In presser, Trump says he's holding 10,000 ventilators back -- "We have to hold them back because the surge is coming." (This is part of the thinking in stockpile management--reclaiming equipment is much harder than giving it out)
Dr. Birx says there have so far been enough ventilators: "No one has been turned away. No one who needs ventilation has not received ventilation."
And knocks down vaccine hype: "There's no magic bullet. There's no magic vaccine or therapy. It's just behaviors."
And knocks down vaccine hype: "There's no magic bullet. There's no magic vaccine or therapy. It's just behaviors."
Pence says they've delivered 400 ventilators to Michigan, 300 to NJ, 150 to Louisiana, 50 to Connecticut, 450 to Illinois, and 4,400 to NY. (The national stockpile started out with about 16,000)
Birx and Fauci still projecting 100K-200K deaths, even with social distancing measures. "This is the thing that we need to anticipate, but that doesn't mean that that's what we're going to accept," Fauci says. The curve they're looking at peaks in the next 2 weeks. 
I just can't deal with how surreal this is -- never in my lifetime would I have believed that officials would be standing at the WH podium telling Americans that tens of thousands of them were going to die in the next month
Trump steps in to confirm death projections after questions from incredulous journalists: "What would've happened if we did nothing? There was a group that said let's just ride it out. 2.2 million people would've died."
(That is not far from what Trump started out doing.)
(That is not far from what Trump started out doing.)
Trump goes on... "I've had many friends, people with great common sense, said don't do anything, just ride it out, and think of it like the flu. But it's not the flu."
Trump on March 9: The flu kills thousands of people a year and it's no big deal! propublica.org/article/this-c…
Trump on March 9: The flu kills thousands of people a year and it's no big deal! propublica.org/article/this-c…
Birx emphasizes that CA and WA have avoided logarithmic growth: "That’s the piece that we’re trying to prevent in New Orleans, and Detroit, and Chicago, and Boston right now, and try to make sure each of those cities act more like California than the New York metro area."
Trump: "New York got off to a very late start. You see what happens when you get off to a late start."
... mmm hm
... mmm hm
Trump denies Bloomberg reporting that he's signed off on a 90-day deferral of payments of regular tariffs (i.e. not the super-high China tariffs). bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Trump on his support for a $2 trillion infrastructure program now that we've got zero % interest rates: "That doesn’t mean we’re going to do a Green New Deal, and spend 40% of the money on things that people just have fun with."
The culture war against clean energy rolls on
The culture war against clean energy rolls on
Why are they holding back 10K ventilators? "We have requests for ventilators from states and cities that don’t need them, in our opinion....If they do need them, they'll be able to move very quickly."
What about bidding wars still happening between governors over supplies? "If that happens, they should be calling us. They shouldn’t be doing that," Trump said. 2 weeks ago he told governors to do more for themselves, because "we're not a shipping clerk." propublica.org/article/heres-…
Ah, and now we're back to patting ourselves on the back for keeping Chinese people out again.
Alright folks, I've got to go for a walk.
