that's the first drop so far. so maybe that's a good sign. could be -- and the hospital levels are starting to perhaps decrease. it's been very short, but perhaps decrease. so we wish governor cuomo and all of the people in new york great and new jersey, you governors are doing a great job. he's doing a great job in new jersey. they got hit very hard. i just want to say that the full power of the american government and american enterprise, it really is -- this is an all-out military operation that we've waged, and especially over the last number of weeks. 50 states and territories have now been approved for major disaster declarations, which is very unusual. thanks to the army corps of engineers, new york city's javits center is one of the largest hospitals in the united states. it's designated for treatment of the virus.

patients and staff, by hundreds of federal medical personnel deployed from two army hospital units and they're doing a great job. this was something that we didn't expect to do, but they needed help in new york, and we sent federal troops not only toopz. we sent a lot of talented doctors, nurses, first responders, people who are now running javits. also, as you know, the usns "comfort" which is in new york, there's been a lot of publicity about that coming in. that was not supposed to be for the virus at all under any circumstances, but it looks like more and more we're going to be using it for that. so we'll see. that was supposed to be for people having other medical problems, but it's very interesting because there are virtually no cars on the road, no motorcycles on the road, no anything on the road, things that would normally be taken care of, we don't see any more, so we haven't seen that in a

long time. perhaps a positive. the ship is ready. and it has to -- if we need it for the virus, we will be using it for that. they'd prefer not for obvious reasons, but if for any reason they need it, it's ready, willing and able. we have the best doctors, the best military leaders and the best logistics professionals anywhere in the world and we're orchestrating a massive federal response unlike anything our country has ever seen or done. we've never done anything like that. and more and more we're using our medical people because of the fact that jurisdiction, states in particular new york, new jersey, the connecticut area, long island now has become a hot spot, part of new york. we're sending a lot of things, lot of supplies and now we're sending personnel where it's needed, military personnel. as of tuesday, we'll have deployed over 3,000 military and public health professionals to

new york, new jersey, connecticut, and other parts of our country. 3,000 and that number is going up. and we hope we're seeing a leveling off in the hottest spots of them all. you'll be seeing that over the next few days. let's see what happens, but we're prepared. in the last seven days, fema has airlifted critical supplies and protective equipment from every corner of earth. they're coming from all over the planet, including from within the united states where the equipment isn't as necessary. since last sunday, cargo planes have delivered almost -- listen to this -- 300 million gloves, almost 8 million masks, and 3 million gowns and many more fully loaded cargo planes are right now on the way, three big ones landed today. and these supplies are being distributed directly to the hospitals and health care providers all across the nation so that massive amount of material that we're getting in

is being delivered all over the country. tomorrow we'll deliver an additional 600,000 n95 masks to new york city to take care of the needs of the public hospital system. it was a request of mayor de blasio. we've been working great with mayor de blasio, getting him a lot of stuff. he's working very hard, i can tell you that. and we're working really very hard with new york city and with new york state. and at the request of [ inaudible ] n95 masks to suffolk county so we're getting that out on an emergency basis. should be there tomorrow. we'll be deploying millions of n95 masks to other locations that admiral palovcek will detail shortly. the admiral will be up in a couple minutes. fema has delivered 500

ventilators to new jersey - 500 -- and again, the governor has been very thankful. we're working very hard with new jersey, including building hospitals. we've also sent an additional 200 ventilators to louisiana, definite hot spot. 300 to michigan, working very well, i think, with the governor. amazingly 600 will be going or have gone to illinois and as a governor, i hear him complaining all the time, pritzker. he's always complaining. i said, give me a list of the couple of things we've done in illinois, and we're building a 2,500 bed hospital in mccormick place. that's the big convention center in chicago. and we're helping to staff it and probably will end up staffing it because he's not able to do what you're supposed to be able to do as a governor. he has not performed well. and we're also sending 100

ventilators to massachusetts, so we have 600 to illinois, we have 100 to massachusetts, we have 300 to michigan, we have 200 to louisiana, we have 500 ventilators -- 500 going to new jersey. and this is being done by fema, being delivered by fema. and it's some job. just think of that when you think about 500 ventilators. a ventilator is a big deal. we're also establishing a federal medical station in the washington, d.c. area to help washington, d.c. and working very closely with the mayor and everybody in washington, d.c. at the same time, governor inslee, we appreciate this. washington state has returned 400 ventilators which can now be deployed elsewhere in our country. so the state of washington has done very well. they won't be needing some of the ventilators that have been sent. about 400, that's a lot.

and we appreciate that he's able to give them back. he feels confident that they are in good shape for the coming weeks, until we can declare a final victory. in the days ahead, america will endure the peak of this pandemic. our warriors in this life and death battle are the incredible doctors and nurses and health care workers on the be front line of the fight. we pledge to them our eternal gratitude and ever lasting support. they make all of us very proud. our country is very proud. we have people, they love our country. the world loves our country, most of it. probably all of it. they just don't say it. i can report today that the united states has now tested and given results, gotten results of 1.67 million people, that's far more than any other country has been able to do. and you remember we inherited a broken system.

so a lot of this has been developed. by tuesday, 1,200 brand-new rapid point of care testing kits has been produced by abbott laboratories. great company. and they'll be distributed to all of our public health labs. that's a 15-minute test, even less, as well as the indian health service, the cdc and the strategic national stockpile. so we're going to have 1200 and on a weekly basis we're making a lot more. they go very fast. they're very accurate tests. and other countries are wanting them. at the right time we'll be able to do that. but right now we're getting them to all of ours. so we've done 1,670,000 tests. think of that, 1,670,000 tests and we have a great system now. we're working with the states in almost all instances, but we have a great system. and the other thing we bought a tremendous amount of is the

hydroxychloroquine, hydroxychloroqui hydroxychloroquine which i think as you know it's a malaria drug, works unbelievably, powerful drug it works on malaria. there are signs it works on this, strong signs. in the meantime it's been around a long time. it also works very powerfully on lupus, lupus. so there are some very strong powerful signs, and we'll have to see because, again, it's being tested now. this is a new thing that just happened to us, the invisible enemy, we call it. and if you can, if you have no signs of heart problems, a signature r

azrithmromycin. if you don't have a heart problem, let your doctor think about it. as a combination, i think there are two things that should be looked at very strongly. now, we have purchased and we have stockpileds 29 million pills of the hydroxychloroquine -- 29 million. a lot of drugstores have them by prescription and also -- and they're not expensive. also we're sending they ham to various labs, we're sending them to the hospitals, we're sending them all over. i just think it's something -- you know the expression i've used it for certain reasons, what do you have to lose, what do you have to lose? a lot of people are saying -- and are taking it. if you're able doctor, a nurse,

a first responder, a medical person going into hospitals, they say taking it before the fact is good, but what do you have to lose? they say take it. i'm not looking at it one way or the other, but we want to get out of this. if it does work, it would be a shame if we didn't do it early. but we have some very good signs. so that's hydroxychloroquine and as rhythm a my sin. you have to go through your medical people. i've seen things i sort of like. what do i know, i'm not a doctor. i'm not a doctor, but i have common sense. the fda feels good about it. as you know, they've approved it. they gave it a rapid approval. and the reason because it's been out there for a long time, and they know the side effects and they also know the potential.

so based on that, we have sent it throughout the country. we have it stockpiled, about 29 million doses, 29 million doses. so we have a lot of it. we hope it works. driven by the goal of the brightest minds in science, we have the brightest minds in science, but we're driven everyone by the goal of getting rid of this plague, getting rid of this scourge, getting rid of this virus. these brilliant minds are working on the most effective anti-viral therapies and vaccines. we are working very, very hard. i have met many of the doctors that are doing it. these are doctors that are working so hard on vanquishing the virus. they're staying -- we strongly recommend staying at home,

practicing vigorous hygiene and maintaining social distance so you're just not going to catch it. it's the most effective weapon in this war. and i will tell you, we are committing to the -- to you, we're committing to the people of our country, like few administrations, few people, few professionals have ever committed before. they are working so hard. i see them. i see them before my eyes exhausted. people that i'm dealing with every day, exhausted. they haven't left their offices. they haven't left their hospitals. we meet with them. we see them. and tremendous strides have been made. i think the vaccines, we'll have a report on that's correct but the vaccines working together with other countries -- we're also working with other countries, many other countries. and we all want everyone else to be first. we're very happy, but we are

very far down the line on vaccines. we'll see how that all works. johnson & johnson's doing a great job working very hard. a vaccine would be great therapy, a therapy and therapeutics would be great. we'll see what happens. in the meantime, you may listen to what i said about the two drugs mentioned. my administration is rapidly implementing the largest emergency economic relief package in american history. you've seen what's been happening. billions of dollars in small business loans have already been processed through paycheck protection program, so we went out on friday and literally it's become so popular. it's been worked with the banks. they get it to the small business. it's all about employment. it's all about jobs. want you to keep your jobs. give small business funding to keep the workers on the payroll. and we're sending direct cash

payments to millions of americans and rushing aid to the hardest-hit industries. we're saving industries. we will be -- you'll be seeing it. and if we do more, we're going to do more, and we're going to try and get directly to people that are hit so hard, but we're going to take care of our workers. we're going to take care of our citizens. we're going to take care of our small businesses. we're going to take care of our large businesses. the airplane industry, the airline industry, a lot of great industries that we have that are in trouble because of what took place over the last short period of time. these are industries that were doing better for the most part, doing better than ever. the airlines were doing great. oil was doing great, oil and gas and the energy industry was doing phenomenally well. it got hit like nobody's ever been hit before. just about like no industry's ever been hit before.

there there's never been anything like this. but we see light at the end of the tunnel. things are happening. things are happening. we're starting to see light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully in the not too distant future, we'll be very proud of the job we all did. we can never be happy when so many people are dying, but we're going to be very proud of the job we did to keep the death down to an absolute minimum, the least it could have happened with this terrible, terrible virus. in closing, i also want to note today is palm sunday and the beginning of holy week for christians in america and all around the world. while we may be apart from one another, as you can see from our great churches, our great pastors and ministers are out there working very hard, but we may be apart. we can use this time to turn to reflection and prayer our own

personal relationship with god. i would ask that all americans pray for the heroic doctors and nurses, for the truck drivers and grocery store workers and for everyone fighting this battle. i mentioned yesterday where i see the nurses rushing into hospitals and they're putting on their outfits and they're putting on their masks and goggles in some cases. they're rushing into war. they're rushing into war. i see people from apartment houses screaming and shouting and singing their praises. it's an incredible thing. they're warriors. these doctors and nurses. they're running into buildings and they're literally putting it on as the doors are opening, putting on this stuff and running inside and they're running inside to tremendous danger, tremendous danger. but most of all, i'd like to ask for your prayers for the families who have lost loved ones, ask god to comfort them in

their hour of grief. it's a great hour of grief for our nation, for the world. this morning i was talking to 151 for four days, i said 151 -- 151 countries this morning. it's 182 countries. it jumped up a lot. so as of this morning it's 182 countries are under attack from this monster. with the faith of our families and the spirit of our people and the grace of our god, we will endure, we will overcome, we will prevail. we have learned so much. we will be stronger than ever. and i just want to thank everybody. i want to thank the incredible professionals on the task force. also, we had a big meeting today. with calls all day long to so

many different people. i think our package to get everyone working when we're ready is really turning out to be successful. we may have to make it larger because it's been really successful. but all of that comes back to this country. we want to get them back. we want to get our people back to work. everybody wants to be back. we want to open up our country as soon as possible. so with that, i'm going to ask dr. birx to say a few words and she's got some charts to show you and thank you very much. thank you. >> thank you, mr. president. as you can see from the hopeful signs in italy and spain where we see finally new cases and deaths declining, it's giving us hope of what our future could be. we wanted to give you an update on where all of the states were. we're looking at this as states normalized per 100,000 citizens. it looks very similar to last week. we wanted to update you.

we've been covering throughout the week the states that were moving on this map. you can see very clearly where new york is as a state, although this is very much still centered in the new york metro area. new jersey is the orange line. the green line is louisiana. that's followed by massachusetts and then connecticut and michigan are together in those lines towards the bottom. and then, of course, washington, d.c. is now visible on this map which was not visible before. and the yellow line towards the bottom is washington state. next slide, please. so, this just summarized all of the states we're tracking very closely at the county level. so we're tracing and tracking not only the epidemic at the state level, but understanding what's happening in county by county with new cases and, of course, also the deaths.

we're also triangulating that with all of the laboratory data. and just to tell you how we're kind of doing that, for new york, what you can see at the top, their serology is now 36% positive. they were in the 40s. so day over day their percent positive is finally starting to decline. new jersey's is increasing, however. they are now up to 42% of the specimens that come to the laboratory are positive. louisiana, 25%. massachusetts 20%. connecticut, michigan 20%. district of columbia 15%. washington 8%. and then illinois, colorado are at about 16%. pennsylvania, which is also new to the graphic, is at about 12%. next slide, please. so, if we could go back one. i'm sorry. go back one slide. one more. all of the states here, those

are 38 of the states. 38 of our states have less than 50 cases per 100,000. they are testing. their laboratory results are consistent with that. their sero positive rate for laboratories are less than 5%. this is how we're tracking and triangulating both case reporting, mortality or fatalities, and also triangulating that with the laboratory. the new york metro area, new jersey, louisiana and a series -- and washington state have all tested at a rate greater than italy and spain. i know many of you are tracking that. remember, many of us, we pushed out a lot of those a says at the beginning over the last two to three weeks and i want to thank admiral gerar in hhs. he's been working closely to make sure the states having an outbreak had results next to all of their assays. next slide, please.

next one. to give you an idea how we're looking at this, we look at cases every day. i want to thank my data team. they spend all evening compiling data. i get it about 2:00 in the morning. it looks at all of these metro areas by their granular counties. so we can see the counties that have new cases. that also helps us identify the hospitals and understand what hospitals will need ventilators or ppe. so, this is the detroit area. it's oakland and detroit. wayne county. next slide. we also then also track mortality. it gives us insight into how many clients are in the icu, need care. we want to make sure that we're needing the needs on cases and appreciating the front line health care workers saving many people's lives. next slide. this just gives you an idea from new orleans. we are also now tracking saint john the baptist parish also.

this is new orleans and jefferson county and really tracking those on a case-by-case basis to look for changes over time. and next slide is their mortality. and you can see it's starting to stabilize. so this is how we've been tracking and tracing the epidemic as it moves through states and counties and communities. but as we started, we just wanted to note again, we do see hopeful signs in spain and italy. they have completed nearly four weeks of mitigation with people really doing social distancing, staying at home, ensuring they were washing their hands. if they have to go out to the grocery store, they're extraordinarily careful they send one person from the family. and so we can really see that beginning to work and we're very hopeful that over the next week, although we'll see rising number of cases of people who lose their lives to this illness, we are also hopeful to see a stabilization of cases across these large metro areas where the outbreak began several weeks

ago. so thank you for your attention. >> thank you very much. admiral? >> thank you, sir. i thought i would give an update on the air bridge first, and then follow-up on dr. birx and how we're doing the geographic supply line. air bridge, we had three additional flights come in today, bringing 1 million gowns. 2.8 million n95 masks, 2.8 million surgical masks. 11.8 million gloves. 18.6,000 gowns. on three flights, and that material will be pushed out across the nation, delivered to hospitals, nursing homes across

the country. >> i am kasie hunt. you are watching "kasie d.c." >> so over the last few days, i've been aligning -- >> you are watching "kasie d.c." on msnbc. we have been tuned in to the president of the united states and his coronavirus task force giving an update. we are going to be keeping an eye on this briefing. and as there is any news coming out of it, we will bring it to you as soon as we can, but i think we want to start here by fact checking a little bit of what we just heard from the president of the united states. i'm going to bring in jonathan lemire of the associated press. we also have with us jonathan swan, axios national political reporter as well as ashley parker of the washington post. john lemire is, of course, an msnbc political analyst. john, let's start with the big picture here in some of these claims, the president saying that he inherited a broken

system. i think it's important to underscore here that while many experts certainly that i've talked to and a lot of the reporting your organization and others have done show as a country we have struggled to maintain our readiness for a pandemic. this president and his administration took some pretty specific steps that undermined our ability to respond. john? >> there's no question about that, kasie. first of all, we had reporting today that president george w. bush as early as 2005, i believe it was, was concerned about the nation's ability to respond to a pandemic and that, of course, was a decade and a half ago. since this president took office, we hear time and again his attempts to blame president obama for, as you say, leaving the cupboard bare. that's simply not true. were some supplies low? sure. this is an administration that had warnings about this as far back as december and january. there were briefings, top advisors were very concerned about the coronavirus reaching

our shores and this administration, in the words of the president, did very little. he previously disbanded a unit meant to address such things. my colleagues at the associated press noted today as the crisis was in high gear and took it to mid-march before they made bulk purchases of n95 and ventilators for the national is stockpile that could find its way to the states and the supplies are running low. and it's a scatter shot approach. once again, from this administration -- from this briefing room. this was, should be noted, a briefing not scheduled for today. the president didn't seem to make any real news there. it was almost as if he didn't want a day to go by without him being in front of the cameras. he repeated his claim the last couple days of the effectiveness of the antimalarial drug treating the coronavirus. even though there's been sharp divisions on the team about that. and as the full report from the room just noted as he was speaking just now, dr. fauci was

off to the side of the room trying to avoid eye contact and was apparently practicing self-calming techniques. >> self-calming techniques, wow. jonathan swan, let me pick up on what jonathan lemire was just saying about the question of the efficacy of these drugs because while the president did say, quote, what do i know? i'm not a doctor. question mark, he then proceeded to tell americans she should potentially take these drugs. i know you have some reporting about the fact that's disputed inside the white house. >> well, there were no large randomized control trials proving efficacy of high david finfrock i chloroquine in combatting the coronavirus. that's just a fact. there are some smaller studies overseas that weren't using control groups. but the fact is there was a huge clash, the biggest clash there has been so far in the coronavirus task force meetings. yesterday in the situation room about 1:30 in the afternoon, the

group sitting around the table helmed by the vice-president having a discussion about hydroxychloroquine. steven hawn, commissioner of food and drugs talking about what he's observing. peter navarro who you might recall is trump's economic advisor -- he's not a health care advisor -- he walks up to the situation room table and drops onto the table a series of folders that he's collected and they contain printouts of navarro's research from around the world on hydroxychloroquine. and he proceeds to say that it has clear therapeutic efficacy, which then sets off this huge heated argument. dr. anthony fauci, who, of course, is an infectious disease expert, top advisor to trump, he very forcefully pushes back and says this is only anecdotal evidence for this malaria drug and we shouldn't be talking about it as having clear therapeutic efficacy.

and as one source said, peter just lost it at that point. voices started to be raised. peter was pointing to his folders saying they were science, not anecdote. the conversation rages on. and eventually jared kushner turns to peter navarro and says, peter, take yes for an answer because they actually agreed to have this announcement that there would be a surge of this drug and it could be between the doctors and the patients, et cetera. >> jonathan, forgive me. i'm going to push pause on you. we'd love to hear more in a second but i think we're going to listen to the vice-president just here for a moment. let's listen in. >> whether it be dr. birx or dr. fauci analyzing the data, literally hour by hour or whether it be the whole of government approach you stood up, mr. president, calling on every agency of government, including va, hhs and every agency. i hope the american people know at this president's direction,

we are sparing no expense. we are doing whatever it takes. we're marshaling the full resources of the federal government to respond to the challenges facing communities impacted today by the coronavirus and making sure every community in america has the support. we've also as the president said so many times, we forged a seamless partnership with states around the country. as the president just reflected this tuesday with another 800 medical military personnel arriving in new york city, there will be some 3,000 department of defense and hhs personnel on the ground to supplement and provide relief to health care workers really at the epicenter of the coronavirus in the new york city area. and you just heard the va is opening up bed space. in new jersey, i spoke at the president's urging today with governor murphy, 500 ventilators announced today being billed on the supplies we were already

provided. we were able to coordinate with him testing in new jersey through may 30th if the need is there. and also opening up va beds. i spoke with governor john bel edwards in louisiana and was encouraged to hear from him that, as you heard dr. birx say, new cases were down slightly. in fact, we're seeing a trend of some leveling among all the governors i spoke to today. and i know what the secretary of the va just announced about opening up va facilities has been a priority for governor edwards, but i assured him we're going to continue to send resources and supplies and personnel to support their health care. in michigan today, i spoke to both governor gretchen whitmer and mary mike dougan, city of detroit. governor whitmer and i spoke

about a new program in detroit that will make hydro chloroquine available for 3,000 patients through the henry ford hospital. they'll be tracking in a formal study the results of that. but at the president's urging, i assured her that we're more than prepared to make hydro chloroquine broadly available to pharmacies and doctor's offices across the detroit area as they deem appropriate. i also heard from mayor mike duggan, mr. president, he was so thankful to the fda for not only approving the henry ford tests, but the rapid approval of the 15-minute test. in fact, mayor duggan told me he was able to use the 15-minute test this weekend to test 150 first responders who had been sidelined because they had been

exposed to the coronavirus. they all got the 15-minute test. they're all back in the line of duty, and the mayor couldn't have been more grateful. in illinois, i spoke with governor j.b. pritzker as well as mayor lori lightfoot of chicago. as you just heard, not only have we sent 600 ventilators to the state of illinois, but i assured the governor, i assured the mayor that while the principal focus we have in the next several days is on the rising cases in the greater new york city area and louisiana, that michigan and illinois are in the forefront of our thinking and at the president's direction we're going to make sure the people of illinois, people of michigan have the resources, equipment and support that they need. the governor did express great appreciation for the fact that our army core of engineer constructed 500 beds at mccormick place. and before the end of this week would construct another 2,500

beds for an overflow health care facility in chicago. in fact, mr. president, mayor lightfoot told me that the army core was just outstanding in the job that they had been doing in constructing that extra bed space. as i close, let me just express as the president did, our profound appreciation for governor kate brown and governor jay inslee. the state of oregon and the state of washington are leading by example. oregon sent 140 ventilators to new york city. they looked at their circumstances and concluded that they could spare those. at the point of the need and because of the low and steady numbers in washington state and in california, governor inslee today announced they were sending 400 ventilators back to the strategic national stockpile, and those will be deployed at the point of the need. not only are california and

washington state low and steady, but frankly as i talk to governors and mayors today, i want to say to the american people that we are beginning to see the glimmers of progress. the experts will tell me not to jump to any conclusions, and i'm not, but like your president, i'm an optimistic person and i'm hopeful. and the truth is we're starting to see cases and most importantly losses and hospitalizations begin to stabilize. but make no mistake about it. i want to say to the american people, if that holds -- if that's happening, it's because of what all of you are doing. it's because the american people are putting into practice the coronavirus guidelines for america. you're listening to your state and local officials. you're practicing social distancing. you're using drive-thrus instead of going into restaurants. so on behalf of your president and all of us, working at really

every level, i just want to say thank you to america. thank you for responding. thank you for putting other people's lives in the forefront of your thinking, putting it over and above your own convenience and difficulty. because of your efforts, there is, as the president just said, light at the end of the tunnel. and i'm absolutely convinced with the continued cooperation, patience, persistence and prayers of the american people, we'll get through this and we'll get through this a lot sooner than we first thought it would take. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> mr. president? >> go ahead. >> mr. president, i wanted to ask you about the air flight. there were two flights that came through -- three flights. where did they come from, sir? >> they came from asia. >> asia, okay. you were mentioning the supplies being dropped off, masks, gowns, hydro chloroquine. how are you sure there isn't a run on these products? you drop them off at hospital a,

people don't rush and grab masks and gowns? >> it's going to the loading dock. and there is an invoice. and so those people that are responsible for that loading dock and that invoice, they're going to make sure that there is not going to be -- >> a run on any of these? thank you, sir. i appreciate it. mr. president, first, did you have a chance -- >> orders were a lot more than sometimes we think an area needs. generally speaking, we like to either negotiate that down or give it to them as they want. so we've had a lot of orders we think are high, but we generally like -- if we have it, if we have, for instance, with the medicines and with other things, we like to give it to them. every day we're building up and building it up very rapidly and deploying it. but we do get orders from some of these states where we don't think they need it. we try and get it for them, what they want anyway. go ahead. >> you mentioned the prime minister off the top.

any chance you spoke to him today, sir? >> i didn't. i did get a call from the ambassador and, hey, it's a big move going to the hospital. it's a big thing. he's a great gentleman, so i just hope he's okay. >> and also you mentioned the nurses, the doctors -- sorry, the the people that are gearing up to get ready. has there been any talk on any level whatsoever of some sort of either compensation fund or protection for nurses, doctors? because there's been a lot of fear, some people say i can't risk my family's livelihood, i can't go back to the e.r. >> we're talking about doing something for them. we're looking at the conclusion, we want to -- we don't want to focus on that now. they are incredible. they're not saying we're not doing it. they go in with good equipment, with great equipment and with something that's not so good. and sometimes they catch it wearing the best stuff you can buy, brand-new, the best stuff. this is a very tough enemy.

but these are amazing people. we are talking about something, but we're really thinking about let's get it finished first before we do that. please. >> the surgeon general this morning was talking about the coming week being among the hardest and saddest weeks of our lives, about this being our pearl harbor, our 9/11 moment. you all are talking about glimmers of hope and strablization. how are the american people supposed to bridge that description after -- >> i don't think i said different. i think we all know we have to reach a certain point and that point is going to be a horrific point in terms of death. but it's also a point at which things are going to start changing. we're getting very close to that level right now, and the next week and a half, two weeks are going to be -- i think they're going to be very difficult. at the same time, we understand what they represent and what that time represents. hopefully we can get this over with because this is a very

horrible thing for the world. look, we're one country out of 182 now that have -- 182 countries have -- a friend of mine said he didn't know we had so many countries in the world. 182 countries are now affected by this. we want to get it over with. okay, please. >> can i ask about the numbers you were talking about earlier? how does that change the projections you were making earlier this week of 100,000 to 240,000? >> we hope we can stay under those numbers. those are numbers of death and we hope we can stay under those numbers. that would be terrific. and as far under those numbers as possible. now, if we did nothing, you know that number, too. but the american people really stepped up. so did the professionals. they just really stepped up. so we're hoping to stay under those numbers. and that means the minimum and the maximum, but we're hoping to stay under the minimum number. you know what that number was. >> right. but do the numbers that you were

talking about today, have they changed those projections? >> i would say the answer is yes, but i would also say that we're not going to know really in terms of a final toll until we get out to the end, and we're probably possibly not so far away. we're getting closer, but it's our goal to stay as far under that minimum number, the minimum number as possible, okay? that's what we want to do. go ahead. >> mr. president, as president of the united states, your words carry enormous weight in this country and around the world. while you acknowledge you are not a physician, you do promote these medicines extensively here. how far do you not go so far as to be giving medical advice? and you said yesterday you might take some of these medicines even though you don't have symptoms. are you still planning to do that? and how do you calibrate being enthusiastic and not playing doctor? >> because i want people to live and i'm seeing people dying.

and i've seen people that are going to die without it. and you know the expression. when that's happening, they should do it. what really do we have to lose? we also have this medicine, it's been tested for many years for malaria and for lupus. so it's been out there so it's a very strong powerful medicine, but it doesn't kill people. we have some very good results and some very good tests. you've seen the same test that i have. in france they had a very good test. they're continuing. but we don't have time to go and say, gee, let's take a couple of years and test it out. and let's go and test with the test tubes and the laboratories. we don't have time. i'd love to do that, but we have people dying today as we speak, there are people dying. if it works, that would be great. if it doesn't work, we know for many years malaria -- it's incredible what it's done for malaria. it's incredible what it's done for lupus. but it doesn't kill people.

that's one of the things with the vaccine, when we have a vaccine, we have to do tests because when you inject that vaccine, when they take whatever it is they have to take, we have to make sure it doesn't have a horrible impact, destroy somebody. could. so we have to test it for long period of time. this one, not so much because it's been out there. now, i'm not acting as a doctor. i'm saying do what you want, but there are some good signs. you've read the signs, i've read the signs. with the other one there are some very good signs also. different going together works very well, but there may be an addition if you have a problem with your heart, you shouldn't take what we call the z-pack. you shouldn't take it and that's okay. but i would love to go to a laboratory and spend a couple of years testing something. we don't have time. we don't have two hours because there are people dying right

now. if it does help, great. if it doesn't help, we gave it a shot. we gave it a shot. that's the way i feel. you know, we pass something -- i would be very serious about taking it. we passed something i'm very proud of, it's called right to try. for 45, 50 years they've been -- makes so much sense. we have the greatest doctors and labs and lab technicians, greatest medicines, the greatest minds in the world. everybody admits it. and when we're close to having something or when we have something that tests incredibly well, you couldn't use it for years because they would take years and years to test. so with the help of also democrats, it's bipartisan, but they've been trying to get this passed for decades. you know that. it's called right to try. so a person would be diagnosed terminally ill from something and in the old days, meaning before a year ago, they would

say, do you think i could try this, this pill, this whatever, this medicine that's testing so well? no, you can't do that. you can't do that. under no circumstances. they'd leave for asia. they'd leave for europe. they'd leave -- if they had money. if they had no money, they'd go home and die with no hope. we got a thing called right to try. if somebody's very ill, terminally ill, they're going to die. and it was very complex. wasn't as easy as it sounds because there were huge liability problems. the drug companies didn't want to do it, they didn't want it ton test results because these were very sick people. they didn't want to bring down the test results. insurance company had tremendous problems. i got everybody in the room. we'll sign a waiver. we're not going to sue the insurance company, the state, the city or the federal government, okay.

it's called exculpation, and we got it done. it's a very simple agreement. i don't know why nobody ever thought of it, but they never thought of it. i did. and we got it done. now we have right to try, which is actually, in my opinion, much more difficult than what we're talking about here. but if there is a medicine or something, a possible cure, something that's looking good and somebody has something -- they're going to die or they're very sick, they take it. and you know, we've had some unbelievable results -- unbelievable results and it also gives the people hope. yes, please. >> mr. president, the doctors who are treating coronavirus patients, they have the medical expertise to determine whether or not they should prescribe hydroxychloroquine. and there are clinical trials in place looking at hydroxychloroquine. >> it should be a year. >> why not let the science speak for itself? why are you promoting this drug? >> i'm not, very simply, i'm not at all. you know what i'm trying to do.

save lives. >> you come out every day, sir -- >> i want to try it. it may work, it may not work. if it doesn't work, it's nothing lost by doing it, nothing. what we want long term, what i want is to save lives. i don't want it to be in the lab the next year and a half as people are dying all over the place. >> it's already out there. doctors are able to prescribe it. >> i'll tell you what i accomplished. we bought massive amounts of it, 29 million doses of it. we have it coming from all of the labs. we're actually now doing it here because in case it does work, we want to have it. and we've given it to drugstores. we're sending it all over -- fema is doing it. fema is doing it. we're doing it through different channels, many channels, including the companies that make it. it's a very special thing. now, it may not work, in which case, hey, didn't work. and it may work, in which case

it's going to save a lot of lives. now, a lot of people say if the people walking in prior to getting it, if they take it, it has a profound effect. well, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. i don't want to wait a year and a half to find out and only question. fake news, go ahead. >> reporter: sir, i was hoping to ask dr. birx a question. the president just said based on the most recent data you've seen some change in the projection. i'm wondering if you could, you, obviously, have a week's worth of data since the sort of 100,000 to 240,000 potential deaths figure that you gave us last week. so i'm wondering with all the caveats that this is sort of based on continuing social distancing, that we might see you know in one city hubs, things can change dramatically. what are the sort of range that you are now looking at in terms

of total death impact? >> i think the most important thing right now is when we were talking about why we are hopeful. we are hopeful because of the last time i was here, i wasn't able to tell you that italy and spain were coming across their apex and coming down the other side. and i think, to me, that's extraordinarily hopeful. they just completed four weeks of really strong mitigation. and i think that's our word to the american people is we can look like that. two other countries look like that now. two other countries with a similar experience to our experience with higher case numbers and higher mortality. so that's what the promise is. the promise is, if we do this, we could potentially be better. now, dr. fauci and i today got another update from another independent modeler and the numbers came in close to that

100,000 number again. but we believe, dr. fauci and i, that if every american follows the guidelines 6 feet, washing hands, not social gathering, that will have an even greater impact. the other side of the equation is certainly our remarkable healthcare providers, our respiratory technicians, nurses and doctors are saving lives every day. so that changes the number, too. ? i also think that dr. fauci and dr. birx are very impressed with the american people and i'm not financial to put words in anybody's mouth. i would never do that, but i am and i will say that they are doing maybe a better job than we all thought even possible. when you look at streets in new york, where there is nobody in the street. no cars, no nothing. i see it. i've seen those streets for a long time and they're packed all the time. now you see there is nobody. you look at other places.

you look at what's going on in california where they are doing a fantastic job. they really are. the governor is doing great. i'm proud of him. i'm proud of a lot of people. i'm proud of a lot of people on the other side. a lot of people. really, i'm really delighted to work with people that, frankly, on other issues i didn't get along so well with. we disagree on this or that. we don't have to go into that now. but we're getting along with a lot of people. and they're happy with us. we're happy with them. but i really believe that the american people are doing a better job than anybody would have thought even possible. and that's one of the reasons we can even be talking about the kind of number that we, hopefully, will be talking about, which is at the minimum level instead of the maximum or beyond. it's not even the maximum. it's much beyond the maximum level, which would be hor risk. yeah. please. >> go ahead. >> yeah, mr. president,

secretary esper mentioned the department of defense may be moving in the direction of using face coverings, vice president biden mentioned he will be using a mask whenever he goes out now. are we getting to a point now we might see members of the coronavirus task force also wearing face coverings? >> well, it was voluntary as i saw it yesterday. certainly, if they want to i would encourage it. i would have absolutely no problem with it. if they wanted. we had a good meeting today. there is good separation. but the task force meets and i would certainly have no problem if they wanted to. i think, frankly, it's something at least for a period of time where it might be advisable. you know, it's advisory and we'll see what happens. yes. please. >> thank you, mr. president. on project air bridge, we see reports that chinese shipments, testing kits, ppe, turn out to be faulty to some capacity. we, obviously, don't have oversight. >> not here. not here. >> reporter: in spain. >> you see it in spain and

everywhere. they're not sending faulty things to us. if you look at it. have them check it out. please. >> one of the things we're doing to prevent that is using those six companies that are the ones in the major supply chain. we were actually going to facilities looking at a product, inspecting it and clearing it before it comes here. so we've heard those things. that's why we are doing that. >> okay. thank you. a follow-up for the doctors. >> and we're also sending it from other locations. and when it comes to the ventilators, which are very complex, we are now building. we have now under construction literally thousands of ventilators. so, so far i think our projections on ventilators have been right. they have been correct. did you have something for who? >> well, for yourself and dr. birx and dr. fauci, if they want to take a crack at it. some of the models that you guys are using, the ihme model in

particular has been very accurate in projecting deaths over the last couple of days. but there is a couple other metrics that they seem to be pretty far off on, specifically hospital beds. are you guys happy with the models you are using? is there any need to adjust those in. >> well, it's turning out we needless hospital beds. we may have models. we have been sort of saying that. in new york, we were saying we think you are going to needless. now, let's hope that continues. but right now i heard governor cuomo this morning and he was saying less hospital beds. also less death. that was a very big thing. the first time, less death. today than yesterday. right. that's a big thing. but also less hospital beds. that means less patients. basically, it's less patients. we were saying that. it makes less slrts ventilators. so there is not a lot of positive things happening.

please. >> with prime minister johnson hospitalized. i noticed a few minutes ago, you were standing right next to vice president pence. are you considering staying away from each other to have a continuity of government in the executive branch? >> we have this tiny platform and i'd love it to be wider. you are staying away from each other. mike, you were tested? >> yes. >> okay. like recent lip. so was i a couple of days ago. [ inaudible question ] >> i get next to him, i don't breathe. i'm only kidding. we are sometimes forced into positions that i'd rather, i'd rather be away. but it's you are all looking for questions. mike is a very big part of this. i am. it's very difficult maintaining like this distance on this little area. >> mr. president, i just wanted

to ask you quickly, under what circumstances you would consider leveling tariffs on imports of oil to the united states? >> well, if the oil price stays the way that it is because of -- people that really want to see it go up, when i say, we want to save a great industry. we built a great industry in this country. if they don't get along, i would do that, yeah. i would do tariffs, very substantial tariffs. because we're independent now. we have our own oil. if i did the tariffs, we essentially would be saying we don't want foreign oil, we don't want any foreign oil, that would help save an industry. it's become a tremendous job producer. it's great to be independent. we are independent. our energy is now independent. we produce more oil than oil and gas than anybody else in the country. that all took place over a very recent time. now in the meantime, i'm seeing

$91, 91 cents a gallon out on the road. okay. a lot of people are happy. i see very inexpensive jet fuel. we're trying to save the airline industry. but i want to save our great energy industry. that's what we are doing. i would absolutely do that. what we'll do, the price will still be very low. but what we'll do is save and very importantly, we'll save tens of thousands of jobs. one of the other things we are doing is having oil shipped to our strategic oil reserves. okay. and you know, we're buying in for the right price. and we're shipping it in some cases, we're storing it for nothing. they're there. we are filling up our reserves with this very inexpensive oil. nobody thought they'd see a price. this is from the 1950s, where they had big dollars. okay. so, no, i would use tariffs. if i had to, i don't think i'm going to have to, because russia doesn't benefit by having this

and saudi arabia doesn't benefit by having -- they you know oil and gas, so they have major sources of income. so it's obviously very bad for them. but we have an industry that's a very important industry and it's really formed beautifully. it was the virus that killed it. because what happened is, it's down 40% from the day this happened. 40%, otherwise, it would be doing phenomenally well. so that's it. yeah. >> mr. president, in a time like this, people are awaiting the stimulus checks, how many more days they may have to wait and speaker pelosi last night said in the next bill they would like to see additional stimulus checks made, have you turned it around? >> no, i like the concept of it. i think it's good. we are talking of a different way of doing it. i like the concept. i like the concept of infrastructure. our country has to be rebuilt. they spent all this money in the middle east $8 trillion. we are up to $8 trillion in the middle east. we got to rebuild our country. we have to rebuild our roads,

our schools, our bridges. we have to rebuild our country. i like an infrastructure bill. i also like money going directly to people. it's not their fault that this happened. and i do think this. especially the faster we can get it opened, our country. you can believe we are talking about our country. getting our country opened. the faster we get it opened, the big ter boom, the rocketship going up. i think it has a chance to go really quickly, relatively quickly. i'd like to see real quickly. we'll see. a part of the stimulus and part of what we are doing, that will help it. and the nice part is, we're paying practically zero interest rates. you know, we are paying very little. it's one of the reasons i like the infrastructure bill because we're borrowing. we have a strong dollar. and the advantage of the strong dollar is everybody wants to invest in this country. we all want to buy our dollar. >> on the direct answer in terms of the time line, still two weeks, ten days. >> from what i'm hearing, a

couple of weeks, yeah. please. >> reporter: i wanted to follow up on that last question. thanks for the numbers. has there been any attention with the medical staff on that? >> we recently discussed it with the staff, we discussed it with the fda. the fda, which is another point. it's been approved by the fda. which is very important. if it wasn't approved by the fda, i couldn't do this. the fda approved it. >> if it turns out not to work, the hospitals will be exculpatory under the federal government for the right to pay? >> we'll see how it works. it's not going to hurt people. it can help them. it's not going to hurt them. that itself beauty of it, you see, it can help them. but it's not going to hurt them. what you do have to lose? okay. question in the back please. >> reporter: yeah. you know, obviously, we know anyone can spread the disease. >> right. >> why not have a few businesses? why not shut everything down? grocery stores are opened, fast food places, why take a little

chanc chance? >> we will answer that question later. things are opening up, there will be nobody happier than me. please, go ahead. >> just to follow up on your comments habit the ventilators. the models suggest that 32,000 ventilators will be required in april. gm is not expected to have ventilators. >> 1 h.,000 over what? >> required across the country. >> in addition to the ones we have already sent? don't forget, we have almost 10,000, a little more than 9,000 right now. those are ready to rock. should we need them. and we had to keep it. you understand that flexibility. so that if we need them in new york. which we might not, if we need them, they're ready to move. it's a military operation. we are ready to move. they'll be moved immediately into whatever section of the country we need. would you like to answer that? >> yes.

so, correct, fema is working on a plan to be able to move ventilators. for example the dod gave another 500 ventilators. they are on the move. they are being staged at fort dix to be able to rapidly deploy them to locations. and to include, you know, you heard the president mention states giving to states, things like that. so that there is ventilators that aren't in use that conceivably we could rapidly move as well. >> right. but you mentioned that there were thousands that are currently being made. >> yes. >> so i wondered if there was any update with ford and gm? >> no, they will not be long. they've started. gm, ford. we have many countries approximately 11 companies building them and we're going to have a stockpile for future, hopefully we never have to use them. they should have. the hospitals, the states should have brought a stockpile. they didn't do that. so we've made up for it. but, if we have extras, other

countries need them. you see uk needs them badly. france needs them badly. italy needs them badly. they need them. so it's complicated. it's a big piece of equipment. it's expensive. we will be able to help other countries after we take care of our needs. yes, please. go ahead. >> yes, thank you, sir. on infrastructure spending. >> i actually chose you, but that's okay. >>. >> reporter: on infrastructure, you remarked howellty t howell roads are, is there any infrastructure -- road repair. >> they don't do techniques that are better. i see a highway, which is what i do. i do construction, what i did. i see a highway that's good but it's got a bad top and it's got a big base, a concrete base underneath and i'll see them come in, i don't want to say where, i can give you plenty of examples.

and they rip the -- out of it. they take out the bails, they take out everything. now they pour a new base, isn't as good, isn't as deep, isn't as thick. the concrete base was fantastic, the footing. it takes forever. and instead of scraping out the asphalt or whatever may be the top, scraping it off and putting in the new asphalt down, putting the new median in. they could have done it. then they open the highway and it starts to crack. the reason is because it hasn't been set. and they spend 10, 15, 20 times more money than they have to. i never believe when i watch these people dock highways and doing roadways and doing work how they take the most expensive solution and the bottom line, the job, itself, is far worse. >> reporter: that's what i'm getting at. people are taking advantage of the fact that people are staying at home. they're not on the roads, is there a way to do -- >> they're not going to be staying at home for long.

hopefully, this will be out f. we have that kind of time, we made a big mistake. please, go ahead. >> how many rapid tests have the federal government deployed across the country and which region received this? >> who has that information? go ahead. >> the 15-minute test has really been a break through. i've reflected on the progress that they've made in detroit, put first responders back on duty with the emmett laboratory tests. abbott laboratories started last tuesday producing about 50,000 tests a day. and there is, i am informed there are about 18,000 of these machines already all across the country. they are actual will i the same machines that you used to get a strep test quickly when you go to the doctor. but now abbott is surging these new 15-minute coronavirus tests out to healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities around

the country, in addition as the president said, fema has purchased 1,200 of these devices, were distributing them to all 50 states and the indian healthcare system. and then we'll be distributing the tests. dr. birx, is there anything to add further or not? [ inaudible question ] >> let me ask, 1,200 devices. >> i didn't hear thetable? >> i believe they are on the shelf at abbott. a good majority of them. >> tuesday they go out? >> yes, sir. i don't have the exact numbers. i think there is some manufacturing in there. but the large balance are on the shelf. >> some have gone out, by the way, the big bulk of them go out on tuesday. yeah, please. >> in some of these briefings, you refer to the federal government as the back-up. today there is definitely a different approach here i think

with the distribution, you know, the sense of it in listening to the new presentation today is the sense that you are embracing taking a leader role for distribution. is there a change? >> no, there is not a change. but we're supposed to be the back-up. but like in illinois, the governor couldn't do his job. so we had to help him. we're sending 600 ventilators. we're building a hospital in mccome macplace -- mccormack place. we had other people that needed help. in new york we had to give a lot of help. but we worked very well with governor cuomo and with mayor de blasio. but, no, we are meant to be the back-up. but we've taken on a much bigger role than that. and that's okay. i have no objection to it. now, in some cases it's worked so well they are seeing they're over the big problem and they're actually calling us and saying you can take your equipment back now. but we're really deployed as a

back-up. but i feel much more than that they've done a much better job. i will say this, i don't think that the people that have represented this country, the federal government, whether it's the admiral and the generals, and all of the people that we call to the floor. i just, they're heroes for what they've done. what they have been able to do in a short period of time, they took a system that was broken, just like we the i'd the military. our military was broken. our military was depleted. it was broken we've rebuilt our military. we've rebuilt this whole system, too. in a way, kelly, i appreciate your question, because you are hearing all of the things, the millions of masks, the hundreds of thousands of gowns and they're surgical. you know, they're protective gowns at the highest level. we are getting it to the various states. and most of the governors are very happy. now, a lot of times you know

it's politics. maybe i do the same thing. i don't know. but they'll try and act not so happy. i will tell you, when i speak to them or the vice president speaks too them, the singing and the praises of all of these people. so, i always take umbridge when somebody says something about what we've done. now, to do this, to do this should have taken -- to to what we have been able to do and to build it to a level should have taken a year, it should have taken two years. they did it in a matter of weeks and we're helping states. no, it's them. as an example, new york had the right to buy 16,000 ventilators. they could have bought them. they didn't. i understand why they didn't. it was a very expensive purchase. that's a lot. 16,000. and they close to do something else with their money. i understand that. the problem is when something like this comes along, what you don't expect, look, 1917, it's a long time ago, perhaps 100 million people died. that's a long time ago.

so people don't think it's going to happen. i would have frankly i mean did anybody in this room think a thing like this could happen? but it happened. and we built up a force, this is a military operation as it turned out, it really is, with fema, with the army core of engineers. and you were very gracious on that point. the army core of engineers building 2,500 units of beds and everything else now and then governor cuomo called and he wanted it to go covid. meaning for the problem. and we said, well, it wasn't supposed to be that way. but we want to get it done and we moved military personnel. so now military personnel are operating it. i'll tell you what's good, it hasn't been very full. that's a good thing, not a bad thing. it hasn't been. now, maybe over the next week, something will happen. but it hasn't been. but we have, it's better than

the other alternative where we run out. but they built actually 2,900 beds and we have also we bill four medical centers in new york. we built four hospitals for our medical centers and a lot more than that. it's such an honor to have done it, but the people that did it are amazing. and they have to be appreciated by the states. not me. they don't have to appreciate me at all. i don't care about me. they have to appreciate the generals, theed a michelle's, the doctors, the nurses. we're bringing now 3,000 people in that are medical professionals that are coming from all over the country to help new york city, to help new york state and help many other places. i just think it's incredible what they've done and i don't think that they have been appreciated. me, you can forget about. me. yeah. i actually mane it. they have to be appreciated. you in the back.

please. >> reporter: we seen the light at the end of the tunnel. yesterday you said -- >> i do, i see light at the end of the tunnel. if i didn't, i would not be very thrilled with what we've done. no, i see light at the end of the tunnel. i think indications are some of the numbers coming out today. i think, you know, we had a very good meeting today. we are seeing things that we don't even report. we think it's too early to report. no, i think we are seeing things happen that are very good and we also know, all of us, including the medical professionals, that we have to open our country up. we have to get going. we have to open our country up. no country was designed for this. where you close it. we're in the midst of the greatest economic boom in history, for any country. our country had the greatest economic boom in history. we had the most people working that we've ever had almost 160 million people. from 160 million, they want nobody to leave their house.

you know, you could use the term cold turkey. that's called cold turkey. the country is not designed. this country is not designed for that we have to get our country back. and i think it's going to come back and i hope it's going to come back very quickly. please, go ahead. >> reporter: sir, the first lady has been tweeting and encourageing people to wear face masks. >> no, she feels that way. >> reporter: would you wear one? >> i would wear one. i generally, would you like me to wear one right now in answering your question, that would be a little awkward, i guess. again, i would wear one in i thought it was important. she thinks, she likes the idea of wearing it, she does. a lot of people do. again it's a recommendation and i understand that recommendation. and i'm okay with it. >> what about your family in new york. are they going to be wearing them? are you encouraging this team wear one? >> i wouldn't be surprised.

>> what would you like to know? >> reporter: if we're going into this most difficult of times, how can the american people emotionally prepare for that and the president is talking and eager to see the country reopen how do we balance the mitigateing factors that still need to take place? >> sure. doctor. by the way, he'd like to see the company open too. he's called an american who loves our country. >> okay. so, part of the answer to your question i think relates to two other questions i heard and i think it came from the back about how can you on the one hand have said yesterday that this is really going to be a bad week at the same time we are talking about the light at the end of the tunnel. it seems to be inherently contradictory. but it really isn't. it has to do with what we explained before about the lag in when you look at the indications that dr. birx and the president was talking about.

when you see a flattening out of cases and you don't see the realization of what that means until two weeks later. so, right now, we're seeing as we all said, correctly, that this is probably going to be a really bad week. that is a reflexion of what happened two-and-a-half weeks ago. if we start seeing a flattening or a stable staigs of cases -- stabilization of cases, what you are potentially hearing ability the potential light at the end of the tunnel, doesn't take away from the fact that tomorrow and the next day will look really bad. we are always talking about a two-and-a-half week lag. i think a couple people asked that question. it's not incompatible with what we are saying. with regard to what we tell the american people what we have been telling them all along, the only tool, but the best tool we have is mitigation. we know it worked in other countries.

we see how it is working here. so if we really want to make sure that we don't have these kind of rebounds that we're worried about, it's mit gax, mitigation, mitigation. that's the answer. >> you see when the states come on the chart? >> yes. >> what itself the message for people in those places that have not been the focus? >> it's the same thing, mitigation, mitigation, mitigation. in fact, the famous vice president chart is that this is the minimal of what we should be doing. everyone should be doing that. and everything on here, one way or the other points to physical separation. whether it's no crowds. whether it's 6 feet. whether it's staying away from theaters and restaurants and what have you. >> and churches. >> exactly. >> doctor, are you worried about people becoming complacent. a couple days of this, i think people are about ready to go futures staying in their house. are you worried seven days from now, people will say look i gave

it my best shot, i got to get out? >> i don't say i'm worried about it. i mentioned it the another day, my own experience, is people really understand the responsibility they have for themselves, their family and the country. so this is about all of us. this isn't just about us. because if everybody does their part, you are going to not have those kind of rebounds that we are worried about. >> dr. fauci, how many additional asymptomatic cases do you think there are currently in the united states? there are 330,000 more confirmed cases. how many asymptomatic given what we have learned? >> we don't know. even among us, good friends that we are, we differ about that. i mean, it's somewhere between 25 and 50%. >> more? >> in other words, about the people that are out there. yeah. and trust me, that is an estimate. i don't have any scientific data yet to say that. you know when we will get the scientific data, when we get

those anti-body tests out there and we really know what the pen trants is. -- penetrants is. right now we are just guessing. >> you made great progress. >> fantastic progress. >> can you weighi in on this hydroxy chloroquine? >> maybe for the doctor. >> 15 times. you don't have to answer the question. >> he's the medical expert. >> he answered that question 15 times. >> dr. fauci, why are you not wearing a face mask? >> why am i not wearing a face mask now? okay. there are a couple reasons. one of them is that part of the, in fact, the major reason to wear a face mask is to protect you from infecting you. i had my test yesterday and it's negative. okay. >> very good answer. all right. i think that really could be it. i loved that answer. especially on a face mask.

i thought it was very good. go ahead. >> reporter: on the equipment issue, records show that federal agencies did not -- >> oh, stop it. by the way, who are you with? >> the associated press. the agency say respirators and masks. >> let me answerer your question, i know exactly the same question you ask all the time. ready, they have done an unbelievable job in delivering for the associated press, which is -- you know, not so great. not like it used to be. the people that you are looking at fema, the military, what they've done is a miracle. what they've done is a miracle in getting all of this stuff. what they have done for states is incredible. and you should be thanking fem them for what they've done. not always asking wise guy questions. thank you, everybody. thank you.

. >> all right. we have been listening to the president of the united states as well as portions of his coronavirus task force. including there, you saw dr. anthony fauci who had opinion sitting off to the side for much of that briefing walking through the latest of what we know. although it doesn't seem like there are major headlines out of this briefing. we, instead, have been focused on fact checking these claims the president has made. i still have with me jonathan le mere of the associated press, jonathan swan of axios and ashley parker of the washington post. ashley, i'd like to start with you. we had heard a little bit earlier. i will just recap it quickly for those who may be just tuning in or have missed an earlier part of our broad katz, jonathan swan of axios saying there was a nicety altercation between a economic adviser over this issue the malaria drug the president is pushing. we should underscore it's

unproven as a treatment. although the fda says they will allow doctors to try it because of these particular circumstances. they rushed that authorization through. what is it about the president that has him, i mean, he's literally up there saying quote what do i know? i'm not a doctor. but i have common sense and then dispensing this medical advice? >> reporter: well, this is one of the biggest fault lines with the president and his scientific experts, his public health officials, his medical experts, which is as you said he is up there from the podium saying what do you have to lose? and they're offering a much more cautious scientific-based approach, which is that there has not been studies with control groups and there may be something to lose, in fact, for instance, we are already hearing of reports of people who need these medicines not for coronavirus but some of the diseases they are intend to treat, no longer able to get

their medicines. another medicine the president suggested to be taken with hydroxy chloroquine is a z-pack. there is a reason why doctors just don't prescribe them preventatively. that's because there is a concern about obviously creating a super bug or a super virus that becomes resistant to what is a very effective routine antibalk. so there is some reason why not everyone should just take this, because what do you have to lose? again this is now between individuals and their doctors, but this is one of the things where the president, he cast himself as someone who wants to offer the nation hope. on the one hand that is incredibly understandable when you have all these deaths and you are the president of the united states. but what the medical experts behind the scenes have been counseling is this can be quite dangerous, photographically. that is where a lot of potential lives right now on the task force. >> yeah, i think the exact trump quote i wrote down as we were

all listening to this news conference, quote, it's not going to hurt them. i think it's important we should underscore for our viewers, there are impacts on potentially other people that need these drugs. also if you, yourself, have a heart condition, a reporting by a medical professional says there are, in fact, risks. you do need to talk that through with your doctor and anyone that is doing that is not putting themselves in danger. jonathan swan, let's expand quickly on the dynamic right now. we saw fauci at the end of that news conference. i think a lot of americans are watching this and there is a growing rift between the president and the man that many have come to trust as this outbreak has swept this now pandemic has swept across the country. what do we know about their relationship right now? >> reporter: look, trump saved fauci from having to talk about the issue that as ashley correctly said that is the most contentious right now which is this drug.

this malarial drug which has not been proven in any clinical trial, controlled trial to what against the coronavirus. that's the thing which fauci has been really set off lately about. he effectively won the argument over social distancing. the president was very tempted along these open up the country lines that he was hearing from some business people particularly outside the administration, also some people in the white house. fauci and birx, the medical experts, they won that argument. the president agreed to extend it for a month. i fully anticipate when april 30 comes around, there will be a pretty big debate internally about that. so we can come back to that relationship then. but right now, it's really this drug that's the sticking point. >> and jonathan le mere, when you listened to the president start to say, he began his news conference here by saying we are starting to see the light at the

end of the tunnel and you heard the doctor at the end there saying, well, there is not necessarily a big discrepancy between saying there is a light at the end of the tunnel and underscoring the next two weeks as we heard from the surgeon general on "meet the press," there will be the pearl harbor/9/11 moment. this is a time when americans need to take these distancing measures more seriously than they ever have, no? >> reporter: they absolutely should. the surgeon general today said this would be one of the worst weeks of a lot of americans' lives, the death to him is expected to rise dramatically, there will be more infections nationwide, yet, there are some states that have no guidelines whatsoever from their governors in terms of shutting things down or having people stay at home. it is again the mixed messaging from the white house, the president, and actually said, look, he is financial to strike an optimistic tone. you want to rally the nation and say we will get through this

that becomes dangerous when it seems like he is not taking it seriously. today you know his dismissal of wearing a mask was not quite as strikingsr as it was the other day, minutes after the cdc recommended it. he has promoted these drugs and suggested that they would be very helpful right now. it's the well defined. it's unclear whether anti-malarial drugs will help. he has touted a vaccine would arrive much sooner than it possibly could. that also could install false hope among a lot of people. americans are really desperate to know what is going on. the death toll has risen so dramatically. there the a lot of worry and concern out there across the nation. when the president can't be relied upon to deliver facts, that is worrisome. two other quick points, if we are going to be fact checking this president as you said is our mission tonight. one is he said he claimed from the podium, he didn't care if the governors were appreciative of the federal government's help

to them. i think we can safely say that is not true. he has been talking about that all week long and has become upset with governors from michigan and illinois when they have not been appreciative of how the federal government has responded and, you know, this is also a moment we didn't expect to hear at all tonight. as was pointed out, 7:00 when the president started. that was when joe biden started a town hall about the coronavirus response. so it made it a presidential counterprograming as well. >> some very good points there. thank you very much for that extra fact checking. jonathan le mere, ashley parker, jonathan swan. thank you for spending time with us as we have worked to break all of the down for our viewers. joining me now is the chairman of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff. he is calling about a truman style of handling this. very glad to have you on the program. we appreciate your patience as we have come to start our

conversation with you. based on what we just saw from the president, i do want to ask you about the commission are you proposing as you listened to him talk about where we are now, talking about i believe that the quote was something as though who could not -- who would have expected this pandemic, something like this? i think it's clear that there are experts throughout the government whose essential functions are to prepare for something like this. what do you think went wrong here? and what do we need to do to figure it out? >> well, i think there has been a lot that's gone wrong with the president's leadership throughout this crisis. even before, frankly, the pandemic began. even before this virus emerged. he disbanded the office that his predecessor barack obama set up in the white house to monitor for pandemics. and i think it was probably a part of the trump administration philosophy that everything that went on during the obama administration was inherently band and he wanted to dismantle anything that was associated

with it. but that was catastrophic that decision. then the failure to take this seriously, the failure to listen to the advice of his own experts. the weeks and weeks that went by where he talked this down as an ordinary flu. the failure to order protective equipment an ventilators when we could have filled our stockpiles with them. there are any number of failures. and i think that the importance of a 9/11-like commission here that would begin next year, that wanted to be involved in terms of the politics or the election. but to begin next year a very objective non-partisan review of what went wrong, what we need to do to better protect the country in the future. and the last thing i'll mention, casey, is the very last question at this press conference illustrated exactly why there needs to be oversight. that is when the president cut off the associated press reporter, who is trying to ask a

very important and simple question about whether the administration missed an opportunity to get ventilators when it could have or taken steps earlier. you could see the president wouldn't afternoon allow the question to be asked and went storming off. this is a president who does not want oversight of his handling of this. doesn't want the inspector generals to do their job and fired the intelligence community on friday night in a friday night massacre. it's all the more reason why we need to do oversight. >> i'm glad you raised, that was a question from my former associated press colleague who covered healthcare generally in washington for a decade plus just since i have known him and he is someone who has asked many very serious questions as the ap typically does. so, thank you for that i want to ask you as well, it's clear that our intelligence community had some warnings about this before

the chinese government was willing to be ub 'lick about the scale and nature of this. chris murphy, the senator chris murphy tweeted after he left an administration briefing on coronavirus. he said they weren't taking this seriously enough. there are warning flags that i realize you are not allowed to talk about classified information. in your role as a member of the gang of 8, do you feel as though there was information there that should have set off red flags much earlier with this president? >> i think there were a whole variety of sources of information. the intelligence community was one of them. but you have information coming from the w.h.o., the cdc, the president's own national security council. there were lots of people, lots of agencies domestic, our intelligence agencies as well as foreign health organizations that were sounding the alarm at various times. and you know even up through the end of february and into early

march, weeks after it was abundantly clear, we were dealing with a life or death threat. the president was still making happy talk about it. and engaging in what we see to this day, which is, departing from the science, departing from the epidemiologists have said and wishing to create his own narrative about events, which during a pandemic is really dangerous. the fact that you know millions of people turn in, tune into these briefings can't tell unless you fact check him whether what he is saying is true or untrue. whether they can rely on what he says about treatments or they can't rely on it, whether they can rely on what he says about vaccines, that is really dangerous for the country. and so, yes, they were warning signs i think across the government. and those were ignored for a very long time by the president. even when his own advisers were

telling him, this is serious and we got to get prepared. >> based on what you know, do you believe the chinese government when they say their official death count is just over 3,000 people? can we trust those numbers and can we trust what beijing is saying about this? >> no, i don't think we can. now, how big the variant is between what they are representing in terms of their death toll or rate of infection in china and the reality, i don't think we know. but, no, we can't rely i think on the numbers that china is giving out. both because i think the chinese leadership probably wants to present their model as the successful model and given all the problems the united states is having, this is among other things, a propaganda coup for china to be sending medical equipment to the united states instead of the other way around, but also because historically when there have been viruses or other health or other problems

in china, there are people that lie to the chinese government, lie to their own government to their own people, because they are afraid of retribution by the officials higher up. so, i don't think we can rely on what we hear from china. we're certainly on the intelligence committee trying to find out, okay, where is the ground truth in china as well as in other countries that likewise may be misrepresenting and potentially substantially misrepresenting how many people are infected. we can rely for example what the russians say in russia. we can't rely on what the iranians are saying about what goes on in iran. and because the virus knows no borders, it's important for us to find out the best we can where the truth lies in terms of where the virus is and what the impacts are. >> all right. intelligence committee chairman adam schiff. thank you very much for coming on the program tonight. we really appreciate it. we hope to see you again soon.

coming up, just ahead, we will speak with senator tim kaine. plus, so many americans want to know when these drugs will be ready to treat this disease around whether it will take a year to get a vaccine. a doctor at the center of a key drug trial will join me live. don't go anywhere. trial will je don't agonywhere. new crest pro/active defense. you're doing more to keep your body healthy for the future. shouldn't your toothpaste do the same for your mouth? now with crest pro/active defense, future proof your whole mouth. its active defense technology neutralizes bacteria to shield against potential issues.

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welcome back. there is no fda-approved drug to

treat coronavirus. underscoring that. that has, of course, not stopped the president on extolling on proven medicines from the white house briefing room. we saw quite a bit of that tonight. meanwhile, in emery university in atlanta they are working as fast as they can on clinical trials of another drugs and doing vaccine trials on some of the willing americans. a doctor joins me who oversees the trials at the emory vaccine center. thank you for being here. our audience heard quite a bit from the president about the anti-malaria drug and its, his claims of its effectiveness. we want to underscore those trials have not happened. you are, however, undertaking ground-breaking work on this, a different type of medication. can you explain to people? what's the difference between what you are working on and the president is talking about. and how could this trial you are doing potentially help people with coronavirus?

>> yes. thank you very much. what we are working on here at emory along with many other centers is a part of the nih effort to understand what are the best medicines to take care of patients with covid-19. as you mentioned before, there are no proven therapies yet. and our goal is to find those therapies worth conducting very good clinical trials that produce scientific evidence that allow us to understand what works for patients and what does nost. the current trial is looking at a medicine called rendesovere clinicians determined has the most effect for covid-19 at this time. we have enrolled much faster that we thought we could because the outbreak has hastened. we at emory enrolled over 50 patients at this point in time. but across the world in this trial we have over 400 patients now enrolled.

so hopefully in the coming weeks, we will understand whether it works or not. >> so what is the reason to potentially be optimistic that this drug could work? why is it one that scientist versus looked at and said, oh, hey, this is something that we should try? >> i think there is a lot of reasons to be optimistic about this drug in particular. we have experience using it in patients with ebola, most recently in the outbreak in the democratic of the congo, where it was proven to have good efficacy. most important it was show to be overall very safe for patients. that was one of the reasons that it was chosen to be the major part of this trial. we do have evidence in laboratories against the sars covid-2 virus and limited from china it is potentially efficacious. this trial will show it is truly efficacious in patients with

covid-19. >> let's compare this for folks who are out there. everyone is watching so nervo nervously how these es therapies will unfold. a vaccine takes a very long time. even under this compressed time table that we seem to be working on, we still hear a year to 18 months. why is it and how hopeful should people be we could have a drug treatment sooner than that? and why does the vaccine take so much longer? >> i think we have modalitys to test drugs and get them into clinical trials much faster than we have before. the athis adaptive trial nih developed is the superior method to test ting drugs. it worked for ebola last year and i believe this trial which will test now and other agents int future will show what the best therapies are. vaccines do take a little longer to develop. vaccine and their interface with our immune system is quite

complicated. and even candidates that look good in laboratories, when they come to human trials, often are not successful. we are very happy that my colleagues at the vaccine center dr. anderson and dr. rafael have brought on board a promising mri vaccine technology that we believe will show some good responses. the phase i trials are just now completing. hopefully soon, we will move it to see how efficacious this vaccine really is. >> well, doctor, thank you so much to you and to all of your colleagues who are work soing s hard. it's such a stressful time. we can not tell you how you and everyone are doing on all of our behalf. thank you for taking a few minutes to explain this. thank you. we will have much more kasie d.c. coming up in just a moment. e d.c. coming up in just a moment. there will be parties again soon,

and family gatherings. there will be parades and sporting events and concerts. to help our communities when they come back together, respond to the 2020 census now. spend a few minutes online today to impact the next 10 years of healthcare, infrastructure and education. go to 2020census.gov and respond today to make america's tomorrow brighter. it's time to shape our future.

you need a little happiness

tonight. after 49 long days spent apart, covering the coronavirus outbreak in japan, nbc news' janice mackey frayer was reunited with her only son. families across america are facing unprecedented challenges. for those new mothers expecting, the anxiety is higher than ever with very little data on the effects of covid, the cdc guidelines have been less than helpful. they just don't know very much. yesterday i wanted to hear from you, to hear your stories aren't how this pandemic turns of what i recently went through, a time of very much excitement into a time of raul encertainty. this is a little from a few of you that i heard from. >> as a pregnant woman in my second trimester. i am worried about the coronavirus pandemic. >> this has been the scariest thing that i've ever

encountered. >> i look at all of the symptoms you can possibly get with it. for example, prolonged fevers, and having a prolonged fever is really dangerous to the baby. >> i have continually had to let go of expectations of what i thought my pregnancy was going to look like and feel like. >> the hospitals in new york city where i am going to give birth and live started putting out the restrictions of having partners in the labor delivery room. >> a few weeks ago my biggest concern was my baby was breach. now it's about having to labor with a mask on or a week ago worried that my husband wasn't going to be by my side through the birth of our first child. >> even though a few months away from giving birth, it gave me anxiety and heart break for my friend and any woman forced to give birth alone. >> i'm a mom and i'm protecting my family and i'm doing everything i can to ensure we

don't get this virus. >> we are not alone. we're in this together. and the -- and we are all going to have some incredible stories to tell our little ones when we are on the other side of this. >> thank you so much to those of you and to the people that i messaged about this, who didn't necessarily feel comfortable sharing their faces on camera. what do we know and what should americans be doing as they try to navigate this incredibly difficult time?th >> so, i think what we know is

fortunately somewhat reassuring. so, there are some small studies of pregnant women, mostly in china who had covid-19 and gave birth. andnd for the most part their infants were not infected. if they were infected, they were okay for the most part. the course of the virus in the pregnant women themselves was very similar to what it would be in women sort of healthy women of that -- in that age group. so i think in that sense, unlike some of these other earlier things like sars, it does not look like covid-19 particularly targets pregnant women and it tends to be very mild in kids and infants. and so i think that piece of it is fortunately hsomewhat reassuring although this whole thing is very scary. >> we had a lot of women who reached out to us being concerned or wondering if they should ask their doctor to be induced at 39 weeks, which is something we know physicians have started doing. is that something that's smart for women who are trying to at

least have some semblance of control over this experience? >> i think it's a little bit complicated. so, on the one hand that's going to give you a lot more control and you're much more likely to know when to expect this and to know, you know, what timing you'll be in the hospital. and it helps the doctors navigate sort of timing in the hospital. on the other hand, induction means more time in the hospital relative to going to labor on yourla own and then they're showing up at the last minute and having baby immediately and running out. not that that's really realistic. so i think it depends a little bit how you feel about those things. >> what would you say to people who are nervous about going to a hospital at all? they feel like walking into that setting is potentially putting themselves or their family members at risk. maybe they're considering giving birth at home or trying to go to a birthing center. do you think at that point those decisions are wise? >> so, i talked a lot about this

because i think on the one hand, people have asked me, should i have a home birth? i don't want to go anywhere near a hospital. there are reasons to have a home birth. to plan a home birth and to think about doing that in this situation, i think switching at the last minute to a home birth in the middle of a global viral pandemic seems like a mistake. it is, of course, this has raised the risk going to the hospital, but it's substantially raised the risk to having to go to the hospital in an emergency to substantially change how fraught that's going to feel with an e.d. in late labor with a lot of people around. i think that's probably not a direction that is going to make sense for a lot of women to go if they haven't been thinking about that kind of choice already. >> that makes sense. whatma would you say to -- if w have people watching who have unfortunately not been able to

avoid this disease, who have contracted the theea virus? when i was pregnant they were very concerned about whether you get a fever at all. if you get one it's considered very dangerous and something that you're supposed to alert your doctor to right away. what should people who are potentially facing dealing with this disease at some stage of pregnancy do about it? is there anything they can do? >> so, i think we should all be trying to avoid this, pregnant women, non-pregnant women, men should be careful and trying to avoid this. if you do get -- if you do get infected, you know, there are concerns, the biggest thing people have raised is the question about fever. i think the evidence on fever is actually a bit less concerning than some people have said, so people often think about fever as kind of like being in a hot tub, but actually the evidence on the risk with birth defects is much more mixed with fever. some of the studies don't show

those kind of links. and so i think while it's something to be careful about the same way you'd be careful about influenza there, there is not any reason to think this kind of fever would be any worse than that. than that kind of fever. and the evidence on -- >> that i think is very reassuring for a lot of people. professor, i'm so sorry to have to cu to cut you off. unfortunately we're running out of time. i appreciate your insights. >> thank you for having me. >>nk earlier today in a very ra address, queen elizabeth delivered a message of hope to the united kingdom amid the coronavirus pandemic. let's watch. >> we should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. we will be with our friends again. we will be with our families again. we will meet again. >> pretty striking for somebody

thatst we don't see very often public. and i just wanted to share that with you at the conclusion of our show after we spent so much time, of wcourse, watching our own leaders here. that's going to do it for us tonight here on "kasie d.c." we will be back with you next week from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. joshua johnson is going to continue our live coverage coming up after a short commercial break. andp later, stick around. watch our special report, coronavirus: into the red zone. that's tonight at 10:00 p.m. on msnbc. for now, good night from washington. proof i can fight moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. proof i can fight psoriatic arthritis... ...with humira. proof of less joint pain... ...and clearer skin in psa. humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections,

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shall hey there, i'm joshua johnson at msnbc world headquarters in new york. it's good to be with you tonight as we continue our coronavirus coverage with another look across america. by our count, there are now more than 330,000 confirmed cases of covid-19, more than 9500 people have died in communities of all sizes. there is hardly anywhere that's not responding in some way to the outbreak. in massachusetts, all prisons are on lockdown after a third inmate died from covid-19. according to the omaha world herald, a massive meatpacking plant is still in operation after ten workers there tested positive. and the u.s. surgeon general said today that this week is going to be the hardest and saddest of most americans' lives. now, before we look across

america, we begin across the