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fails to paint an accurate picture of the scale of this crisis. that's according to reporting by "the miami herald." barbara peterson, the head of the florida government watchdog group first amendment foundation told "the herald," and we quote, for whatever reason, our governor is trying to hide information, first about nursing homes and now from medical examiners. they are trying to paint a rosy picture by refusing to provide us accurate information that allows to us make informed decisions about the health and safety of our families. it's a disservice to the citizens of the state of florida. with us is nick nahamas who has done extensive reporting on this story, investigative reporter at "the miami herald." nick, i would like to begin with a new york comparison, especially early on in the spike of coronavirus in new york city. two things happened. physicians, attending physicians who were doing their job listed

coronavirus as a contributing factor in patients who presented with other risk categories in the hospital. and died by didn't of having the coronavirus, but it didn't always go down as a coronavirus death. also, he had people dying at home. and it took a long time to determine that that was the cause of death. so the numbers didn't add up in new york for a while. they've probably steady up. this sounds like something very different and it truly is the public's right to know in a state like florida with such a vast senior population, exactly how many people this disease is killin killing. >> that's exactly right. the issue that we found in this particular story was about crucial information being redacted about people who had died, not so much the overall

number. but we're talking about what the probable cause of death was and what the circumstances of the deaths were. and this is information that has been released by the state since after hurricane andrew. and so, you know, that's why the medical examiners in the state are puzzled by why the state, which was releasing the list as of a couple of weeks ago, suddenly put a halt to it. and then started redacting really important information for the public and for the families. >> -- cross-current in the country flowing through florida. can you talk about what the reporting suggests, the political influence or impact is, if any, of this suspicious or fishy-sounding death toll? >> well, you know, it's a wider issue we're facing in florida. we have one of the nation's strongest public records laws, and time and time again, the

state, the administration has been resisting releasing really crucial information, leading news organizations including "the miami herald" to threaten to sue. and this really, you know, starts with -- it ranges from, you know, contracts that the state is giving out to which nursing homes have covid-19 cases, which assisted living facilities, and how many people have died at each facility. how many cases there are. the state has really been dragging its feet. and they have been transparent in other measures. the governor has said florida is the most transparent state in the nation, but there are a lot of instances in the covid-19 pandemic where that just has not been the case. >> i lived in the state and i know that the press there and the people who live there hold up the sunshine laws as sort of a hallmark of good government. is the sort of reporting on the

numbers, is it simply not living up to the sunshine laws or are there serious questions about the information that is coming out? and i guess what i'm getting at is, is there a suspicion or is there a line of inquiry about whether or not there's a dramatic undercount. is that the theory of the investigative reporting there? >> well, i mean, that's a really good question. and that's why we want to see the records that underlie the state's data. and we've had a really difficult time getting some of those records. it's really important that we have an accurate idea of what's happening with the state. you know, our cases have seemed to plateaued, and now that we're reopening up the state, we need to know what the current situation is. and that can be really hard when reporters have to spend -- and our lawyers have to spend a lot of time trying to get data. and the state -- i mean won't sometimes even acknowledge things as simple as the fact that the testing backlog they

put on their website doesn't include private labs. it only includes public labs. but it's presented alongside the overall number of tests being done. so it presents a far rosier picture of testing in the state than might actually or is actually the case. >> it's really important reporting. nick, thank you so much for sharing it with us. nick with "the miami herald." and brian, some of these days we get to do all of this together. some of these days, because of technology, weather, and storms, we back each other up. this is one of the latter kinds of days. >> this is the day where we drop the curtain and admit that whether and electronic gremlins did what no one on social media has ever been able to do. they silenced my friend, nicole. but that's what we wing people are here for each other for. this has our role. and hopefully, no one ever gets to see you sweat. nobody missed a stitch.

you're back, which makes me very happy. i'm going to go watch you and we'll have post-press conference analysis when the president is done in the rose garden. enjoy. >> well, sweat, i did. thank you, my friend, very much. we'll see you later. and coming up for us, the pulitzer prize-winning science journalist who predicted this pandemic more than two decades ago. we will get some answers to some very big questions, right after this. a lot of folks ask me why their dishwasher doesn't get everything clean. i tell them, it may be your detergent...

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i sat down with one of my coworkers and just tried to decompress and talk about how our day was going. as we were talking about the good things and how it felt like it was going in the right direction, there was another medical code. and we both just sat there quietly for a minute, trying to, you know, bring our thoughts back together and say, when is this going end to? when is it going to get a little bit better? you know, we don't have those answer answers. >> there are a lot of unanswered questions in the fight against coronavirus. and as of now, no predictable timeline to getting any answers. but we did have some warning, some warning that a pandemic like this was coming our way. in the 1994 best seller, "the coming plague: newly emerging diseases and a world out of balance," pulitzer prize-winning journalist lori garrett saw a pandemic like this coming and she sounded the alarm about it in subsequent books and speeches and appearances. now garrett is talking about what she thinks will happen

next, telling "the new york times" that includes, quote, a seismic shift in what we expect and what we endure and how we adapt. and just as we come out of our holes and see what 25% unemployment looks like, we may also see what collective rage looks like. joining us now for the big picture of this pandemic, pulitzer prize-winning science journalist and the best-selling author of "the coming plague," lori garrett. she's also a columnist for "foreign policy" magazine and we're very fortunate here to have her as a science contributor at msnbc. lori, i have 10 million questions. we could all keep you up for hours on end, asking about the things that terrify us, but one of the things that caught my eye and frank bruni's wonderful conversation with you is that your horizon is 36 months. not anything like what i think most people have in mind. most parents i know are wondering if september will bring a return to school, most people in new york city are wondering if they'll be going back to their offices anytime soon. talk about your 36-month

horizon. >> well, i'm not arguing 36 months in lockdown, let's be clear about that. it's 36 months, at best, before we can all feel that we've got this virus licked. that it's no longer going to come re-circulating back and forth and back and forth. look what's happening today in wuhan. now they have a double-digit number of new cases in an area that already went through a total lockdown, was declared free of virus, now it's back. germany was on the cusp of great, opening up and feeling they had really conquered the problem and now they have a fresh outbreak associated with a meat-packing plant. and we can see this sort of trend all over the world. what's going to happen is that this virus is going to keep coming in waves. we're going to keep seeing these little outbreaks. not a big tsunami that sweeps over the nation all at once, everybody hit at the same time.

but rather, you know, an outbreak in ames, iowa, that gets very bad in ames, but isn't felt in kansas. then one in oakland, california. then one in salem, massachusetts. and on and on and on, so that we're going to be seeing for a very long time, until we have effective vaccination, the entire planet, 7.5 billion human beings, we're going to be sporadic outbreaks, sometimes with huge tolls, big numbers. and they're going to sweep through, back and forth and back and forth, for a very long time. best case is 36 months. >> laurie, tony fauci was talking about some of these sorts of things, when i worked in government in the years 2000, 2001, '3, '4, '5, my old boss became obsessed with the history of pandemics. when you look at leadership in washington, not just tony fauci,

but the political leader that he works for, what are the missed opportunities or what are the things with your knowledge and your view on history and sort of your longer lens on this, what are the things we're doing wrong, what are the things we're doing right? >> well, you know, it's interesting. i would say the whole question of emerging diseases is very similar to questions of failing infrastructure and climate change. these are all issues where a politician who is thinking on a short-term horizon of my next election is in two years will say, you know, i'm sure climate change is a big deal and i'm sure that the fact that all the highways are about to collapse and the bridges are in bad shape is a big deal, but, these emerging diseases, gosh, i guess that's a big deal, too. but you know what, i'm up for re-election in two years. i don't think there's going to be a crisis with a failed bridge, you know, rising sea

levels, or a big pandemic during my two-year stint, so i'm not going to focus on it right now. and this is a problem we see in every country in the world, that the politician is thinking on one time span, but the danger is with uncertainty range out on a much larger time span. and it's been, every single president since bill clinton, bill clinton, george w. bush, barack obama, they've all put time and energy into the whole question of emerging diseases. they've faced big outbreaks during their presidency. and they've tried to figure out, you know, is there something we can do to prepare america. but the level of preparation has never been sufficient, and it's always been sort of handed off to the next administration, which put another little layer on top of it, and then handed it off again. and here we find ourselves, you

know, really underappreciating the problem and underinvesting in it. so as we look ahead, the real question was, i was involved in a lot of teams that were assessing the performance of w.h.o and other agencies in response to ebola in west africa in 2014. and everybody said, look, you know, this really got screwed up. the early warning systems didn't work, w.h.o didn't work, u.n. system didn't work, let's get moving, let's fix this. and for a brief period of time, there was a real flurry of attention and concern, a lot of investment, let's get better, let's have good early warning systems for the whole planet. and then, you know, it fell off the front burner, went to the back burner, and after a while, there was no gas on the burner at all. and this is hitting us when we're at the no gas on the burner stage in february and now we find ourselves with a

situation where the nature of the response, the leadership of the response is changing weekly, if not almost daily, and it's very hard to understand where we're going, what the strategy is, and when this will all come to an end, even just in the united states. >> laurie, there's so many things that i want to ask you about, including how scared we should be. i know as a mom, i'm terrified by the new reports of the sicknesses hitting kids, but i want to know what keeps you up at night. could we take a quick break and ask you to answer that question on the other side? >> okay. >> all right. laurie, we'll be back on the other side. than free shipping. you get thousands of items you need to your door fast the way it works best for you. even the big stuff. you get a delivery experience you can always count on. you get your perfect find at a price to match on your schedule.

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investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for? download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. birthdays aren't cancelled. hope isn't quarantined. first words aren't delayed. caring isn't postponed. courage isn't on hold. and love hasn't stopped. u.s. bank thanks you for keeping all of our spirits strong. we've donated millions to those in need and are always here for our customers and employees. we're back with pulitzer prize winger scientist journalist laurie garrett, a science contributor here at the msnbc. laurie, i'm scared of

everything, the organs and systems in the body that are being affected. and now based on new reports over the weekend and governor cuomo's announcement of the new death of a young child. is all of that reasonable, rational? is this a virus to be afraid of still? >> you know, there's time when one says paranoia isn't always pa paranoia. every now and then you have a right to be scared. people shouldn't act based on fear. rarely productive and rarely wise. but you must respect this enemy. this is a monster. you're right, it's affecting multiple systems in the body. if you want a really harrowing read, the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine, an old friend of mine and one of people dates all of the way back

to 1976 in the original discovery of ebola, used to head the largest united nations agency with hiv/aids. he came down with covid. he's been sick with seven weeks. seven days in the hospital. he describes it as every part of his body feeling affected. he survived it. there were moments where he thought he's going to die. the feeling of an elephant sitting on your chest. as if you're downing. you can't seem to get air and a lot of profound cardiovascular diseases, the viruses uses a particular receptor on the ace2 receptor, also key to stimulating certain functions in the cardiovascular system. so, yes, it's a very tough

virus. it's tough in terms of what it does to your body. it's also tough because it spreads by multiple different routes. it's not just coughing, which is bad enough. it's also mucus from your nose, it can be on your hands. it can stay on surfaces so that, you know, if i shared my phone with you and i had covid you might pick it up from the back, from touching my phone. it can be spread oral fecal, people can pass it through their stools, also reports being passed via see men. go down the laist. it's a long list. it can live on surfaces for a kribl amount of time. we're dealing with a tough enemy. it's tough because it can be transmitted multiple ways.

then finally, it does really seem to disrupt the human immune system, in complex ways that are not easy to completely understand. we need a really deep dive into understanding the basic of the human immune system and how it's responding to this virus. some get their entire immune system, i haven't seen this before, no antibodies against it. so i'm calling the thermonuclear response. everything in the immune system is getting thrown at it. that's why you have these fevers at 104 temperatures. profound responses that seem to, you know, feel like there's something rolling around inside your brain, making people feel delirious, unable to think clearly and this whole kawasaki

syndrome that's been noted in 85 children here in new york state and well over 100 worldwide, seems to a kind of combination of this response and the cardiovascular response in children and it needs a great deal more characterization. we don't fully understand what's going on there at all. >> you are a wealth of information, of knowledge and i can't describe myself as reassured i do feel informed and that's the only way that any of us can get through this. we're so fortunate to have you at this network. thank you. thank you for spending some time with us. thank you for sharing all of your expertise with our viewers just now. we're grateful. coming up -- as the coronavirus creeper further into the west wing, the president returns to the podium.

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hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. where awaiting the first presidential news conference since senior white house aides in close approximaproximity to president and the vice president have tested positive for coronavirus. today's briefing is expected to focus on testing. a task the president turned over the governors without making full use of the defense production act to garuaranteed

access. here's donald trump's first reaction to the news of a positive test for mike pence's press secretary, a known frequent presence at coronavirus task force meetings. >> she's a wonderful young woman. katie, she tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden, today, she tested positive. she hasn't come into contact with me, spent some time with the vice president, it's -- i believe the press person right, the press person tested positive out of the blue. >> contact tracing trump style. in days since he offered that puzzling assessment of testing, his white house has become consumed with containing a potential coronavirus hotspot in its ranks. "the new york times" describes officials racing to control an outbreak inside the cramped working quarters at 1600

pennsylvania avenue. at least three top pandemic advisers are now isolating in at least some form. dr. tony fauci, cdc director robert redfield and fda commissioner stephen hahn. kevin hassett offered a blunt assessment that he's uncomfortable coming to work in the president's west wing. >> it's scary to go to work. i was not part of the white house in march. i think that i'd be a lot safer sitting at home than going to the west wing. i think everyone going to work, you've been in the west, you know, it's small, crowded space. it's a little bit risky. but you have to do it because you have to serve your country. >> the clear trepidation among white house firms following this report. on how staffers should proceed with an outbreak in midst. quote, all white house staffers received a memo from the white house management office on friday which include employees

to work remotely if at all possible. but several administration officials said white house staffers were encouraged to come into the office by their supervisors, the fear and uncertainty spilling out of the white house today. links to trump's own aides to workers across the country who are now grappling with the prospect of risking their health to return to the workplace. as trump continues to push for an economic reboot. peter baker in in "the new york times" lays out what he calls the obvious question. quote, if it's so hard to maintain a healthy environment at 1600 pennsylvania avenue, the most famous office aid dress in the word, where staff members are tested regularly, then how can businesses across the country without any near as much access to resources establish a safe place for their workers? the president's press conference comes as the death toll in the u.s. surpasses 80,000 americans and the university of washington model cited frequently by the

white house suggests that the death toll will surpass 100,000 by the end of next week. a significant spike that one of the experts making those projections attributes to, quote, explosive increases in mobility. as a majority of u.s. states begin to reopen in some form. the president's latest turn at the podium to talk about protecting the country as we learn his own residence and his own office is home to new infections is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. dr. vin gupta, global health policy expert. plus white house reporter for the washington post, ashley parker and on ben rose is back. ashley parker, take me inside what's going on inside the white house, projecting the same kind of fear that everybody feels about going to work and trying to work and being at the office amidst an outbreak? >> that's exactly right, there

was a high level of anxiety as the first case emerged last week and that was the president's military valet, then vice president pence's press secretary tested positive. lot of anxiety. it's broken down by people's proximity to the president and in fact the closer aides are to the president the safer they feel because if you're close to the president even though you're potentially in the oval office not wearing a mask you know he's getting tested regularly and you're getting tested regularly. that said, may be false sense of security. katie miller who tested positive, the president said she had been negative, negative, negative and then she was positive. but it's also worth noting that today the white house just sent out a memo instructing aides to basically do -- follow the guidance the administration has been giving the public for

weeks, wear a mask, wear a face covering, you now have the directive that these officials if they're in public spaces they need to be wearing masks not if they're sitting at their desk necessarily or in an office where they can close a door. vice president pence was spotted today not wearing a mask. there's skepticism that president trump will wear a mask. this was a memo that went out to aides. so, there's finally a sense they're taking it a bit more seriously. >> dr. gupta, can you weigh in, one on the risk that these staffers face by being in such tight quarters. i worked in the west wing, it's not spacious. i see some signage, america's number one in testing. based on per capita, had around

18 or 19 in the world. >> nicolle, it depends on your definition of success right now, we're celebrating america's testing -- i think we reached 8 million tests in a country of 325 million americans, 2% of the population, to your point per capita rates of testing are still pretty mediocre. there's two things to answer your question. number one with regards to masks and social distancing in the west wing, nothing's going to change unless the president of the united states says, you know what i believe the data and scientists not whatever else he's listening or adhering to when he's choosing not to wear a mask. vice president pence has done this in a high-profile way at the mayo clinic. we know computer scientists modeled out the effectiveness of

masks. if 80% of americans wore masks we would have a tenfold decrease in the disease. it's pretty striking to me the science on masks. it's -- nothing's going to change unless the president says this is something that we all should be doing. on the signage, nicolle, let's pay attention to one thing at the press briefing, what's the repeat testing that americans should be thinking about? we're thinking right now everybody needs to get tested. but have you heard anything out of the cdc or the white house more specifically about how many times should americans get tested at repeat cadence. the press secretary's getting a test every day. but the reasons that ashley just you pointed out, you can test negative, negative, then positive.

we're not talking about how repeat testing americans who are at risk of exposure constantly. that needs to be a part of that discussion. hopefully he'll talk about it today. >> ben rhodes, i want to ask you about the president's seemingly unhinged attacks on president obama. but i also want to ask you about the public sentiment. because the public for all the disinformation out there, the echo chambers for donald trump's misinformation, i think the public stands at 70% more worried that we're going to go back too quickly, the public has internalized what laurie garrett was describing to me the we rossty of this disease. you got 68% of americans not on board with the let's go back and roll the dice with this disease,

what do you make of that? >> well, nicolle, honestly the only way to try to understand what trump is doing look it through the prism he's trying to serve his own political interests. it's too hard to manage this pandemic effectively. he doesn't like to dig into hard problems, he doesn't like to listen to the science. he's trying to think about his political positioning. he's trying to open up this economy again and this way he can blame governors, particularly democratic governors if the economic slowdown, the crash we seem to be entering indoors and he can blame them if the public health response is not adequate. the problem with his approach, nicolle, is that your not going to be able to resume the economy unless people have confidence they can go to the office, that they can go to restaurants, shopping. what that polling shows you the american people aren't confident.

they're not able to trust they're getting clear, precise information from their elected officials particularly the president. they're not seeing the president model the kind of behavior that they will need to do themselves like wearing masks if they're going back out into the workplace. it reminds me of when we had h1n1 president obama went out of his way to get himself photographed getting a shot, which was unusual for a president at that time. president trump isn't modeling the behavior. >> ashley parker, i want to ask you about some of your reporting that backs up what ben is saying, the political backdrop that seems to charge every news event, every public utterance and every leak that comes from this inner circle around the president that's now facing infection and quarantine of their own, it sounds like a little bit -- more than a little

bit of peer pressure wearing ma masks. you and your colleagues described donald trump glum on his own unpopularity. please detail that reporting. >> sure, what we heard for our weekend story was the president and you can agree or disagree with this assessment he had, originally thought he was on a glide path to re-election against joe biden. he was running on the economy largely, it was a strong economy until the coronavirus hit. and he now feels sort of shell shocked it was described to us, glum and shell shocked that he's now losing to joe biden in just about every single internal and external public poll. he's very sensitive and his whole team is very sensitive when those private polls leak, thatry leaking. there are some metrics where joe biden does better.

on the one metric that matters, who are you going to vote for? biden is winning. he feels like he's locked in the white house, can't get out on the campaign trail as he wants. maybe do rallies in august, maybe outdoor rallies, who knows, he feels like he's out of control with the circumstances beyond his own making. he sit there is this weekend watching cable news, this news cycle are all bad because we're in middle of a deadly pandemic in many ways has been mismanaged, tweeting, getting p upset and he understands his re-election hopes are very much tied to the economy which right now isn't doing particularly well. >> dr. gupta, people are at their feet. we'll keep an eye on this. just quickly, what could donald trump say that would count as a real breakthrough on testing?

he's not used the defense production act and he's obviously not really clear in oiz own mind about the importance of testing? >> nicolle, if you said, listen, we're going to test every american regardless of symptoms, that would be a breakthrough. because right now, you go to cdc website, now, cdc testing guidelines, you're going to see that you have to have symptoms regardless of who you are or where you live to get a test and we now all agree in the public health world that you need a test if you're going to go back to work, any semblance of normalcy regardless of whether or not you have symptoms. i hope he talks about that issue. >> all right, let's see if he meets the dr. gupta's test. >> we developed a testing capacity unmatched and unrivalled anywhere in the world. it's not even close. this is a core element of our plan to safely and gradually

reopen america. we're opening and we're starting and there's enthusiasm like i haven't seen in a long time. every american should be proud of the amazing array of talents, skill, enterprise our nation has brought to this challenge. in three months the fda has authorized more than 92 different tests and over 9 million have been performed here in the united states. three weeks ago, we were conducting roughly 150,000 tests per day, now we're doing approximately 300,000 tests a day. 100% increase. it will go up substantially this week. this week passed 1 million nearly double than any other country. in some cases on friday, the fda authorizesed coronavirus antigen

test, that can much more readily manufactured. this newly authorized point of care tests estimates that it will be able to manufacture 150,000 tests per day immediately increasing to 300,000 tests per day within just a few weeks. to further expand our nation's testing capabilities this afternoon, i'm announcing that my administration -- we've got this all approved -- it's all done. sending $1 billion to american states, territories and tribes, this has been approved. we've gotten it done. the money is going out. this major investment will ensure that the america conducts more testing than any other country. i said from the beginning the federal government would back up the states and help them build their testing capability and

capacity. that's exactly what happened. this partnership has truly flourished. we had a good relationship with the states and the governors and other representatives within the states a relationship like i think i can honestly say hasn't been seen in the country for many, many years. the governors and us are working together very closely not only testing but on ventilators where we have a capacity that's virtually unlimited. we're sending ventilators, many, many thousands of ventilators to other countries because they're in tremendous need. and i think building up a lot of good will but much more importantly than that, we're saving a lot of lives. most states now are doing a great job. my administrations located 500 machines, governors have learned to maximize these testing resources.

the federal government is also supporting states with vital supplies, quick approvals of new tests and one-on-one coaching from the team here at the white house on how to increase capacity and increase it very quickly. in recent weeks we held multiple conference calls with every state as well as with d.c. and preside puerto rico. al together, totally 12.8 million tests. think of that, 12.9 million tests. today i'm announcing that my administration will provide the collection supplies to help states meet their targets and meet them rapidly. during the month of may, fema and hhs will delivering 12.9 million swabs to states nationwide. we already have them. the delivery will be very quick. we prepared to provide millions of additional swabs if any state is on a pace to surpass their goals.

we set the goals very high. my administration will also provide approximately 9 million transport media used to transfer swabs to the lab processing, a complicated process but we've made it simple. as a result of these actions every single state will be able to test more people per capita in may alone than south korea has tested in four months since the outbreak began. this major commitment is possible because of the massive mobilization of american industry. u.s. cotton, abbott labs. they produce rapidly for us. their products are here with us this afternoon. these are all different products that we're literally just developed. and if you can imagine that, these are the best machines and the best equipment anywhere in the world and other countries are calling us and we're trying to work as much as we cannot

only on ventilators but also with testing. my administration also continues our tireless effort of expand testing in the underserved communities. throughout our partnership with the private sector, operating over 240 tests across the count country. 70% of these sites are located in communities with unique vulnerabilities. there will be more than 300 sites by the end of this week and retailers are making plans to open up hundreds and hundreds more locations within the next 30 days. these additional sites are helping us ensure access to testing in every community, my administration is fighting relentlessly to protect of all citizens from this terrible virus. the invisible enemy. in addition to vast amounts of testing supplies, my administration has partnered with the private sector to coordinate the delivery of more

than 90 million n95 masks and these are of the highest quality, many are made here in the united states, 126 million surgical masks likewise, many are made here, 9 million face shields, 21 surgical gowns, 930 million gloves, and 10,690 ventilators. we're building thousands of ventilators in numerous plants all across our country. it's incredible, actually. this global pandemic has afflicted great pain on our people. it should have been stopped at the source. we mourn for every life the virus has claimed and we share the grief of all of you who have lost a loved one and that goes worldwide, too. many many countries. 184 countries at least. thanks to the courage of our citizens and our aggressive

strategy, hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved. and we have saved and if you look at on a per 100,000 basis, we're at the best part of the pack. right on the bottom, germany and us are leading the world. germany and the united states are leading the world. lives saved per 100,000. every generation through every challenge and hardship and danger, america has risen to task. we have met the moment and we have prevailed. americans do whatever it takes to find solutions, pioneer breakthroughs and harness the energies we need to achieve a total victory. day after day, we're making tremendous strides with the dedication of our doctors and nurses -- these are incredible people, brave people, these are warriors -- with the devotion of our manufacturing workers, food suppliers and the patriotism of

the american people we will defeat this horrible enemy. we'll revive our economy and we'll transition into greatness. that's the phrase you're going to hear a lot. that's what's going to happen. we're going into the third quarter. and we're going to do well. in the fourth quarter, we're going to do very good. next year, i think we'll have one of the best year. pent-up demand. i'm feeling it. i have felt things a lot over my life and i have made a lot of good calls. there's a pent-up demand, there's a spirit in this country like few have seen. i think you can say and we have helped a lot of the countries a lot. really a lot. there's a tremendous spirit all over the world. to beat this terrible, terrible thing. we're transitioning to greatness and the greatness is going to be in the fourth quarter, but it's really going to be next year and

a year like we have never had before. i really believe it. as good as we have done and we have done great, the best economy in the history of the world not just here but anywhere in the world you can talk china, you can talk any other country we have the best economy anywhere in the world, and we were going for numbers whether it was unemployment numbers where we had our best numbers, employment also numbers, little different. we had our best numbers, almost 160 million people, all of that -- we had the greatest stock market numbers, ever, i think we had 142 days where we set records in a short period of time, 15 # days we set records in the stock market, we rebuilt our military, all built in the united states. all of our equipment built, $1.5 trillion-plus. on the southern border the wall is being built, it's being built rapidly and now you don't hear the opponents talking too much

about the border, they don't like to talk about it because it seemed we were right on a lot of things. one of the things we were right about, the border, we have powerful border. one of the best weeks in the history of our border between the united states and mexico, our southern border, we had very few people coming in. very, very few. almost record low numbers. and the wall is being built. it's up to 181 miles already. it's being built, it's being built rapidly. people don't talk about it anymore because it's very successful and the area where the wall has built, a lot still, we want to be up to 450 by very short period of time, early next year, we should be up to 450 and very shortly after that, over 500 miles to be completed. but it's had a tremendous impact. but, again, we've had the best numbers, the last thing we want now with this pandemic is for people to come across our

southern border and, again, we're doing record numbers. meaning, record low numbers. so i just want to thank everybody and i want to introduce admiral and brad smith they're doing to do a little explaining as to what we have done with regard to testing and how successful it's been and then we'll take some questions after that. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. for your leadership and for your high expectations that this made come together and the uniformed support from everyone in the white house and thank you, secretary azar, for providing his leadership at hhs and allowing both brad and i the opportunity to work on this project. it's clear that america does lead the world in testing. i'll go through some of the charts that showed we lead quantitati quantitatively. and we lead in the diversity of

tests, very important to establish the testing ecosystem to keep america safe and clearly, no one beats america when it comes to quality. let's start potentially with the next slide. this may be hard to see but if you look at the line on top that's the total number of tests done by the united states. no other country in the world comes close to the total numbers. again, as the president has said, today, we'll top over 9 million tests. if you look at per capita, everyone talks about south korea being the standard, today we will have done more than twice the per capita rate of testing that was accomplished in south korea, no matter how you look at it america is leading the world in testing. how did we get there? let's look at the next slide. next slide, please. a very important component of how we came to this point. was the authorization by the fda

under the leadership of our secretary, of many different diagnostic tests, diagnostic tests and serology tests. most of the diagnostic tests rely on the amplification of the genetic material. we talked to you about the diversity of tests. group of tests that are done at labs like quest. deliverying over 2 million tests. vitally important to rural americans and places that don't have very large infrastructure. the abbott test, there it is on the left of the president, delivering about 1.4 million tests as a point of care test. you get the result within 5

minutes to 15 minutes. we have deployed over 235,000 of these tests to the state public health laboratories in every state of this country. to make sure that point of care testing capability is there to research outbreaks like in nursing homes or in certain industrial capacities. and well over 90,000 to the indian health service so they can test at point of care in remote locations. . the president also talked about a new first in class test, it's listed there as a antigen-based test. this is very important. ambassador birx talked about this multiple times. antigen testing is much less complex than the test we had. this was authorized by the fda and as the president said, we'll soon be making over 300,000 tests per day. do the math, that's 9 million point of care tests that we'll

have every month in just a few weeks. it will clearly add to change our landscape. i'm a swab guy now, i'm very interested in swabs. . in order to make these tests work, you have to show a certain swab performed in a certain way delivers a highly accurate result. up here, you're seeing some of the fruit of that labor. the foam nasal swab, we would be blowing through ppe across the country. this has been changed by this diverse authorization, allows the great manufacturer u.s. cotton to join our industry. next slide, last week we did over 1.9 million tests. that number is growing. and again, as the president said and brad will talk about our

states aspire to do well over 10 million tests over the next four weeks, you see the graph growing, what you also see, the orange bar on the bottom is the cumulative numbers of positive. in fact, in 31 states as of last night the positivity rate is less than 10% which is not a litmus test but a good idea we're doing plenty enough testing that we can enter phase one for careful reopening. i want to take the opportunity this doesn't happen by accident. i'm seeing everyone in the audience here and i'm so pleased they can be here, people sitting in the front have been working literally 18 hours to 20 hours a day every single day of the week for at least the past two months. none of this happens by accident. it happens because their hard work, their sacrifice, the sacrifice of their family all for a common good. i'm very honored to consider all

of you my colleagues. my last slide, $11 billion is now being announced to be delivered to the states for the sole support of testing. this will give them the resou e resources to partner as they have with the federal government, with the president, the vice president, the task force, with brad and i, to achieve their testing goals and we'll be very specific and they know it. there needs to be minimum numbers to be test. they have to have plans for their vulnerable communities, including nursing houses, including those who are disabled, including those who are in prisons. in combine with that, the secretary's office of minorities health will be awarding a large contract to guarantee a national network of state, local, community-based organizations to

ensure those underserved, are linked to is the services they need not only testing but in care as well. with that, i'd like to hand it over to brad smith. he's been the chief operating officer to make all of this come together. brad. >> thank you, admiral. i want to talk about the work we have been doing with the states. so as the admiral mentioned over the past few weeks we've been working with each state to set a target for their testing goal for may. over a series of a couple of different calls, we aligned what those calls were. they add up to 12.9 million tests in the month of may. for every state, this is greater than 2% of their population in the entire state being tested in may and for many states it's a much higher number than that. as you compare this to south

korea, is below 2% for their total test per date for the year. we have set ambition goals. the next slide, as i talked about the last time in press briefing, three parts making sure that a test can happen, the specimen collection supply, machines, third part is the lab supplies that the machines need to run. we want to make sure all states have those three parts. the first part is the specimen collection supply. the commercial market today is providing a large number of these supplies already to states and already to hospitals. but we wanted to ensure that every state had more than what they needed to conduct the number of tests they're aiming in may. we'll be sending more than 12.9 million swabs and over 10 million media over the course of

may. similar in june. in addition, several millions in reserve. the third and fourth week in may, we provide more swabs. in addition to what's already available on the commercial market. the next slide, large numbers have been talked about many times, a large number of testing machines across the country, over 5,000 different machines that can conduct these tests. the key part is, making sure that the machines and the labs have enough supplies to run the machines. in the month of may, commercially produced over 10 million test kits. to be able to support test in their effort -- states in their testing effort. with each state, understand their total goal and each of the manufacturers has been a great partner with us. what we know in the aggregate

the number of test kits the states are getting is greater than their testing goal for the month of may. in addition to what the states have purchased, over 7 million additional tests that remain untested. we feel very confident the states will not only the supplies and the machines but also the extraction kits. if you go to the last slide, the last piece of puzzle is making sure that americans have access to these tests. healthcare providers, hospitals, primary care physicians are already providing these tests today. we for the past six, seven weeks, have been partnering with retailer. today over 250 retail sites. we've been working with the retailers to make sure they're specifically targeting low income and other vulnerable communities across the country. potentially opening up another 1,000 additional sites. we hope we put together the

right pieces of the puzzle. having access points for americans across the country. having the specimen collection supplies, having the machines and also having the lab testing machines. thank you very much. >> thank you very much, brad. maybe you'll both stay there. there could be some questions. >> jon, go ahead. >> we had a situation here at the white house on friday, where a member of the vice president's staff tested positive for coronavirus. which caused three officials in the coronavirus response to self-isolate. where did the system break down to allow that happen? what would you say to employers who look at the experience here at the white house and say, are we ready for this? >> i don't think the system broke down at all. one person tested positive surprisingly because the previous day tested negative. and three people that were in

contact relative contact who i believe they all tested totally negative but they are going to for a period of time self-isolate. it can happen. it's the hidden enemy. remember that. things happen. but the three tested negative, the one who tested positive will be fine. will be absolutely fine. >> john, what do you say to other companies who may look at this and say i don't know if we're all ready? >> we have at of person in the white house, we had one person. lot of people that work here. this building is shocking if you looked at the numbers and it's also tremendous numbers of people coming in normally you wouldn't do that. but because we're running a country we want to keep our country running. we have a lot of people coming in and out. most of those people have tested, depending on what portion of the oval office area they're going in. everyone coming into the

president's office gets tested. i felt no vulnerability whatsoever. the two people as i said, three people are, they have been tested and it's negative and they'll be probably out of quarantine very quickly. >> if i can follow up on that your staff, your senior staff as you just referenced is able to get tested every day, when will be americans across the country will be able to get tested every day as they go back to work in. >> very soon. it's an interesting question because normally you would have said that you are not tested and you would have been knocking us for not getting tested. i like the way your question was phrased this way. it's a positive. we're tested. we have great capability. you look at these machines here, incredible machines, the best anywhere in the world, no place in the world has this kind of equipment other countries are calling, sophisticated countries

are calling. lots of countries. trying to make as much available for them. literally a couple of months, what they've been able to do the private sector, how they got it done, this is a five-minute to 15-minute test. the abbott laboratory's tests, these tests are highly sophisticated. very quick and very good. so we do have great testing capability at the white house. we're doing it and i think generally speaking we had a call with the governors the other day, generally speaking without exception they were all extremely happy with what's going on with respect. >> should people be told go back to work until they have assurance. >> we're leaving that up to the governors. if see something wrong we'll call them out. and stop it.

some of the governors are being not aggressive enough in my opinion. they're being very careful. the people of the country have learned a lot over the last two months. they learned about social distancing and washing your hands and other things that we've all learned and talked about. they've learned -- just everybody has a face mask on. but our country has learned. our country has been incredible. and you see the numbers, they're dropping very substantially. the numbers are dropping around our country very, very substantially. we leave that up to the governors. we have had as i said a great relationship with governors, democrat and republican, they're making very good decisions. nobody in this group. behind the rope.

>> thank you, mr. president. we have made the moment, is mission accomplished with 1.3 million -- >> we prevailed on testing. with regard to testing. . you never prevail when you have 90,000 people, 100,000 people, when you have 80,000 people as of today, when you have the kind of death, potentially millions of people throughout the world that are dying that's not prevailing. what i'm talking about is, we have great testing capacity now. it's getting even better. there's nobody close to us in the world and we certainly have done a great job on testing and testing is a very good important function. by the way, some people consider it more important than others to be honest with you. but testing certainly is a very important function and we have prevailed. we have the best equipment anywhere in the world.

okay, please. yeah. please, go ahead. >> there are a variety of reports that chinese hackers are attempting to steal technology in relation to vaccine research. >> what else is new with china? what else is new? tell me. i'm not happy with china. they should have stopped this at the source. they could have stopped it right at the source. now you're telling me they're hacking. so, i just say this, steve, what else is new? we're watching it very closely. >> if i can follow-up, the beijing newspaper says china would like to reopen negotiations over the trade terms to make the terms more favorable to them. is this something you'd be interested in doing? >> no. i'm not interested. we signed a deal, i had heard that, too, they'd like to reopen the trade deal to make it a better deal for them. china has been taking advantage of the united states for many, many years, for decades, because

we had people at this position right here where i'm standing sitting right in that office, the oval office, that allowed to happen. i'm not interested in that. let's see if they live up to the deal that they signed. okay. please go ahead. >> mr. president, what are your thoughts about a second round of direct payments to americans that's included in the house democratic bill. >> we're talking about that with a lot of different people. way tonight see a payroll tax cut. i want the workers to be taken care of but we're talking about that. we're negotiating with the democrats, we'll see what happens. but as i said, it's a transition and this is really going to be in my opinion, we'll see, but i think it's going to be something that's going to be very special, it's a transition to greatness and greatness is next year. right from the beginning, i think we're going to do

fantastically well. the third quarter a transition quarter. very good but a transition quarter. toward the end of the fourth quarter, you'll see some numbers that are going to be tremendous, i think, and next year you're going to have potentially the ind coo of numbers that you saw before and maybe even better there's that pent-up demand that's, lo to of people wanted to do things, ready to do things, they have had to hold back because of the virus. you'll have with that pent-up demand a phenomenal year next year. unless someone raises taxes, quadrupling taxes the democrats want to do, you'll mess it all up. we had the greatest in the world. it got great for a reason and we'll do it again and we'll do it again very quickly and very easily. e see that happening. >> thank you, mr. president.

almost everyone as you noted in the rose garden is wearing a mask, why haven't you required every at the white house to wear masks before now? >> well, there's a certain distance from me, from each other they do. in the case of me, i'm not close to anybody. i'd like to be close to these gentlemen, they're hardworking, great men. frankly, let's keep it this way, so obviously in my case i'm very far away from everyone. but if you look at owl of those people over there, every one of them from what i see, these are white house staffers, white house representatives, they're white house executives and everyone has a mask on, we've had just everybody i have seen today has worn a mask. >> are you the one who required that, sir in. >> yes. >> mr. president, you're now promising that needs a test will be able to get one at some point soon, can you give some figures what you're changing to ramp up

testing, when will that be a true statement? >> it's a true statement already. we have more testing than any country in the world by far but i'll let admiral go into a little bit of the future. >> when you look at thing numbers that we worked with collaboratively with the state leaderships, not just with the governor but the state's health officers, the public health labs, it's really a combination of testing of those who need something sister diagnosis, the larger fraction is moving into surveillance, testing those who are asymptomatic, and when you do the numbers, this amount of testing on a state to state basis really is in the range that we need to accomplish all of that. certainly within the range that we need.

it really encompasses those three things. as we move into the summer, these are surveillance mechanisms, like a weather radar, just think about that weather radar, the influenza-like illness network, 75% of healthcare institutions and surveillance, if we see a blimp on that weather radar combined with cdc personnel in every single state, contact tracers we run to the fire. you shut off that outbreak right when it starts. >> mr. president, there does seem to be a double standard here, mr. president, where members of your own staff can get tested frequently but ordinary americans cannot, when will the rest of the america have the same access that your own members of the white house have to testing? >> if we didn't get the tests, no tests you'd be complaining, why aren't you getting 's the

testing for the white house? i understand you very well. if we'd get test done, you would be complaining. now that we're doing so well on tests and so quick and so fast, five minutes et ceteras and so accurate, you're complaining we're getting too many tests. go ahead, phil. >> many americans want to return to their normal lives but they are afraid to do so. how can you ensure americans it's safe to go to their own workplaces when the most secure workplace many dun tin the coun white house, has not been able to contain it. >> when you say some, the person got something happened right after a test was done. three other people met that. that is not exactly not controlling it.

i think we are controlled it well. we have hundreds and hundreds of people a day pouring into the white house. it's a massive off complex including the very large building right behind us that you know so well. i think we're doing a good job in watching it and i think it's very well contained. part of the reason it is because of all the testing we're able to give. it was one person and the other people were only people that quarantined. their quarantined for specific reason. the reason is they were in the general proximity of the one person. the one person will be fine in a short period of time. >> why haven't vice president pence followed the cdc guidelines of self-isolation and other people who might have been exposed? >> that i'm going to have to ask, he will give you that information. whatever he is proceeding and doing, he will give you that information. i'll make sure they put out a notice. john, go ahead. >> up until now it's thought the most vulnerable were people

above 60, 70 or 80 and the children were pretty much weren't affected by it. we have been hearing and seeing this terrible syndrome that some 85 children have now. three of them have died. what is the task force talking about in terms of that and what can be done about it? >> we're seeing all over the world with young children. very tine y percentage but it's the swilling and the skin rash. we're looking at that very closely. it's a phenomenon that's been brought to every one's attention a couple of weeks ago. you may have something to say about that. >> thank you for pointing that out. i'm a pediatrician and a pediatric icu doctor. it's been seen in novel coronavirus before and it's associated with illnesses. we have a very strong activation on this. we know treatments for this but

the cdc is interacting with the pediatric intensive care network to create case definitions and understand how this is going and if there's predispositions. the national heart, lung and blood institute. the assistant secretary for p preparedness and response has a team out looking at if there's any special treatments. we know what the basic treatment is. this is a little bit different than we normally see. there really is an basa activat among the branches working with networks at chimpbldren's hospitals. it's a small percentage but it's quite frightening. this reflects the fact that this virus affects the vascular. we see strokes.

>> with this newly merging syndrome among young children, what do you say to parent who is would like to get their children back to school and now looking at this and afraid to do that? >> it's a tiny percentage but you're right. we're looking into it very strongly and the admiral has known about this long before this happened. it's a very, very small percentage. people recover from that. the children recover from that. right? >> yes, sir. most do recover from this. it's a serious and can be a fatal condition. we do want to make sure that parents understand that high fevers, red cashrashes, there a treatments for this. they work very effectively if gotten early for the vast majority of the cases. >> we're studying that closely.

it's been on the radar for weeks. we have seen this for kwiequite while. it's been rare. we're looking at it very closely. it's very important to us. i think one of the things we're most proud of is this just came out. deaths per 100,000 people. death. deaths per 100,000 people. germany and the united states are at the lowest wrung of that ladder meaning low as a positive, not a negative. germany and the united states are the two best in deaths per 100,000 people which, frankly, to me that's perhaps the most important number there is. go in the back, please. >> thank you. thank you, mr. president. i have two questions. one on the coronavirus and ahmaud abrey. the vice president is said to be in a self-isolatinself-isolatins

distance from people. how can you keep me safe? how can reopen the government is if the vice president is self-isolating and why hasn't testing gotten up to the point where every american can get a test. >> he's negative. he tested yesterday and today. he's negative. he's in very good shape. i think that's going to be fine. all americans should be able to get a test now. that's the problem with a question like that. we go through a whole announcement saying we're number one in the world by far, by factor of two and three and four depending on where you're looking and i get a question. when will everybody get tested. if somebody wants to be tested, they will be able to be des tested. the incident, i think it's horrible. it's being looked at by many people. i'm speaking to many people about it. he looked, i saw the picture of

him and his tux. it was so beautiful. he looked like a wonderful young guy. would have been a wonderful -- just a wonderful guy. i think it's a horrible thing. i think it's a horrible thing. with that being said, as you know, they are studying the case very carefully. they are interviewing everybody involved. we'll see what happens. it's a very sad thing. i spoke to a number of people that are very much involved. i've been following that one very closely. it breaks your heart to watch it. the video was a terrible looking video to me. you have a people looking at it. hopefully an answer will be arrived at very quickly. it's something that is heartbreaking. >> i have a question about the case if i could ask it. the specific question is there's possibly things that happened that were not recorded on the tape. could you expound on what you

mean fwha aby that. >> when they moved left outside of the tape, nobody saw what was going on. nobody saw -- it's an empty spot on the tape, i guess. do they have additional tapes, i hope. i will say it's something that based on what i saw doesn't look good. somebody that i have a lot of respect for is senator scott of south carolina. you know who i'm talking about. he's a great gentleman. he's a great senator. he's a great gentleman. tim scott. i called him two days ago. i said, tim, what do you think? tell me. what do you think? he's very disturbed by it. he's very disturbed. i'm very disturbed also. go ahead. >> i have two questions. one on testing and on democratic states that you tweeted about. first, the money for this new testing support today comes from the cares act which you signed into law 42 days ago. did your delay in embracing wide

spread testing have anything to do with the desire to suppress the official number of u.s. cases and deaths as you try to reopen the country? >> no. we just wanted to make sure we had the proper machinery apparatus and everything else out there before people started wasting money. method of saving money. we wanted to make sure we had things like this plus they have machines that are far more complex than this. they have massive machines with some of the laboratories that can do millions of tests. we want to make sure everything was in place. go ahead. >> earlier today you tweeted that democrats are moving slowly for political purposes. why do you believe that their motive is politics rather than public safety and how do you respond to criticism that you're also motivated by politics to try to grow the economy ahead of the election? >> well, i think that if you look at pennsylvania as an example, if you look at various other states, i will get into them. the people want to go back. the numbers are getting to a

point where they can. it just seems to be no effort on certain blue states to get back into gear. the people aren't going to stand for it. they want to get back. they're not going to stand for it. they want our country open. i want our country open too. i want it open safely, but i want it open. don't forget, people are dying the other route. you can go with the enclosed route. everything is closed up. you're in your house, you're not allowed to move. people are dying with that too. you look at drug addiction, suicides and some of the things that are taking place. people are dying that way too. you can make the case it's in even greater numbers. it's a situation that some people and i've noticed that some states could be moving more quickly and also at the same time safety. safety is paramount but people are dying in the lockdown position too. everybody