[indiscernible conversation] President Trump thank you very much everybody. Thank you very much. Before i begin, i would like to extend my deepest con doleancees to the families in milwaukee, wisconsin. A wicked murderer opened fire at , taking Company Plant the lives of five people. A number of people were wounded, some badly wounded. Our hearts break for them and our loved ones. We send our condolences and its a terrible thing. Terrible thing. So our hearts go out to the people of wisconsin and to the families. Thank you very much. I have just received another briefing from a great group of talented people on the virus that is going round to various parts of the world. We have from early decisions, decisions that were ridiculed at the beginning. We closed up our borders from flights coming in from certain areas, areas that were hit by the coronavirus and hit pretty hard and we did it very early. A lot of people didnt think we should do it early and we did. And it is a good thing. The importance is the health and safety of American People and thats the way i viewed it. Because of all we have done the risk remains very low. We have the greatest experts in the world, really in the world right here. People that are called upon other countries when things like this happen. We are ready to adapt and do whatever we have to as the disease spreads, if it spreads, as most of you know, the level that we have had in our country is very low and those people are Getting Better or we think in almost all cases, we have a total of 15. We took in some from japan. You heard about that. They are american citizens and they are in quarantine and they are Getting Better, too. But we thought we had an obligation to do that. We thought there could be as many as 42. And it was just an obligation we felt that we had. We could have left them and that would have been very bad, very bad, American People. And they are recovering. Of the 15 people, the organization 15 as i call them, eight of them have returned to their homes to stay in their homes until fully recovered. One is in the hospital and five have fully recovered. And one is we think in pretty good shape and its in between hospital and going home. We have a total of 15 people and they are in the process of recovering with some already having fully recovered. We started out by looking at certain things. We have been working with the hill, very, very carefully and very strongly and i think we have good bipartisan spirit. We were asking for 2. 5 billion and we think thats a lot, but the democrats and i guess senator schumer wants to have much more than that. And well take it. Well take it. If they want to give more. Well do more. We will spend more. Hopefully we wont spend so much because we have taken it down to minimum and we have had tremendous success. At the same time, you have outbreaks in some countries, italy and various countries. China, you know about, where it started. And i spoke with president xi and he is working very hard, he is working very, very hard. And if you can count on the reports coming out of china, that spread has gone down quite a bit. The infection has gone down over the last two days as opposed to getting larger. It has gotten smaller and we can be reliable and seems to have gotten quite a bit smaller. With respect to the money thats being negotiated. They can do whatever they want. We are requesting 2. 5. Some republicans would like us to get 4 and some democrats would like us to get 8. 5 and we will be satisfied. We are bringing in a special lift tomorrow who works at the state department. Very, very tremendously talented in doing this. I wanted you to understand something that shocked me and i spoke with dr. Fauci on this and i was really amazed and most people amazed. The flu in our country kills from 25,000 people to 69,000 people a year. That was shocking to me. And so far, if you look at what we have with the 15 people and they are recovering, one is pretty sick. But hopefully will recover. But the others are in great shape. Think of that 25,000 to 69,000 ver the last 10 years and lost 360,000. These are people that have died from the flu. Hey, did you get the flu shot. And that is something. What we have done, we have stopped nonu. S. Citizens coming in from china. And we are screening people. Screening people coming into the country from infected areas. We have quarantined those infected and those at risk. We have a lot of great quarantined facilities. And the professionals can speak to you. The vaccine is coming along well. And this is something we can develop fairly rapidly a vaccine for the future and coordinate with the support of our partners. We have great relationships with all of the countries that we are talking about, some fairly large number of countries. Some with one person and many countries have no problem whatsoever. And well see what happens. But we are very, very ready for this, whether its going to be a breakout of larger proportions or whether or not we are at that very low level and want to keep it that way. As they get better, we take them off the list and pretty soon be at five people and just one or two people over the next short period of time. We have had very good luck. Johns hopkins is highly respected, great place, they did a study, comprehensive, the countrys best and worst prepared for an epidemic and the United States is we are rated number one, rated number one for being prepared. This is a list of different countries. I dont want to get in your way especially since you do just a good job. This is a list. The United States is rated number one, most prepared. United kingdom, australia, thailand, finland, sweden. These are the best countries in the world by johns hopkins. We are doing Something Else that is important to me because he has been terrific and very good on health care and we really followed him very closely, a lot mike pence, they accomplished Great Health Care and a lot of the other states having looked to and changed their statements and want to base it on the indiana system. And he is very expert in the field. And what i have done, im going to be announcing exactly right now that im going to be put our Vice President mike pence in charge and mike will be working with the professionals, doctors. The team is brilliant. I spent a lot of time with the team but they are totally brilliant and mike is going to be in charge and mike will report back to me. But he has a certain talent for this and i ask mike pence to say a few words. The Vice PresidentPresident Trump has made clear from the first days of this administration we have no higher priority than the safety, security, health and wellbeing of the American People. And from the first word of an outbreak of the coronavirus, the president took steps to protect the American People from the spread of this disease. He encountered those briefly but the travel restrictions and quarantine effort of americans returning, Public Health emergency and establishing the White House Task force are reflective of the urgency that the government has brought to a whole of government approach. As a former governor from the tate where the first mers case emerged in 2014. I know full well the importance of president ial leadership and the importance of leadership and the vital role of state and local governments and health thaurts in responding to dangerous Infectious Diseases and i look forward, mr. President , to serving in this role and in bringing together the members of the corona task force, h. H. S. , c. D. C. , department of transportation and state. This team has been at your direction, mr. President , meeting every day since it was accomplished. My role will be to continue bring that Team Together to bring to the president the best options for action to see to the safety and wellbeing and health of the American People and we will be continuing to reach out to governors, state and local officials. In fact, in recent days, the white house met with over 40 state, county and Health Officials in 30 states in how to respond to the potential threat of the coronavirus. We will be working with them in renewed ways to make sure they have the resources to be able to respond and as the president said, we will be adding additional personnel to support our efforts on the president s behalf and working with members of congress to make sure that the resources are available and we will be working very closely with secretary azar and his team that have done an outstanding job to assure the American People have the best information on ways to protect themselves and their families and the public has the most timely information on the potential threat to the American People. Mr. President , as we have been briefed, while the threat to the American Public remains low, the spread of the could reasono ha virus, you have directed to take all steps to ensure the health and wellbeing of the American People and the American People can be confident under your leadership, we will continue to bring the full resources of the federal government in coordination with our state and local partners to see to the health and wellbeing and Effective Response to the coronavirus here in the United States of america. With that, the president has asked me to recognize the secretary of health and human the director of health services. Thank you, mr. President for gt they aring your Public Health experts in keeping america safe and i want to safe i couldnt be more delated that you asked my old friend and colleague to lead this approach with us under the emergency function number eight. As of today, we have 18 cases that have been detected in the United States. With only one new case detected in the last two weeks. We have three cases among americans repatrioted from wuhan and those who have been stuck on the diamond princess in japan. The president s actions have succeeded in buying us invaluable time. This has helped us to contain the virus and prepare for the need we will need to mitigate broader spread of infections. The president s actions with the the scientific advisers have been appropriate and well calibrated. We are grateful to health care workers, first responders, communities have put into the response. Because of this hard work and the president s leadership the immediate risk has been and continues to below. At the same time, what every one of our experts have been saying for more than a month now remains true. The degree of risk can change quickly and we can expect to see more cases in the United States. We have been reminding the American Public that they should be aware of what a broader response would look like. C. D. C. Has recommended that the American Public and state and local governments, businesses and businesses should refresh themselves how they should respond. And encouraging americans to learn what might be necessary to keep themselves in the community safes. This can help the risk to you and your community low. Americans can find useful. Gov and on at cd drnch working with partners to educate them about preparedness. We have begun working with congress to secure the funding. There are five major priorities that the white house made on monday. These priorities are first, expanding our surveillance network, second, support for state and governments network, third and fourth, therapeutic ccines and fifth, protective masks. T like gowns and i will be providing updates. We have had our top Public Health leaders like those joining me today speaking to the public. The Trump Administration is going to be egress iffle transparent keeping the media apprised of the situation. Ith that, im going to hand it over to the senior career official at the centers for Disease Control the Deputy Director with over 30year career and member of the united corps. Ublic health thank you so much. This has been a difficult and challenging time and our hearts go out to the individuals who have been directly affected by the virus and to all those who have been working tirelessly in responding to it. Our containment strategy here in the United States has been working and responsible for the low level of cases that wetch so far. However, we do expect more cases. And this is a good time to prepare. As you heard, its the perfect time for businesses, health care systems, universities and schools to look at their pandemic preparedness plans and dust them off and we have more information on how to do that but it is a good time for the American Public to prepare and what it means for you. The coronavirus that we are talking about is a respiratory virus and spread in a similar way to the common cold or to flu. It is spread through coughing and sneezes. Those measures we tell people what to do with the flu are important here. Covering your cough, staying home when you are sick and washing your hands. Tried and true, not very exciting measures, but really important ways that you can esent vent the spread of respiratory viruses. The tra recollect ferject tower of what we are looking at is very uncertain but many of the steps we have taken over the past 15 years to prepare for influenza and our experience going through reminds us of the health care systems, our communities and schools may need to take. We are in this all together, government and public and private sector and we want to make sure you have the best Information Available every day. I want to give you a very dr. Update my name is tauchy. Just a very quick update on the countermeasure in the form of vackeeps and they are putics. I have told this audience at a recent press briefing, we had a number of candidates and give you a field of the time frame and what its impact might be now and in subsequent years. We would have a vaccine to see if it induces a response that is protective in three months. I think it will be less than that. It will be probably closer to two months and three months to determine if its safe, which gives us six months. Then you graduate from the trial, which is phase one of 45 people to a trial that involves hundreds to not low thousands of eople to determine efficacy. At the earliest, it will take six to eight months. Although this is the fastest that we have gone from a sequence of a virus to a trial, it mr. Williams not be any applicable to the epidemic unless we wait for a year to a year and a half. That means two things, the answer to containing Public Health measures. We cannot rely on a vaccine from the next several months to a year. This virus which we think it will happen will go beyond a season and come back and recycle next year, if thats the case, we hope to have a vaccine. They are putics, there are a number of antiviral drugs that are being tested. We initiated a randomized control of a drug trial which animal model an and if that is true and drug of standard of care, we will know reason apply soon if it works nd if it does, we will have an effective therapy to distribute. Hadrter mr. President , you aed me we have a medical team that im sure will keep america safe. Mr. President where do we go from here, u. S. And india relations . Reporter we wont talk much about that, i just got back, long flight. Hes a great gentleman, a great leader. Its an incredible country. We were treated very, very well. We really enjoyed it. A lot of tremendous progress was made in terms of relationship. Our relationship is india is extraordinary right now. Well be doing a lot of business with india, theyre sending billions and billions of dollars to the United States. Wed rather talk about this right now. Reporter the c. D. C. Said they believe its inevitable that the virus will spread to the United States and its not a matter of if but when. Do you agree with that . President trump i dont believe its inevitable. Its possible. Could be at a smaller level of a larger level. We have the best people in the world. You see that from the study. We have the best prepared people, the best people in the world. Congress is willing to give us much more than were even asking for, thats nice for a change, but we are totally ready, willing and able. Thats a term we use. Ready, willing and able. Its going to be very well under control. Now it may get a little bigger, may not get bigger at all. Regardless of what happens were totally prepared. Reporter you talked about the travel restrictions from china, at this point has the virus spread at this point, the virus has spread from italy, are you going to restrict from those countries . President trump im the president of the United States. Im not a president of other couldntries. Other countries are very respected for what they do. I want to be responsible for this country. If it means placing a very strong situation on the border so our people cant come in to our country from a country that is infected, were doing that weve done that with countries that are affected. I dont think its right to impose ourselves on others. But if others arent taking care of, if we think theyre doing it incorrectly. Were dealing with world health. C. D. C. Does go around and help other countries, give them recommendations of what to do. Were working on our country, theyre working on their countries. So far its worked out well. Reporter are you considering restricting travel to and from south korea, italy and other countries that have been infected . President trump we may do that, right now its n