeating the virus and producing the materials, supplies and equipment that we need and they are doing a really fantastic job. we are helping the governors, we were on a conference call the

other day with the governors and we allowed the press to join us on the call and the spirit between us and the governors has been great. we should never be reliant on a foreign country for the means of our own survival. i think we have learned a lot. this crisis has underscored just how critical it is to have strong borders and a robust manufacturing sector. for three years we haven't embarked on a great national project to secure our immigration system and bring back our manufacturing jobs. we've brought back many jobs, record numbers of jobs and this really shows this experience shows how important borders are. without borders, you don't have a nation. our goal for the future must be to have american medicine for american patients, and american supplies for american hospitals

anti-american equipment for our great american heroes. now both parties must unite to ensure the united states is truly an independent nation in every sense of the word, energy independence, we've established that. and something incredible that we have established, we are energy independent. manufacturing independence, economic independence and territorial independence enforced by strong sovereign borders. america were will never be a supplicant nation. we will be a proud independent and self-reliant nation. we will embrace commerce with all that we will be dependent upon none. above all we know that the best thing for our economy is a very powerful victory over the virus. every day the american people

are showing the unity and resolve that has always defined the character of our nation. in new york citizens are using 3d interest to make hundreds of face shields and working the by the hundreds. in texas, businesses and churches are uniting to collect gloves and thermometers for hospitals in the selfless actions of our amazing citizens. we are seeing enduring strength of our magnificent nation, a spirit that can never be broken and a victorious future that can never be denied and never will be denied. now, what i would like to do is perhaps ask a person who has really established herself as may be the world's great expert on what she does. if i could ask deborah to come forward and say a few words and then i will ask tony to come up and speak and then we will take

a few questions and do it quickly and probably see you again tomorrow. deborah, please. >> thank you, thank you mr. president. i think those of you who heard the town hall, we are continuing to accelerate testing at a record rate. we now have 370,000 tests that have been done. the majority of those, over 220,000 in the last eight days which as those of you have been tracking the south korean numbers put us equivalent to what they did in eight weeks, we did that in the eight days. this was made possible because of the hhs team working together bringing together the strength of the fda with the cdc, and under the leadership of secretary azar. we are proud of those numbers, but we know we have to do more and we have to continue to accelerate in testing to ensure that those who need the tests are tested first and have access. as we talked about yesterday we are working on the ability for people to take their own

samples. that does not mean home samples, that means taking your own sample in the front of the nose into normal swabs. that will allow and free up all of the drive-through's to be very sparing on ppe as you will be able to do that with gloves rather than the full ppe outfit. this will allow for more of that ppe to be dedicated to our hospitals. i think those of you who are tracking this epidemic closely like i am, you will begin to see that there is encouraging results coming out of italy. we are impressed by the decreases that are seen in mortality, the number of people succumbing to this illness and the number of new cases. our new cases will continue to surge because we are still working on our backlog, although we will be in touch with the laboratories after this press conference to really find out how many are still in backlog and how many were run in the

last 24 hours. until we can get into a 24-hour cycle, we will have a disproportionate number of new cases compared to the actual new cases and we will let you know when we have reached that equilibrium. finally, and i know dr. fauci will talk about this further, we remain concerned about the new york city and new york metro area. about 56% of all the cases in the united states are coming out of that metro area and 50% of all the new cases are coming out of the metro new york area, and 31% of the people succumbing to this disease. it means, because they are still at the 31% mortality compared to the other regions of the country that we could have a huge impact if we unite together. this means, as in all places, they have to be following the presidential guidelines that were put out eight or nine days ago and this will be critical. to everyone who has left new york over the last few days,

because of the rate of the number of cases, you may have been exposed to before you left new york. and i think like governor to santos has put out today, everyone who was in new york should be self quarantined for the next 14 days to ensure the virus doesn't spread to others, no matter where they have gone. whether it's florida, north carolina or out to the far reaches of long island. we are starting to see new cases across long island that's just people left the city. this will be very critical that those individuals do self quarantined in their homes over the next 14 days to make sure they don't pass the virus to others based on the time they left new york. so if they are already four days out then it's just ten more days. so i think you if you help get that message out to others. dr. fauci?