It’s really being hyped as a deadly Andromeda Strain or Ebola pandemic that, “Oh, my God, is going to wipe out the nation. It’s going to wipe out the population of the world.”

The stock market’s down like 900 points right now. The survival rate of this is 98%! You have to read very deeply to find that number, that 2% of the people get the coronavirus die. That’s less than the flu, folks. That is a far lower death statistic than any form of influenza, which is an annual thing that everybody gets shots for. There’s nothing unusual about the coronavirus. In fact, coronavirus is not something new. There are all kinds of viruses that have that name. Now, do not misunderstand. I’m not trying to get you to let your guard down...

I believe the way it’s being weaponized is by virtue of the media, and I think that it is an effort to bring down Trump, and one of the ways it’s being used to do this is to scare the investors, to scare people in business. It’s to scare people into not buying Treasury bills at auctions. It’s to scare people into leaving, cashing out of the stock market — and sure enough, as the show began today, the stock market — the Dow Jones Industrial Average — was down about 900 points, supposedly because of the latest news about the spread of the coronavirus.

We increased the budget of the CDC. We increased the NIH budget. We should -- and our president today -- and he's wiped all that out. We did it. We stopped it.

And the second thing I'd point out to you is that what I would do immediately is restore the funding. He cut the funding for CDC. He tried to cut the funding for NIH. He cut the funding for the entire effort.

And here's the deal. I would be on the phone with China and making it clear, we are going to need to be in your country; you have to be open; you have to be clear; we have to know what's going on; we have to be there with you, and insist on it and insist, insist, insist."

As a matter of fact, while this was going on, there was a virus that occurred in the United States that was spread in the United States, not from someone coming from outside the United States. And so it is a concern and I think it's important that we understand that you have to have a president in charge...

But we need to invest immediately. We should have done it from the beginning, the moment the virus appeared. But we're getting late, but we've got good scientists. And I just hope the president gets on the same page as the scientists.

Congress is willing to give us much more than we’re even asking for. That’s nice for a change. But we are totally ready, willing, and able. It’s a term that we use. It’s “ready, willing, and able.” And we have — we have — it’s going to be very well under control.

Now, it may get bigger, it may get a little bigger. It may not get bigger at all. We’ll see what happens. But regardless of what happens, we are totally prepared.

“Instead of listening to public health and medical experts, the President has been downplaying the potential impact of the virus for over a month. The Trump Administration has simply not been proactive enough given the severity of this crisis and Administration officials continue to give contradictory messages to Congress and the public. Putting Vice President Pence, someone with no public health expertise, in charge of the response will not instill confidence with the American people and raises questions about the Administration’s ability to coordinate an effective response to a complex public health threat.

“The President appears more concerned with his reelection and the stock market than the outbreak. This should be concerning to all. We cannot allow his incompetence to undermine the health and well-being of the American people.

Banning all travel from Europe — or any other part of the world — will not stop it.

This disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet — and we need a plan to combat it."

And the people that actually die, that percentage is — is a much lower percentage than I ever thought.

A very, very talented general is in charge. And when we have that vaccine, it will be discharged and taken care of. It’ll be a very — a very rapid process all over the country.