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Melissa Francis volunteers to ‘lead the charge’ to receive coronavirus antibody test

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Melissa Francis, “Outnumbered” co-host and the host of Fox Business Network’s “After The Bell,” told “Hannity” Wednesday she wanted to “lead the charge” against coronavirus by donating her blood for an antibody test in an effort to reopen the country’s economy.

“It has to start with those tests and it has to start with volunteers like myself, people that are willing to get out there and take that antibody test,” Francis told host Sean Hannity. “My husband was diagnosed positive two weeks ago. I’ve had no symptoms. I don’t feel like I’ve had it. I’m a perfect candidate to go in there [and] have the antibody test.

THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK STATE-BY-STATE

“I would like to do that, Sean,” Francis added. “I would like to donate my plasma and then I would like to go and lead the charge back to our headquarters where our brave skeleton crew has been … keeping the lights on.”

“We need to reopen the economy,” Francis added, “but we have to do it safely and we can only do that with confidence. And that involves … that antibody test.”

Francis said mass testing is essential in giving the American public the ability to return to some semblance of normalcy.

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“People aren’t going to go back to the stores because small businesspeople out there know the government is doing the best they can to help,” Francis said. “I mean, you really can’t fix this until people get out there and you can’t do that until we have confidence.”

“I want to go back to the barber or to the hair salon. To the restaurant, to the bar on the corner, let me tell you … ” Francis joked. “I want to do all of these things, but I want to do it safely. And I want to raise my hand … I want to be part of that charge.”

Pharmaceutical executive claims FDA ‘red tape’ holding up coronavirus antibodies test

Dr. Stephen McColgan, chief medical officer at California-based Vivera Pharmaceuticals, told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday that his company’s rapid coronavirus antibody test is ready to be deployed, but is being held up by “red tape” at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“We have a rapid antibody test. And the key to this is, this is part of the solution to the crisis,” McColgan said. “It identifies patients that have immunity and it identifies people that can give plasma [to] critically ill patients.

“It was developed in Germany,” McColgan said. “Germany has the lowest mortality from COVID-19 globally at this point, and they’ve tested everybody. So this is good. It’s used by our allies in Europe.”

CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK STATE-BY-STATE

McColgan described the test as “high-quality” and “high-value,” adding that its deployment is part of his company’s goal to “get America back to work again and to make America well again.”

Many experts see the rollout of a rapid coronavirus antibody test as a key step toward ensuring that many restrictions on economic activity can be lifted.

“When you have a patient that does have the infection [and] recovered, they have the antibodies, the antibodies mean they have immunity,” McColgan said. “So when you spin off the plasma on their blood and give it to the critically ill patient, then those antibodies fight the viral infection and allow that patient to recover … So it’s critical.”

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McColgan said his company has had the test ready for three weeks and was “trying to deploy it.”

“You know, the red tape in the FDA and President Trump has been trying to cut through it,” he said. “I don’t know why New York’s been crying about, you know, no testing, no tests … You know, it’s always sort of the red tape of government moves slowly.”

Sen. Graham says ‘no more money to the WHO,’ calls them ‘Chinese apologists’

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Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday that the World Health Organization (WHO) should not receive funding from the United States under its current leadership, blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic and the WHO for covering for communist country.

“And the next appropriations bill, there’s not going to be any money for the WHO. I’m in charge of the appropriations subcommittee. I’m not going to support funding the WHO under its current leadership. They’ve been deceptive. They’ve been slow and they’ve been Chinese apologists,” Graham said on “The Story with Martha MacCallum.” “I don’t think they’re a good investment, under the current leadership, for the United States. And until they change their behavior and get new leadership, I think it’s in America’s best interests to withhold funding because they have failed miserably when it comes to the coronavirus and did the same thing in 2015.”

CORONAVIRUS IN THE US: STATE-BY-STATE BREAKDOWN

Graham was responding to President Trump’s comments at Tuesday’s coronavirus task force press briefing, wher he said, “We’re going to put a hold on the money sent to the WHO.”

“They had a lot of information early. They seem to be very China-centric. And we have to look into that,” Trump said Tuesday. “So, we’re going to look into it and we’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it.”

Graham had harsh words for China and its responsibility for the global pandemic.

“Without China being irresponsible, lying to the world about the way the disease is transmitted, withholding information about the level of infection, silencing doctors, there would be no pandemic,” Graham said. “China is a pandemic incubator. These with markets create conditions for the virus to spread to the human food chain, from wild animals like bats and monkeys.”

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The senator again declared that the WHO would not receive U.S. money until it understands its mission.

“No more money to the WHO until they get new people in charge will understand there that they’re there to help the world fight disease, not apologize for China,” Graham said.

Dr. Carson on coronavirus pandemic: ‘This is going to pass and it looks like it’s moving much faster than anybody thought’

Coronavirus task force member and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson, joined “The Ingraham Angle”  Monday where he reacted to the idea of a second economic coronavirus task force, saying he was optimistic of an economic rebound.

“The fundamentals of our economy are very strong. We just have to bridge this gap and we’ll be able to get right back to having that strong economy after this is over,” Carson said. “And we know that this, too, will pass. One of the reasons that he’s been very interested in making it pass faster by being open-minded and looking at some of these possible therapies that can be used is because he recognizes that the longer we extend this period of hibernation, the weaker the infrastructure of the economy becomes.”

WHO DIRECTOR FACES CALLS FOR RESIGNATION OVER HANDLING OF CORONAVIRUS, CHINA

Carson addressed the president’s critics, saying their comments only motivate him.

“So he’s looking at all of these aspects and the people who criticize him, they’re going to criticize him no matter what he does. So he kind of puts that aside,” Carson said. “You know, I always find it kind of funny. They criticize no matter what he does. They don’t realize that it kind of invigorates him. If they really wanted him to go away, they’d stop criticizing, but they’re never going to do that. So it works just fine.”

Carson gave credit to the American people saying that the coronavirus pandemic is being handled better than projected.

“This is going to pass and it looks like it’s moving much faster than anybody thought. And that’s kudos to the American people,” Carson said. “You know, they have grasped the significance of this. They are self-isolating the way that they’re supposed to be doing. I find it very refreshing.”

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“It’s just like the spirit that we saw back in World War II, where people are bonding together and recognizing that this is not a time for a lot of political argument, arguments,” Carson added.

Tucker Carlson on coronavirus lockdowns: ‘There has to be a more balanced course than the one we are on’

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Tucker Carlson Monday questioned the logic and effectiveness of the ongoing restrictions across America in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have a pretty good idea that targeted quarantines work. They’ve been used for centuries around the world, but that’s not what we did. Instead, the United States and many other countries instituted mass quarantines in which governments shut down entire nations for long periods. That’s never happened before,” the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” host said Monday.

“Now, mass quarantine makes sense if you’re fairly certain it will prevent mass infection. But are we certain of that? Well, despite what you might hear on television, we are not certain of that still. In fact, there’s some indications it hasn’t been as effective as we’d hoped it would be.”

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Carlson explained that despite the far-reaching nature of many states’ restrictions, Americans are not living under strict quarantine. He specifically called out the logic allowing people out of their homes to go grocery shopping.

“The one place you can go is the supermarket. By the way, everyone else in your neighborhood has been this week. From an epidemiological standpoint, this is lunacy,” Carlson said. “If you wanted to infect an entire population, you’d encourage everyone in a specific zip code to meet regularly in one enclosed location. It doesn’t make sense.”

The host then asked why offices are more “dangerous” than supermarkets and noted the economic damage caused by the current lockdown.

“We’ve decided that offices are somehow more dangerous than supermarkets, far more dangerous. No one has today bothered to explain … this,” Carlson said. “A year from now, and we should think about this, how will all of us feel about the decisions we’ve made in the face of this pandemic? Is there a single person who sincerely expects the coronavirus itself will hurt more people in the end than the damage we’re causing in our response to it? Probably not.”

Carlson emphasized he did not want to minimize the danger of the pandemic, but called for health officials to provide clear and detailed explanations of their thinking.

THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK STATE BY STATE

“No thoughtful person wants to reopen baseball stadiums tomorrow or book a cruise to Shanghai, but there has to be a more balanced course than the one we are on now,” Carlson said. “For most people, going to work cannot be more dangerous than buying produce at Safeway twice a week. And if it is more dangerous, tell it. Tell us how it is more dangerous and be specific when you describe that.”

“Otherwise, it’s time to start caring about the entire population. Healthy people are suffering badly, too,” Carlson added.

NORAD, NORTHCOM commander vows USNS Comfort ‘will not refuse anyone medical attention if they need it’

Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, the commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), joined “Your World with Neil Cavuto” Monday to address New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s call for the hospital ship USNS Comfort to amid and treat coronavirus patients.

About an hour after the interview aired, Cuomo tweeted that Trump had “agreed to our request to treat #COVID patients on the UNSN Comfort.”

“This means 1,000 additional beds staffed by federal personnel,” Cuomo wrote. “This will provide much-needed relief to our over stressed hospital systems.”

“We know that, for example, the Javits Center [in Manhattan] was originally a non-covered center. We have to adjust fire,” O’Shaughnessy said. “We know that the demand signals such, [that] we need to do COVID patients. So we re-did that. And now that actually has COVID [patients] at it now.”

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“We had some folks come in last night to the ‘Comfort’ in need of urgent care, and so we gave it to them. Turns out several them were positive [for coronavirus] again,” Shaughnessy explained. “And so they’re in our AC units right now … they need medical attention. We give them medical attention. And so we’re taking all this into consideration.”

The commander made it clear to Cavuto the ship is tied into the New York City health systems.

“But I’ll tell you right now, we will not refuse anyone medical attention if they need it,” O’Shaughnessy said. “Everyone who has arrived with the comfort has been taken care of. We’ve trained for some of them once they’re able to be transferred over to the Javits Center. I think that’s the beauty of the approach we brought. We bring the whole and the full spectrum, from low-end to high-end, and we’re able to take it all. And we’re tied right into the New York City and the New York State Hospital Systems.”

CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK STATE BY STATE

Shaughnessy told Cavuto that Americans following the White House task force’s guideline has had a large impact on the number of cases of the coronavirus.

“But we also have to realize the great impact that we’ve had as a result of this, is this kind of isolation and what really an enormous impact that’s had in the case loads that we’re seeing,” Shaughnessy said.

Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.

Mark Cuban says coronavirus changes ‘everything’ in US — so leaders should ‘step up’

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The coronavirus relief plan that President Trump signed into law is “a good program,” Mark Cuban says, but he would have done things differently.

Cuban, the billionaire owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, shared his views during an appearance on Fox News’ “Watters’ World” on Saturday night.

MAVERICKS OWNER MARK CUBAN HAS NO TIMETABLE FOR NBA RETURN BUT CONCEDES ‘AMERICA NEEDS SPORTS’

“I would have set up overdraft protections for every single business,” Cuban told host Jesse Watters. “The way we’re doing it now, and trying to have everybody apply for a loan, that just adds friction to the process.

“And the same with the $1,200 stimulus checks,” Cuban continued. “It’s not that it’s a bad program. It’s a good program at this time. But if I would have done a little bit different. So effectively, if you have a small- or medium-sized business, we would just cover all your checks and then the Fed would reimburse your local bank for anything that you bounce.

“That way, you could keep all your employees employed, pay all your bills, pay your mortgage, pay your rent and utilities, and things can continue, somewhat at least, as normal,” Cuban said.

Watters asked Cuban what aspects of U.S. life he expects to see altered as a result of the pandemic.

“Everything,” Cuban said.

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“When we get to the other side, you know, I’ve been calling it America 2.0. We’re going to see what’s in front of us,” Cuban said. “We really don’t know what to expect, what’s on the other side. But what I do know is that in this country, all the entrepreneurs that you referred to, all the capitalists that exist here … there is no better country.

“We really don’t know what to expect, what’s on the other side. But what I do know is … there is no better country.”

— Mark Cuban

“There’s no other country I’d rather be in. Because I know whatever we find out there, companies are going to be invented. Entrepreneurs are going to adapt. United States of America, our people are going to adapt.”

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Cuban then called on leaders to “step up.”

“I don’t care what the media says. I don’t care what the politicians say. I care about what I can do to help. I care about others that can help,” Cuban said. “And whether it’s [MyPillow CEO] Mike Lindell, myself, whoever, this is a time when leaders need to step up and do what’s right to help their employees try to turn this thing around.”

Judge Jeanine: Coronavirus shutdown rough but Trump ‘working to get us back’

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President Trump’s leadership amid the coronavirus pandemic was the topic of Judge Jeanine Pirro’s “opening statement” on Saturday night.

“You may not have lived during a World War, but you are living in one now,” Pirro declared during “Justice with Judge Jeanine.” “We are hunkered down, sheltered in place, shutting our businesses and praying for light at the end of the tunnel. Three hundred thousand Americans stricken, more than a thousand killed, and we are nowhere near the apex.”

Pirro said the country was at war — but had the right general in charge.

“The United States is indeed at war, and the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth is now in a wartime posture. We watch President Donald Trump daily as he works to take this nation from a place of frightening vulnerability to a place of physical, economic and spiritual strength,” Pirro said.

She described Trump as “a leader who understands his number one responsibility is to protect his citizens. At the same time, as a businessman, he is mindful of the free enterprise system that has produced the vast wealth to fund the vital institutions that protect us, including our health care system.”

“And he is working to get us back to that thriving economy that he created for us,” Pirro added. “President Trump’s focus is singular — finding solutions to win this war.”

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The host commended Trump for being focused on the cornavirus the American people.

“President Trump doesn’t listen to the lieutenants who are moaning and whining and making outrageous claims as they sit and pontificate about what should be done for them, about what they need, which in some cases they already have,” Pirro said. “President Trump is more than capable and would be more than justified to counterpunch based on some of those ridiculous claims that he could easily rebut.”

Pirro also took China to task for its role in the pandemic.

“China has to be made accountable for, at the very least, its complete lack of transparency. China could have prevented a great deal of pain and loss, both physical and economic, had they been honest — but they never have been honest,” Pirro said. “And we have a lot of time to think about how this needs to be resolved as it relates to China.”

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“Thank God, at this moment in America’s history, we have a businessman as a president of the United States as leader,” Pirro said.

Stay-at-home orders should apply to entire US, former HHS official says

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Dr. Anand Parekh, former deputy assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), joined anchor Jon Scott on “Fox Report Weekend” to discuss the efforts underway to slow the spread of coronavirus, saying the whole country needs to get behind a stay-at-home order.

“We need to double down, really need the whole country under a stay-home order,” Parekh said. “Because we know that reducing the contact rate is what reduces infections and all the models. The thing [that] distinguishes one model from another is how well we do in social distancing.”

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Parekh warned that with testing yet to expand, health officials don’t yet know the true extend of the spread of the virus.

“Because we haven’t been able to expand testing … we don’t quite know the full sort of distribution or transmission of the virus,” Parekh said.

The chief medical adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center said social distancing was key to making sure the health care community can handle what’s to come.

“The pandemic curve is going to hit every state, every community,” Parekh said. “You need to put into practice social distancing ahead of time to see the differences. Several weeks down the road, this is the time to really prepare the health care system — and the best way to do that, to reduce that surge in the coming weeks, is right now to ensure that social distancing is implemented at its maximum.”

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“And that’s really what the stay home order is trying to do to reduce all of that nonessential travel and movement, reduce the contact rate, reduce the number of infections,” Parekh added. “John, that is the most important thing we can do right now to reduce future death.”

NORTHCOM commander says military is treating coronavirus pandemic like a campaign: ‘We are part of this fight’

Commander of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy joined “Watters’ World” on Saturday to talk about the large military campaign behind the coronavirus response.

“Our first objective is to defend our homeland. And so we make sure that we have the force that we need 100 percent of the time, 24/7, 365, even while we’re in this virus,” O’Shaughnessy said. “We make sure that we are ready […] to prepare to respond to anything. We have that done. We’re ready to go. And at the same time, we’re providing support all across the nation because our nation needs us.”

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

The general told Watters they are treating the coronavirus pandemic like a “large military campaign.”

“We got the hospital ships, we got Army expeditionary hospitals that are built up in the Javitts Center in New York City. We’re doing the same thing in Seattle. We’re breaking stuff down to New Orleans, to Dallas. And we’re postured to bring even more,” O’Shaughnessy said. “We are part of this fight. Our commander in chief has declared a war on COVID. And we’re treating this like a large military campaign.”

Watters asked the commander about the military’s preparation for the coronavirus.

“I know you guys plan for everything,” Watters said. “But did you guys ‘wargame’ this thing out or is this just on the fly?”

“America wants us planning for the worst things, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” O’Shaughnessy said. “And we’ve been part of this all the way since the president made that incredibly important decision to restrict the flights from China.”

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“And we were part of bringing the American citizens home and quarantining them on some of our military bases. And then some of the folks over on those cruise liners were able to house them because American citizens needed us,” O’Shaughnessy added. “So we’re trying to stay one step ahead of this.”