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Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2020 Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on Plasma Donation for Coronavirus Treatment and an Exchange With Reporters July 30, 2020 The President. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, everyone. It's a great honor. It's a magnificent building, and they do a magnificent job at the Red Cross. I'm delighted to be here to discuss the remarkable progress being made in the development of plasma. Plasma. So important. Therapies. These therapies transfuse powerful antibodies from the blood of recovered patients to help treat those battling the current infection that we all know so well. Plasma is one of the more delicate ways of doing things. It's had tremendous response so far—we've had. And it's an effort to accelerate—to really accelerate new therapies and further reduce mortality. We've been able to show some tremendous things. If you notice today, it was covered very well. A lot of countries where they thought they were doing well, they're not doing well at all. They've had explosions—explosions, unfortunately. We're joined by Secretary of Health and Human Services, who's doing a terrific job, Alex Azar. Alex—hi, Alex. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn. Hi, Steve. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. And I hope your wife is okay, Jerome. I know she had a little difficulty, but I'm sure she's going to be fine, right? Please give her my regards. Thank you, Jerome. Dr. Francis Collins, who everyone knows—Francis, thank you very much. NIH. And Dr. Anthony Fauci. Anthony, hi. And Deborah. Where's Deborah? Deborah? Hi, Deborah. Good job. You know, everybody is doing a good job. Everybody is working very hard. I want to also thank to the CEO of American Red Cross, somebody who's done outstanding work—I've known about it for a long time—Gail McGovern. Thank you, Gail. Really, an outstanding job too. CEO of America's Blood Centers, Kate Fry. Hi, Kate. Thank you very much. CEO of CSL Limited, Paul Perreault. Paul, thank you very much. Great job. And CEO of LabCorp, Adam Schechter. Thank you, Adam, very much. We've taken bold actions to give Americans access to plasma therapies. The FDA made the treatment available to patients with life-threatening infections beginning in March. We provided $48 million to the Mayo Clinic to support their expanded access program for plasma. We're providing up to $270 million to the Red Cross and America's Blood Centers for the collection of up to 360,000 units of plasma. My administration is partnering with commercial labs, insurers, and health care providers to encourage those who have had the virus to donate plasma. So if you've had the virus, if you donate, it would be a terrific thing. We really need donations of the plasma. To those that have had the virus, you've gotten through it, and I guess that means you have something very special there. Right, Gail? So we would appreciate that. It would help a lot of people. We're grateful to LabCorp for offering free antibody testing to identify people who can donate. And LabCorp has really been fantastic in a lot of ways and other ways also. As a result of these initiatives, we've already treated nearly 50,000 patients with plasma. Roughly 2 million Americans have fully recovered from the virus. This afternoon I'm asking these citizens to go to the coronavirus.gov—it's coronavirus.gov—and volunteer to donate plasma as soon as you can. We have a lot of people that would heal, would get better. As soon as you can, please. 1 In addition, I'm once again urging all Americans to protect the elderly, socially distance, wear a mask when you cannot avoid the crowded places. And if you can, you have to avoid crowded places. It just seems like so many things are taking place in crowded places. We don't want that. And always wash your hands—wash your hands as often as you can. Together, we'll defeat the virus, we'll defeat the invisible enemy. I want to thank the American Red Cross. I've been a fan of the Red Cross for a long time, as you know, and we appreciate the great work that you do. Thank you very much, Gail. And now I'd like to ask Gail to say a few words, please. Thank you. American Red Cross President and Chief Executive Officer Gail McGovern. Mr. President, thank you so much for joining us today and for shining a light on the critical need for convalescent plasma. I'm honored to be seated here with these distinguished, top medical experts who are striving to help us deal with this terrible pandemic. And I am so grateful that the American Red Cross can actually play a role in the treatment of COVID–19. [At this point, Ms. McGovern continued her remarks, concluding as follows.] So please, please, please—I know I speak on behalf of Kate as well—consider donating plasma if you've had COVID, because you are going to do a wonderful thing. It's easy, it doesn't take a lot of time, and I can tell you that when you donate blood and you leave our blood center, you feel so great. You just feel so great about yourself because you just saved someone's life, and not a lot of people can make that claim. So thank you again, Mr. President. We really appreciate the shout-out for convalescent plasma. The President. Thank you, Gail. Great job. Ms. McGovern. Thank you. The President. You're really doing something very special. Thank you. Ms. McGovern. Thank you. The President. Alex, please. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar II. Well, Mr. President, thank you so much for leading the effort now to get people to donate convalescent plasma. This is going to be a major national initiative in the months ahead, and I want to thank the Red Cross, and I want to thank America's blood banks for the work that they're doing to bring our donors in and to get this plasma. [Secretary Azar continued his remarks, concluding as follows.] So thanks to everyone who's donated. And thank you, Mr. President, for this national call to action to donate. And thanks to all of our future donors. Thank you, Mr. President. The President. Thank you very much, Alex. Appreciate it. Dr. Collins, please. National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins. Well, thank you, Mr. President. And good afternoon, everyone. It's wonderful to be in this beautiful space. And thanks very much, Gail, and everybody at Red Cross for hosting us here. [Director Collins continued his remarks, concluding as follows.] So all of this fits together with what the Trump administration has been doing, through Operation Warp Speed, to literally bring all hands on deck from the public sector, from the 2 private sector. Nobody worrying too much about who's going to get the credit. Let's just move this forward and save lives. And all of the Americans who've been donating their plasma are a big part of that team. So thanks. It's wonderful to be part of this event this afternoon. The President. Thank you, Francis. Appreciate it very much. Kate, please. America's Blood Centers Chief Executive Officer Kate Fry. Thank you, Mr. President, for having this important event today. America's Blood Centers is the national trade association for independent community blood centers. Our members are responsible for over 60 percent of the Nation's blood supply and have been at the forefront of convalescent plasma collections in the U.S. over the past 4 months. [Ms. Fry continued her remarks, concluding as follows.] And so we are following—all blood centers are following social distancing protocols. They've implemented infection disease protocols as well. So this is a very safe and easy way to help others. So thank you again for having this event, and we look forward to being part of this effort. The President. Thank you very much, Kate. Appreciate it. Tony and Deborah, please. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony S. Fauci. Thank you very much, Mr. President, for support of this very important program. When we talk about what is going on in this country and the challenge we're facing, we often say that it is something where we are all in it together, and we all have to pull together. [Director Fauci continued his remarks, concluding as follows.] And this is the good news that's juxtaposed to what happened a couple of days ago when we went into the phase three trial for a vaccine. Some of you may heard—may have heard me say that I was "cautiously optimistic"—a word that I use often—that we will be successful with a vaccine. One of the reasons is that, in the phase one study, the vaccine induced response that was comparable, if not better than what we see in convalescent plasma. So here's where the work of vaccine essentially merges with the work we're doing now with convalescent plasma. So that's the reason why we think it's so important and why it's so important for people to donate. Thank you, Mr. President. The President. Thank you very much, Tony. Thanks. White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah L. Birx. Thank you, Mr.
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