Thread by @RobertPLewis

Dad’s talking to a crowd of shitty shitty children.

He comes in at around 1hr30mins into this bc Fox can’t edit.

Trump, Coronavirus Task Force hold White House briefing | 4/9/20

@POTUS met w/ Mnuchin & Elaine Chao to discuss help for the airline industry today

@POTUS spoke w/ Putin & MBS re: OPEC & oil production, trying to find a winning formula for everyone.

OPEC met today, thinks they're close to a deal.

Boris Johnson has been moved out of ICU, we continue to pray for him.

NYC Javitt center now fully converted into 3,000 bed hospital (one of largest in the country)

Army Corps of Engineers (Red Castle) building 20 around the country

24 Air Bridge flights complete, 49 more scheduled

@POTUS spoke w/ the nation's mental health pros today

We may have found a treatment to prevent the virus (WuFlu) from replicating

19 therapies now being tested, 26 more in active planning for clinical trials

passed 2,000,000 tests completed in the USA today (nobody else is even close in numbers or accuracy of tests)

Sec of Labor Eugene Scalia is in the house to talk today re: unemployment bennies & worker safety when we go back

fed providing up to $2.3 trillion for SMBs

Student loan payments waived for 6 months, may go further

@POTUS taking questions now

Q: Did you organize call w/ Putin & MBS and do they understand what they're doing to the world?
(note this reporter didn't preface w/ daily price of oil - slacker)

A: yes they know what's going on, overproduction, I ordered topping off of US strategic oil supply at good prices-

(which, if you're paying attention the Dems tried to block because they hate America and don't want anything positive to come out of this)

POTUS says Putin & MBS will likely announce a deal today or tomorrow, they were getting along well

Q: how can admin disc possibility of opening up country if we don't have good nationwide testing system?
(of course it's from fucking @Acosta , who either didn't pay attention when he noted we've tested more & more accurately than any other in the world, or, well, he's just -

being a fucking douchebag - prob the latter)

A: No, we have a great testing system, best in world (which he told you already, dipshit). But there are certain sections of country that are in phenomenal shape already. In addition we're giving out millions of tests, in near -

future we'll be going to certain areas to do massive questions.
follow up: don't you need to ensure this to be sure people are safe
A: we're gonna have it, do you need it? no. is it a nice thing to do? yes. 325mm ppl isn't going to happen, others do it in a limited form

Q: What do you say to >16mm Americans who've lost jobs & fear economy won't bounce back?

A: I think economy is going to do very well. It looks like we're at lower end of death which is a terrible, dark word. But we're looking at much lower level than (models predicted)

you can never do anything about ppl who lost loved ones & friends, i'm not sure a lot of ppl will ever be the same, but our country from an economic standpoint will be better than before. Tremendous stimulus. We're going to be back, can never replace ppl lost, but we'll have-

succeeded in many ways keeping numbers way below. This has taken a tremendous (mental health) toll on many people

Q: Oil is trading about $23 today in NY (bravo, someone did their homework), where do you want to see price?

A: I want to see it where there's a market, but not where - virus knocked out the market (40%). There's no reason for it now, but that will come back. We're storing -

millions of barrels right now. We want make sure our energy companies & workers remain strong. If they announce a deal we can get it up, need a min number so companies don't go out of biz & lay off these workers who are important. Long term benefit is to go w. mkt, it's gonna

work out. I think it's hitting bottom, but now at $23 we create energy and we save energy

Q: paycheck protection, SMBs say banks don't know how to access money, where does the fault lie?

A: I don't think there's a fault. It can't go that quickly, but I'm hearing it's a very successful rollout. They want some changes, but are taking billions of $s worth of loans

Q: Are you still expected USMCA to take effect, are you ready to postpone?

A: We have a deal, it's diff that production will be lower but we have a signed deal. NAFTA was worst deal we ever had, new deal is a great deal for our country. Ultimately great for our farmers

Q: Project Skybridge, hearing a lot of PPE sent out to other countries that went to other countries is coming back. When will it come back, are you upset USAID allowed it to go out?

A: No. We're really in good shape, not as many vents needed as expected, we'll be good in case-

something happens in future. Governors in very good shape now. We've seen billions between vents & PPE, we have 500mm masks coming from 1 group. I think we're in very good shape

Q: testing - some experts have said 750k tests are needed per week to be good. How many do you think are needed?

A: We're going to try to hit a number like that, I think we will

Q: today Dems pushed for more money for states & hospitals, do you think they need it?

A: I do, and I think it's needed but needed in the next phase.

@POTUS out, handing off to @VP

*Acosta kind of mumbles something as POTUS is walking out
(maybe he got embarrassed realizing how stupid he sounds when he speaks and STFU)

@VP 250 tested positive, unfortunately 16k Americans have passed away

These are not numbers, these are lives, our heartfelt condolences to all families who've lost a loved one.

Data continues to show evidence that in areas where epidemic has impacted most (NY, LA, Detroit)-

we continue to see evidence of stabilization.

Appears we're close to peak in each of those areas.

All evidence indicates that "it's working"

Today TF met but most of team also met w/ GOP & Dems (Senate) separately

Mnuchin talked PPP, $125bn approved so far

Treasury will put out new FAQ tonight for how seasonal biz's can participate in PPP

Direct payments remain -

on timetable where first payments & direct deposits will go out early next week

Add't into available at treasury.gov or SBA.gov

SBA.gov

4500 active duty (mil) medical personnel have been deployed for use in hard hit areas

DoD deployed 7500 to relieve dedicated healthcare workers in NY today

VA has opened up facilities in NY, NJ, MI and LA

Exceeded 2mm tests across country today

FEMA & US Public Health giving states options to move from Fed to state-managed sites so they can manage they way they see most important

NJ, LA, IL, CO, TX also asking for Fed help

Air Bridge - 3 flights arr in Chi, DFW & NY today

Acquiring tens of millions of supplies being brought into FEMA distro system

Also bringing in innovation, tasked FDA & CMS today to look into feasibility of hospital workers using cloth gowns (20 yrs ago it was the norm)

@POTUS & @FLOTUS & @VP & @SecondLady spoke w/

national mental health pros today to find ways to help Americans who may be feeling emotional burden and find resources for them

Birx is up now

118k-120k per day being tested now

75% of test data is in, about 1.5mm reported

Tested +200k ppl under 25, 11% positive rate

under 45 about 17%

45-65 21% positivity rate

200k 65-85 22% positive rate

30k +85 with 24% positivity rate

M/F ratio, 56% tested are female, 16% pos

She's telling me to ensure they're tested, bc men don't seem to be presenting to get tested

63% of states still have LESS THAN 10% positive

Fauci's up, and he starts off by talking about deaths.

Makes a comment about setting new death records every day, but...

Still fewer have died than die from flu every year

Numbers are below models

Deaths overall are down

WTF is he talking about???

Labor secretary up now

Mindful that American's are making difficult sacrifices

Americans workers can be encouraged by swift & comprehensive response

He's talking about Families First act & paid sick leave

CARES act incl $600/wk plus up to unemployment bennies

Already disbursed 1/2 bil to states to help them catch up their systems to make the payments
*some states allowed their systems to get way too old to keep up

OSHA has been providing guidance to employers for workers health

@vp taking Qs now

Q: Fed funding for testing. will it remain for state sites?

A: not just funding, but also PHS personnel & PPE. It's an option, and we'll continue to partner w/ states

Q; SoKo CDC says they've seen re-infection. What does that mean for our understanding of this?

Fauci: I haven't seen that, but there's been anectodal. You have to be careful, bc someone may do PCR...I don't think it's ppl being tested positive, then discharged, then re-infected

Q: medical criteria, can you discuss medical criteria IOT open gov't?

A: it's less medical than public health. We have a large country w/ diff patterns of outbreaks. Won't be 1 size fits all, depends on kinetics, have to take individually.

Followup: Are there benchmarks?

Birx: talks about the rural health services but never really answers the question

@VP "most of America knows nobody wants to open the country more than @POTUS but we're following the data"

Best thing we can do to reopen the country is to put coronavirus behind us, get the therapeutics out, have more widespread testing, flatten the curve and get better guidance out for when we re-open

Q: Study out of Los Alamos discussing R naught, study says it's not 2-3 but closer to 6. How does that impact the model? How can you begin to talk about reopening when we see it's more contagious than we thought?

(the cynic in me notes the obv timing of this study, but gov't-

funded researchers whose livelihoods haven't been threatened or impacted financially by the nation's closure)

@VP we've known since beginning that this is at least 3x more contagious than flu

Birx: we're seeing the significant cases, never seeing the ones that aren't. So it's difficult to really understand R naught w/o having the antibody test out there. We need to test healthcare workers & front line, right now this (Los Alamos test) is still theoretical

Birx: some modeling w/ mitigation are saying that R naught is down in the 1's.

Nobody has varied R naughts like that w/o a vaccine

Fauci: ditto.

Q: Fucking Acosta again.

Damnit this f-ing guy. He's like that shitty family member who keeps showing up uninvited and just won't take the hint that nobody likes him...although his last book only selling 13k units should've been a CLEAR indication to him that we don't...

So douchebag's question:
If we don't have the testing capacity can we really re-open, if we only have 2mm tests, are we going to have the capacity to make Americans comfy going back to work?

(Just to reiterate the data: if you're young & healthy, this isn't going to kill you)

So fuck you, Acosta, we aren't shutting down the nation for the flu every year. Even if it is more contagious, it's still not going to be doing massive damage to most healthy, work-age people.

A: American ppl have seen the incredible progress. We're well over 100k Americans -

tested every single day. Antibody test coming online. Abbott has thousands of machines across country.

Acosta (interrupting like an asshole): but do we have testing RIGHT NOW

@VP : we're working towards that at this very moment, but let's be clear, re-opening the country

as @POTUS is very anxious to do at the responsible moment will be through combo of facts. 1st that we're at end of CV for most communities, that we have therapeutics for Americans if they contract, guidance from CDC, and testing is also a piece of that. We're spending a great

deal of time expanding testing every day, but we're also working to scale testing. As we move into summer & fall, we'll have the testing (diagnostic and surveillance) to ID ppl who've had it & may be immune vs ppl who may have ever been exposed or not

@VP agrees to take one more, because NOBODY wants to end on a douchebag, sourpuss note like Acosta drags every moment down to

Q: In next few weeks, SCOTUS is said to report on DACA. 30k of them are frontline healthcare workers. Is admin ready to protect them if ruling is in-

your favor and takes their protections away.
(what a shitty question from a shitty person. damn, looks like no matter what it's going to end on a sourpuss)

A: I think @POTUS has been clear that he wants to reach a solution on that w/ Congress. Let me say whether it be healthcare

or food supply or others working on infrastructure, we admire ppl stepping up and deeply impacted by CV. And also, hardworking ppl in our food supply, we rec'd good word that over past few days we've seen significant drop from 1 major company from absenteeism. We rec'd guidance -

that workers who've come in contact w/ someone infected can return to work <14d if they don't have fever. But dedication of ppl to continue to work is truly inspiring. Going forward we'll work through a broad range of issues, but for a long time we'll continue to be proud of -

ppl and they way they responded to this moment.

@VP says thank you very much, i'm out!!!

Long story short: Acosta is a POS no matter what the time, place or setting.

CNN should be ashamed, even for them, he sets the bar pretty low.