Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 03202020 20240713

Virus. A councillor that tested positive discusses his experience. And your text and tweets. Washington journal is next. Us coronavirus cases have jumped. Returns at noon as they return to push a response package totalling over 1 million. Good morning, welcome to washington journal, this friday morning. March 20th. Well open up the phone lines, hearing from you, and your experience, response to the federal effort on the coronavirus. Of you in the central time zone, the line is welcome to your input if you are a medical professional tell us your name and where you twitter, ing from on facebook posts. There is a reporter from the mike baker, mes, stationed in the northwest. Part ofg the northwest the us, mike baker tweeting on the numbers, more than he said on the 132. More than 4,000 new cases in the us. Youll see his number at the there 12,336. When we started the programme 9 4509,450. 9,450. Checking the map. 245,484. 10,000, th toll over with 86,000 confirmed recoveries. 14,250. Us its the death toll 205, and again of the ton state, one key areas there. 121, just 121 have recovered in the us. I do want to point out too, and stories abouteral this that well get to, the country of italy. Has surpassed china in the death toll. Here are the numbers for italy. Well show it to you. 41,035 cases for italy. Total death toll 3,405. China, which yesterday reported no new cases. That number is pretty much it was yesterday. The death toll in china is 3253. The newspapers really cant of the with the spread news. Well take a look at the front page of the New York Times, alarm as nations struggle. As y time date the headline of 4 00p. M. Yesterday and write in this shortages of gear and apparel at hospitals with coronavirus cases soaring, doctors, nurse asks front line workers across the United States are confronting a dire of masks, surgical gowns and eye gear to protect virus. In the in interviews doctors were anxious hearing that they could expose not only themselves to virus, but their families and others. Theres absolutely no way to myself, said a doctor, an anesthesiologist in central kentucky, had to intunate intunate several the rly patient without cank and eye gear not only i note protect myself, i cant protect my patients. At the top we talked about the that the senate is moving on to. Republican introduced mitch ation from senator mcconnell. Here is the reporting this of the wont west with the wont writing gton post, that President Donald Trump expressed support, and shifted ideas amid erous waves of opposition. Close r lindsay gram, a ally was among several g. O. P. Expressing concern to the idea of direct payments, unveiled the nell stimulus plan that is the for ting point negotiations. Mcconnell called for the talks to start friday. Situation was so dire they should not recess. Facing the abyss, circumstances for which there no playbook, were the Washington Post, and here is mcconnell on the floor talking about the legislation. The notion confronts the health crisis, and the economic it is spawning. Senate republicans have bold legislative proposal. The coronavirus aid relief and economic act. Rity this legislation takes bold on four major priorities. That are extremely urgent. Necessary. Direct the Natural Health of the american people. Second, rapid relief for small and their , employees. To rd, significant steps stablilize our economy and jobs. Ct and fourth, more support for the brave health care professionals, and the patients who are fighting the lines. Avirus on the front now, just yesterday by an senate lming vote the passed legislation originating with the Democratic House of representatives. So, i hope this bold new proposal will find a similar degree of bipartisan respect mutual urgency. On the other side of the aisle and across the capital. To working with our democratic colleagues and the administration to complete this important work, and country. Our on washington journal, and specifics on the legislation introduced by mitch mcconnell. They write the senate piece of on a. O. P. Plan built proposal by the treasure require department will be hundreds of billions sent to the form of checks as a way to flood the country with money to blunt the fall back of spending resulting from out break. Irus the legislation will provide 1200 for families, 500 for every child. Families filing jointly receive 2400 for the adults. The size of the checks diminish. For those earning for than 75,000, and phase out for those 99,000. G more than the poorest families, those with no federal income tax liabilities see smaller benefits. The minimum set at 600. About that at Washington Post. Com. Senate, the debate and coverage is live over on cspan 2. Your calls. Mexico, in rio new welcome. Caller good morning. You k you, brian, and all at cspan for the great service. Ive stumbled into something i believe will help to prevent virus and save many lives. Triple threat. Im 58 and have a disease vassual itis, an immune compromised disease, high blood and chronic kidney disease. You are talking to the canary in the coal mine that lived to tell the tale. Why i say that. Its contained in fact that i sent to the doctor confirmed received. Essentially, the main immune suppressant drugs is preg da prexate. And methyl 2016 that i would experience respiratory infection due to the daily predda zone use. Been true for as the last three years, ive seen a reduction in upper infections. I used to be a horrible season allergy suffer are, thats abated. Preza zone ting the prevents viral transmission and bacteria. Areas in the new york city to visit my parents having surgeries in the same week at the end of february. Way to the rehab center at visit my mother i stopped a supermarket and was stuck in of the panic buying crowds. Must have been 1,000 people packed like sardines in the front of the store with a woman me sneezing, i was stuck in that situation for half an hour. Panicked for i was the two weeks waiting in got home. E when i i didnt get so much as a sniffle. Dr Joshua Sharfstein, please ask him. Use predda zone in controlled studies with nursing staph and doctors, i guarantee youll see least reduction in transmission. Calling, you for dr Joshua Sharfstein joins us at 8 00 eastern from the john school of Public Health. We go to the medical professionals line. This is maryland. Hello there. Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Im call, im a nurse practicer. Last friday when i went to work. Had to go into an argument with the management because i put on a mask walking hallway, and they confronted me that i shouldnt the hallway. In i thought that im done. Im not going to come back here. If i do not wear a mask. Do hand ask me to washing. How is hand washing alone is going to prevent me from cracking anything that someone has. Be about t have to patients. Its nothing to prove all across. Governmentsth other where i work. They have done everything to us. Ide so the controversy talking about the health care providers. Is there a way to make sure the providing that are for the masks that the primary the mask will be the health care workers, clinic. In the in the hospitals. They were out walking in a room. People coming in. Fever. He, and the symptoms. Back to my o children. Correct me in im wrong, i priority for masks, in addition to health care workers, should be those who actually have the correct . , it shouldnt be like that. People come in. You dont want to turn them down. Situation we had a where if you come into my clinic and sign in, you have to and wait, your car when im done with my patient and call you to come in. Really. We want to know what they have. That roome sitting in assessing someone for flu or they have coronavirus. Appreciate your call. East orange new jersey. Good morning. Caller yes, good morning, sir. I have one comment. During the press conference at the white house, i wished interje t would stop interjecting. He is giving a lot of misinformation. We need positive information. He says we are not he is not clerk. Ing yes, you are a shipping clerk it. N your country needs thats my problem. Okay, well show you some the news from conference during the programme. We aired the news breaching up to this mornings washington journal. Capital hill. Capital hill. The senate coming back noon eastern. Theyll begin debates on the third package introduced by Mitch Mcdonnell yesterday. This is the democratics leaders response to that bill. Pass un three paid leave. Paid family leave and paid sick leave. Bailouts must be worker first. And five, help for small business. We need to act quickly. We need to act in a bipartisan way. I hope the discussion between the various members of the commission will proceed quickly and in the spirit of compromise. I hope that we can come to quick agreements with the house views majoritys views are much closer to ours in this document. Which i havent read, but i heard things about. I havent seen. Mr president , this is a crisis none we have seen. We dont know how long it will last. Know how many people will be affected. We do know its getting worse day. Y and we know also that while americans usually come together after a crisis, new yorkers do, as we did after 9 11, we must now be isolated. We will prevail. We will prevail. Well Work Together hopefully each side will give. Well come up with a big plan, and we will begin the long plan to eradicate the awful virus that has so afflicted so many millions of americans, one way or another. Stock sales about of several senators that is gaining attention. Politico. He report of senate chair wanders of coronavirus disruption in ahead of time. They write weeks before President Donald Trump declared pandemic an rus emergency, richard berr offered a grim prognosis while previewing massive disruptions according to a previously underreported according obtained by n p. R. Recording from the north carolinians remarks at a luncheon. Berr said the outbreak is adin to the e epidemic killing 50 million worldwide. One thing i can tell you about this, its more aggressive in than anything on we have seen in recent history the chairman of the intelligence commission. 2006 law ed the formulating the federal response to outbreaks. Comments to the tah heel circle. He gave attendees chilling the severity of the coronavirus at a time where there was little over a dozen cases in the us. And rurm suggested that number zero in op down to short order. Declared two confidence. Despite his assessment to the circle. The public declarations of in a dence were featured separate propublica report on thursday indicating that ber, who has access to regular intelligence tweeting 580,000 and before llion in stock the markets collapse said un the strain of the coronavirus. Spared him severe financial pain, progressive impressionled for an and demanded that burr step down. To point out there are simply senators reported having the weeks before the stock market collapsed. Burr. Ors Diane Fienstein of california. Sirnt from oklahoma. Kelly ruffler. With senator burr survive this. Fox host tucker carlson, and representative alex andy cortose called on him to resign. Lets get back to your calls jacqueline in los angeles. Welcome. Caller good morning, how are you . Youle. E, thank caller im calling because i wonderful not only the president doing all this for us, we have to do our part. A positive person, and i loverb, god loves everyone, and pulls together. This will surpass. Fergus falls minnesota on the medal professional line, there. I hi. Watching a lot. Sitting in the middle of north america. Watching it come closer and trump , and watching how has barely done anything to until recently. News about republican senator selling stock. One has to wonder if he was not truth a long e time ago to give his buddies or family or ll, chances to sell their stock before the hit or action start being taken. Theres nothing else, president bring trump is going to us all to our knees. Always wear a i mask before i go through the when i doors to the e. R. Go down to draw blood from the patience. But last night, having a gown going into the room where the suspected patient was, and it wasnt an air flow regular small room leike the doctor was talking about. Before i leave i have to take the gown and gloves off. So if the virus is in the room, its on my clothes, because its in the air. Thats another thing, every day to work, i watch tv and see difference things about the virus, and how it can stay airborne for up to three hours, i go to work yesterday, and they say after the patients leaves the room, theyll wait 30 minutes before they send someone in to clean the room. And the patient wasnt wearing a mask. Yes. For the health of my coworker, myself. I dont want to bring it home my family, and, you know, i feel like the president could done stuff a long time ago. Stopped it at washington. California. At stopped it at china. Is your hospital rationing supplies, are you short on supplies. No, not that i know of yet. M95 mask. Seen an and last night. Are kept we sks have three boxes in the lab. Botches. Snt any so im hoping theres more i come to work. Im scared. Im 60 years old. I dont want to bring it home my family. I wonder too, are you going to call the people back that are having the tests, that havent got the results. Ivy is talking about a called us folks that wednesday. Well talk to gary in connecticut. In this a little bit hour, and later on the woman kansas. Erlan park thank you for pointing that out. Ivy mentioned california, here headline los angeles times, gavin newsom orders to ta home. The republican leader in the house. Saying ntative mcarthur i hope Governor Newsom consulted with a lot of experts 12 of the ting nations population. And a tweet from california congresswoman, urging all of the fellow calve rrlans to follow calm and government direct tists. Together well get through. Hawaii. Here from dean in good morning to you. Two ood morning, i have questions. First is about the bailout to big business. Im wondering if donald trump a clause by violate accepting money from the u. S. Government as part of a bailout. Second point, two us citizens 2009, the bailouts in republicans leaving a giving to the Auto Companies. Curious as to what will happen there. Specially going back to the first point. Money from the government, knowing that this will many and businesses were failing. This is before the bailout. For today. Mary in Columbia South carolina. Care s, im also a health provider. I did not mention that when i called in. Great. Mainly because im not actively participating it. In safety now. My husband is on the front a paramedic. And my question is, the first is what is being done about that front line. Nurses, i bout the heard about the doctors in the e. R. What about the front line has s. And paramedic that to go to these areas. What is a being done about that. What does your husband tell you, what precautions are they what guidance are they giving them. Absolutely none, up until today. All we know is theyve to be retested for the mask that they can wear. Typically in a day, how many husbands or your his team make . Well, my husband is a in georgia. Okay. Same question, how many calls do you think they make in a day . In that county it about 20. Okay. And his shift is how long, a 10 hour or 12 hour shift. Shift. S a 24 hour okay, yes. Still a lot. Day. Ts a busy yes, it is. But, thats one of my concerns. One more concern. Okay. And it is a question. I heard the senators. When you play that back the point out you have five was marshall on the health care front. Has there been any talk of marital law being put in place. . Not that i know of. National guard has been used in a support role. State gorvernors, we talked about gavin newsom in california warning everyone to stay home. Not really approaching martial law. Nancy pelosi tweeted this, senator schumer and i are reviewing senator mcconnells processor, its not proworkers aheaduts corporations way of workers. Well go next to seven in pennsylvania. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for cspan. I have a couple of questions about the stimulus package, i into it. Ng it says that incomes face up to or 000, is this per person per family. And my second question is that things that you have to be laid off because of the coronavirus. Im curious about that. This is all new, and i dont think so. The Washington Post reporting size of the e checks would diminish for those earning more than 75,000. To get more detail later in the programme. And again, that legislation yesterday in the senate. Inis is james, good morning, denver. Good morning, cspan. First, can i ask you a question. For the last week or two, you guys have been using regional phone lines instead of democrat and independent. Can have more trump bashing callers call in . It is just way for us to separate the callers. Regionally regularly on issues. We feel at this time this is a good way to separate the by region, and leaving a line for medical professionals. Its 3 oclock in the morning on the west coast there. Yes, we get plenty of calls, we have calls from hawaii. Colorado. Because im home for this. This is nothing but a hoax. Do you say its a hoax . I hope you give me enough time. Someone comes on bashing tonne for let them go twothree minutes. The floor is yours, why do hoax . Hink its a its a hoax because as soon as impeachment was over, they else to bring ng down trump, and they had to bring the economy down, this is it. I tell you why. Wait, james, do you think a meone conspired to have virus to bring down the president . Oh, yeah. The deep state. Deep state. They did it, you didnt show anything on the ig report. Mother report was a deep state span. Colluding t he was muller e russian, the team dropped charges against management. Those that influenced the election. You didnt do reports on that. Did, we covered the ig hearing after the report came out. In the Video Library thanks for calling in from and i am not doing so well today. Host let me intercede for a second. Gary called us wednesday. He was in day 15 of a 14 day quarantine, and he had not been able, yet able, to get the coronavirus test. He had tried several times in several places. I believe you said you were 76 years old . Caller no, 71. Host i do not mean to a jew. So go ahead with your story could have you been able to get tested . Ller yes, after host i did not mean to age you. Go ahead with your story. Have you been able to get tested . Caller yes, after many, many hours. I called the direct line again, where i had left a message the day before and had not received anything back. I did at someone on that line after about 20 minutes. They said they will be calling back. I said, no, i want approval now get i was very insistent. She finally took my information and told me i could go to a certain street in hartford, i think hudson street did not have an address, but she said i would be able to find a Testing Center there. I got there 15 minutes before they opened, and there were about 40 cars ahead of me. I did have the test taken. Connecticut,und in through yesterday, only 90 cases have been tested. In other words, all of those people who are being swabbed, there are not Testing Facilities to be able to determine whether they are positive or not. Host did they give you an idea of when you might at the results . Caller no. The news is saying three days to four days. They have been saying next week more companies will come online for testing, but right now, it is abysmal, the amount of tests they are able to process. Host and you still have symptoms. Do you still have a fever . Caller no, the fever i am not even prone. Ive only had a fever once in my adult life. I tend toward low temperatures. My temperatures were in the fever range for a couple of days, and then they diminished. Ist is the only symptom that not constantly present. All the others are. Host so now that you have the test, you were on a quarantine, what has your doctor said . How long do you have to stay quarantined . Caller until i am better. Thinks not i do not there is a fixed amount of time you can be quarantined. I think it is a matter of being aware of how you feel. And that is that. So i am optimistic i will be all right. I have been in good health prior to this, other than some back issues and normal aging stuff. My lungs and all have been operating well. There is a little burning, now that i notice it, i did not have before in my nose and in my breathing. Host what is your sense in terms of getting the results from the test . What is your gut telling you . A week, 10 days . Caller i have no clue. I am not speculating on that. I am hoping that monday, at the latest, i am hoping i will have results of the test. Host we appreciate you calling in, that we could call back and get that check in. Able to get awere test. We hope you get well. The numbers from Johns Hopkins on connecticut, focusing in on connecticut, there are 150 nine active cases in connecticut so far. On testing this is a wall street journal article on what is working for south korea. South korea testing checks the outbreak. South korea has absorbed an onslaught of Novel Coronavirus infections that has left many Country Health systems rattled. One reason it has been able to bring down the infection rate has been an efficient testing rate which has been able to isolate those affected. The country has doubled that of italys tally, despite having less than one third of confirmed coronavirus cases. The u. S. , the ramping up capacity, has screened only one time of what south korea has, based on the numbers of tests conducted at the centers for Disease Control and prevention facilities and Public Health labs. The Trump Administration is planning to prioritize social distancing over blanket testing. We go to missouri. Go ahead with your comment. Caller i have a couple of things paid i heard that guy talking about this is a hoax, this derived from trump bashers. I want to say to him he may want to get his news from more than one source. I am not a democrat or republican. I for my opinion form my opinion through information for our tried to get my information from wherever it comes from and get the real facts. The shortages we are having with the medical supplies may or may not be directly related to trump defunding the Pandemic Centers at the cdc, but it definitely did not help. Theset point is that people saying that these senators, they should not have pulled their money out of the stock market, it looks bad, and they ought to resign, they are private citizens in their own life. If they have the foresight to see the financial situation was going to take a dive, i would not have left my money in there if i had any i am not rich enough to have a portfolio, per se, but they have every right to remove their money from something they see was going to take a tank. I do not like the idea of someone calling someone trump bashers because they do not think he is doing it the job get i think they did fall behind a little. The idea we are not being able to test at one time percent of what korea and singapore and japan are being able to do is kind of concerning, but if people would just Pay Attention to different news channels just do not get your news from one source. Try to get real information and not just up again do. Maybe we can all get through not hate eachand other by the time this thing is done. Host a tweet from rick klein of abc news. Handlingval of trumps of the coronavirus crisis, 43 disapproval. Samely a week ago, the poll found 4354 approvalapproval, a near mirror image reversal. He also pointed out a story folks have asked us about four at least a week about the global theemics office of National Security council at the white house. This is the fact checker at the Washington Post. Com. Becauseread it there, there is a lot. But i want to take a look at the conclusion of this story. There is a lot of detail in there, but here is what the Fact Checker Team at though the w ashington post, their pinocchio test. One can see the dueling narratives, neither entirely incorrect. The office, set up by obama, was folded into another office. Thus, one could claim the office was eliminated. At the staff slots did not disappear. Initially, the emission of the team remained a priority, so one can say nothing changed and thus bidens schism is overstated. The question that cannot be answered, at least perhaps until it congressionally mandated commission examines the u. S. Preparation for this crisis, is whether a separate directorate would have had more clout to bring the issue medially to the president s attention. That might have helped i time to stem the spread of the disease by focusing the full attention of government on the emerging problem. One example china refused to let american experts into wuhan, a discussion cap at the agency level. But early president ial pressure may have swayed beijing to cooperate. At tthat full hewashingtonpost. Com. We go to jacksonville. Good morning, craig. Caller good morning. Retired 27 years from the marine corps. I learned a bit about medicine and supplies. You want to go back on President Trump oh, he did not supply the United States with masks and stuff . Let me tell you this. You want to go back . Blame it on the obama administration. Claimant on the carter administration, all the way back to the 1970s. Like i said, marine corps, 27 uprs supplies were backed and backed up and backed up. Dont blame it on the president. Blame it on the prior administration. Host all right. Our line for medical professionals, 202 7488002. Sue in middletown, maryland. Caller thank you for taking my call. Ive been in the medical field for 30 years now. I am an xray tech. N, ai also have kids an r daughter, and a son who is a respiratory therapist. My point is you can make more equipment, especially like the ventilators they talk about, but you need a professional to run the equipment. You cannot just turn them on and off. These people are trained. They go through at least two years of schooling to get the education they need. We are in dire need of the personal protective equipment. In other words, we need the masks, gloves at minimum, weves and anything else might need to cover themselves up with. That is my point. Please, we really need to make the masks, if we are talking about making things. I heard there is eight 2000 stockpile of the ventilators, so that is great. But you do not have a stockpile of people who run them, that i know of. That is my point. Thank you. This is not a democrat or republican issue. This is america. Lets all come together. Quit talking about whoever. That is my opinion. Host ray is next in North Carolina. Caller hello. Thank you to the previous caller. That is what i want to say. This is not a hoax. It is far from a hoax. But also, it is not all trumps fault. Saddt get so sad and over andear folks, over, attacking different facets of the situation. This is something that i feel like we are all americans. I listen to multiple stations for political messages. Stationssad how some you can depend on it. As soon as trump is done talking, you go to a certain station, and the first sentences extremelyir mouths is negative. This happens over and over and over. Tone tonot set a good bring our country together. Of course, we know people hate trump. This, though, is not a time to show our hate. It is a time to bring our country together. Forget about politics for a little while. They are talking about giving money to various people as well as companies, so people are included in that list of donations. But they have to figure a way to get that done. It all takes time. Host on twitter, we are cspanwj. A couple of those. Back to the story on south korea, this one says south korea and the u. S. Had their first cases of coronavirus at the same time. South korea has flattened their curve already by aggressive testing and isolation while the u. S. Has done neither. Nownumbers may look great from not testing, but we will pay the price for months. The when talking about stock sale is disturbing. Trump knowingly downplayed this a break or fail to do his homework . Either way, neither is fit for office any longer. Useael says politicians Insider Information about coronavirus for personal profit. They should be forced to resign immediately. Bill king suites while we are all dealing with this covid19 virus, pick up your phone or send a simple text to your friends, acquaintances, cousins, even x coworkers with a quick just checking on you. We need to support each other during this, so lets support each other. The president leading their briefing yesterday, the Coronavirus Task force at the white house, said there is a drug already available that could be used as a possible treatment for coronavirus. Here is what he said. [video clip] oquine,ug called chlor some people call it hydroxyc hloroquine. This is a common malaria drug. Fors also a drug used strong arthritis. If somebody has pretty serious , also uses this, in a somewhat different form. But it is known as a malaria drug, and it has been around for a long time, and it is very powerful. Is it hasce part been around for a long time. We know if things do not go as planned, it is not going to kill anybody. When you go with a brandnew drug, you do not know that is going to happen. You have to see and have tests. But this has been used in different forms. Powerful drug in different forms. And it has shown very, very encouraging early results. And we are going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately, and that is where the fda has been so great. They have gone through the approval process. It has been approved. They did it. They took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we will be able to make that drug available by prescription or states i spoke with Governor Cuomo about it at great length last night. He wants to be first on the line. That has tremendous promise, based on the results and other tests. Normally, the fda would take a long time to prove Something Like that you and it was approved very quickly, and it is. Ow approved by prescription individual states will handle it. They can handle it. Doctors will handle it. I think it is going to be great. Host the president at yesterdays briefing. No word yet on a briefing today, but following that, news reports contradicted what the president said about that possible the use the possible use of that drug this was the headline at the daily beast. Fda urges caution after trump to be used forug coronavirus. The fda said while there are no therapeutics or drugs to treat or prevent covid19, there are several fda approved treatments from ay ease symptoms supportive perspective. The fda is working closely with innovators to expedite their efforts, including leveraging thentific information about trials and trials conducted another entries, including china, south korea, japan, and italy. And heres another take on that from follc rollcall. There headline fda walks back from claims on covid19 drug. We go back to calls. This is dean. Caller good morning. I want to say to the nurse in california, i like everything she said, but especially about being concerned about her health and her familys health. Blameis is no time to trump. California and new york are great at blaming trump. We need to be together like other callers said. The other callers said nine out of ten. You go to your source one media outlet for information about trump. It bet it wouldnt nice to go to the other nine . The problem is the other nine are all antitrump. And like the other callers i, no matter what you hear him say, right after, you hear negative from these media outlets. We have got to get together. Florida onhe kids in the beach or any known for spring break attractions, to have not have presupposed this was going to happen and the beaches have closed down and do not come here to visit we are notkids in the 38 of those who could expose many others when they go back to their schools, their states, their families, their grandparents. Sawuldnt believe the one i. Who dof us in our 70s not necessary have pensions, who have nothing other than Social Security that goes back to us as long as we are alive, have a lot to live on. We spend from our own pockets, our portfolio, whatever we have. In the last two weeks, i have seen mine get by 35 , 40 . It is nice to help the families who need it, but if they are going to be any accommodation in our portfolio to live the next 10 years, to make it maybe even 20, god forbid host when did you retire . Inler i retired i am 74 december. I retired about eight years ago. I retired at the appropriate age that you have to. Peray you have 500,000 that would be nice. Not exactly living on the high end. But now i will be down to 500,000 to 300,000 pa that is 300,000. That hast to last 20 years, maybe. Something along those lines have to be thought about. I do not know if it was thought about in the legislation. Do not even know if it was passed. This is not a trump thing. And imagine, if you were trump, five weeks ago, and you decided to pull all these levers and do all these things by order he has spent three years fighting the democrats, trying to get work going, but they do not like his style. Thank god he is from private industry, because he is using Different Things we have seen kate as far as that comment on the fda, nothing moves quick. They do not work quickly. That has been the problem. Things that he is finally getting some help with from the democrats along the lines of trying different ways of attacking it. It has taking him for five weeks, six weeks, maybe, to get some consideration. If he had rushed out and do all the things today without internal conversation or media releases, they would have had been all over him. Host a similar sentiment to what you started your comments with this is a text from pam in massachusetts reset all of the time wasted by our government officials in pointing fingers and blaming for things gone wrong thus far has to stop. That can be addressed once we have come out of this. They should the laser focused on what we need now and how to go about it as quickly and efficiently as possible. On the legislation, there is the third wave of legislation on the senate floor. They will be gaveling in at noon. This is from cnbc. There headline Senate Democrats propose canceling 10,000 in student debt for all borrowers amid coronavirus. We hear from cassandra, medical professor in the washington area, from haymarket, virginia, actually. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am a nurse. I work in the emergency room and in icu. I am actually on my way home now for my shift. I just wanted to bring to light the shortage of masks, n95 masks. This all began, the number started creeping up, so what management in our hospitals, and many hospitals across the u. S. , have done is locked away any remaining n95 masks. Which means when a patient comes in and we are rolling out covid19, we get a regular mask and we do not get the n95 unlocked and headed out to us unless they are confirmed positive. Then things change. This whole time, we are going through to room with these patients, and multiple patients we are ruling it out on, and going into patients we are not ruling it out on, not being able to protect ourselves or other patients at the hospital. We deftly definitely need more masks. If our numbers are correlating so much with italy and their timeline, it is scary. I see the protective equipment they use, and we do not have nearly the same amount. It is concerning. Like sending us into a fire without a water hose. What given that situation, can you do personally, what do you do personally to try to keep yourself safe, in addition to the measures they have you do at the hospital . Honestly, last night, i had to reach out to someone in another department to say do you around . N95 masks sneak me one, like we are doing something illegal here. Just to protect myself and either patients before i go into another room. And outside of work, i make sure i change out of my scrubs right away, they go straight in the washer. I have an elderly person living in my house. Also my husband has underlying conditions, so i am just trying to be very careful. I just feel like our Health Care System is going to collapse. A lot of our nurses and doctors and spit or therapists respi techs,therapists, janitors, everybody, we will see a lot more sickness in the medical field. Host thanks for calling in. Charles in fort collins, colorado. Caller the whole thing killing me about this is the lack of information. Things from all different sources. That guy fromhave Johns Hopkins, a reliable source. I have to say about this thing, when i started it started, i was watching trump sit there and say we have 15 cases, going down to one soon this is straight from his mouth. Then i am watching everybody else say whoa, whoa, whoa. I just keep on listening to the white house disseminate, like that last thing you had on, about some drug that is for malaria that is going to do this . And then you hear the fda come out and say, whoa, whoa, that is maybe a year down the road to get the trials done with that. I wish you would have a clear, concise message from the white house. And we are not hearing that. We are just hearing all this stuff. As a past first responder, i think we need to get the army involved. We need to get the president to get out there and get ventilators. I could go on. I sat there and watched south korea ramp up while our president was telling us we have enough kits to tell at test everyone. Just false information coming from the white house. I think it is just confusing everybody on making people scared. Host we go to our medical professional line again to hear from sandy in washington, d. C. Caller hello. Hi. I just really wanted to comment on the testing. But ists are being done, have to agree with the caller before that mentioned something enough labs as not in order to process the tests. That theresonally, is a Testing Center that is actually testing that are have beene tests that done on people refrigerated. They are not being processed. Scary. Is very mentionedsomebody had that they thought they were not enough personnel, trained personnel, to process those tests. Caller yes. I think that is also the case. We talk about supply and demand. There just is not enough people, areenough labs that possibly, you know, can process these things. All i can really say is do not trust the numbers. I heard one caller, at one time, peoplethey say it is 100 than it is really 500 people. Wouldnt trust the numbers in terms of how we are going to protect ourselves. The other point i want to make personou rely on each and trust each person to stay see, atance, from what i lot of people are not even thinking about anyone else. How are not considering contagious this is, how it can be transmitted. They are just not thinking. Us, honestly. Of host south bend, indiana, deborah. Caller good morning. How are you . Host fine, thank you. Caller i am a great grandmother. Caller that called in probleme ago, look, my with my family and in my havenity, my grandchildren ofays allowed me to be part childrenaise them, the , which would be my greatgrandchildren. Access toime i have these children are when they are on christmas break, spring break and summer time. Due to the fact that the schools , i got access to all these children under the age of 12, including host how many kids typically in a day now do you have around you . Caller my own kids, 12. That is not counting the kids on the block who interact with them. Yesterday, the children had School Assignments and they were future,a face of their which frightened me. Everyone came up with this like the that looked addams family. Wait a minute, that is not your future. Children to go back and draw a character. Something all to draw that you would like to taste, a food. One of the kids draws a strawberry. It. As taken a bite out of it was so nice, to me. I am like, you all are putting me, they greatgrandmother, who has no money, on social i am not aut, teacher or anything like that, no one has given me permission. Host that is ok, we will let you go, thank you for that story. Washington post writing about your plight and though similar to you. Millions of caretakers now find themselves at high risk. Coming up on washington journal after the break, we will be joining conversation about the u. S. Response by dr. Joshua shar hopkinsrom the John Bloomberg school of health. Marilyn governor larry hogan announced statewide measures yesterday to improve chances of social distancing. Maryland governor. Heres a portion of that. [video clip] no one should get on a marked train, bus ormarc any transportation assets unless you are emergency personnel, Frontline Health care provider or your job is essential to the supply chain. Criticalnstalled Public Service announcements on signage, all our modes of transportation across the state including major highways, airport, transit facilities, urging all marylanders to stay home and help us slow the spread of this virus. Following updated cdc guidelines, today, we have amended our previous executive order to prohibit any events of more than 10 people in close proximity at all locations, establishments and venues across maryland. After working closely with county executives and getting input and guidance, we have jointly made the decision to close all enclosed shopping malls and Entertainment Venues across maryland, effective at 5 p. M. Today. Despite all our repeated the rapidor weeks and escalation of this virus across our state, region, nation and people are treating this like a vacation or a spring break with parties, cookouts, large gatherings at parks. Let me be very clear. If you are engaged in this type of activity, you are in violation of state law and you are endangering the lives of your fellow marylanders. Washington journal continues. Host joined by dr. Joshua sharfstein, vice dean for public practice at the John Hopkins School for Public Health. The cases we talked about at the beginning of the show were reported cases, jumped by 5000 since yesterday. When you compare this to other Public Health crises, other viruses, i should say, what sort of jump is that . How concerned are you by that jump . Guest it is consistent with spread of a virus through a susceptible population. Some of that is testing is becoming more available. The reason testing is finding so many cases is so many people are infected. We are talking about a virus no human being has seen before, before a few months ago. We are all susceptible. That makes the spread fast. Host do you think the approach, the nationwide approach at least, in terms of prioritizing social distancing of people isolating, staying at home and secondarily, ramping up testing is the right approach . Do we need to be more aggressive with testing nationwide . Guest we are trying to be more aggressive with testing. Social distancing would be necessary under any circumstances. Look at the countries that have had more success than the u. S. They have done both, aggressive social distancing. China, there is still a lot going on, for example. Sorry about that. Turn that off. Host that is ok, we still have you. Guest no problem. Of social distancing going on there. The idea behind testing is to try to be more focused, efficient about figuring out who has covid19 and what they can do keep safe. It allows you to offer more things to people who are sick, like if they dont want to be at home, offer them a place to go. It is what you do when you find people who are positive, who are not ready to go into the hospital but you can then reduce the chance they will pass it to others. Host you have served in the past as Deputy Commissioner for the fda, you are the director of the Bloomberg American Health initiative. As you look at it in terms of capacity, the number of tests, the number of individuals to run those tests in the u. S. , even before the coronavirus, were really ready where we ready for this sort of pandemic . Host there is no country in the world that was ready for this. The u. S. , among the countries that was not ready for this pandemic. That has different dimensions. Right now, one of the most notable ways is the lack of personal protective equipment, the shortage is coming. That is a huge challenge. With respect to testing, i think there were a couple challenges. We have a lot of Testing Capacity in this country. The administration chose a narrow testing strategy from the beginning, which is how the cdc developed the tests, make the tests up, and send them to the state labs. That was a narrow strategy. They focused on people who were traveling. People who had known exposure. Even if that had worked, you would have had state labs testing, which is a modest number of cases. That was the strategy that was appropriate for ebola. You are not going to get why transmission of a bola in the u. S. You need to be 100 sure youre getting a quality test for each patient. That worked for ebola. This is a different kind of challenge. At the time they were picking the relatively narrow testing strategy, the former fda commissioner, scott, was on social media writing oped saying this is not going to work, we need to bring everyone in now, we should not do a, b, c, we should do all of the above. He was one of the loudest voices at the point. It was not too much avail for another month. At the end of february, fda switched strategy to jumpstart some of the other testing resources we have in the u. S. I think we will get a lot of testing. We missed some valuable time. Host our guest joining us from the john hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, joining us by skype. We welcome your calls and comments. Line for8000, the eastern and central time zones. Mountain, pacific time zones, 202 7488001. If you are a medical professional, that line, 202 7488002. Let me ask you about the antiviral, the ways to treat the virus now. Do we have an idea of the most effective method ahead of getting an actual vaccine . Solving the vaccine issue . What is the best way to approach curing, at least ending this virus in individuals . Guest we dont know. There is a lot of research. A study published in the new and the journal of medicine showed one particular antiviral medicine did not have much effect. There are other studies going on. This is an example where we cannot rely on rumor. We have to rely on evidence. That underc, difficult circumstances, people are able to do these studies. By studying, you figure out what works. At the john hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, we have a professor who is very focused on an interesting kind of treatment that really comes from more than a century ago, which is to use antibodies from people who have recovered and give it to people who have not been infected or people infected. If you give it to someone not infected, it prevents infection. If you give it to someone who is infected, it may make it less serious. There will be a study, like everything else, they just filed an application to do the study with the fda. Host work has started on Vaccine Development in the u. S. , most notably on the west coast. Typically, what is the timeframe for developing an antivirus vaccine . Guest typically it is measured in years. The goal here is for it to be measured in months, not like 2, 3, but maybe 12, 18 months. The desperate global need for vaccine will make this as fast as i possibly can. There are challenges at every step. Theyre doing this faster than it has been done before. Is this your transfer, virus behaving like antivirus you have seen . See that anyone can say they have seen a virus like this. It is insidious, in some ways. It is slower moving than the flu but more deadly. Flu usually takes 1, 2 days to infect the next person, then 6, 7 days, then that person may get sick over a period of time. We are seeing a wave of infections now. We dont know how big the wave is but we know it is bigger than the wave is now. Hospitals will get busier. Are they going to be unable to handle the number of patients . That is what everyone is worried about. We are seeingwhy social distancing measures and all sorts of things because the idea is to reduce the peak of the wave, if it can be managed. Host school of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, what do you know of the hospital complex there in terms of potential anticipation of that wave, however big it might get in baltimore . Podcast, Public Health oncall, which people can look up if they are interested. We interview leaders of the john hopkins medicine. Dr. Lisa, dr. Gabe. They moved very quickly into emergency mode as this was playing out in asia. They have set up a command. They are canceling elective surgery. They are making their own face shields, all kinds of things happening at the hospital. They already have patients. There thinking, x number of patients, how do we conform the hospital . If we get double the number, what do we do . They are working collaboratively with maryland to figure out if there are truly a huge swell of patients, what they can do. There are a number of paths. That is the case for every hospital in the world. They are imploring people to Pay Attention to social distancing. Host cspan and other media dashboard, the covid19 dashboard created by the Hopkins Center for science and engineering, huge data crunch each day. What is your knowledge of how they do that . Guest amazing. They have gotten billions of clicks. This was started by dr. Lauren gardner. She and her team have done a phenomenal job keeping that up under all kinds of stress. People can see it for themselves. Coronavirus. Jhu. Edu. That gives a lot of information from Johns Hopkins, including access to the maps. Host plenty of calls and questions coming in. Ron, nashville, tennessee. Caller good morning. I work for a Major Grocery chain throughout america. I will tell you about the supply chain, if you would like. My store opens at 6 a. M. Every morning. P. M. Oses now at 10 that is most retailers in my area, grocery. Heres the problem im seeing. With 2030ting off people in my Neighborhood Store standing at the door, crowded and. The first thing they do, they go to the toilet tissue aisle, then the cans. Here is what is missing on the store on a daily basis. One day you are out of chicken. Ground beef. That is the meat department. Next day, the dry good department, youre out of toilet paper, tissue, wipes, sanitizers, which come from china, is backordered, it is not there, it has not been there for weeks now. You go to the produce department, fruits and vegetables are moving off the shelves. In, westerday, i went were full in the produce department. The Grocery Department was lacking. Wheeler we18 get three of them a night most grocery retailers in my neighborhood, which is all of the big boys we know about, they get trucks every night. Now, by the time they stop the shelves, stocking, next morning, people are inundating stores to a point to where it is offtheshelf the shelf by 9 30 a. M. Now we have to wait on another truck. Lets say mye, Neighborhood Grocery store on has 2000 People Per Day shopping, throughout the day. All of a sudden, you have 4000 shopping. Trucks cannot keep up. What is going to happen is we are going to run the warehouses dry if we dont quit buying in bulk. Host a couple of points. Dr. . Importanthink it is to hear that story. Food supply chain is generally intact. Trucks are coming. This is not a question of whether there is enough gas. People will be driving the trucks. Food is being produced. Hand sanitizer is a challenge. We are using more. Just like personal protective equipment. Demand has gone up. As a nation, demand for food has not gone up. It is still the same number of people and we are still eating. People tortant for cut back on the hoarding of food. I have started to see messages about that. There may need to be stronger thatges in order to reduce because it is the fact that people are over buying. They are not eating as much. They are still eating, they are just fearful. Good crisis communication, helping them to understand the plan. We should be talking more to the people who make the food and deliver the food to reassure them. The food will be there. They do not have to hoard. It is understandable why people are doing that, it is just also, people can understand that may not be necessary. The issue of Infection Control in stores is important. If it is possible, you can take bleach, create a solution to clean off the carts in between people. It may make sense to put little marks outside the store when people are lining up, where they should stand in line so they are not all bunched up like that. Those sorts of solutions may make sense. The real answer here is to provide reassurance. Hopefully, federal government can do this. It may be appropriate for states and cities to do this, to put store owners and distributors and others and say, look, the supply chain is intact. That might help reassure people. Host red feather lakes, colorado, wayne. Caller thank you for the opportunity. I am a u. S. Army veteran. News, i also the have a compromised immune system from my service at fort mcclellan. I saw on the news this morning, the v. A. Has 9 million veterans in the system. They are only given 1200 test kit. What is going on . Worse than that, they are opening the v. A. System to the general public and throwing all of us veterans down the tubes i dont understand why we should be taking care of we are not host dr. . Guest this is a challenge facing every community in the u. S. I think testing is going to be widely available, much more, for veterans. Each community has to figure out resources it has available. Helpally, rally to everybody. Heres the thing. Theres no way to protect one population completely when there is an epidemic. An epidemic is contagious. What you want is a smart strategy to limit infection and for someone of his age, staying home as much as possible is going to be the smartest thing to do in order to reduce the chance of getting infected. Host what defines a compromised immune system . If someone is in doubt, what would be your guidance . Switch, it isoff not, the scale. Has been aage significant predictor. Over 80, patients have had the hardest time. 60s and 70s, people are drawing the line over older age. For a chronic condition, lung diabetes,ike copd, part disease, all of which are factors for more severe disease part disease heart disease, cancer, hiv, other immune deficiencies, potentially could be at higher risk. At this point, everyone should be following social distancing. People in those categories really should be following super extreme social distancing to the extent possible, getting people to bring them food, as much limited social contact as possible. Pause. This is a stressful situation to be giving that advice. It is not all social contact needs to be restricted. It is social contact in person. This is a moment for people to connect with people in that situation. If you are not in one of those groups, two things. First of all, i realize even if you are not at super high risk, you can pass it onto someone who is. It is important to follow key instructions. Second, there are people in your lives you care about, who are in this group and they are scared. Reaching out to them and talking to them is important. Just like the food supply is intact, the phone lines are working, the internet is up. It is possible to connect. There are things we can do to make the burden less for everyone. Host alecia, redford, michigan. Caller good morning. I feel like because of how rapid this virus is spreading across the country, has it ever occurred that this could possibly be some type of biochemical weapon released in the atmosphere and could possibly be an attack from a terrorist or something . It just spread too fast. I am really afraid for our country. I would hate for it to get to the point it is in italy. That is my statement. Thank you. Guest thank you. The italy situation is such a concerning situation, something that we certainly do not want to see in the u. S. I totally agree. That is the reason for these measures. Andvirus emerged in china has been studied. Extensive study of the genetic code of the virus. To all appearances, it looks like a naturally occurring virus. There are very serious viruses, naturally occurring, that harm many many people. This looks like another one like that. What is happening is that these viruses are coming from animals, jumping over the species barrier. They are trying to do that every day. It is like losing the lottery. One day. That is what happens. This virus has insidious characteristics, it is easily transmissible between humans. We have had deadly viruses travel animals to humans but the humans cannot pass it onto each other so that limits spread. The other thing is that it can be passed on without symptoms. The virus makes you sick and you can only pass it on to someone else, like ebola, it is relatively easy to contain. As soon as someone gets sick, he put them aside and they cannot pass it on to someone else. You isolate them, care for them, that is how you control ebola. This is tough. People are not showing symptoms and passing it on. People have mild symptoms and they are passing it on. If you think about the different ways the world has lost the lottery on this virus, it is difficult to control for that reason. Host aaron, greensburg, pennsylvania. Caller good morning. This virus is frightening for everybody. What is really frightening, being exposed in this situation is how unprepared we are for Something Like this. Believe we do not have equipment. Boggling the mind. There was an article last week in the New York Times about how china and south korea were hoarding masks. They stopped exporting them to us. That is why you dont have that many right now. I do not think that is fair. I think someone should look into that more. Heard the way the virus originated in china was they have these open markets where they slaughter animals, very strange animals that we do not is over here but, that creating unsanitary conditions over there. So i would hope, country should get together, if you were to prevent Something Like this from happening again host thank you for your call. The preparedness of the u. S. And her point about markets, open markets in china. Is that a problem . Could it have been a source of the virus . Guest one of the challenges in our world is that pressing problems in front of you are much easier to provide resources to and understand. There was every reason to believe Something Like this could happen, there were actual simulations again and again in the federal government showing how unprepared the country would be for this, it just seemed too abstract to policymakers. They focused on whatever their agenda is, tax cuts, rather than for example, spending money to put together a much bigger stockpile of gowns, gloves, masks. Part of a systematic underinvestment in Public Health generally. This is not the only area where we underinvest in prevention. There are many other areas where we could be making much better investments and be healthier. It is something this country has not done. Maybe this crisis will change that over time. It was not for lack of warning, Public Health experts saying this needed to be done it was a lack of commitment. The value people placed on other agendas rather than prevention and health. Why we feelreason so unprepared. It is important for the country to learn this lesson, in order to be better prepared for situations like this. The next question was about the markets. Yes, it is believed the virus may have come out, jumped the species barrier in different ways in these markets. I think there are a couple challenges. Markets can drive them underground and make it less sanitary. Really figuring out how to handle that is an important priority for china. Then you have the fact that they really played it down for the early part of the epidemic, which lost us valuable time. Host half an hour left with our best, the vice dean of Public Health practice, john hopkins Bloomberg School. 202 7488000, eastern and central time zones. 202 7488001, mountain and pacific. If you want to text us a question, 202 7488003. If you are a medical professional, 202 7488002. You mentioned your concerns over preparedness. The president was asked about that as well in his briefing in the Coronavirus Task force yesterday at the white house. [video clip] when can americans expect their lives to go back to normal . Will that not happen until there is a vaccine . I hope very soon, we will see. This is uncharted territory, as you know. We think we have ideas. Does it help to say what the ideas i would hope very soon. We pulled together as a nation. People for the most part i doing what they are supposed to be doing. The social distancing is very interesting, a whole new term, has become somewhat of a hot term. People are listening and really doing a great job. This country is an amazing country. 141 Different Countries now. It is uncharted territory. Could have been stopped, could have been stopped pretty easily if we had known, if everyone had known about it, a number of months before people started reading about it. Excuse me. Excuse me. It could have been stopped in its tracks, unfortunately they did not decide to make it public. The whole world is suffering because of it. You said you had a sense this was a pandemic two days ago. Why was the u. S. Not prepared for more testing . We were very prepared. The only thing we were not prepared for was the media. The media has not treated fairly. I called for a ban for people coming in from china long before anyone thought it was, in fact, it was your network, i believe they call me a racist, because i did that. Many of the people in the room called me racist and other words because i did that, because i went so early, so when you say we were not prepared, had i left these tens of thousands of people coming from china a day, we wouldve had something right now that would have been, you would not have even recognized it compared to where we are. Comedy people have passed away, have died as of this moment . How many people have passed away, have died as of this moment . You could have multiply that by many. Now other countries are following what i did. The media does not acknowledge that. They know it is true. They know it is true. They dont want to write about it. , the dr. Joshua sharfstein president theyre saying this could have been stopped at early stages, assuming it means china, could it have been stopped . Guest it is possible. At this point, not top of mind, because we are dealing with the situation we have to deal with now. I do not know if i can answer that question. People have to look back and reconstruct the original events. It is concerning people raising alarms in china were silenced or even called in for questioning. That is not the right way to respond to a new disease. The right way to respond is to really jump on it and do Everything Possible to limit spread. We dont know for sure what would have happened. I terms of the travel ban, think it probably helped somewhat but obviously it is not enough. Even if it delayed for a little while, it did not delay for long. We are in the middle now. The gaps in preparedness including tests and personal protective equipment are becoming obvious now. Host when you first heard reports of this, late december, january, what were some of your initial thoughts . Reactions, to the news . Guest you hear that in Public Health and say, ok, what are we going to get . Sars . Killed a few thousand people around the world, caused a huge scare in asia, then got controlled. Are we going to get a condition that does not travel between humans . A few cases, then sputters out. Something more mild that travels the globe like h1n1 . Are we going to get the one we feared . All these other things that have happened. We have not had something quite like this. People say we are lucky with sars because people got very sick and you could isolate them and eventually extinguish the contagion. We were lucky with h1n1. It was not as deadly as we had feared. Maybe we wont get lucky with the. Here we are. Anytime you hear it, you sit up. The last few before this, there was always something that allowed us to wiggle through and not learn the lesson. The Asian Countries, which have been better prepared, they really had the existential threat with sars. They were very scared with sars. That led them to put in place a bunch of things and be quite prepared for the next one, in case it was bigger. That is how they were able to do better with covid19. Host medical professionals line, 202 7488002. Beverly, corona, california. Caller good morning. , thank you so very much for your excellent expertise advice. Why ispuzzling me this not a mandatory evacuation by the cdc and Public Health . Look at the spring breaks going on in florida and georgia, to see the bars and establishments open, i just cannot understand it. I even understand there are schools that have not closed in certain states. What is your opinion about that . Guest thank you for that question. Very good question. Government is pretty diffused. We dont have quite, particularly when it comes to Public Health, states play the lead role, not the federal government. That has strengths and weaknesses. It makes it harder to coordinate big responses like this. Breathlly, i take a deep when i see pictures of the beaches. That is not good. Especially because people are coming from all over, they can give it to each other and go home. Those kids need to stay away from everyone else for a while when they get back. ,ou are passing it, parents siblings, grandparents, themselves, you are at risk. In terms of closing k12 schools, that is a more controversial issue, i think, because there are definitely strong reasons to do that, to reduce the spread within schools, to reduce the spread overall. Cdc recommends doing that when there is moderate risk of transmission. When there had been no cases or a few cases, there are different opinions about what to do. The need for people to go to work, particularly healthcare workers and school is really important for kids, nutrition and other things. We are coming around. 30 plus states have closed school so far. There will be a lot of attention that needs to be paid to the needs of the kids and for parents to get into work. Flu, clear that for closing schools helps. The evidence is more debated for covid19. Some Asian Countries did not close schools. Particularly, as there are more cases, pretty much, universal recommendation at this point is it is a good idea. Host what about your school . You mentioned one of your colleagues working intensely on antiviral regime. What are you doing about classes, students at the school of Public Health . Guest classes are all online. Online learning on a regular basis, flipped the switch, made everything online. Students remotely, classes remotely. I taught a class, crisis and response in Public Health, i read a book called the Public Health crisis survival guide, leadership in trying times, and i teach every term about the nature of Public Health crises and responses. We have been talking about the Novel Coronavirus in every class and the last class we did remotely. It was an interesting experience for students. I asked of them in the last class, we have a Washington Post reporter who wrote a story about them but i asked them, at what point did you realize there was a crisis that was more important than the class . It started in january. People told me which day they realized the crisis was more important. It was very timely, unfortunately. Host morgantown, West Virginia caller good morning. I have some questions for the doctor. Intor one, can you go more the science of social distancing . One, how does the Public Health official evaluate whether social distancing is working . Then at what point do you go people,herings of 100 only 50 people, down to 10 . Ie second question i have is, know pharmacies are allowed to do compounding on a state level. Is that something possible for Clinical Trials at state level rather than the fda being the metric for everything . Host thanks. Guest sure. Social distancing. Aboutncept, you can think reproduction number of virus as the number of people the average person with the virus passes it on to. So for some viruses it is very high, over 10, for some viruses it may be around 2. People are debating what it usually is, coronavirus, maybe 2, 3 range. Every person gives it to three people, that is where you get a sharp curve. That is not a fixed biological property. That is a biological and social property. That is sort of what happens when you have a virus existing in the world. If youre living by yourself you cannot pass it on to anyone. The idea is to put in place measures to reduce that reproduction number. Some of the best ways to do that if you can, find someone who is contagious, isolate them, they have no one to pass it on to. The idea behind social distancing is we cannot find everyone who has it, so we will reduce the number of opportunities the virus has to jump from person to person. I am not aware of detailed tables to tell you what happens, 500 versus 250 versus 50 versus 10. I think the concern really shot up when we saw italy. The fear of having Something Like that in the u. S. Because Public Officials to say, if you are telling us we should shut down, lets do as much as we can during this time to give us more options later to get more protective equipment for our healthcare workers and to have more of a gradual rise in cases so hospitals are not seeing too many patients. I think this is a little difficult on science. Pharmacies, when it comes to treatment and studies, fda can move extremely quickly. The agency, i am sure, is really looking to prioritize anything related to covid19. If there is a reasonable justification for a study, i am sure they will let it go forward. The advantage of having fda review is there are incredibly talented people at fda. We need them now more than ever. They are the people that can look at protocol and say, this will actually answer the question or wont. If you change it just this way, we will get a real answer about whether something works or it doesnt. The idea is to do a rapid review. The law about fda. It is not the usual approval law. There is a usual timetable for approval, takes about eight years for a drug to get approved. All these Different Things, then the review is over 69 months. Situationt the legal in a crisis like this. There is a separate law. Fda is permitted to authorize treatment, not approving, but has the same effect of allowing them to be sold and scaled up and manufactured. That authorization is a supremely flexible tool for fda to look at a situation and say, under the circumstances, it is good enough for us, it is good to go. They have flexibility. It has a lot of knowledge. The point of fda is not to be a chokepoint. It is to help. To help in the situation. There,ing h1n1, i was and during a matter of hours, for example, scientists at the agency figured out how to do tamiflu for little babies. That was the first dosing. It had never been submitted for babies before, children under one. We were able to share with scientists who understand how little babies metabolize drugs. They looked at it quickly and said this is our best estimate of the right way to dose. Regulatory agencies and doctors around the world used that for tamiflu. That is the kind of quick thinking and expert input fda brings to the task. That is at the fda repository of what the doctors might be throwing at this virus across the country whether tamiflu, other protocols, actual treating people with covid19 . Guest not really. Doctors can do things and not report them to fda. The fear i have is people will try a million things, maybe a patient gets better, they go, i am sure this made them better. You dont know for sure. Some patients get better. The only way to know a treatment really works is to do adequate study. That is why fda has to approve quickly, make sure they are good and stand them up so we know people getting treatments are Getting Better. Host North Carolina, a medical professional, welcome. Caller how are you . Host fine, thank you. Caller i have a question for the doctor. Does this affect pets . Guest not that i am aware of. I saw a couple stories maybe dogs get a mild illness. I understand people are very worried about anything that is valuable to them in their lives, including pets. I have not seen major concerns. Host question from patricia, westminster, california. Have any older patients on ventilators recovered and gone home after that recovery . Guest absolutely. Yes. Some people recover. It is important to do social distancing so we do not have so many patients that they outnumber ventilators. People can recover with Supportive Care and hopefully we will get treatments proven to work. Host the reason ventilators are so important with this, it is much more of a upper respiratory disease . Guest well, it is called lower respiratory. It affects the lungs. People cannot Exchange Oxygen effectively, so a breathing machine, a ventilator helps them do that and allows them to get oxygen. Host morgantown, pennsylvania, stanley. Caller regarding this malaria drug, over the weekend, they said some dr. , infectious doctor in Southern France was going to test this tablet that cost five bets and patients would given 600 milligrams i dont know how many times a day, but he is supposed to be a top infectious doctor in the south of france. He was going to test a few dozen who had the virus. Yesterday, all 100 people were like cured. Did you hear anything about this . Guest i know people are thinking about hydroxychloroquine but this is a good example of needing to see the data and science to know what to make of this. Theyre all kinds of rumors and internet stories. We will only know for sure when there is a good study. I am sure there are studies going on. We will find out. People saying, we have this antiviral drug, it is working, working, then when they actually did the study, it did not work. You really have to do the study. Younot rely a doctor cannot just rely on a doctor in the south of france. Host andy, bloomington, indiana. Doing Great Britain was a herd immunity thing, 70 of the population get it. You have to think about this, this might come back also include season next year. There is no cure for it. Second question, what about the dsp workers . Special needs people. They have nowhere to go. You have to have workers to take care of them. I live in indiana. Is there any kind of place for those people . What if workers, who make low wages, get sick . What are they going to do . Thank you. Host thank you, daniel. Guest excellent questions. It is unclear what people mean by herd immunity strategy. If the strategy is letting 70 of people get infected, that is very dangerous. Than for is at risk serious illness. Factorsith extra risk like older adults are at very high risk. You could see a massive surge in patients. U. K. Is worried about that now. I do not think there is a special strategy like that that they are trying. They are moving in the direction of other countries in europe, trying to reduce the spread of the virus shortterm. If we are able to keep it down but we still have so many susceptible people, how long do we have to do this for . Right now, people are dealing with the here and now, trying to avoid the huge initial surgeon hoping other things come, more protective equipment, medications, preventive interventions, things like that, that would allow us to avoid a second search later in the fall. Right now we are dealing with the immediate challenge with the idea that by buying more time, we will be able to come up with other solutions. The point about the special needs care workers is really important. People with special needs may well be at high risk for serious, occasions. One of the most important things every Single Person can do in addition to washing hands and thoroughly, with soap, 20 seconds before eating, after eating, before and after going to the bathroom, every time you think about it, coughing into your sleeve stay home when youre sick. Even with mild symptoms, you should be staying home. That is very important. That will be important for the workers for people with special needs. Unfortunately, putting them in congregant living situations, they increase the risk if the virus gets in. The goal has got to be to take as much precaution as you can. Frankly, all the rest of us are staying at home to reduce the chance people get infected, that workers get infected, that people we care about get infected. Host anthony, minneapolis. Caller couple questions. Please let me ask them. I am a veteran. Following up on that guy talking earlier. They wont let anyone in the hospital. I collapsed a couple weeks ago. They were supposed to give me a defibrillator. They wouldnt give me that. I dont understand that. Underlying condition. The defibrillator. The other thing, how long does this last . No one said how long it will last. Weeks,lterinplace, two close the schools the rest of the. This is crazy. How many ventilators to be need for 360 Million People . This is crazy. People talking about a good job. No, none of these president s have done a good job. Host i will let you go, anthony. Several questions. Ventilators, how long does the virus last, i am not sure if he is talking individual or in the nation . Guest first question, defibrillator. Defibrillator is not a treatment for covid19. People need them depending on their heart conditions but i do not think that is a treatment for people for covid19. The question of how long does the situation last. That is on everyones minds. That is what my kids are asking. People are asking me all day. Everyone wants to know. My best answer. Right now, there is a lot of uncertainty. We are uncertain what is going on. We dont know if we will turn into italy with their challenges right now. That, we are taking extreme measures, disrupting everyones lives, the economy has been seriously harmed, all these things to prevent a very serious catastrophe shortterm. We will know more about how that is working within probably a month to six weeks. We will know more. This state of total uncertainty, that feeling, will not be around. We will know more about which treatments work, about the situation we are in. We are at a point now where were trying to give as many options as possible to ourselves as we assess the situation over time. It is incredibly difficult. I cannot give you an answer, tell you how long exactly it will be. I can say that we will not be in this frustrating state of uncertainty forever. We will know a lot more in a month compared to now and we will be able to assess the situation. You know, if we are able to control this more, it may be possible, certainly, to loosen up parts of these restrictions, in order to allow the economy to start to grow again. We really cant tell now. Anything we do now, gives us more options later. That is why my basic messages it thisportant to recognize uncertainty is not going to be around forever. We will know more. We need to do things to give ourselves flexibility later. The our caller, anthony, second veteran we have heard from this hour. I wanted to followup with a story in the New York Times. This was mentioned at the briefing the other day. The v. A. Prepares to backup a Health Care System threatened by coronavirus, Sprawling Department legally designated as the nations backup Health System and could prove vital in the pandemic. Eddie, san antonio, texas. Caller good morning, good morning. Lets go back to earlier. You referred to it as a herd system. Given that we are a very narcissistic society, it will be hard to keep people indoors, away from each other, short of military and some kind of police force. Shouldnt we just resume, presume we are all carriers . We are all infected . Work from there and seek a cure rather than spending trillions of dollars we are doing and coming up with test kits, unless you are an nba star, you can get to . It is best we consider we are all infected, all carriers, start living cleaner lives, working cleaner, maybe change the way people work. Wife,of businesses, my she is an accountant in the oilfield business, she has to go to work. They have to keep it going. Maybe changing up hours, keeping people separated, shiftwork, but definitely, we are not going to be able to avoid. You see people on beaches. We are not going to be able to avoid each other. Maybe looking back historically at how this spread so quickly. I know in the past the airline industry, the travel industry has been huge on that, a lot of the tragedies and things we have 9 11, and evens,face like aid, this. Andwerent the crewmembers People Associated with the Airline Industries tested . I think that is how i got out of got, the travel how it out of hand, the travel. Where weo operate from are and lets just go forward and find a treatment. Thank you for that. One of the general point is that we experience disease in our society which is very global and interdependent. That is how disease is spread around the world and that is a fact of our lives. Our preparedness for that is something that is a choice for us. ,he issue of what to do now this goes back to the previous question. If we were to say, lets just all go out and i want to correct one thing, people do not have to stay indoors, they should just practice social distancing. Go for a run or walk, but maintain a few feet of distance and avoid crowds. It is ok to go outside. Wherenot like other kinds you have to literally stay indoors. Thatg said that, the idea we should just presume we are all infected and go about our business is a very risky strategy, because that will actually pass the virus around more. It will mean that many more people over 60, many more people over 70 and 80 will get infected and when that happens, they will get very sick and it could really trigger a collapse of the Health Care System like we will see in italy. That is what we are trying to avoid. Doing these really extreme measures in a shortterm gives us a chance to avoid that and it gives us a chance to have more options in a few weeks. It does not mean that we will be in the situation forever, and it does not mean that we will have this sort of uncertainty forever. Do is tont thing to just overreact perhaps a bit, although, i am not so sure it is an overreaction, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Be really careful now and lets protect the Health Care System and protect health care workers. Do our part. There are healthcare workers who are risking their own health for the health of people getting sick. They are asking and begging people to really understand the importance of reducing social interactions, staying at home wherever possible, working from home wherever possible in order to stay out of the spread of the virus, and they are saying, if you do that, we will be safer and i think it is our obligation to do that. Host great advice. Dr. Joshua sharfstein who is the vice dean for Public Health practice at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Thank you for joining us. Guest thanks for having me. Host our conversation with you continues on on the u. S. Response of the coronavirus. We welcome your comments. Easternin central and central time zones, 202 7488000. 202 7488001 for mountain and pacific regions. Medical professionals, 202 7488002. Well get to your calls momentarily. We are joined on the phone by hencilman ritchie torres, has tested positive for the covid19 coronavirus. Councilman, thank you for being with us. How are you feeling . Guest i am actually feeling fine. On saturday, my chief of staff developed serious symptoms, coughing, fever, vomiting, nausea, and he went to see a doctor, underwent testing, and found out he had the coronavirus, and since i had extensive contact with them, i underwent testing and came to discover monday evening that i tested positive. Since then, i have been isolated in my apartment and ive directed my campaign and government staff to isolate themselves in order to avoid spreading the virus. I have a 60yearold mother who struggles with chronic conditions, and the coronavirus could be fatal to people like my mother. Host how long do you have to stay self isolated . Guest about two weeks. Should have i developed an immunity. Host has your physician given you guidance in terms of what to do to treat it . Guest as far as i know, there are no antiviral or vaccinations, so i have to quarantine myself for two weeks and then i will reach out to my doctor. Host your symptoms are minimal, you say you are feeling fine. Meanwhile, your chief of staff is very ill. How is he or she feeling . Guest he is improving. His symptoms were worse over the weekend but he has been recovering successfully ever facts about my case, i am the youngest member of the new York City Council at 32, i am a millennial, and if you are young, and a millennial, it is tempting to lull yourself into a false sense of security, but that could not be farther from the truth. There are thousands of young people who could be spreading the virus without even knowing and could be spreading the virus to those with compromised immune systems. The mortality rate for the Novel Coronavirus could be as high as 16 for those at or above the age of 80. Host your guidance, reflected headline, younger adults are a large percentage of coronavirus hospitalizations, according to new cdc data. The city of new york, a week or so ago, the state of new york called for ending all assemblies over 500, closed the theaters on broadway, and shortly thereafter, the mayor called for closing all of restaurants in the city. How do you gauge the response of the governor and mayor in terms of the measures they have taken to stop the spread of the virus . Guest the governors leadership has been exceptional. Priority seems to be in the right place which is to build capacity in the hospital system. The highest priority is the stability of the hospital system. I am in favor of a shelterinplace. My position is that we are facing the greatest pandemic in a century and it is better to extremehe side of caution an overreaction because if we do too little, too late, the Health Care System is going to be overwhelmed, and i am concerned about what is unfolding in italy. System there is dangerously overburdened, and there is a famous image of a nurse collapsing face down from exhaustion. Die,nts have been left to funerals have been postponed, and we have to do Everything Possible to prevent that kind of nightmare scenario, especially in new york city which is become the epicenter. Host what do you think is the biggest medical need . Guest ventilators. We have a dangerous shortage of ventilators and if we run out of ventilators, then doctors are going to be in the nightmare position of deciding who gets to live and who gets to die. Host what is the city or state doing to get more . Guest we have a limited stockpile. That is why we need the federal government to mobilize its resources to manufacture more ventilators. Infusionately need an of support from the federal government and the state and local governments cannot do it on their own, and we are all dangerously ill prepared for the pandemic which could affect as much as 60 of the population. Host congressman Richie Torres rescouncilman ritchie tor joining us from new york city. We wish you the best and hope you recover soon. Guest thank you. Host we welcome your calls and comments, 202 7488000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones, 202 7488001 in the mountain and pacific. Lets go to don. Caller good morning, thank you for your program. Concernedcularly about what studies are being made at the present time to find how the virus got started. Itre are rumors around that was developed from other viruses and laboratories, and what was the purpose of this development was this a military development, a Scientific Development to develop drugs . What was it . We need someone on your program that covers this sort of thing and the ethics of it all, because we had these ethics way back when we were putting part d in our health plans. We were told by the Drug Companies that you could not get good drugs unless they were made in the United States, and once this was enabled, then Congress Sort of slipped and liked manufacturers develop them anywhere, including china. Sensenot have very good in washington dc. Host we go to greensboro, North Carolina, and hear from carrie. Caller i am calling about an article in our local newspaper. Burrines reading richard in the senate gave stark virus warning weeks ago and then a smaller headline, the senators warning and a prior group, and he also sold off 1 million in stocks recently. It goes back three or four weeks that he has been doing this and yet, that is not what we have been getting in the news. I wanted to make sure that richard burr is outed. I am really, really disappointed and i cannot tell you what i think should be done with him. Host we talked about that story earlier, first reported by propublica and npr, and here is the headline senator dump up to 1. 7 million of stocks after reassuring public of coronavirus. It came around the time that he was getting daily briefings. Next in arkansas. Caller yes, i have some food for thought for american citizens. I hope you will let me finish my complete thoughts. Was said the other day that the federal government is not a shipping clerk. So that means that the states cannot get the data necessary equipment to fight this disease. Tot do you do when you want hold onto power . The states are the ones that hold the elections. If the states are not able to hold an election, someone is probably thinking, i can maybe go ahead and stay here in my position because we are not going to have an election. The constitution states when the andtions can be held, liked january 20, the president has to go. It used to be in march but they shorten that time, but once his term is up, he has to go, so i just hope someone is not whispering in his ear to say you can just stay an office because the states cannot hold an election. No, he has to go. After these four years, if it is an emergency or whatever, he has to go. We have to look at this thing. Why is it that they are holding up these gloves, masks, and let this thing blow out of proportion . There is no excuse for this. People are dying behind this. It is no excuse. Thank you. Host news from the campaign trail. Tulsi gabbard quitting the campaign and will throw her support behind joe biden. Linda in massachusetts on our medical fresheners line. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. And alledical pressure who has to quarantine at home because i am in high risk groups, but i am working with my boss to work from home so that i can triage some of their cause, i work at a clinic and that is really overburdened by calls. Verye still triaging carefully because we have not got host are they directing calls to you at your home . Caller no. What they do is they give me the lists of the people who have are calling, and i there only certain things i can do from home and most of it will be like triaging symptoms and telling them where they should be going because we have protocol. Upset abouteally the lack of personal protective equipment, but i was active in 2000arly 1990s and on the emergency plan and my local community where i was living at the time, and we do have supplies stockpiled all over the country, and we have been doing that since 9 11. The problem is, the restocking occurs asupplies things expire, and i think that may be one of the problems as well. If we all shelterinplace, personal protective equipment issues are not as big a thing. Clinic that i the work are screening people at the door who made appointments to make sure that we are not letting anybody in who may have it without a mask. We are hunkering down to her prepare for the next few weeks which i think well a dramatic ie due to the increase think we will see a dramatic change due to the increase in testing. Oft a story from yesterday the state department in the shouldeast, americans avoid international travel, citizens should return home. Ellen in california. Ellen, there we go. I, i am here. Host tried that, you are on the air. Caller can you hear me . Host i can. Caller i wanted to complement compliment trump, although i am not a fan of his. I think you made a very good call by limiting the travel ban, especially against the chinese where this virus originated, and that is why he was calling it the just like the spanish flu, it originated in spain. Secondly, i think the best thing is host hi think the spanish flu did not originate in spain. Mislabeled as the spanish flu. Caller ok, i am sorry about that. The best thing he has done is to appoint an executive Branch Leader and the Coronavirus Task force. The experts are excellent and i have been very impressed with holland how articulate in short winded pence is compared to trump. Trump should stay off of the podium and he does not really know what he is talking about. He inserts his uninformed and he is just interpreting and correctly. Incorrectly. I think you should let the task force stay in charge. Host next, debbie from kansas city actually, desiree from kansas city. You may recall, she called from overland park, kansas, and she was not feeling well and had been trying to get she had gotten tested for the coronavirus and had not been able to get the results. Good morning, how are things going . Caller good morning. I still have no results. Host when did you get the test . Caller i got the test on march 13. The next days up until i talked to you still trying to get an answer, but nobody could give me that answer. University, kansas i called the state, i called everybody i possibly could, so after i spoke to you, i finally called the Governors Office and said i would be speaking with you on, friday what would they like me to say . They said a public liaison would get back to me which nobody ever did, however, i did get a call from someone in the Kansas Health department that afternoon at 3 30, and she told me that they had finally dug out to my file and the test that i taken inthe 13th had leaked transit and they were not able to test me for the coronavirus. Host does that mean you have to get it done again . Caller yes. Her, how do i get it done again . She grilled me again, have you been in contact, the typical and i explained i had shortness of breath and everything, and she said that could be anything. What was interesting was from that test for coronavirus, i was told by the lab that i came back negative for influenza and respiratory virus. When i told the Kansas Health department that, she said, oh, in that case we can let you be tested again. Ahe had me call the coron hotline, i called them, and they were telling me that unfortunately, they are tightening the guidelines to be able to get the test and initially, a nurse had put in the order for me and now had to be a doctor, and i had to be very emphatic with them, and i spoke very directly with the state department. They finally said, fine, we believe you and we will do that. 4 50got me in that day at to be retested, but i asked at that time when can i get the results, and they said, they honestly did not know, could be 48 hours, could be four days. I still have no answer. Desiree, you are still feeling some upper respiratory issues, correct . Caller i am, yeah. Host the other thing on this, too, you told us when you called, you did not want to use your real name because you were in line for a job . Caller yes. Host tell us about that. Caller well, because i could not get the results, it was through an employment agency, it was a contract position, because i was not able to get the results, they finally gave me until friday to get them, and i got a call saying, sorry, you are no longer eligible for this position. I am now unemployed as well. Host i am sorry to hear that. Caller yes. The other interesting thing listening to the president yesterday and he talked about actually onon, im that because i have a form of lupus. I immediately called my pharmacist and said, after refill about 20 days ago, can i get it refilled. She said, the insurance would not pay for it, and i said i will pay for it outofpocket. The clerk i was speaking to said, how much would you want, i said 90 days. She came back with a price of 430, and i said no, i could not do that. She looked at my records and set are you being treated for something, and i said, yes. She said i have had to doctors calling in for orders of up to 180 all morning long, i have a few left on my shelf, but because you have a legitimate medical need, let me run it through insurance and see how many i can get you and see if they will pay for it. Host how many did you end up getting . Ended up getting 60, insurance accepted, and it was 30. She informed me that that is all she had left. Host on that dragon particular drug in particular, the fda that, thebash on fda walks back the president s claim on the covid19 drugs. Does that concern you at all . Caller no, it honestly doesnt. Host you are taking get anyway. Caller exactly. My concern and the pharmacists concern, there are people who have room Rheumatoid Arthritis and types of lupus who need the drug. I was listening last night to dr. Felty and he said dr. Fauci and he said, we will have a shortage of this drug. But they already do. Host we appreciate you getting back in touch with us in following up on your story. Sorry to hear about the job and we hope you get good results out of the test and stay well, or get well. I appreciate it. Just to reiterate, state of kansas is not listening and they are tightening the requirements to get tested. Anyone telling you otherwise is obviously not telling you the truth. Host appreciate chatting with you, we will go next to matthew in regina beach. Thanks for waiting. Caller good morning. I just have some facts and i have a question. That thend it is said virus lives up to 10 days for instance on hard services, up tourfaces, lives three days on cardboard, and children are somewhat not effected. Issk the question, how this virus getting around . What about the virus attaching itself to coins, paper dollars, cash registers, and money travels all over the world. I tried to call the cdc and everybody else, one lady in we are notcdc, interested in testing anything like that right now. I am thinking the mode of transport is our money. China is burning money without any explanation. We are not getting any information from washington with how this stuff is being transmitted. Would askh somebody and answer the question. In anaheim,f california. This kind ofeah, goes to the last couple of , i dontalking about want to say Conspiracy Theory, but there are two narratives going on. There is one about the actual virus, and i should preface this by saying i am a type one diabetic, but there is the virus narrative and then there is the whole economy is failing, Conspiracy Theory narrative, and i am just curious or more worried about what lessons we are going to learn from this when it is all over, and more thertantly, how is it that second narrative that has nothing to do with the virus, it seems to be overtaking the actual discussion about the virus. If anyone has any answers to that, i am curious because as i sit here and wait for answers and cry to medical oppression is about my condition, i just hear more about the economy. It is just kind of, i just hope we take lessons five years from now and we look back, i just issues thatl of the are second to the virus popping their head up our addressed. That is all i want to say. Int this is shawn lafayette. Caller i just want to say that people need to be more careful with wearing gloves and masks, i see a lot of people not doing it. Host your governor and california has ordered further restrictions on where people can go and what does that mean for you . Caller i can go to work, but if i cannot go to work, i actually have money put away and i was going to buy a tv, but i think it is more important to have food and supplies. Appreciate you calling in. A lot of you cannot get out because of the restrictions on of coronavirus, but our cities tour is out on the road once again this weekend. , weoring the american story look at the literary life of san antonio, texas on book tv. Here is a san antonio mayor, talking about the city. Thean antonio is located in heart of south texas, the gateway to latin america a couple hundred miles away from the border. You think of the World Heritage missions of the alamosa and i dle park, and we also sit on the aquifer which has fueled this community for generations for hundreds of years and really, the confluence of waterways is why this region was settled in the first place. Today even though we are a burgeoning metropolitan area with the seventh largest city, you can see our riverwalk which is one of the top tourist destinations in the world be a part of a great urban revitalization that is also including Ecosystem Restoration which is on a 25 kilometer riverway. San antonio is very much a bicultural community, so the latino story is the san antonio story. We have been able to strengthen ourselves, so the increasingly polarized rhetoric on immigration is a detriment to our country and certainly challenges some of the foundations of our city. The current way that the administration is not handling the border issues and emigration and instead for lack of a better people, a lotng of the pressure has been relieved by dropping detained migrants into our cities with very little notice. I am proud of the fact that when i started happening here in san antonio, we stood up a Migrant Resource Center that brought into in, brought Community Help and brought food and brought clothing. Cases transport to where they were going for their asylum hearings. We have been able to really values, our ethos, our and ensure that we continue to be a welcoming city to to all communities, internationally to refugees even while there is such detrimental rhetoric with regard to immigration. Cspans cities tour, tune in this weekend as we travel to san antonio, texas. Citiestour. Span. Org another half hour or so of your comments, questions, calls of 202 7488000 for eastern and central time zones, 202 7488001 mountain pacific, and medical professionals 202 7488002. Maria is next steps, westville new jersey. Caller good morning. You are doing an excellent job. I want to bring to peoples attention that there was an cited a study, i think it was 40 people that were given a combination of the antimalariaantimalaria drug a people. People became negative and then after six days, 70 of them became negative, so i thought perhaps you or someone else could look that up and have somebody comment on this. Host where did you see it, the New York Post . Caller yes, my husband did and he told me about it. I do not have it in front of me but i thought it would be interesting for somebody to look into it. Excellent, thebe best of the enemy is to be good. If this works for 70 of the people, that is much better than having them go on the ventilators. Theother comment, i saw on news that mexico has no prohibition about what people are doing. With illegal immigration like in san diego where they go back and forth each day, would they be possibly catching something . On come there is no strict the southern border. Host we are joined next on the phone by a staff correspondent m, a site that covers state and local government issues across the nation. Tell us about your experience trying to get tested for the coronavirus. Guest hi, thank you for having me. I woke up, and you have to excuse me because everything in the pandemic timeline except for this morning feels like it was 50 years ago. [laughter] i woke up sick last week on tuesday, i had a fever, cough, sore throat, headache, and bad chills, and i was not that concerned. It is not super fun to wake up sick in the middle of pandemic, but i have 16monthold twins, so my house is a petri dish all the time. I only went to the urgent care because of the sore throat because i thought if i had strep, they could diagnose it quickly and they could get me on antibiotics. I went to urgent care, and i tested negative for flu and strep, so they took extra cultures to send for testing for additional strings of strep and flu, and they sent me home with antibiotics. If ire i left, i asked should get tested for the virus, and what they told me was that the only place that i could get tested was at the emergency room and that even there, i probably would not be a great candidate to because i had not traveled recently are come into contact with anyone who had knowingly tested positive. I just went home with all of my drugs, and i took everything they prescribed for two days and saw no improvement and i had fever, i had all of my symptoms, so they called to check up on me two days later, and they told me that all of the other labs that they sent off had come back negative and then asked if they had given me a mono test and i said, no. They had me come back in the next day which was friday because i still had a fever and they ran all of the labs again and tested me for mono, they all came back negative. I asked if i should get tested for the virus and they said i could only do it at the emergency room and probably was not a great candidate. I asked at that point to what they thought might be going on with me because everything kept coming back negative. They told me that they thought i had some kind of viral infection , which again, it is not super soothing news here in the middle of a viral pandemic. I went home for the weekend, and got a little bit better, and got me back on monday to get the results from the mono test which were also negative. While i was there, out of habit i said, do you think i should be tested. This time, over the weekend, they had gotten the test kit and they had the ability to do it there. The doctor thought my symptoms have gone on long enough and enough of them matched up that they would do the test. That is when i got it. Host you got the test earlier this week, have you gotten results . Guest no. They told me that he would it would take four to five days. I know the labs are backed up. I spoke to someone at the Maryland Department of health that told me that they have a shortage of test kits and the chemicals to process them in the labs, and i know the labs are backed up, so probably going to be monday. Host you are calling us from maryland, right . Washington suburbs. Guest yes, montgomery county. You, theythey tell obviously tell you to go back to selfisolation, are you still feeling the symptoms youve been feeling the past couple of weeks . Only lingering symptom is that i am pretty congested. Super minor and i am feeling much better. That when they tested me on monday, if it is going to take four to five days, i am guessing i will be feeling better by the time i get the results. I am glad that i will know either way, mostly because i have Young Children in my house, but i recognize that not Everybody Needs to be tested. I am glad that i was able to do it but it was quite a process. Host are you concerned at all about the exposure of your young twins or your husband . Guest from the time i got sick, just Young Children who are fun, so very not the time i woke up with a fever, i isolated from them all week. I did not see them, i did not touch them, we were not in the same room, and once i started feeling better, i am around them now but i am still wearing a mask. I am not super concerned because so far, they have been fine. I feel like if they were going to get sick from what i had, they probably would be showing symptoms by now. Host it sounds like from your experience of you going to the emergency room twice, kind of alarm bells might have gone off in the maryland Health System that said they should be much more alert to cases like yours. Guest i mean, i hope so. The other thing they told me is that i just had so many symptoms, the people that they had been seeing that were presenting with the coronavirus actually did not have as many symptoms as me, and they told me when they left, when they sent me home the first day, they told me to go to the emergency room with my fever spiked above 10 or or symptoms got worse, but that is standard care. I did not go because i did not want to tax an already stressed Health Care System. There was a chance that i may not have been able to get the test even if i did. Host we hope you get your test results back soon, and we hope you feel better. Guest guest thank you. Host staff correspondent with routefifty. Com. We will go back to your calls and comments up until 10 00 eastern. We go to ohio with ron. Caller good morning. My question is brief and to the point. To my knowledge, i have been watching this since the onset, and i see no reports whatsoever reflecting the fact that north korea, not south korea, but north korea nor russia either have any recorded cases of this coronavirus. And alliesversaries, to china. Talking about a Conspiracy Theory, i think we are at an outcome that is obvious what occurred in this world. I believe it was personal purposely let out of the bottle, and i have no proof of that, but it is something that the journalists should be touching on especially in the day and age of all the confusion of how it got here, etc. , where it came from, and who was a chinese person entered our country with it. Our john hopkins dashboard, daily reporting are daily reporting. The cases for russia is 199, one death so far. The worldwide cases reported 245,000 cases. Doing . How are you host fine, thanks. Caller do you know if the Auto Insurance companies are going to do anything to try and help us out with this . This is my secondbiggest bill with my two kids on insurance. My wife just got let go so im eager to find out. Host i have not heard anything about that. Indiana. S next in caller i have an observation and a question. Innically, my wife got sick february and i a retired veteran , and we are both retired, and she got sick in february before all of the hulbaloo got out about this. What i have observed three different occasions, she was sick, sick, sick, and she is just Getting Better now, and of course ive been here at home with her as a caregiver. We sit next to each other, we sleep in the same bed, yada, yada, yada, and cooking and cleaning. But she was really sick and after a month, she is just Getting Better. She went into pneumonia and had all of the symptoms, but i havent been affected. Sister in, her florida went through the same thing except with her husband, same deal. Withwere intimate contact each other, slept in the same bed, all of that. He was sick as a dog. She did not get it. And that is in florida. Couple in kentucky, same story. Only one spouse got it. Is, has there been, do you know if there has been any testing on people in that with the one spouse that did not get sick, world will there be anything and their microbes are dna that you could test for to see why they did not get sick. Do they have in their system any antibodies . Host your wife was sick and you did not but she did not have the covid19, did she . Caller how do we know, you still cannot get tested in madison, indiana. There been no cases reported, but there are several folks that we know in the same situation, and she was sick, down sick. The dry cough, the whole nine yards. Host i hope you stay well. Our capitol hill producer is on twitter this morning tweeting it is friday, the senate will reconvene at 12 00 noon while negotiations between gop and democrats as well as white house officials began off the floor and on phase three coronavirus Economic Relief bill introduced yesterday when majority leader macconnell cps an2. Headline on the washington times. Principles of washington have run smack into the electionyear covid19 pandemic. President trump and Senate Republicans were trying hard to display 500 billion in cash payouts to families, and the possibility of the government becoming temporary part owner of private corporations. Something other than the bailouts in 2008where the obama planistrations stimulus in 2009. The tarp aid for banks and Auto Companies plus bailouts for fannie mae and freddie mac was about 634 billion although the companies eventually paid back the loans. The proposal at the white house and Senate Republicans are negotiating is in the neighborhood of 1. 3 trillion. We are not talking about socalled bailouts for firms that made reckless decisions, said Senate Majority leader macconnell, we are talking about fors that must be repaid american employers whom the government itself is temporarily crushing for the sake of Public Health. Of idea of throwing hundreds billions of dollars at Corporate America even in an unprecedented crisis is making some conservatives squirm. Caller good morning. Keepjust curious why we getting our medication from china and other Asian Countries blood pressure, medication was recalled because it was contaminated with jet fuel, and we are still getting it. Why dont we bring our manufacturers back into the nation and get our drugs manufactured here . Carrie, i am unclear on that. We will go to james in brooklyn, connecticut. Caller hey, how you doing. I have two quick questions. She hit the nail on the head. We get all of our stuff from china. Everything. You had a guy on the program, just two days ago, and he was talking about the vaccines that they wanted to make for the coronavirus. All of the ingredients are made from china, and all of the materials are from china, that is one thing, and the second thing i wanted to say real fast wethat our manufacturers, can easily put together emergency manufacturers to make soleast mass for the people, we will feel psychologically safe. How come we are not doing them with the basic needs of this areemic a lot more easier we just opened up a factory. I live down the street from a factory that is closed. We could put together something and just the president needs to start doing something to really help the people feel safer. Us,t down the street from it is a textile mill, and you could make clothes or masks there, and he could make these. They may not be topoftheline but they are some type of defense to help us. He is saying a lot of things that makes a lot of sense, but he is not really sitting down and telling everybody how to take care of yourself at home when you cant get to see nobody. What about the things for your neighbor . What about some chicken soup deal. We need to start telling people how to take care of themselves. I call people all the time and i go to the stores and say, hey, listen, you can take some baking soda and you can actually help to try to kill some of this stuff because you may do baking eqie. And sque host we have a truck or us earlier who is delivering food to a Major Grocery chain. There is food what but it needs redirecting. They meet radical new patterns of demand. It is in the wall street journal. The state department calling for the holt of overseas travel for americans. Chad wolf was asked about that this morning at the white house. [video clip] there are certain countries where they are locking down their borders, and u. S. Citizens will find themselves in those countries and the state department is certainly facilitating that just like they did in china, but i would encourage all americans that are back overseas, they see the travel restrictions, you do not have to travel right away and you do not need a mass rush of the airports. We will let you back in and we will screen you. As that the plan, that the southern border is going to be closed . We are looking at both northern and southern borders. We are working with our canadian partners as well as mexican partners, looking at limiting nonessential travel across the border. We want to make sure that cargo and trade continues, healthcare workers continue to be able to torres, but recreational activities, and other things need to stop. Host that was the Homeland Security secretary. Whoear from nbcs carl quotes dr. Fauci saying how long americans will have to stay home. Be several weeks. It is going to be several weeks. In lewiston, maine, we go to bill. Caller thank you for taking my call. It is lewistown, pennsylvania. We are kind of halfway between harrisburg and state college. I am a lifelong democrat but i can tell you that i think the administration, especially all of the people around Vice President , i think they are doing the best job they could do and i just wanted to give a pat on the back to our local walmart here in lewistown, pence vania. Pennsylvania. My wife and i are both in our 70s, and my wife is the ceo of the ipad in the house, and she said, i can get groceries from walmart. We have a big walmart that has a grocery side to it, so a couple of days ago, she went online and and sent it over to walmart, and no time at all, ies willd your grocer be ready tomorrow at 1 00. It all went really smoothly. Note fromhe got a them that said to on over, and it was really set up nice, they had 10 spots with big numbers, we parked in number 7, and there was a phone number, call this number when you are in the slot. We called the number, and his kayleigh, girl, she did not have to touch us and we did not have to touch her, i just rolled down my window and she said this is your order. The card the back of open and she put everything in there, and she said, we could not get everything, but almost everything on the list we got. She put it in the car and she had a little pad, she said can you sign on this pad, but if you do not want to touch it, she said, i will sign for you. She signed for me. Host sounds like they have a good system down there. Caller very efficient. This is america at its best and they are trying to take care of us old people and we appreciate that. I do not do much shopping myself, but my wife is getting frail and she has some problems and we did not want to go in the store and this has worked out really good for us. We did not take anything more than we needed. Cdc tells us to live the lifestyle like this, we can do it. In the end, this will make america stronger. The one thing i would like to see that i used to see in the past with crisis, you will see all of the formal president s. Ormer president on stage you have our president , president obama, president bush, and they would have a pep talk to america, and that would go a long way because there is too much division. I think w will be stronger, later. It would be a really good ideas they had that broadcast nationally and they are all standing sidebyside, shoulder to shoulder, telling america we will get through this and we all have to get together. Host these days, it might be difficult to get them shoulder to shoulder with the social distancing. Caller thats rate. God bless cspan. Host we will go to minnesota. Just wanted to do a mention on all of the Foreign Relations that are going on. Italy, theyina, will remember the countries that be theem out, they will people who remember and did not help them out, so it is times like these where you really have to calm and focus in on the people and tragedy right now and we need to go out there and help them out, figure out how to help them, because in a year or two, all of this is going to go out. Host the piece in the wall street journal. Different take on social distancing and selfisolation. The headline rethinking a virus shut down, no society can Public Healthhe for a long at the cost of its economic health. Warnings about large gatherings of more than 10 people and limiting access to Nursing Homes will save lives. The public has received a crucial education in high gene and disease prevention, and even young people may get the education. Our hospitals hopefully will not be overwhelmed. Disease experts are buying crucial time for government and private industry to marshall resources. And yet, the cost of the national shut are growing by the hour. We mean a tsunami of economic destruction that will cause tens of millions to lose their jobs as commerce and production simply cease. Many Large Companies can withstand a few weeks without revenue, but that is not true of millions of small and midsized firms. Even cash rich businesses operate on a thin margin and can believe the reserves in a month. First they will lay off employees and then out of necessity, they will shut down. Another month with this and the layoffs will be millions of people. No society can safeguard Public Health for a long at the cost of its Overall Economic health. Even americas resources to fights a viral plague are not and individuals will lose jobs, and american prosperity gives way to poverty. America urgently needs a pandemic strategy that is more economically and socially sustainable than the Current National lockdown. To boston we go, ronald, you are next. Roxbury,onald from massachusetts. How did you get my name into the coronavirus . Will you put it up on the screen and let me know . I would like to ask you some questions. Host ask your questions, ronald. Italy has bypassed china. Can you put the figures on the screen of italy . Host we showed that earlier in the program and we can do it again in a minute in terms of the numbers so far. Thank you for the call. To new hampshire. Caller yes. I had a comment. Movie war of953 the worlds, when the earth was finally done in by a little virus that they had no immunity to . Us todayc it is to where all of our strength in technology is useless against a little virus attacking our fragile bodies. Do you remember how the movie ended . The president today is calling this a war, as all believers are. I am not really a religious but i, and quotations, remember all of the president s and leaders of our past world wars used words and phrases that have not been mentioned once during our present crisis by the current administration. With praises with god on our side, we will defeat our enemies, or one nation under god. I remember a governor or senator quoting psalm 46 on the air after the 9 11 attack. To get through this crisis quickly, we will need some additional help from above that our current administrations are too proud or afraid to publicly admit this. We are going to ask our nation as a whole to pray to end this problem we have because it is going to get worse. Host back to ronalds question about the total numbers reported by john hopkins, worldwide, that numberchina, has not moved much in the cases inor two, 81,250 chin. Tulsa, oklahoma to jackie. Caller thank you for taking my call. Sorry, this is my first call into you guys. Watching thision, all rollout, various articles they have said that there were two types of covid19. L and s strain, but we have not heard anything more about that ,nd then it said a few days ago i think it was fox news, they were saying statistically that the chinese were reporting that the a blood type is most susceptible to this. I found you havent heard those being discussed any further. Another, you know, question i have is, if people epstein bar virus and Million People or more have that, when you have your the complete blood ount doesnt show up accurately. Im wondering if that might also because its a virus, and because a virus its a virus it messes up your your c. B. C. I was curious about that. Im wondering t, if they thought about doing hair, you know, testing your because i had that done and its extremely accurate. Yeah. Say, st thing i would everybody is so kind and theyre for the the foods schoolchildren, you know, but are these people preparing it and handing it out, hey could have the virus and passing it onto each person theyre serving. Of good questions there, jackie. Thanks to all of you being here. Back here on washington journal like we are every day tomorrow morning, saturday, 7 00 a. M. Eastern. Have a great day. Have a great weekend. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the White House Coronavirus ask force has scheduled a briefing today led by Vice President pence. We could also see President Trump. Ttendance at the briefings becoming smaller due to social distancing. 11 45 et to start at eastern today. Live coverage when it gets under way on cspan. The Senate Working on a third relief bill focusing on the economy. Majority leader mcconnells will have four main components direct Cash Payments to individuals, federal small businesses, targeted lending to industries affected by the pandemic, and hospitals and health centers. Negotiations on the bill are continuing and its uncertain will take place. But you can watch all the Senate Debate on that bill and possibly the weekend on cspan2. And capitol hill, like the rest world, has been touched by the pandemic. As of march 19, two members of house have tested positive for the coronavirus. Florida republican mario diazbalart, and ben mcadams, democrat from utah. In addition, several members of senate have selfquarantined. And several news sources are several u. S. Senators sold significant amounts of stock just before the crashed due to the pandemic. Those named are North Carolina intelligence chair ichard burr, dianne feinstein, Kelly Leffler and james inhofe, the senior senator from oklahoma nd chair of the Armed Services committee. Senator leffler has responded to set the want record straight. This is a ridiculous and baseless attack. Investment decisions for my portfolio. By pmultiple thirdparty investors. Do this without mine or my husbands response. You can follow the coronavirus outbreak at cspan. Org coronavirus. Track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps and charts. Briefings and hearings with Public Health specialists nytime unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. Since ion has changed cspan became 40 years ago. Already this year we brought you primary election coverage, the residential impeachment process, and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on listen on, online, or our free radio app. And be part of the National Conversation through cspans washington journal program. Or through our social media feed. By private ted industry. Americas Cable Television andany, as a Public Service brought to you today by your television provider. Now new jersey governor murphy responds to the outbreak. S topics include the increase in iable beds for hospital care, additional covid19 testing state the enforcement of and guidelines in order to mitigate the spread of the vieshs. Is about an hour, 20 minutes. Overnor murphy lieutenant governor, how are you . Bless you. Carol, great to see you. Pat. Thank you, all, for being here. Judy, as always