WASHINGTON -- "We are all in this together."
That's the message President Trump and Vice President Pence kept emphasizing during Monday evening's press briefing here by the White House's Coronavirus Task Force. "It's not just a 'whole of government' approach -- it's a 'whole of America' approach," Pence said. "And, together, we'll get through the coronavirus."
President Trump started the briefing by saying "We are going to take care of, and have been taking care of, the American public." He added that White House officials would be meeting Tuesday with House Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to discuss a payroll tax cut "and we're also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they're not going to ever miss a paycheck. Also, we're going to be seeing the Small Business Administration and creating loans for small businesses. We're also working with the industries, including the airline industry, and the cruise ship industry -- which, obviously, will be hit."
Pence said, as he has at previous briefings, that the "risk of contracting coronavirus to the American public remains low, and the risk of serious disease also remains low." Last week, the task force "met with leaders in industries, from nursing homes to airlines, pharmaceutical companies, commercial labs, and it's had great, great impact," he continued. "Pharmaceutical companies are already working, literally around the clock, on the development of therapeutics ... And I know how pleased the president was to learn that the commercial labs in this country, led by companies like LabCorp and Quest, have already brought a test forward and are taking that to market effective today."
This week, Pence said, "at the president's direction, we'll be meeting with hospital CEOs and health insurance CEOs." The task force also is expecting a plan on Tuesday from cruise ship industry leaders aimed at making cruise ships less prone to harbor the virus, and is developing a website that people can use to track COVID-19 cases, Pence said.
The vice president also reported that the with 47 governors "and was able to brief them on the progress we've made," noting that COVID-19 tests were now available in all state public health laboratories nationwide, with a million tests already distributed and another 4 million due to come in by the end of the week. "We literally are going to see a dramatic increase in the availability of testing," he said.
CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, updated the latest COVID-19 numbers, explaining that the U.S. currently has more than 500 cases of the virus with patients in 35 states and the District of Columbia. But despite the spread, "the risk to the American public does remain low," said Redfield."We do have several community outbreaks" -- citing the Seattle area; Santa Clara, California; Westchester County, New York; and Florida -- "these are areas that we're investigating heavily to try to understand the transmission mechanisms there" and figure out how to mitigate the problem.
The task force also unveiled a document on Monday outlining actions people can take in homes, schools, and businesses to reduce the risk of coronavirus. "Every American has a role in stopping the spread of the virus, and so we wanted to really put out guidance for every American and every community that was practical and common sense, but detailed in a way that everyone would know precisely what to do," said task force member and Ambassador at Large Deborah Birx, MD. "The guidance will be around how to keep workplaces safe, how to keep schools safe, how to keep the home safe, and how to keep commercial businesses safe."
was originally developed by Craig Dalton, MMSc, of the University of Newcastle, in Australia, and colleagues, and posted in SSRN, an online research network for social scientists.
Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said her agency issued guidance on Monday to nursing homes "about really upping their screening of people that are coming into the nursing home and making sure that they're gloved and they have masks so that we can protect people that are in the nursing homes." And because Medicare expanded its telehealth benefits about a year and a half ago, beneficiaries also can Skype with their providers if they're concerned about a potential illness, she said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar emphasized that his agency was going to continue with its strategic plan, "across all of the components represented by many of the leaders here, which is to diagnose, to treat, to contain, to mitigate, to research, and communicate. It's what we do in a healthcare crisis situation."
During a question-and-answer session, a reporter asked Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about whether organizations, cities, and states should be canceling events involving large mass gatherings. "What they're probably acting on is what they would consider, for their citizens, an abundance of caution," he replied.
"Most of the time when that happens, it usually is in an area where there is already documented community spread," Fauci continued. However, "it's a possibility that there's community spread going on in areas in which we're not detecting it yet. And I think that's the response of the individuals, be they mayors or governors, who are doing that ... They're using their own individual judgment. And to me, I think that would be prudent."
What about traveling on cruise ships? "I think if you're a healthy, young person, that there is no reason, if you want to go on a cruise ship, to go on a cruise ship," he said. "But if you have ... an individual who has an underlying condition, particularly an elderly person that has an underlying condition, I would recommend strongly that they do not go on a cruise ship."