Thread by @unseen1_unseen

Coronavirus update by the US government.

12 cases confirmed in US

Watching this now. A couple points.

It's dry but gives useful information.

I'm so glad that Trump is President at a time like this.

His group is presenting a calm clear attitude.

Remember Biden and dems wanted to keep the borders open, called Trump's actions xenophobic.

Vaccine is ahead of schedule. No glitches. Says that if all goes well should be in human clinical trials within the next 2 and half months.

USA has sent 18 tons of needed supplies to China. State department Will spend up to $100 million to help China and other countries impacted by the virus.

Since 2009 the USA has spend over $2 billion to help countries prepare for something like this.

DHS is looking at all points of entry from sea, air and land. Air travelers face Several layers. Customs asking question, second layer is now medical questions. Third layer is CDC check on. Coast guard is checking ships. At land point of entry additional screening now in effect.

President Trump's charge for the task force is to "lean forward" to protect Americans. Deep engagement across the federal government to keep the American citizen safe.

Dept of transportation as now Established a intentional first layer to screen travelers from China. Over 200,000 Americans are in or have recently left China. All citizens returning home by air must go through one of 11 destinated airports for health screenings

Also now have health procedures in place to help protect the crews of passenger and cargo aircraft

NIH update expanded. due to Trump's EO the CDC has developed a diagnostic test rapidly and has now been distributed to health clinics, state and other clinics throughout the country so the CDC will not be the only ones that can test for the virus.

NIH and CDC working together to develop an antibody test to determine the scope of the outbreak

At least two medicines are being used to combat. One of those medicines that showed promise in in vitro(petri dish) is being tested in random clinical tests in China

Due to these tests we will know pretty soon if the medicine works definitively

NIH vaccine ahead of schedule and should be ready for human clinical trials in 2 1/2 months.

CDC update expanded immediate risk to American public remains low
And CDC goal it to keep it that way

300+ cases in 25 countries outside of China

Most have a connection to China

69 cases of human to human transmission without a China connection

CDC has implemented a layered defense. That includes early detection, isolation, and contact tracing to prevent spread of virus in the USA.

Public health and medical community has been critical in helping the CDC to contain the spread

To date 12 confirmed cases in USA

CDC has more than 800 responders working in support of US gov at points of entry, military installations, and state health departments.

CDC is working with state department to handle the arrival of American citizens from China. Screening monitoring, isolating, and treatment

CDC also working with customs and border patrol. Have screened more than 17,000 passengers to date and are screening appox 4,000 per day now

DH&HS has amended rule on foreign quarantine regulations. Allowing CDC to collect more data from passengers and crews arriving into USA

Multi layer response is an effort to take all necessary actions to protect the American people.

CDC expects additional cases here in the USA. This is a serious global public health situation and continues to evils rapidly bit the immediate risk to the American public is low

Secretary of health and human services(DHHS) remarks expanded

Offers sympathies to all impacted by the virus here and across the world.

Working as quickly as possible on the Unanswered questions about virus. Spread rate, death rate etc..

Right now government can only work with the data provided by China for most of this. Hopes China will allow international experts in

Virus represents a serious threat but the immediate risk is low to American public at this time.

President is taking this very seriously.

FDA issued an emergency use authorization for use of CDC diagnostic test kit. (cutting through red tape) the test kit can now be ordered by all authorized labs both public and private as well as 191 intentional labs.

Medicare and Medicaid billing procedures have been addressed

Biomedical advanced research and development authority has expanded it's work with private pharm companies on counter measures (medicine) for the virus.

Research for additional counter measures continues at NIH and in the private sector

Repeats offer to send experts to china

Working with other countries around the world to help. FDA is fast tracking counter measures and deal with medical supply chain issues caused by China stoppage.

Quarantine and voluntary quarantines are in effect& working. Giving time to prepare. And believe it will slow virus

Q and A section of press conference

Q: will you transfer funds to help fight this or ask Congress for new funds.

A: under law I can transfer $136 million in funds if needed. I sent the notice asap that we might need to do this. However, no decision has been made to do so.

A) cont: so far we have plenty of funding. It's too early to tell if we will need more funding bit won't let resources be a barrier to handling the crisis.

Q: expand on your offer to send experts to China.

A: China has accepted the WHO team. We have given a list of 13 peope

A cont: we want on that team..still waiting for China to okay the list.

Q: how confident are you in the numbers China is providing

Should Americans avoid cruise ships, send their kids to school with masks or take other precautions...

A: CDC does recommend mask for American citizens are this time. Risk is considered low unless you have been in the hot zone.

CDC is recommending frequent hand washing , avoid touching face and cover mouth when coughing. The bigger threat at this stage is the Flu

A cont: ref to get flu vaccine.

As far as data from China: good communication with counterparts in China and we appear to have a good understanding but with asymptomatic transmission you don't know. China only reporting cases sick enough to be hospitalized.

A cont: very little look at broader spectrum to see how many are truly infected.

The information we are getting from China CDC we have a lot of confidence in it's just that we don't know if the full extent of outbreak has been defined

A cont :. On cruise ships...it's complicated...because you are dependent on place of origin of the passengers. It's a time to be prudent if going on a cruise. If you are going to Caribbean it's probably low risk but if you are coming out of China there is risk. Judgement cal

Q: what about schools with high Chinese students.

Is virus more susceptible to Asians than other humans. 🙄🙄

A: the layered approach should catch most returning infected students

There is no information or studies that the virus is more susceptible to Chinese

A cont: history of that these types of virus show no data that virus is more susceptible to Chinese.

Q: (from BuzzFeed 🙄🙄) what's the Outlook for trajectory of virus. Is containment still possible or are we just doing things to buy time for a pandemic and does that matter

A: China is in mitigation phase. China is beyond containment. Virus not under control in China. However, in USA the multilayer system we have implemented still has us in a mode of containment. If containment doesn't work we are actively thinking of steps needed for mitigation

A cont: but at this stage we are in containment phase and the extraordinary steps we have taken incuding federal quarantine for the first time in 50 years and with contained help from the American people and those returning from China we can stating that phase.

*stay in the phase*

A cont: that doesn't mean in two or three weeks the containment might not withstand bit for now it's working.

Q: are local and state health department getting any Federal funding to help and how will this impact care their anility for flu or measles

A: about 50% of all local and state health departments budgets are funded by the federal gov/CDC

$670 million goes out to the states per year for emergency preparedness and response

So we paid it forward

Lab coats, quarantine etc will get additional funding if needed

*lab costs*.

Resources will not get in the way.

Q: NYT why is China not allowing experts in and if they did would virus be less of a problem now.

A: it's China's decision. But we have a long relationship with China's CDC. We would help add expertise to help answer ????

A cont: but it's China's decision. Can't say if help would have lessened the epidemic but early detection is important.

We don't know where the epidemic will go. The best would be China to contain the virus, no more outbreaks around world with sustained transmission

A cont: So we are preparing for worst case. But hoping for the best.

Q: are we heading to global pandemic and experts say travel restrictions won't stop it. Why do you think it will

A: travel restrictions were adopted on the advice of many experts and are steps to slow down

A cont: the spread not intended to seal America from the virus these measures have allowed us to provide support to State department on bringing home American citizens. It's about focusing resources, slowing the spread, giving time to learn more information to develop counters

A cont: and hopefully it will show change in the virus curve.

It is true that travel restrictions will not stop it completely but it will slow and delay the outbreak and that's the underlying rational for why we did it. If a world wide pandemic starts it won't be enough.

A cont: the negatives to travel restrictions is it may cause a panic or difficulties with resources getting in or out. Thus far there has been no panic and no supply issues. (lefty experts wrong again)

The good outweighed the negatives.

Last Q: USA relies on a lot of Medical supplies from China. Are you seeing any impact yet

A: FDA and CDC are on top of it. FDA Monitoring medical supply chains as of now no problems are noted. It's fluid and FDA will continue to monitor it and act accordingly.

Task force promises radical transparency on the issue will hold daily press briefings at DHHS and will make the heads of task force available on a regular basis.

Final thoughts after watching this:

Thank God, Trump is President. If Biden or some other Dems candidate were in charge from their own comments a quarantine nor travel restrictions would have been put in place (open borders forever)

The task force was very knowledgeable took all questions and answered each question. They didn't sugar coat anything or put on a false front. They stated it's a serious problem and they are working on it as best they can. Refreshing to hear from a government task force.

They didn't talk down to the citizens. They respected the people enough to not panic when faced with the truth.

I feel better having watched this press conference. Clearly they stated they don't know everything and things are fluid but are handling it on what they do know.

I hope this thread as helped.

/End.

Not sure why autocorrect wants to make *has* into *as* all the time but at this stage I'm about done fighting autocorrect over it.