About looking at the reopening that is happening in many states across the country. What are you looking for as possible early indications of spikes as States Reopen and the summer ensues, and fall begins . What we are all concerned about is the expansion of cases that happens over time. If we open up too soon, then it casese an increase in that we will see, and they will engage with us in a way that is in cases. Spikes what i am expecting to see over the next couple of weeks and months is that we are going to have a slow climb. I do not think we will see a spike. In alabama we have seen since we reopened at the beginning, we had about 180 cases a day, on average. 520 newne 1, we had cases a day. You can see that reopening probably was associated with an increase in cases, but we were also testing a lot more, so you can ask the question was it more testing or new cases . I think it was both. Host was there an inevitability about the rise in cases no matter when the reopening happened . Guest in my opinion, yes. It makes sense to me. What do we have . Hasave a virus that nobody seen before, and that means the majority of the population is susceptible. If they get exposed, they will get infected and they will not have natural immunity. Mitigation, the like we had with the stayathome orders and the shutdown at home, sheltering at home, then people are not intermingling and there is not much transmission. You relax that and people start coming back together and you will see cases. The question that still remains, one, does the summer time lead to a reduction of cases on its own, which has been seen with other corona viruses. It has been seen with seasonal flow. Why would that happen . Perhaps because people are spread out and are outside more and not in indoor locations much. I do not think the virus has changed, but maybe the way we interact with each other. Because we were sheltering at home, we release and go back to interacting, i think we will not see a decrease necessarily, but we might see a leveling off for a slow rise that will happen over the next several months. Then, the question is what happens in the fall . What we are all concerned about is that is when we might see a spike in cases. Host just a point of reference to our viewers and listeners for where things stand. Number ofs, total cases, nearly 1. 9 million. The deaths, 108,211. The worldwide cases are over 6 million. You are the director of Infectious Disease division at uab medical, what is your division focusing on in particular with covid19 . Guest just a small correction, i am a member of the division, a former director. What we are focused on is addressing the epidemic, not only here in birmingham, but engaging with our state Health Department and working statewide. What we would like to do is have widespread testing throughout our state. There are hotspots, like in most states where there seem to be more cases than in other areas. Weidentifying those hotspots can go in and do Contact Tracing, which means you find the person who is infected and put them under quarantine, and then you test the people they have been in close contact with over the last several days. What they do know, and this is important, the peak time of transmission from one person to another is in the 24 hour period before symptoms develop, that is very important, so the person feels fine, they are in a restaurant or at a sporting event, or out on the beach or somewhere, and they are around other people and they could be spreading the virus to other people even though they are not sick. They might get sick the next day. Having Contact Tracing at the point where these hotspots are, we are hoping that we will start to mitigate the epidemic in our local environment. Is there a way that case Contact Tracing can be done, not in a state like alabama, but broadly, as people travel, granted they will travel less. The people still will be traveling. Guest that is a good question. Gumshoe, workned, it out a case Contact Tracing as you interview the person and how you find those folks, there are technologies that can help us. There is some debate, that we can get into, where you use a cell phone, and with permission, the cell phone could have a program or app that identifies anyone within a six foot radius of that individual over the last two to three days and can identify those individuals, even if they have traveled. And then they could be tested. It is a little bit new and people are concerned about the privacy issues, in my opinion, if it is an opt in so you can say, i am concerned about this and i am ok with people monitoring my phone if others around me are likewise agreeing to that, then that could be eight an important tool. That could be an important tool. Sagg, we michael welcome you to the conversation. Forlines are 2027488000 the eastern and central time zones. Mountain and pacific, 2027488001. And, if you are a medical professional, 2027488002. We will get to calls momentarily. The cdc chief testified before a House Committee yesterday. Chief years, cdc message about the virus not resonating with the public. I want to play you some of the comments and get your thoughts. Here he is. [video clip] i think the first thing i would like to see is those individuals that partake in these peaceful protests, or have been out protesting, particularly if they are in metropolitan areas that have not controlled the outbreak to the extent we want, minneapolis happens to be one with significant transmission and d. C. Is another one. We want those individuals to consider being evaluated and getting tested, and obviously, going from there. Because i think there is a potential, unfortunately, for this to be a seeding event. The way to minimize that is to have each individual recognize the advantage to protect their loved ones and to say i need to go get tested. And, in 3, 5, or seven days get tested. [end video clip] raising concerns about the recent protests and the proximity of the protesters. What do you think we might see after these protests . Concern isink the very real that some of the protesters who are in close proximity with one another, marching, especially if they were not wearing a mask, could well have picked up the virus in that activity, but it is not restricted simply to the protesters. It is about the relaxation of all of the stayathome, and a lot of those locations. Going to a restaurant, and by definition you cannot eat with a mask on. Youre going to be in a closed area, oftentimes indoors, and talking, laughing, that type of thing. That is what is going to lead to transmission. Dr. Redfield is correct, there is a concern about the protesters coming together, i think we share that concern not for protesters, but for everyone. I think that is the message getting modeled. ,e are not hearing unfortunately, a consistent message about what people should do. Everyone sees the impact on the economy, it is profound. We may not be but seeing in our neighborhood someone who has covid. Wait a little while, and that will change because we are relaxing and getting back. Let me pause for a minute, you hear about masks a lot. And that, i think, is a key point. What we have learned about masks over the last couple of months is the following, i mentioned earlier that people are transmitting the virus 24 hours before they develop symptoms. What the mask does is it protects the people around you. If you have the infection, and you are wearing a mask, it will thek to a large degree amount of virus that is coming out into the environment around you, so that there is less likelihood of your friends, neighbors, and family picking it up if you happen to be infected. The image i like to use is going back to the peanuts cartoon, pigpen, the character with the cloud around him. If that is what it is like when someone has the infection and they are spreading it, the mask helps protect that. The punchline is, if you are wearing a mask, what you are communicating is i care about you, the people around me, because i will wear a mask and protect you from getting infected in case i have this. Host we have calls waiting. Let us go first to massachusetts and say good morning to barbara. Caller hello, good morning. A couple of weeks ago, a caller to this program raise the possibility of adding a prophylactic to knock down the virus in the back of the throat by doing deep throat gargling, and he did not suggest any particular thing to use, but i went onto the internet and i found a fascinating study, and if your team could write this down, it is the june 8, 2018 issue of Infectious Diseases throughapy pages 249 259. It was a group of german scientists who study the use of zpi, a 7 h called p gargle mouthwash, and it was an in in vitro, but it killed the virus at the level of 99. 99 . It i really would appreciate if you would look into this, because what was really fascinating was that these german scientists presented this conferenceapanese where this kind of mouthwash, iodine containing mouthwash, is apparently used as on a regular basis. Host im in a let you go, and have you heard about this . This i have not heard of specifically, but let us deconstruct this. What this is is an antiseptic. It could be iodine, but it could be any number of things including mouthwash is that have 70 alcohol. I could go into the lab and show go live now to a town hall meeting looking at race in america following days of rotest over the death george floyd. Coming to you with other caucus led he black fearless chairwoman and several other members of the lack caucus who you will be hearing from momentarily. Thank you for joining us on this meeting, town hall iving while black in america, 401 years later after