virus, reducing its spread and shortening the duration of the pandemic which is what it is. the cdc has published guidelines on the coronavirus. to enable its coronavirus.gov and it's very heavily used right now i will say to enable every american to respond to this epidemic and protect themselves, their families and the communities. while the risk to young and the healthy americans, anyone can be a carrier for the virus and risk transmission to older americans and those with underlying health conditions and those who are most at risk they haven't done very well -- older americans who are especially if they have a health problem. they haven't done well. we must take all precautions and

be responsible for the actions that we take and that we see other people take. we want to prevent the spread and transmission of the disease. it's incredible what sports -- what's happening with the sporting world, where so many of the great sports that we have gotten so used to they're not going to be meeting and they've done a great service another way that it could be problems could be caused. on wednesday night, my ed a m administration, the fact that we issued a requirement suspending all medically unnecessary visits to various places but in particular nursing homes, we should all be working off the same playbook when it comes to protecting americans. we have to. we need to be consistent in adopting measures to limit the spread of the virus.

the virus is the same whether it's spreading in cities, towns or rural communities. . the tools to attacking it are similar no matter where you go. you have some hotspots throughout the world right now. key among these efforts are breaki breaking chain of transmission, and we want to protect the safety and the health of their employees and their students. i encourage everyone to follow the guidelines by cdc and these commonsense measures. lot of it is common sense. for the areas where the virus is spreading the cdc is advising communities to postpone large gathering, postpone assembly, social functions and sporting eve events. limit in-person meetings, and

cancel work-sponsored travel among numerous other steps that can be taken. americans are the strongest and most resill yebt people on earth and in the coming weeks we'll all have to make changes and sacrifices. these short-term sacrifices will produce long-term gain and again i have said we're learning a lot for the future and future problems like this or worse. or worse. it could get worse. the next eight weeks are critical. we can learn and we will turn a corner on this virus. some of the doctors say it will wash through. it will flow through. an interesting term. and very accurate i think you'll find in a number of weeks it will be a very accurate term in times of hope the true character of america always shine through.

we want to take care of our people. we want to draw on the history and the strength of the people. we'll get through this. we'll get through this. so much progress has already been made and frankly the numbers because of steps have been taken are at a level that many people are surprised especially when you compare them with other places. with far smaller populations. the spirit and the will of our nation is unbreakable. we'll defeat this threat. when america is tested america rises to the occasion. to those families and worried and concerned about their loved ones the federal government will unleash every tool at its disposal. to safeguard the lives of our people. we're with you every step of the

way. no nation is more prepared or more equipped to face down this threat. we're helping many other nations. we're helping them a lot. and they're doing okay in some cases and but we're working with a lot of other nations. with faith and heart and hope and love and determination we will succeed, we will prevail, we'll be very, very successful and we'll learn for the future. thank you all very much. if you can have questions, we can take some. john. >> mr. president, where are you with the house bill yesterday we talked to you in the oval office you were opposed to it, what has happened since then? >> we don't think the democrats are giving enough. we're negotiating. we thought we had something.

but all of a sudden they didn't agree to certain things they agreed to, so we could have something but we don't think they're giving enough. they're not doing what's right for the country. >> if i could ask dr. fauci. >> go ahead, please. >> you just mentioned waiving interest for student lones, buying oil from the spr. what other specific targeted measures is your administration thinking about taking? the treasury secretary said today you're just in the second inning of things. >> that's true. we're looking at many different things that you know. some have written about very widely. we're going to be releasing a paper in about two hours. >> thank you so much, mr. president. are you in contact with the brazilian president bolsanaro after his delegation with was

you with saturday who tested positive? senator lindsey graham and rick scott are self-isolating, are planning to take any kind of precautionary measure to protect you and your? >> no. we have no symptoms whatsoever. and we have -- we had a great meeting with the president of brazil. great guy. very, very tremendous. he's doing a fantastic job for brazil. as you know, he tested negative, meaning nothing wrong this morning. we did have dinner with him. we were sitting next to him for a long period of time. >> are you in contact with him over the coronavirus crisis? >> we're talking about it country to country. we did discuss if he had a problem. it was reported that he may have it and he doesn't fortunately. >> thank you so much, mr.

president. dr. fauci said earlier this week the lag if testing was in fact a failing. do you take responsibility for that? when can garen teen tee that every american could have a test. >> i don't take responsibility at all because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules and regulations and specifications from a different time, wasn't meant for this kind of event with the kind of numbers that we're talking about and what we have done is redesigned it very quickly with the help of the people behind me and we're now in very, very strong shape. we'll be announcing sunday night and this will start very quickly and we'll have the ability to do in the millions over a very, very quick period of time. so, no. what we have done and we'll be leaving an indelible print in

the future, it was -- that's not the fault of anybody and frankly the old system worked very well for smaller numbers, much smaller numbers but not for these kind of numbers. >> by sunday night will be every american be able to get a test. >> to reiterate to what i said the system was not designed for. the cdc designed a good system. if you want to get the kind of blanket testing and availability that anybody can get it or you can even do surveillance to find out what the pen trance is you have to embrace the private sector. that's exactly what you're seeing. when i said that, i meant the system wasn't designed for what we now. now looking forward the system will take care of it. >> mr. president -- >> interestingly if you go back, please, if you go back to the swine flu, it was nothing like

this. they didn't do testing like this and actually they lost 14,000 people and they didn't do the testing. they started testing when it was far too late. what we have done and one of the reasons people are respecting what we have done, we've gotten it very early and we kept a lot of people out -- >> mr. president the last administration said they tested a million people at this point. >> ask them how they did with the swine flu. it with us a disaster. >> mr. president, i wanted to ask you about the european travel ban that goes into effect at midnight tonight and the exemption that you offered to the uk, there are 17 countries that are in the so-called schen schengrer zone that have fewer cases that the uk. the uk has added 200 coronavirus cases to their total.

why do they mr. president deserve an exception? and would you consider them adding them to this travel ban list? >> that was recommended to me by a group of professionals. we're looking at it and we may have to include them in the list of countries that we'll ban during this period of time. but the numbers have gone up fairly -- over the last 24 hours. we may be adding that and a couple of others. we may frankly thinking about taking some off. >> thank you, mr. president. i'm you have mentioned that the number in china have been decreasing and china has tremendous progress in the past weeks. i'm wondering how much confidence does this give you to control the virus in the united states and do you see the data china has been sharing with the

united states has been helpful in. >> i think it has been helpful. we have been working very much with china. i have spoken with president xi. they went through hell and there are numbers are starting to look really good. they're looking good. we're sharing data, yes, in fact we're sharing quite a bit of data. including some of our pharmaceutical companies are working over there with large group of people. >> thank you, mr. president. you spoke with canadian prime minister trudeau yesterday, did you discuss the potentially closing of the border between canada and the united states and by extension are you considering ways to salvage the $2 billion daily trade between the two country. >> reporter: we didn't discuss the border. we have had a very good relationship. he called at the time his wife

hadn't been diagnosed. since then i heard, read that the result was that she has it. and i was a little surprise. we did discuss it prior to, she's going to be fine. but he thought that she would not mostly like have the virus. unfortunately she does. but we didn't discuss the border yesterday, no. go ahead, please. if you have any questions for these great geniuses up here you should, even a business question related to what we're talking about. >> as a relatively new floridian what is your message today to the cruise line industry and the travel industry that deflorida depends on and senator rick scott and miami-dade mayor have the same exposure as you they're

self-isolating, what's your message to them? >> i don't have any of the symptoms and we have a white house doctor and i should say many white house doctors frankly and i asked them that same question and they said, you don't have any symptoms whatsoever. we don't want people without symptoms to go and do the test. the test isn't insignificant as far as the cruise line business, we're with them all the way. it's a great business. it's a great u.s. business, frankly, and i know how important they are to the country includes airlines, but the cruise line business obviously was hit very hard and we had a tremendous success out in oakland where we moved it, vice president pence did a fantastic job with that. we worked the uk, canada, they took their people back and canada is approximately 600 people. uk like wooidz took a large number of people back to the united kingdom and we have

people quarantined. it was a big operation and you don't hear about it anymore. mike, you may want to say something about it. because that was done properly. >> well, thank you, mr. president. and that program with the grand princess ship is continuing to bed administered in the highest standards, orderly way as the president directed. americans needed treatment received it. i spoke to governor of iowa today and some of those who now have been cleared are able to proper supervision to return to iowa, they're making arrangements for them to do that. it's another example of the extraordinary cooperation of governor abbott, governor newsome, the president directed me last saturday to travel down the miami. we met with the leaders of the

cruise line industry, several cruise lines have announced a 60-day pause in operations, our department of home land security has praised them for doing that because of the unique health challenges particularly presented to seniors with underlying conditions. we have a proposal from the cruise line industry but they're currently considering what other steps they might take perhaps even similar to what the other lines have taken. we're anticipating some response on that in the next 24 hours. but as the president said, the american people cherish the cruise line industry. the men and women who work on the ship and the economy and what the president has directed us to do is whether there's a pause in the moment as some cruise lines are doing, we want to work with the cruise line

industry to ensure that when we come through this that cruise lines and the medical services that are available and for the passengers and all of the crew cruise lines are safer than ever before. >> go ahead, please. >> this question is for doctors fauci and burks. what's the trajectory for this when outbreak peaks and for dr. burks as the administrations tries to get this test kit shortage, the next glaring need could be respirators, what's the administration doing right now to ramp up production of rez a respirators. >> when you have an outbreak like this, it's really impossible to predict the time element of when it's going to

peak and when it's going to go down. if you look at the situation where countries really did not get to the point of trying to contain and mitigate very well, you see a peak over several weeks and down again over several weeks what we're trying to do with the efforts that we're doing is to blunt that peak and i mentioned it many times and i think it's important and appropriate for me to mention again because it answers your question. when you talk about preventing infections from without in, the kind of travel restrictions we're talking about, how do you handle what you already have in your country? you do containment and mitigation. the success of that and how much you make this turn into this is going to give the amount of time, if we're successful it will be less, if we're not successful it's going be more but these kind of things

generally run out in a few months. hopefully we'll make it several weeks. eight, nine whatever weeks. i can't give you a number because it depends on how successful we are. >> great, thank you. it's great question. dr. fauci and i have worked together a very long time. i think you can learn very -- and i appreciate there were some graphics done by the reporting, if you align the data from china with the data from south korea you can start to see almost a complete overlay of that data. that's what we're tracking zrr closely as well as italy. you have an excellent question. in south korea, only 4% of the tests were positive. that means 96% of people had a different respiratory disease because we're in the middle of flu season, cold season and all of the other respiratory diseases that we get every day.

in early data, they're running 1%, to 2% positive. we have a lot more other respiratory diseases out there beside the coronavirus. that's why the screening is critical. even with the screening we'll run very low rates. needless to say, we're taking it extraordinarily serious for what could come, what dr. fauci talked about blunting the curve, we're in full inventory of all of our assets by the president locking and this emergency order and the secretary of hhs, his ability, it unlocks all of those stock piles, those needs what the va has, what the dod has and what every hospital has. it allows them to defer elective issues to keep those hospital beds open for those who need it.

we're in full planning mode. >> i might add, we're in the process and in some cases have already done it ordered a large number of respirators just in case. we ordered a large number. go ahead, please. >> thank you very much, mr. president. in your speech to the nation you mentioned the situation in china and south korea have improved and you're thinking about remove the restrictions and the warning in place right now, can we expect that announcement and how do you see the overall progress that asian countries make? >> some are makes progress and some are not. as they make progress and as they get down to the number that we think is right we'll be opening it up. some are moving along rapidly. we hope to be able to open things up as quickly as possible. go ahead, please.

>> thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask secretary azar and dr. fauci, just how -- dr. fauci. >> better. go ahead. >> this affects the elderly primarily and in that sense it's an unusual disease, is any specific research being done why it affects our senior citizens more than others? >> so i don't mean to diminish your question but we already know why it would affect senior citizens more because when you talk about anything that requires a robust immune system, as you get older your immune system isn't as potent as it when you're young and that's the reason why when you talk about even influenza where we have extraordinary experience with,

decades and decades, the people who are very vulnerable are the elderly and those with underlying conditions. the same thing holds true for a variety of other diseases, why cancer is more prevalent in mostly and older americans. the immune system that screens for it is less robust. so it really is something that's kind of well known over a lot of studies. >> okay. oan, please. oan. >> mr. president, the chinese officials are expressing some tones of discontent with how -- where the source of this virus has come from and they're spinning some odd narratives, what are your response to the chinese officials who are doing that and have they signaled any kind of resistance to upcoming trade talks in response to how

we're handling? >> no, our deal with china. they'll be buying $250 billion worth of goods and 50 billion there are from our farmers and it's a great deal for our country. about time somebody did that and frankly, phase two will start negotiating. i did read one article but i don't think that article was representative with my conversations with president xi. we all know where it came from. >> thank you, mr. president. my first question, you said you don't take responsibility but you did disbanned the white house pandemic office and the officials left this administration abruptly, what responsibility do you take to that and the officials who worked in this office the white house lost valuable time because that office was disbanded. >> i think it's a nasty

question. tony has said numerous times we saved thousands of lives because of the quick closing and when you say me, i didn't do it. we have group of people. i could perhaps ask tony about that. i don't know anything about it. you say we did that. >> you don't know the reorganization at the national security council. >> people let people go. these professionals behind me and these great incredible doctors and business people, the best in the world and i can say that whether it's retailers or labs or anything you want to say these are the best in the world. we're doing a great job. we have 40 people right now. 40. compared to other countries who have many, many times that amount. the reason we have 40 -- again, that number is going up. a number of cases very small

relatively speaking is going up. we're doing a great job because we acted early. we closed our borders to highly infected areas. >> thank you, mr. president. i'd like you two very brief questions. one for how long are we going to have the emergency? the national energy. >> i hope not long. it's there and it gives tremendous powers for things that we need. tremendous power, actually, and the various other things that we're involved in. it gives the kind of power that we need to get rid of this virus and we're going to do it very quickly. i hope we won't need it very long. whatever it takes. >> for now we still don't know for how long. something very important i

wanted to ask you, do you really think it's essential coordinating with other countries and learning from the lessons they already suffered the same situation, the countries, like nichina and sou korea. >> italy is having -- we're in touch with italy and you know, it's a country that we love. we have tremendous, millions and millions of people originally origins from italy and we're working with them, they're in a very -- they're probably relatively speaki ining the tout position of all. we're in touch with everybody. when i say everybody we're in touch with many of the countries that you know about, that you're writing about and they're calling us asking us for advice. they're asking for the advice of people behind me. italy has a tough situation but they're really -- they have really clamped down. i think they'll see very good

results. they took their medicine. they're going to see some much bett better results. >> jeff? >> thank you, sir. with regard to domestic travel, this should americans feel safe or should americans at all traveling to states such as washington state, new york and other hotspots within this country? follow up on brazil, you're asking people who come back from europe, americans are coming back from europe to self-quarantine for a couple of weeks, you were in picture with somebody who now has coronavirus at mar-a-lago. >> you were exposed. >> somebody has it. i have no idea who who it is. i take pictures. it lasts seconds. i haven't seen the picture. there's a picture of somebody. i take sometimes hundreds of pictures a day and that night i was taking hundreds of pictures.

now i did sit with the president for probably two hours but he's tested negative so that's good. >> just a matter -- >> the domestic -- >> go ahead, please. i would say if you stay home, it's not bad. it's not bad. there are certain parts of the country that are essentially have zero problem. washington's been very tough in particular a nursing home, and washington, the state of washington has been very tough, a big percentage of when you talk about the 40 deaths, there's been a big percentage of the deaths as you know very well and they all came from a certain area unfortunately. please go ahead. go ahead. okay. >> thank you very much, mr. president. sky news. you talked this week about uk doing a good job in tackling coronavirus. in the light of the rise in cases are you changing your mind

about that? you just spoke about possible travel restrictions have you discussed when they might be put in place. >> in light of the results as we discussed before, we'll be looking at it and i know the task force is looking at it very strongly, the vice president and everybody, it was looking good but the results have been building up pretty raymondpidly. we'll be taking a look at that, yes. go ahead, please. >> mr. president, thank you. i want to follow up on jeff's question, the person you were standing next to you tested positive for coronavirus. dr. fauci said this morning, if you stand next to somebody who tests positive you should self-isolate and get a test. you said your white house doctor is telling you something different. who should americans listen to? >> they have to listen to their doctors and i they shouldn't be jumping to the test unless it's

necessary. they have to listen to the doctor. i haven't seen the picture. >> you might have it even if you don't have symptoms. are you going to be tested? >> most likely, yes. i'll do anyway. >> will you let know the results in my second question. >> go ahead. >> there's been a lot of talk about testing, i just wanted to make sure we're clear, we have been hearing from doctors as of today they still can't get patients tested who need a test. as of today, can everyone a doctor wants tested get tested? >> that's been tested for a while. i'll let mike answer that.

>> as the president said and dr. fauci has articulated the nature of our current system where cdc has samples and tests are performed, in some cases universities and hospital labs perform tests is generally adequate the president tasked us with bringing together this public/partnership. when you add all the labs together, today the president made it possible for every state in the country and their state labs to authorize labs across their state to do coronavirus testing and we're estimating somewhere between 15,000, 20,000 tests a day are able to be performed. but very soon with the program

that was announced today, americans will be able to visit one of the sites closest to them as described on the website if their symptomatic to have a test there and these incredible companies will process the test and they'll receive that information. but for now, the best and viesz to give to people is speak to their doctor as the president just said. if the doctor indicates, if that physicianing if it's not a university hospital or otherwise authorized lab can contact the state lab, again, every state lab in the country can perform a test today. what the president charged us with was open up tests all across the country. the president said a few days ago that we made it clear that any american that wanted to get a test would be able to clinically to get a test. i heard from the governor of

washington state the doctors in washington state said if you're only mildly symptomatic they wouldn't ordered a test. the president ordered the cdc to clarify that. anyone in consultation with their physicians regardless of their symptoms can request a test. they'll contact those agencies and very soon americans will go to these drive-in sites and be able to obtain and participate in a state. >> i think that's perfectly said. i think just to review one more time about the testing, with labcorps and quest, you have been to doctor's offices and seen the boxes outside what they do is deliver both the specimen collection piece because remember it's a nasal swab, it's not a tube of blood. they deliver to doctor's offices and hospitals and they'll

arrange to pick that up. the important piece in this all, they have gone from a machine to the potential to have automated extradition. it's re ee's automated extra ca the result comes out at the other end. sample to machine to results. that cuts out of the manual pieces that were thatting that were delaying the test result and with that, what's the time line like? next week, what should people expect? >> with the prior testing it was taking several days because the test is slower. we believe with this test because of its throughput that the testing can be from start, remember it has to transport to the laboratory that will run it, and then we're hoping that all can be finished within 24 hours which is very similar to other

tests that received today. these aren't point of care tests. we're working on point of care tests. point of care tests take six months or more to develop. we're not waiting for those. we're still diagnosing this on knew clayic acid. the actual virus in your nose that we're amplifying. >> i think you have to remember, though, we're very closely with states. a smaller forum and targeted form of government going in and doing it. like in new york, the relationship is very good. like gavin newsom, where he made some very complementary -- he made some very complimentary comments yesterday about how we're working together. the relationship that we have -- i can't think of a bad

relationship, we're helping them. we're funding them in some cases depending on what it is you're talking about and we're all working together very closely. we have done a tremendous job of te teamwork with the different states. one or two more. if you have questions for these folks, does anybody have a question for the folks up here? who has a question up here? you have. go ahead. >> thank you. i have one for you as well. >> i thought. >> i have one for them. i haven't heard this -- okay, with regards to the ceo s. can you please tell us when you expect to see items like hand sanitizer going out of stock very quickly back on the shelves, there has been a lot of reports about that and for you, mr. president, could you talk about a potential bailout for the cruise industry, you suggested that could happen, something you're still looking at. >> i didn't suggest that it

could happen. it's an industry that was very badly impacted by what's going on with the virus and it's a great industry, a very important industry and we'll be helping them and helping the airline industry if we have to, assuming that we have to. so far people haven't been asking. should they be asking we want to make sure our airlines are very strong. one day all of a sudden wasn't looking so good. interestingly we i was talking to doug, the numbers they're doing from the retailing standpoint because of this, your business is the opposite all of you have been selling a lot of stuff. you want to answer the question as to the hand sanitizers. >> specifically the areas where we're seeing pressure in the supply chain are surface cleaners, cleaning supplies, paper goods in particular, hand sanitizers, harder to have 100% on stock. as soon as it's hitting the stores it's going.

all of the retailers are working hand in hand to bring that to market. >> what's the advice for americans seeking those items? >> i think this team has given you other examples how they can fight back against this virus and you should look at this entire list. >> dr. fauci. >> i mean, obviously, it sounds very simplistic, wash your hands as often as possibly can. i know you're not always in a position to wash your hands but wash them as much as you can if you don't have the alcohol wipes try to get them. if you can't get them, you got to do the best you can. >> just general preparedness. you want to wash your hands. you want to keep distance from people and if you're around someone sick keep away from them. basic, basic public health.

soap and water. hot water, soap, 20 seconds, that's how you do it. >> okay, one more. go ahead. go ahead. >> e thank you very much, mr. president. you have a great team, of course. my question, mr. president, are you happy from the chinese response what really happened, second from modi, india closed borders until april 15th have you spoke within the prime minister of india and if they have needed any help? any message for the small businesses because they're losing businesses for this. >> on small businesses, the small business administration is now stacked with money to help them and we're going to make money readily available if they

need it. small businesses. we had a great time in india, it was an incredible two days and he's great friend of mine and he's friend of his people because he was greeted incredibly warmly. i loved being with him. we talked about everything. we talked about far more than just borders and as far as president xi he's friend of mine. we're dealing in good faith. we just worked as you know and as i just said we just worked an incredible deal, one of the big deals, one of the biggest deals ever made with china. i think they want to get the bottom of things also. our drug companies, our pharmaceutical companies are working closely with china and india a and all over the world. these are magnificent companies that are very, very

knowledgeable and we're very lucky to have them. i think you're going to come up with whether it's therapeutic or just help in getting better and ultimately a vaccine that takes longer because of the test periods and a couple of other reasons you'll have it very quickly because of the great knowledge and they'll have it very quickly. they've made a tremendous amount of progress. thank you all very much. donald trump today exercising his presidential prerogative for a do-over on coronavirus seeking to erase the stain of his disastrous oval office address. today, taking to the rose garden to declare a national emergency that would free up billions of dollars in federal aid as the virus continues its spread in the united states. measures to contain it have now impacted most aspects on of the daily lives of everyday americans. the president also addressing the topic of growing concern and

criticism of the government response. a testing shortage one that donald trump described as, quote, i don't take responsibility at all. i don't take responsibility at all. one of the big headlines from donald trump today. we're joined by an amazing group of experts, reporters covering this story from up, down and sideways. i want to get to all of them. first for you, doctor, what did you make of the two big headlines about testing, it went on so long, an hour and ten minutes we heard from the ceos of the nation's chain drugstores. the ceo of walmart, target, walgreens and cvs. what did you make of information dispensed by them. >> the information was fine, only two months elate. i remember about eight weeks ago thinking that what is going on here? then we had a couple hundred tests being done by the cdc and

then they distributed the test material around the country about 97% of those were defe defective. they pulled it back. it was a one shot herbal mistake by the federal government and the public health system. but it's continuing. it's still a problem. i spoke to er doctors this morning who can't get results. i think it's going to improve. governor cuomo for example is starting these drive-through testing facilities. that's all great but it's so late in the process. it's like an international embarrassment of how much we have messed up this entire process of testing, that's so critical to our understanding of the disease. the united states of america, has tested 5 for over 5 million. it's just extraordinary. it's inexplicable. we have seen big problems around

governments before. i remember michael brown and the katrina response that was bad. it's not stopping. more happy talk from the president and his team around him is not helping. and you know, yes, i appreciate the corporate involvement. it should have happen a long time ago. >> the other big medical headline. the president after an hour and five minutes after repeated questioning from journalists working under extraordinary challenging situations, the president calling one journalist's question nasty. changed his response to questions about whether or not he would be tested. he was photographed next to somebody who tested positive for the coronavirus. the president finally conceding

that he'll be tested at a point undetermined in future. >> maybe grounds to believe the president, i don't know what they would be. i'm convinced, i would imagine he's being tested every day in fact, he's just being tested every day, they're not revealing the results, what a shock, tony fauci's a respectable guy, but owe know even though he and his reputation is getting tainted by the failures that have happened at the fda, nih and the cdc. i don't want to see people like that become a apoll gist for an incompetent government. continue to mislead, happy talk, ridiculous efforts to try and deal with something they don't seem to understand. >> third medical headline a story that was bubbling since yesterday, questioning on capitol hill about respirators,

the president about 46 minutes in, dropped a bomb shell would have been a fantastic headline again if it's true, he ordered more ventilators to be made. >> i don't know who's going to be making them. when have a pandemic, happening everywhere, everybody's in line to get as many ventilators as they can. we have 62,000 ventilators in the hospitals in the united states and there's another 30,000, 35,000 in the national stock pile. but we may need 200,000 ventilators if in fact the models which we have out there now are showing the impact on hospitals. if we had those we need people to manage them. we don't have enough respiratory therapists to even manage the ones that we have and i'm not sure that the government is really helping us to understand not just the respirators the icu

beds, the staffing, we need leadership right now in a different way than being expressed by the entire federal a a apparatus. so the thing is a mess. we need a lot more very concrete direction now. the numbers are being made up like for example, how many people can gather together safely, so some mayor says 250, other governor says 500, it's all over the map. they're all completely evidence free when we should be getting guidance from the cdc. our research shows no more than 100 people should be together at a particular spot. we're not getting any of that.

>> so the president pushed -- he surprised a lot of his aides with this address today. he acknowledged how poorly the oval office address went. you know, his focus throughout this of course has been a loft the economy and stock market. the markets are up today when he first started talking in the rose garden they dropped dramatically but they closed in a positive way. it's still remains some sort of mixed message from this president who hasn't been able to form a coherent narrative of the test. he said he'll probably get a test in fear future after that photograph exposed to the brazilian official. he has told people around him he hasn't wanted to because it would show weakness.

he also on the idea of kits testing kits he says the number of available to public is going to increase. we'll have 5 million not that we'll need that money. 5 million will come as the doctor said well the american public needs as this, as everyone suggests, the next week or two the numbers of cases are only going to skyrocket. i mean this is an administration that has to this point been unable to sort of get their hands around this. maybe they feel better right now. they have paused and stopped the bleeding, if you will, but they have shown no ability to keep anything going. unless they can show results, and that's the bottom line here, they need to show people. the vice president said it will be sunday night, monday when americans can go get the information where they can get tested. unless that comes to be, it's just going to set off more panic. >> john heilemann, surrounding himself with the ceos of target and walmart and walgreens was a good idea but it's the kind of

thing that after 9/11 or after katrina or after a catastrophe happens immediately, not when we're about to see an explosion in our numbers. >> he still is downplaying -- to me one of the main things, the headlines out of this if you just watched the first 15, 20 minutes, which is what a lot of americans will do, not watching the questions with reporters. he's still saying we've got a bunch of tests but don't take them if you don't need them. the message we should be hearing is test, test, test. if you have any reason to test, test. err on the side of caution and vigilance. don't take any chances here. the president is still in that mode of like, well, you know, we have the tests. but don't -- literally don't take them unless you really feel like you need to. it's a big step. he's still out there shaking hands with people. i know these are small things, but we are trying to correct and model good behavior for tens of millions of americans who are not supposed to be doing certain

things. some of the most basic things are we're not supposed to be shaking hands with people. the president shook hands with multiple people who were standing out there. the ceos who walked up, shaking hands with people, left, right and center. the president has been exposed to someone who has tested positive for coronavirus. the president as he often is swallows that mic. he's got other people coming up and they're on top of the mic also. i'm watching this and this is a petri dish we're watching here in place, just the fact that the cdc says avoid large crowds, he's out there with with 35 people standing out there. just the whole thing seems to reflect for a president who cares so much about symbolism and so much about image, everything he's doing, all these small things add up to a picture of kind of not taking this as seriously as he should take it, as we must take it. >> let me bring in miami mayor francis suarez who has tested

positive for coronavirus just four days after attending an event with the brazilian official who since has tested positive also. how are you feeling? >> i feel great, anicolle, than you for the opportunity. it was a huge surprise for me this morning when i found out i tested positive. not expecting that. yesterday i was in a council meeting and it was evident that i was in a place where a member of president bolsonaro's delegation who had confirmed tested positive, i was in a picture close by to him. the health department asked me to come in and take an exam even though i had not been displaying complete symptoms. i went in yesterday and today i was informed that i tested positive. >> and was it -- so you didn't have any trouble taking the test because there was a request out of public health safety you take the test, is that right?

>> exactly. obviously it's a continuing operation, procedure and protocol. the county mayor here also got tested. and i was tested as well. obviously it creates sort of a trickle effect because now, you know, our city manager, our police chief have quarantined, a few of our councilmembers have quarantined. if they start feeling symptoms, i think they're also being tested today as well. so this is a protocol that we follow for a continuing operation of government protocol. >> so you were around the brazilian official. it wasn't the same event, but it was the same official who was around president trump, is that right? >> yeah, i was in a green room with his spokesman two days, monday in the morning and tuesday in the morning. i could have shaken his hand and i could have spoken to him. there was 20 people in the green room the first day and 50 the second day. it could have been someone else in the green room.

certainly i interact with a lot of people so it could have been anybody. but the people that were a part of my security team have -- some of them have been tested and have already come back negative. my chief of staff was tested and came back negative. so those are good things. those are people that were in the vincinity of where i was, s that's all good news. >> mayor, you were around someone who tested positive for coronavirus. donald trump was around someone who tested positive for coronavirus. you have no symptoms, you feel g he tells us he has no symptoms, he feels good. you know that you tested positive because you took a test. does that lead you to believe that donald trump should also take a test? >> well, it seems like you reported just a few minutes ago that he said that he was going to take a test. i followed the advice of the medical professionals. i immediately upon learning that i was in the vicinity of someone who tested positive, i self-quarantined immediately. in fact i declared my state of emergency via a remote video.

and i'm still continuing to operate as the mayor, but i'm simply doing it remotely and in quarantine. the department of health once they discovered that i was in close proximity with someone who was contaminated asked me to come in and of course i did that expeditiously. >> i guess what i'm getting at, though, he was today on a stage shaking hands, touching hand to hand with the ceos of four major companies and the entire coronavirus task force. he's asymptomatic if he has it and we don't know that he does, but you are too. so i guess my question to you is do you feel any different? does feeling fine mean you shouldn't be tested? >> well, i can tell you that i felt fine, that i was asymptomatic. i was starting to feel a little bit of symptoms. i'm not sure if it's the coronavirus or the fact that i've done about a dozen interviews today. but, no, i think certainly i'm starting to feel a little bit of the fatigue that comes with a cold and a flu and hoping that,

you know, the symptoms don't get any worse. i'm also going to be doing an online diary so that my residents "college football live" comfo-- residents can fee comfortable knowing that i've tested positive but i want them to see the progress of the virus. i'm young in, my 40s and i'm healthy, but i think it's important for them to understand what it feels like to be infected so inevitably as more people are infected in our community, they're not as apprehensive. >> mayor suarez, what you're doing is really important and i'm grateful that you spent time with us. i appreciate your message about getting tested. thank you. it's just stunning. he was in contact with the same official or someone from the same delegation who tested positive. he's in self-quarantine. he didn't have any symptoms when he tested positive. donald trump says he doesn't have any symptoms but he could be positive. he just shook hands with the

ceos of four major companies and stood within spitting distance of every member of this country's coronavirus task force. >> well, it's irrational. >> is it dangerous? >> of course it's dangerous. any one of those people could have, if he has it or any of the others have it, they are doing exactly what we're telling people not to do. you know, it's like a handing on the heart, three feet apart or a little elbow thing if anything. but what an example to give to the country. >> and i appreciate the mayor being public facing. he tested positive after being with a member of the same delegation that was with donald trump. and i just -- i can't say enough having worked for a president. the president travels around the world with a doctor because the president's health is of international concern. we are all his -- we all have a right to know if the president is positive or negative for coronavirus. >> and of course the president is of an age and has underlying

health issues where he would be particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus were here hereto contract it. there was just a few days ago his meeting at mar-a-lago with the brazilian delegation. he may be passing it to others. >> not just others, every member of the task force that we are looking to to protect our country. >> the cabinet and the white house senior staff and everyone else that he comes into contact with. you know what close quarters it is in the white house. if the president is stomping around refusing to get tested, it's ridiculous. we have long since given up the notion that donald trump is a role model. no one, no one, even his fans don't consider donald trump a role model. but at this moment the level of danger and risk that is out there, the president -- has to be held to a standard where he should be trying to model appropriate behavior for the united states. again, he's every single day in every moment when he says i'm not doing this, whether it be

just because -- he goes to the doctors and said i don't want to do this. what doctor is going to tell him he needs to do what he doesn't want to do. he should be willingly, eagerly taking the test in order to model the appropriate behavior for the american public. >> what pro foundifound irony t with the task force and exhibiting behavior that is 100% contrary to what we want the public to do. >> i'm just waiting for dr. fauci to take a q-tip up his nose. maybe tomorrow. my thanks, thanks to you for watching. we'll get through this, guys, hang in there. we'll be with you every step of the way. "mtp daily" with chuck todd starts right now. welcome to friday. it is "meet the press daily." . the president has just de