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President Donald Trump addressed the nation on the coronavirus Wednesday afternoon amid growing fears the spreading virus has reached pandemic levels and conflicting reports from officials in his administration about its severity and how soon a vaccine will be ready.
“Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low and we have the greatest experts in the world right here,” Trump said about the virus during the speech. “We’re ready to adapt and we’re ready to do whatever we have to as the disease spreads, if it spreads. As most of you know the level that we’ve had in our country is very low and those people are getting better or we think that in all cases.”
A day earlier, Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said a vaccine for COVID-19 was only months away in sworn testimony to senators. But Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar contradicted Wolf later in the same hearing, saying a vaccine being developed that fast had “never happened in human history.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a national public health institute overseen by Azar, estimated that a vaccine for the new virus may not be ready in the next 12 to 18 months. And as a new case was confirmed in the U.S. the same day Trump addressed the nation, stock markets around the world continued plunging on investor fears that the virus’ spread would cripple economies and supply chains.
Trump told media members there were 15 cases in the U.S., but that number does not include people who returned to the U.S. via State Department-chartered flights. CDC data plus the one new case confirmed the same day as his address made 15 total cases detected and tested in the United States. When added with the cases of people repatriated to the United States, including three from the outbreak epicenter of Wuhan China and 42 more from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, there are 60 total confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S.
In his address, Trump added that the White House is working with Congress to fund the federal government’s response to the spreading virus, which he said included a $2.5 billion request for preventive measures, a figure he said was suggested by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence has been appointed “coronavirus czar,” as the disease has spread most recently to Brazil and Norway and infected about 80,000 people globally and killed more than 2,700.
Consumers hoping to reduce their chances of inhaling the airborne virus from someone else’s coughs and sneezes emptied store shelves and stockrooms of online e-tailers, including Amazon and CVS.
