How the Pandemic Will End

The U.S. may end up with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the industrialized world. This is how it’s going to play out.

Three months ago, no one knew that SARS-CoV-2 existed. Now the virus has spread to almost every country, infecting at least 446,000 people whom we know about, and many more whom we do not. It has crashed economies and broken health-care systems, filled hospitals and emptied public spaces. It has separated people from their workplaces and their friends. It has disrupted modern society on a scale that most living people have never witnessed. Soon, most everyone in the United States will know someone who has been infected. Like World War II or the 9/11 attacks, this pandemic has already imprinted itself upon the nation’s psyche.

A global pandemic of this scale was inevitable. In recent years, hundreds of health experts have written books, white papers, and op-eds warning of the possibility. Bill Gates has been telling anyone who would listen, including the 18 million viewers of his TED Talk. In 2018, I wrote a story for The Atlantic arguing that America was not ready for the pandemic that would eventually come. In October, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security war-gamed what might happen if a new coronavirus swept the globe. And then one did. Hypotheticals became reality. “What if?” became “Now what?”

So, now what? In the late hours of last Wednesday, which now feels like the distant past, I was talking about the pandemic with a pregnant friend who was days away from her due date. We realized that her child might be one of the first of a new cohort who are born into a society profoundly altered by COVID-19. We decided to call them Generation C.As we’ll see, Gen C’s lives will be shaped by the choices made in the coming weeks, and by the losses we suffer as a result. But first, a brief reckoning. On the Global Health Security Index, a report card that grades every country on its pandemic preparedness, the United States has a score of 83.5—the world’s highest. Rich, strong, developed, America is supposed to be the readiest of nations. That illusion has been shattered. Despite months of advance warning as the virus spread in other countries, when America was finally tested by COVID-19, it failed.

“No matter what, a virus [like SARS-CoV-2] was going to test the resilience of even the most well-equipped health systems,” says Nahid Bhadelia, an infectious-diseases physician at the Boston University School of Medicine. More transmissible and fatal than seasonal influenza, the new coronavirus is also stealthier, spreading from one host to another for several days before triggering obvious symptoms. To contain such a pathogen, nations must develop a test and use it to identify infected people, isolate them, and trace those they’ve had contact with. That is what South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong did to tremendous effect. It is what the United States did not.

As my colleagues Alexis Madrigal and Robinson Meyer have reported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed and distributed a faulty test in February. Independent labs created alternatives, but were mired in bureaucracy from the FDA. In a crucial month when the American caseload shot into the tens of thousands, only hundreds of people were tested. That a biomedical powerhouse like the U.S. should so thoroughly fail to create a very simple diagnostic test was, quite literally, unimaginable. “I’m not aware of any simulations that I or others have run where we [considered] a failure of testing,” says Alexandra Phelan of Georgetown University, who works on legal and policy issues related to infectious diseases.

The testing fiasco was the original sin of America’s pandemic failure, the single flaw that undermined every other countermeasure. If the country could have accurately tracked the spread of the virus, hospitals could have executed their pandemic plans, girding themselves by allocating treatment rooms, ordering extra supplies, tagging in personnel, or assigning specific facilities to deal with COVID-19 cases. None of that happened. Instead, a health-care system that already runs close to full capacity, and that was already challenged by a severe flu season, was suddenly faced with a virus that had been left to spread, untracked, through communities around the country. Overstretched hospitals became overwhelmed. Basic protective equipment, such as masks, gowns, and gloves, began to run out. Beds will soon follow, as will the ventilators that provide oxygen to patients whose lungs are besieged by the virus.

With little room to surge during a crisis, America’s health-care system operates on the assumption that unaffected states can help beleaguered ones in an emergency. That ethic works for localized disasters such as hurricanes or wildfires, but not for a pandemic that is now in all 50 states. Cooperation has given way to competition; some worried hospitals have bought out large quantities of supplies, in the way that panicked consumers have bought out toilet paper.Partly, that’s because the White House is a ghost town of scientific expertise. A pandemic-preparedness office that was part of the National Security Council was dissolved in 2018. On January 28, Luciana Borio, who was part of that team, urged the government to “act now to prevent an American epidemic,” and specifically to work with the private sector to develop fast, easy diagnostic tests. But with the office shuttered, those warnings were published in The Wall Street Journal, rather than spoken into the president’s ear. Instead of springing into action, America sat idle.

Rudderless, blindsided, lethargic, and uncoordinated, America has mishandled the COVID-19 crisis to a substantially worse degree than what every health expert I’ve spoken with had feared. “Much worse,” said Ron Klain, who coordinated the U.S. response to the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014. “Beyond any expectations we had,” said Lauren Sauer, who works on disaster preparedness at Johns Hopkins Medicine. “As an American, I’m horrified,” said Seth Berkley, who heads Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “The U.S. may end up with the worst outbreak in the industrialized world.”

I. The Next Months

Having fallen behind, it will be difficult—but not impossible—for the United States to catch up. To an extent, the near-term future is set because COVID-19 is a slow and long illness. People who were infected several days ago will only start showing symptoms now, even if they isolated themselves in the meantime. Some of those people will enter intensive-care units in early April. As of last weekend, the nation had 17,000 confirmed cases, but the actual number was probably somewhere between 60,000 and 245,000. Numbers are now starting to rise exponentially: As of Wednesday morning, the official case count was 54,000, and the actual case count is unknown. Health-care workers are already seeing worrying signs: dwindling equipment, growing numbers of patients, and doctors and nurses who are themselves becoming infected.

Italy and Spain offer grim warnings about the future. Hospitals are out of room, supplies, and staff. Unable to treat or save everyone, doctors have been forced into the unthinkable: rationing care to patients who are most likely to survive, while letting others die. The U.S. has fewer hospital beds per capita than Italy. A study released by a team at Imperial College London concluded that if the pandemic is left unchecked, those beds will all be full by late April. By the end of June, for every available critical-care bed, there will be roughly 15 COVID-19 patients in need of one.  By the end of the summer, the pandemic will have directly killed 2.2 million Americans, notwithstanding those who will indirectly die as hospitals are unable to care for the usual slew of heart attacks, strokes, and car accidents. This is the worst-case scenario. To avert it, four things need to happen—and quickly.

The first and most important is to rapidly produce masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment. If health-care workers can’t stay healthy, the rest of the response will collapse. In some places, stockpiles are already so low that doctors are reusing masks between patients, calling for donations from the public, or sewing their own homemade alternatives. These shortages are happening because medical supplies are made-to-order and depend on byzantine international supply chains that are currently straining and snapping. Hubei province in China, the epicenter of the pandemic, was also a manufacturing center of medical masks.In the U.S., the Strategic National Stockpile—a national larder of medical equipment—is already being deployed, especially to the hardest-hit states. The stockpile is not inexhaustible, but it can buy some time. Donald Trump could use that time to invoke the Defense Production Act, launching a wartime effort in which American manufacturers switch to making medical equipment. But after invoking the act last Wednesday, Trump has failed to actually use it, reportedly due to lobbying from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and heads of major corporations.

Some manufacturers are already rising to the challenge, but their efforts are piecemeal and unevenly distributed. “One day, we’ll wake up to a story of doctors in City X who are operating with bandanas, and a closet in City Y with masks piled into it,” says Ali Khan, the dean of public health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. A “massive logistics and supply-chain operation [is] now needed across the country,” says Thomas Inglesby of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. That can’t be managed by small and inexperienced teams scattered throughout the White House. The solution, he says, is to tag in the Defense Logistics Agency—a 26,000-person group that prepares the U.S. military for overseas operations and that has assisted in past public-health crises, including the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

This agency can also coordinate the second pressing need: a massive rollout of COVID-19 tests. Those tests have been slow to arrive because of five separate shortages: of
  1. masks to protect people administering the tests; of
  2. nasopharyngeal swabs for collecting viral samples; of
  3. extraction kits for pulling the virus’s genetic material out of the samples; of
  4. chemical reagents that are part of those kits; and of
  5. trained people who can give the tests.

Many of these shortages are, again, due to strained supply chains. The U.S. relies on three manufacturers for extraction reagents, providing redundancy in case any of them fails—but all of them failed in the face of unprecedented global demand. Meanwhile, Lombardy, Italy, the hardest-hit place in Europe, houses one of the largest manufacturers of nasopharyngeal swabs.

Some shortages are being addressed. The FDA is now moving quickly to approve tests developed by private labs. At least one can deliver results in less than an hour, potentially allowing doctors to know if the patient in front of them has COVID-19. The country “is adding capacity on a daily basis,” says Kelly Wroblewski of the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

On March 6, Trump said that “anyone who wants a test can get a test.” That was (and still is) untrue, and his own officials were quick to correct him. Regardless, anxious people still flooded into hospitals, seeking tests that did not exist. “People wanted to be tested even if they weren’t symptomatic, or if they sat next to someone with a cough,” says Saskia Popescu of George Mason University, who works to prepare hospitals for pandemics. Others just had colds, but doctors still had to use masks to examine them, burning through their already dwindling supplies. “It really stressed the health-care system,” Popescu says. Even now, as capacity expands, tests must be used carefully. The first priority, says Marc Lipsitch of Harvard, is to test health-care workers and hospitalized patients, allowing hospitals to quell any ongoing fires. Only later, once the immediate crisis is slowing, should tests be deployed in a more widespread way. “This isn’t just going to be: Let’s get the tests out there!” Inglesby says.

These measures will take time, during which the pandemic will either accelerate beyond the capacity of the health system or slow to containable levels. Its course—and the nation’s fate—now depends on the third need, which is social distancing. Think of it this way: There are now only two groups of Americans. Group A includes everyone involved in the medical response, whether that’s treating patients, running tests, or manufacturing supplies. Group B includes everyone else, and their job is to buy Group A more time. Group B must now “flatten the curve” by physically isolating themselves from other people to cut off chains of transmission. Given the slow fuse of COVID-19, to forestall the future collapse of the health-care system, these seemingly drastic steps must be taken immediately, before they feel proportionate, and they must continue for several weeks.Persuading a country to voluntarily stay at home is not easy, and without clear guidelines from the White House, mayors, governors, and business owners have been forced to take their own steps. Some states have banned large gatherings or closed schools and restaurants. At least 21 have now instituted some form of mandatory quarantine, compelling people to stay at home. And yet many citizens continue to crowd into public spaces.

In these moments, when the good of all hinges on the sacrifices of many, clear coordination matters—the fourth urgent need. The importance of social distancing must be impressed upon a public who must also be reassured and informed. Instead, Trump has repeatedly played down the problem, telling America that “we have it very well under control” when we do not, and that cases were “going to be down to close to zero” when they were rising. In some cases, as with his claims about ubiquitous testing, his misleading gaffes have deepened the crisis. He has even touted unproven medications.

Away from the White House press room, Trump has apparently been listening to Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci has advised every president since Ronald Reagan on new epidemics, and now sits on the COVID-19 task force that meets with Trump roughly every other day. “He’s got his own style, let’s leave it at that,” Fauci told me, “but any kind of recommendation that I have made thus far, the substance of it, he has listened to everything.”But Trump already seems to be wavering. In recent days, he has signaled that he is prepared to backtrack on social-distancing policies in a bid to protect the economy. Pundits and business leaders have used similar rhetoric, arguing that high-risk people, such as the elderly, could be protected while lower-risk people are allowed to go back to work. Such thinking is seductive, but flawed. It overestimates our ability to assess a person’s risk, and to somehow wall off the ‘high-risk’ people from the rest of society. It underestimates how badly the virus can hit ‘low-risk’ groups, and how thoroughly hospitals will be overwhelmed if even just younger demographics are falling sick.

A recent analysis from the University of Pennsylvania estimated that even if social-distancing measures can reduce infection rates by 95 percent, 960,000 Americans will still need intensive care. There are only about 180,000 ventilators in the U.S. and, more pertinently, only enough respiratory therapists and critical-care staff to safely look after 100,000 ventilated patients. Abandoning social distancing would be foolish. Abandoning it now, when tests and protective equipment are still scarce, would be catastrophic.

If Trump stays the course, if Americans adhere to social distancing, if testing can be rolled out, and if enough masks can be produced, there is a chance that the country can still avert the worst predictions about COVID-19, and at least temporarily bring the pandemic under control. No one knows how long that will take, but it won’t be quick. “It could be anywhere from four to six weeks to up to three months,” Fauci said, “but I don’t have great confidence in that range.”

II. The Endgame

Even a perfect response won’t end the pandemic. As long as the virus persists somewhere, there’s a chance that one infected traveler will reignite fresh sparks in countries that have already extinguished their fires. This is already happening in China, Singapore, and other Asian countries that briefly seemed to have the virus under control. Under these conditions, there are three possible endgames: one that’s very unlikely, one that’s very dangerous, and one that’s very long.

  1. The first is that every nation manages to simultaneously bring the virus to heel, as with the original SARS in 2003. Given how widespread the coronavirus pandemic is, and how badly many countries are faring, the odds of worldwide synchronous control seem vanishingly small.
  2. The second is that the virus does what past flu pandemics have done: It burns through the world and leaves behind enough immune survivors that it eventually struggles to find viable hosts. This “herd immunity” scenario would be quick, and thus tempting. But it would also come at a terrible cost: SARS-CoV-2 is more transmissible and fatal than the flu, and it would likely leave behind many millions of corpses and a trail of devastated health systems. The United Kingdom initially seemed to consider this herd-immunity strategy, before backtracking when models revealed the dire consequences. The U.S. now seems to be considering it too.
  3. The third scenario is that the world plays a protracted game of whack-a-mole with the virus, stamping out outbreaks here and there until a vaccine can be produced. This is the best option, but also the longest and most complicated.
It depends, for a start, on making a vaccine. If this were a flu pandemic, that would be easier. The world is experienced at making flu vaccines and does so every year. But there are no existing vaccines for coronaviruses—until now, these viruses seemed to cause diseases that were mild or rare—so researchers must start from scratch. The first steps have been impressively quick. Last Monday, a possible vaccine created by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health went into early clinical testing. That marks a 63-day gap between scientists sequencing the virus’s genes for the first time and doctors injecting a vaccine candidate into a person’s arm. “It’s overwhelmingly the world record,” Fauci said.

But it’s also the fastest step among many subsequent slow ones. The initial trial will simply tell researchers if the vaccine seems safe, and if it can actually mobilize the immune system. Researchers will then need to check that it actually prevents infection from SARS-CoV-2. They’ll need to do animal tests and large-scale trials to ensure that the vaccine doesn’t cause severe side effects. They’ll need to work out what dose is required, how many shots people need, if the vaccine works in elderly people, and if it requires other chemicals to boost its effectiveness.

“Even if it works, they don’t have an easy way to manufacture it at a massive scale,” said Seth Berkley of Gavi. That’s because Moderna is using a new approach to vaccination. Existing vaccines work by providing the body with inactivated or fragmented viruses, allowing the immune system to prep its defenses ahead of time. By contrast, Moderna’s vaccine comprises a sliver of SARS-CoV-2’s genetic material—its RNA. The idea is that the body can use this sliver to build its own viral fragments, which would then form the basis of the immune system’s preparations. This approach works in animals, but is unproven in humans. By contrast, French scientists are trying to modify the existing measles vaccine using fragments of the new coronavirus. “The advantage of that is that if we needed hundreds of doses tomorrow, a lot of plants in the world know how to do it,” Berkley said. No matter which strategy is faster, Berkley and others estimate that it will take 12 to 18 months to develop a proven vaccine, and then longer still to make it, ship it, and inject it into people’s arms.It’s likely, then, that the new coronavirus will be a lingering part of American life for at least a year, if not much longer. If the current round of social-distancing measures works, the pandemic may ebb enough for things to return to a semblance of normalcy. Offices could fill and bars could bustle. Schools could reopen and friends could reunite. But as the status quo returns, so too will the virus. This doesn’t mean that society must be on continuous lockdown until 2022. But “we need to be prepared to do multiple periods of social distancing,” says Stephen Kissler of Harvard.
Much about the coming years, including the frequency, duration, and timing of social upheavals, depends on two properties of the virus, both of which are currently unknown.
  1. First: seasonality. Coronaviruses tend to be winter infections that wane or disappear in the summer. That may also be true for SARS-CoV-2, but seasonal variations might not sufficiently slow the virus when it has so many immunologically naive hosts to infect. “Much of the world is waiting anxiously to see what—if anything—the summer does to transmission in the Northern Hemisphere,” says Maia Majumder of Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital.
  2. Second: duration of immunity. When people are infected by the milder human coronaviruses that cause cold-like symptoms, they remain immune for less than a year. By contrast, the few who were infected by the original SARS virus, which was far more severe, stayed immune for much longer. Assuming that SARS-CoV-2 lies somewhere in the middle, people who recover from their encounters might be protected for a couple of years. To confirm that, scientists will need to develop accurate serological tests, which look for the antibodies that confer immunity. They’ll also need to confirm that such antibodies actually stop people from catching or spreading the virus. If so, immune citizens can return to work, care for the vulnerable, and anchor the economy during bouts of social distancing.
Scientists can use the periods between those bouts to develop antiviral drugs—although such drugs are rarely panaceas, and come with possible side effects and the risk of resistance. Hospitals can stockpile the necessary supplies. Testing kits can be widely distributed to catch the virus’s return as quickly as possible. There’s no reason that the U.S. should let SARS-CoV-2 catch it unawares again, and thus no reason that social-distancing measures need to be deployed as broadly and heavy-handedly as they now must be. As Aaron E. Carroll and Ashish Jha recently wrote, “We can keep schools and businesses open as much as possible, closing them quickly when suppression fails, then opening them back up again once the infected are identified and isolated. Instead of playing defense, we could play more offense.”Whether through accumulating herd immunity or the long-awaited arrival of a vaccine, the virus will find spreading explosively more and more difficult. It’s unlikely to disappear entirely. The vaccine may need to be updated as the virus changes, and people may need to get revaccinated on a regular basis, as they currently do for the flu. Models suggest that the virus might simmer around the world, triggering epidemics every few years or so. “But my hope and expectation is that the severity would decline, and there would be less societal upheaval,” Kissler says. In this future, COVID-19 may become like the flu is today—a recurring scourge of winter. Perhaps it will eventually become so mundane that even though a vaccine exists, large swaths of Gen C won’t bother getting it, forgetting how dramatically their world was molded by its absence.

III. The Aftermath

The cost of reaching that point, with as few deaths as possible, will be enormous. As my colleague Annie Lowrey wrote, the economy is experiencing a shock “more sudden and severe than anyone alive has ever experienced.” About one in five people in the United States have lost working hours or jobs. Hotels are empty. Airlines are grounding flights. Restaurants and other small businesses are closing. Inequalities will widen: People with low incomes will be hardest-hit by social-distancing measures, and most likely to have the chronic health conditions that increase their risk of severe infections. Diseases have destabilized cities and societies many times over, “but it hasn’t happened in this country in a very long time, or to quite the extent that we’re seeing now,” says Elena Conis, a historian of medicine at UC Berkeley. “We’re far more urban and metropolitan. We have more people traveling great distances and living far from family and work.”

After infections begin ebbing, a secondary pandemic of mental-health problems will follow. At a moment of profound dread and uncertainty, people are being cut off from soothing human contact. Hugs, handshakes, and other social rituals are now tinged with danger. People with anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder are struggling. Elderly people, who are already excluded from much of public life, are being asked to distance themselves even further, deepening their loneliness. Asian people are suffering racist insults, fueled by a president who insists on labeling the new coronavirus the “Chinese virus.” Incidents of domestic violence and child abuse are likely to spike as people are forced to stay in unsafe homes. Children, whose bodies are mostly spared by the virus, may endure mental trauma that stays with them into adulthood.

After the pandemic, people who recover from COVID-19 might be shunned and stigmatized, as were survivors of Ebola, SARS, and HIV. Health-care workers will take time to heal: One to two years after SARS hit Toronto, people who dealt with the outbreak were still less productive and more likely to be experiencing burnout and post-traumatic stress. People who went through long bouts of quarantine will carry the scars of their experience. “My colleagues in Wuhan note that some people there now refuse to leave their homes and have developed agoraphobia,” says Steven Taylor of the University of British Columbia, who wrote The Psychology of Pandemics.

But “there is also the potential for a much better world after we get through this trauma,” says Richard Danzig of the Center for a New American Security. Already, communities are finding new ways of coming together, even as they must stay apart. Attitudes to health may also change for the better. The rise of HIV and AIDS “completely changed sexual behavior among young people who were coming into sexual maturity at the height of the epidemic,” Conis says. “The use of condoms became normalized. Testing for STDs became mainstream.” Similarly, washing your hands for 20 seconds, a habit that has historically been hard to enshrine even in hospitals, “may be one of those behaviors that we become so accustomed to in the course of this outbreak that we don’t think about them,” Conis adds.

Pandemics can also catalyze social change. People, businesses, and institutions have been remarkably quick to adopt or call for practices that they might once have dragged their heels on, including working from home, conference-calling to accommodate people with disabilities, proper sick leave, and flexible child-care arrangements. “This is the first time in my lifetime that I’ve heard someone say, ‘Oh, if you’re sick, stay home,’” says Adia Benton, an anthropologist at Northwestern University. Perhaps the nation will learn that preparedness isn’t just about masks, vaccines, and tests, but also about fair labor policies and a stable and equal health-care system. Perhaps it will appreciate that health-care workers and public-health specialists compose America’s social immune system, and that this system has been suppressed.Aspects of America’s identity may need rethinking after COVID-19. Many of the country’s values have seemed to work against it during the pandemic. Its individualism, exceptionalism, and tendency to equate doing whatever you want with an act of resistance meant that when it came time to save lives and stay indoors, some people flocked to bars and clubs. Having internalized years of anti-terrorism messaging following 9/11, Americans resolved to not live in fear. But SARS-CoV-2 has no interest in their terror, only their cells.

Years of isolationist rhetoric had consequences too. Citizens who saw China as a distant, different place, where bats are edible and authoritarianism is acceptable, failed to consider that they would be next or that they wouldn’t be ready. (China’s response to this crisis had its own problems, but that’s for another time.) “People believed the rhetoric that containment would work,” says Wendy Parmet, who studies law and public health at Northeastern University. “We keep them out, and we’ll be okay. When you have a body politic that buys into these ideas of isolationism and ethnonationalism, you’re especially vulnerable when a pandemic hits.”

Veterans of past epidemics have long warned that American society is trapped in a cycle of panic and neglect. After every crisis—anthrax, SARS, flu, Ebola—attention is paid and investments are made. But after short periods of peacetime, memories fade and budgets dwindle. This trend transcends red and blue administrations. When a new normal sets in, the abnormal once again becomes unimaginable. But there is reason to think that COVID-19 might be a disaster that leads to more radical and lasting change.

The other major epidemics of recent decades either barely affected the U.S. (SARS, MERS, Ebola), were milder than expected (H1N1 flu in 2009), or were mostly limited to specific groups of people (Zika, HIV). The COVID-19 pandemic, by contrast, is affecting everyone directly, changing the nature of their everyday life. That distinguishes it not only from other diseases, but also from the other systemic challenges of our time. When an administration prevaricates on climate change, the effects won’t be felt for years, and even then will be hard to parse. It’s different when a president says that everyone can get a test, and one day later, everyone cannot. Pandemics are democratizing experiences. People whose privilege and power would normally shield them from a crisis are facing quarantines, testing positive, and losing loved ones. Senators are falling sick. The consequences of defunding public-health agencies, losing expertise, and stretching hospitals are no longer manifesting as angry opinion pieces, but as faltering lungs.

After 9/11, the world focused on counterterrorism. After COVID-19, attention may shift to public health. Expect to see a spike in funding for virology and vaccinology, a surge in students applying to public-health programs, and more domestic production of medical supplies. Expect pandemics to top the agenda at the United Nations General Assembly. Anthony Fauci is now a household name. “Regular people who think easily about what a policewoman or firefighter does finally get what an epidemiologist does,” says Monica Schoch-Spana, a medical anthropologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.Such changes, in themselves, might protect the world from the next inevitable disease. “The countries that had lived through SARS had a public consciousness about this that allowed them to leap into action,” said Ron Klain, the former Ebola czar. “The most commonly uttered sentence in America at the moment is, ‘I’ve never seen something like this before.’ That wasn’t a sentence anyone in Hong Kong uttered.” For the U.S., and for the world, it’s abundantly, viscerally clear what a pandemic can do.

The lessons that America draws from this experience are hard to predict, especially at a time when online algorithms and partisan broadcasters only serve news that aligns with their audience’s preconceptions. Such dynamics will be pivotal in the coming months, says Ilan Goldenberg, a foreign-policy expert at the Center for a New American Security. “The transitions after World War II or 9/11 were not about a bunch of new ideas,” he says. “The ideas are out there, but the debates will be more acute over the next few months because of the fluidity of the moment and willingness of the American public to accept big, massive changes.”

One could easily conceive of a world in which most of the nation believes that America defeated COVID-19. Despite his many lapses, Trump’s approval rating has surged. Imagine that he succeeds in diverting blame for the crisis to China, casting it as the villain and America as the resilient hero. During the second term of his presidency, the U.S. turns further inward and pulls out of NATO and other international alliances, builds actual and figurative walls, and disinvests in other nations. As Gen C grows up, foreign plagues replace communists and terrorists as the new generational threat.One could also envisage a future in which America learns a different lesson. A communal spirit, ironically born through social distancing, causes people to turn outward, to neighbors both foreign and domestic. The election of November 2020 becomes a repudiation of “America first” politics. The nation pivots, as it did after World War II, from isolationism to international cooperation. Buoyed by steady investments and an influx of the brightest minds, the health-care workforce surges. Gen C kids write school essays about growing up to be epidemiologists. Public health becomes the centerpiece of foreign policy. The U.S. leads a new global partnership focused on solving challenges like pandemics and climate change.

In 2030, SARS-CoV-3 emerges from nowhere, and is brought to heel within a month.

3/25/20: Members of the Coronavirus Task Force Hold a Press Briefing


(54:17 min)

 

00:00
thank you very much so nice to be with
00:09
you America continues to gain ground in
00:12
the war against the virus I want to
00:15
thank the American people for answering
00:18
the call following our guidelines and
00:21
making these sacrifices required to
00:23
overcome this terrible threat more
00:27
aggressively we commit to social
00:30
distancing so important social
00:33
distancing such an important phrase and
00:36
we do it right now the more lives that
00:40
we can save and the sooner we can
00:42
eventually get people back to work back
00:45
to school and back to normal and there
00:49
are large sections of our country
00:52
probably can go back much sooner than
00:53
other sections and we’re obviously
00:56
looking at that also people are asking
00:59
is that an alternative I say absolutely
01:02
it is an alternative I have now approved
01:05
major disaster declarations for New York
01:09
California Washington Iowa Louisiana
01:12
Texas and Florida that has great
01:16
significance as you know and legal
01:17
significance we’re in a constant
01:24
grouping and I can say this we have a
01:27
large grouping of people that does
01:28
nothing but communicate with the various
01:31
officials including we’ve been spending
01:34
a lot of time with New York officials
01:36
because that really is by far the
01:37
hottest spot they’ve got a number of
01:42
very tough weeks ahead of them the
01:46
governor’s doing a very good job I spoke
01:47
to the governor Governor Cuomo last
01:50
night and this morning and he mentioned
01:53
that in his remarks that he’s using the
01:57
that we are using and I think he feels
02:00
because he understands negotiation he
02:02
thinks we’re using very appropriately
02:04
the defense production act and we are
02:08
we’re using it where needed
02:09
it’s a great point of leverage it’s a
02:12
great negotiator
02:13
cool but I’ve really I will tell you
02:16
this tremendous spirit from people and
02:18
tremendous spirit with respect to these
02:22
companies and I don’t have to use it
02:26
very much at all they want to do it as
02:29
you know General Motors is involved
02:32
Ford’s involved 3m s involved others are
02:34
involved and they’re all working very
02:36
hard to produce product different all
02:38
different products we had very little
02:44
product when we came we built it up and
02:47
we’ve we give it away as fast as we can
02:49
to the different states we’re also as
02:52
you know building numerous hospitals and
02:54
medical centers throughout certain areas
02:58
in New York it’s at the convention
02:59
center the Javits Convention Center
03:02
we’re doing for hospitals and we’re
03:05
doing throughout the state for medical
03:07
centers they’re somewhat different I
03:09
want you to know that I’m doing
03:12
everything in my power to help the city
03:13
pull through this challenge I’m working
03:15
very hard in New York it’s really by far
03:18
our biggest problem maybe it will be
03:20
maybe it won’t be but there’s a lot of
03:23
good capable people working on it with
03:25
us and our teams are working very well
03:26
with the state representatives we’re
03:30
also doing some very large testings
03:34
throughout the country I told you
03:37
yesterday that in South Korea this is
03:40
not a knock in any way because if I just
03:42
spoke with president moon we had a very
03:45
good conversation about numerous other
03:46
things but they’ve done a very good job
03:50
in testing but we now are doing more
03:52
testing than anybody by far we do more
03:56
in eight days and they do in eight weeks
03:58
and we go up on a daily basis
04:02
exponentially so it’s really good by the
04:05
way while I’m on it I’d also spoke with
04:07
Prime Minister Robby of Japan last night
04:10
and I congratulated him on a wise choice
04:12
I think it’s going to be a fantastic
04:14
Olympics 2021
04:15
I think it’s going to be a fantastic
04:17
Olympics it was the absolute right
04:19
decision to delay it for a full year and
04:22
now have a full beautiful Olympics it’s
04:24
going to be very important because
04:27
it’s probably the first time maybe ever
04:29
or certainly in a long time that it was
04:31
on a year so he’s on an even year they
04:36
tell me but he’s gonna have a fantastic
04:38
success and now that I’ve even more time
04:40
he didn’t need any more time everything
04:41
was perfectly ready what a job they’ve
04:43
done but you pay and I want to
04:45
congratulate Japan the IOC and Prime
04:49
Minister are you on a great decision I
04:51
think it’s going to be a fantastic
04:52
Olympics I told them I’ll be there I’ll
04:55
be there as we fight to protect American
04:59
lives we’re also protecting American
05:01
livelihoods Democrats and Republicans in
05:04
the Senate are very close to passing an
05:06
emergency relief bill for American
05:09
workers families and businesses this
05:11
legislation in addition to the two bills
05:13
I signed this month that includes you
05:17
know sick leave and we have all sorts of
05:20
things and for the workers for families
05:23
but we have a tremendous paid sick leave
05:27
provision for workers at no cost at all
05:32
to the employers and that’s a big thing
05:34
no cost to the employers we want to get
05:36
everybody back working together this 2.2
05:41
trillion dollar legislative package is
05:44
bigger than anything I believe ever
05:47
passed in Congress perhaps relatively
05:54
speaking if you go back look during the
05:57
FDR New Deal days there was something
06:00
that if you time value it you could say
06:03
it was bigger I don’t know but this is
06:04
certainly in terms of dollars by far and
06:06
away the biggest ever ever done and
06:11
that’s a tremendous thing because a lot
06:13
of this money goes to jobs jobs jobs and
06:17
families families families the Senate
06:22
bill as you know includes 350 billion
06:24
dollars in job retention loans for small
06:26
businesses with loan forgiveness
06:29
available for businesses that continue
06:32
paying their workers they continue
06:34
paying their workers that’s what we want
06:35
we want them to keep their workers and
06:37
pay their workers
06:38
this will help businesses keep workers
06:40
in the payroll that allow our economy to
06:42
quickly accelerate as soon as we defeat
06:44
the virus 300 billion dollars in direct
06:47
cash payments will be available for
06:50
every American citizen earning less than
06:52
99 thousand dollars per year that would
06:56
be three thousand four hundred dollars
06:58
very quickly for the typical family of
07:01
four nothing like that’s ever been done
07:04
in our country up to two hundred and
07:08
fifty billion dollars in expanded
07:09
unemployment benefits the average worker
07:11
who has lost his or her job will receive
07:14
100% of their salary for up to four full
07:18
months unlike normal unemployment
07:20
benefits independent contractors and the
07:23
self-employed will be eligible so you
07:25
have independent contractors and
07:28
self-employed people will be eligible
07:32
for this over 100 billion dollars to
07:35
support the heroic work of our doctors
07:38
nurses and hospitals they’ve been
07:40
incredible forty five billion dollars
07:42
for disaster relief fund so we are
07:45
setting up a fund to forty five billion
07:48
dollars for disaster relief that’s more
07:52
than doubling the amount available to
07:53
support my national emergency and
07:56
disaster declarations
07:57
it’s a doubling up twenty seven billion
08:00
dollars to build up the strategic
08:02
national stockpile with critical
08:05
supplies including masks respirators
08:08
pharmaceuticals and everything you can
08:11
imagine because it was very depleted
08:14
like our military was depleted now we
08:16
have a brand new military and they’ve
08:18
had a military like this we have
08:20
equipment either coming or it’s already
08:23
come for the most part it’s already come
08:25
but we have a lot of things that will
08:27
soon be coming planes missiles rockets
08:30
lots of things but the stockpile was
08:34
very depleted like everything else this
08:38
will also include significant funding
08:40
for the development of vaccines on top
08:42
of the eight billion dollars we approved
08:45
several weeks ago over five hundred
08:48
billion dollars in support for the
08:50
hardest
08:51
hit industries with a ban on corporate
08:54
stock buybacks which is something I
08:56
insisted on and frankly I tell you the
08:59
Republicans wanted that and the
09:02
Democrats wanted that we want them to
09:04
use the money for the companies and the
09:07
planes or whatever they may be helping
09:10
to get over this rough patch and I don’t
09:14
think it’s gonna end up being such a
09:15
rough patch I think it’s gonna when we
09:17
open especially if we can open it the
09:18
sooner the better
09:19
it’s gonna open up like a rocket ship I
09:22
think it’s going to go very good or very
09:24
quickly and you can have some tough new
09:27
limits on executive compensation also
09:30
they need the money
09:32
they’re gonna have to sort of just make
09:34
things work because we’re interested in
09:37
the workers the jobs and we’re
09:39
interested in the companies because
09:40
that’s really what what fuels the
09:43
workers in those great jobs and we also
09:45
have 16 billion dollars in funding for
09:47
the purchase of personal protective
09:50
equipment you know about that such as
09:53
masks and respirators through the
09:55
strategic national stockpile I encourage
10:00
the house to pass this vital legislation
10:01
and send the bill to my desk for
10:05
signature without delay I will sign it
10:08
immediately we will have a signing and
10:10
it’ll be a great signing and a great day
10:12
for the American worker and for American
10:15
families and frankly for American
10:18
companies some of which were having the
10:21
best years they’ve ever had his last few
10:24
years and then a little bit less than a
10:28
month ago
10:29
they went into a position that they
10:31
haven’t seen because of the hidden enemy
10:34
the virus earlier today I spoke to the
10:37
leaders of many of America’s amazing
10:39
nonprofit organizations I thank them for
10:42
their unwavering and unwavering devotion
10:45
to American people to American families
10:49
to our nation and they have been
10:53
fantastic they’ve been collecting
10:55
supplies distributing food supporting
10:57
health care workers caring for
11:00
vulnerable workers and families I
11:03
encourage that
11:04
to continue to do it but I’ll tell you
11:06
the nonprofit’s have been fantastic
11:07
they’ve been great they’re great people
11:09
actually I know a lot of them finally I
11:11
want to provide a brief update on the
11:13
critical supplies through FEMA the
11:16
federal government is delivered or is in
11:18
the process of shipping nine point four
11:20
million n95 respirators think of that
11:24
nine point four million twenty million
11:27
surgical masks and we have others that
11:29
we think are going to be delivered
11:31
pretty quickly the whole world you know
11:33
it’s not just us it’s not just the
11:36
states the whole world is trying to get
11:37
these things so come in competition with
11:39
many many countries I believe today you
11:43
broke the hundred and fifty mark for the
11:46
virus we have a hundred and fifty
11:47
countries over a hundred and fifty
11:48
countries where you have this virus and
11:52
nobody would ever believe a thing like
11:54
that’s possible nobody could have ever
11:56
seen something like this coming but now
11:59
we know when we know it can happen and
12:01
happen again and if it does somebody’s
12:05
going to be very well prepared because
12:06
of what we’ve learned and how we’ve done
12:08
it’s been incredible how we’ve done
12:10
remember there’s more tests than anybody
12:12
by far and the news the reporters the
12:17
media it was likes to bring South Korea
12:19
they called me and they told me it’s
12:21
amazing you’re testing procedures are
12:22
amazing plus we have a test that’s a
12:24
very high level test and it’s a test
12:27
that’s very accurate 3.1 million facials
12:30
2.6 million surgical gowns 14.6 million
12:34
gloves and almost six thousand
12:36
ventilators which go to the areas of
12:40
greatest needs we sent over the last day
12:43
four thousand ventilators to New York
12:46
and I spoke with the governor about that
12:50
he was happy I spoke with the mayor also
12:52
about that Merida Blasio he was very
12:55
happy it’s hard not to be happy with his
12:59
job we’re doing that I can tell you
13:01
throughout this national emergency every
13:04
day heroes continue to step forward and
13:06
demonstrate the extraordinary character
13:08
of our nation including the people
13:09
behind me by the way these people are
13:13
amazing they are amazing people and they
13:15
become I don’t know maybe I should just
13:18
speak for myself but to me they’d become
13:20
friends maybe they don’t like me maybe
13:21
they don’t maybe they do I don’t know
13:23
all I can tell you is if they’re
13:25
talented people they work very hard in
13:27
Maryland a seven-year-old boy used his
13:30
own birthday money to buy meals for
13:31
dozens of senior citizens in Nevada a
13:35
college student recruited 90 of her
13:38
friends to help deliver groceries and
13:39
supplies to the most vulnerable this is
13:42
happening all over the country thousands
13:44
and thousands of instances I could stand
13:46
up here all day and tell you about other
13:48
things in Minnesota hundreds of medical
13:50
students have volunteered to provide
13:52
child care for hospital workers helping
13:55
to keep our doctors and nurses on the
13:57
front lines fighting to save lives these
14:01
inspiring Americans remind us that we
14:04
all have a role to play in winning this
14:06
great national battle and it’s really a
14:08
worldwide battle we’re dealing with
14:10
other nations all the time the people
14:13
here are I am a little bit I take calls
14:16
from a lot of people they’re in trouble
14:18
a lot of countries are in big trouble so
14:20
now we will hear from our great
14:24
Secretary of the Treasury he’s been
14:26
working rather hard I will tell you
14:29
Steve malucci’s is a fantastic guy and
14:33
he loves our country and he’s been
14:35
dealing with both sides Republicans and
14:37
Democrats he sort of lived over in that
14:39
beautiful building it’s a very beautiful
14:41
building to me one of the most beautiful
14:43
buildings actually in the world and he’s
14:44
gotten to know it Steve very well so if
14:48
we could have a little update stage
14:49
would be fantastic as to how we’re doing
14:51
and what it’s looking like thank you
14:53
thank you very much mr. president
14:57
and first let me say I would like to
14:59
thank Mitch McConnell for his leadership
15:01
and I’d also like to thank Chuck Schumer
15:04
for the enormous bipartisan support we
15:06
had on this bill and the many senators
15:09
both Republicans and Democrats that
15:11
worked tirelessly over the last five
15:13
days on all the task force the president
15:16
said I got to live in the LBJ room for
15:19
the last five days and we couldn’t be
15:21
more pleased with the unprecedented
15:24
response from the Senate to protect
15:27
American workers and American
15:29
business in this situation the president
15:32
has outlined many of these but let me
15:34
just quickly go through them again small
15:37
business retention loans this will cover
15:39
roughly 50% of the private payroll in
15:42
small businesses where we will
15:44
immediately make loans that will supply
15:47
eight weeks of salaries as long as they
15:51
keep workers employed and overhead and
15:54
those loans will be forgiven at the end
15:57
of the period as long as they keep
15:59
workers employed these are SBA loans but
16:02
the Treasury will be issuing new
16:03
regulations authorizing almost every
16:06
single FDIC insured bank to make these I
16:10
expect by the end of next week we will
16:13
have a very simple process where these
16:15
can be made and dispersed in the same
16:18
day so this will be a very simple system
16:21
to get money into small business hands
16:25
for companies that don’t qualify that we
16:28
have a economic program of tax
16:33
incentives to retain workers and as the
16:36
president said we have enhanced
16:37
unemployment insurance for people don’t
16:40
fit into these two programs that will be
16:42
administered through the states we also
16:45
have economic impact payments these will
16:48
be within the next three weeks direct
16:51
payments into most people’s deposit
16:54
accounts and for those that don’t have
16:56
it we will be having the the checks in
16:58
the mail
17:00
Treasury will have additional
17:02
authorities we have five hundred billion
17:04
dollars that we can use to work with the
17:07
Federal Reserve for emergency programs
17:09
that will create up to an additional
17:11
four trillion dollars if needed to
17:14
support American business and American
17:16
workers in an unprecedented way and then
17:19
finally the president mentioned a
17:21
hundred billion dollars to hospitals and
17:23
a hundred and fifty billion dollars to
17:25
states that have specific coronavirus
17:28
expenses as well as many additional
17:30
things mr. president I especially want
17:32
to thank you and the vice president you
17:34
were constantly available to us we spoke
17:37
constantly throughout the day you gave
17:39
us guidance and
17:41
decisions on many issues and again thank
17:44
everybody for this great bipartisan work
17:46
this is going to be enormous help for
17:48
the American workers in the American
17:50
economy the president was very
17:51
determined that Congress would move
17:54
swiftly to protect hardworking Americans
17:57
in business in this unprecedented
17:59
situation thank you
18:02
day and night that was there’s a lot of
18:07
work and we’ll see how it all goes we
18:09
still need a vote Steve don’t really
18:11
hand you have a question yes you think
18:13
this bill will keep the economy afloat
18:17
we have to go back we have to go back
18:20
we’re gonna take care of the American
18:21
worker we’re gonna take care of these
18:22
companies that fuel this country and
18:24
make the country great it’s not their
18:27
fault it’s not their fault what we think
18:35
this one quicker but we expect that this
18:40
is a significant amount of money if
18:43
needed to cover the economy and don’t
18:45
forget a lot of this is going to be to
18:47
keep companies that are very strong
18:48
triple-a rated companies previously to
18:51
keep them going and it’s gonna be in the
18:53
form of loan so the money’s gonna come
18:55
back this baby’s got a lot of this
18:56
money’s coming business absolutely let
18:58
me ask you about something you said
18:59
yesterday you said we should never be
19:02
reliant on a foreign country for the
19:04
means of our own survival what did you
19:06
remember Santa Rosa
19:07
well we’re relying to many countries
19:10
where we give up our supply chains we
19:13
give up our factories we give up our
19:15
production facilities and we can buy at
19:17
someplace else for a little bit lower
19:19
price but it’s really costing us more
19:22
when that happens because we lose jobs
19:24
we lose everything and we lose our
19:26
independence and we can’t let that
19:27
happen so we’ll be making some changes
19:30
we have been making those changes in an
19:31
executive order to basically ban the
19:34
export of medical equipment I don’t know
19:36
that we’ll need that but I think it’s
19:37
happening by itself I think a lot of
19:40
things are happening well some people we
19:42
make the best medical equipment in the
19:44
world and you have some people like the
19:46
European Union they don’t take it
19:49
because they have specifications that
19:53
don’t allow our
19:54
equipment in because it’s designed in a
19:57
different way even though it’s a better
19:58
way it’s designed they’re all they’re
20:01
all playing games against us okay
20:03
they’ve been playing games against us
20:05
for years and no president has ever done
20:07
anything about it but the European Union
20:10
you look at medical equipment we make
20:12
the best medical equipment in the world
20:13
but we can’t sell it because or not
20:17
appropriately and yet we take their
20:20
medical equipment in our country we’re
20:22
changing things Steve all this is
20:23
changing but they have specifications so
20:27
that our equipment designed specifically
20:29
so that our equipment can’t come into
20:32
their countries it’s a very terrible
20:36
thing that’s happened to our country and
20:39
let me tell you some of the people that
20:40
took the biggest advantage of us our
20:42
allies you know we talk about allies
20:45
they took advantage of us in many ways
20:48
but financially as well as even
20:50
militarily when you look at look I got
20:54
if you look at NATO the abuse that was
20:58
given to our country or NATO where they
21:02
wouldn’t pay and we were paying for
21:05
everybody we’re pretty now because of me
21:07
they paint a lot now they paid a hundred
21:11
and twenty five hundred and thirty five
21:12
billion dollars more and then ultimately
21:17
Secretary General Stoltenberg oh I think
21:20
what you would say is maybe my biggest
21:21
fan we got him to pay an additional four
21:24
hundred billion dollars billion other
21:26
countries and but but you know that and
21:29
then there’s the trade they make it they
21:32
make it almost impossible for us to have
21:35
a fair deal they know this day no I’m
21:37
just waiting we have all the advantages
21:39
by the way it’s going to be easy when I
21:40
decide to do it but this isn’t the right
21:43
time to do it but we’ve been treated
21:44
very very unfairly by the European Union
21:49
mr. mr. president for Republican centers
21:53
indicated the extra $600 for
21:56
unemployment insurance may encourage
21:58
workers to leave their jobs even though
22:01
you can only collect unemployment if
22:03
you’re fired
22:04
I’m curious what you think of that
22:05
concern well I know the issue very well
22:07
we talked about it just a little while
22:08
ago
22:09
I’ll let Steve let you maybe discuss
22:11
their short no the president I spoke to
22:13
several of the Senators today but let me
22:15
just explain the issue which is we
22:18
wanted to have enhanced unemployment
22:19
insurance
22:20
most of these state systems have
22:23
technology that’s 30 years old or older
22:25
so if we had the ability to customize
22:28
this with much more specifics we would
22:31
have this was the only way we could
22:33
assure that the states could get money
22:34
out quickly in a fair way so we used
22:37
$600 across the board and I I don’t
22:40
think it’ll create incentives most
22:42
Americans what they want they want to
22:44
keep their jobs and I said for 50% of
22:47
these these businesses they will have
22:49
the businesses keep those jobs so this
22:53
was in our number one issue was how do
22:55
we make sure that American workers who
22:58
needed to keep getting paid this is no
23:01
fault of their own that businesses have
23:04
been shut down the president and
23:06
vice-president wanted to make sure those
23:07
hardworking Americans got money and this
23:10
was the most efficient way of doing it
23:11
did she spoke with are they in agreement
23:13
now I’m not gonna comment on the
23:16
specifics of where they are but I would
23:19
say you know our expectation is this
23:21
bill passes tonight and gets to the
23:23
house tomorrow and they pass it we need
23:25
to get this money into the American
23:27
economy in American workers that’s the
23:28
importance of this one good thing when
23:31
you think about that people had to get
23:33
actually more money but we don’t want to
23:36
give a disincentive but they have been
23:38
talking about that it’s a good question
23:39
actually
23:41
thank you family of another subject the
23:44
family of retired FBI
23:46
Robert Levinson says that US officials
23:49
have concluded that he’s died in Iranian
23:51
custody were you aware of that and shot
23:54
in US officials yeah you know I’ve been
23:57
very much involved in that and he was a
24:01
great gentleman and a great family it’s
24:04
just I mean I have to say this and
24:07
they’ve been making the statement to the
24:10
family I believe but it’s not looking
24:12
good he wasn’t well for years anyway in
24:16
Iran it’s not looking promising we’ve
24:20
gotten so many people back we’ve got two
24:23
people back this week but Robert
24:26
Levinson who was outstanding he was he’s
24:29
been sick for a long time and in it some
24:33
rough problems prior to his detainment
24:37
or capture and we feel terribly for the
24:41
family but no I don’t accept that he’s
24:45
dead I don’t accept it I mean I’m
24:47
telling you it’s not it’s not looking
24:49
great but I won’t accept that he’s dead
24:51
they haven’t told us that he’s dead but
24:54
a lot of people are thinking that that
24:56
is the case tweeted earlier linking the
25:02
closing of the country to your election
25:04
success in in November is this Easter
25:07
timeline based on your political
25:09
interest action success no you said that
25:12
the media wants the country remain close
25:14
to her I think ya know the media would
25:17
like to see me do poorly in the election
25:19
I think I think
25:25
what is that plan based on just so you
25:27
understand are you ready I think there
25:30
are certain people that would like it
25:31
not to open so quickly I think there are
25:33
certain people that would like it to do
25:35
financially poorly because they think
25:37
that would be very good as far as
25:38
defeating me at the polls and I don’t
25:42
know if that’s so but I do think it’s so
25:44
that a lot of that there are people in
25:46
your profession that would like that to
25:48
happen I think it’s very clear I think
25:52
it’s very clear that there are people in
25:54
your profession that write fake news you
25:57
do she does there are people in your
26:00
profession that write fake news they
26:02
would love to see me for whatever reason
26:04
because we’ve done one hell of a job
26:06
nobody’s done the job that we’ve done
26:08
and it’s lucky that you have this group
26:11
here right now for this problem or you
26:13
wouldn’t even have a country left okay
26:15
go ahead once you sign the 2 trillion
26:20
dollar package how soon or how rapidly
26:22
do you expect they’re gonna throw you it
26:24
I’m a CPA we’re pushing for April 6th I
26:34
would say our expectation is within
26:37
three weeks we will have direct payments
26:39
out where we have depository information
26:42
and we’re looking to get a lot more
26:44
information and we have procedures to do
26:46
that so three weeks for that and I would
26:49
say the end of next week we want all the
26:52
banks to be able to originate loans same
26:54
day Thank You mr. president I have two
26:57
questions for you one is this that’s
26:59
more until at least
27:00
with the g20 leaders and I want to know
27:03
if you’re gonna lead an effort to craft
27:05
a wolf-like ban on wild animal market so
27:07
as to prevent another pandemic given the
27:10
mid-nineteen isn’t zoonotic that was
27:12
transferred to humans in trade to exotic
27:15
Adam yeah I don’t know that that
27:16
subjects gonna come up there is a lot of
27:18
talk that that’s how this all happened
27:20
came out of China and they say that’s
27:22
how it happened in China so it’s
27:25
something maybe will be talked about but
27:27
it’s not the top of my list and also and
27:34
dr. Hershey Schaaf who is the head of
27:36
Harvard’s Global Health Institute says
27:38
the key to getting this economy open as
27:40
soon as possible is to test everyone who
27:43
needs testing so we can quarantine all
27:45
infected individuals and allow everyone
27:47
else to go back to work immediately
27:49
would you subscribe to that strategy no
27:52
but I we have tested more than anybody
27:54
as I saw and if not how many deaths are
27:56
acceptable yeah how many none okay how
28:01
many deaths are acceptable to me and
28:03
none okay none if that’s your question
28:07
look I saw him I saw his statement we
28:11
have tested by far more than anybody
28:13
we’re testing more than anybody right
28:15
now there’s nobody even close and our
28:18
tests are the best test they’re the most
28:20
accurate tests but if you’re saying
28:22
we’re going to test 350 million people I
28:25
watched his statement I disagree with it
28:29
we can go to certain states I could name
28:30
them now but I’m not gonna do that but
28:33
we can go to certain states right now
28:34
they’re virtually no problem we’re a
28:36
very small problem we don’t have to test
28:39
the entire state in the middle west or
28:42
wherever they may be
28:44
we’d have to test the entire state I
28:46
think it’s ridiculous we don’t have to
28:47
do it a lot of those states could go
28:49
back right now and they probably will
28:51
because at some point in the
28:53
not-too-distant future certain states
28:56
are gonna come off the rolls maybe New
28:58
York can’t and maybe California can’t
29:00
maybe the state of Washington can’t
29:02
although if you look at them their
29:04
biggest problem was in one nursing home
29:06
yeah go ahead but the states aren’t
29:07
silent and so I mean somebody if you
29:09
test one state and then the
29:11
over to the other state well then you’re
29:14
gonna just look at that but if you take
29:15
a look at the states and many states
29:17
that I’m talking about they don’t have a
29:19
problem we have some big problems but
29:21
it’s confined to certain areas high
29:23
density areas so why would we test the
29:26
entire nation 350 people with that being
29:30
said I’m going to say it again
29:31
we tested far more than anybody else we
29:35
are we have the ability to test
29:37
I mean we’ve come a long way from an
29:39
obsolete broken system that I inherited
29:41
we have now tested with the best test
29:44
far more than anybody else I want to see
29:48
anybody else I’m talking about other
29:49
countries no country is even close they
29:52
came out with a statistic I guess
29:55
yesterday that I heard from dr. Burks
29:59
where it’s four eight eight days here
30:03
more than eight weeks in South Korea and
30:05
South Korea has done a good job but we
30:07
did in eight days more than South Korea
30:10
did in eight weeks that’s a big number
30:12
and we’re getting I said before
30:16
exponentially better every day is going
30:19
up substantially we have an incredible
30:21
apparatus built now but no I I don’t
30:24
want to test 350 million people I think
30:28
it’s ridiculous yes please because there
30:33
you ain’t asked the g20 countries to do
30:36
for more resources for a coordinated
30:38
stimulus package ban on tariffs waive
30:41
all sanctions to try to prevent what
30:43
they call and apocalyptic pandemic would
30:47
you consider those measures and with
30:49
respect to work tariffs and also related
30:54
also to wait tariffs and also we have
30:58
strong borders and
31:00
would you consider to join these global
31:02
efforts so before I came here we weren’t
31:04
into borders we had a country people
31:07
could come in we had a whole different
31:09
deal now we’re up to almost a hundred
31:11
and sixty four miles think of that 164
31:15
miles of wall big beautiful wall and in
31:20
those areas it’s very very tough to come
31:22
in we’ve been very tough on the borders
31:24
I mean where we have the wall built
31:28
where nobody’s getting through now
31:30
they’re going around but that’s a long
31:32
trip if they’re going around that’s the
31:33
way they get through but now I’m very
31:36
strong on borders and I don’t want
31:38
people coming in here what I want is if
31:40
they’re gonna come in to have to come in
31:42
Legally they have to come in through
31:43
Merritt
31:44
we’re not having the people that you’re
31:46
talking about coming to our country
31:50
question for you then for professor
31:52
you’ll let me both Republican and
31:54
Democrat packages of the stimulus
31:57
included 25 million dollars worth of
32:00
funding for the Kennedy for its Arts
32:01
Center here in Washington DC shouldn’t
32:05
that money be going to masks respirators
32:07
know what I approve that and I knew it
32:10
was 35 million and we actually took off
32:11
ten but I’m a fan of that although I
32:16
haven’t spent time there because I’m far
32:18
too busy I’d love to go there evenings
32:20
but I’m too busy doing things because
32:23
that’s more important for me than going
32:25
there but the Kennedy Center has
32:27
suffered greatly because nobody can go
32:30
there it’s essentially closed and they
32:33
do need some funding and I said look
32:35
that was a Democrat request that was not
32:37
my request but you got to give him
32:40
something it’s something that they
32:41
wanted you know it works that way where
32:43
the Democrats have treated us fairly I
32:45
really believe that we’ve had a very
32:47
good back-and-forth and I say that with
32:49
respect to Chuck Schumer I spoke to him
32:51
a number of times but you know they had
32:53
requests also so that was a request
32:55
there were 35 yes you know and it came
32:57
down to 25 we got it down to 25 we
33:00
agreed I said that’s a lousy tip
33:02
soundbite that’s not a good sound bite
33:04
but that’s the way life works
33:06
with that being said the Kennedy Center
33:08
they do a beautiful job an incredible
33:10
job David Rubenstein does a fantastic
33:13
job he’s
33:14
very much involved and he puts up a lot
33:16
of money and he does things that a lot
33:18
of people wouldn’t be able to do or do
33:19
but they’ve been essentially closed they
33:23
have tremendous deficits in a built up I
33:25
mean this thing has been devastating to
33:27
it so I didn’t have a big problem with
33:29
it but this was a request from the
33:31
Democrats because of the fact that they
33:33
have a facility that’s essentially
33:34
closed up another question sir
33:36
you couldn’t go there you wanted to if I
33:38
wanted to go there tonight to look at
33:40
Romeo and Juliet I’d love to see Romeo
33:42
and Juliet tonight you know what
33:44
happened they said sorry
33:45
250 people or 50 people whatever it
33:48
might be down to good and then earlier
33:49
today Senator Marco Rubio told RCP that
33:53
quote the World Health Organization
33:55
showed favoritism to China
33:56
unquote and then representative Michael
33:58
McCall the ranking member on the the
34:00
House Foreign Relations Committee he
34:02
questioned the integrity of the World
34:03
Health Organization’s director saying
34:05
quote that there were several red flags
34:07
in his past with respect to his
34:09
relationship with China do you agree do
34:13
you think the World Health Organization
34:14
showed favoritism and then once all the
34:17
dust settles do you think that the
34:19
United States should restore its
34:21
relationship with the World Health
34:22
Organization I think there is a lot of
34:24
certainly a lot of talk that has been
34:26
very unfair I think that a lot of people
34:30
feel that it’s been very unfair it’s
34:32
been very very much sided with China and
34:35
a lot of people are not happy about it
34:37
at the same time doctor foul chair
34:39
myself and other people there are people
34:40
on there that we like and we know a lot
34:43
of I think your friends are a lot of
34:45
good people a lot of good professionals
34:46
I don’t know be interesting to hear if
34:48
you’d like to talk about the world WHL
34:51
but the fact is that I have heard for
34:54
years that that is very much biased
34:57
toward China so I don’t know no I don’t
35:03
want you to do that but I will so Ted
35:07
Rose is really an outstanding person
35:09
I’ve known him from the time that he was
35:11
the Minister of Health of Ethiopia I
35:13
mean obviously over the years anyone who
35:15
says that the w-h-o has not had problems
35:17
has not been watching the w-h-o but I
35:20
think under his leadership they’ve done
35:22
very well he has been all over this I
35:25
was on the phone with him
35:27
few hours ago leading a whu-oh call no
35:31
sir no I’m not sure I’m not talking
35:33
about China you asked me about Ted Rose
35:35
will help organization praising China
35:37
for its transparency and leadership on
35:39
their response the pandemic you know I I
35:41
can’t comment on that because I mean
35:43
that I don’t have any viewpoint into it
35:46
I mean I don’t I don’t even know what
35:47
your question is let me just tell you I
35:55
have heard that for years I spoke to him
35:57
yesterday seems fine to me I don’t know
35:59
but we’re the ones who gave the great
36:01
response and we’re the ones that kept
36:03
China out of here and if I didn’t do it
36:05
you’d have thousands and thousands of
36:07
people died would have died that are now
36:10
living and happy if I didn’t do that
36:12
early call on China and nobody wanted
36:15
that to happen everybody thought it was
36:17
a just unnecessary to do it and if we
36:21
didn’t do that thousands and thousands
36:23
of people would have died more than
36:24
what’s happened so that’s it right maybe
36:27
one more Steve guy when you have this
36:29
g20 meeting tomorrow what sort of
36:31
coordinated response are you expecting
36:33
to have a meeting with the 20 nations
36:37
total including us and there’ll be it’ll
36:40
be a conference call tomorrow morning
36:41
sometime I look forward to people I know
36:44
I like I think in every instance I like
36:46
every one of them but it’ll be an
36:49
interesting call you’ll be the first to
36:50
know next week when the 15 day period
36:53
ends what should we expect that are you
36:56
going to extend it for another what are
36:58
you talking about I’ll be speaking I’ll
37:00
be speaking with Tony I’ll be speaking
37:01
with Deborah be speaking with some of
37:03
the people that they like and respect
37:05
and they’re gonna bring along with them
37:06
we’ll be speaking to vice president Mike
37:09
Pence and Steve and we’ll be speaking to
37:12
everybody I’m not gonna do anything rash
37:15
or hastily I don’t do that but the
37:17
country wants to get back to work our
37:20
country was built to get back to work we
37:22
don’t have the country where they say
37:24
hey let’s close it down for two years we
37:26
can’t do that it’s not our country so
37:29
we’re gonna be talking and it could be
37:30
will do sections of our country there’s
37:32
big sections of our country that are
37:34
very you know little affected by what’s
37:37
taking place then there are other
37:38
section
37:39
very heavily affected so there’s a big
37:41
difference but no I would say by Easter
37:43
we’ll have a recommendation and maybe
37:46
before Easter and at the end of the
37:48
fifteenth day or even during the
37:52
fifteenth day I think we’ll have some
37:53
kind of a recommendation but our country
37:55
wants to get back to work Steve I have
37:58
had so many people and they want to
38:00
practice social distancing and they want
38:02
to practice no hand shaking no hand
38:05
shaking they’re not gonna go walk around
38:07
hugging and kissing each other in the
38:09
office where they come back even though
38:11
they may feel like it they’re gonna do
38:13
they’re gonna wash their hands more than
38:15
they’ve ever done they’re gonna do all
38:16
the things you’re supposed to do but
38:18
Steve you know what it’s it’s time they
38:21
want people want to get back to work I’m
38:23
having I get you know I get it from both
38:25
sides in all fairness and maybe it’s a
38:27
combination of both Tony said before
38:30
combination of both is sometimes very
38:32
good but there are areas that possibly
38:35
probably they won’t qualify there are
38:38
other areas that qualify almost now so
38:41
we’re gonna have to see what happens but
38:42
it’ll be an interesting period of time
38:44
I’d like to get our country back I have
38:47
tremendous numbers of people wanting to
38:50
go back you have store owners where the
38:52
store is sitting there they don’t know
38:53
what’s happened they got to get back
38:54
your businesses that are going to be
38:56
closed the longer we stay out the longer
38:59
we do it we want to go quickly to longer
39:02
we stay out the harder it is to bring
39:04
this incredible we were having the most
39:06
successful years that we’ve ever had in
39:09
the history of our country you saw what
39:11
happened yesterday with the stocks and
39:13
today they’re up I’m telling you if
39:16
Steve gets the deal done the incredible
39:18
incentive just going to take care of
39:20
people it’s gonna take care of our
39:22
workers gonna take care of companies
39:23
that employ all these workers small and
39:25
big by the way I would say we spend more
39:28
time on the small company Steve than we
39:29
get in the big companies you know people
39:31
ask about that we spent more time
39:34
thinking about the small businesses than
39:36
the big and that’s but you know that
39:37
really fuels our country we want to get
39:40
back and the people want to get back we
39:42
want to get our country going again and
39:45
we’ll be able to do that so vice
39:47
president’s going to stay with you and
39:49
I’m gonna take a few more questions
39:51
specific
39:52
and I will see you tomorrow thank you
39:54
very much
40:06
well thank you all report on today’s
40:09
action by the White House coronavirus
40:13
task force the president and our entire
40:16
team continue to be inspired by the way
40:20
people all across this country we’re
40:22
putting into practice 15 days to slow
40:24
the spread we are 10 days into the 15
40:27
days and let me say again to every
40:31
American if you’re in an area that’s
40:33
been impacted by the coronavirus it’s
40:35
absolutely essential that you listen to
40:38
state and local authorities for guidance
40:40
but for every American what you can do
40:45
is implement the practices outlined in
40:49
the president’s coronavirus guidelines
40:52
today because we truly do believe that
40:55
as millions of Americans have done and
40:57
will continue to do that we can
41:00
significantly impact the the rate of
41:04
growth in this epidemic in our country
41:07
we can spare Americans from exposure to
41:10
the corona virus and we can save lives
41:13
and so on behalf of the President and
41:15
our entire task force I want to say
41:16
thank you to the American people thank
41:19
you for your cooperation thank you for
41:21
embracing the principles in 15 days to
41:25
slow the spread we heard about that
41:27
cooperation today in a series of
41:29
conference calls
41:30
we spoke with equipment manufacturers
41:32
who are stepping forward as as never
41:35
before to assist us in developing the
41:39
medical equipment that is essential
41:42
whether it be masks or other medical
41:44
supplies or ventilators FEMA reported to
41:47
our task force today that hundreds of
41:50
companies have stepped forward to be
41:52
involved in the supply chain and we are
41:55
we are vetting nearly 70 of those
41:58
countries for specific repurposing of
42:00
their manufacturing to produce
42:02
everything from mast
42:05
two gowns and of course two ventilators
42:08
we also had a very productive call with
42:10
secretary Betsy DeVos with education
42:14
leaders from around the country today
42:15
and let me say on behalf of the
42:16
President and a grateful nation thank
42:18
you to all of our teachers many of whom
42:21
are now home teaching children from afar
42:24
even in many cases while they have their
42:26
own kids home from school you are truly
42:29
heroes and the Department of Education
42:32
as well as your State Department of
42:34
Education are grateful to each and every
42:36
one of you who find yourselves educating
42:39
out-of-home and the Department of
42:42
Education has a helpful website on
42:45
coronavirus recommendations Edie govt /
42:50
corona virus and as we mentioned before
42:53
secretary Betsy DeVos and secretary
42:55
sonny perdue will be joining us at this
42:57
podium on friday to speak about distance
43:01
learning recommendations that have been
43:03
made not just for secondary or for
43:05
college education but also for K through
43:08
12 education we’re opening up avenues
43:11
creating new flexibility so that not
43:15
only college students can continue to be
43:17
involved in learning from afar but
43:19
children K through 12 can do the same
43:22
secretary of Purdue will also be here to
43:24
talk about the food lunch program and
43:27
free and reduced lunches today the
43:29
president and I also spoke to over 150
43:32
CEOs of the top nonprofit organizations
43:34
in the country we thanked them for their
43:37
ongoing work supplying the needs not
43:41
only of people impacted by the
43:42
coronavirus but the most vulnerable
43:44
among us in our communities
43:46
organizations like Red Cross the
43:49
Salvation Army feeding America are all
43:51
still working every day and we promise
43:55
to urge every American if you have the
43:57
means and have the ability continue to
43:59
be generous to nonprofit organizations
44:02
that are helping those most in need in
44:04
your community the president marshaled a
44:07
whole-of-government approach that means
44:09
working with our governor’s today and
44:12
the president I were in direct contact
44:13
with governors of New York California
44:15
Washington State New Jersey Michigan
44:18
and others and we continue to be
44:21
inspired and impressed by the leadership
44:25
that governor’s are providing in their
44:27
states making tough choices leading
44:30
their states and the President and I are
44:32
truly grateful the task force made a
44:35
recommendation and FEMA has assembled a
44:37
team for to provide technical assistance
44:40
to the state of New York and that team
44:43
was welcomed by Governor Cuomo will be
44:45
arriving on the ground there very soon
44:47
along with all the other resources that
44:49
the president recently announced would
44:52
be flowing to New York and to Washington
44:54
State and to California in my
44:57
conversation with governor Gavin Newsom
44:58
of California I was pleased to speak to
45:01
him and hear that our FEMA team is
45:03
literally at the table with the State of
45:05
California’s team working to meet their
45:08
supply needs working to work on capacity
45:11
and I want people to know in the states
45:13
that are most impacted by the corona
45:15
virus that we are with you we’re going
45:18
to stay with you we’re going to continue
45:19
to work around the clock to make sure
45:22
your courageous health care workers your
45:24
health systems and your state
45:26
governments have the resources to
45:28
support your response on the subject of
45:31
testing dr. Burks will reflect on what
45:34
the data is showing in just a moment and
45:36
not including local labs and hospitals
45:39
we are at four hundred and thirty-two
45:41
thousand tests completed and we’re
45:45
pleased to see that they’re literally
45:47
drive-through and community sites around
45:49
the country and the US Public Health
45:50
Services assisting States in standing
45:53
those up each and every day we do remind
45:57
hospitals and labs around the country
45:59
and the moment the president signs the
46:01
bill that it that it is absolutely
46:04
essential that they provide the results
46:06
of the tests to us it gives us
46:08
visibility into what’s happening on the
46:10
ground but because of the public-private
46:13
partnership president Trump initiated
46:15
with these vast commercial lab networks
46:18
around the country we are adding tens of
46:21
thousands of tests every single day on
46:24
the subject of supplies before the end
46:27
of the week we’ll talk a bit more as the
46:29
President did moments ago about
46:31
the supply chain I was at FEMA last
46:34
night and literally saw a room full of
46:36
people with laptops and cell phones we
46:40
are literally leaving no stone unturned
46:41
as I told governor’s today to find
46:44
medical supplies whether it be whether
46:47
it be a mask or gowns or gloves or
46:50
ventilators and the team is working
46:52
around the clock to meet those needs a
46:56
few smaller items first and foremost the
47:01
CDC is developing guidance which we’ll
47:04
be publishing tomorrow about the best
47:07
way to utilize our natural resources at
47:09
our parks it would be several weeks ago
47:12
that our Park Service waived all
47:15
entrance fees and we directed the CDC to
47:18
produce guidance for how people can
47:20
still practice social distancing and
47:22
common sense but be out of doors and
47:25
enjoy our natural parks we’ll also be
47:27
sharing that guidance with the vast
47:29
state park systems around the country
47:32
and encouraging their support with that
47:35
let me let me last say again there is
47:37
nothing more important for the American
47:41
people to do to slow the spread than to
47:44
heed your state and local guidance in
47:47
areas impacted by the coronavirus and
47:49
for everyone else to put into practice
47:53
the 15 days to slow the spread
47:55
dr. Fauci will reflect on the importance
47:58
of mitigation and the impact that we
48:00
believe that it is having around the
48:02
country but it is the people ask me time
48:07
to time what can I do
48:09
and I say from my heart to every
48:11
American this is what you can do not
48:13
just to protect your own health and that
48:15
of your family but no American wants to
48:19
inadvertently spread the coronavirus
48:22
particularly to those that may be
48:24
vulnerable to serious health
48:25
consequences remember that the risk of
48:28
serious illness to the average American
48:30
remains low I mean the vast majority of
48:34
people that contract that coronavirus
48:36
will have mild symptoms – flu-like
48:37
symptoms and and and will recover but
48:42
for seniors with serious underlying how
48:44
conditions or with people with
48:46
immunodeficiencies everyone needs to
48:48
practice the principles of 15 days to
48:51
slow the spread the president announced
48:53
this week that we are looking forward to
48:55
the day that we can open up the country
48:57
and this team will be bringing in
48:59
recommendations about how we can safely
49:02
and responsibly do just that but for
49:05
every American that wants to see America
49:07
back in business
49:08
you can hasten the day by putting into
49:11
practice the 15 days to slow the spread
49:14
go to coronavirus cotton gov for details
49:16
and I truly do believe if all of us will
49:18
do all that we can do we will slow the
49:21
spread we will protect the most
49:22
vulnerable and we will heal our land
49:24
with that let me recognize dr. Tony
49:27
Fauci and speak about dr. Burks please
49:33
Thank You mr. vice president and thank
49:37
you for listening to us talk to the
49:39
American people we’ve been watching the
49:42
testing results very oh it’s very
49:43
critical to us it’s very critical to be
49:45
looking at that very carefully let me
49:47
tell you two things that are going on in
49:49
parallel our system to look at flu-like
49:52
illnesses is still up and running and in
49:55
County after County and state after
49:57
state and why is that important for
49:59
those who’ve been following the flu
50:00
epidemic this year you’ll remember we
50:02
had flu a then we had another peak of
50:05
flu B and those systems that are in
50:08
every single state and local government
50:11
is the platform where we can see whether
50:14
there’s any increase in flu-like
50:15
illnesses so if you have very few cases
50:19
in your state and in your counties
50:21
maintain your flu surveillance system
50:24
that you work closely with the CDC on
50:26
and look for changes in your slope of
50:30
new flu light illnesses and there are
50:32
enough test kits and there’s
50:34
particularly enough of the CDC test kit
50:36
where we started that runs on your flu
50:38
surveillance platform to be constantly
50:40
surveilling what those flu-like
50:42
illnesses are in our states and counties
50:45
that have very low number of cases we
50:49
have County still with zero to one cases
50:52
but they can participate in their
50:54
surveillance that we need to have out
50:56
there now by
50:57
using their flu-like surveillance system
51:00
and we thank all of the states who have
51:01
that up and running if you go to CDC gov
51:04
and go to flu surveillance you can see
51:06
state-by-state and you can be looking at
51:08
those curves with us it’s what we’re
51:10
looking at day by day in addition to the
51:13
testing results that are coming in for
51:15
the testing results still there’s four
51:18
counties that constitute the majority of
51:21
both the current cases and new cases I
51:24
think you know those are New York City
51:26
Westchester New York suffix and Nassau
51:33
County those are the four counties all
51:35
associated with New York in the New York
51:37
metro area there’s a few counties in New
51:39
Jersey but this is still where 56% of
51:42
the cases are and 56% of the new cases
51:45
it’s very important that people look at
51:48
the number of new cases per day remember
51:51
we told you was going to take us a while
51:52
to work through the testing backlog I
51:55
think we are close to working through
51:58
the testing backlog so that you can
51:59
interpret the number of cases per day
52:02
and you will see in New York City that
52:05
the number of cases per day has been
52:07
relatively constant over the last three
52:09
days those are the number of new cases
52:11
per day this is a real call to every
52:14
person in New York City in the New York
52:16
metro area to continue every one of
52:19
these 15 days to slow the spread and to
52:22
do that part of it at the same time that
52:24
they’re following the mayors and
52:26
governors piece yesterday we talked
52:29
about people that may have left the
52:31
metro area that were residents residents
52:33
of the metro area that may have gone to
52:35
secondary homes or other places went to
52:37
her side and we’ve asked all of them to
52:39
carefully monitor their temperatures and
52:42
self isolate from the communities where
52:44
they went just to ensure their own
52:47
health and the health of their
52:48
communities while they people move
52:50
around the country finally why this is
52:53
so important it’s very important to me
52:56
personally because my grandmother for 88
52:59
years lid with the fact that she was the
53:02
one at age 11 who brought home flu to
53:05
her mother named Leah for which I am
53:07
named
53:08
when her mother had just delivered and
53:10
her mother was succumbed to the great
53:14
1918 flu she never forgot that she was
53:19
the child that was in school that
53:21
innocently bought that flu home this is
53:24
why we keep saying to every American you
53:26
have a role to protect each and every
53:29
person that you interact with we have a
53:31
role to protect one another it’s why we
53:33
are social distancing and your social
53:35
distancing but to every American out
53:38
there when you are protecting yourself
53:40
you’re protecting others and if you
53:43
inadvertently I know brought this virus
53:46
home to someone with a pre-existing
53:47
condition I can tell you my grandmother
53:50
lived with that for 88 years so this is
53:53
what we’re trying this is the message
53:55
that’s important to everybody this is
53:56
not a theoretic this is a reality you
54:00
can see the number of deaths that are
54:02
occurring we all have a role in
54:04
preventing them so thank you for the
54:07
work that you do to get our message out
54:09
to others to really ensure that every
54:11
American understands how important their
54:14
role is as we move through these next
54:17
five days to not let up for an instant I
54:20
hear some reports that someone said oh
54:22
oh the new cases in New York are
54:24
increasing or the hospitalizations are
54:25
increasing the number of new cases over
54:28
the last three days have been consistent
54:31
but not rising any more than a
54:34
consistent day over day rise you will
54:36
see hospital cases continue to increase
54:39
because they are reflection of what
54:42
happened one to two weeks ago before the
54:45
full mitigation efforts were put into
54:47
place so each person in every place no
54:51
matter what County what community which
54:53
state can work with us to ensure that we
54:56
prevent the spread of this virus to
54:58
others so thank you
55:02
Thank You mr. vice president I just want
55:04
to spend a couple of minutes telling you
55:06
a little bit about some information that
55:07
I got on our weekly call that we have at
55:10
least once a week with the W WH o which
55:13
is led by dr. Ted Rose and Mike Ryan was
55:15
the point man there to give us some
55:17
information and in that regard I want to
55:20
apologize for my current response to you
55:22
when you asked me about the China deal
55:24
because I shouldn’t have done that
55:26
that’s not my style but what I really
55:29
wanted to say is that my job is that I’m
55:31
a scientist I’m a physician and I’m a
55:33
public health person and I don’t like to
55:35
get involved and that stuff so anyway
55:37
getting back to the WH o so we learned
55:40
some really interesting information
55:41
because obviously the other countries
55:43
like China and others have had been hit
55:46
prior that we did one of the things that
55:49
was striking to me and I just throw it
55:50
out because it’s something that we will
55:53
face we’re not facing it now but we will
55:55
face our Chinese colleagues are very
55:58
concerned because they went through the
56:01
entire cycle of the curve to come down
56:03
they have very very few cases but what
56:07
they’re starting to see as they’re
56:09
relaxing the constraints on travel that
56:12
they’re getting imported cases and they
56:15
wanted to warn us that when we get
56:17
successful make sure you very carefully
56:21
examine how you’re going to release the
56:24
constraints on input so I know we’re
56:28
gonna be successful in putting this
56:29
under control but I think we’re gonna
56:31
have to remember we don’t want to import
56:33
cases in that’s the first thing for
56:36
today the second thing that was
56:37
important is that it was something that
56:39
dr. Burks mentioned and that is when you
56:42
look at the inflection of the curves we
56:45
now have multiple different countries
56:47
that have gone through various phases of
56:50
their individual outbreaks and you can
56:53
learn something from them about where
56:56
you are in your own outbreak for example
57:00
when China went up what happened is they
57:03
just didn’t turn around
57:04
they went from going to I’ll just take
57:07
an arbitrary number 500 new cases a day
57:09
the next day it was a thousand cases
57:12
than 1500 and then two thousand but once
57:14
they
57:15
number of new cases each day starts to
57:18
flatten out that’s when you get to that
57:21
point where the inflection goes down so
57:24
if you what things we want to look for
57:26
the things that dr. Burks had mentioned
57:28
that doesn’t mean you declare victory
57:29
when it does that but you know you’re at
57:31
least on the way to where you want to go
57:34
and I think that’s really very important
57:37
the third and final thing that I think
57:39
gets back to the question that many of
57:41
you in the audience have asked of us is
57:44
about would this possibly become a
57:46
seasonal cyclic thing and I’ve always
57:49
indicated to you that I think it very
57:51
well might and the reason I say that is
57:54
that what we’re starting to see now in
57:56
the southern hemisphere in southern
57:59
Africa and in the southern hemisphere
58:00
countries is that we’re having cases
58:03
that are appearing as they go into their
58:05
winter season and if in fact they have a
58:09
substantial outbreak it will be
58:11
inevitable that we need to be prepared
58:14
that we’ll get a cycle around the second
58:17
time what does that mean for us in what
58:19
we’re doing
58:19
it totally emphasizes the need to do
58:23
what we’re doing in developing a vaccine
58:25
testing it quickly and trying to get it
58:28
ready so they will have a vaccine
58:29
available for that next cycle in
58:32
addition to do the randomized controlled
58:34
trials of drugs so that we will have a
58:36
menu of drugs that we have shown to be
58:39
effective and shown to be safe because I
58:42
know we’ll be successful in putting this
58:44
down now but we really need to be
58:46
prepared for another cycle and what
58:49
we’re doing I believe will prepare us
58:50
well thank you we’ll take a few
58:54
questions
58:59
okay review today they suggested that
59:00
there’s only 16,000 in the national
59:03
stockpile can you just give us some
59:04
clarity
59:05
how many ventilators do you have the
59:07
national stockpile who else is making
59:09
them and how long will it take for them
59:11
to make a critical mass because based on
59:13
the Center for Public Integrity it
59:14
appears there aren’t enough if you are
59:16
going to die as a result the ventilators
59:18
is eveni
59:19
a singular focus of a good portion of
59:22
our supply chain stabilisation task
59:26
force at FEMA since the president stood
59:28
up FEMA’s National Response Center and
59:33
we’re making progress in a variety of
59:36
ways first there there is the national
59:39
stockpile which you refer and depending
59:41
on what’s been distributed we just
59:43
delivered four thousand ventilators to
59:45
New York including ventilators that we
59:48
sent to New York City but there’s that
59:51
that number of some some 20,000 less
59:55
than 20,000 I won’t dispute your number
59:57
beyond that there literally are by most
60:00
estimates more than a hundred and fifty
60:02
thousand ventilators in the broad
60:04
healthcare system all across the country
60:06
we also working with anesthesiologists
60:09
and there was a very important
60:11
conference call today we have determined
60:15
several weeks ago that the devices that
60:20
anesthesiologists used for outpatient
60:22
surgery can be converted with the change
60:25
of a single vent to a very useful
60:27
ventilator I actually spoke to Governor
60:30
Cuomo about that today he’s in the
60:32
process of surveying all of his surgical
60:34
centers as governor’s around the country
60:36
are doing we literally believe there’s
60:39
tens of thousands of ventilators that
60:41
can be converted now that the FDA has
60:44
given guidance and dr. Burks can
60:47
probably speak to that in a moment we
60:49
actually have produced a helpful video
60:51
to explain how quickly those devices can
60:54
be converted but we’re also working with
60:57
General Motors and and other companies
61:00
to immediately spin up production those
61:03
contracts are being reviewed we’re
61:05
vetting their capability but one of the
61:08
other ideas as we look at areas of the
61:10
country that
61:11
most impacted and now more than half of
61:14
the cases for coronavirus are in New
61:17
York State and in the region around
61:18
there but will focus will want to focus
61:22
our resources including ventilators on
61:24
where where communities are struggling
61:27
the most with coronavirus and so one of
61:30
the ways that we’re working through that
61:32
at FEMA now is by spinning up production
61:35
and at the same time working with the
61:38
existing national supply maybe from
61:39
areas that don’t have a particular
61:41
burden yet with the coronavirus and
61:44
making sure that we’re manufacturing
61:46
back filling and meeting that need but
61:48
what I can tell you is we’ve got an
61:49
extraordinary team Admiral pelagic is a
61:53
two-star Navy admiral who’s doing an
61:56
incredible job we literally are Dennis
61:58
identifying resources around the country
62:00
and around the world we’re contracting
62:02
and arranging transportation for those
62:05
but maybe maybe dr. Burks you can speak
62:07
to them so I just want to thank dr. Mary
62:12
Peterson and the whole team of the
62:14
American Association of anesthesiologist
62:17
because they immediately when we asked
62:19
them could these be modified they went
62:22
to mediate work on it they’ve done
62:23
they’re gonna have Q&A ZUP four but more
62:26
importantly every anesthesiologist in
62:28
every city has been working with their
62:30
state and local health officials to
62:32
really work with them how to change this
62:33
and I think it’s not only the
62:36
ventilators that they’ll be supplying
62:37
they have the people that run those
62:39
ventilators that are not any longer
62:41
doing elective surgery so changing that
62:45
electrics elective surgery piece over a
62:47
week ago has freed up a lot of
62:49
additional resources when I talk to you
62:52
about how we are we’ve done some things
62:54
that are very horizontal across the
62:56
country but we’re collecting data now in
62:59
a county-by-county granular way so it’s
63:02
like any epidemic it’s not equal
63:04
everywhere there are places that are
63:06
very spared and there’s paces where
63:08
there’s more we have a very vast country
63:12
with a lot of capacity and a lot of
63:13
infrastructure and so looking very
63:16
specifically about where the virus has
63:18
been where is it going
63:20
who’s got freed up resources from where
63:22
it has been because it didn’t hit all
63:24
it hit Washington State earlier than it
63:27
hit New York and looking at all of those
63:29
pieces to really ensure how we can
63:32
innovatively move equipment around based
63:35
on the need and so I know that it has
63:38
become a place where people are looking
63:40
at numbers rather than what is needed
63:44
because if you do these projections when
63:48
you got to those projections that said
63:50
like in Germany and others that implied
63:53
that 60 percent or 50 percent of the
63:55
population we get infected the I want to
63:57
be very clear the only way that happens
64:00
is is this virus remains continuously
64:04
moving through populations in this cycle
64:08
in the fall cycle and another cycle so
64:12
that’s through three cycles with nothing
64:14
being done and so we’re dealing with the
64:17
cycle a right now not the one that could
64:20
come in the fall of 2020 are though
64:22
we’re getting prepared for it by the
64:23
innovations that are being worked on and
64:25
not the 2021 we’re really dealing with
64:28
the here and now why we’re planning for
64:30
the future and I think the numbers that
64:33
have been put out there are actually
64:36
very frightening to people but I can
64:39
tell you if you go back and look at
64:40
Wuhan and who Bay and all of these
64:43
provinces when they talk about 60,000
64:48
people being infected even if you said
64:50
oh right well there’s asymptomatic sand
64:52
all of that so you get to 600,000 people
64:55
out of 80 million that is nowhere close
64:59
to the numbers that you see people
65:01
putting out there I think it is
65:02
frightened the American people I think
65:05
on a freely on a model that you just run
65:07
full out you can get to those numbers if
65:09
you have zero controls and you do
65:12
nothing and we know that every American
65:15
is doing something and so I think what
65:17
our job right now is is to carefully
65:20
detail on a hospital by hospital state
65:23
by state county by county to outline
65:25
what the infrastructure needs are and
65:28
ensure that we’re meeting them both from
65:30
the stockpile and from the generosity
65:33
and movement of the American people and
65:35
other hospice
65:36
a lot of folks out there
65:37
well-intentioned are sewing cloth masks
65:40
and donating them to hospitals a year
65:42
dr. pouchy can you weigh in on that
65:44
because obviously people have great
65:45
intentions but there’s some mixed
65:47
feedback on whether that’s a good idea
65:52
so clothing manufacturers volunteers
65:55
dropping them off at hospitals is that
65:57
necessary is that helpful is it
65:59
something you’d recommend you would only
66:02
recommend that on the desperate
66:03
situations if you don’t have any masks
66:05
but what we’re seeing now is as you’ve
66:07
heard is a rather significant inflow of
66:10
masks that are coming in that are gonna
66:11
be available I mean obviously if you
66:13
don’t have a mask and you need a mask
66:15
and it’s appropriate for you to be aware
66:17
it you do what you can but I don’t see
66:19
that now as a necessity giving what’s
66:21
going on right now we can keep hearing
66:30
reports of competition among the states
66:32
that are trying to apply this necessary
66:34
equipment on to private market and the
66:36
governor of Kentucky said yesterday that
66:38
his state was in line to buy some
66:41
equipment but FEMA came in and bought it
66:44
purchased it from under them so he says
66:45
this is creating a real problem but
66:47
space because on the one hand they’re
66:49
being repelled to get the equipment
66:50
themselves if they can but on the other
66:52
hand the federal government is buying up
66:54
the supply chain so is this a problem
66:56
that you’re hearing about and what is
66:57
your advice to states like Kentucky
66:59
they’re having this issue I actually
67:03
spoke to the governor of Michigan today
67:05
governor Whitmer and I about just that
67:08
and we put our FEMA regional
67:12
representative right on the case we want
67:15
to make sure that we are what we’re
67:18
acquiring every bit as much as we can
67:20
through FEMA but as we’ve worked with
67:23
the supply chain we want to have full
67:24
coordination with the states and the
67:27
requests they’re making in hospitals
67:29
that they’re making and and we’re
67:32
looking into those matters but make no
67:35
mistake about it this FEMA team at the
67:39
president’s direction is leaning into
67:40
this effort leaving no stone unturned
67:43
literally searching not just the nation
67:46
but the world
67:47
all these critical supplies and and as
67:49
the president just reported to you we’re
67:51
in the process of shipping nine point
67:53
four million in ninety five respirators
67:56
20 million surgical masks 3.1 million
67:59
face shields and the list goes on and
68:01
we’re gonna be shipping those every
68:03
single day but as I told a governor
68:05
Whitmer today who’s leading her state
68:08
through all of this with great energy we
68:12
want to partner with her we want to
68:13
partner with every governor and make
68:16
sure that the left hand knows what the
68:18
right hand is doing in terms of
68:19
acquiring resources so report that their
68:33
master agent when timelines for making
68:37
sure well I’m gonna let dr. Burks
68:45
address that as well but let me say
68:47
again I just received a report we’re
68:49
gonna be detailing it before the end of
68:51
the week where we vite we’ve literally
68:55
identified significant resources not
69:00
just around the country but around the
69:01
world of the mass that can be used by
69:04
healthcare workers and but as dr. Burke
69:07
said we are focusing those resources in
69:11
the areas where health care workers are
69:14
most exposed to the prospect of
69:16
contracting and the coronavirus
69:18
president’s made it clear from early on
69:20
right after seeing in the needs of
69:22
Americans who are struggling with the
69:24
coronavirus making sure they have the
69:27
support that they need on the same level
69:30
of priority we want our health care
69:31
workers to have the personal protective
69:34
equipment to be able to do their job
69:38
safely and we’re working on that I will
69:41
tell you I spoke about this today to
69:43
several governors not only the governor
69:46
of Michigan but the governor of Indiana
69:47
and president of Trump and I couldn’t be
69:50
more grateful the way governor’s around
69:53
the country are joining us in calling on
69:55
businesses to go back to their
69:57
warehouses
69:58
and identify industrial masks n95 masks
70:03
that because of the change that
70:04
President Trump insisted on in the law
70:06
can now be used by hospital workers and
70:09
their their perfectly acceptable to
70:11
protect a healthcare worker from the
70:13
possibility of a respiratory disease but
70:16
we’re calling on and our governors are
70:18
joining us in calling on every business
70:21
across America during this time of great
70:25
challenge where many businesses are
70:26
idled go back to your storehouses
70:28
identify n95 industrial masks and as I
70:33
told our governors today they can call
70:34
FEMA they can call the state the state
70:37
health care services or they can just
70:39
load them up on a flatbed and drive them
70:42
over to their local hospital and
70:43
literally we hear stories in every state
70:45
in the Union of people doing that and so
70:48
it’s it’s happening all at the same time
70:51
and we’ll be detailing the progress
70:53
we’re making on masks anything further I
70:57
just wanted to add one piece and this is
70:59
really a call to every state out there
71:02
in every County that has been doing
71:04
community-based testing the FDA put out
71:07
new guidance we talked about it several
71:09
days ago that people can do self testing
71:13
in the drive-through where you give them
71:15
the materials to do it in their car and
71:19
you pick it up in a biohazard bag this
71:22
would free up all of that PPE that you
71:25
see being utilized in those drive
71:27
throughs back to the hospitals and back
71:30
to the clinics that need it the most we
71:32
have to move to the new technology
71:34
whipped FDA worked tirelessly to get
71:37
that out there so that it could be
71:39
sparing of gowns and gloves and full
71:43
respiratory on and 95s this is the
71:47
moment to move to that self testing
71:49
front of nose with the new applicators
71:52
that can be utilized so that every
71:55
single bit of the n95 s can be put into
71:58
the hospitals that need it just let me
72:05
just say we look forward to seeing you
72:07
all tomorrow
72:07
we’ll be back here with further progress
72:11
and news but if I could just say to
72:14
every American we’ll get through this
72:19
we’ll get through this but we’ll get
72:22
through this together every American
72:25
needs to understand that whether you are
72:27
in an area that’s impacted by the
72:29
coronavirus or an area where there’s
72:31
very few cases if you do your part to
72:34
put into practice 15 days to slow the
72:36
spread you will do just that
72:39
you’ll love you’ll impact the spread of
72:42
this coronavirus epidemic in our country
72:44
these experts tell me that we can
72:46
significantly reduce the number of
72:48
Americans that would be exposed to the
72:49
corona virus as every American continues
72:52
to put these guidelines into practice
72:55
and we just know that with all of the
72:58
extraordinary effort that’s being done
72:59
at the federal level by this tremendous
73:02
team and all of our agencies all the
73:03
great leadership by governor’s in both
73:05
parties across the country with all the
73:08
incredible and courageous work by health
73:11
care workers with the cooperation and
73:13
the prayers of the American people we
73:16
will get this done we will we will not
73:19
only we will not only slow the spread
73:22
would protect the vulnerable and will
73:24
heal our land thank you