Remarks by President Trump and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room  •  Washington D.C.  •  April 18  •  5:09 P.M. EDT
    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. We continue to see a number of positive signs that the virus has passed its peak. It's been very devastating all over the world. A hundred and eighty-four countries. Probably more. That number was as of a week ago.

    Dr. Birx will walk through some of these trends in a few moments, but they're very positive trends for winning. Going to win. We're going to close it out.

    While we mourn the tragic loss of life - and you can't mourn it any stronger than we're mourning it - the United States has produced dramatically better health outcomes than any other country, with the possible exception of Germany. And I think we're as good or better.

    On a per capita basis - remember that: On a per capita basis, our mortality rate is far lower than other nations of Western Europe, with the lone exception of possibly Germany. This includes the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, France. Spain, for example, has a mortality rate that is nearly four times that of the United States, but you don't hear that. You hear we have more death. But we're much bigger countries than any of those countries by far.

    So when the fake news gets out there and they start talking about the United States is number one - but we're not number one; China is number one, just so you understand. China is number one by a lot. It's not even close. They're way ahead of us in terms of death. It's not even close. You know it. I know it. And they know it. But you don't want to report it. Why? You'll have to explain that. Someday I'll explain it.

    Since we released the guidelines to open up America again - and this was two days ago - a number of states, led by both Democrat and Republican governors, have announced concrete steps to begin a safe, gradual, and phased opening.

    Texas and Vermont will allow certain businesses to open on Monday while still requiring appropriate social distancing precautions. And I can tell you the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, he knows what he's doing. He's a great governor. He knows exactly what he's doing.

    Montana will begin lifting restrictions on Friday. Ohio, North Dakota, and Idaho have advised non-essential businesses to prepare for a phased opening starting May 1st.

    Throughout this crisis, my administration has taken unprecedented actions to rush economic relief to our citizens. As an example, you don't hear anymore about ventilators. What happened to the ventilators? And now they're giving you the other; it's called "testing." Testing. But they don't want to use all of the capacity that we've created. We have tremendous capacity. Dr. Birx will be explaining that. They know that. The governors know that. The Democrat governors know that; they're the ones that are complaining.

    Through the Paycheck Protection Program, we've already processed nearly $350 billion to 1.6 million small businesses across the nation to keep American workers on the payroll. So we're asking the Democrats to get it done. This should be bipartisan. This should be 100 percent vote. And it's really been incredible. The $350 billion that's been approved is so popular, and it's keeping businesses open. It'll be open hopefully forever.

    Our swift action is directly supporting 30 million American jobs. Amy Wright, from North Carolina, as an example, said the program is a "game changer" for her and her family. It's coffee shops. And she has 120 employees, many of whom have developmental and intellectual disabilities. And now they're all staying, and they're getting paid. And she's got a dream, and it's going to take place very quickly when she opens again. So, Amy, good luck. North Carolina - great place.

    Scott and Julie Alderink helped lead a church and own a restaurant in South Dakota, with about 15 employees. They were already starting layoffs. Layoffs were moving along rapidly. But now they've hired their employees back, and they can keep the restaurant open. And it'll be moving quickly - very quickly - as opposed to not having anybody and probably not having a place to have all of these people employed. She would have been out of business. She would have been done.

    The Paycheck Protection Program funding is now fully drained. It's out. It's gone. Three hundred and fifty billion dollars to small businesses. And, in turn, it goes to the employees of those small businesses.


    Lawmakers must stop blocking these funds and replenish the program without delay. The Democrats have to come onboard. I used to read that these were Democrat programs, not Republican. It seems to have switched around a lot, hasn't it? Huh? Switched around a lot. The republicans want it. I think the Democrats probably do too.

    But they also want other things that are unacceptable. This is about COVID. This is about the plague and what it's done to us. This isn't about extraneous things that they've been trying to get for years and that our country doesn't want them to have.

    As we enter the next stage of our battle, we are continuing our relentless effort to destroy the virus. My administration is taking steps to protect high-risk communities by providing funding for 13,000 community health center sites and mobile medical stations.

    In order to equip them with the most advanced and robust testing capabilities, these sites are incredible. What they can do is incredible. The job they do is incredible. These centers provide care to 28 million people living in medically underserved urban and rural regions, including many African American and Hispanic communities. We're taking care of them. And it's so important, because you've all been reading about the disproportionate numbers on African American, and you're reading a little bit less about Hispanic, but likewise Hispanic communities. The numbers are disproportionate. In fact, we're doing big studies on it right now. We don't like it. Not right.

    Nationwide, we've now conducted over 4 million tests, and Deborah will be talking about that. It's double the number conducted by any other country on Earth. So that's more than two times, actually, the number conducted by any other country on Earth. You hear so much about testing. What we've done is incredible on testing. And I started with an obsolete, broken system from a previous administration - or administrations. But I would really say "administration" for a different reason because testing has become so advanced over the last number of years, and we have the most advanced of all.

    I spoke with other nations this morning - the leaders - and they all are talking about our great testing capability, and some of them want to know what to do; what - how can they get involved, because they need it for their own countries.

    In Louisiana, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and other hotspots, we have also tested more people per capita, by far, than Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, and all other major countries. So think of that. In New York, for instance, per capita testing is 6 percent higher than in Singapore. In fact, there's a typo. It's 67 percent higher. That's a big difference.

    I'd say there's a big difference between six percent and sixty- - I was looking; I said, 6 percent doesn't look too good. It's 67 percent - good job out there - higher than Singapore; 64 higher than South Korea; and 47 percent higher than Australia. So it's 67 percent higher than Singapore, which is a very advanced place in terms of what they're doing.

    My administration has also been speaking frequently with many of the governors to help them find and unlock the vast unused testing capacity that exists in their states. Dr. Birx discussed yesterday the commercial and academic laboratories, and the states have tremendous unused capability, which they can use. The governors should use it. Tremendous unused capability, and they're waiting for business from these governors that - some of them complain. I must tell you, for the most part, we're getting along great with them, but some of them like to complain.

    But I still go back because the hardest thing of all, by far, by a factor of 20, is the ventilators. And now we're the king of ventilators. We have ventilators.

    We're going to be helping other countries very soon. We're going to be helping Mexico. I spoke with the President of Mexico. He's great. A great guy. And I told him we're going to be helping him. They desperately, in Mexico, need ventilators, and I told him we're going to be helping him very substantially. We're in a position to do that. We're building, now, thousands a week. And they're coming in rapidly, and they're very, very high quality.


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