>> ed: absolutely. by the way, serious stuff there, but we had some fun. i bought a coffee cake at a supermarket. that's because of you. you told me a few years ago, xo mike weeks ago your mom was looking for coffee cake, and i couldn't get out of my head. thanks, mom. sweet coffee cake every weekend! thanks for joining us, everybody. "outnumbered" starts right now. >> harris: we begin with this fox news alert. right now president trump is meeting with louisiana's governor, john bel edwards, at the white house. we are showing you that live from outside right now. they were discussing the state's plans to eventually reopen after being hit hard by the coronavirus. we will bring you that as soon as we get the live video coming out of the white house, we'll show it to you right away. and coronavirus cases in the united states have crossed a daunting milestone. 1 million confirmed cases of covid-19. deaths have risen above 58,000, double the total in hard-hit

italy. president trump is arguing the only reason the number is so high compared to the rest of the world is because other countries are so far behind us in terms of testing. that does not explain the deaths, of course. he is talking specifically about the cases, obviously. now dr. anthony fauci of the covid-19 task force says he is being told that everyone who needs a test should be able to get one by late may or early june. >> this is predominantly admiral, who is telling us who have an increased production. by the time we get to those months, we should have what we need. i'm always the skeptic in the group, and i always say, "okay, i hear you, i believe you, but let's see what happens. >> harris: this is "outnumbered." i'm harris faulkner. here today, melissa francis. fox news contributor, lisa boothe. fox news contributor, jessica tarlov. joining us today, fox news medical attribute or, physician,

and professor of public health at johns hopkins university, dry makary. he is "outnumbered." dr. makary, i'm going to come to you first on this, because we have been hearing the promise of more testing for widths just call it months now. at least a couple of them. so, we wait for that. but these numbers are growing. may be part of it in terms of the confirmed cases is testing, but the death toll is rising. why? >> dr. makary: first of all, thank you for calling the 1 million cases "confirmed cases." i think we need more clarification like that. these are simply people who have been tested. we know about 21% of new yorkers have been exposed, based on antibody tests. so i don't want people to be alarmed when they say the cases surge. it's a number of testing units, and we will see that. cvs is launching a thousand different sites where people can get tested get tested nationwide. we heard that from the white house. you know, i'm just of the opinion, harris, that testing is not the silver bullet. i know it's a minority opinion and public health, but the

notion that somehow if you test every american five times a week we are going to somehow conquer this, i just don't think that is one of the tools in the toolbox. >> harris: before i open this up to the rest of the panel, that is just an important point to make. i could test negative on monday and then become infected somehow between now and thursday, and the test, of course, it's not clairvoyant. so it is a rolling thing, and i guess that's why there should be -- or is, i don't know. i shouldn't say "should," are not in your shoes. i'm not a doctor. more on antibody testing. >> dr. makary: the value of testing is greatest in the earliest stages of the pandemic, because it's used for contact tracing. quite honestly, if you test positive, it doesn't change our recommendation or medical advice most of the time. if you're not changing our advice, why are we testing so frequently? it's useful for contact tracing. ceos tell me, "hey, i want to test all my employees." i tell them, "what are you going to do the information? what are you going to do in 3%

of your place has positive, than what?" >> harris: lisa boothe, good to see you on the program today. i'm curious, just your overall reaction to where we are right now, watching this on a daily basis as we all do together. >> lisa: i 100% agree with what the doctor says. there's been a lot of quibbling over the numbers. for instance, surpassing 1 million cases. that's not reflective of what percentage of the population here in the united states actually has the coronavirus. as the daughter pointed the doctor pointed out, whenyou, almost 25% of the population has tested positive for the antibodies. so we are quibbling over numbers that really aren't real. were also missing with a true mortality rate is. remember, a lot of the public policy decisions that have been made here in the united states were based off of when we thought the mortality rate was about 20-30 times higher than what we've found it to be. when you look at newark testing, the serological testing, when

you look at the study done out of the university of southern california, or stanford, or even in miami-dade county, we've found out the mortality rate is actually a lot less than we originally thought. i think as a country and as the media, also among public health officials, we need to rethink and re-examine some of the decisions that have been made in light of this new data and information. >> harris: you know, one number that is constant, and it's constantly going up, are all of the people who are perishing, lisa. i just want to follow-up with you. that number is real. it has now surpassed the amount of death and destruction, human destruction, that we saw our men and women who were killed in the war in vietnam. that is very real. >> lisa: can i respond to that real quick? i think my bringing up these data points is not saying that what we are seeing going on in the country is not real. that's not saying that every life does not have value in the

united states. that is something that makes america unique from other countries, because we care about human life. what it does mean, the information that we are first relying upon, when it's been wrong to this degree, potentially by 20-30 times, or even in the instance, the case is missing by 80 times, the amount of real cases that are in the united states, the actual people infected, that does mean we need to take a step back and re-examine things, making sure were making the right decision. so i don't want my words to be taken out of context or people to get the wrong idea about what i'm saying. >> harris: well, thank you for that. you and i know each other so well, so i know that. but i just wanted people to hear -- when we hear the reference points of wars, of course. when you and i cried together about the loss, that is just so raw and so real. it's easy to become a little bit detached when you're looking at percentages. but having the right information

is the key. that's what we're talking about. now maybe we can catch up on that. china certainly didn't help us. jessica, what are your overall thoughts today? >> jessica: well, i'm glad you're having a conversation about the fact that every life matters and all of this. i think it's why so many people were incensed when they heard the lieutenant governor of texas, for instance, saying that since seniors might be willing to give up their lives they are. they're on their way out anyway, and that we need to focus on keeping the young population healthy and the economy going. "if we sacrifice some older folks, that's just fine." as someone who has some very valued older folks in their lives, i don't agree there. the testing issue is critical, as you lead the segment with. we've been talking about this for months. i think it is problematic that there is such a high level of disinformation coming from the most powerful man in the country and in the world, the president, about the testing situation. he said just yesterday that we'll have 5 million tests available a day. his own testing chief has

contradicted that. jared kushner, who is in charge of coronavirus and settling peace in the middle east at the same time was on "fox & friends" this morning saying he believes we have enough testing to start reopening the country. i have not heard any medical professionals say that. i know we have a doctor on the panel, maybe he can pipe in about that. but there is -- >> harris: if you were listening to dr. makary -- i'm going to step in here, because i hear a question and i want >> dr. makary: to be able to answer. dr. makary, it is important to emphasize, as you did, that it's not all about the testing, real quickly. >> dr. makary: yeah, it's one tool in the toolbox. we need to do it selectively in places that are most high-risk. we know from "the wall street journal" analysis that as many as 22% of all deaths in early april were in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. that's where we need to put a lot of resources. so we know that the drivers of the spread our travel, mass

gatherings, nursing homes. but those individuals are the ones we need to put a lot of our energy on and get rid of some of these distracting arguments. testing is important. i don't deny that. it just has a diminishing role, as you proceed in an epidemic. >> harris: i love when i hear you talk about that. responsibility, and so much more we can do. melissa? >> melissa: yeah. i mean, if i could just say, i disagree with jessica and the sense that, at least in new york, testing is now officially readily available. they have been sending out emails like crazy from the urgent cares, from city md, from cure, saying -- >> jessica: i'm going tomorrow. >> melissa: i went down myself yesterday, and they are giving out antibody tests. the woman in front of me was there with eight of her employees. she wanted to reopen her business, because she said she is going out of business and her family is going to lose their home. she brought her employees in

herself to get the antibody test so that she could be sure that they wouldn't be infecting her customers and that they weren't sick themselves, and that they were well enough to come back. she was getting all of her employees tested. they were happy to give all of those folks tests, as well as myself and everybody else that was in line. so i would say that i saw firsthand, yes, it's anecdotal, but it's happening all over the city. i saw for myself firsthand how people were taking their lives and their income into their own hands, because, as she said, she was in very grave danger with her business and her family, and she had those folks there that she was paying to have her employees tested. paying their co-pay to get things back up and running. i don't know. >> jessica: i'm thrilled about that. >> melissa: i would venture that it's getting a lot better. >> harris: melissa, that's what i had brought with the doctor the antibody testing alongside all of this. because the value of knowing where you are with that today

versus an ebb and flow situation, "okay, i tested negative for covid-19 on monday," as he said. but then you're positive on thursday, nobody knows. he's going to get tested twice or three times a week? the antibody test and gives us a little different perspective. jessica, real quick? >> jessica: i just want to say i'm thrilled that there is readily available testing in new york city. i'm going tomorrow. we know this has been the top of andrew cuomo's priority list. he has managed this outbreak across the state. we've been particularly hard hit. it's problematic to hear that, across the nation, testing is readily available. we have governors all over saying that's absolute not the case. >> harris: i think you're talking about two different things. i do. i think we have -- you guys are talking past yourselves. melissa is making a great point about the fact that you can find out whether or not you've already had it. >> jessica: in new york city. >> harris: how else would you get them? there's no other way -- you can't go out and purchase them. that is much more readily

available, and maybe of equal value right now, just in terms of where we are in the journey. your doctor may heard dr. makarysaying -- the wn closing, but maybe the emphasisw it really helps us contain the situation might be changing in a significant way. so i think you guys -- melissa brought up a beautiful point. jessica, you're talking pastor. were talking about two different tests. i hear you both. i'm going to scoot. they say "don't blame us." new york's governor and new york city's mayor pushing back against critics who say they should have responded to the pandemic sooner. how they are now fighting back, and whether this is the time to play the blame game. ♪ >> i don't personally put a lot of time into dwelling on the past when i have people to serve right now. ♪ it's a new day for veterans all across america. home values are up, and mortgage rates are at record lows.

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♪ >> melissa: new york's leaders pushing back against criticism that they should have acted sooner, responding that a coronavirus pandemic and stepper briefings. both mayor de blasio and governor andrew cuomo deflecting blame with the governor asking why various other entities did not sound the alarm sooner. >> where was the whole international health community? where was the national host of experts? the w.h.o., the nih, the cdc, the whole alphabet soup of agencies. where was everyone? where was the intelligence community with the briefings?

saying, "this isn't china." governors don't do global pandemics. >> melissa: lisa, while those may be valid points, i look at specific examples. for example, in los angeles and california, the mayors and governors have partnered with fema to get fema money to move their homeless population, who is infected, at risk of infecting other people, to move them inside to vacant hotels. in new york, the new york city council has been talking about doing this, but they say the governor and the mayor haven't done anything, and they've had more time to just copy this very simple thing. get fema involved. it's fema's money, it's there for the using. instead, you have mayor de blasio doing things like making videos about why you shouldn't drink bleach instead of picking up the phone and calling fema. do you think it's fair to criticize, at least mayor de blasio if not governor cuomo? >> lisa: i think it's fair to

criticize everyone come in the sense that we really have made some of the wrong public policy decisions as a country. both on the local, state, and her level. particularly as we get new information from the data points i brought up earlier on the show. or you look at someone like professor israel, an israeli professor from tel aviv. sorry, i wanted to make sure i had his right name, from tel aviv university, who has studied the coronavirus across the world and has found that regardless of the measures being put in place, the various pate dog peaks at six weeks. perhaps we should have made different decisions, making social distancing a priority and protecting the vulnerable. period maybe letting other people go back to work. i really think it is so imperative, as we get additional data points, we start changing the way we are looking at this. what's happening in the country, which is dangerous, anyone who brings up data points that aren't what the groupthink,

basically what everyone else is saying, anything that is outside of what is deemed the doctrine of the media, you get criticized. or those individuals get criticized. we see that in the instance of stanford protect don my professor and others who become different data points and question some of the decisions that have been made. >> melissa: dr. makary, what are your thoughts on what she said? >> dr. makary: i agree, and there's a lot of warning signs that many people should have noticed. in fact, there was a community, a small group of us, who were trying to sound the alarm for a few months. if i could have things back, i would say that i wish two things would have been different. number one, the fda regulator that required the testing lab in washington state to send a cd rom of their application after the electronically submitted, with the files burned on it, that is the kind of ridiculousness that cost us a valuable two months. it's all written up in the dispatch. the other thing i wish we would

have had is dr. anthony fauci saying something from januar january 15th to march 15th. for two months, he never once said, "we need to expand hospitals, get ready to stop nonessential travel, stock up on ppe, develop contingency plans. maybe get ready to stop schools. switch to deliveries for restaurants." all of these things were important, and many of us in public health were running around begging mardi gras to not take place, begging the mayor of boston to cancel sxsw, asking the ncaa to cancel. i think we should have heard a larger which meant larger western anthony fauci those two months. after all, he does advise every policymaker in d.c. >> melissa: wow. jessica, what do you think about that? >> jessica: i would've loved to have heard that. i'm a big fan of governor cuomo. we talked off-line about how

comforting those press conferences have been, certainly when all this was starting. this plenty of blame to put at the feet of certainly new york city's mayor, de blasio, who was encouraging people to go out and keep patronizing local businesses just days before we had the shelter-in-place order. or stay at home, whatever they called it. and governor cuomo, there's been a few big articles saying, for instance, washington state listened to the scientists whereas new york didn't. i'm glad he shouted out officials in california like san francisco's mayor and governor gavin newsom, who have done an incredible job ensuring that they population of 40 million people in that state -- and i think right now they have about 45,000 cases. i know there are hundreds of thousands more, people who have been infected and didn't get a test. when you look at those numbers and look at the harrowing numbers from new york state and specifically new york city, you do start to think, "if they knew on the west coast they shut down

weaker than we did," as we heard in san francisco, the people dropped the ball. and we would have complied. that's the one thing i've been heartened to see, how many people are walking around new york city with masks on. that we have been sheltering in place and not violating the rules. i do think there is some blame to put on mayor de blasio, who last weekend even commuted to brooklyn to go for a walk in the park. something they are telling us absolutely not to do. and the governor, as well. >> melissa: harris? >> harris: yeah, well, let's lay her hypocrisy come as you are hinting at with mayor de blasio coming to this today. the new york city mayor taking serious heat from local leaders who said he targeted the entire jewish community after the mayor condemned a large gathering for a rabbi's funeral. mayor de blasio treated this. "my message to the jewish community and all communities is the simple. the time for warnings has

passed. i've instructed the nypd to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. this is about stopping this disease and saving lives." however, a jewish city councilman went after the mayor and tweeted this. "mr. mayor, your words are unacceptable. to condemn our entire community over one group of people is something you would not due to any other ethnic group, and i have known you long enough to know that you know this." the mayor this morning at her response prayed he says he's sorry if he said anything hurtful, but that he has "no res about calling out danger." lisa, i come to you. i saw this in real time last night, at 9:35 p.m. here's my thought. if you take out the word "jewish people" and put in "christian," put in "women," put in "blacks," wow. >> jessica: absolutely prior to the coronavirus we had

seen a rise in anti-semitism in new york. so i think that is particularly sensitive there. i think it's very unfortunate where we have seen some of these leaders use the coronavirus as an opportunity for power. and to say potentially inappropriate things like this, you saw de blasio also warned churches and synagogues and said, "if you do not comply with what i'm saying, i'm going to show you down permanently." that is scary for someone like de blasio to say. i'm glad people are paying attention to this, and i think they should be paying attention to this. >> melissa: can i just say, i look at these pictures and all i can think is, "we have sent him, over and over, pictures of the subway." people who have to ride the subway every day, there are so many homeless people on the subway crowded next to each other, coughing, sick, on the subway stations, and so many people have brought it to the

mayor's attention. so many people have called his helpline, center videos, treated videos, begged for help. you have mta workers getting sick. you have health care workers on the subway. he doesn't even address that. he doesn't go anywhere near it. he's not doing anything about it. when i saw the tweet last night about this, i thought, "are you really going to call out a group of people who are sitting together, and yet you are going to ignore days and headlines and front pages of subways? people can't go back to her because of the subways. he is nowhere on that. it makes me so angry. >> harris: we are having a big conversation this country, though, about religious freedom right now. where having a conversation about the bill of rights. we have the attorney general, william barr, look at the situation saying, "what are points of interest rod for overreach?" jessica, i never thought in this country would look up and see someone call for the round up of jewish in america. of anybody, but particularly our

jewish community. i do know my husband is jewish, i know your family -- can you even believe it? >> jessica: no, it was definitely a sunday night -- tuesday night, sorry -- jewish shock you to see that tweet. i was surprised, because mayor de blasio is not someone who's actually known for making those kinds of comments about the jewish community, and has had various responses to the well-documented rise in anti-semitism that lisa mentioned a few minutes ago. he backpedaled on it. i do appreciate that. there is a conversation to be had about the intention. this is a hasidic community, a sacred rabbi had passed away. they wanted to find some way to continue. i thought they could do it outside, they brought masks, they had actually talked to local government about this. it went terribly wrong. i think it is the health message

that people should learn from this, that you can't work around by having a socially distanced funeral or service or whatever it is. at this particular moment, unfortunately, we have to completely change our behaviors. even if it means for a deeply religious community to not be able to honor one of the rabbis. that's unfortunate, and i know people are disappointed that they were doing easter service over zoom. >> harris: but to handle it this way is what people are talking about. we seen this over and over, personal responsibility. you've got a socially distanced. these are agreed-upon guidelines for keeping us all safe. i get that, but he was the mayor. just so we get it, here's what he said in response. "if in my passion and my motion i said something that was hurtful, i'm sorry about that. i have no regrets about calling of the stage and said we are going to do with it very, very aggressively." that is per "cbs news," quoting him from his twitter feed. it is interesting to see the blowback on this.

we all agree on what keeps us safe, but wow. all right, we'll move on. president trump with some strong words now for china, as the white house reportedly is ramping up efforts to determine what extent the chinese government may have concealed knowledge about the coronavirus outbreak from the very get go. coming up in the next hour, we are all facing new levels of stress and anxiety during this crisis. but can we come out of this stronger and more unified? we will dig in to all of that in the virtual town hall, "america copes together." mental health month begins this friday, and some of us are struggling. ♪

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once again going after china yesterday, criticizing the country's early response to the coronavirus outbreak. >> it should have been soft on the source, which was china. it should have been stopped very much at the source, but it wasn't. now we have 184 countries going through hell. but i think a lot of good things are going to happen. >> melissa: today, a senior chinese government official accusing the president of wasting weeks not preparing for a pandemic. in it and interview with nbc news, he called covid-19 a "natural disaster" and rejected claims that china tried to hide information about the virus from the rest of the world, or that the country should be held financially liable. also reporting the white house has ordered intelligence agencies to comb through any relevant data to determine whether china and the world

health organization tried to conceal what they knew about the initial outbreak. dr. makary, let me start with you. how hard do you think it is to produce evidence that china concealed evidence of the outbreak and denied it and obfuscated what was really going on? >> dr. makary: china will have to purchase paid in the investigation, melissa. which i'm concerned they would agree to. the pieces of the puzzle fit. the doctor who initially sounded the alarm in december died soon after he posted thinks on their social media platform. he was 34. how do you die from coronavirus at 34? it's possible. his number two doctor has been missing since early april. so they have to explain these things. the reason this is important is because right now there is a race to a vaccine. china is further along than we are. if they get there first, they may immunize their entire country, hold the supply chains

and manufacture the vaccine for them before they share it with the world. so this is an important questi question. >> melissa: can i ask you a follow up on that? if they get there first, that doesn't preclude us from coming up with a vaccine on our own. is it that they would then hoard all the resources? why is it so important that it's their first? it doesn't mean we don't follow. >> most of the reagents used in any manufacturing facility for a vaccine come from china or india. india now has 6,000 patients starting a trial for vaccine at oxford. they have already begun the manufacturing process, assuming they discover the right combination. that's what i'm concerned is happening in china. we need more sharing. they are at fault for this virus leaking out of the lab, i think that has implications on sharing. they can't lock out the united states on the vaccine.

>> melissa: lisa, if they have the components, i can't imagine anything at this point that's going on. it seems like they are already over. if they already have all the reagents themselves, why do we think they are going to share at all? >> jessica: we can. we know that china lied. we know that they destroyed evidence. they went after whistle-blowers and also suppressed critical information that could have saved so many lives around the globe. china should absolutely be distrusted. the government should. the question is, why did they do that? what i find interesting is the u.s. intelligence agency recently updated their assessment of the origins of the coronavirus, to leave room for the possibility that it originated from the infectious disease lab. what's interesting is part of that report, they identified the fact that 30.3% of the original 41 cases did not have direct exposure to the markets. there are all questions we need to get to the bottom of. with that, there should be an

absolute distrust in the communist party of china. >> melissa: harris, i heard you in there. i know that we have recently -- our dependence department made a deal with a company here in the u.s. that is only one that produces those rare earth minerals, to try and bring this production back home to the u.s. if we are depending on china for the supplies still at this point, whether we come with a vaccine for us or they do, i have a hard time imagining them sharing. >> harris: yeah. i mean, look, it's not going to share information about a pandemic, where it started and how it started and how they could help the world by not vacuuming up, and those are not my words. that's the reported observations of people around the world who saw the personal protective equipment, literally, vanishing into the hands of the chinese government at the very beginning of this pandemic. why would we think they would suddenly become the world's greatest chair or? i think it really begs further investigation on the hole, and we need to become self

sustainable. on every balance sheet that we possibly can, whether it's pharmaceuticals, other types of products, they have proven to be what they are. they are a communist nation. they are not buddies with the united states. it is a complete overreach in thought to think they would now turn and be something different. would they sell it? would they be in a position to profit from this? perhaps. >> melissa: i don't know. it sounds like, at this point, they would save it for their own people. the president is going to be coming out of that meeting. we are going to have the tape playback for that any minute. we will squeeze in a quick break right before. we'll be right back. homeowners. news for vn with mortgage rates at record lows, one call to newday can save you $2000 a year. it's that simple. with their va streamline refi, there's no income verification or home appraisal.

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>> harris: here's what we had been watching. breaking news is about to happen live within seconds. governor john bel edwards of louisiana, a democrat, meeting right now with president trump. the state of louisiana had looked to reopen. he extended the stay-at-home order, and now they are talking about a lot. dr. fauci also in this meeting. let's watch together. >> the institute i direct sponsored, the adaptive treatment trial, was started in february 21st of this year. it was a randomized

placebo-controlled trial. comparing the gilead drug, remdesivir, with a placebo. it was highly powered with about 1,090 plus individuals. it's the first truly high-powered randomized placebo-controlled trial. it was an international trial, involving multiple sites. not only united states, but in various countries throughout the world, including germany, denmark, spain, greece, the you u.k., et cetera. the primary end point was the time to recovery, namely, the ability to be discharged. when you have a study like this, we have a data and safety monitoring board that looks at the data. they are independent, so there is no prejudice on the part of the investigators, because they were doing the trial. the data and safety monitoring board on monday afternoon

contact in may, april 27th. first on friday, the week before, and again on april 27th. and notified the study team, namely the multiple investigators doing the study throughout the world, that the data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery. this is really quite important for a number of reasons. i will give you the data. it's highly significant. if you look at the time to recovery being shorter in the remdesivir arm, it was 11 days compared to 15 days. that is a key value for the scientists of 0.001. so that is something, although a 31% in improvement, doesn't seem like a knock at 100%. it's a very important proof of concept. what it has proven is that a

drug can block this virus. i will give you an example in a moment of why we think, looking forward, this is very optimistic. the mentalit mortality rate tred toward being better in the sense of less deaths in the remdesivir group. 8% versus 11% in the placebo group. it has not yet reached statistical significance, but the data needs to be further analyzed. the reason why we are making the announcement now is something that i believe people don't fully appreciate. whenever you have clear-cut evidence that a drug works, you have an ethical obligation to immediately let the people who are in the placebo group know so they can have access. all of the other trials that are taking place now have a new standard of care. so we would have normally waited several days until the day to dot the i and cross the tea, but the data are not going to chang. some of the numbers may change a

little, but the conclusion will not change. when i was looking at this data with our team the other night, it was reminiscent of 34 years ago, in 1986, when we were struggling for drugs for hiv. and we had nothing. there was a lot of anecdotal reports about things, people were taking different kinds of drugs. we did the first randomized placebo-controlled trial with azt, which turns out to give an effect that was modest. but that was not the end game, because building on that every year after we did better and better, we had better drugs of the same type, and we had drugs against different targets. this drug happens to be blocking an enzyme that the virus uses. there are a lot of other enzymes that the virus uses that are now going to be targets for this. this will be the standard of care. in fact, when we look at the

other trials were doing, we will do a trial with another antiviral. actually, it is in an, it's an anti-inflammatory. we are going to now compare the combination of remdesivir with this. so, as drugs come in, we will see if we can add on that. bottom line, you are going to be hearing more details about this. this will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal and will be peer reviewed appropriately. but we think it's opening the door to the fact that we now have the capability of treating -- and, i can guarantee you, as more people, more companies, more investigators get involved, it's going to get better and better. i will stop there, but i'd be happy to answer any questions. >> reporter: the timeline, the developer to the vaccinations? >> this has nothing to do with vaccines. this treatment for people who are already infected. vaccines are to prevent infection out to those who are at risk.

we have nothing more than what i continually keep you up-to-date on, that everything is on track with the phase one study. were in the third part, will go into phase two train in the summer. nothing has changed, anything i've said in the press conferences. >> president trump: they are riding a lot about oxford. we know johnson & johnson -- >> another one of several candidates that are moving along. we are going to have a lot of shots on goal when it comes to vaccines. >> president trump: that's great. please, go ahead. >> reporter: what is your thought process on states reopening their governments? do you think people should be more comfortable knowing that there is a drug that is proven effective? >> president trump: i think it's the beginning. i think tony explain it really well. it's a beginning, it means you build on it. i love that is a building block. as a building block, i love that. certainly it's a positive, it's a very positive event from that standpoint. we are going to be very careful as we open. a lot of people, a lot of governors opening. i know you very advance, you are

going be advance and getting it going. we are doing a very carefully. we've read a lot over the last couple months. if there's a fire, we are going to put it out. if there's a little amber burning, we're going to put it out and put it up very quickly. i think we learned how to do that. there been some areas that have really started up, and we put it up very quickly. so we've learned a lot. please. >> reporter: the stop the spread guidelines expired tomorrow. do you intend to extend those? >> mike, do you want to explain what we doing on that? >> vice president pence: we initiated the guidelines 45 days ago. first 15, and then 30 days to slow the spread. frankly, every state in america has embraced those guidelines at a minimum, or even dunmore. now our focus is working with states, as governors like governor john bel edwards

unveiled plans to open up their states again. the new guidance we've issued his guidance on how they can do that safely, and responsibly, so not only the gating criteria for when we believe it's appropriate for states to enter phase one are included, but the very specific guidelines for when states open and how they can open. as the president said, in a safe and responsible way, are included in the president's guidelines to open up america again. >> reporter: so the guideline will not be expended after tomorrow? >> vice president pence: the current guidelines are incorporated in the guidance that we are giving states to open up america again. maybe mr. president -- >> president trump: they will be fading out. now the governors are doing it. i've had many calls from governors. the governor of texas, greg abbott, any governors. tennessee, arkansas, we are speaking to a lot of different people. they are explaining what they are doing.

i am very much in favor of what they're doing. they are getting it going. we are opening our country again. do you want to explain that, please? >> from california, they may slow the spread, the phase one of their four phases. every governor is adapting both currently where we are and moving forward, how to move through phase one, phase two, phase three. the governor feels like they haven't met the criteria. some of them have made that their own first phase one, and some of them have made phase zero. we have been very encouraged to see how the federal government s developed a framework for governors moving forward all the way through from what they now call either phase zero all the way through phase 3. >> president trump: and ron desantis, as you know, the governor of florida, was here yesterday. he gave i thought a really good presentation of how he's doing it, what he's doing, how he's opening. you might have seen it. he did a very good job.

>> mr. president, i would say this. when you look at the plan that you put out for 30 days to stop the spread, the mitigation measures that you promoted in that plan are carried forward in the guidelines for reopening. it is sort of a seamless way to do it, by keeping those mitigation measures in place. as you reopen, especially for a vulnerable population. really, i would agree with the vice president that it is carried forward. not just theoretically, but expressly through the document you give us. >> thank you for mentioning vulnerable people. we've made it clear about over the last eight weeks out there with certain risk groups that were particularly vulnerable to serious disease. that has held up. we see reports, about 95-96%, of those individuals with serious disease and hospitalization still in those groups. in no way, that's reassuring. but it also should be a message to all of our vulnerable populations, as each set for the last eight weeks, in phase one

and phase two. as well as in slow the spread. we've been very clear about them continuing to shelter, and those families, protecting them from it being effective. >> reporter: mr. president, what are you hoping to learn about china and the world health organization with this investigation you've commissioned with the intelligence agencies? >> president trump: its coming end and i'm getting pieces already. we are not happy about it, and we are by far the largest contributor to w.h.o., world health. they misled us. i don't know, they must have known more than they knew, because they came after what other people knew, they weren't even involved. we knew things they didn't know, and either they didn't know it or they didn't tell us. right now they are literally a pipe organ for china. that's the way i view it. we are seeing and looking and watching. again, we give $500 million, and

we have over the years, from $490 to $500 million for many years. china is giving $30 million. they seem to work for china. and they should have been in the early, they should have known what was going on. they should have been able to stop it. you talk about stopping the spread or stopping the embers, that have been down that could've been stopped there. why did china allow planes to fall out but not into china? but they allowed planes to come out? planes are coming out of wuhan, and they are coming out all over the world. they're going to italy, very big time to italy. but they are going all over the world. but they're not going to china. what was that all about? we are coming up with a very distinct recommendation. but we are not happy about it. we're not happy with it. even today, i've heard some statements, very positive. there's nothing positive about what happened in china, having to do with the subject. nothing positive at all.

i finished a number of months ago with a trade deal, and he would have thought it would have been like somebody would have said, "hey, they could accept that the source." they didn't have gillette airplanes come out, lives of people coming up. we are i as tony said, we are looking beast opted in january, flowing into our country from china. our citizen say, "you shouldn't have let our citizens back in." let's forget about that one. we are lucky we stopped in january. long after that date, as you know, people thought the measure i took was much too strong. we are lucky we stopped it. we put a border, we put a ban on people coming in from china. we will have a recommendation pretty soon. but we are not happy with the world health organization. >> reporter: just to clarify, a recognition about?

the world health organization, china, what do you mean? >> president trump: world health with china to file. >> can ask a question of dr. fauci? there was also a study out of china of remdesivir that came out today that didn't find a significance, statistical significance, with the treatment. i am wondering if he that study. >> it's an underpowered study. it's not the kind of study -- that's the reason why i was very explicit in saying this is a randomized control, a placebo-controlled trial, powered to the tune of over a thousand hospitalized patients. it was a clear and point, the time that you are essentially discharge, and the secondary end point is death. i don't like to pooh-pooh studies, but that's not an adequate study. everybody in the field feels that. >> reporter: mr. president, what can you do to help businesses with liability issues as workers come back? and states that have opened up. >> president trump: we looked

with the meat processors. if tremendous products, we have ample supply. but there was a bottleneck caused by this whole pandemic. it was potentially pretty serious. i just got off the phone with the biggest in the world. i mean, the biggest distributors there are. the companies you've been reading about it, they are so thrilled, so happy. they are all gung ho, and resolve their problems. we've unblocked some of the bottlenecks. i'm sure you've seen it, i'm sure you've heard, i spoke to them about two hours ago. started something very important last night. the defense production act. it's very important, it's so lia new business. they were being very unfairly treated, very unfairly treated. so the farmers are very happy, the ranchers, and the companies were talking about. you know the ones i'm talking about, because they have all

become very well-known. they were well known anyway. they are big companies. they're not being treated fairly. they are thrilled. that whole bottleneck is broken up. >> so the defense production act -- >> president trump: we used it, that's what we did. it helps them greatly, greatly. to do what they have to do. because they are ready to do it. they needed some help. >> how do you protect the workers, what are you doing? >> president trump: we will have a report on that probably this afternoon. we'll have good formal protection. through quarantine, when we find someone, we are going to be very careful. they are, as to who's going into the plant, and the quarantine is going to be very strong. we are going to make people better when they have a problem. we're going to get them better. hopefully they're going to get better. we have a very good record of having people getting better. a lot of people don't talk about that, john bel, people go in statistically but you don't read about the tremendous success we've had. we are just about number one in the world in terms of success.

germany is doing well, we are doing well. a couple of countries are doing okay. we are doing very well. the statistics are very good on that. we are going to get them better. yes? >> reporter: a quick follow up with dr. fauci. when might we see remdesivir on the market? how soon might we see that? >> right now it's happening that the fda literally as we speak is working with gilead to figure out mechanisms to make this easily available to those who need it, with regard to getting to the market. we will obviously have to be approved by the fda for licensure. the fda is very well aware that this is something that is very important. i'm sure they're going to be moving very expeditiously. but i can't give you a date. >> president trump: in the earlier phases were the phases? >> thank you for that question, because there are a lot of different permutations. this is in hospitalized patients. the end point was the time to discharge. it's unclear yet right now, from

this study, whether or not it would be -- we don't know. it could be. but we only make statements about what we've proven. the only thing that has been proven was in hospitalized patients. good question, we will have the answer to that. >> reporter: [inaudible] >> president trump: so, if you look at what's going on in the market, where the market is 24,000, and this came from a spline. we have the greatest economy ever in the world, in the history of the world. the best economy. i'll say it openly, nobody even challenges it. they would if they thought i was wrong. we had the best economy ever, and we're going to have it aga again. what happened is look at the market today, about 24,000, i think. i will ask you to say a couple things about that. if you would have said that we would have had the worst pandemic since 1917, over a hundred years ago, with the

disturbance to 184 countries at least, because that was as of last week, that a market would be 29,000 and now at 24,000, and we were -- i think we are having one of the best weeks. we are having one of the best periods in terms of stock market, which to me is jobs and future. i don't view it a market, i view it as jobs and future. if you would have said to me would be a 24,000, we started off -- when i was elected, the number was much lower. much, much lower, as you know. it's called "in the teens." if you said we would have been at 24,000 with what we've gone through as a country, john bel, it's pretty amazing. i think i read this is one of the best weeks in the talk to stock market, this last short period of time we've had, since the 1950s or 1940s.