birx. a couple people up here said i go back a long time with dr. birx. nobody goes back as long as i go with ambassador birx. she was actually a fellow in my program as a trainee and we knew she was a star then, and now what has happened over the years, she's become a superstar. together we saw the first patients with hiv back in the early '80s. we were involved in a vaccine trial that was the first successful trial with hiv. we've known each other -- i've had the privilege and honor among others of putting together the program for president bush and she was the ambassador in charge of the program. i can't tell you how excited i am to finally, once again, get back in being a partner with debbie birx. >> thank you. and finally, dr. bob redfield, cdc. bob? >> thank you, mr. vice president. what i would like to do is just recognize that cdc continues to work and provide support to really the backbone of our public health system in this nation, which is the state, local, tribal and territory health departments. these teams continue to work to identify new ca

birx. >> thank you. thank you, mr. vice president. just as a summary of where it looks domestically, i won't talk so much about the global issues this time. we do have 19 out of our 50 states to be reminded that had early cases, but have persistently low level of cases. and at this point have less than 200 cases. so that's almost 40% of the country with extraordinarily low numbers, and they are testing. some of our governors have been very adamant about their need for test kits. we have gotten them test kits when we had abbott add about a week ago. we've been able to open up additional test kits for states that want to do surveillance and want to do contact tracing. these 19 states are doing still active containment. they're at 200 cases despite the fact that they've been measuring them over the last three to four weeks. still, though, 55% of all cases and 55% of all new cases continue out of the new york metro area. that's the new jersey part and new york part in particular. i haven't adde

birx for her comments. >> good evening. over the last 12 hours, we have been able to receive information both in south korea and italy. and as we thought, the elderly and pre-existing conditions have -- re serious [indiscernible] >> no one has died under 30. this is reassuring and italy was 81. of those who suck omed. those who, we find this data and caused us to focus on the americans who might be most vulnerable and focused on attention and our capacity to ensure that those who have pre-existing conditions have the best prevention and treatment options. it flows right through all of us to ensure that we have good protective hygiene to our clients around the globe. thank you. >> as you heard, because of the risks for our nation's seniors and doubling down on our efforts. we put out three memos, one with hospitals for patients with suspected or coronavirus and put out information to nursing homes about limiting visitors and monitoring staff and put out information to our state surveyors who are going to be surveying our nur

birx and dr. fauci often say, follow the data, bring the president the best options in terms of what is happening on the ground. with regard to yesterday's 15-day slow the spread plan, our team and brought to the president these very strong recommendations for every american. we truly believe we are at a point in this epidemic in our country when we can reduce the number of people that actually are exposed to or contract the coronavirus. we will continue to bring the best data, the best evidence, best recommendations, frankly, the best health experts in the world. the president will continue to make decisions that will put the health of americans first. pres. trump: in other words, reduce the number of people that died. that is what we are trying to do. ve, ayou do the steep cur lot of people will die. the worst ever, 1918, there were unbelievable numbers. and they known, if they had what we had, it would be a different story. still tragic, but different. that is the one that people write about --

birx.round of this global health expert. >> doing a fantastic job and in just a short time. >> reporter: she's the spready experienced hand in this crisis. >> we've been working on models day and night around the globe to predict because some countries in our very early stage like the united states. >> reporter: dr. deborah birx put on by the vice president when he was put in charge of the coronavirus task force. >> she's served in uniform in the united states, served in multiple administrations. she's going to be our right arm. >> reporter: in a time of hyper partisanship and division over the response to covid-19 dr. birx is the rare breed universally respected on both side of the aisle as well as by the medical community. >> i'm a big fan of the deputy that they just appointed deborah birx. she's been running the big aids program for the three administrations. >> reporter: she's a legend in global health making her name over three decades fighting hiv/aids and developing vaccines. dr. an

birx showed. the cluster of other cities that are not new york and not new jersey, if we can suppress that from any kind of a spike, the numbers can be significantly lower than what we talked about. that's the reason my plea at the end of my remarks, now is the time to put your foot on the accelerator because that's the only thing that's going to stop those cases. >> president trump: some of the cities are doing very well at this early stage but between hundred and 200,000, maybe slightly more. >> do we have the next slide after that? >> reporter: would you tell cities that are dave been taking charge and all of this, would you urge cities that haven't been doing this, mr. president, to get with the program? >> president trump: new york is having a much harder time than other cities, if you look down here, they were early, they were very firm and they've done an incredible job. this is new jersey and new york. >> california and washington state were down here. >> reporter: we are seeing places in

birx to speak to it as well. dr. birx: i want to talk about what happened and decreasing barriers. i've been a lab person, been a vaccine developer, been a doctor, been all those things but never in my lifetime of government service have worked with the cdc in a way that every time the state or local government calls and says i have this barrier, i need a modification to the regulations, that has happened almost daily. and the reason we have commercial labs willing to step in immediately is because the fda has created that ability and posted on their website, i don't know if you've been there, this unbelievable waiver system and the clear definitions where every single hospital, every single university can utilize this testing algorithm. that's highly unusual but it's also what is bringing this super large companies to the table. i just -- this has been unique for me to be able to see this unbelievable dialogue between what states need, what local governments need and federal government being responsive with changing those regulations. that has been really wonderful to watch. repor

birx. just to connect what i mentioned in previous discussions in this room, in order to contain and curtail this epidemic to not reach its maximum capability, we have a two-pillar approach, one of which i believe has been very effective in preventing the substantial seeding. travel restrictions we have discussed in this room. the other, equally, if not more important, is when you have infection in your own country, which we do. gavel-to-gavel coverage of the house and take you live to the floor of the house. to make corrections in the engrossment of h.r. 6201. the speaker pro tempore: is there objection to consideration of the resolution? mr. gohmert: i would reserve the right to object. the speaker pro tempore: the the gentleman is recognized is recognized. mr. gohmert: we have rushed this bill to the floor, i would say rush, it had been all day thing thursday and event on friday and most of us were not part of the negotiations. we kept getting different versions of the bill that was goin

birx showed you. the other dynamic force is what we are doing, what we're trying to do and what we will do in the form of mitigation. now these are very revealing bits of data because you saw what happened in italy where you make the turn around the curve and you go. that doesn't happen all at once. it's a stepwise fashion. and if i explain the steps, which i will, you'll see why we are really convinced that mitigation is going to be doing the trick for us. because what you have is you have increase in new cases at a certain rate. when the increase in new cases begin to level off, the secondary effect is less hospitalizations. the next effect is less intensive care. and the next effect is less deaths. the deaths and the intensive care and the hospitalization always lag behind that early indication that there are less new cases per day. the way we saw in italy, and the way we're likely seeing, i don't want to jump the gun on this, we're seeing little inklings of this right now in new york. we've got br

birx, a couple of people said i go back a long time with dr. birx.th ambassador birx. she was actually a fellow in my program as a trainee and we knew she was a star then and now it is happened over the years she is a superstar. together we saw the first patients with hiv back in the early '80s. we were involved a vaccine trial, the first successful trial of hiv. we have known each other through -- i had the privilege and the honor among others of putting the program for president bush and she was the ambassador in charge of the program so i can't tell you how excited i am to finally once again get back in being a partner with debbie birx. >> thank you. >> great. thank you, mr. fauci. finally, dr. bob redfield, cdc. bob? >> thank you, mr. vice president. what i would like to do is just recognize that cdc continues to work and provide support to really the backbone of the public health system in this nation. and these teams continue to work to identify new cases, isolate and contact, trace these to work together to try to limit the transmission of the

birx mentioned. when you look at the infleck shon of the curve, we nowville multiple different countries that have gone through various stages of their individual outbreaks and you could learn something from them about where you are in your own outbreak. for example, when china went up, what happened is they just didn't turn around they went from going through, i'll take an arbitrary number, 500 cases, next day was 1,000 and then 1,500 and then 2,000. once the new cases start to flatten out you get to the point where the infleck shon goes down. he thing that dr. birx mentioned, you don't declare victory but you are on the way where you want to go. and i think that is very important. the third and final thing that i think it gets back to the question that many of you in the audience asked of us, would this be a seasonal cycle thing? i think it very well might. the reason i say that, what we e starting to see now in the southern hemisphere countries is that we are having cases that are appearing as the

birx and the surgeon general, thank you for your time.blic service but also a way to figure out what the facts are thus the reason we came here. you were just saying during the commercial the way you can achieve your objective is how? >> the president made it clear yesterday that we want to open up the country as soon as we can but the key is more americans and tens of millions are are put into practice, the president's coronavirus guidelines. the sooner we will be able to open up. >> what is it? wash her hands, if you are sick, stay home. >> personal hygiene, if you are sick, stay home. it is also avoiding groups of more than ten, avoiding unnecessary travel. don't eat in restaurants during this period of time, use the drive through. these are all the principles that every american can do. they were going to be americans that have different guidance from their state and local officials that are more stringent. we defer to that and we respect that but the more americans that do this, the sooner we will be able as a president said to get b

birx, doing this voluntarily or is the president directing them to do so? >> what has been really remarkable to me is how much manufacturers and the american people have responded. so these are manufacturers coming to us and saying, well, first we went out to 3m, it was really amazing that the vice president thought of going out there, because before we went to the 3m manufacturer, we didn't realize that 90% of our masks made in the united states were for construction workers. so immediately being able to see that and transform that into access for our health care workers were absolutely critical. so we went from 3 million masks to almost 33 million masks overnight. and those are the masks that will be going out to a lot of the health care providers. but i think we're also looking to innovate on sites, as i talked about creating covid wards. if we can get an option where people could self-test then we could really eliminate the amount of personal protective devices needed in the testing arena. we're looking at all these things to be both sparing of our curr

birx and others. the president said he rejected today nancy pelosi's version of the bill because of the special interest items in it. things like more money for the neh, jfk performing arts center that will not stop the coronavirus outbreak has nothing to do with that or help with ventilators. we were here in 2009 with president obama's 800 million-dollar stimulus plan. millions of dollars for green companies that are insolvent. we've been here before. >> i hope the president is able to stick to that pelosi and schumer don't mind the american people suffering. they are willing to let it stretch out a few days, even though a bipartisan process by mitch mcconnell, which 98 senators, 100 senators could look at the product, make sure it is a good product, we have something where schumer around pelosi directly negotiating with mnuchin. we will not have a chance to look at it. you can slip in a sweetheart deal for somebody you know. i much prefer the way the founding fathers set it up, you have bipartisan,

birx, if you could say a couple words. dr. birx: thank you, mr. president. think what you have been hearing from us is to find solutions that are high quality and sustainable based on the frontline workers and governor'' requests. and those come in on the governor's call. we have been immediately responsible to those. that is the level of red tape and bureaucracy that we have removed. the point about sustainability and quality is important because as the president said, we are creating a roadmap for a different level of functionality for future pandemics. our flu pandemic preparedness plan was a plan. now we are seeing where we have to revise, where we have to create new avenues of research and new avenues of work to ensure the need of the american people can be reached. we were adamant about having a high quality test based on our commercial vendors. over the next few months, you will begin to see that other tests that were utilized around the world were not of the same quality, resulting in false positives and potentially false negatives. these tests were

birx, if i could. dr. birx, researchers have had some luck with hydroxychloroquine it is that something that might be in the arsenal of therapeutics in the united states? >> i think we are exploring every one of those issues. the president asked for a critical briefing on that today. he opened with that. it is more than that single drug. there are other drugs that individuals are looking at. just to go back to what we talked about many times, the things that look really good in cell culture in the virus that may look good and small animals and then don't have an impact in humans. those are the pieces we are looking at very carefully. of course there's also anecdotal reports, and we are trying to figure out how many anecdotal reports equal real scientific breakthroughs. >> reporter: second question, are you confident of the seasonality of coronavirus? >> all we can do is look at the past to inform the future. we know what sars looked like. we also know -- and i just want to put this out, i know you can get

birx and dr. fauci explained many times, it's so important that any lab doing testing report back to the cdc and fema to provide the president with the very best counsel. good news on testing. abbott laboratories submitted to the fda a question for approval a point of care test. you could go to your doctor and get the test done there at your doctor. and have the results in no more than 15 minutes. dr. steve hahn will be here tomorrow to talk about that. the fda on the subject of swabs. the fda announced that testing symptomic patients swabbing from the front of the nose is appropriate and it's begun across the country. it allows for self-collection and relieves the burden on healthcare protection and saves personal protective equipment when people can administer the test themselves. and dr. birx will talk about the availability of swabs. with regard to supplies, the president spoke about what we already shipped out from the national stockpile. more than 9 million n95 masks and 6,000 ventilators an

birx showed. the cluster of other cities that are not new york and new jersey, if we can surprise that from any kind of a spike, the numbers could be significantly lower that the numbers we are talking about. >> if people are not following these guidelines. snoot th >> that is my plea to put your foot on the accelerator because that's the only thing that will stop these peaks. [ question inaudible ] >> we would hope we could -- >> could we have the next slide, the slide after that? one more slide. perfect. >> would you tell cities that aren't doing what new york, new jersey, washington, the cities that have been taking charge in all of this, would you urge some of these cities that haven't been doing some of this, mr. president, to get with the program? >> i would. new york is having a much harder time than other of the cities. if you look down here, they were early, very, very firm and have done an incredible job. new jersey, new york -- >> california and washington state were down here and had s

birx?on is everye1 metro area should assume that they could have an outbreak equivalent to new york, and do everything right now to prevent it. if they mitigate now, before they start seeing casesxd inw3 emergency room and in the hospital, once you see those, the virus has been spreading for days toxd weeks. so this is really my call on every mayor toñrÑi prepare now. >> soq it sounds like thesei] w extended at least another couple weeks. is that fair? as americansq are watching, should they be prepared to be ç 0unkering down for the reste1 april? >> my job today is to put all the data together,i] theñ integrated data ofe1 testing, ce reporting, the global situation, for the pr president so they have all the? data took makeq the decision ths best for theÑi american people. >> so are you -- what is your recommendation? what recommendation are you going to be giving to them or are you not sharing that with us? >> i'm going to share it withlp the president and vice president first. >> all righ

birx has said. if there was covert infections here that we didn't know about and we didn't mitigate then, that would have made a difference. if there was virtually nothing there, then there's nothing to mitigate. i don't know the answer to your question. >> we were watching south korea and china and italy and we weren't taking action when those countries were spiking -- >> sure. in a perfect world, it would have been nice to know what was going on there. we didn't, but i believe, jim, that we -- we acted very, very early in that. >> if we had adequate testing, would we have known? >> we would have known the same thing. we inherited. >> can i speak to that, too, as well? president made reference to the fact, january 31, he suspended all travel from china. shortly thereafter, we issued strong travel advisories for the sections of italy implicated and sections of south korea and we reached agreements with those countries to screen all passengers from all airports coming into the united states of americ

birx and dr. fauci spoke about, we want you to know help is on the way and at the president's direction we'll leave no stone unturned anywhere in america or anywhere in the world to make sure that you have the resources and the equipment to do your job. so again, i want to say thank you, america, thank you for stepping up, thank you for putting into practice the 15 days to slow the spread and thank you, for the response of tens of millions have already had for the 30 days to slow the spread. we encourage each one of you as we have governors around the country to spread the word about the guidelines. listen to your state and local authorities in areas that are more greatly impacted. we continue to urge people in the areas of new york, new jersey and connecticut to refrain from travel around the country and people who traveled from that area check your temperature and self-quarantine for 14 days. you can see from that chart the unique challenges people in the greater new york city area are facing, w

ambassador birx is speaking in. i want to listen in. >> we do have 19 out of our 50 states that had early case and have low level cases and have less than 200 cases. that's almost 40% of the country with extraordinarily low numbers. they are testing. some of our governors have been very adamant about their need for test kits. we have gotten them test kits. when we had abbott to to test kits. we have been opening up for states that want to do surveillance and contact tracing. these 19 states are doing still active containment. they're at 200 cases despite the fact they have been measuring them over the last three to four weeks. still, though, 55% of all cases and 55% of all new cases continue out of the new york metro area. that's the new jersey part and new york part, in particular. i haven't added in connecticut or other counties at this point. we are concerned about certain counties that like they are having a more rapid increase. i need to look at wayne county in michigan and cook county in chicago. we can alert

birx said not long ago.keep them safe, you should just conduct yourself, if you have someone in your home that is a senior with an underlying health condition, just act like you have the coronavirus. wash your hands a lot, social distancing, clean services on a regular basis." that's how we protect. >> bill: so many of us have changed our behavior in that short period of time. it was jarring in the beginning. you got your experts, we got some good ones, too. i'll introduce the next panel, a panel of doctors have been with us from the beginning. they've got questions now for the vice president. dr. manette awes, most of the dr. oz show, and dr. siegel, nyu langone medical center paid also fox news contributor. dr. nicole saphier, new york city physician, also fox news contributor. and as i say hello to you all in various places, dr. oz, why don't you start? with your question for the vice president? >> dr. oz: mr. vice president, a malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine, which is basically a malaria pill, and

birx said, this is what you see. there are a number of communities and states would have you out there and they're trickling along like that. don't get complacent like that because that's exactly how the virus works. that's what happened in new orleans in a terrible way with new york. that's what we are trying to avoid. of course they are vulnerable to an explosion. >> mr. president, last question from me. i asked the vice president a week ago and we talked about it last week. you took the test that first time and i heard that and you have to take it again. does it get easier the second time around? >> i think i am waiting for that 45-minute test. no you it is down w it is down . i don't feel any symptoms. have you noticed any sniffles or anything? there was a strong point made originally, i city think it sti holds. take the test if you need it if you have symptoms. i don't have it but i would take it. i just want to say one thing about what tony have mentioned. i grew up in queens, new york, right next to a place ca

birx has been working with suppliers. there is a changed that that has to be attached -- a changed vent that has to be attached, but literally tens of thousands of ventilators will be available because of the survey underway. the other point we want to emphasize, at the direction of the cdc and the coronavirus task force, we are encouraging hospitals and every american to postpone elective surgery. please explain to your citizens that this will have a direct impact on hospital capacity. by suspending elective surgeries, we free up more space in hospital including respirators. dr. birx explained many people aquire respirators because of surgery gone wrong. this frees up more capacity across the board. it is not lost on any of the governors here, by standing up fema, you now have essentially created a structure that every inernor is the milieu with dealing with disasters and emergencies. we have activated all emergency support functions and interagency functions here. all federal run response to states through the national

birx. not surprisingly as we have seen in the past, the american people are all responding to look after not only their health, but their families and their communities. one story after another is truly inspiring to the president and to all of us. it has been a brisk few days. the president declared a national emergency yesterday freeing up a get federal resources for state and local authorities as well as our national response. the president announced that unprecedented partnership on testing. at 5:00 tomorrow, we will be detailing the progress that our team is making. they are literally working around-the-clock with private companies. we are pleased that fischer was approved in record time. also providing a high through-put test that will actually increase the capacity of this partnership. details on that in terms of when the local sites will be available at cvs and walgreens and walmart and other locations. what communities they will be available in, when the website will go online as we

birx, but doctor birx said the millenials will lead us through this, and now the time to look out for older people in our home. older might be a state of mind. not necessarily be of age. for millenials who have parents in their 50s, 60s, 70s, what is older? what should we tell them at this point? >> well, if i was dr. fauci, i would tell you there is physiologic age and a numerical age. so older people with preexisting conditions, on, what do we mind by this? significant heart disease, significant kidney disease, significant lung disease, any immunosuppression, any recent treatment for cancer, any of those pieces and in any household. why do i think millenials are the key? they are the ones out and apout. they're the most likely to be in social gatterrings. we're protect the greatest generation right now and the children of the greatest generation. i think the millenials can help us tremendously by having, they need to communicate with each other. public health people like myself don't always come out with compelling and exciting messages that a 25 to 35-year-old may find interesting

birx, if i could. dr. birx, french researchers have had some luck with hydroxy in shorting the deterioration of the disease. is that something in the arsenal here in the united states? >> we are exploring all of those issues. the president asked for a critical briefing on that today. he opened with that. it is more than that single drug. there are other drugs that individuals are looking at. just to go back to what we talked about many times, there is things that look really good in cell culture against the virus that may look good in small animals and then don't have an impact in humans. and so those are the pieces we are looking at a very carefully. of course, there is always anecdotal reports, and we are trying to figure out how many of those reports equal real scientific breakthrough. >> and second question are you , confident of the seasonality of the coronavirus? birx: all the can do is look at the past to inform the future. we know what sars looked like. i know you can get this online, but look at t

birx or dr.auci are telling you, we need to continue these measures for the health of the population in the country, i'm sorry, the economy is important? >> president trump: i understand the question very well. it is a great question, but we can do two things at one time. i will say this, our country has learned a lot. we learned about social distancing. we learned about the hands. we learned about staying away, at least during the time that this is even a little bit around this disease or whatever you want to call it. many different names. you can call it many different names. but the virus while it is around, we can start thinking about as an example, parts of the country are very lightly affected. very useful numbers, and you look at the state and great governor pete in nebraska, and you look at numbers they have out there, one of the great hospitals there is what we are talking about. but you look at nebraska. you look at idaho. you look at -- i can name many countries that are handling it ve

birx: thank you, mr. vice president and dr. fauci. we continue to monitor the situation across the country and across the globe and we are fortunate that we have long-term contacts out there in these countries that are experiencing outbreaks. we continue to look at the scientific literature to look for insights to determine who is at the greatest risk. that's why we have talked to you about people with immuneo deficiencies and the elderly and how important it is to take these precautions in the household to protect others. because we have circulating flu and other respiratory diseases at this time. we have to act like all of those diseases can be transmitted to others. as we said yesterday, we are hoping this decreases. we got new reports out of china. they had nine pregnant women entering an acute covid-19 infection, and all nine were infected and delivered and all nine babies were healthy. we continue to look for data like that to be reassuring to the american people, at the same time ensuring that everyone is responding to the viru

birx showed you. dynamic force is what we are doing, what we are trying to do and what we will do in the form of mitigation. now, these are very revealing bits of data because you saw what happened in italy where you make the turn around the curve and you go. that does not happen all at once. if i explained the steps, which i will, you will see why we are really convinced that mitigation is going to be doing the trick for us. because what you have is you have increased in new cases at a certain rate. the increase in new cases begins to level off, the secondary effect is less hospitalizations. the next effect is less intensive care. and the next effect is less deaths. the deaths and the intensive care and they hospitalizations always lag behind that early indication that there are less new cases predict. the way we saw in italy. and what we are likely seeing, don't want to jump the gun on it, we are seeing little inklings of this new york. what we are going to see -- we have to brace ourselves. in the

birx? >> what i wanted to be very clear on is every metro area should assume that they could have an outbreak equivalent to new york and do everything right now to prevent it. if they mitigate now before they start seeing cases in the emergency room and in the hospital, once you see those, the virus has been spreading for days to weeks. so this is really my call on every mayor to prepare now. >> so it sounds like these guidelines are going to be extended at least another couple of weeks. is that fair? as americans are watching, should they be prepared to be hunkering down for the rest of april? >> my job today is to put all the data together, the integrated data of testing, case reporting, the global situation, and prepare the best briefing i can for the president and vice president so they have all the data to make the decision that's best for the american people. >> so are you going to -- what is your recommendation? what recommendation are you going to be giving to them, or are you not s

birx. dr. birx: thank you, mr. vice president. this is where it looks domestically and won't talk so much about the global issues. we have 19 out of our 50 states to be reminded that had early cases but low level of cases and have less than 200 cases. that's almost 40% of the country with croordly low numbers and they are testing. some of our governors have been very adamant about their need for test kits. we have gotten them test kits and added and boat on the test kits and opened up additional test kits for states who want to do contract testing. these 19 states are still active containment. there are 200 cases despite the fact they have been measuring over the last three to four weeks. 55% of all cases and 55% of all new cases continue out of the new york metro area. that's the new jersey part and new york part in particular. haven't added in connecticut or other counties at this point. we are concerned about certain counties that look like they are having a more rapid increase. when you look at wayne county in michigan and coo

birx and dr.auci, they are the best we have in the face of his pandemic and i think we need to follow their advice. >> martha: we'll see the other phases of this that are coming. are we going to see $3 trillion, $4 trillion in relief here over the course of these other phases before i let you go, senator? >> we have to look wait and see what happens. i've sent the senate home until april 20th. we can call everyone back if there is a need to act again. but you know, the virus invaded the senate. at the end, w we had three membs out who were in quarantine as we voted last night. it was time having finished the job for us to follow the insurance instructions committal the health care professionals have been giving all of their americans. >> martha: senator mcconnell, thank you so much for being here. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> martha: joining me now, juan williams, cohost of th "the five." good to have you here tonight. i know you had a heated discussion about this package and who it serve

birx willoments, dr. explain the data that formed the basis for our decision to extend the guidelines and a dr. fauci will explain why it is absolutely critical for the american people to follow the guidelines for the next 30 days. it is a matter of life and death. it is a matter of life and death. i numerous citizens will rise to the occasion. they already have sacrificed a lot. we have the greatest economy in the history of our country, we have the greatest economy in the world. we have the best unemployment numbers and employment numbers we have ever had by far. instant, lee said, we have no choice but to close it up. just as americans have always done, they will do a job like few have seen before, and they are proud to do it. there is a great pride going on right now. before we hear from our experts, we have other announcements. today, the treasury department and small business administration announced further details on the protection program, which was made possible by the $2 trillion really build t

birx. to connect to what i mentioned with you in previous discussions in this room, and dr. birx said it very well. in order to contain and curtail this epidemic to not reach its capability, we have a two pillar approach, one of which i believe has been very effective in preventing the substantial seeding and the travel restrictions we've discussed in this room. the other equally if not more important is when you have infection in your own country, which we do, and you know, there really is essentially what we have seen yesterday incremental increasing as well as globally and the united states with a curve doing that. so therefore the kinds of things we do are containment and mitigation. what we're mentioning now, the guidelines when you look at them carefullyly. i believe if the people in the united states takes them seriously because they were based on some rather serious consideration back and forth, some may look at them and say they're going to be really inconvenient to people. some wi

birx said. getting into difficulties is very heavily avoided with people with underlying conditions and people with the elderly. the young people, and there will be an exception here and there the same weight you see with influenza. but the risk for a young person to get into trouble is really low paste on a lot of data that is coming out of foreign countries, particularly out of china. >> great, thank you doctor. >> dr dr. ohmic >> i want to thk the vice president and president for careful leadership. i was involved throughout my surgical career with very complex cases. and to help a lot of renowned physicians, but i must say the people on this task force extremely impressive. they have been considering all of the various different possibilities, outlining scenarios for all the possibilities that can occur. and it is very comforting and recognizing that the risk to healthy adult still remains quite low, largely because of the aggressive actions that have been taken and are continuing to be take

birx? dr. birx: that is perfectly said. to review one more time, with , many of youquest have seen the boxes outside. what they do is deliver both the specimen collection piece -- it is a nasal swab. it is not a tube of blood. they have delivered that to doctors offices and hospitals and they can arrange to pick that up. i have gone from a machine -- they have gone from a machine that may have a lower throughput to the potential to have automated extraction. it is key for the laboratory people. it is automated extraction of the rna that runs in an automated way on the machine with no one touching it and the most -- the result comes out the other end. a lot of the manual pieces that were happening, that were delaying the test results. >> so what is the timeline like? dr. birx: with prior testing it was taking several days because the test is slower. we believe with this test because of its throughput that the testing can be from start -- it has to transport, to the laboratory that will run it. then we are hoping it can be fi

birx.ou know, the home tests, is there a place where people check a box and say i'm positive or not? how are you going to keep up with people to test themselves and you need that information, dr. birx, to know where the clusters are in the country. >> great. it's not a home test, is a self test but what do i mean by that? i mean the individual can drive up, receive the item because, again, we want to test people with fever and symptoms that really need to be tested. they can sell swab the front of their nose. put it in the container. and the person can collect it with gloves, gloves alone with a biohazard bag and get it in. i want to speak to americans for just a second, though. we have to make sure we are still testing -- even though probably by today we would've done more test than south korea did in eight weeks in the last eco-days. in the last aco days, we've done more testing than south korea. but we did that because we've transformed the testing process as the president spoke to. we d

birx. >> dr. debbie birx and i went into the oval office and leaned over the desk and said, here are the data, take a look. he looked at the data, he understood them. he shook his head and said, i guess we're going to have to do it. >> reporter: the deaths are projected to skyrocket to at least 100,000. >> if we do things well, almost perfectly, we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities. >> reporter: but the president is still making excuses, suggesting that hospitals are hoarding crucial medical supplies without offering any evidence. >> where are the masks going? are they going out the back door? how do you go from 10,000 to 300,000? and we have that in a lot of different places. so somebody should probably look into that because i just don't see from a practical standpoint how that's possible to go from that to that. >> reporter: that's leaving officials in new york puzzled. >> i don't know what that means, i don't know what he's trying to say. if he wants to make an acc

birx. >> yeah. >> if i could. dr. birx, french researchers have had luck with hydroxy in shortening the duration of the disease. is that something that might be in the arsenal of therapeutics here in the united states? >> i think we are exploring every one of those issues. the president asked for a critical briefing on that today. he opened with that. it is more than that single drug. there are other drugs that individuals are looking at. just to go back to what we've talked about many times, there is things that look really good in cell culture against the virus, that may look good in small animals and then don't have an impact in humans. and so, those are the pieces that we're looking at very carefully. of course, there's also antidotal reports and we're trying to figure out how many of those reports equal scientific breakthroughs. >> and second question, are you confident of the seasonality of coronavirus? >> all we can do is look at the past to inform the future. we know what sars looked like. we also know, and i