The European Union and canada and the uk have all been able to dramatically slow the spread while the u. S. , thats the one in green, is adding tens of thousands of new cases each day. In just minutes dr. Anthony fauci, the nations top Infectious Disease expert, will join us in an exclusive interview to talk about the escalating Coronavirus Crisis in this country. Though its unclear whether he or any Health Experts on the Coronavirus Task force will attend todays briefing. It doesnt seem so, meaning its possible, if not likely, that this event after our show may be less focused on the pandemic and possibly more focused on the president and his reelection campaign, though i guess we shall see. President trump is tweeting that mask and talking about how wearing a mask is patriotic combined with todays event. This comes as white house advisers have sounded the alarm to the president that his poll numbers have been plummeting. Reporter after largely ignoring the surge in new cases, President Trump will revise his daily Coronavirus Briefings today amid questions about whether his Health Experts will join him. Dr. Fauci, will dr. Birx be here . Reporter sources told cnn that as of this morning, no Health Officials were expected to attend. And even they seemed unaware about the plan. Theyre still figuring that out. If they want me there, id be more than happy to be there. And if not thats okay too. As long as we get the message across. Reporter instead, the White House Press secretary said that the president is the one who should be providing information to the nation. Hes the right person to give the information to the American People, and, boy, does he get the information to a lot of the American People during his briefings as noted by the ratings as he himself pointed out. Reporter claiming they were no longer worth the time and effort, trump scrapped the briefings in april after he was widely panned for suggesting that americans use disinfectants to treat covid19. I see the disinfectant that knocks it out. Reporter the president appears to have changed his mind but not necessarily because infections are surging across the u. S. Or because americans are waiting days and sometimes weeks to get test results. We had a good slot and a lot of people were watching and thats a good thing. Reporter sources say trumps sinking poll numbers and inability to hold big rallies are driving his return to the podium. Do you know were not allowed to have a rally in michigan . Do you know were not allowed to have a rally in minnesota . Do you know were not allowed to have a rally in nevada . Were not allowed to have rallies. Reporter today former Vice President joe biden accused trump of ignoring the pandemic. You know, hes quit on you. And hes quit on this country. I think i look better in the mask. Reporter the president s low poll numbers also played a role in his decision to finally encourage americans to wear a mask saying its patriotic and there is nobody more patriotic than me. Just hours later he ignored his own advice during a fundraiser at his nearby hotel where he was seen in a video interacting with supporters without a mask on. The White House Press secretary justified trump going maskless by revealing he is sometimes tested multiple times a day. The president is the most tested man in america. Hes tested more than anyone multiple times a day. And we believe that hes acting appropriately. Reporter now, jake, the white house has been facing questions all day about whether or not the Health Experts are going to show up. So well see if they change their mind from the plan as of this morning. But i do want to note about what the topics could be at this briefing because we were told by sources that when the president was discussing bringing them back, he told his aides that he did not want to solely focus on coronavirus at this briefing. And so thats why on the schedule it doesnt say Coronavirus Task force briefing. It just says the president is going to hold a news conference. All right, Kaitlan Collins at the white house, thanks so much. Joining us right now is dr. Anthony fauci. Dr. Fauci, thanks so much for joining us. So obviously the u. S. Is in the midst of this Public Health emergency. Nearly 4 million confirmed infections. More than 141,000 deaths. I guess my first question is have you been invited to participate in the White House Briefing today . Im assuming that im i think im having some audio problems. Dr. Fauci, okay, dr. Fauci, can you say that again . Were you invited to the briefing today . I was not invited up to this point. Im assuming that im not going to be there because its going to be in just a short while and im still here at the nih. So im assuming its not going to be there. Whens the last time you spoke directly with the president . Oh, i had a good long conversation with him towards the end of last week. I think it mightve been thursday. Okay. So you havent briefed him for today. Since the last president ial Coronavirus Briefing three months ago, were seeing now infections at an alltime high. Hospitalizations are increasing to peak levels. If you were at the briefing today, what would you tell the American People . What should we know . You know what i would say, jake, is what we mentioned the other day when we had the telemeeting with the governors is that there are really some fundamental things, principles that if we implemented that i believe we could turn this around in those Southern States which are getting hit really hard right now with the numbers that you just showed a few moments ago. There are really some key issues. I mean, things like universal wearing of masks, close the bars. Stay physically distant. Outdoors better than indoors, particularly if youre going to have restaurants. Sparsely seat people separated from each other. Wash your hands. Theyre really fundamental things. Its not rocket science. If we all did it uniformly, jake, i believe that we could turn things around because weve shown that when you do those things, particularly the physical distancing and the universal use of masks that you can turn around the kind of surges that were seeing. We are trying to emphasize that. And i hope that gets listened to. Ive also heard Health Experts say in addition to everything you just laid out that the u. S. Needs to identify and isolate the virus so as to keep people from spreading it. And that would require, it seems, a National Campaign of much more aggressive testing, quicker turnaround time for results, and detailed Contact Tracing. If somebody tests positive, you find out everybody they came in contact with the previous week or so. Do you have any idea why the federal government is not attempting a Manhattan Project like approach to this going after the virus that way through testing and quick results and Contact Tracing . Well, there certainly are attempts to do that. But we still have to make it better, jake. One of the things that i hear when i call up colleagues that i know that are in the trenches is one of the things that is an issue that we need to do better in. Some places are getting it right. But others the time frame from when you get a test to the time you get the result back is sometimes measured in a few days. If thats the case, it kind of negates the purpose of the Contact Tracing. Because if you dont know if that person gets the results back, at a period of time thats reasonable 24 hours, 48 hours at the most, when you get to six or seven days, that kind of really mitigates against getting a good tracing and a good isolation. So weve got to do better on that. So, i guess the question is how then do we do better on that . Some of these labs are federal labs. And so theoretically the federal government could put more money into them, buy more supplies, hire more staff. Some of them are private labs, which means that President Trump is the only one who has the power to invoke the defense production act and require more equipment to go to those labs and require that those labs hire more people as an official act. Is it going to take the federal government doing something about it . I mean, because were six months into this. And testing results still take far too long as even the testings are admiral giroir acknowledged. Is it gone ka take an act like that to increase the speed . Well, im not sure what it would take, jake. But certainly we need to do better when it comes to that. There are certain things that are being done quite well in certain areas and others not. It really is patchy. It isnt as uniform as we would like, that every single state, city, every county, every place where we need it is doing it at exactly the same level. As a whole we need to improve it. We know we need to do that. But youre the Head NationalInfectious Diseases expert. You have an idea of how federal labs are working. You talk to people who are in the trenches. What are they telling you . Do they need more money so they can buy more equipment and hire more people to do the lab testing . I mean, whats the story as to the lag time . Because, as you note, thats a real problem. If i get tested on a monday and i dont find out until saturday that im negative or positive, thats a whole week lost. Yeah. Well, it differs from whom you speak to, jake. As i said, i talk to people in different places, be it new orleans or florida or any of the other different places. And it really differs. One of the common denominators is that when you get surges like youre seeing now, it kind of overwhelms the system a bit and even places that were getting tests that were back in an expedited manner, now were having trouble because there are a lot. So, just the number of tests that you do doesnt always give you a right reflection of how well things are working or not. You really got to make a smooth transition, as it were, from having a certain level of testing to racheting it up and still getting the results back on time. So its been a difficult situation. People are trying as best as they can. But as i said we need to do better, particularly when youre dealing with the surges that were seeing now in some of the Southern States. The president today insisted that the u. S. Is doing great when it comes to handling this virus compared to the rest of the world. Empirically, thats not true. The u. S. Is currently, according to official numbers, the Global Leader in cases, the Global Leader in deaths for contacts. The u. S. Has about 4 to 5 of the worlds population. 4 to 5 of the worlds population. But we have about 25 of the worlds covid19 deaths. This weekend President Trump called you an alarmist. I know you dont like to get involved with tit for tats with the president , but do you think you are an alarmist . People have their opinion about my reaction to things. I consider myself more a realist than an alarmist. But people do have their opinions other than that. Ive always thought of myself as a realist when it comes to this. Four vaccine candidates have shown promise turning to some more positive news. And those four vaccines are now headed into large human trials. You have long expressed hope that a viable vaccine could be ready for the first stages of distribution by the end of this year or the beginning of next. Do you still believe that . And is there one of these vaccines that you are more hopeful about than the others . Well, i certainly still believe that, jake. I think the timetable that weve discussed now over the past several months luckily and fortunately is really worked out okay. The results of several of the phase one trials of different candidates not only one, im reluctant to point out one thats going to be better than the other because the proof of the pudding is whether it actually works in the field and is a safe and effective vaccine. But the good news is that theres more than one candidate out there, and theyre going to be entering into a broader phase three trial to truly determine efficacy and also continued work on safety. One of them is going to go into phase three trial at the end of this month, at the end of july. And thats something that we hope over a period of several months since its going to be a large trial of 30,000 individuals, 30,000 volunteers, that with the degree of infection that is still ongoing in the community, we feel well be able to get an answer in the timetable that you just mentioned towards the end of this calendar year and in the very beginning of 2021. When we get that, i believe and im cautiously optimistic about it, that we will have a vaccine that well be able to start distributing to people in this country. Dr. Peter hotez, professor and dean at Baylor College of medicine, one of your proteges, he is warning people that the first vaccines might not be the best vaccines. Do you think theoretically people should wait to get the best vaccine, that there might be some wisdom in that . A good point. And the answer to that is a resounding no. And ill explain why, jake. Because a vaccine will not be approved by the fda unless it clearly shows that its safe and its effective. So, if the first candidate that reaches socalled finish line, that doesnt mean its the only candidate. But i would not wait to see if one was better than another. Because the very fact that it get approved by the fda means that its good enough to protect you. The relative percentage of how good its going to be, you may get one vaccine thats a bit better than the other. But i would say that some protection by a vaccine is certainly better than no protection. So, i like the idea about there being multiple candidates in the queue. And i hope that we do get approval of more than one candidate because we need a lot of vaccine, not only for people in the United States but for the rest of the world. So were hoping for a more than one winner. And when the first one comes out, if its available, i would encourage people to get vaccinated. Today we learned that President Trump is tested multiple times a day. Thats what the White House Press secretary said. How often should a president be tested . Well, it depends on the circumstances and to whom the person was exposed. When i go to the white house, you dont really go in particularly if youre going to see the Vice President or the president without getting tested. So i went down there yesterday for a certain period of time, and i got tested. So, i mean, you get tested in order to make sure that you protect the president for the obvious reasons, he is the president of the United States. Its extremely important that he stays protected. Lets turn to the return to school, which is obviously on the mind of lots of parents and teachers and children across the country. Education secretary betsy devos and the president have insisted that schools across the country need to reopen. Have you spoken to them about your recommendations and your concerns about every school taking all children in for inperson learning even if the virus is still spreading out of control . Jake, i have not specifically spoken to the president or to secretary devos about that. But we have discussed this in the presence of the Vice President at the Coronavirus Task force meetings. Because this is obviously a very important problem. You know, in everyone when i think about that, i want to take a 40,000foot look and say as a fundamental principle, i do agree that we should try as best as we possibly can to get the children back to school because of the welldocumented secondary downstream ripple effects that are negative, particularly on the patien the parents and the children. So if you agree that the general principle is to try as best as you can to get the children back to school, i think you have to put that in the context that an important issue in that is to make sure you do whatever you can to safeguard the safety and the health of the children as well as the teachers. And that should guide your policy. Just say, i would be delighted to send my kids back to school. Remote learning is horrible, especially for younger kids. Its just not the way that kids are supposed to learn. But obviously i also dont want to risk their lives or risk them picking up an Infectious Disease that spreads to me and my wife or their grandparents, et cetera. And this is where i come down. I dont understand why if its so important to our federal leadership that kids go back to school, and i agree with the principle as you do why we dont have testing up to speed so that the day before school kids can all get tested. Teachers can all get tested. Administrators and custodians can all get tested and then there could be tests at the school every two weeks or so with obviously everybody washing their hands, wearing masks, et cetera. I would feel much more comfortable. And yet what im hearing from the federal leadership is go back to school and nothing along the lines of and heres how were going to protect your children. Well, there are so many different models of that. And i think whats being discussed now, jake, is different types of approaches to do what i just said to adhere to the principle of getting the children back to school. But in order to safeguard them, their health and their welfare as well as the teachers to do some sort of modeling of different versions. And ive heard different versions from different principals and different su