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President Trump and Vice President Pence, along with department heads of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH-NIAID) and US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), held a briefing Saturday afternoon to combat the spread of false reporting and update the public on new measures the US is taking to address the novel coronavirus.
The first coronavirus death on US soil was confirmed today in the state of Washington — a man in his 50s who had underlying health conditions.
His death coincided with the signing of the US-Afghanistan peace deal in Doha, potentially ending 19 years of war in Afghanistan.
“It’s time for our people to start coming home,” President Trump said.
Today, the President authorized the State Department to issue the highest Level 4 Travel Warning for regions of Italy and South Korea, also expanding travel restrictions with Iran.
President Trump asked the media to refrain from “[inciting] a panic because there’s no reason to panic at all.”
Heads of the US health agencies praised Trump’s early containment strategy to limit travel with infected areas, saying the measures have slowed the coronavirus spread to a more manageable position.
The Risk Remains Low
“The risk to any average American is low from the novel coronavirus. The risk remains low thanks to the unprecedented actions President Trump has taken and the actions he’s announcing today. That risk remains low, but this can change rapidly,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said.
Azar said that the US will see additional cases but that the vast majority would experience mild to moderate symptoms similar to a cold or the flu and that those most at risk would be medically fragile.
“[W]e want to lower the amount of travel to and from the most impacted areas,” Azar said.
Azar said this basic containment strategy is the philosophy guiding the moves that the administration has taken, are announcing today and will consider in the future.
Community Spread
Head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Dr. Anthony Fauci explained the new challenge is facing cases without linked travel to China.
“Community spread is when you have infection in the community in which you don’t have a direct link to a known index case,” Dr. Fauci said.
Dr. Fauci stressed the importance of President Trump’s early decision to prevent travel from China to the United States, saying that without these containment measures, “[W]e would have had many, many more cases right here that we would have to be dealing with.”
Dr Fauci also said that there was no indication of the potential for reinfection.
“Once you’ve gotten infected and recovered, you’re not going to get infected with the same virus,” Dr Fauci said.
Normal Routine Prescribed
CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said there are 22 cases in the United States and that initial cases had a travel history or contacts linked to infected areas but that new cases had emerged without any such link.
“We should anticipate [seeing] additional cases and clusters in the days ahead and we will continue to aggressively evaluate them,” Dr. Redfield said, emphasizing, “The current risk to the American public remains low.”
President Trump said although there was notable cooperation by the Mexican government, the administration was looking at the Southern border very strongly and that he hoped American citizens didn’t change their daily routines.
“The American public needs to go on with their normal lives,” Dr. Redfield said.
False Reporting
Dr. Fauci addressed misleading reports that he had been muzzled.
“I have never been muzzled ever and I’ve been doing this since the administration of Ronald Reagan. I’m not being muzzled by this administration,” Dr. Fauci said.
“That was a real misrepresentation of what happened,” Dr. Fauci explained, clarifying scheduled media appearances were postponed in order to regroup on a shared communications strategy when Vice President Pence was appointed to oversee the response effort.
Dr. Fauci resubmitted for clearance and was subsequently approved.
Vice President Pence addressed misleading reports on his handling of the Indiana HIV outbreak.
“We had an outbreak of HIV in a very small town,” Pence said, adding that the state of Indiana did not allow for providing needles to citizens.
Then-Governor Pence declared a public emergency and issued an executive order allowing the distribution of syringes in Scott County, also signing a state law allowing the needle exchange program on a county to county basis.
“We ended the spread of HIV in that community,” Pence said.
President Trump clarified false reports that alleged the President said the coronavirus was a hoax.
“The hoax was used with respect to Democrats and what they were saying, It was a hoax what they were saying and that was very clear if you’d read the words and I think you know that too,” President Trump said.
Earlier in the week, the Associated Press fact-checked Tuesday’s Democratic debate, where Democrat candidates issued false claims then spread by various media outlets surrounding the US coronavirus response.
Prognosis: Good
“The markets will all come back. The markets are very strong. The consumer is unbelievably strong. The companies are very strong. We have one problem. We have to get this problem brought into focus and it is right now I think our professionals are doing a great job,” President Trump said.
“Tremendous amounts of supplies are already on-hand. We have 43 million masks, which is far more than anyone would have assumed we could have had so quickly and a lot more coming,” President Trump said.
President Trump also expressed that China is cooperating and communicating with the US, perhaps closer than before. “In a certain way, this can bring the world closer. If you want to know, it can really do that,” President Trump said.
President Trump said that in a scheduled meeting concerning price transparency, a dialogue ensued with pharmaceutical companies to advance therapeutics as well as a vaccine.
All Resources Necessary
Dr. Fauci said that additional cases are anticipated but that “The country as a whole […] still remains at low risk,” adding that “this is an evolving situation.”
“The challenge is how we deal with it and I can assure you all the resources that are necessary are going to be put into dealing with what we see evolving right now,” Dr. Fauci said.
President Trump said ”My next thing is really getting the best people in the world. They’re standing behind me. These people are so talented. I’ve seen them in action now for a number of weeks actually, but for in particular for the last four or five days. I want to thank Mike Pence and everybody for the job they’re doing.
“We have a great team. We have great people and this too will end.”