My administration has taken the most aggressive action in modern history to prevent the spread of this illness in the United States. We are ready. We are ready. Totally ready. On January 31st, I ordered the suspension of foreign nationals who have recently been in China from entering the United States. An action which the Democrats loudly criticized and protested and now everybody's complimenting me saying, "Thank you very much. You were 100% correct." Could've been a whole different story. But I say, so let's get this right. A virus starts in China, bleeds its way into various countries all around the world, doesn't spread widely at all in the United States because of the early actions that myself and my administration took against a lot of other wishes, and the Democrats' single talking point, and you see it, is that it's Donald Trump's fault, right? It's Donald Trump's fault. No, just things that happened.

I don't know what is the threat from China. I think this issue is often blown out of proportion because the US has the habit of defining an enemy.

Usually, you'd expect the worst to be the "ground zero" country — in this case, China, then the next wave, which was all in Asia, and then in Europe, and then finally, the U.S. We had all this community spread. With a travel ban, where you actually force people to come back from China, you have to have a way to be able to either just assume they're infected and quarantine them, or test them. And then if they test positive, to have that enforced quarantine. We actually seeded a lot of infection by saying, 'Okay, everybody, residents and citizens come back (and not testing or quarantining).'

History tells us that it is likely the next big outbreak will be something we have not seen before. It may seem strange to be adding an 'X' but the point is to make sure we prepare and plan flexibly in terms of vaccines and diagnostic tests. We want to see 'plug and play' platforms developed which will work for any, or a wide number of diseases; systems that will allow us to create countermeasures at speed. [...] As the ecosystem and human habitats change there is always the risk of disease jumping from animals to humans. It’s a natural process and it is vital that we are aware and prepare. It is probably the greatest risk.

I don't think there's any need to panic (because of the COVID-19 pandemic). We manage these things the same as we manage influenza. The sensible thing (to do) at this point is to increase awareness of what is going on overseas. We can't treat the virus at the present time, so what we can do is use simple personal protection and public health interventions ... should it enter New Zealand.

The CDC and World Health Organization, indeed all global health authorities, have recognized that healthy people, with healthy immune systems, bear minimal risk from COVID. Indeed, many people, according to our health authorities, have an immune response sufficient that they don’t even know they have COVID.

Americans worried about China and unnecessarily alarmed about the government

In the last few days the progress of the (COVID-19) virus, especially in some countries, especially human-to-human transmission, worries us (WHO). Although the numbers outside China are still relatively small, they hold the potential for a much larger outbreak.

This positive case teaches us that the threat of COVID-19 is real. As a small island, we need to be prepared and remain vigilant.

I know that many Americans are also worried about the potential risks to the United States. So I want to be very clear: We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it’s the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific. Let me repeat that: We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific. That is the judgment of our Nuclear Regulatory Commission and many other experts.

We got hit by the virus that came from China. We’ve made a lot of progress. Our strategy is moving along well.

The threat of is the number one health security concern, are we ready to respond? I fear the answer is no.

When we think of the major threats to our national security, the first to come to mind are nuclear proliferation, rogue states and global terrorism. But another kind of threat lurks beyond our shores, one from nature, not humans — an avian flu pandemic.

Why has our space of debate become so narrow?...The new coronavirus infection is totally under control in China. What is it (China) scared of, despite that?