President Trump announced a 6 p.m. press conference tonight to discuss the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak:

Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape! @CDCgov….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2020

I will be having a News Conference at the White House, on this subject, today at 6:00 P.M. CDC representatives, and others, will be there. Thank you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2020

He’ll be meeting with folks today as well:

Just landed. India was great, trip very successful. Heading to the White House. Meetings and calls scheduled today. @CDCgov, @SecAzar and all doing a great job with respect to Coronavirus! Briefing this afternoon. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2020

Former CDC Director Tom Frieden wrote that COVID-19 “will become a pandemic,” but we don’t know “if it will be mild, moderate or severe, or how many countries it will reach”:

#COVID19 will become a pandemic. We don’t know if it will be mild, moderate or severe, or how many countries it will reach. As we shift from the initiation phase of the pandemic to the acceleration stage, I’ve highlighted 8 things we must do for @CNN https://t.co/XAZx0jErbs — Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) February 25, 2020

We also don’t know how many people actually have it because we’re not testing for it:

Remember it's cold and flu season. We can't really say how many people have the new #coronavirus #COVID19 because testing is so limited and so many respiratory infections look just the same https://t.co/P929c4fRiu — Maggie Fox (@maggiemfox) February 26, 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases called the situation “stable here” in American, but “we need to be read to do things to contain an outbreak if it were to occur”:

"Things are stable here… At the same time, we need to be ready to do things to contain an outbreak if it were to occur," says Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases about coronavirus fears in the US.https://t.co/UFuojyN3f5 pic.twitter.com/Bn6NEpgsTS — New Day (@NewDay) February 26, 2020

He also explained that a vaccine will begin testing shortly but that it will be “at least a year to a year and a half at best” before that vaccine is ready for public use:

“In order to get a [coronavirus] vaccine, that’s practically deployable for people to use, it’s going to be at least a year to a year and a half at best,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.https://t.co/ci0W9ra9HH pic.twitter.com/M9trLsvacY — New Day (@NewDay) February 26, 2020

More on that here:

Just 42 days after #China released the genetic sequence of the new #coronavirus, biotech Moderna Therapeutics shipped its #COVID19 vaccine to NIH to start human testing in April. Sadly, still many months away from having a #COVID19 vaccine.@thespybriefhttps://t.co/amVNmaKrwR — Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) February 26, 2020

***