Good morning. Welcome to squawk box. Andrew ross sorkin with joe kernen and melissa lee becky is off today well go straight to show you how the markets are reacting on the back of that news. S p looking to fall 60 points. The biggest premarket decliners on the you dow looking at boeing, intel and apple off in some cases more than 2 or 3 eamon javers has been covering this story all night and joins us now with the latest good morning. Some very tough news for the president , the first lady and their family as the president and first lady have tested positive first, there was a report of bloomberg that hope hicks, the campaign aid to the president , travels with him a lot, tested positive she was seen traveling with the president on air force one, often photographed without a mask as with we watch some of those pictures of hope hicks traveling with the president a lot of the senior aids there shortly after 1 00 a. M. East coast time sending out a letter saying the president and first lady are both well at this time and plan to remain at home at the white house. We dont know whether or not the president is symptomatic or asymptomatic the physician says he and the first lady are well but does not specify if they are experiencing any symptoms overnight, i spoke to a senior official who told me what the plan was in place if the president did test positive. Thats the plan theyll be rolling out here according to this senior official, the plan was to have the president remain at the white house under very close medical scrutiny theyll be consulting with outside experts as needed. This would be similar to if the president had the flu, he would ride it out but with strict staff access so the staff not necessarily able to come in contact. Not clear who if anybody will be in follow contact and the first lady will find that out as well. This is a president as noted has been conducting rallies and had a much higher tolerance for risk as did joe biden hes been throughout the country, throughout the week conducting rallies with large crowds and not Wearing Masks in that debate overnight, the president mocked the former Vice President for wearing a mask here is what he said i have a mask right here. I put a mask on when i think i need it. Tonight, everybody has had a test, youve had social distancing and all the things. I wear masks when needed i dont wear a mask like him every time you see him, hes wearing a mask he could be speaking 200 feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask youve ever seen. Well need a statement from the Biden Campaign and also what bidens status is. We have not heard from the Vice President mike pence in terms of his testing status he did put out a statement wishing the family well. We have not heard from his team yet that hes had a negative test there is a plan if the president were to become so sick he is unable to fulfill his duties there is a plan in the constitution in the 25th amendment where he could write a letter to the president of the senate and turnover obligations to the Vice President and resume those whenever he feels better and can write a letter saying hes back in action. That would be the worst Case Scenario no indication there are any symptoms a the this time i have so many questions. Of course, we extend our best wishes to the president as a start. Beyond that, then we get into questions of Contact Tracing and other people that may have been exposed over the past week what the process do you think is going to be for that what happens to the campaign and what happens longer term what do you believe the political implications of all of this really are . The trpresident was in new jersey for a rally and come in contact with a lot of people all of those people will be notified obviously a chunk will be tested you have to assume there may be more cases now as for the campaign, given that we are already on october 2nd and may have seen the last of the rally. Not clear when he can resume if he can resume before the election how that will affect the dynamic in an important part of the campaign that looks unlikely what would it entail we had no idea symptoms hes, what, 74, i dont know of any underlying conditions other than he is a big guy to do the weight and age are two risk factors. Assuming what kind of things he comes down with the next debate seems unlikely especially the large number of people around the president who may have to quarantine at this point you just dont see how they would pull that off. We go into a campaign frozen in terms of principals. Well see if joe biden continues to do that we have that poll early in the week that only 98 of the people said it didnt change their mind one way or another a lot of people already set not clear what more tam paining would have made a difference anyway we go into really uncharted territory. What is the Vice President s status and the plan for campaigning or not and what is the former Vice President s status as well given that he was on stage with President Trump earlier. We dont know when he became infected it would seem unlikely that they were tested before that debate well wait for more on that. Aside from the campaign, it seems that outcome has gone up it seems perhaps the nomination process for Supreme Court justice could be delayed and maybe not in time for the election that process may have gotten slimmer. I dont know about that necessarily. One of Mitch Mcconnells biggest goals in life is to put Supreme Court justices in who are conservative and share his view of constitutional world order. I dont see them holding off on that process presumably, she was in contact with the president right she could test if hes asymptomatic or if shes even positive, she could test remotely by zoom Mitch Mcconnell will do everything he possibly can to keep that train rolling down the tracks it is very important to him in terms of his whole lifes work i dont think theyll stop if they can find a way to keep moving, theyll do it. Anywhere in the world, if this happened, you could imagine people around him would put on a brave face but given some of the president s comments and im a cheerleader and being positive about it it may be difficult to get the straight dope of what isgoing about. Feeling the transparency and given what will be the skepticism of past comments maybe from the administration. It will be tough for you to find out what is happening. Even though he knew it was spreading through the air. He told them he was down playing it he has been a virus skeptic all along. Now hell be ensconced all well get now from the statements in the press office and physician if he releases any statements it is not clear with any regularity the president is asymptomatic. Like a lot of people will do, ke ride this out over a couple of days, get a negative test and roll on. Even that coming in october with the virus year, even that changes the tenor and dynamic in this direction leaving aside some of the worst scenarios here dr. Scott gottlieb, former fda commissioner, cnbc contributor, board member on pfizer and illumina. Starting with, 74 years old, he may be a little bit overweight, yet, the numbers are still on his side with no comorbidities what have we seen . Lets just be clinical about it but what are his risk factors at this point caller thank you for having me we wish the president and melania and hope hicks well. It is deeply concerning. They all have a good chance of doing well he was previously in good health by all reports the critical question for the president or melania or hope or others exposed will give information about the risks they face the question if the president has a risk factor, yes by virtual of being 74 he is reportedly overweight with an elevated bmi. Every reason to expect him to recover. We are all wishing him well. The risk is still high for every 1,000 people mid70s or older who have been infected, 11. 6 will succomb. Above 75, the risk is 3. 4 thats the largest study that has been done based on age alone. This didnt take into account comorbidities. And the president is reported to be in Excellent Health other studies have been done to show lower risk. In geneva, risk 5. 6 perts over the age of 65. Another study in spain showing 3. 4 for those between 70 and 79 every reason to believe the president will do well and recover. What we need to know is whether or not hes symptomatic. If he remains asymptomatic, ke remain quarantined in the white house. If he becomes sim magnetic it will be a longer term. Incubation time of four to five days from symptom on set one reason i said, as a clinician, what do we do right now . Weve had you on many times and discussed remdesivir when it is taken and if it could shave days off we went to a steroid then already some type of immune response and also the regeneron antibody cocktail and the plasma what do you think doctors are doing or should be doing with the president . They should try considering remdesivir there is thinking that it probably improves outcomes earlier in the course of the disease. You consider remdesivir. Steroids you wouldnt be considering. At this point. That is indicated only when there is the response. The first week when they become sick and require oxygen and go into the second stage where they are having an inflammatory response where steroids are most effective. Antibodies could be effective. Earlier you introduce those, the better the data on those is so early, i doubt the white house is considering those. I would think given that it is the president and what we have available might be remdesivir. There is data demonstrating it shows out comes in hospital patients and reason to believe if you introduce those earlier, it would have the same benefit doctor, hoping could you comment on testing ers. Looking at this news saying if the president can get it anybody can. It seemed impervious to covid. Do you believe in the quality and b, how long do you need to wait now to find out about the quality of tests Going Forward for everybody who might have been around the president. It is possible you could test negative today but maybe four, five, 10 days later, test positive my understanding is that the white house is using the after i had i. D. Now machines. I dont know if theyve changed that we have talked before about the sensitivity of that machine and using it as a screening tool the gene expert i dont have any relationship, its a more sensitive and specific test. Not as good as the abbott i. D. Now. Fur using a test to screen an asymptomatic population and you want really good reliability because it is the president of the United States, you might introduce the gene expert. Weve talked about this many times. The question is how did hope hicks get through that screening process. Obviously, she was getting tested a lot it is unclear right now. It is possible she was tested and they got a false negative with the protocol they were using. Dr. Gottlieb, im trying to understand how aggressive the Contact Tracing should be in is there an exposure to the president at which point they should be notified with contact only five seconds. How should we understand this . Caller typically, the criteria is 15 minutes of exposure within six feet of distance i suspect given where we are right now and the white house setting will want to be more aggressive by every measure they have been hearing, they should narrow down the direct contacts. There probably have not been a lot of people. The question of who would be incubating this. I wouldnt be surprise if they test the entire compound today and brought in some different testing equipment to get a more sensitive result dr. Gottlieb, with so much to talk about here. When you think about all of these priorities its so troubling. Now to talk about the campaign is secondary when do you think any sense of debate or return to the white house would be necessary you need to be completely virus free like anybody else who is selfquarantining before youd even consider stepping out i think thats right. They are going to do serial tests but hes likely to remain pcr positive and have an extended test for a period of time they might culture and see if he has live virus to understand exactly when he clears the virus, assuming he does well, which we all hope he does well you are right. You are looking at an extended period where the president would be quarantined out of an abundance of caution they have to follow strict protocols. It does bring into risk his schedule doctor, we know youll be joining us again later on you are very important to us today with what is happening today well see you a little later thank you for coming on so early. Thanks a lot. Thank you, joe. Want to bring in another voice from washington on possible policy and stimulus fallout from all of this. Joining us now thomas block, washington strategist. Good morning to you. You heard melissa ask the question about what it means to the Supreme Court. We have the stimulus question on the table. How does this change either of those equations right now . First, i think everybody wants to wish the president well it adds an extra element of question when you add a serious illness. It brings home widespread and serious it is. We had seen a flattening of the curve. And maybe jump start the stimulus as we are bogged down the general feeling is that we need one more bite at the apple. You believe his covid19 positive test could ultimately the outcome to push stimulus through . I think it could. It brings it home. I think the president had been minimizing it and going to all these rallies. It hits home that this is not going away it is real the president who lives in an incredibly protective bubble and gets the best care on earth that he and his wife can get it it brings at home that we do not see much light at the end of the tunnel right now i think there had been a feeling we were making progress. We have seen this is creeping through the midwest. It is not going away this is a wakeup call we wish the president well but it is a wakeup call there is a bill ready to go. They are so close. Talking about above 1. 5 trillion on the last offer from the whitehouse. Thinking about that still participating in the elections, where we are down most of the people have made up their minds. There are about five states really in play it will be very interested in the next couple of days to see what happens my gut is that this will be a challenge for the president. One, he loves to campaign himself. Making the question that maybe the president wasnt dealing with this completely correctly by being so light about it and making a joke where he made the clip about the president was making light about how the former Vice President was wearing a mask all the time. That might not look as silly today as it did the other day. Do you think this changes the si psyche of the american public. We are showing stocks of travel, hotels and the like. All of them down on the assumption that this hits home and hits hard and suggests to people maybe you are not going to be traveling as much as you thought or as quickly as you were before. Does that make sense to you . Absolutely. I think the president was a cheerleader that this was going away that is obvious it has been his position even the president living in a bubble with the best medical care, even he can get it thats the wakeup call. The numbers in many states were going up you didnt appreciate that from the white house. At the last debate, he mocked mr. Biden for wearing a mask this is a wakeup call everybody has to be more careful about it it is hard to talk about or think about political implications having worked on campaigns, thats what people are doing what the markets are trying to digest right now. Can you bottom line the Political Risk for us. As i understand what you are saying, the stimulus will pass, you are saying the risk to the Trump Campaign will be great the risk to President Trump not being elected goes up. The markets reacted decisively to this news i think markets dont like uncertainty. This adds an element of uncertainty. The president as theyve said, hes in generally good health, he is overwet and of an age where this becomes more serious more easily. Talking about the question with the leader of the world. Hes his own best campaigner he loves to campaign these key states, you really identify five or six states. This takes the president out that takes it off the field. Thats an issue. I imagine well be talking to you more or the coming days and weeks. Thank you u. S. Futures dipped sharply after news of President Trumps positive covid test. Julianna tatelbaum joins us now from london on the move in the overseas markets good day markets are trading well. The moves have been contained. We have seen a selloff gather pace in the last half an hour. Every major region is trading lower. In terms of the sector performance, we have seen travel and leisure hit hardest. Investors seem to be taking the news harder for now. It seems european investors are waiting to see what happens next we are seeing the selloff gather pace and the selloff in the european market. European trade is coming under pressure this morning. Thank you coming up, much more on the markets reaction to the president s positive covid test. The dow looking to be open lower by 421 points. Expecting an increase of 800,000 jobs and decrease in Unemployment Rate of 8. 2 . 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