President Trump declares national emergency, says private sector stepping up to combat coronavirus
Declaration will free up nearly $50 billion to help states and cities fight the spread of coronavirus; reaction and analysis on 'The Five.'
This is a rush transcript from "The Five," March 13, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Juan Williams along with Dr. Nicole Saphier, Jesse Watters, Shannon Bream, and Gregory Gutfeld. It's 5 o'clock in New York City. And this is The Five.
President Trump declaring a national emergency over the Coronavirus. There are now more than 1600 cases and 41 deaths in the United States. Here's the President.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To unleash the full power of the federal government to this effort today, I am officially declaring a national emergency. As a result of that action today, we are announcing a new partnership with private sector to vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test for the Coronavirus.
We want to make sure that those who need a test can get a test very safely, quickly, and conveniently. The next eight weeks are critical. We can learn and we will turn a corner on this virus. Some of the doctors say it will wash through. It will flow through. Interesting terms. And very accurate. I have thought you are going to find, in a number of weeks, it's going to be a very accurate term.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: The President's declaration of a national emergency, a lot of pressure coming from opposite directions, but did he it. Jesse, what do you make of it?
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: It's not so much what he says, it's what he does. And when you unleash $50 billion, it's going to do a lot. The markets loved it. You know, everybody was criticizing him when he spoke on Wednesday, and the markets went down. And now he speaks, and the markets go up.
So it's really about action more than anything. He has unleashed the private sector. A lot of people were expecting that when you bring in Roche and Google, and you start ramping up testing, even drive-through testing which we have seen in South Korea and people are very excited about that.
So, if you really unlock the resources with the hospitals and the medical industry, people are going to be feeling a lot more confident. Now, Nancy Pelosi needs to get her act together. I don't know what she is waiting for. They need to come together and get the tax cut with the payroll deal done. Along with worker relief and paid leave. That should happen now. I don't know what's taking them that long. And on Monday, the markets will respond to that very strongly.
The President said he's going to get tested. That was big news item right there. And I think we will await his results because allegedly, he has been in contact with people that have tested positive, standing next to them, taking pictures with them. And if he tests negative, a man of his age, it kind of gives you an indication about the contagion aspect.
WILLIAMS: OK. Hold on, because we have some tape of that.
WATTERS: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you being selfish by not getting tested and --
TRUMP: I didn't say I wasn't going to be tested.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to be?
TRUMP: Most likely, yeah, most likely. Not for that reason but because I think I will do it anyway.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you let us know the results?
TRUMP: Fairly soon. We are working on that. We are working out a schedule.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So, what do you say, Shannon?
SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I don't think he will want to get a test right now for a number of reasons, including which people are going to say, oh, President can get a test and no one else can get a test. You know some people are going to use that as a talking point, if he is like oh, I had a test eight days ago. So we will see.
Bret Baier pointed out earlier it could be a test that rolls out when the whole testing kit. Look, I will be one of the ones to take it, but now, everyone will get the test. Maybe a tie-in there. One of the things that made me really sad today though, there was a lot of good news was this thing about nursing homes and you can't go visit.
WATTERS: Yeah.
BREAM: Old people are my tribe, I love it. And I like to hang out in nursing homes. I do. People need to be cheered up.
WATTERS: Do you love to hang out?
BREAM: I do. I love it. When I was a little kid, we would go every Sunday after church. And my mom would take her ukulele. And I would stand on the table and we would sing songs.
GUTFELD: Why would you torture these people?
BREAM: I'm not saying it was good. But they were lonely and hard of hearing.
GUTFELD: Yeah, that's good.
BREAM: So, I think my singing was OK. But I feel like we should all adopt a nursing home in communities. And have school kids who have school kids have free time now to write letters to the nursing homes, and to flood them with kindness.
GUTFELD: But don't go.
BREAM: No, no, no. But I feel you can send letters, you can send cards and things over.
NICOLE SAPHIER, FOX NEWS HOST: Absolutely.
BREAM: Because people are going to be so lonely. And they need human contact. So I say we adopt nursing homes.
WILLIAMS: So, Greg.
BREAM: That's my stand.
WILLIAMS: I'm struck by just what Shannon is talking about because one of the constant points of criticism is the shortage of testing. And, of course, the President is now saying he is -- they are making an effort. I think he even have the guy from Wal-Mart there and use the parking lots for drive-through testing?
GUTFELD: Right.
WILLIAMS: What do you make of this?
GUTFELD: Well, you know, when we think about 9/11, a lot of things that took place ended up being permanent. A lot of people are still taking off their shoes. Some things you want to be permanent. For example, if there are innovations in testing and telemedicine, I want those things to be permanent. I want to use a situation to create things where can you drive- through and get a test for anything.
I am really though -- I'm really pleasantly surprised how the media cares about his health, you know what I mean. First, they wanted him out because he is insane. Now, they want him to remain alive. I also like the fact that he fielded questions unlike Bernie and Biden. But it's good.
What you are seeing is very similar to what happened in World War II. Companies joining together to fight, and it demonstrates a lot of stuff is going on that is really positive. And one of the good signs about this is the number one complaint that I noticed in the media on Twitter, lack of diversity.
So that's your complaint. Things are pretty good if you are mad that they were all the wrong color.
WATTERS: What about Ambassador Birx. She is a female. That's pretty different.
GUTFELD: But she is white, Jesse.
WILLIAMS: Oh, OK.
GUTFELD: Come on.
WATTERS: Think of diversity.
GUTFELD: Forget about their impressive skills, you know.
WILLIAMS: Boy, you guys are -- you guys have some preoccupation. I think you should check out the surgeon general some time. He is a man of color.
GUTFELD: I'm talking about the people on Twitter, not me.
WILLIAMS: OK. Dr. Saphier, I was -- you know, the whole idea that the problem could continue was expressed by Dr. Fauci today. He said this could be not a matter of weeks, but a matter of months. And I was struck by this. He said eight weeks looks like what is realistic prediction to him.
SAPHIER: I think actually he has said several different things. He said four to five weeks until things start calming down. We may hit equilibrium, which I do think that is realistic it. But it could be shorter than that, probably not. It could be longer than that.
But the point is we are taking the effective measures to do what we can to slow the spread and get things under control. I think this was a very important presser today. It went on much longer than I expected. They took a lot of questions, which was the right thing to do because transparency is going to help.
We saw the stock market respond right away. And I am not necessarily -- I know it's because $50 billion has now been levied, but also what happened. He brought all of the private sector, which is exactly where we should have been to be honest earlier. And I'm a little disappointed in them at this point. And I'm going to continue to tell them that.
They should have stepped up. I depend on them. I promote capitalism every day because I expect more from them. So I'm glad they are here now. I think this is why the stock market responded. And I'm absolutely optimistic that we are going to start seeing more tests. And we're going to start getting this under control.
GUTFELD: To your point, too, it's actually good news, it doesn't sound like it. But when you say it's lasting longer, it's because you are spreading out the burden. This is a case where you don't want to rip the Band-Aid off because you aren't prepared for what's underneath that Band-Aid, if you are in the hospital.
When they say it's going to be -- I mean, optimistically if it's three months long that means they have pushed that -- what do they call that? Flatten the curve.
SAPHIER: Let me tell you -- also let me tell you why that's very important to do. It does seem like we are elongating the process. And that's OK, because we're still on flu season. Flu tends to burden our hospitals. So we want to elongate this. So we can actually get out of flu season a little bit, and still be able to care for all patients.
GUTFELD: Right.
SAPHIER: We don't want to be burdened. We don't want to have makeshift hospitals out of hotel rooms.
GUTFELD: Care.
SAPHIER: Exactly. That's what is happening in Italy right now.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
SAPHIER: With respirators.
WILLIAMS: So, Jesse, going around town, I'm a little struck here in Midtown Manhattan restaurants. My favorite restaurant is closing for two weeks. You go into some of the retail stores. And the store owners look like they are...
GUTFELD: Juan, they were lying to you. I was just there.
WATTERS: You have to have a reservation. I will take care of it for you. It's like you get up here, there is no traffic. A lot of places are empty. And that's fine. That will last for a very short period of time.
But I do I want to talk to you about the CDC. I didn't know this. A lot of the CDC criticism I believe was justified because they weren't ratcheting up these test kits, apparently fast enough. Dr. Fauci explained that the CDC was not designed for a nationwide testing operation. It was never designed like that.
Those systems were not in place any administration. So the fact they were able to do this with the private sector that quickly speaks to how resilient these people have been.
WILLIAMS: I think the concern was they didn't anticipate and make the preparations. And I think everybody agrees. There was a problem with the testing.
WATTERS: You can't do it overnight. And hopefully, they have it together now.
WILLIAMS: Exactly. The President said previously national emergency unnecessary. Today, he changed his mind.
WATTERS: Flexible leadership.
WILLIAMS: Way to go. Way to go, Jesse. Hang in there, buddy.
Straight ahead, more from President Trump after his declaration of a national emergency over the Coronavirus, how he is responding to criticism from the Democrats. That's next, right here on The Five.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WATTERS: President Trump declaring a national emergency over the Coronavirus pandemic. The President responding to Democrats who have been attacking him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We don't think the Democrats are giving enough. We are negotiating. We thought we had something, but all of a sudden, they didn't agree to certain things that they agreed to. So, we could have something, but we don't think they are giving enough. They're not -- they're not doing what's right for the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: Meanwhile China now blaming America for the spread of the Coronavirus across the world. A Chinese official taking to Twitter to push a bogus conspiracy theory claiming that the U.S. Army brought the virus to China. Here's the President sounding off on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I did read one article, but I don't think that article was representative, certainly not in my conversations with President Xi. And they know where it came from. We all know where it came from.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: And it looks like the State Department just summoned the Ambassador to China and gave him a little tongue lashing about some of these things that's come out of the country's foreign ministry, about America starting the virus in Wuhan.
BREAM: Listen, we all think that's Cuckoo Town, I think we agree. What upsets me about China though is these threats they're saying now.
WATTERS: Yeah.
BREAM: About we control all kinds of supply chains. It's really an exposed problem. If you want to have bipartisan action over anything, do it over this. The fact that we have so much outsource to China in pharmaceuticals and the agents we need for testing and all kinds of things. But the fact that they are now openly threatening us like we can shut this down. And you would be in the stew of the Wuhan virus as they are calling it.
WILLIAMS: Wow.
BREAM: I think China has got to settle.
WATTERS: Yeah, it looks like 90 percent of the ingredients in pharmaceuticals come from China. And now, they are threatening to I guess slap export controls during the height of this thing, Greg, not good.
GUTFELD: And also, you can't forget that the illegal drug that is killing most people in the opioid epidemic is fentanyl. People are mistaking it -- they think it's the prescription drugs. It's the fentanyl also in street Xanax and street heroin. The fentanyl makes it powerful and you can -- you can cut it with that stuff and then you people die.
But who was -- who was ahead of the curve on all of this? It was Trump.
WATTERS: Yeah.
GUTFELD: Trump was -- I mean, I remember we were giggling or maybe it was just me when he was talking about China all the time, when he was running for President. And I -- he pretty much called this.
WATTERS: He did predict a lot of this. Now, I think Marco Rubio had some thoughts about maybe not being so reliant on China. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): We are dangerously reliant particularly on China for the production of critical goods. And that includes goods that I have already outlined that are needed to fight the Coronavirus. And I think we rely on far more goods than we know.
The absence of having these domestic businesses that can ramp up production to meet demands for these critical goods limits our ability to mitigate, the worst effects of this virus.
The result is that the virus could end up being more damaging than it needed to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: And, Juan, don't you think Democrats and Republicans can get together on make Made in America?
WILLIAMS: Yeah, I think senator Rubio is exactly right. We are overly dependent on the Chinese in this regard. And it is startling to me that we haven't dealt with it before. In fact, you know, we are complicit because, obviously, a lot of businesses find it cheaper.
GUTFELD: We like their stuff.
WILLIAMS: They make the goods there, and them bring it back rather than rely on Americans. I would prefer to rely on Americans. At the same time, if you are in to pure capitalism and you want to see stock market go up, that's how it works.
But, my concern here is I don't think there is any question it originated in Wuhan, China. I mean, I don't -- I don't understand what the conspiracy theory is about. But, on the other hand, I don't think that because it originated, there is any reason then to think the worse of Chinese people or even the Chinese government, which I think lies occasionally, but, the problem is that we live in a global world, just as suggested by the economic facts of reality.
And we have to deal with the reality on the ground here in the United States right now. It doesn't help us in terms of the international alliances that are possible to start cutting off people. We angered the Europeans earlier this week, angered the Chinese. At what point, do you say hey, look, calm down, let's as a world community deal with this issue.
WATTERS: Well, I mean, one of the reasons they are angry because we slapped a travel ban on them. So I would rather them be angry than us dead.
WILLIAMS: But they wanted to be informed. They said they weren't told. And they are our allies.
WATTERS: Well, I think Trump informed them, .but maybe not soon enough for them to get their act together. Dr. Nicole Saphier, how do you see this Chinese situation right now?
SAPHIER: I think this is extremely concerning. And I talked about this a while ago about our dependency on pharmaceutical prices -- pharmaceutical supplies, not just from China, but from everywhere in the world, from India and a lot of these regions in Germany now.
Again, I want to stay away from bad China, even though they are acting a little bad right now. It's a bigger problem than that. And if we want to bring manufacturing to the United States, that's a great thing. I love the idea the majority of the research is done here. We put in the hard work, so why not benefit from it?
However, in the era when we have rising drug prices, are we really going to take manufacturing from somewhere where it costs significantly less to actually manufacture and bring it here? And the answer should be yes. But I would like to know how to do it. And I'm a doctor. I don't know how to do it. I just want to make that all of my patients are able to get their medications.
And right now, I'm concerned as I see this tit-for-tat between the Chinese government and us now that these patients are not going to be able to get it. That is absolutely concerning.
WILLIAMS: Maybe you could get Greg to give you some advice because the illegal drug makers on American streets seem to know what's up.
GUTFELD: They know what they are doing. We have to decouple. I think that's the word, correct?
WILLIAMS: Yes.
GUTFELD: I'm not even sure what it means.
SAPHIER: Conscious uncoupling.
GUTFELD: Just break it off.
WATTERS: Gwyneth Paltrow.
GUTFELD: Do it in a public restaurant, so China doesn't throw a fit.
SAPHIER: Throw the ring back?
GUTFELD: Look, we're going into two different directions.
WATTERS: It's you.
GUTFELD: Yeah.
WATTERS: All right. We will have more on the Coronavirus later.
But, next, sleepy Joe Biden's campaign is facing a very big problem. It could cripple his chances at winning the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAPHIER: All right. Joe Biden's campaign has been riding high after key Super Tuesday victories. But he could soon face a major problem that plagued Hillary Clinton. Politico reporting a never-Biden movement is growing, quote, in Michigan, a state critical to Democrats efforts to reclaim their general election footing, two of five Sanders' backers said, they would vote Democratic in November, regardless of who became the nominee.
And making matters worse, Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now blaming voter suppression for the reason why Sanders lost so big in Michigan. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I think one thing that we -- that isn't being talked about is the rampant voter suppression in this country. Right there in Ann Arbor where we had that rally, those kids were waiting three hours in line to vote in Michigan. And so, when we talk about who is turning out and who is not turning out.
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: So, just to be clear, you are saying that you think voters didn't get to vote who wanted to vote in Michigan?
OCASIO-CORTEZ: Absolutely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAPHIER: Well, Greg, you know these younger generations just don't have the patience for anything anymore. What do you think? Do you buy what AOC is saying?
GUTFELD: Oh, my God. I can't believe it. No. She is wrong. It's not voter suppression. It's voter depression. Because when you look at what the Democrats have to offer, you want to throw yourself off a bridge. It's got to be hard, if you are a Democrat, if you're like Juan look at this field four years to prepare and you have the two old white guys, the two oldest whitest guys from the municipalities up there Muppets up there. And this is from the party that accuses all us of being intolerant and lacking diversity, and being bigoted. And then, when they have the choice, they pick the two oldest whitest guys.
SAPHIER: Well, thank you.
GUTFELD: Anyway.
SAPHIER: All right. Juan, moving on. Juan.
WILLIAMS: Are you OK? Are you all right?
GUTFELD: I'm just confused. I feel bad for the Bernie supporters in a way. And I think they should vote for Trump.
WILLIAMS: That's it? Another old -- oh, I wasn't.
GUTFELD: Only 73.
WILLIAMS: But here's the thing about what she just said. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez is a little off. So she is saying even if these young people are waiting in line, she assumed they were all going to vote for one guy, Bernie Sanders? I think the voting showed that a lot of them might have been voting for Joe Biden.
This is not voter suppression. This is something quite different. You can say the lines are too long, but that's not what's going on. I think -- but I will say this with regard to the larger point. In Michigan, you get 80 percent of Sanders' voters saying we would be dissatisfied with Biden.
But, the reality is the number one priority across the nation, Dr. Saphier, for all Democrats is beating Donald Trump. So, when you come down to that moment, I think it's getting to be pretty clear. And I think a lot of people who may be temporarily, you know, boy, I wish it was Bernie Sanders are going to say well, you know what, by November, I'm remembering what this is about.
WATTERS: Well, my math is not perfect, but I think it's actually 60 percent of Bernie backers say they wouldn't vote for Joe Biden. That's the problem. This is going to be base versus base.
SAPHIER: I thought it was 80 percent. I thought it was 80 percent
WILLIAMS: That's what I thought.
WATTERS: Two for five, you extrapolate.
WILLIAMS: No, no, that's the 40 percent.
WATTERS: Two of five.
SAPHIER: No, no, no. Those are two different polls, 40 percent said they would vote Democrat no matter what. What that's two in five. But 80 percent -- which is different question now, 80 percent of those voters, four of five, not of the same five, just different five, are saying they are dissatisfied with Biden.
WATTERS: Either way, we don't need to bore the audience for the percentages. The point is a significant chunk of Sanders' supporters say they are not satisfied with sleepy.
SAPHIER: And they don't like him.
WATTERS: And that means Trump goes into the election with a much stronger base because Biden not only does he not get the Bernie win, he can't electrify Democrats on November to come out to knock on doors, to raise money, and to wait three hours in the polls. So that's going to be a problem.
The other thing is Biden can't undiplomatically put away Bernie on Sunday during the debate. He needs Bernie later. So if he like loses his cool like he did with that voter in Michigan, that's going to really rub a lot of Bernie bros the long way. So Biden puts him down, he's to put him down gently.
SAPHIER: That is interesting. Shannon, we know...
WATTERS: It is interesting, isn't it?
SAPHIER: Like everything Jesse says.
WILLIAMS: I think she insulted you.
SAPHIER: It is, Jesse, but you have such inflection you can say anything at this point and I would be like oh, yeah.
WATTERS: I could, couldn't I?
GUTFELD: You are right.
SAPHIER: I got it, I got it. So, Shannon, moving on, my question for you is talking about primaries, they are very different than the general election.
BREAM: Yeah.
SAPHIER: So, although we see Biden having some victories although there is a never-Biden #happening...
BREAM: Right.
SAPHIER: How do you think he will fare against Trump?
BREAM: Well, once you actually have the head-to-head matchup, like you will see on Sunday when you have Biden and Bernie, when it's down to the final two, everything changes, the way the PACs, the way the Trump campaign will spend, the ads that they will run. And plus, it's going to be like the Bloomberg phenomenon I think in some ways, where he is untested before he gets to the debate stage, everybody loves him, thinks he is going to be the savior of the whole primary. When he gets there and kind of fizzles and doesn't work, I mean, you just don't know.
When Biden and Trump get on the stage together, you will see who rises, who fizzles, what happens. When they're head-to-head, it's much different. The polling is much different. The ads are much different. It all changes when you are out of the primary and now, finally one-on-one.
But I will say about to the Bernie bros, I've told the story before. But when I was on the DNC covering it on the floor last time, they were so angry at the DNC and Hillary Clinton, they came to find me. They saw the Fox microphone and said, we are going to vote for Trump.
WATTERS: Yeah.
BREAM: So, whether they stay home, maybe they don't go that far, but if they're unmotivated then stay home. That impacts the vote, too.
WILLIAMS: Well, I would just say, one thing that we have learned and you would know a lot about this given what do with voter analysis for Fox News is that Biden is building a different kind of coalition. And he is bringing out people beyond the young voters, and they don't always vote.
But what Biden is doing is not only black voters, not only some of the union folks, but you also get now some of the suburban white moderates, especially the women were turning out in bigger numbers. We saw this and the suburbs out in Michigan suburbs of Detroit. They had record numbers --
BREAM: But also interesting to see to the president who is unopposed, is getting record numbers of people to show up and vote primaries where he's not facing anyone. I mean, there's -- it's interesting.
SAPHIER: We do have to watch what's going to happen because Louisiana just postpone their primary. So is this going to be a trickle effect? Will we even have primaries. And talk about voter suppression, will they even be able to vote in a primary? I'm curious --
WILLIAMS: You mean, because of coronavirus.
SAPHIER: Because of coronavirus. I'm just curious to see how this is going to play out.
WATTERS: Well, Greg had to cancel his show and send everybody home. Everybody was waiting to see him.
GUTFELD: Yes. And don't mention --
BREAM: Postpone.
GUTFELD: Don't mention trickle effect around Biden, OK.
WILLIAMS: You think they might cancel the November election if Trump --
SAPHIER: They absolutely should not. This should not interfere with our elections.
BREAM: Put your masks on and go vote.
SAPHIER: Speaking of coronavirus, President Trump just declaring a national emergency to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. What every American needs to know coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The spirit and the will of our nation is unbreakable. We will defeat this threat. When America's tested, America rises to the occasion. With faith and heart and hope and love and determination, we will succeed, we will prevail, we will be very, very successful and we'll learn for the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BREAM: Welcome back. That was President Trump earlier declaring a national emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic. Around the country in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio wrapping up a news conference about how America's largest city is now handling the outbreak. Illinois announcing it is closing all schools starting next Tuesday until March 30th. Kentucky declaring a state of emergency and also shutting down schools for at least two weeks. And the governor of South Carolina declaring a state of emergency as well.
You can see and feel there's fear and anxiety out there, running high over the spread of the virus. So calm down. We have Dr. Nicole Saphier here and also Let's welcome Dr. Marc Siegel to answer some key questions. Great to have you both.
MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Great to be here.
BREAM: All right, Dr. Siegel, I'll start with you. This idea that people will have more widespread testing, people are concerned, now, we're being told if you really think there's possibility you have this, call your doctor first. Don't just show up in the E.R. How should this work if you suspect or you're worried and want to get tested?
SIEGEL: Well, that's key. Because if you show up in the E.R., you present a problem to the E.R. If they think you might have coronavirus, then they have to put you in a unit with other people with cough, shortness of breath, and fever, and you could actually be spreading it.
And about the -- as Nicole has pointed out, how about the healthcare workers that are -- that are then exposed to it. So that's a major problem. I think the bigger problem though is I want to get these phone calls, and I've been told by my -- by my medical center not to see patients in my office with the symptom, but I still can't get the tests.
And it suddenly occurred to me that one of the reasons I can't get the test is that people don't want to do them. A lab tech isn't going to want to put that specimen deep into someone's nostril because that can expose them to coronavirus. We have to coordinate this so the tests are out there, that the labs are doing them, and that they -- we actually get the results so we can rule out coronavirus in a lot of people and the ones that have it, we can separate it. We have no ideas of the numbers really.
BREAM: Yes, I mean, how's the drive-through thing going to work? I mean, we talked about -- you talked about in South Korea, it's been such a helpful thing or in Japan. You know, they're talking about rolling it out here too.
SAPHIER: I think in this specific situation, in the acute situation, the right thing to do are these drive through -- drive -- these -- so you can get tested because we want to be able to test a lot of people. That is the whole point. If we know who's infected, then we can not only quarantine them, but then we quickly figure out who their contacts are and separate them as well. And that's how we're going to contain this community -- the spread of disease.
However, I want to be sure that I say this is not the future of America testing. Because the truth is, I don't want people to think that your flu test or your strep test, this is how it should be done, because this is not good health care. This is in a crisis situation for a pandemic. We want to mass test patients. And that's the only reason we're considering doing this right now, because we don't know a ton about the virus.
But what we do know is highly contagious, and people are spreading it even with mild symptoms. So we want to keep people as secluded as possible. So by just swabbing them in the comfort of their own car, you are now not letting them infect anybody else, and the only person coming in contact with them is the person swabbing them, and they're wearing full hazmat suits.
SIEGEL: Perfect. This worked in South Korea, by the way, just what you just said. It's working in South Korea.
GUTFELD: All right, I have three questions. Why are important people getting tested fast, like athletes, actors and actresses, politicians, and everybody else is having a hard time? Is there different rules for people with money and influence?
WILLIAMS: In America?
GUTFELD: Yes, I know. Surprised? Number two, we hear about the ventilator shortage. Is private industry going to be stepping up and making different or cheaper ventilators? And number three, Cuomo today was talking about how people are largely having pneumonia. So can you just treat this thing like it's pneumonia? Those are my three questions. You can start with whichever one you want.
SAPHIER: Well, OK, I'll tackle them pneumonia question. So refer to this as a pneumonia. And the truth is, it starts as -- the coronavirus tends to be just an upper respiratory infection. Meaning it's kind of just up here, which is like the common cold.
GUTFELD: Right.
SAPHIER: What's happening with some people, those who get severe illness with this, it's going from upper respiratory to lower respiratory, and then what happens is it affects the lungs. And so it does cause a viral pneumonia. And then what we're seeing on imaging like CT scans is a very specific pattern for something we call ARDS. And that is actually not necessarily just infection in your lungs, but you actually have fluids seeping out of the vessels in your lungs and it's like an overreaction of the body's immune response that's attacking the lungs.
So yes, there's a viral pneumonia component to this. But this is not the same as what you see, like a bacteria -- a secondary bacterial pneumonia that you get with the flu. It's very different.
SIEGEL: The pneumonia shot is not going to help you.
GUTFELD: I'm just curious. Now, what about --
WATTERS: Is this like a White House briefing? You get three questions? I follow and I follow up?
SIEGEL: I can't remember.
GUTFELD: How does an NBC player get a test, but I can't. Is it because I'm short?
BREAM: Well, you know what --
GUTFELD: Is it all about height?
BREAM: Only tall people can get test.
SIEGEL: Listen, I got to tell you, I've been trying for the last few days to get rich, famous celebrity patients this time, and I cannot. The only way you can get this test is through the state and city health department.
GUTFELD: All right, what about ventilator?
SIEGEL: Then you have to prove that you have symptoms. It's, it's a monster.
SAPHIER: It is -- and that's -- it is a big issue that I'm not even going to try to tackle here. I know at my hospital, we have a lot of immunocompromised patients and I know that we have tests for them, but they are a very vulnerable population, so that's all I can say. I can attest to those that are getting it outside of that.
BREAM: Ventilator.
SIEGEL: And in Nebraska, by the way, they testing a six-hour test. Cleveland Clinic is getting eight-hour test. NYU was starting our testing Monday. So the medical centers are finally saying we better -- we better get into it. And Sloan Kettering has been doing it for a while now.
WILLIAMS: So I have a question.
BREAM: Wait, ventilator.
(CROSSTALK)
SAPHIER: Because that's a big question. A lot of people are concerned about this, because actually what's going on in Italy right now is they don't have ventilators for the people. It's important to point out in the Lombardy region, which seems to be the kind of the center there, that I believe from what I've heard that that has a large elderly population, and we know that this affects elderly more. The people who are presenting with severe disease, 10 percent of them are having to be ventilated.
That does not seem like the general ventilation rate. It's just in that specific area. We're not seeing that number elsewhere. However, what they are experiencing is they don't have enough and they are actually having to decide who gets the ventilator and who doesn't.
In the United States, we have more. We have more doctors and hospital beds and ventilators per person than a lot of places in Europe do. But we still don't have enough especially as we have had seen hospitals close with all the consolidations in the last decade, as well as we're having physician shortages too, because of burnout.
SIEGEL: We have 200,000 ventilators as Nicole is saying. But what's going to happen is a lot of them are spoken for already.
GUTFELD: Wow. I got to make my own.
(CROSSTALK)
SAPHIER: They're actually ordering more and manufacturing more, so we did address that.
WILLIAMS: Yes. But I mean, we're worried about the hospitals just being overburdened in general including -- in terms of staff.
SAPHIER: Yes, we do.
WILLIAMS: So the question I had was this. I hear from the President and others say, well, it's just a lot like the flu, but then I hear from Dr. Fauci, and he says 10 times worse than the flu. So I've got two doctors here.
SIEGEL: Let me weigh in on this carefully because I never disagree with Dr. Fauci and he's a mentor of mine. But on this case, I want to say that there's a lot of -- a lot of mild cases out there that are not diagnosed. We don't have the test kits. As the virus evolves and becomes more used to humans, it gets milder usually over time. It's more deadly at the beginning and there's a lot of asymptomatic cases.
In South Korea, the death rate is 0.7 percent. The death rate of the flow is 0.1 percent. So I think that's what he meant that it's more than the flu, but it's still way less than we're being told.
SAPHIER: And we have to remember, the South Korea death rate is likely going to be more accurate because they tested the most amount of people. So that seems -- whereas in China, there was a large amount of the population not tested. So we -- their number is likely overestimated.
BREAM: All right, Jesse.
WATTERS: I have three quick questions.
BREAM: No, no, no. We don't have time.
WATTERS: When you wash your hands --
SIEGEL: And you're not that short.
WATTERS: When you wash your hands, does it have to be warm water? Can it be cold water because the faucets at Fox, it's all cold?
WILLIAMS: Wait a minute, they're all cold. Fox faucets are not cold.
WATTERS: Yes, I admit, you can adjust it. We're on the same floor, Juan.
WILLIAMS: Yes, I got hot water.
GUTFELD: And also, what's the point of washing your hands when you got to leave the bathroom with the door handles. Fox --
BREAM: No, no, you take your --
(CROSSTALK)
BREAM: And by the way, paper towel to get out.
SIEGEL: Use moisturizing cream, by the way. If you dry out your hands --
WATTERS: Moisturizing cream.
SAPHIER: Jesse, Dagen McDowell has very similar complaints to you about the cold water in the faucets, but -- so I did research this at her request and it's fine. It doesn't matter.
WATTERS: When you're in an Uber, we advise just cracking the window a little bit. Yes, right?
SIEGER: Yes, yes, fresh air, especially in an Uber. Who knows who's been there before?
GUTFELD: By the way, the water in the urinals is cold too.
BREAM: OK, thanks everybody. Dr. Siegel, thank you very much. "FAN MAIL FRIDAY" up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GUTFELD: Wow, classic "FAN MAIL FRIDAY." We're answering your questions because we care. First one, from Tom Sullivan, whatever. When you were growing up -- this is actually an interesting question. When you're growing up, what was your parents favorite musician/band, Shannon? This will say something about --
BREAM: This will tell you a lot about me. We watched the Lawrence Welk Show.
GUTFELD: Oh my god. That's what my grandmother used to watch.
BREAM: Yes. We did it with my grandparents.
GUTFELD: And Hee Haw.
BREAM: We would watch it. And Hee Haw -- don't make me sing the Hee Haw song because I know every word.
GUTFELD: You have to do it now.
BREAM: We're now once go around spread rumors. I'm not going to sing the whole thing. You know, I love this song. Yes.
GUTFELD: I'm so glad I ask.
WILLIAMS: Maybe you get her to bring her ukulele.
GUTFELD: What about you, Doc?
SAPHIER: Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Carlos Simon. I was raised by hippies.
GUTFELD: Yes, that is definitely hippy stuff.
BREAM: Good stuff. I like it.
GUTFELD: Juan?
WILLIAMS: You know, Harry Belafonte, Nat King Cole. They were very into salsa so -- but I don't even remember the names of all those Latin musicians.
SAPHIER: Will you demonstrate the salsa.
WILLIAMS: No. Next time Shannon is available.
SAPHIER: Why not?
GUTFELD: Jesse can set up everything he needs. Jesse, what do your parents listen to? Are they hippies?
WATTERS: Yes, protests rock. CCR and all that stuff.
GUTFELD: Yes. My mom was a Tom Jones fanatic. She actually worked as an usher at the circle star theater in Belmont so she could get a free ticket. It's so sad when I think about it. She was like -- she was like in her 30s already and she had to that. she volunteered to be an extra so she could watch Tom Jones.
BREAM: I love it.
GUTFELD: You know, they used to throw -- women would throw their underwear out of them.
BREAM: I've heard. I've heard.
GUTFELD: Yes. And the underwear back then was really weird. All right, from Mike.
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: What is the most fun you've ever had on T.V., Jesse?
WATTERS: Wow. Well, we had to edit out a lot of "WATTERS WORLD." Those will never going to see the light of day. But no, I have a lot of fun on the show, mostly during the feeding frenzies, or when you say something crazy, or when Dana can't stop laughing, that's good stuff.
GUTFELD: What about you, Juan?
WILLIAMS: Actually, Jessie and I had fun the other day we went to the Super Bowl, right?
WATTERS: That's right. No, wait, Juan, the night before the super.
WILLIAMS: Oh, that was -- no, but I'm talking -- no, I'm talking about --
GUTFELD: If he doesn't remember, it was great.
WILLIAMS: -- an NFL combine --
WATTERS: Oh, yes. That was a lot of fun.
WILLIAMS: When we were running around and throwing the football.
WATTERS: Juan got speed.
WILLIAMS: No, that was great. And then you're right. We had -- but that wasn't on T.V.
WATTERS: It a late night. It's a long night.
WILLIAMS: That was a good night.
GUTFELD: Shannon?
BREAM: We have this thing on Friday nights on the 11:00 p.m. show called Night Court where we have crazy court cases. And we had one a couple weeks ago. There was a guy who had challenged his ex-wife's attorney to a duel under a super ancient law that was still on the books. And I was trying to get through the story and I could not stop laughing because we had video which was not related to the story of a woman with a samurai sword. And it was one of those photos. And I couldn't get through it because --
GUTFELD: Samurai stock photos. Doc, what's the most fun you had on T.V.? I know you spent most of the time in the hospital, so --
SAPHIER: Just right here. Just this laughing. I mean, this is fun because you know, my day job is a bit -- you know, I give a lot of bad news. And so when I'm doing this, it's exhilarating, it's fun, and I love the people I work with.
WATTERS: Tell them about the fingertip washing. When you're washing your hands --
BREAM: Oh, yes.
WATTERS: It's not about this. Get the fingertips.
SAPHIER: I mean, most people tend to just focus on their palms. You have to really get those fingertips. That's why you touch everything, and thumbs.
GUTFELD: My fun is odd guest combinations on Red Eye. I like having Father Jonathan and Oderus Urungus from Gwar on the same show.
WATTERS: You were in the --
GUTFELD: Yes. And Ann Coulter with King Buzzo from the Melvins. We would have the strangest combinations. It was like being that Star Wars bar, but slightly weirder and smellier. "ONE MORE THING" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: It's time for "ONE MORE THING" on this fun Friday. I'm going to go first. I'm going to ask you a question. Who is your favorite superhero? A new poll done to celebrate the opening of Disney's California Adventure Park Avengers Exhibit asked people to rate their favorite superheroes and villains.
2,000 people, here are the results. Number five, Iron Man. Number four, Captain America. Number three, Batman. Number two, Spiderman, my favorite. And number one, not Jesse, Superman. By the way, the Joker and Catwoman top the list of villains. And ladies, good news, Wonder Woman came in number six among top superheroes. Greg?
GUTFELD: What a shocking lack of diversity.
WILLIAMS: Oh, no, no. In fact, I didn't -- I didn't say it, but Black Panther, Black Panther is number nine.
GUTFELD: No Asians? All right, so the "GREG GUTFELD SHOW," yes, we're going to be on tomorrow night, you could bet, 10:00 p.m. We got Dagen McDowell, Rob Long, Kat Timpf, Mike Baker. That's Saturday, March 14th, 10:00 p.m. And it is a great show. We take it all apart. Now it's time for this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: Animals are great. Animals are great. Animals are great.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTFELD: This is very, very short tape, but it's just really cute when you see -- when you see a groundhog forget, suddenly remember something he forgot. Do that one more. It's like he just remembered where you put the car keys. That's me every morning when I close the door and I realized that I'm not wearing pants. There you go. That's it for me.
WILLIAMS: All right, Jesse.
WATTERS: Well, I have something a dog forgot something.
GUTFELD: What?
WATTERS: Where he was going. Because he walked into an oil well. And a boy was dangled into the oil well to save him. Look at this kid reached down. I don't think this is the right way to rescue the dog. But he's dangled by his pants and he rescued the dog. What a hero.
SAPHIER: Please don't try this at home.
WATTERS: Speaking of heroes, "WATTERS' WORLD" 8:00 Eastern. We have an Epstein victim who speaks out for the very first time and tells us her experience. We also have a live PD expose. Don't miss that.
BREAM: All right.
WILLIAMS: Your favorite show.
WATTERS: My favorite besides THE FIVE.
WILLIAMS: Shannon, all caffeinated at 5:00 p.m.
BREAM: Yes, you know, I'm caffeine free. I'm just high on life. But also high dogs.
GUTFELD: Mad.
BREAM: I'm not mad.
GUTFELD: No, that's Andrew --
BREAM: Four letters, it's a different things. OK, dogs are man's best friend. But just how early does this bond start? Check this out.
Super cute. OK 16-month-old Alex's parents say that he started babbling nonstop a couple of months ago and their dog, their boxer Bentley starts talking back to him. They have these little conversations. They say before this, the dog didn't howl. But since Alex started making these little sounds and they're mimicking each other, they have their own language and the parents say they talk to each other all the time.
SAPHIER: And I'm sure that does not drive the mother crazy, whatsoever.
GUTFELD: Nicole.
SAPHIER: Guys, so if you've ever been to Chick-Fil-A, you know how important those sauces are and the dipping of the sauce while dreams coming true. That Chick-Fil-A is now putting together a test pilot in Florida where shoppers will be able to rack up on 16 ounce of bottles of the signature Chick-Fil-A and Polynesian sauces.
We have some here I would love to demonstrate with dipping some waffle fries but I don't have any waffle fries, so I can't demonstrate. But here they are. You will be able to get them in April in Florida. You may not be able to get toilet paper because it's still maybe out, but you're definitely be able to get Chick-Fil-A sauce. Each bottle will be -- cost around $3.50 and all proceeds go to their --
WILLIAMS: All right, that's it for us tonight.
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