Stockpiles are being replenished and the reopening of the country is in sight.
On Tuesday, from the White House Rose garden, President Trump reported that an agreement has been reached between Secretary Mnuchin and major U.S. airlines to participate in a payroll protection program. He declared, “We will keep our airlines in great shape. “
The country is continuing to make substantial progress in the war against the virus, “grieving at every precious life that has been lost. But at the end of that tunnel, we are beginning to see the light. We’ve been strong and powerful. We’re trying to help other countries, like Spain and Italy. “ The president announced that fifty percent of counties in the U.S. have zero cases, and many counties with cases have small numbers.
“I applaud the American people and their devotion in following the guidelines. They are amazing, “ President Trump said.
The U.S. will halt funding for the World Health Organization while their complicity in holding up information on the coronavirus is assessed. The president recalled the way the WHO opposed his decision to close off travel from China, though he made the decision anyhow. Keeping travel open would have put political correctness above human wellbeing. “America has been a major supporting of the organization, but we are concerned whether our generosity has been put to the best use possible, “ he said. “Accurate information about international health threats must be shared in a timely manner. The WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held accountable. “
There was credible information in December 2019 about human-to-human transmission, but the WHO did nothing to investigate it, and in January the organization said there was no human-to-human transmission. Their delays caused the loss of valuable time, getting international experts into China to examine the outbreak, and get virus samples which, to today, has deprived scientists of valuable data. The world received all sorts of misinformation about transmission and human mortality.
Had the WHO done its job to get an assessment of the situation, thousands of lives lost and worldwide economic damage could have been prevented. The WHO pushed China’s misinformation. Their reliance on China’s information caused a 20-fold cost in life and economy around the world.
“We cannot trust the WHO. We are being forced to find other ways to work internationally on public health goals,“ the president said. “It would have been so easy to be truthful. So much death has been caused by their mistakes.“
The administration will engage with them to see if reforms can be made. Discussions will also be held with other countries and global health partners. “Maybe WHO will reform and maybe they won’t, but we will remain aggressive in our actions,“ assured President Trump.
“When it comes to ventilators, our hospitals have what they need. No patient has been denied treatment by ventilator,“ the president reported. Governors had requested unreasonable numbers that the federal government did not have. “We were told we needed 130,000 of them. It was the scariest day of my life,“ he declared. “People without ventilators would die. There was no other alternative. I instructed my time to move heaven and earth to get ventilators from wherever we could and get them where they were needed.“
“We used the Defense Production Act and we used it very powerfully, more than you would know. So powerfully, it was a hammer that we didn’t have to actually use. From a dead start, we should have 150,000 to 200,000 ventilators by the end of this year—high quality ventilators. If we have a surge in need, we have ventilators available today,“ President Trump said.
Ventilator production has ramped up across the country. The Task Force has also reached out to the American Hospital Association to design a program to lend ventilators from hospitals that have ventilators to those who need them. Top health systems are signing up to be part of this activity. This Dynamic Virtual Reserve combined with the strategic stockpile will assure that ventilators will always be available. The president announced this partnership as “an example of Americans helping Americans.“
The president discussed his meeting with top leaders of America’s hospitals and hospital associations. It was informative and educational. The partnership to come out of this will help states and hospitals to have the respiratory equipment they need.
He introduced several members of the hospital groups to say a few words about the lending of ventilators and the Dynamic Reserve that has been established today. Appreciation was expressed for the work of the administration in finding innovative solutions to hospital problems. Others said the private-public partnership will do good things for the nation and thanked the administration for help in getting hospital gowns when they were needed. Still another credited early testing and following the guidelines as keeping COVID-19 cases low in some areas. “We can do a lot of good working together,“ they concluded.
President Trump thanked them again and said it had been a terrific meeting. Unused ventilators will be voluntarily loaned to other hospitals. More than 40,000 ventilators have been pledged for use if they are needed by the major groups across the country.
The U.S. has more ICU beds than any other nation per capita.
President Trump said, “The task force and the Vice President have done such an incredible job.“
The FDA has authorized the first saliva-based testing that was developed at Rutgers University. “This will be a speed-and-ease program, that I call innovation under pressure,“ the president said.
He then addressed the economy. “We need to restore prosperity for the American worker. Great minds are looking at the future of the economy as evidenced by today’s stock market confidence. We’ve had requests to participate with the best in the world, and we are speaking with many industry leaders seeking their input on restoring the greatest economy that we had just a month ago. I think we’re going to top those old records for stock market and unemployment.“
The plans to reopen the country are being finalized, and the information will soon be shared. He will be speaking with each governor individually on implementing a reopening plan of their state in a time and in a manner that is most appropriate. “The day will be very close,“ said the president. “Some states are in a much different place than other states. It will be very close, maybe before May 1. The federal government will be watching very closely and will be there to help in many different ways.“ He said the governors would be accountable, but his administration will be working with them.
A list of people from industry and states and agricultural producers will be submitted that the Task Force will be working with. Banking groups will be in another group as specifics of banking and lending are addressed. “All have lots to say with lots of good ideas and we want to capture those,“ President Trump assured. “The Paycheck Protection Program is being an incredible success for being only a week old.“
The construction industry and building trades will be informing the Task Force. Union leaders as well as building associations will be part of the discussions.
Defense groups, energy, financial services, food and beverage associations and their suppliers, the hospitality industry will also be among the consultations. Also from the transportation world, telecommunications, healthcare, pharmaceutical companies and laboratories, and health insurers, tech companies and telecommunications and social media groups will also advise the administration. There will be separate calls with leaders from the sports world.
“Great thinkers from some of the advanced groups across the nation will be with us,“ the president said. “Also religious leaders we will be speaking to them on Friday. We will be talking about opening our churches again.“
The president named names from each of the advising groups, the majority of whom are CEOs, presidents or administrators.
“Governors are going to have to take charge; some states will open up sooner than others. Some may be ready to go before the May 1 timeline,“ the president opined. “We all hope that totals across the nation will be far less than any of the models we have seen.“
He said they will announce the political list tomorrow. “We want them to do their own incredible jobs. Among all of them, these great minds will bring the nation back to a full reopening. We all want to do the right thing,“ President Trump assured. “We want to rejuvenate the country but the health of the nation is number one,“ he concluded.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- That the partnerships that have been developed during the pandemic will benefit the nation for generations to come.
- That consultations with heads of various industries would be clear and filled with discernment.
- For the president to rely on the Lord for understanding as the pandemic diminishes.
Sources: Fox News, C-SPAN
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