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Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 04-05-2020
Here we go again.
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 6, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
April 5, 2020
6:59 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, thank you very much, everybody. All these people have been working very, very hard today, I’ll tell you. For a long time, they’ve been working.
{snip}
And the other thing that we bought a tremendous amount of is the hydroxychloroquine — hydroxychloroquine — which I think — as you know, it’s a great malaria drug. It’s worked unbelievably. It’s this powerful drug on malaria. And there are signs that it works on this. Some very strong signs. And, in the meantime, it’s been around a long time. It also works very powerfully on lupus. Lupus.
So there are some very strong, powerful signs, and we’ll have to see. Because again, it’s being tested now. This is a new thing that just happened to us — the “invisible enemy,” we call it.
And, if you can, if you have a — no signs of heart problems, the azrithromycin [sic] — azithromycin — which will kill certain things that you don’t want living within your body — it’s powerful drug — if you don’t have a problem, a heart problem, we would say: Let your doctor think about it. But as a combination, I think they’re going to be — I think they’re two things that should be looked at very strongly.
Now, we have purchased and we have stockpiled 29 million pills of the hydroxychloroquine — 29 million. A lot of drugstores have them by prescription, and also — and they’re not expensive. Also, we’re sending them to various labs, our military. We’re sending them to the hospitals. We’re sending them all over.
I just think it’s something — you know the expression, I’ve used it for certain reasons: “What do you have to lose?” What do you have to lose? And a lot of people are saying that when — and are taking it — if you’re a doctor, a nurse, a first responder, a medical person going into hospitals, they say taking it before the fact is good. But what do you have to lose? They say, “Take it.”
I’m not looking at it one way or the other, but we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early. But we have some very good signs. So that’s hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.
And, again, you have to go through your medical people, get the approval. But I’ve seen things that I sort of like. So what do I know? I’m not a doctor. I’m not a doctor. But I have common sense. The FDA feels good about it. They’ve — as you know, they’ve approved it. They gave it a rapid approval. And the reason: because it’s been out there for a long time and they know the side effects and they also know the potential. So, based on that, we have sent it throughout the country and we have it stockpiled — about 29 million doses. Twenty-nine million doses. We have a lot of it. We hope it works.
Driven by the goal of the brightest minds in science — we have the brightest minds in science, but we’re driven by the goal of getting rid of this plague, getting rid of this scourge, getting rid of this virus. These brilliant minds are working on the most effective antiviral therapies and vaccines. We are working very, very hard. I have met many of the doctors that are doing it. These are doctors that are working so hard on vanquishing the virus.
{snip}
But we’re going to take care of our workers. We’re going to take care of our citizens. We’re going to take care of our small businesses. We’re going to take care of our large businesses: the airplane industry, the — the airline industry. A lot of great industries that we have that are in trouble because of what took place over the last short period of time.
These are industries that were doing better — for the most part, doing better than ever. The airlines were doing great. Oil was doing great — oil and gas. And the energy industry was doing phenomenally well, and it got hit like nobody has ever been hit before. Just about like no industry has ever been hit before. There’s never been anything like this.
But we see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening. Things are happening. We’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. And hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be very proud of the job we all did. We can never be happy when so many people are dying, but we’re going to be very proud of the job we did to keep the death down to an absolute minimum — the least it could have happened with this terrible, terrible virus.
{snip}
REAR ADMIRAL POLOWCZYK: Thank you, sir. What I thought I would do is update on the average first, and then follow up on Dr. Birx and how we’re geographically aligning the supply chain.
{snip}
We’re also working to push out millions of doses of hydrochlor- —
THE PRESIDENT: Hydroxy.
REAR ADMIRAL POLOWCZYK: Hydroxychlorine [sic]. Right.
{snip}
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. And you all have just heard from several members of the President’s White House Coronavirus Task Force, and we are — we are truly blessed to have the kind of leadership that we have.
And whether it be Admiral Polowczyk, who is organizing the distribution of tens of millions of supplies; whether it be Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci, who are analyzing the data literally hour by hour; or whether it be that whole-of-government approach that you stood up, Mr. President, calling on every agency of government, including the VA, HHS, and every agency — I hope the American people know, at this President’s direction, we are — we are sparing no expense. We are doing whatever it takes. We’re marshaling the full resources of the federal government to respond to the challenges facing communities impacted today by the coronavirus and making sure every community in America has the support.
We’ve also — as the President has said so many times, we forged a seamless partnership with states around the country. As the President just reflected, by this Tuesday, with another 840 military medical personnel arriving in New York City, there will be some 3,000 Department of Defense and HHS personnel on the ground to supplement and to provide relief to healthcare workers, really, at the epicenter of the coronavirus in the New York City area. And you just heard the VA is opening up — opening up bed space.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, as President of the United States, your words carry enormous weight in this country and around the world. And while you acknowledge you’re not a physician, you do promote these medicines extensively here. How do you not go so far as to be giving medical advice? And you said, yesterday, you might take some of these medicines, even though you don’t have symptoms. Are you still planning to do that? And how do you calibrate being enthusiastic —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — and not playing doctor?
THE PRESIDENT: Because I want people to live and I’m seeing people dying. And I see people that are going to die without it. And you know the expression. When that’s happening, they should do it. What really do we have to lose?
We also have — this medicine has been tested for many years for malaria and for lupus, so it’s been out there. So it’s a very strong, powerful medicine, but it doesn’t kill people. We have some very good results and some very good tests. You’ve seen the same test that I have.
Q But for those without symptoms, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: In France, they had a very good test; they’re continuing. But we don’t have time to go and say, “Gee, let’s take a couple of years and test it out. And let’s go and test with the test tubes and the laboratories.” We don’t have time. I’d love to do that. But we have people dying today. As we speak, there are people dying. If it works, that would be great. If it doesn’t work — we know, for many years, malaria, it — it’s incredible what it’s done for malaria; it’s incredible what it’s done for lupus. But it doesn’t kill people.
That’s one of the things with a vaccine. When we have a vaccine, we have to do tests because when you inject that vaccine, when they take whatever ever it is they have to take, we have to make sure it doesn’t have a horrible impact, destroy somebody. Good? So we have to test it for a long period of time. This one, not so much because it’s been out there.
Now, I’m not acting as a doctor. I’m saying, “Do what you want, but there are some good signs.” You’ve read the signs, I’ve read the signs. With the other one, there’s some very good signs also. Different — going together works very well. But there may be an indication that if you have a problem with your heart, you shouldn’t take what we call the Z-Pak. You shouldn’t take it, and that’s okay.
But I would love to go to a laboratory and spend a couple of years testing something. We don’t have time. We don’t have two hours, because there are people dying right now. If it does help, great. If it doesn’t help, we gave it a shot. We gave it a shot. That’s the way I feel.
Q Were you serious about taking it, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: You know, we passed something — yeah, I would — I would be very serious about taking it.
We passed something that I’m very proud of. It’s called Right to Try. For 45, 50 years, they’ve been trying. It makes so much sense. We have the greatest doctors and labs and lab technicians, the greatest medicines, the greatest minds in the world. Everybody admits it. And when we’re close to having something, or when we have something that tests incredibly well, you couldn’t use it for years because they would take years and years to test.
So with the help of also Democrats — I got it bipartisan, but they’ve been trying to get this passed for — for decades. You know that. It’s called Right to Try. So a person would be diagnosed terminally ill from something. And in the old days, meaning before a year ago, they would say, “Do you think I could try this — this pill, this whatever, this medicine that’s testing so well?” “No, you can’t do that. You can’t do that under no circumstances.” They’d leave for Asia, they’d leave for Europe, they’d leave for — if they had money. If they had no money, they’d go home and die with no hope.
We got a thing called Right to Try. If somebody is very ill, terminally ill, they’re going to die. They — and it was very complex. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds because there were huge liability problems. The drug companies didn’t want to do it because they didn’t want it on test results — because these are very sick people, so they didn’t want to bring down their test results. The insurance companies had tremendous problems.
I got everybody in the room, I said, “Look, we’ll sign a waiver.” The person taking it will say, “We’re not going to sue.” The family is not going to sue the drug company, not going to sue the insurance company, not going to sue the state, the city, or the federal government. Okay? It’s called “exculpation.” And we got it done. It’s a very simple agreement. I don’t know why nobody ever thought of it, but they never thought of it. I did. And we got it done.
Now we have Right to Try, which is actually, in my opinion, much more difficult than what we’re talking about here. But if there’s a medicine or something, a possible cure, or something that’s looking good and somebody has something that’s going — they’re going to die or they’re very sick, they take it. And, you know, we’ve had some unbelievable results. Unbelievable results. And it also gives the people hope.
Yes, please.
Q Mr. President, but the doctors who are treating coronavirus patients, they have the medical expertise to determine whether or not they should prescribe hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s true. And many of them do.
Q And there are already clinical trials in place —
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q — looking at hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q So, why not —
THE PRESIDENT: They should be finished in about a year.
Q Why not just let the science speak for itself? Why are you promoting this drug?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m not. I’m not. I’m just saying —
Q You’re coming out —
THE PRESIDENT: — very simply. I’m not at all. I’m not.
Look, you know what I’m trying to do? I’m trying to save lives.
Q Well, you come out here every day — right, sir? — talking about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: I want them to try it. And it may work, and it may not work. But if it doesn’t work, it’s nothing lost by doing it. Nothing.
Q What do you —
THE PRESIDENT: Because we know — long term, what I want, I want to save lives. And I don’t want it to be in a lab for the next year and a half as people are dying all over the place.
Q But it’s already out there. Doctors are already able to prescribe it off label.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.
Q Right? So what do you accomplish?
THE PRESIDENT: All I’m doing is saying — well, I’ll tell you what I accomplish. We bought massive amounts of it — 29 million doses of it. We have it coming from all of the labs. We’re actually now doing it here, because in case it does work, we want to have it. And we’ve given it to drugstores, we’re — we’re sending it all over. FEMA is doing it. FEMA is doing it. We’re doing it through different channels, many different channels, including the companies that make it.
Q So you —
THE PRESIDENT: It’s a very special thing. Now, it may not work, in which case, hey, it didn’t work. And it may work, in which case, it’s going to save a lot of lives. Now, a lot of people say, if the people walking in prior to getting it, if they take it, it has a profound effect. Well, maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t.
Q Where is the conclusive medical evidence of that, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t want to wait a year and a half to find out.
And only CNN would ask that question. Fake news.
Go ahead.
Q Sir, I have one for you on oil —
THE PRESIDENT: A bunch of fakers.
{snip}
Q Thank you, sir. I wanted to follow up on the hydroxy question. Thanks for the numbers. Has there been any tension with the medical staff on that? Are they in agreement with all these numbers?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, we — we discussed it with the staff. We discussed it with FDA. Well, the FDA approved it. So, you know — which is another point. I mean it’s been approved by FDA, which is very important. If it wasn’t approved by FDA, then I couldn’t do this. But FDA has approved it, the hydroxy.
Q And also, if this turns out not to work, are hospitals and doctors going to be exculpatory from the federal government under the Right to Try?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’ll see if it works. No, it’s not going to — it’s not going to hurt people. It can help them, but it’s not going to hurt them. That’s the beauty of it, you see. It can help them, but it’s not going to hurt them. What do you have to lose?
{snip}
Q Yeah, thank you, sir. On infrastructure spending, as you have remarked —
THE PRESIDENT: I actually choose you, but that’s okay.
Q Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll let —
THE PRESIDENT: I’ll let him go. That’s all right. Go ahead.
Q Thank you. On infrastructure, you have remarked about how empty the roads are. Is there any thought, is there any way to speed up infrastructure? I mean, the beltway in Washington, it takes forever to do any road repairs, because of all the traffic —
THE PRESIDENT: No, I know. And because they don’t do construction techniques that work and that are better. I mean, I see a highway and that’s — which is what I do. I do construction — what I did.
I see highway that’s good but it’s got a bad top, and it’s got a big base — concrete base underneath. And I’ll see them come in — I don’t want to say where, but I could tell you; I could give you plenty of examples — and they rip the hell out of it. They take out the base. They take out everything. Now they pour a new base that isn’t as good, isn’t as deep, isn’t as thick. The concrete base was fantastic — the footing. It takes forever.
Q What I mean is —
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute. It takes forever. And instead of scraping out the asphalt, or whatever may be the top — scraping it off and putting the new asphalt down, putting the new median in. They could have done it.
And then they open the highway and it starts to crack. The reason is because it hasn’t been set. And they spend 10, 15, 20 times more money than they have to. I never believe, when I watch these people doing highways and doing roadways and doing work, how they take the most expensive solution. And the bottom line: The job itself is far worse.
Q So that’s — that’s what I’m getting at, is taking advantage of the fact that so many people are staying at home —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — not on the roads. Is there a way to do it more cheaply and efficiently?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, yeah, but hopefully they’re not going to be staying at home for long. Hopefully, this will be out and we’re not going to have that kind of time. If we have that kind of time, we made a big mistake.
Please, go ahead.
{snip}
Q And does the buck stop with you next, sir? Is that what has happened?
THE PRESIDENT: To do what we’ve been able to do and to build it to a level, it should have taken a year. It should’ve taken two years. They did it in a matter of weeks. And we’re helping states.
No, it’s them. As an example, New York had the right to buy 16,000 ventilators. They could have bought them. They didn’t. I understand why they didn’t. It was a very expensive purchase. You know, a very expensive — and that’s a lot: 16,000. And they chose to do something else with their money. I understand that. The problem is when something like this comes along, which you don’t expect.
Look, 1917 — that’s a long time ago — perhaps 100 million people died. That’s a long time ago. So people don’t think it’s going to happen. I would have, frankly — I mean, did anybody in this room think a thing like this could happen? But it happened. And we built up a force. This is a military operation, as it turned out — it really is — with FEMA, with the Army Corps of Engineers.
{snip}
Q Dr. Fauci, how many additional asymptomatic cases do you think there are currently in the United States? There’s 330,000 more confirmed cases. How many asymptomatic, given what we’ve learned in recent days?
DR. FAUCI: You know, we don’t know. And even among us, good friends that we are — (laughs) — we — we differ about that. I mean, it’s somewhere between 25 and 50 percent.
Q More than —
DR. FAUCI: Yeah. Yeah, in other words, about the people —
Q — the current level?
DR. FAUCI: Yeah, about the people that are out there. Yeah.
And trust me, that is a estimate. I don’t have any scientific data yet to say that. You know when we’ll get the scientific data, when we get those antibody tests out there and we really know what the penetrance is. Then we can answer the questions in a scientifically sound way. Right now, we’re just guessing.
THE PRESIDENT: And we’ve made great progress with the antibody testing. Fantastic progress.
DR. FAUCI: Right.
Q And would you also weigh in on this issue of hydroxychloroquine? What do you think about this? And what is the — what is the medical evidence?
THE PRESIDENT: Do you know how many times you’ve answered that question?
DR. FAUCI: Yeah —
Q But I’d love to hear from the doctor.
THE PRESIDENT: Maybe 15. Fifteen times. You don’t have to ask the question.
Q He’s — he’s your medical expert, correct?
THE PRESIDENT: He’s answered that question 15 times.
Q Dr. Fauci, why are you not wearing a facemask?
DR. FAUCI: What do you mean? Why am I not wearing a face mask now? Okay, there are a couple of reasons. One of them is that part of the — in fact, the major reason to wear a facemask is to protect you from infecting you. I had my test yesterday, and it’s negative.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
DR. FAUCI: Okay.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a very — a very good answer. All right, I think that really could be it. That was a very — I love that answer, especially on the facemask. I thought it was very good.
Go ahead.
Q Sir, on the equipment issue, records show that federal agencies did not begin —
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, stop it.
Q — did not begin —
THE PRESIDENT: Who are you with? By the way, who are you with?
Q With the Associated Press, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Who you with?
Q The Associated Press. Agencies didn’t begin bulk —
THE PRESIDENT: That’s another beautiful — that’s another beautiful (inaudible) —
Q — bulk purchases of respirators and N95 masks until mid-March.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you ready? Are you ready? Let me just
answer your question because I know exactly — you know, the same question you ask all the time. Ready?
Q It’s the first time I’ve asked this, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: They have done an unbelievable job in delivering —
For the Associated Press, which is, you know, not so great, not like it used to be.
The people that you’re looking at — FEMA, the military — what they’ve done is a miracle. What they’ve done is a miracle in getting all of this stuff. What they’ve done for states is incredible. And you should be thanking them for what they’ve done, not always asking wise-guy questions.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you.
END
8:21 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 6, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
April 5, 2020
6:59 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, thank you very much, everybody. All these people have been working very, very hard today, I’ll tell you. For a long time, they’ve been working.
{snip}
And the other thing that we bought a tremendous amount of is the hydroxychloroquine — hydroxychloroquine — which I think — as you know, it’s a great malaria drug. It’s worked unbelievably. It’s this powerful drug on malaria. And there are signs that it works on this. Some very strong signs. And, in the meantime, it’s been around a long time. It also works very powerfully on lupus. Lupus.
So there are some very strong, powerful signs, and we’ll have to see. Because again, it’s being tested now. This is a new thing that just happened to us — the “invisible enemy,” we call it.
And, if you can, if you have a — no signs of heart problems, the azrithromycin [sic] — azithromycin — which will kill certain things that you don’t want living within your body — it’s powerful drug — if you don’t have a problem, a heart problem, we would say: Let your doctor think about it. But as a combination, I think they’re going to be — I think they’re two things that should be looked at very strongly.
Now, we have purchased and we have stockpiled 29 million pills of the hydroxychloroquine — 29 million. A lot of drugstores have them by prescription, and also — and they’re not expensive. Also, we’re sending them to various labs, our military. We’re sending them to the hospitals. We’re sending them all over.
I just think it’s something — you know the expression, I’ve used it for certain reasons: “What do you have to lose?” What do you have to lose? And a lot of people are saying that when — and are taking it — if you’re a doctor, a nurse, a first responder, a medical person going into hospitals, they say taking it before the fact is good. But what do you have to lose? They say, “Take it.”
I’m not looking at it one way or the other, but we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early. But we have some very good signs. So that’s hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.
And, again, you have to go through your medical people, get the approval. But I’ve seen things that I sort of like. So what do I know? I’m not a doctor. I’m not a doctor. But I have common sense. The FDA feels good about it. They’ve — as you know, they’ve approved it. They gave it a rapid approval. And the reason: because it’s been out there for a long time and they know the side effects and they also know the potential. So, based on that, we have sent it throughout the country and we have it stockpiled — about 29 million doses. Twenty-nine million doses. We have a lot of it. We hope it works.
Driven by the goal of the brightest minds in science — we have the brightest minds in science, but we’re driven by the goal of getting rid of this plague, getting rid of this scourge, getting rid of this virus. These brilliant minds are working on the most effective antiviral therapies and vaccines. We are working very, very hard. I have met many of the doctors that are doing it. These are doctors that are working so hard on vanquishing the virus.
{snip}
But we’re going to take care of our workers. We’re going to take care of our citizens. We’re going to take care of our small businesses. We’re going to take care of our large businesses: the airplane industry, the — the airline industry. A lot of great industries that we have that are in trouble because of what took place over the last short period of time.
These are industries that were doing better — for the most part, doing better than ever. The airlines were doing great. Oil was doing great — oil and gas. And the energy industry was doing phenomenally well, and it got hit like nobody has ever been hit before. Just about like no industry has ever been hit before. There’s never been anything like this.
But we see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening. Things are happening. We’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. And hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be very proud of the job we all did. We can never be happy when so many people are dying, but we’re going to be very proud of the job we did to keep the death down to an absolute minimum — the least it could have happened with this terrible, terrible virus.
{snip}
REAR ADMIRAL POLOWCZYK: Thank you, sir. What I thought I would do is update on the average first, and then follow up on Dr. Birx and how we’re geographically aligning the supply chain.
{snip}
We’re also working to push out millions of doses of hydrochlor- —
THE PRESIDENT: Hydroxy.
REAR ADMIRAL POLOWCZYK: Hydroxychlorine [sic]. Right.
{snip}
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. And you all have just heard from several members of the President’s White House Coronavirus Task Force, and we are — we are truly blessed to have the kind of leadership that we have.
And whether it be Admiral Polowczyk, who is organizing the distribution of tens of millions of supplies; whether it be Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci, who are analyzing the data literally hour by hour; or whether it be that whole-of-government approach that you stood up, Mr. President, calling on every agency of government, including the VA, HHS, and every agency — I hope the American people know, at this President’s direction, we are — we are sparing no expense. We are doing whatever it takes. We’re marshaling the full resources of the federal government to respond to the challenges facing communities impacted today by the coronavirus and making sure every community in America has the support.
We’ve also — as the President has said so many times, we forged a seamless partnership with states around the country. As the President just reflected, by this Tuesday, with another 840 military medical personnel arriving in New York City, there will be some 3,000 Department of Defense and HHS personnel on the ground to supplement and to provide relief to healthcare workers, really, at the epicenter of the coronavirus in the New York City area. And you just heard the VA is opening up — opening up bed space.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, as President of the United States, your words carry enormous weight in this country and around the world. And while you acknowledge you’re not a physician, you do promote these medicines extensively here. How do you not go so far as to be giving medical advice? And you said, yesterday, you might take some of these medicines, even though you don’t have symptoms. Are you still planning to do that? And how do you calibrate being enthusiastic —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — and not playing doctor?
THE PRESIDENT: Because I want people to live and I’m seeing people dying. And I see people that are going to die without it. And you know the expression. When that’s happening, they should do it. What really do we have to lose?
We also have — this medicine has been tested for many years for malaria and for lupus, so it’s been out there. So it’s a very strong, powerful medicine, but it doesn’t kill people. We have some very good results and some very good tests. You’ve seen the same test that I have.
Q But for those without symptoms, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: In France, they had a very good test; they’re continuing. But we don’t have time to go and say, “Gee, let’s take a couple of years and test it out. And let’s go and test with the test tubes and the laboratories.” We don’t have time. I’d love to do that. But we have people dying today. As we speak, there are people dying. If it works, that would be great. If it doesn’t work — we know, for many years, malaria, it — it’s incredible what it’s done for malaria; it’s incredible what it’s done for lupus. But it doesn’t kill people.
That’s one of the things with a vaccine. When we have a vaccine, we have to do tests because when you inject that vaccine, when they take whatever ever it is they have to take, we have to make sure it doesn’t have a horrible impact, destroy somebody. Good? So we have to test it for a long period of time. This one, not so much because it’s been out there.
Now, I’m not acting as a doctor. I’m saying, “Do what you want, but there are some good signs.” You’ve read the signs, I’ve read the signs. With the other one, there’s some very good signs also. Different — going together works very well. But there may be an indication that if you have a problem with your heart, you shouldn’t take what we call the Z-Pak. You shouldn’t take it, and that’s okay.
But I would love to go to a laboratory and spend a couple of years testing something. We don’t have time. We don’t have two hours, because there are people dying right now. If it does help, great. If it doesn’t help, we gave it a shot. We gave it a shot. That’s the way I feel.
Q Were you serious about taking it, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: You know, we passed something — yeah, I would — I would be very serious about taking it.
We passed something that I’m very proud of. It’s called Right to Try. For 45, 50 years, they’ve been trying. It makes so much sense. We have the greatest doctors and labs and lab technicians, the greatest medicines, the greatest minds in the world. Everybody admits it. And when we’re close to having something, or when we have something that tests incredibly well, you couldn’t use it for years because they would take years and years to test.
So with the help of also Democrats — I got it bipartisan, but they’ve been trying to get this passed for — for decades. You know that. It’s called Right to Try. So a person would be diagnosed terminally ill from something. And in the old days, meaning before a year ago, they would say, “Do you think I could try this — this pill, this whatever, this medicine that’s testing so well?” “No, you can’t do that. You can’t do that under no circumstances.” They’d leave for Asia, they’d leave for Europe, they’d leave for — if they had money. If they had no money, they’d go home and die with no hope.
We got a thing called Right to Try. If somebody is very ill, terminally ill, they’re going to die. They — and it was very complex. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds because there were huge liability problems. The drug companies didn’t want to do it because they didn’t want it on test results — because these are very sick people, so they didn’t want to bring down their test results. The insurance companies had tremendous problems.
I got everybody in the room, I said, “Look, we’ll sign a waiver.” The person taking it will say, “We’re not going to sue.” The family is not going to sue the drug company, not going to sue the insurance company, not going to sue the state, the city, or the federal government. Okay? It’s called “exculpation.” And we got it done. It’s a very simple agreement. I don’t know why nobody ever thought of it, but they never thought of it. I did. And we got it done.
Now we have Right to Try, which is actually, in my opinion, much more difficult than what we’re talking about here. But if there’s a medicine or something, a possible cure, or something that’s looking good and somebody has something that’s going — they’re going to die or they’re very sick, they take it. And, you know, we’ve had some unbelievable results. Unbelievable results. And it also gives the people hope.
Yes, please.
Q Mr. President, but the doctors who are treating coronavirus patients, they have the medical expertise to determine whether or not they should prescribe hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s true. And many of them do.
Q And there are already clinical trials in place —
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q — looking at hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q So, why not —
THE PRESIDENT: They should be finished in about a year.
Q Why not just let the science speak for itself? Why are you promoting this drug?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m not. I’m not. I’m just saying —
Q You’re coming out —
THE PRESIDENT: — very simply. I’m not at all. I’m not.
Look, you know what I’m trying to do? I’m trying to save lives.
Q Well, you come out here every day — right, sir? — talking about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: I want them to try it. And it may work, and it may not work. But if it doesn’t work, it’s nothing lost by doing it. Nothing.
Q What do you —
THE PRESIDENT: Because we know — long term, what I want, I want to save lives. And I don’t want it to be in a lab for the next year and a half as people are dying all over the place.
Q But it’s already out there. Doctors are already able to prescribe it off label.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.
Q Right? So what do you accomplish?
THE PRESIDENT: All I’m doing is saying — well, I’ll tell you what I accomplish. We bought massive amounts of it — 29 million doses of it. We have it coming from all of the labs. We’re actually now doing it here, because in case it does work, we want to have it. And we’ve given it to drugstores, we’re — we’re sending it all over. FEMA is doing it. FEMA is doing it. We’re doing it through different channels, many different channels, including the companies that make it.
Q So you —
THE PRESIDENT: It’s a very special thing. Now, it may not work, in which case, hey, it didn’t work. And it may work, in which case, it’s going to save a lot of lives. Now, a lot of people say, if the people walking in prior to getting it, if they take it, it has a profound effect. Well, maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t.
Q Where is the conclusive medical evidence of that, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t want to wait a year and a half to find out.
And only CNN would ask that question. Fake news.
Go ahead.
Q Sir, I have one for you on oil —
THE PRESIDENT: A bunch of fakers.
{snip}
Q Thank you, sir. I wanted to follow up on the hydroxy question. Thanks for the numbers. Has there been any tension with the medical staff on that? Are they in agreement with all these numbers?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, we — we discussed it with the staff. We discussed it with FDA. Well, the FDA approved it. So, you know — which is another point. I mean it’s been approved by FDA, which is very important. If it wasn’t approved by FDA, then I couldn’t do this. But FDA has approved it, the hydroxy.
Q And also, if this turns out not to work, are hospitals and doctors going to be exculpatory from the federal government under the Right to Try?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’ll see if it works. No, it’s not going to — it’s not going to hurt people. It can help them, but it’s not going to hurt them. That’s the beauty of it, you see. It can help them, but it’s not going to hurt them. What do you have to lose?
{snip}
Q Yeah, thank you, sir. On infrastructure spending, as you have remarked —
THE PRESIDENT: I actually choose you, but that’s okay.
Q Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll let —
THE PRESIDENT: I’ll let him go. That’s all right. Go ahead.
Q Thank you. On infrastructure, you have remarked about how empty the roads are. Is there any thought, is there any way to speed up infrastructure? I mean, the beltway in Washington, it takes forever to do any road repairs, because of all the traffic —
THE PRESIDENT: No, I know. And because they don’t do construction techniques that work and that are better. I mean, I see a highway and that’s — which is what I do. I do construction — what I did.
I see highway that’s good but it’s got a bad top, and it’s got a big base — concrete base underneath. And I’ll see them come in — I don’t want to say where, but I could tell you; I could give you plenty of examples — and they rip the hell out of it. They take out the base. They take out everything. Now they pour a new base that isn’t as good, isn’t as deep, isn’t as thick. The concrete base was fantastic — the footing. It takes forever.
Q What I mean is —
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute. It takes forever. And instead of scraping out the asphalt, or whatever may be the top — scraping it off and putting the new asphalt down, putting the new median in. They could have done it.
And then they open the highway and it starts to crack. The reason is because it hasn’t been set. And they spend 10, 15, 20 times more money than they have to. I never believe, when I watch these people doing highways and doing roadways and doing work, how they take the most expensive solution. And the bottom line: The job itself is far worse.
Q So that’s — that’s what I’m getting at, is taking advantage of the fact that so many people are staying at home —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — not on the roads. Is there a way to do it more cheaply and efficiently?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, yeah, but hopefully they’re not going to be staying at home for long. Hopefully, this will be out and we’re not going to have that kind of time. If we have that kind of time, we made a big mistake.
Please, go ahead.
{snip}
Q And does the buck stop with you next, sir? Is that what has happened?
THE PRESIDENT: To do what we’ve been able to do and to build it to a level, it should have taken a year. It should’ve taken two years. They did it in a matter of weeks. And we’re helping states.
No, it’s them. As an example, New York had the right to buy 16,000 ventilators. They could have bought them. They didn’t. I understand why they didn’t. It was a very expensive purchase. You know, a very expensive — and that’s a lot: 16,000. And they chose to do something else with their money. I understand that. The problem is when something like this comes along, which you don’t expect.
Look, 1917 — that’s a long time ago — perhaps 100 million people died. That’s a long time ago. So people don’t think it’s going to happen. I would have, frankly — I mean, did anybody in this room think a thing like this could happen? But it happened. And we built up a force. This is a military operation, as it turned out — it really is — with FEMA, with the Army Corps of Engineers.
{snip}
Q Dr. Fauci, how many additional asymptomatic cases do you think there are currently in the United States? There’s 330,000 more confirmed cases. How many asymptomatic, given what we’ve learned in recent days?
DR. FAUCI: You know, we don’t know. And even among us, good friends that we are — (laughs) — we — we differ about that. I mean, it’s somewhere between 25 and 50 percent.
Q More than —
DR. FAUCI: Yeah. Yeah, in other words, about the people —
Q — the current level?
DR. FAUCI: Yeah, about the people that are out there. Yeah.
And trust me, that is a estimate. I don’t have any scientific data yet to say that. You know when we’ll get the scientific data, when we get those antibody tests out there and we really know what the penetrance is. Then we can answer the questions in a scientifically sound way. Right now, we’re just guessing.
THE PRESIDENT: And we’ve made great progress with the antibody testing. Fantastic progress.
DR. FAUCI: Right.
Q And would you also weigh in on this issue of hydroxychloroquine? What do you think about this? And what is the — what is the medical evidence?
THE PRESIDENT: Do you know how many times you’ve answered that question?
DR. FAUCI: Yeah —
Q But I’d love to hear from the doctor.
THE PRESIDENT: Maybe 15. Fifteen times. You don’t have to ask the question.
Q He’s — he’s your medical expert, correct?
THE PRESIDENT: He’s answered that question 15 times.
Q Dr. Fauci, why are you not wearing a facemask?
DR. FAUCI: What do you mean? Why am I not wearing a face mask now? Okay, there are a couple of reasons. One of them is that part of the — in fact, the major reason to wear a facemask is to protect you from infecting you. I had my test yesterday, and it’s negative.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
DR. FAUCI: Okay.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a very — a very good answer. All right, I think that really could be it. That was a very — I love that answer, especially on the facemask. I thought it was very good.
Go ahead.
Q Sir, on the equipment issue, records show that federal agencies did not begin —
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, stop it.
Q — did not begin —
THE PRESIDENT: Who are you with? By the way, who are you with?
Q With the Associated Press, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Who you with?
Q The Associated Press. Agencies didn’t begin bulk —
THE PRESIDENT: That’s another beautiful — that’s another beautiful (inaudible) —
Q — bulk purchases of respirators and N95 masks until mid-March.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you ready? Are you ready? Let me just
answer your question because I know exactly — you know, the same question you ask all the time. Ready?
Q It’s the first time I’ve asked this, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: They have done an unbelievable job in delivering —
For the Associated Press, which is, you know, not so great, not like it used to be.
The people that you’re looking at — FEMA, the military — what they’ve done is a miracle. What they’ve done is a miracle in getting all of this stuff. What they’ve done for states is incredible. And you should be thanking them for what they’ve done, not always asking wise-guy questions.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you.
END
8:21 P.M. EDT
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