Donald Trump demands coronavirus vaccine in ‘two months’ and offers pharma chiefs SEATTLE for trials

President Donald Trump pushed pharmaceutical executives on Monday to develop a coronavirus within ‘a couple of months’ – as the U.S. death toll reached six.

But he was warned by his own most senior expert, Dr. Tony Fauci, who told the president directly that he had repeatedly told him it would take at least a year. 

‘We’re working very hard to expedite the longer process of developing a vaccine. We’re also moving with maximum speed to develop a therapy so that we can help people recover as quickly as possible and a lot of recovery going on,’ the president said during a one-hour briefing in the Cabinet room with executives from 10 pharmaceutical and bio-tech companies.

He also offered up Seattle to one company as a testing ground after Washington state was hit hard by the virus. All six U.S. deaths have happened there.

The executives, however, warned the president that a vaccine to deploy in a large scale public way would take a year to a year and a half even as they emphasized all are at various points in the testing stage, with some saying they could be at the human testing stage in a few months.

Trump latched on to that human testing number only to have Dr Tony Fauci, the NIH’s  director, put the brakes on his hopes for a quick solution.

‘Like I’ve been telling you, a year to a year and a half,’ Dr. Fauci said.

President Trump shrugged him off. ‘I like the sound of a couple of months better,’ he said.

‘I’ve heard, very quick numbers, a matter of months. Pretty much a year would be an outside number. So I think that’s not a bad,’ he added of the time table for a vaccine.

‘When is it going to be deployable,’ Fauci reminded him. ‘That is going to be at the earliest a year to a year and a half, no matter how fast you go.’

 The meeting was held as: 

• Officials have now confirmed that six people have died in Washington after contracting coronavirus
• Five of the six deaths have been linked to the LifeCare long-term aged care facility outside Seattle. Health officials there are buying a motel so they can isolate patients  
• The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States has now soared to 100
• Female healthcare worker, 39, became the first confirmed case of coronavirus in New York and is currently isolated in her Manhattan apartment 
• The stock market bounced back with the Dow Jones up more than 1,200 points because analysts believe the Federal Reserve will act to keep the economy from cratering 
• Panic buying hit with anxious shoppers clearing supermarket shelves as they stock up on food and medical supplies 
• A New York doctor told CNBC’s Squawk Box that handling of the virus was a ‘national scandal’ 

The president was also focused on the situation in Washington state, where dozens of schools have closed and nearly 30 firefighters and police officers are in quarantine.

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, the CEO of Inovio Pharmaceuticals, mentioned his company would be doing clinical trials soon overseas on a vaccine.

‘In April of this year, followed by shortly thereafter, trials in China and South Korea,’ he said.

Trump jumped in to volunteer Seattle

‘You can take a look at Seattle again,’ he told Kim.

The majority of cases there appear to be linked to a nursing facility, the Life Care Center of Kirkland, in Washington, where about 50 residents and workers have reported feeling ill.

During the briefing, the executives reminded the president of the testing that goes into play in developing a vaccine.

‘Vaccines have to be tested because there’s precedent for vaccines to make things worse. And you don’t want to rush and treat a million people and find out you’re making 900,000 worse,’ said Dr. Leonard Schleifer, the CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

But they also assured the president a vaccine would be ready for next year’s flu season.

‘That’s the goal,’ said Dr. Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer of Johnson and Johnson.

But a few pointed out therapies to treat the virus will likely be ready by end of the summer, a timetable that seemed to please President Trump.

‘The treatment element of it goes faster than the vaccine, which in my opinion in this case would be better,’ Trump said.

He praised the executives for their work.

‘And anybody delays you, please call me,’ he said.

And he down played an additional federal funding for the companies to do their work.

‘Some of them are so rich they can loan money to the federal government,’ he said. 

Pence, meanwhile, promised daily briefings to keep the public informed about the pandemic. 

‘Get used to seeing us,’ he told reporters in the White House briefing room on Monday evening.

Pence also announced that ‘within the next 12 hours, 100 per cent screening on all direct flights from across Italy and South Korea’ for signs of the coronavirus, which would consist of multiple temperature checks on passengers before they boarded.

His remarks followed comments from President Trump that there would be more travel restrictions in place soon.

‘Yes, we are,’ the president in response to a question on whether the administration is eyeing new travel restrictions to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. ‘From certain countries where they’re having more of a breakout,’ he said but  declined to name the specific countries. 

Pence reminded the public there were no restrictions on domestic travel in the United States but declined to answer a question on whether he’d take his family to Disney World for spring break.

‘Let’s be clear: The risk to the American people from the coronavirus remains low,’ he said. 

Separately, Dr. Fauci told NBC News on Monday that the disease had likely reached ‘pandemic proportions’ as 100 cases were confirmed across the U.S.  

‘We’re dealing with an evolving situation. We’re dealing with clearly an emerging infectious disease that has now reached outbreak proportions and likely pandemic proportions,’ Dr Fauci said. ‘If you look at multiple definitions of what a pandemic is… multiple sustained transmissions of of a highly infectious agent in multiple regions of the globe.’

Dr Fauci went on to say the U.S. might need to consider ‘social mitigation,’ including closing down schools and not allowing events where large crowds are in confined spaces.

‘We’re not ready for it right now but we need to be at least thinking about the possibility,’ he said in the interview that will air in full on NBC Nightly News on Monday. 

It comes after a New York doctor warned coronavirus cases in the U.S. will surge into the thousands by next week and the former head of the FDA claimed three critical weeks were lost in containing the spread of the virus due to faulty test kits given out by the government. 

Health officials have been scrambling to get their own coronavirus testing kits up and running after getting stuck with faulty tests from the federal government that they said left them unable to diagnose people quickly. 

State and local authorities are now also stepping up testing for the illness as the number of new cases grew to 100across the U.S. on Monday, with new infections announced in California, Florida, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York and Washington state. 

New York confirmed its first coronavirus case on Sunday as a female healthcare worker in her 30s who returned from Iran last week and is now being quarantined in her Manhattan home. 

Florida late Sunday declared a public health emergency as it confirmed its first two cases, while Rhode Island announced its two cases – two people who had returned from a school trip to Italy – had prompted the closure of a school so it could be sanitized.  

Dr Matt McCarthy, who is a staff physician at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, has claimed he doesn’t have the tools to properly care for patients because of the lack of coronavirus tests being made available to hospitals. 

He told CNBC‘s Squawk Box on Monday that the bungled test distribution was a ‘national scandal’ and claimed New York had only been able to properly carry out 32 tests so far. 

‘We hear it’s coming very soon but I’m here to tell you that at one of the busiest hospitals in the country, I don’t have it at my finger tips. I still have to call the department of health, I still have to make my case and plead to test people,’ he said. 

‘This is not good. We know that there are (91) cases in the United States. There are going to hundreds by middle week, there’s going to be thousands by next week. This is a testing issue.’ 

He said the infectious disease team at his hospital, one of the busiest in the country, was equipped to deal with the outbreak but were crippled by the lack of diagnostic tests being made available by the government. 

‘Keep in mind in New York state the person who tested positive is only the 32nd test we’ve done in this state. That is a national scandal,’ he said.  ‘They’re testing 10,000 a day in some countries and we can’t get this off the ground. 

‘I’m a practitioner on the firing line and I don’t have the tools to properly care for patients today.’

Scott Gottlieb, who is the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, also told CNBC that three critical weeks were lost in trying to contain the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. because of the faulty tests. 

‘We lost about three critical weeks,’ he said. 

He said they should have also been working with manufacturers and working with academic labs to ensure they weren’t just waiting for one test.

Gottlieb said the current situation is a consequence of that ‘hiccup’. 

Health authorities had previously tested more than 30 New York patients who have reported symptoms consistent with the virus, but until now each suspected case had proven to be a false alarm. 

The test confirming the woman’s illness was done at New York’s Wadsworth Lab in Albany rather than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Gov. Cuomo said on Saturday his state would immediately begin using its own test kit developed in-state after asking the FDA on Friday for permission to do so.  

Previously, tests on New York patients were still being handled only by federal authorities. 

The weeks-long struggle to expand local testing has been criticized as an early misstep in the response by President Donald Trump’s administration to the outbreak. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed on Sunday that it is investigating a manufacturing defect in some initial coronavirus test kits that prompted some states to seek emergency approval to use their own test kits. 

Three weeks ago, the FDA gave the green light for state and local labs to start using a testing kit developed by the CDC. But most labs that received the kits complained they had faulty components and produced inconclusive results, which the CDC later acknowledged. 

In New York City, the kit they received was even more faulty than most, meaning city officials could not use a workaround released by the CDC this week. Meanwhile, it has had to courier samples to CDC’s laboratories in Atlanta, adding a day or more to the process.  

As of last week, only seven state labs had the ability to test for the coronavirus locally. The CDC has since been working to manufacture new kits that produce more reliable results. 

Over the weekend, authorities confirmed that two people had died in Washington state after contracting coronavirus. 

The total number of U.S. case has now soared to 91. The spread of the disease, which began in China, has now seen more than 89,000 cases worldwide and over 3,000 fatalities.

The coronavirus appeared poised for a spike in the United States in part because of more testing to confirm cases.  

Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis disclosed late Sunday that two people had become the first in his state to test positive and ordered his top health officer to declare a statewide public health emergency. 

Two people who returned to Rhode Island from a trip to Europe have also tested positive for coronavirus. The patients in Rhode Island were on a school trip to Italy together in February. A third person from the trip is being tested and the school is shutting down for the week. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coronavirus spread in New York City is ‘inevitable’ and something you ‘can’t control’ claims Governor Andrew Cuomo

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo revealed that community spread is ‘inevitable’ on Monday as New York City’s first case of the coronavirus was confirmed.

‘There is no doubt that there will be more cases. This is New York, we’re a gateway to the world,’ Cuomo told reporters.

‘People are going to test positive, not just one or two or three or five, there will be many who test positive,’ he added.

Cuomo said the 39-year-old female healthworker who tested positive at the weekend had mild symptoms and was recovering at home.

He added that the Manhattan resident had been ‘very aware of her situation’ and had taken a private car to her home from the airport last Tuesday.

‘She did textbook everything right. We don’t believe she was contagious on the airplane or in the car,’ he said.

Cuomo added that she was isolated at home with her husband who is also expected to test positive for coronavirus.

The couple had contacted Mount Sinai on their return to New York aware of the threat that they may have contracted the virus and were tested.

‘The positive test was confirmed by New York’s Wadsworth Lab in Albany, underscoring the importance of the ability for our state to ensure efficient and rapid turnaround,’ Cuomo said.

Cuomo, alongside Mayor Bill DeBlasio, said on Monday they will aim to increase testing in the city to up to a thousand people a day by next week as they look to isolate cases in the ‘inevitable’ community spread that will hit the city. 

While Cuomo said New York’s first case was not itself a cause for broader concern, he announced $40 million to contain the spread of the virus.

He said the city was used to dealing with health crises, citing Ebola and SARS, and said residents should not worry.

‘In this situation the facts defeat fear because the reality is reassuring,’ Cuomo added.

His news conference came shortly after Trump announced on Twitter that he would meet with leading pharmaceutical companies at the White House on Monday ‘about progress on a vaccine and cure’.

Panic buying hits New York City as anxious shoppers stock up on food and medical supplies

Panic buying has hit New York with anxious shoppers clearing supermarket shelves as they stock up on food and medical supplies after a woman became the state’s first confirmed coronavirus case. 

People started stockpiling items from stores over the weekend as authorities confirmed on Sunday that a healthcare worker in her 30s had been diagnosed with coronavirus. 

The spread of the disease, which began in China and has seen more than 89,000 cases worldwide and over 3,000 fatalities, prompted panic-buying ever since health authorities warned that Americans should start preparing for domestic acceleration of the virus.  

Videos emerged on social media over the weekend of shoppers rushing to stock up on toilet paper, bottled water, disinfectant wipes and sanitizer at a Costco in Brooklyn. 

Shoppers were pictured lining up outside supermarkets on Monday morning.  

Supplies have been flying off the shelves countrywide with people posting photos on social media showing the lack of products available in some stores and pharmacies. 

In southern California, some Walgreens stores had been completely depleted of cough medicines, cold and flue medications, vaporizers, masks and thermometers. Shoppers in Hawaii were buying up flatbeds of canned goods, bottled water, toilet paper and paper towels from a local Costo. 

A supermarket aisle in Virginia had been stripped of non-perishable items like pasta. 

Pictures of empty shelves at grocery stores elsewhere in New York also emerged on the weekend. 

Panic buying in the United States does not yet resembles what Italy witnessed in recent days – where supermarket shelves were stripped bare and videos posted on social media showed consumers coming to blows over bags of pasta. 

Worried families blast Washington nursing home where one man has died from coronavirus and 50 more are ill for ‘not testing patients and ignoring phone calls’ 

The Washington state nursing home where the second US man to die from coronavirus was a resident has been slammed by worried families who claim they are not being kept informed about the conditions of their loved ones.

Six coronavirus cases have been confirmed at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, including one resident in his 70s who later died at hospital, while more than 50 staff and residents have shown symptoms and will be tested.

It has also emerged that the facility has been slammed for failing to control the spread of viruses in the past.  

One distraught woman has come forward blasting the facility’s handling of the outbreak, telling how she has been kept in the dark over her husband’s condition and treatment at the home. 

Bonnie Holstad said her husband Ken was staying at the facility after a fall caused by a broken hip but staff were refusing to speak to her about his condition. 

She says her calls to the center have gone repeatedly unanswered as she is desperate for news that he is okay after he had a cough. He also suffers from Parkinson’s disease and dementia.

Holstad stood outside the facility on Sunday with a sign saying: ‘No one at Life Care is answering the phones. He needs to be attended to … what is his temperature?’ 

The Life Care facility provides 24-hour care for residents, including physician and nurse coverage, many of whom have long-term and chronic conditions.

Around 27 of the 108 residents and 25 of the 180 staff have shown some symptoms of the virus, including some cases where individuals had contracted pneumonia. 

On Sunday, four new cases were confirmed, including the deceased male, taking the infection rate at the facility to six and counting.

The man in his 70s with underlying health conditions died at the EvergreenHealth hospital in Kirkland on Saturday.

This is the same hospital where a man in his 50s died on Friday night – the US’s first coronavirus-related death. 

Holstad told CNN that after she protested, a nurse did then check on him and told her he doesn’t have a fever. 

‘I was so angry. How can this be that I have to do this, make a sign and go down there?’ Holstad said.

‘I’m very worried for my husband,’ Holstad said. ‘He’s one of the vulnerable people,’ because of his age and his Parkinson’s disease.

‘I have real problems with how they’re handling the interface with family,’ she said, remarking it was ‘sort of like a movie about an epidemic in a little town, and they don’t know how to handle the situation.’ 

Holstad told how she only found out about the potential outbreak in the home when she arrived for a visit on Saturday and was turned away by a sign on the door saying no visitors allowed. 

She then got a message from the center telling her about the confirmed cases.  

Before then she had been told staff were wearing masks because some residents had colds.   

Holstad also said her husband had not been tested for coronavirus because he doesn’t have all of the symptoms required for testing.