American university in washington dc who served as the secretary of health and Human Services during the obama administration. And later, we introduced one of the very first doctors to use breakthrough education remdesivir. Our phone lines are open. Is the area code in washington dc, host 202 7488000 four western time zones, and for you in the east, and if you are a medical professional, 202 7488002. Would begin with the latest on johns latest from Johns Hopkins university. Good evening. According to Johns Hopkins, 3. 7 million cases around the world. The overall death toll, 263,000 globally. Isning us in washington dc asretary burwell, who served hhs secretary during the obama administration. Let me begin with the learning curve you had as president of a you. And what have you learned about a you and Higher Education in general over the last two months . Secretary burwell like everyone dealing with the uncertainty of the covid19 crisis, we have been on a steep learning curve, doing things we have never done at the university. The main thing is our move to Online Learning, and moving off our campuses. Thingsre the two largest , as well as, we are like everyone else, and our staff and faculty are also working from home. Those of the main areas where, like everyone else, we have been asrning and acting nimble, we never expected we could. A lot of learning in terms of how our community can act together, and that was across all parts of our community. And that has been one of the and the samenings, time we have learned things that are challenging, things like online commencement, trying to do more commencements for may more commencements for may and december. Those are a few things we have been learning. Steve how will the online commencement look this weekend . Secretary burwell we are very excited about the online commencement. Tower 2020charge graduates, all 3000 of them, in my home. My provost also did his part. We are fortunate this year that we have fess Henry Louis Gates professor Henry Louis Gates, many of you may know, incredible professor from harvard, many of you may have seen his Television Series about finding his roots, and he will be speaking, in an incredible address. And as part of the commencement ceremony, we asked members of the community to take short messages, everyone from lonnie bunch, American University alumni who is head of the smithsonian, to susan rice, who is a part of our school of international service. There is a large group. And at the end, we have performances from some of our students, as well as making sure you can see all the named of graduates all the names of graduate. We tried to put something together to make this special day memorable, not in the way our students were expecting, but in a way that will make them feel special and celebrated. Steve in his remarks to the class of 2020, tom hanks said to those students, you did not choose this, but you are the chosen ones. What are you hearing from students, and what are you telling them . Secretary burwell one thing we tried to communicate a lot with students, faculty and staff, communicate and make sure, as we were making decisions, we put those decisions out quickly to the community. So we communicated, and there are two parts to almost any communication. The first part is a real recognition of how challenging this is, this is challenging for everyone and we cant recognize that enough, that different people are facing different challenges, and recognizing that , in any communications you are making sure people understand that we appreciate how challenging this is for many people in different ways. And the second part of our Committee Case and is, what are specific issues, and we communicated about going online. Our provost communicated many times about that to faculty, we communicate it to our students, we cascade our communications to make sure students know how to do courses, how to get the advice they need, when we made decisions about how to do grading, how to do commencement, those decisions went first to the graduates, so we have been communicating about many, many things, as each day there are more and more decisions made. Steve let me turn to the School Newspaper and this headline, a you will be open in the fall, whether in person come online or hybrid classes. The story points out a decision will be made next month. Walk us through the process of that decision. What will you take into account . Secretary burwell when we think about that decision, three principles have been guiding all the decisions we have been making through this process. The first is the health and safety of our community. The second is how we best achieve our mission, scholarship and learning. We ate third is, how do American University engage and serve our broader immunity. Importantrsity, it is we think about the broader dcnth of our community, the the health region, the districts of maryland and virginia region, and we think about that from a health and economic perspective. Those principles guide any of our decisions. This decision, we were thinking about in terms of, when do we have as much information as possible . And at that point, we are at the point where we believe that we have to have made a decision, because we continue to gain information about everything about trends and stability and how this virus passes, two issues about testing and advances in testing and best practices of social distancing. Those are the two lines we are trying to meet, and as we said, we will make that decision by mid june in terms of what we do for the fall. And those are the guiding principles. Right now we are using a series of task forces to bring together voices of our faculty. We need to campus life, we need to hear from students, from parents, so we are using different structures, a task force on what we are doing in the fall, a task force around retention and enrollment, task force focused on safety and health and one that is focused on workforce issues. Things will be impacted by what is happening in our region, in terms of our faculty and staff. So we are using those processes, making sure those group are tied together and they are incorporating guidance from those that these decisions will impact. Steve you have a unique background, having served as secretary of health and Human Services. How do you apply what you sars, ebola, and the the obama during administration, when i say sars civid2. Rring to sars secretary burwell when i think about the issue, we quickly moved to move our students off campus. There are a number of lessons, but probably the most important thinks aboutow one Infectious Diseases and whether this pandemic or other epidemics or other spreads of infection disease in a framed way in terms of prevention, detection and response, and also knowing that in these situations, while we talk about the curves and flattening the curves, we know pandemics have a trajectory, but dont know what that looks like. So there is always going to be changes. The other thing about this virus so it is new, it is novel, we would be learning. One has to remember that you are going to be moving along those lines, so your Decision Making needs to have a lot of option analogy options. My previous back ground me to want to act quickly because i knew density would be a problem and could put undue burden on the Health Care System in washington dc. When we think about all the students we had here in close proximity, if there was an outbreak that spread through them, the pressure that would put on the dcc Health Care System would be great. Steve and you closed down even a week or so before d. C. Shut down, correct . Secretary burwell that is correct. Part of that was i wanted to make sure our students were safe. One could see what was happening with regard to this. This was a highly transmissible virus, so you wanted to make sure we were protecting our community as much as possible, and contributing to what was happening in the District Of Columbia. Steve Sylvia Burwell is joining us for home from her home in washington, resident of American University, graduate of harvard, served as a rhodes scholar, served in the obama and clinton administrations. From your standpoint, has this pandemic forever changed tire education . Secretary burwell i think that is something excuse me [laughter] adam withf us, we are our families. Our children are 10 and 12 and that was our son matthew, who is getting ready for bed. You might be able to see my dog on my screen. Has this forever changed tire education . Next twoing to see the years are going to be romantically changed. We are going to learn a lot during that period about how we think about what we do. At American University, we had already been pursuing Online Learning and had quite a few classes. Our online mba is in the top 20 in the nation, so there may be some acceleration. And i think we are going to learn about how to use different tools. We are getting feedback now about the importance of facetoface and residential learning, so there are going to be a number of learnings. Will it forever change . One of the biggest changes will come from the virus and social distancing, but also the Economic Impact and what that will mean for universities. We spentan university, 27 million and that just takes us through decisions to the summer. Steve lets take phone calls. Polly joins us from wilmington, north carolina. This is ahope question you can solidify. Are we overestimating the amount of deaths from covid, or underestimated . There was a gentleman who called this morning, anthony from richmond, virginia, who said he understood the cdc has a guideline that doctors can say somebody died of covid if it is assumed they had covid. I understood you have to have a confirmed test that somebody has can claim thatu that is a covid19 case. Given conflicting information, is there a way we can know for sure we are getting an accurate account of deaths caused by the covid19 virus . Steve thank you. Based on your time at hhs, do you know that . Secretary burwell i do not know exactly what the cdc is using is as theinition using definition to count. It is my experience that one is extremely careful about how one counts these deaths. The current numbers in terms of the numbers of deaths, like those reported at the beginning of this session from Johns Hopkins, those are not overestimated that all. Onassumption and guess based everything i know, i am not there every day looking at numbers and learning about the numbers, but that is my expectation. You can see what will be the deaths going forward, we see a range of estimates and those estimates depend on our behaviors. When one fights and infectious us,ase, it involves all of individuals and citizens all the way through our government. So what happens in the future is dependent on our actions. But i would be confident in the number of confirmed deaths. That is a number i feel comfortable with. I am not at cdc, cdc used to report to hhs, so i dont see it every day and understand the exact decisions, but i would feel comfortable with that. Steve how many undergrads and graduate students at au . Secretary burwell at American University there are 13,000 students total. That breaks down to 8000 undergrads and 5000 grad students. There a coordinated effort among washington universities on moving ahead . Secretary burwell there is an Organization Called consortium and includes some universities likede d. C. , in maryland, montgomery college, or virginia, like george mason, and we Work Together and are working together to make sure we are working with local governments also. Because one of the things about a university is, we are very interrelated in terms of what is happening in our region. American university, other than the government we are the fifth largest employer in the district. Perspective,oyer we are a part of what is happening. When you had all the universities, imagine how large that is. From aperspective health perspective, we are and haveand hv density and that is important. The other thing is, when we we allur students back, like the fact we have students from all over the United States and the world. So that will be important as we think about when we moved to recover. Steve mike is joining us from south carolina. Good evening you are on with president Sylvia Burwell. Caller i wonder what your thoughts are on the administrations continued trying to reduce the medicare requirements associated with assisted living and nursing insofar as infection 41 they have to have parttime and or fulltime the periodicon surveillance of infection Disease Control in assisted living and nursing homes. Secretary burwell i am not as familiar as i used to be with changes in the regulations and the rulemaking with regard to assisted living facilities and nursing homes. This was a place where we did place priority, because one of the angst you want to do is, it helps both health and the cost of health care, making sure facilities are able to meet their standards, and we are seeing that. Places across the country that are doing ok, and have hadcilities that a highly transmissible virus, but helping and supporting those institutions through regulatory and other means is important. I am sorry i am not familiar with all the actions. Steve from palm beach gardens, florida, past, good evening caller number one, i believe the covid good evening. I believe the covid19 death count is accurate. I believe the administrations denial, how does that affect money if you go to homebased schooling . Secretary burwell at the universities, some funds have been moved to universities, but for most universities, we are highly tuitiondependent, so enrollment is a very important part of that. A number estimates by of organizations that observe and interview students that an roman changes could be up to 20 . That becomes a challenge. With regard to federal funding for students, half of the money that Congress Passed is money that is to go to student, so that is an important thing. The impact on students in terms of the government continuing to do programs, but in terms of the universitys ability to do Financial Aid on top of other things, is impacted by the tuition. Comes in. And as we think about decisions students are to make, there are decisions they may make to health and safety, related to proximity, so we are going to have to watch what is happening in that space. Higher education is a place were not as much attention has been paid. Everyonerting to as focuses on what we will do in the fall, but many institutions are going to be challenged as we try to support our students affordable Higher Education. That is going to be a real fat a real challenge. As we look at the economic difficulties so many families are going to be facing, and we as institutions are going to be facing, because other places, whether it is airlines, whose business has dropped, there may be changes in our enrollment, which is very important to us. Dr. Anthony fauci at nih said this is not going to be a light switch, it is going to be a valve that is what to slowly reopen. So for Higher Education, the au campus, what will that look like into fall and winter, and what are warning signs you would look at in terms of whether you need to retreat because hotspots are growing . Secretary burwell the first step for us will be recovery of faculty and staff. We are hopeful that will occur in the summer. Back, figuring out that part, and as we start thinking about students in the fall, as you indicated from your quotation from our newspaper, we are evaluating different based on where we are in the virus projection. Doing, what we are thinking about alternatives and making sure we are, whatever the situation from a health perspective, able to continue with the work that we do. And some of that may need to be online, some facetoface, and we are planning for all options as we go forward, and will make a decision on what we think that is going to look like most likely in midjune. Wewe think about signals, are fortunate. American university. This year we had the most applications ever, 20,000 applications. That is a great way to go into a situation like that, as we work through questions about what we are going to do. One thing we are focused on is making sure we reach out to parents and families and hear their questions. We have done lots of webinars to make sure we understand what is on families minds, what they are thinking about, working with students to understand how they experienced the end of the semester, and for those new students who we just expect just accepted, hearing what their concerns are. Steve do you worry there will be a drop off and that those who accepted will decide not to come because of these changes . Secretary burwell that is something we all have to consider. We are working to make sure everyone understands why we believe American University for those students we accepted is the right place, and the right time. What to continue our mission and are focused on providing a high quality experience, even in springtime when we had to switch very quickly. All our advising went online. We had even more advising than we do, because we knew that students were about to have many, many questions. Small groups of students were having certain challenges, whether it was hardware, challenges in conductivity, we were working student by student to make sure we could help those students get through our new challenges. Steve here is a look at the timeline. March 12, classes and American University moved online. Students left campus about a week later, march 23. Summer classes moved online april 3. Firsteverekend, the virtual commencement for the American University students. Us from joining maplewood, new jersey. Good evening. Good evening. Au alumnus, class of 2017. What is your advice to students who are trying to figure out plans for the fall . On title ixthe rule enforcement released by the department of education today, what will you commit and what theau do to make sure that spirit of title ix is upheld . Secretary burwell with regard to students, i would suggest staying close, making sure you are reading, because we update as soon as we have information. Make sure we know what is on your mind, and plan. Plan to come forward and continue. So students who are in the middle of their progress, plan to come back. We are working to make sure we moved internships to virtual internships, we are working on the classroom experience, the curricular experience, in a world where there is social distancing and where there may be changes. I encourage students to stay in touch, raise questions and plan to go forward. With regard to the title ix issue, the title ix issue has to do with issues of Sexual Assault on campuses, and these are very serious, and we take them very seriously at American University. And at universities across the country, it is a very important area of focus. At American University, we have won some awards and i believe this is a place where one needs to focus on continue to do better. With regard to the regulation just announced, it was a 2000 page rulemaking. Many concerns were expressed in the middle of the rulemaking process. We are reviewing it now, so i wouldnt want a comment on the content until we have gone through that, but i will say august 14 implementation date with the university is in havingdle of covid19, been at the office of management and budget and where rulemaking comes through, and then at the department of health and human maker, i a large rule sat on all sides of this, and it is extremely unusual in normal circumstances that you would put up that type of implementation date. We are going to review it but for now we will stick with it. This is an important issue that we need to make sure we are doing right. There are concerns and i want to take time to read it. Steve we go to esther in orange county, california, you are on the air with president Sylvia Burwell of American University. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am a college instructor, a community college, public and this doesnt have to do with students as much as it does with us as professionals. Even though i have been Teaching Online for a lot of years, i have had to lose had to learn how to use zoom, learn new platforms. And covid19 has really made a difference, it has dampened collegiality, collegial interaction. I would like your response on that. Secretary burwell i am glad you raised it, because this issue of the faculty is a really important one, and making sure we are providing appropriate support for the faculty. And that is a broad range, that is about how to teach online, it isnt just moving your course online, it is different in terms way. W to engage in this we have run a lot of sessions in terms of training and learning for our faculty to make sure they have the tools they need. On systems our faculty has suggested, a buddy system, in terms of supporting each other. Today our head of online put out additional supports we are going to do for people in their curricular development, and also think about the fact many of our faculty are like me, you have two children at home so you are trying to balance your fulltime work the homeschooling you need to do with your children. All thosesupport for different pieces is a really important part of the puzzle that we had to work through during this time. We are on line for the summer, so that continues for summer, and as we plan for what could happen in the fall. We are planning for all the front sorts of approaches right and we have to have that as something we know to have the resources you are talking about the support our faculty. This is challenging, and recognizing how hard it is for our faculty to make these transitions is important. Steve what has been the bigger challenge, educating those faculty members were homeschooling your children or homeschooling your children . Secretary burwell i actually dont speak spanish. One of my daughters is in the middle of the class in spanish. I am learning that now. I did take latin a few years ago. Andy we were doing heat issues of convection. I had to refresh myself on science. Being instructed by people who are probably better than my own instruction for my children. Steve and putting on your hat as former secretary of hhs, how long is this new normal going to last . The vaccine will be the cure, but based on your experience, understanding this process, what do you think we are looking at . There is thewell situation that exists now, the , thel distancing we have level of stayathome is extreme, and i think that will evolve. But what will become normal is going to be very different, when we think about how to make sure we dont overburden our Health System. We have to get to a place where our Health System can take care of the cases we have. Foresee a situation in the u. S. Where we are going to zero anytime soon. And as we look at the trajectory of this timetable of change, there are two Different Things we are wrestling with. What is the virus and making sure we are getting to a place where he can handle the virus and the damage it is causing to health and the economy, and then there is the second issue, that is the economy, and went we are going to seek recovery from that. And until we can get a vaccine that is broadly and widely implemented, we are going to be in a situation where this is the long haul and we will be in a changed norm for at least a year and most likely more. Joining usia burwell from home with a cameo appearance by her son. We thank you for being with us, president of American University and former secretary of health and Human Services. We appreciate your time. Coming up later, delicate Eleanor Holmes jordan will join us from her home delegate Eleanor Holmes norton will join us from her home. This headline, the task force will keep working indefinitely, changed from just yesterday. We will be adding people to the task force. They will be more in the neighborhood of probably opening our country up, because our country has to get open again and people want it to get open. But we have to open it safely. So we will be adding two or three additional members of the task force. There may be one or two that will be less involved, they were more involved with the original formation of the ventilator and the ventilator systems, but if they want to stay, they can, they have really done a fantastic job. So it is certain point we will need a task force, but we are going to leave that and add a couple of people to it and it will be for the opening of our country. We are opening our country again. We had the most successful economy in history of any country in the world and they came and i was sitting here and they said, sir, we have to close it. I said, close what . And basically, we have to close our country. Said, is it important they not be together . It is not a question. It is not a question. You cant out the family together. It is so sad. So we did something, but we did the right move, we saved millions of lives by doing what we did, but it is unbelievably tough for a country. And most countries throughout the world did something similar, but this affected 100 82, 184 182, 184 countries, but it is a very sad thing. So we are keeping the the task for gas keeping the task force for a time. And then this will essentially be over. Reporter but when what you said about winding down the task force and today . President trump if you think, we are always wending it down, but it is a question of the endpoint. It is a change a little bit. A thought we could wind it down sooner i thought we could wind it down sooner, but i had no idea how popular the task force is, until actually yesterday. When i started talking about winding it down, i got calls from very respected people saying, it would be better to keep it going, it has done such a good job, it is a respected task force. Steve earlier today, the president in the oval office. We cover all these events on cspan. Org. Our phone lines are open and we would love to hear from you as we focus on covid19. In the eastern half of the country, 202 7488000, for those of you out west, 202 7488001 and if you are a medical professional, 202 7488002. Joining us from everett, deas,gton, dr. George from Washington State college of medicine and an Infectious Disease physician at Providence Medical Center. Thank you for being with us. You are among the first doctors to use the breakthrough drug remdesivir. What were your resultant why did you use it. Dr. Diaz we used it on the first patient with covid19 in the u. S. On january 20. He was identified with covid at that time. Timedc requested at that that we admit the patient to our hospital, which we did. When he arrived he was feverish and didnt feel well. Over the first few days of his hospitalization, he got worse, shortness of breath, required oxygen. We obtained a chest xray which revealed he had pneumonia. Around the same time, we had seen reports from china that patient there, many had developed pneumonia as well as need to go to icu. For this reason we conferred with cdc and they suggested officially using remdesivir, which was used previously for patients with ebola. However, safety tests were done at that time and it looked like the drug was safe, but it was not used in Clinical Care thereafter. Months, thet few drug had been studied against coronavirus is, and the test activity was shown against the viral antibodies. Because of reports out of china and our patient worsening himself, we talked about this and told him it was a possibility we should give to him. He agreed to receive the treatment, petitioned the fta to use this agent as a compassionate use agent, which was approved by the fda. We contacted gilead, the manufacturer, and they responded in 24 hours of request. When the patient received the first dose, he was still having high fevers and needing oxygen. The first infusion he got the first night, very little in the way of symptoms. He did not notice he was getting any medications. The next day he substantially improved. His fever dropped. He was off oxygen and felt much better. He continued to receive treatments and three days after the first dose, he was able to go home and was able to stay at home and doing well overall. Our experience with first patient treated with remdesivir was quite positive, had favorable aspect to his case, he was relatively young, healthy, and the disease was not that severe. He was getting oxygen and his course of illness was relatively mild as well. Steve how is he tonight . Dr. Diaz i didnt talk to him tonight, but i talked to him a couple of weeks it dont and he is doing quite well overall. Steve what was the fta reaction ftause of the drug reaction to the use of the drug . Dr. Diaz we had send clinical records and information to them to make an assessment, which they did overnight they had physicians on call to look at the cases. The fda probably gets quite a few of these requests for the use of medications that are not standard. It was my perspective, very businesslike on their end. Steve does this change the way, moving ahead we should deal with this pandemic, most notably physical distancing that has been in place since early to mid march in washington, then spreading across the country . Dr. Diaz no. Ideally we would have a vaccine that is effective that would bet thise normalcy, point we only have a medication that appears to have some effectiveness against this. We are still awaiting results of Clinical Trials to be published to get a sense of how accurate it is. Dr. Fauci has indicated that in in theirbt trial, they have seen recovery also had trials in which the patients who were treated early had Better Outcomes than the patients who were treated later. Not drug certainly does antibodies in of states and public health, which continues to stress social distancing. The washington governor has announced we will begin to open our economy in phases, and we certainly welcome that, and ect to follow those faces those faces exactly as outlined by the governor. Is an in. George deas dr. George diaz, Infectious Disease doctor joining us from washington. Worst case reported january 20, second heard cases late february, uptick late april, today just over 15,000 cases. Phyllis joins us from florence, south carolina, good evening. Caller good evening. Wondering, what are some of the side effects . Steve are there side effects to this drug . Medicationes, any you use can have side effect. But thankfully, when this medicine was used in Healthy Volunteers during the ebola outbreak, there were relatively small numbers of side effects. The largest was probably nausea, probably occurred in 82 . Benkfully, nausea can managed with other things to stop the nausea. We havent had to stop anybodys treatment in our institution because of nausea. Other side effects, elevation of itself can, covid cause liver inflammation so it is hard to see exactly why that happened, but occasionally we see a rise in liver tests, and those are generally resolvable in a few days and we havent come again, had to stop any patients treatment. One of the Biggest Barriers and a reason people may stop treatment has to do with kidney function. The drug is recommended to be administered to patients is not recommended to patients who have abnormally low renal or kidney unction. Function. We do what we can to improve that when they are in the hospital, and if they improved to the point we can administer remdesivir, we watch them very carefully. Thankfully, that has not been much of an issue either. So for the most part, we dont see a lot of significant side effects that cause us to stop treatment with this medication. Steve going back to your patient, one day he was on oxygen and experiencing high fevers, the next day the fever had gone dancing for cantley. What was your Immediate Reaction fever had gone down significantly. What was your reaction immediately . Happy he we were very improved. We were worried he could require icu care, and that would have made it very hard for him in for us. So we were very happy to get there. We were optimistic this was a promising result and new we would like to be able to study that in a more formal Clinical Trial. Joiningets go to amy, us in lafayette, tennessee, with dr. George diaz joining us from Washington State. Caller if everyone has been locked down and only going out to get food and everything, how are they getting it . Because every day there are at least 1000 new cases . If they are staying home, where are they getting . Steve we heard that today from governor andrew cuomo, who said about 60 of new cases were those who stayed at home and had not used the subway system or being in a lot of crowds or been in a lot of crowds. Dr. Diaz it depends on the household. My parents in seattle really stayed home. They have essentially not left their house since this all started. Somehowces of them acquiring covid is very small. But many families dont have the ability to be truly sequestered at home, people that work and leave the household, some households have children that have to go to daycare, some have multiple generations where grandparents, children and grandkids all live in the same household. So there are some families where strict social distancing is very difficult. Us fromatie is joining georgia. Good evening. Ahead. You are on the air. Wanted to know where i could go to get tested. As far as i know, i do not have and i have state income a pretty much shut down. I am in assisted living, and they are very cautious. Dr. Diaz i think you ought to be very cautious. When area where we have seen patients develop covid has been in places where patients living,te, assisted worship facilities, rehab centers, and areas where there are a lot of patients are at higher risk for outbreaks. If you have no symptoms and there have not been cases in your facility, it may not be worthwhile to get tested. There is a lot of variation right now i too is being tested at the local level. I would talk to administrators in your facility as to whether you should be tested. It may be safer for you to stay there and maintain social distancing. Steve one of the most often asked questions, if you get the virus, are you immune from it in the future . What is your answer . Dr. Diaz i really dont know the answer to that question. Generally speaking, when patients develop any sort of infection, the patient develops antibodies and those antibodies protect them. We havent really seen much in the way of patients coming back to the hospital. We have a medical assessment and have looked at a lot of admission data at the hospital, and patients who leave after infection, we dont see them coming back. And we know we have a fair bit of covid in our community, so hopefully the chance of reinfection is probably small. That being said, there are certain populations of patients that cant mount a good immune response and cant make antibodies very well. For examplee people who have cancer, are on chemotherapy and their immuno oftem is depressed because chemotherapy, so there are certain groups of patients where, because of their immune system, they may not able to make antibodies, and they would be at high risk for reinfection. But at this point, we dont know whether reinfection is possible or common. My suspicion is that it is not very common. Is an dr. George diaz Infectious Disease physician in everett, washington, works at Providence Medical Center and is the first to use remdesivir on a patient in Washington State. Florence joins us from philadelphia. Good evening. Caller good evening and thank you for tonights topic. My question is this. I watched trump with his entourage going through where they are manufacturing masks. It is supposed to be a sterile environment, he is walking and talking and they showed how he and he is talking around,ly with people his mask is coming off, they are assembling masks, should they throw the batch out . He stood over it for a long time talking. I have had a respiratory virus and have had two tests, and my symptoms were like that. I am just going back to work this week after a month out. Unemployment sucks, let me say that. But it is just crazy. I watch that. Why did he do that . This was the president yesterday. He was in arizona. Az, your reaction . Dr. Diaz each local government has regulations about whether someone should wear a mask. Ith respect the president , expect he is getting good advice on people around him about when he should mask, and i suppose those recommendations were ones he was following. Steve brian in lynchburg, virginia, good evening. Caller good evening. Last night the dean of Harvard Medical School mentioned that doctors are finding out a lot of information about treatments for the coronavirus. Is there a process in place . Is it, tore is, what allow dissemination of information on best treatments across the nation, all the way down to little towns and cities, borderline rural virginia where i live . Steve let me add to that, also to make sure the treatment is affordable. Dr. Diaz there are many Clinical Trials ongoing right now. At my hospital, we have been working with remdesivir, also with other experimental agents. The correct path to reveal those test results is to have those round salt is to have those results submitted for something called purity. Other doctors will review the information provided from a Clinical Trial, and those results are reviewed by your peers. They are critically reviewed, ifif they meet a standard the Clinical Trial that was performed is appropriate that the information is appropriate, then those results are published in the occult journals. And for weeks we have published articles regarding remdesivir in the new england journal of medicine, specifically with regards to our first patient, and also using remdesivir as part of a compassionate use program. There was acle, statement on the patients ability to breathe, and i would say that while trials are ongoing, at some point we gain information than those results need to be peerreviewed and published. That is the most appropriate way to provide information to the world about what therapies work and which dont. Steve this drug had been used before with sars under the pandemics, correct . Dr. Diaz it was tested specifically for patients with ebola. And in that disease come a was not found effective. That disease did show us the message the medication was generally safe and well tolerated by patients. So the safety testing of the drug did not have to be done all over again, because it was found safe. Steve from new york city, scott, good evening. Mine is more of a comment, looking for a point of view from your perspective. Theve been focusing less on antivirals, even less on the vaccine, i focused on the antibodies and where we are in the process there. I know there is good testing going on, Mount Sinai College in new york city. Hope that might be the best while we wait for a bridge to a vaccine. I would like comments on whether you are aware of the testing, how strong the likelihood is it will work, and the ability to scale it out as an ice bridge to get us to a vaccine. Thank you. Dr. Diaz i think the question had to do with antibodies against the virus itself. There are Clinical Trials being stood up were companies are developing antibodies against portions of the virus. Those are just starting. I agree, that will be a promising therapeutic. There is also currently work ongoing on patients receiving plasma from a patient that recovered from covid, and that plasma is being infused in patients with a lack of disease. There is a large amount of work to look at these patients started by the mayo clinic in and there are studies on patients receiving plasma. There was a second question on testing, and at this point, testing is not perfect. The tests currently available, many have significant flaws in their ability to detect peoples antibodies if they were exposed, and with this antibodies they may find they may or may not be protected. If somebody was infected, we dont know if the antibodies that are detected will actually further prevent infection, and we are not sure how sensitive the tests are, meaning we dont know if we can widely find these antibodies. So there is still much more to be done in terms of getting good, reliable Antibody Testing in patients who may have been exposed. Steve our guest joins us from everett, washington dr. George up professor at Washington State university and the clinical physician. Dr. , thank you for being with us. Itpan is your resource when comes to coronavirus. All the daily briefings, events from the white house and with governors around the country, Available Online anytime at cspan. Org coronavirus. Joining us from her home here in washington dc is delegate Holmes Norton, thank you for being with us. You serve an, unique role as delegate to washington d. C. In terms of your colleagues, as they talk about the status of the region, what are you hearing in terms of their return to capitol hill, if the house comes back in session . Delegate Holmes Norton as i speak, the senate has come back in session. You would think the recent would be the virus, but apparently, the only thing they are taking up our judges. That is showing you where their priorities are, and when the priority of everybody else is on the virus. When it comes to the house, we wanted to come back this week. But the house physician warned our leaders that he did not believe we should come back. That was because of conditions in the region and in the District Of Columbia. He knows that when members come and, they have homes apartments here in the District Of Columbia, maryland and virginia. Not ready, by is a longshot, to open. So the house, on the advice of the house physician, is still online. Steve let me go through numbers, first in terms of covid19 in washington dc, now more than 24 thousand come almost 25,000 individuals tested. Confirmed cases in washington dc, just over 5400, 2 hundred 77 deaths. Washington,acity in total icu beds 345, ventilators 47, available beds, available ventilators, 199. If there is a spike in coronavirus, where does that put washington dc . Inegate Holmes Norton not good shape. The reason washington dc has to be very careful about opening up is how you live in this city. Unlike even the region where we in, d. C. Residents live houses, like the house where i am right now, and if they are not in a house, they they been in apartment thing. I think it will take longer, because we live in such close quarters, for the District Of Columbia to climb out of this terrible pandemic. Steve we talked to Muriel Bowser and she was critical of the first cares act, saying, while lawmakers treated washington dc, like a that would not only injurious, it was insulting. Columbia perof never found that we were short on spending because we have always been granted state status when it comes to spending, and i think its because we pay federal income taxes. Short 750were billion, that means that we should have gotten 1. 25 billion, and then any excess amount, based on population. Was shorted in the senate where we have no representation. And for reasons weve not been is to call as a territory, which pay no federal income taxes, and of course we got less. Up, you divide the money puerto rico, which is the largest, got most of the money. We are still trying to get our money back. This time, this bill coming up will be led by the democrats, already we had that money in this bill, so we believe we will be able to get back the 750 being a dollars the district should have gotten out of that first round. Host a personal question, how are you dealing with all of this . , what been the new norm has it been like for you . Guest what i can tell young going to do as soon as we are through with his broadcast, im going to go out on my daily half hour walk, where i walk in the middle of the street for a halfhour to get some exercise. Ive gotten all kinds of emails telling me what they are doing to exercise. Ifs can really get to you you do only what is best for the virus, which is to stay in. The exercise there is exercise you can do staying in, but one i most enjoy doing is walking in is walking. Into thee comes out middle of the street, then i run. ,ost enjoy your evening walk joining us from her home here in washington, d. C. , we appreciate you being with us. Stay safe. Guest always a pleasure. Att in the last hour, look the numbers, courtesy of Johns Hopkins university. 2110 infections in the last few minutes. U. S. 168. The Washington Post has this opinion piece, the metric that could tell us when it is safe to reemerge. Dr. Fauci will join us tomorrow evening for another primetime addition of the washington journal, along with dr. Gary simon, an Infectious Disease expert here in washington, d. C. Thanks for joining us for this washington journal. Tune in tomorrow morning at 7 00 eastern time as well. Have a good evening. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up thursday morning, richard hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association talks about banking and smallbusiness loans during the covid19 pandemic. And senator chris van hollen, democrat from maryland, will be on to talk about the coronavirus Pandemic Response in both his state of maryland and on the federal level. , dr. James hildreth talks about Racial Disparities in covid19 cases. Watch washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern, thursday morning. Be sure to watch washington journal saturday at 8 00 a. M. Eastern when we take calls and questions from High Schoolers across the country preparing to take the advanced placement u. S. History and u. S. Government exams. Heres a look at our live coverage thursday. At 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan, the head of the National Institutes of health, dr. Francis collins, testifies before the Senate Health committee about new technologies being used to produce covid19 testing. And on cspan2, the senate is back at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, they vote on whether to override President Trumps veto of a resolution constraining his ability to take military action against iran without congressional approval. With the federal government at work in d. C. And throughout the country, use the congressional directory for Contact Information for members of congress, governors, and federal agencies. Order your copy online today at cspan store. Org. Up next on cspan, President Trump meets with healthcare workers at the white house. Thats followed by house hearing on the federal response to the coronavirus with former cdc director among the witnesses. Later, a look at the state response to covid19 from andrew cuomo. President trump welcomed healthcare workers from around the country to the oval office as he signed a proclamation marking may 6 as National Nurses day. The president also took question from reporters about the Coronavirus Response and recent reports on plans to dismantle the White House Task force