Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 07172020 20240712

Coronavirus scams. At 9 00 a. M. , middle State University professor Sidney Mcphee discusses Higher Education during the pandemic and his participation in good morning, its friday, july 17, 2020. We begin today on the issue of requiring face masks be worn in public. As new coronavirus cases continue to spike around the country, more than half youve u. S. States have made mask use mandatory. Governor of georgia is fighting municipal mass clause in his state, in an effort to continue to allow mask used to be optional. Should mask wearing in public the mandatory . F you think yes, 2027488000 if you think no, 2027488001. If you arent sure, 2027488002. You can also send us a text this morning. That number, 2027488003 please include your name and where youre from. Otherwise catch up with us on social media. On facebook, facebook. Com cspan. A good friday morning to you. You can start calling and as we show you some headlines about what is happening in states around the country when it comes to mandatory mask laws. This from the denver post this morning. Colorado governor issues statewide mask order as covid19 cases arise. El paso county announces they mask mandates. E to arkansas with his headline arkansas governing governor issuing statewide mask order. Bama with this headline outbreak alabama, all have to wear masks. And the Atlanta Journal constitution, their lead story this morning Governor Brian Kemps administration went to Court Thursday seeking to block atlanta from enacting coronavirus restrictions and requiring masks. State filed a lawsuit challenging Atlanta Mayor the castta mayors it also them is void and unenforceable. The Atlanta Journalconstitution goes on to say the legal complaint filed by the governor in Fulton County court came one day after kemp signed a statewide order that explicitly banned cities and counties from enforcing mask mandates. Atlanta and a dozen other cities have adopted requirements to filing her from kemp that encourages but does not mandate them. If you want to read more, ajc. Com is where you can go today. This is a map of states around the country. The states in blue, the states that have mandatory mask laws in their states. That is 28 states in addition to the District Of Columbia. This map courtesy of axios this morning on their website. Those states and the District Of Columbia with some form of mask mandate, as new infections surge across the country. Some of those orders are going back months into april and may. The latest ones coming out of colorado and alabama and arkansas, as we show you. Asking you to call in this money, asking you, should mask wearing in pump this morning, asking you, should mask wearing in public be mandatory . In a webcast, talking about universal mask wearing and what it would do when it comes to the coronavirus. That iflly do believe the American Public embraced masking now, and we did it rigorously, maybe more like the german citizens. The germans saying everyone isolate, i think they got a lot of cooperation. Probablyly isolated, had less than half of the American Public to do it. If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, i think in four to six weeks, we could bring this epidemic under control. Host the journal of the American Medical Association there with that med cap that webcast with Robert Redfield. Think027488000 if you wearing a mask in public should be mandatory. Call 2027488001 if you think it should not be mandatory. 2027488002 if you are unsure. Terrence is up first from maryland, on the line for people who say yes. Good morning. Caller good morning. I put myself down as saying we should not be Wearing Masks outside. Mainly because we have to buy them. Based on everything we have been told, the cdc has even been telling us to make masks out of shirts. If you have a shirt come you dont even have to cut up the shirt. You can literally just wear a shirt over your nose and mouth and your chin, and you will be more protected than Anyone Running around mask less because they feel they cannot afford a mask. Worst case scenario, they literally just dont want to wear it, you have discomfort i am uncomfortable with mine, too. There are times when i will not leave the house because it is too hot and i cannot wear the mask all the time. But if i know i am going to be around people, i have tshirt in my car and at my office, and i can keep those and put my chin and my mouth and my nose under them. And i am doing with the cdc recommended. And i dont have to pay money for a bunch of masks. Do you think this is the new normal . Caller until we get a vaccine that works, and it will be years until we find a vaccine that works well. People in japan and overseas for years were a mask before corona. It was just the right thing to do. To be kind and compassionate to those people around us. It was not a sign of weakness for those people. They did it because they felt it was the right thing to do and they were told it was the right thing to do. Maybe a few decades ago in america that was enough. America doesnt believe in being compassionate. Host this is richard out of minneapolis on the line for those who say no. Good morning. Why no . Caller let me see, why no . Our local minard station store here in minneapolis, they require wine when you go in the store. But i think nobody they require one when you go in the store. But i think no because the governor said no more than 10 to 25 people in a group at one time. And the mayor in town said everybody had to wear a mask. But the rioters took over and they did not wear a mask. They grab they gathered in groups greater than 25, so i want things to be equal. We should not be required to wear masks if the riders dont have to. If the rioters dont have to. That is my thought i guess. Host tony on the line for those who say no. Good morning. Why no . Good morning, john. Where i live, 99 of the time when i leave my house, i dont come within six feet of anyone. It is almost like a rural area so it is ridiculous to have to wear a mask under those circumstances. However, until they open up the beauty salons, some of these women should be wearing paper basques on their head. Host we will go to philip in brooklyn on the line for those who say yes. Go ahead. Caller good morning. People should wear a mask. I have been sick with covid for over a month. Ing that time, i had during that time, i had diarrhea 12 to 15 times a day. Dehydration sent me home, said i was negative, then two weeks later they set i was positive. A nurse came to me, the head nurse in the emergency room said to me, i can see the fever all over your body and you might die , but you might not die tonight. But you will not die tonight. I got you. After 10 days in the hospital, they gave me remdesivir as an experiment, and i signed a lot of papers, and now i am home and i have a visiting nurse and i have physical therapist and i am trying to my brain is still cloudy. So, yes, people should wear a mask. And my wife had covid while i was in the hospital. So people should wear a mask. Host thanks for talking about your experience in brooklyn. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo revealing yesterday, his National Mask of america campaign, featuring a series of how the Washington Times describes as a starstudded Public Service announcement directed by oscarwinning filmmaker kathryn bigelow. The campaign will include a series of eight tv psas, the first two of which feature Morgan Freeman and jeffrey wright, released on thursday. Here is the one with Morgan Freeman. Morgan i may never have met you. We dont go way back. Maybe we would not even be friends if we did. But when you wear a mask, you have my respect. Because your mask doesnt protect you, it protects me. I wear my mask to protect you. Mask up, america. States adork campaign. The Washington Times noting that other psas are set to come out of new york including robert deniro, jamie foxx, rosie perez, and ellen pompeo. Look for those in the coming days and weeks. Jay is in naples, florida, the line for saying that masks in public should not be mandatory. Caller yes. I came across a publication or a aap s, the the Association Americans physicians and surgeons. It was from june 1 and it has the topic of face masks and they did major research. People can look it up and make their own decision. They talk about the size of the 0. 125, and the mass, 0. 3, itm 95, close to talks about the dangers of wearing a mask for your health and breathing, and it also has a clothf all the different masks and scarves and the general mask of a is 38 , handkerchiefs are 2 . It is a real nice publication, so it might be informative for people to look at and make a decision from there. Host did you listen to the cdc directors comments from a few minutes ago . That we would get this under control in four to eight weeks if we wear a mask . Caller i understand that, but we get so many contradictions. Doing research, i like to get on there and i research. I dont know, im not a doctor, i dont know anything about it, but the physicians and surgeons, aaps, they did research and they publish this. So the information is there. More from the cdc director, Robert Redfield come of the White House Coronavirus task force, from the interview that he did earlier this week. Masking is not a political issue, it is a Public Health issue. It really is a personal responsibility for all of us. Know, heartened to see more and more people now i am glad to see the president wear a mask this weekend, the Vice President. Clearly in that situation they can easily justify that they dont need to because all of the testing around them, but we need to set an example. This is not a political issue, this is i always say that we are not defenseless against the virus. We have powerful weapon our Face Coverings, something as simple as a simple Face Covering like this or a simple mask like reallyashing hands, and being smart about social distancing. If we all rigorously did this, we could bring this outbreak be ano where it needs to shutdown transmission. I could not agree with you more, it is very saddening to see some of these Public Health issues become so politicized. Dr. Robert redfield earlier this week. Steve is into a peek at kansas into a peek in topeka, kansas. Caller yes, good morning. It is about 6 15 in the central plains. I really need to wear a mask. We have a package of masks, so we have a variety of masks to choose from each morning. , kansas is one of those that has some sort of requirement. She is leading the country because she was the first one last spring to close the schools , and she has already closed the schools through labor day. No schools will open before labor day. Ruleurprised she did not later than that because you have to make a choice now. You cannot make a choice the week before. Mask im looking out looking at right now, i had custom made at a shop here in topeka. It says personal freedom or social response ability. On the other side it says, that is basically her thoughts. On the other side, my choice. With an explanation mark with an exclamation mark and a question mark. You dont know. One quick comment, because you have a lot of people holding. Facetiously, everybody should wear a catchers masks. Is baseball season. Im being facetious, but it is almost like, one more quick point before we have to go. It is like the civil war. Has been like that since it is like between the north and the south. Host have you had a bad reaction from anyone for wearing the mask . I am sort of a facetious type of guy. Just last night down the street, we had road rage. Somebody was shot at. Because of that, it increased the security at my house. So it is dangerous, right . It is personal freedom versus social responsibility. That is what my mask says. I will let you go. Host thanks for setting your alarm to get up with us on washington journal. Cnns wrap up of mask orders around the country. Kansas, their mandatory mass order, as of july 3, the executive order coming from governor laura kelly. The governor commenting on facebook saying july 3, i will issue an executive order requiring max be worn in indoor public spaces, and at any outdoor gathering where social distancing cannot be maintained. This will keep kansans healthy and keep kansas open for business. New jersey, the line for those who say yes, it should be mandatory. Go ahead. Caller hi, john. Its only common sense. We are in a healt emergency. It is an altars digester showing that one cares about others. I could not believe it. Is a gesture showing that one cares about others. I could not believe it. Serving me were not wearing a mask, they were holding it around her neck. I can ask were not wearing it, yet they had signs in their shops saying that is their policy. I was shocked. Host it has been about 2. 5 months of masks mandates in your state of new jersey, one of the earliest ones to begin to adopt those mandates. So is it the exception when people are not Wearing Masks . Is it unusual at this point . Caller i would have to say it would be the exception. Host so people are wearing them . Caller yes. If i am at a food store or whatever and i see one of the stockers not wearing it, i will, you know, for lack of a better word, shame them or make them feel guilty as to why they are not wearing it. Host what do they say to you when you do that . Guilt, andy show then they put it on. Guy, 250 pounds, so i think they are also intimidated by me as well, probably. Phoenix,k is next in arizona, for those who say masks should not be mandated for use in public. Go ahead. Caller thank you for letting me talk. There are a lot of studies that show in conducting the research, it is misleading people to believe there is more going on than there is. So host so, what, mark . What is your point . Caller just that there are a lot of cases out there that are being reported. There is a lot going on, you know. Onlinebers that you find , they are not accurate. Host you dont believe the case numbers in the country . Caller correct. I think it is worth mentioning that their methods have misled people. Host mark, who do you believe . Do you trust her governor, doug ducey . Do you trust your governor, doug ducey . I think hes doing the best he can. Host here is the governor talking about the need for masks in arizona. [video clip] positive personal actions and taking response ability for what happens will make a difference with better results. So we want to press on, stay the course, and do more of this. There can be no letting up. If youve we have if we have evidence from the last two weeks, it is what we have seen from these results. I have asked for your help. People have responded. I am grateful. What youre doing is saving lives, protecting people, and a load, alightning heavy load for our healthcare workers. , a heavying a load load for healthcare workers. This is making a real difference, and like i said, we are seeing nearly 90 of our state that is doing this with wide compliance. The state, in addition to asking people to mask up and advocating come is funding psas around the reason to do it, and providing and ensuring access to masks for vulnerable arizonans. Nonmedicale free cloth masks for arizonans who are 65 or older, or medically vulnerable, starting tomorrow. So if you need a mask or want a mask, you can visit azhealth. Gov ordermasks to submit the order. The state will also work with licensed care facilities to provide direct shipments to meet the needs of their residents in these categories. [end video clip] host Arizona Governor ducey yesterday. 13 innes from ko l arizona. Mixed messages doctors say there needs to be a statewide mandate for masks in arizona. Of niagararles out falls, new york. You are next. Good morning. Charles, are you with us . Then we will go to tim in griffith, indiana. Good morning. Caller good morning. I absolutely think the masks are necessary. I am in a part of indiana where we are one of the hotspots in indiana. Actually, i think what people are not realizing is that if you are hospitalized and live through it, you are going to wind up probably having to file bankruptcy because the bills are going to be so outrageous you know, with a lotta foreclosures. The vulture capitalists are going to swoop up your property and assets, and actually, even if you dont live through it, they are going to come after your assets if you died in the hospital, because somebodys got to pay the bills. If everybodythat wore a mask, like the scientists and doctors have said, and a lot of people will live. And flat 62 years old, on my back disabled, and pray to god that my brother, a First Responder he is my caretaker, too doesnt bring it home to me. Host in indiana this morning, here are the numbers of new coronavirus cases, and the numbers of deaths in the United States as of yesterday. Reported across the United States just yesterday. The death toll who the death total at 927 deaths yesterday. You can see those charts daily posted in the Washington Post next to each other. Tweets from members of congress on the issue, first with independent justin amash from michigan. His tweet yesterday saying, what happened to support for local decisionmaking . State governments should neither mandate mask wearing or prohibit local areas from Wearing Masks. Yesterday the evidence clear, masks work. Mandatea statewide mask. The congressman from arizona. And one more, the senator from california, dianne feinstein, saying Wearing Masks in public should be mandatory. When the senate takes up its next Coronavirus Relief bill next month, i am offering an to prohibit sending funds to states that have not instituted mask mandates. And congressional battles expected over the next Coronavirus Relief bill, discussion about that in papers today, including the republican effort to the republican effort to develop a bill that democrats have been touting their heroes ask, what they have been pushing in the next round of stimulus and Coronavirus Relief. More on that later this morning. It is coming up on 7 30 this morning on the east coast, and we are asking you, should mask wearing in public be mandatory . The phone line for those who say. Es, 2027488000 for those who say no, 2027488001. For those who are not sure, 2027488002. Nancy is out of pennsylvania and says yes. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I am a former operating room nurse. I understand the microbes and all of the bacteria, what have you. This is very bad, everyone should be wearing a mask. You get used to it. As an operating room nurse, you had to wear one from morning to evening. You get used to it. Illness that a mask , but notto make worse wearing a mask can make you a whole lot sicker. I went into walmart. Half of the people did not have a mask on. I went to the manager, he said he cannot enforce it, even though there are huge signs saying you cannot enter without a mask. People are so ignorant. Im not saying they are stupid, but they are ignorant to what is going on. This is very dangerous, and until everybody starts taking care, they are being selfish, one to another. Thank you. Host nancy in pennsylvania. When it comes to National Chains with their policies on mask wearing, on thursday, cvs stars cvs stores and target are mustg their customers wear masks, those rules coming into effect in the coming days. Jersey, the line that says masks should be worn. That should be mandatory. Go ahead. Caller caller from earlier referred to the association of americans and surgeons. Anyone to look at this group is opposed to medicare, for example. Im not sure i would align myself with them. I have always been puzzled by people in asia wear masks. Because if they have a greater sense of community, they know if they are sick, they should try to not have other people get sick. It is really the epitome of selfishness for people to walk around without masks on. Is claudia, minneapolis, for those who say no. Believe theynot should be mandatory. Dont even have the Science Behind it. Are talking about what their fears and their emotions are telling them. I have looked at a study from before coronavirus. There is absolutely nothing that particles t the even osha said there are many people that should not be. Earing masks people with core issues. Host claudia, do you trust the centers for Disease Control . Caller i dont on every aspect, but even with this aspect, it is guidance, but it is not mandatory. With that, they have been many people who have been Wearing Masks, who have been sheltering in place, who have been staying away from everybody. There was even a news report didt a family who everything right, and yet they still got it. We are talking about these case numbers, and they are not referring to florida. When you are calling everything positive, and they are not even showing and with the Positivity Rate, same thing with virginia. The same person that took the , lets talkan once about the science and not emotions. A lot of these people calling in and calling others selfish, maybe you need to stop going to fear mongering sites because it does absolutely nothing. Even a foster home from the university of minnesota he is a fair monger, and he himself has stated that i do not see any evidence that masks work. Minnesota. Ia in on federal policy, the recommendations that people wear masks, but no federal mandate on masks yet. White House Press Secretary Carrie Mcenaney was asked about that yesterday in the house press briefing. There is what she had to say. [video clip] the director said if all of us were to wear masks, we could get this under control in four to six weeks. I am wondering if the president would consider at any point a nationwide mask mandate. The president said he would wear a mask in a place where he was in a place where he could not socially distance. He wore a mask this weekend at a hospital he visited. He was not socially distance, as evidenced by his own actions. We leave it to localities to make the decisions, and the cdc guidelines remain the same today. Recommended but not required. [end video clip] host more of your phone calls as we ask should mask wearing in public be mandatory. Nicole in louisiana on the line for those who are not sure. Why are you not sure he . Caller how are you doing . I have never done this before but i will give my aspect on both sides. I am at high risk so i have an immune disorder, so i am one of the ones who can get it. Seeso am an emts, so i both sides of the spectrum. People are feeling that the mask people are wearing, just anything, a cloth over your face, that is no guarantee to protect anybody in the first place. The ones that do not want to wear a mask, if you have a mask youre protecting yourself, so what should you care if i have a mask on if i am socially distancing . My thing is, unless you have a medical grade mask that will protect you from somebody and somebody from you, it is not going to do any good because half of these people are not wearing the correct kind of mask and they are not Wearing Masks that have the capability of protecting them from anybody else anyway. Closede thing is, they the states down. Anthis virus has such incubation period, even if it is 30 days, if everyone were to stay in place for 30 days, it would have stopped with this virus, but people didnt. People went out, did as they wanted. They did as they pleased. They got mad at trump because he closed down the travel ban, but then they said that he did not do it soon enough. And theyave the media dont trust anybody because and i know this firsthand they are claiming that if somebody dies, even if they were not tested positive for coronavirus, if they have a symptom of it and they are dead, they are tagged now, and they are tagged with they died of coronavirus. Host i wonder what you think about it was a point of the new york ad campaign that one of the other college brought up this morning, this idea that when i wear a mask it is not to protect me, it is protect you, that it is a sign of courtesy and social responsibility. What are your thoughts on that argument for Wearing Masks . Caller i understand that. I wear a mask. I actually have a medical mask because of my field. I have one that i was able to doingcause of everybody all the stuff and that sort of thing. I have one that is medical grade, and i wear it. I have a child who gets mad because i make him wear the same mask. Because of respect for everybody else and for everybodys fears, i understand that wholeheartedly. Butderstand it completely, these masks and these bandanas that people are wearing are not a protection from anything to anybody. It is not even the proper material to protect them from anything. I guess that is what people are saying. People are seeing these death rates. When you look at the death rates, some of the death rates, if they were to look into them, if you die right now, i know this firsthand even if you are not tested for covid, you are considering a covid death. If people just did their research or even followed up the news with legitimate news and you and they showed those test lining up, i would like to check it out for myself because i am stuck in my house and i have been here for a while. If you look at these people going through these lines, do they change gloves between each test that they do for the vehicle . They dont. They testget tested, you for covid, and yet the next car fills up, i promise you they are not changing gloves between each person. So now you test this person, you are now infected and you open up another pack and you that is in plain sight. Host that is nicole in louisiana. This is sheba, here in washington, d. C. Good morning. Bus andyes, i go by metro to my job. So i am in your face. I wear a mask. I used to wear a double mask if was with my customers, and i really appreciate that. In my shop, the door is closed. Dont get in unless you take your temperature and you are wearing a mask. The builder requires that you wear a mask and it should be mandatory from now, and people should have the common sense, instead of doing research here and there. The virus travels with people. People travel everywhere. My customers go all over the world. Mask, should wear the like in japan and china. The mask. Wore it is not inconvenient, it is not uncomfortable. It is just common sense. Wear a mask. Host sheba, how is business these days . Caller slow, but little by little it is picking up. They call me, and they ask me. Everybody is afraid, i understand. Care andlot of us take they spray lysol, disinfect every time the customer comes in, every time the customer walked out. Two barbers only, and we are only four people, and it is a shop for three or four chairs, but right now we are only two, and we dont let anybody wait inside. We ask them to wait outside of the building, and we call them when we are ready. We have to do that for us and for them. Maryland,a lives in the call from washington, d. C. , this morning. Here is the story, the headline on the front page of the New York Times. As mask rules spread, tensions remain there as u. S. Tops a daily record yesterday. That daily record in new cases. Yesterday. S one of the poles cited in that story is a recent gallup poll asking about face mask use and how often americans use face masks in public. Here is the chart from the respondent so that june 20 9 june 29 through july 5 gallup poll. 28 saying they very often using, 11 saying they sometimes use it. 4 say they rarely use face masks in public outside their home. 14 say they never use it in public outside the home. Gallup breaking down those numbers. Among those who say they never use it outside their home, more men than women, more republicans and independents than democrats. In the regions of the country, the midwest, south and west, a place where people are more often saying that they never use it, and then they also break it down by education and age. Those not collegeeducated saying they dont use it in public versus college graduates, and then among age groups, more likely, the younger people are less likely to say that they never use masks in public. All that available, gallup. Com. If you want to see the breakdown for yourself, this is lisa in palmetto, georgia, on the line for those who say yes, it should be mandatory. Go ahead. I just do not warrstand why people are at with wearing a mask. Ist what dr. Fauci trust him, i dont trust donald trump. He lies every single day, every time he opens his mouth. Doctor, youto the trust what your doctor says. You trust your doctor. Profession,medical and all these speculations, all these assumptions, the previous , people thatying are tested, they dont change their gloves all of the speculations, assumptions, just wear a mask. We have nothing else to combat this coronavirus. We have nothing else until we get a vaccine, until we get some medicine to treat it. There is nothing else. So what is the big deal . When you go out in public, when you go to Public Places, just wear a mask. This is what the cdc is saying. This is what we have to do to protect each other. Why are we at war with wearing a mask . Im going to tell you, the republicans and i live in the state of georgia governor almostou know, it is seeming that they are committing murder on the American People. This is crazy, its outrageous, and it is weird. It is just weird. Host is your area, palmetto, georgia, your municipality, one of those that has a mandatory mask law and are being taken to court by the governor right now . Caller atlanta. Atlanta certainly is, yes. Is it happening in your area, too . Caller i dont know about palmetto, but i do know in atlanta, and i kind of live on the borderline. Palmetto, Fulton County. But i just dont understand it. I really dont understand why Governor Kemp is suing, taking it to court, or overwriting what the mayor has done. Is lisa in georgia on trusting edible professionals. That is the point nancy pelosi was making, talking about President Trumps handling of the coronavirus pandemic yesterday. Here is what she had to say. [video clip] Speaker Pelosi i had concluded that he is like a man who refuses to ask for directions. All of the answers are there. The scientists have the answers. Tracing,hat testing, treating, distancing, masking, sanitation can stop the spread of this virus. President continues to go down the wrong path and. Efuses to ask for directions from scientists who know better than any of us. From thewill hear more scientists today. Dr. Anthony fauci expected to speak at the u. S. Chamber of commerce today. That happening at 11 00 a. M. Eastern, and we are going to be covering it on cspan, and we are going to be covering it on cspan2 life, you can go to cspan. Org and listen to it free on the cspan radio app. We also should note that Georgia Holding arian kemp press conference and about 15 minutes this morning. We will bring you some of his comments when they are available. But they are getting ready down in georgia for that press conference. Back to your phone calls, 15 minutes left in this segment of the washington journal. Should mask wearing in public be mandatory . Tommy in henderson, North Carolina, for those who are unsure. Good morning. Caller how are you doing today . Host im doing well. Caller in North Carolina, we are not mandatory to wear a mask, but i do wear them when i go out in public. My state, our governor is doing the right thing, watching the numbers, but right now this president is playing with the numbers by stealing the number for the cdc, and they are trying to take a number and move it into another program. I think congress should look into it. Realizing what new numbers they are going to. They are undercutting the cdc, and they will kill a lot of the American People if we dont have any answers soon. Host on the idea of playing with the numbers, some concerns about reporting of the numbers, and cdc access to hospital numbers. It was also an issue that was addressed yesterday at the white house this briefing. Here is more from Kayleigh Mcenany yesterday on that issue. [video clip] with dr. Ed extensively birx and secretary as are on this. The intent is to make sure that there is daily data given to dr. Birx and others who are running points on all of our actions with remdesivir and identifying hotspots, and i would point out that there has been some confusion in the press. There are two methods of data collection. One is the National Healthcare safety network, this edc system. This is where hospitals voluntarily report their data. About 81 of hospitals are reporting their data. We dont need 81 of hospitals reporting data. We need 100 of hospitals reporting data because it is critical dr. Birx and others receive the daily admissions, icu use, and when youre only getting 81 of hospital data, that means you have 19 of hospitals that are unaware of their needs. What has happened is we have a second method of tracking the data, and it is the teletracker database in the hhs system. This was initially used for purposes of Provider Relief Fund day, and we act hospitals to tell us there covid condition. This data ended up being more complete with more information, so ensuring that hospitals are reporting it to the system where we are getting more complete data was the reason that hhs has had this transition, where they have asked hospitals to transition reporting to the teletracker system. It is important especially with remdesivir distribution, that we know exactly where the needs are socan search them stop we can search them. I confirmed with dr. Redfield that this is completely open for Data Available to the cdc. Secretary as are suggests that they use it. No one in dr. Redfield confirmed that there is no access or data taken away from the cdc, that it is published and the American People are fully informed. [video clip] host backed her phone calls. [end video clip] phone calls, tommy. We just talked to tommy, i apologize. Ohio,d in strongsville, for those who say yes, masks should be mandatory. Caller good morning to you, sir. I am at a high risk. Can you hear me . Host yes, sir. Caller ok, i didnt know. Sounded like you were blocking me. I wasnt sure. Our governor is doing a great it reaffirms my faith in the national system. To the people who dont want to wear masks, lets say there is a chance that the mask wont stop it, but there is a 1 chance that it will stop the virus. I would go with the 1 if i had any brains about me. This,rry, im not good at but i appreciate your programs and your inputs. Host thanks for calling. Creswell, North Carolina. For the line that says no, a mask wearing should not be mandatory. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller no, i dont think they should be mandatory. I wish people would listen to what your caller said a little while ago, the mt and the doctor. It is true they are wearing the same gloves to take the tests. It is true that the tests are being skewed. It is true that masks do not stop the spread of this virus. What i am concerned about, that i never hear anybody mention people dont even dispose of the masks that they have been wearing for days sometimes, and so you have seen all over tv, the mask laying on the road. They are really nasty unless you wear them correctly. Which the majority of the public are not even taught how to wear a mask. Host did you listen to the caller right before you, his point that even if it is not 100 effective, even a little bit effective, why not wear the the effectiveness, whatever effectiveness it allows . Caller well, he says it will protect you 1 , why not host he said even if. Caller why not be social distance and protect 100 . All of these people on and off on and off with these masks, they wear them around her neck, then slap them back up on their face, lay them on the counter with who knows what, and then slap it back up on their face. You know, it is so unsanitary. And i really truly believe that is one of the reasons why these numbers are going through the roof. Other than the tests are not being given correctly or they are all positive. You know, which we have already found out, and i know somebody who works in the medical field that just wanted to do a test on these people and sent in two swabs to be tested that never even touched a person and they came back positive. With theing is up positivity ratings because if you really stopped for one minute and look at our numbers which are through the roof, and all of the rest of the world, you have got to recognize something isnt right here. Sue in new jersey, writing in via text, im not crazy about wearing a mask but i comply, i hope it doesnt become a norm for the future. What will help mostly as people staying home when they are not feeling well. Another text from marion, arizona of course masks should be mandatory. They should have been mandatory 140,000 deaths ago. Voluntarywere not three month ago is a national scandal. If they are mandatory, if the government should supply the n95 or make it not mandatory. This is amy out of richmond, virginia. Masks should be more nationwide with stiff penalties. If we were masks for several weeks, the virus would have nowhere to go and it could possibly be wiped out in the United States. Jersey girl says it should be incredibly sad that we are debating this. My nieces and nephews face another semester at home. Wearing a simple mask is tyranny. Unsure about Wearing Masks be mandated. Go ahead. Caller overall i think the governor is doing a pretty good job, but in the beginning he talked about mandating masks, and then i think it was the next day he caved and has not mandated them. I would wear a mask. I wash it almost every day. I have several that i wear. Whethert not sure about they are that effective or not. Can you find any information to compare states that have been accommodated from early on, to those who are not mandating them . And also, it does seem to be political. I know a lot of people were Trump Supporters that were not Wearing Masks. Host why do you think this has become political . Why has this become the political Sticking Point among everything that is happening . Caller im not really sure. I dont understand. I havent questioned them. Im not a confrontational person. Theit just seems like culture is divided on everything and anything. I am a republican, but i am not a trump supporter. Dont know which way to go. Who to believe. I want to believe science over politicians. It seems like other countries who have mandated masks maybe have cut their rates better than we have. Host the New York Times and their story today, talking about what is happening internationally. Masks have been broadly accepted in many european and asian countries. Nationwide mask orders were issued for certain Public Places this week. In germany and france. In the United States, there was initially confusion, shifting guidance over the mask. The issue became politicized. Even when the centers for Disease Control began urging americans to wear masks, President Trump said that it was voluntary and said that he did not think he was going to be doing it. For thep wore a mask first time on saturday when he was visiting the Naval Hospital in bethesda. The president there from this past weekend. Brian is in kansas. You are next on that line for those who say it should be mandatory. Go ahead. Caller yes, sir. I wanted to tell donnie that your previous color, as she is right. Something is wrong. And it is us. That is what is wrong. It is america itself. You dont have to be a Rocket Scientist to look around the world and see what people are doing. Florida has a Positivity Rate higher than all of europe. What did europe do . Europe has amendatory mask wearing policy. You have to shelterinplace like they were supposed to. All around the world they have done what theyre supposed to do. Look at us. We are killing more people than any place in the world, we are killing more people. Yet we have got people that want we havehat, well, become a nation of is those people are just conspiracy theorists. If you die in a car wreck, they will say you had covid. That is not true and they need to stop saying that. We have looked the enemy in the us. , and it is we should be Wearing Masks because it does work. Just look around the world. We are the only one in this boat. Thank you so much. Host this is cody out of wisconsin come on the line for those who say no. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am going to piggyback on everybody. Early mandating no, it is overreach. I believe that it should be the responsibility of businesses to which you go into. Town, anda very small the population density is not exactly a problem. However, to go somewhere like new york, i can see how walking down the street would be a bit of a problem, without a mask. I run into, if i go to the grocery store, i run into maybe two people. So we are also a little bit behind on having masks provided, so we cannot even purchase them at your local store, so we are to much billing building our own system. We also have a segregation pill. We have times for those who are at higher risk for those who come in contact with people who are high risk. Then there are separate times for people who are low risk. It seems to be working well, right . But again, i agree with both sides, but as far as making it a governmental issue, i dont think so. Of aieve it should be more personal responsibility, and possibly or probably more of a business approach. Spending more tax dollars on anding with policing dealing with handy gout masks at this point, if you like the people who capitalize on people who need food and shelter and things like that are the people who should be more responsible for providing masks then mandating whether or not not cody, you are ok with masks, no Service Rules in individual businesses, but you would not go much beyond that . Again, the problem is the density. You are running into People Like Us versus people who are like in hiding to the areas. To you are going dont really need them. As much as somebody, as people like new york, pushing more masks that way would be better. But as far as creating your own masks, i feel like that is just and offers small hope, a be joinedext, we will by Sally Greenberg to discuss the rise of covid19 consumer scams and later, a closer look at how the pandemic is affecting Higher Education with middle we will. Versity be right. Next week, the house and Senate Return to legislative business before the august recess. On monday and tuesday, the house takes up the fiscal year 2021 National Defense authorization act. The bill establishes policies for Defense Department programs and the votes are expected early monday. Wednesday, the house will consider a bill to remove the bust of chief Justice Roger b tony, the author of the 1857 dred scott ruling from the Old Supreme Court chamber and to address the issue of confederate statues on display in the u. S. Capitol. The senate also convenes monday to resume debate on the nomination of russell though to r of the office of management and budget and they continue work on the 700 40. 5 billion 2121 ought Defense Authorization act. Watch it on cspan would live coverage of the cspan ons of the senate on cspan two and follow on www. Cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Live, daily, unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house our countries are linked by trade and travel. On issues that matter to you. Our ongoing effort to focus on a mission to save lives, meet the needs of our states, or healthcare workers along with briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, Supreme Court oral arguments and decisions. Thanks. For coming out to say. Be a part of the conversation every day with our live callin program, washington journal and if you missed any of our live coverage, watch any time on demand at www. Cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Continues. Journal Sally Greenberg testified before Congress Earlier this month about scams consumers face during the coronavirus pandemic and she is the executive director of the National Consumers league joining us via zoom this morning. Is and howt thencl you track consumer scams. Good morning, the National Consumers leagues an organization thats been around since 1899. We are the Premier Group to fight for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. Interest andcial focus on fraud. And we the url fraud. Org get many complaints that come through that about frauds of all kinds. And we share those with Law Enforcement and with members of the public and we do a weekly and monthly progress report. That gives you a little bit of background about what we do. Cl. Net. Org. You testified before congress this month that the coronavirus opened the door for a tsunami of scams and fraud. Do we have a sense of how many people have been targeted since midmarch . Yes, fraudsters are good at swooping into situations of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, National Disasters and this pandemic definitely falls into that category. What we found is that there is a fraud andrange of efforts to scam consumers going on within the organized group of people and there are substantial numbers, by the millions of fraudsters in the United States and many countries around the world who perpetrate fraud on innocent consumers. Is aund that this pandemic very fertile landscape for fraudsters. 2020, thebeginning of federal trade commission has received more than 100 20,000 complaints about Identity Theft, scams and other kinds of fraud linked to covid19. Of these complaints, nearly half indicated a monetary loss of 78 million. In april alone, some of the private sites that are not government sites like google and other places where we go every day to find information, google announced it was tracking, in april alone, more than 18 million malware and phishing scams that are sent to consumers hoping you will sign up or give some private information and they were tracking 18 million of those per day. It gives you a sense of the magnitude of the fraud thats out there. The other open opportunity for fraudsters where the unemployment checks that were to millionser week of americans. 40 million americans have applied for unemployment. That just opens the door for Identity Theft for fraudsters. That, unders are the cares act that many millions , the department of labor said it could be as much as 26 billion has been stolen through Identity Theft. Fraudsters are finding an unemployment check that are not theirs and stealing them from consumers and workers and are depending on these checks but they find them gone and the fraudster has been in there first and put in your identity. Im talking about your Social Security number, your birthday, your name, your address. Fraudsters have that information, sadly, about every single american in the United States so its very easy to perpetrate fraud in those situations. Those are some of the things i the about before congressional committee. There are other issues that have bubbled to the surface during the covid pandemic including the fact that there has been gouging across the country, a huge amount of gouging. I mean people putting on masks on the internet at a time when we didnt have a lot of masks charging far more than they ever had before, hand sanitizer, disinfectant, personal protective equipment being put up thousands and thousands of dollars more than it was worth. We also have situations of hoarding where people will hoard huge amounts and they gouge consumers because you cannot get it and its been hoarded by some group or network. Those are some of the issues that came up and its endless. Of getting a refund, i dont know how many people signed up for a live event like a theater or a concert event and its hard to get your refund back. It happened to me. I signed up for a tour to go abroad and i am not going to get anywhere near the money i invested in the tour including my airfare because airlines are not returning money. They want you to get a voucher in many cases. Lecture in the a beginning of april and i never got my money back for that. Two tickets that were not cheap. Unlike every other consumer out there, i want my money back and we are calling attention to this before the house committee. Host Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers league talking about can covid scams and we want to hear your stories if you been impacted. Do you have questions about this . You can call in on this and the phone lines are open. As folks are calling in, we talk about fraud but what about another aspect that you talked about on this program before, bogus cure scams especially right now during coronavirus. Rise andhave we seen a at what is the federal government doing to get those bogus cures off the market . Im glad you mentioned that. The pandemic has been a heyday for fraudsters who like to offer , in the best of times, will lotions, cbd and be cbd it could infused drinks to supposedly give our immune system a jumpstart or a cure or address the symptoms of covid. We have even found there were vaccines thaty are being offered to consumers. In thee not showing up usual google search. What we find is they are on social media so you may find them on facebook. You may find them on other social media sites. Youare being told that if pay 29 or five dollars for the shipping of a vaccine and the vaccine is free but shipping 90ts are 495 four dollars five cents. Some bogus offer and they will send you a vaccine that will prevent you from getting covid. We have seen a real uptick in those since march of this year. The u. S. Food and Drug Administration has sent 80 warning letters to purveyors of fraudulent covid19 treatments. The federal trade commission has warned more than 250 companies to take off these phony and bogus offers of treatment for covid19. As of right now, there is no treatment for covid19. There is no cure for covid19. There is no vaccine for covid19. If you are being offered any of these, they are a sham, dont waste your money, and some of them could be dangerous. They are not vetted carefully and they dont have manufacturing practices that we have come to expect through the fda. Thats the Gold Standard for how we deliver drugs and overthecounter medicine to americans. There is only one drug thats been approved by the fda through the Clinical Trial process to treat a rare form of epilepsy in children that has a cbd as its active ingredient. We all have friends who swear by this stuff, it helps my arthritis, and my knee. Proven not one ounce of therapeutic benefit to date. Ist could change but there just this huge surge of cbd products on the market and covid comes in and folks say this is a great way to prevent or protect my family from covid. Dont believe it because there is no Scientific Evidence to back that up stop host plenty of calls for you already, joe out of maine, good morning. Caller yes, good morning, thank you for having me on. My first question is, if you no one of these snake a salesman thats lying about products, is it going to be a result . Will you charge them . Thats my first question. Is there some records legally . Host what is your second question so we can take them together . Caller i want to ask her why she is not calling out donald trump for corona. Bought allught the corona in india. Are you going to go after him for putting a light on your skin and that will stop corona . I would call that a snaggle salesman a Snake Oil Salesman. You are going after cbd people . Thats very important and i want to thank you for your time. Thank you for those great questions. Guest the first thing is we work with Law Enforcement officials. So we are really pleased and we have written and have an ongoing dialogue with the federal trade commission and with the food and Drug Administration. When they find these Snake Oil Salesman selling products, they write letters, warning letters and they say if you dont take down these ads and quit claiming this drug will treat covid, you could be out of business and we expect to hear from you in 48 hours. If not, you run the risk of having your company dissolved. Fda. Ll report that to the these are federal agencies that are Consumer Protection agencies that care about health. Whats important is that members of the public knows agencies are out there where they can report to us as fraud at fraud. Org. Have 250 warning letters one of the main federal protection agencies, 80 warning letters from another one on covid and snake oil. Anybody involved in peddling these products should be to the ftc and the fda. I believe the Supreme Court ruled recently that even the president of the United States is not immune from investigation. I would say whos ever out there making these claims, no matter what your status is, stop doing it because its against federal law. Anybody making these claims should be investigated. Host i want to show a graphic. This is from the ftc consumer ,entinel Network Reports looking at reports of fraud and Identity Theft over time. You can see the spike particularly in fraud reports here on this chart starting in march at the time when coronavirus really started hitting the United States. 134,000 reports overall. The estimated total fraud loss, upwards of 88 million. A little over 260 per individual reported their estimated median fraud loss. Can you explain with the Consumer Sentinel Network is and how can the ftc investigate over 134,000 reports of fraud . Sentinel weonsumer use because we and other consumer organizations and Law Enforcement use it as a portal to report instances of fraud and fraudulent claims. Its a good question how they can investigate that many. The fda and sat down with the ftc and there is a lot of people in the room working on these issues. Youve got google working on pute issues and amazon has in a huge number of resources into tracking both fraudulent andms and counterfeit drugs bogus claims and taken them down. They have done that with gouging, they have done that with their algorithms. Someone might be hoarding products that should be going to a hospital and maybe they will sell them on the open market. It sounds like a lot. Our tax dollars are going to support very robust antifraud programs and federal agencies that are there to protect our health. Weve been very pleased by them getting out there and warning companies. One thing i would like to see is Companies Shut down. Its not just the federal Law Enforcement. Across the country, every state has an attorney general. Areattorney general offices very important to consumers. They are there to help us with claims against fraud and to police gouging behavior and hoarding and they have been doing a good job. We talked to the attorney general in this last two weeks andowa, pennsylvania, d. C. We will talk with the attorney general in kentucky. About what they are doing to police this tsunami of fraud we have seen as a result of covid. We have officials who are set up to try to protect us from all these frauds out there. The fraudsters will get through and will they steal identities and apply for unemployment . Yeah, that will happen but without these private and public efforts to uncover them and unmask them and prevent them from doing what they are doing, we would be in worse shape. We can never do enough to prevent the fraudsters from stealing money from consumers. Host youre on with Sally Greenberg. Caller good morning and thanks for taking my call. This summer, i was going to travel to a wedding in new trip, tod on another london and to israel. So i trying to save money booked through places called and got protection, get insurance, got priority and once it occurred, i had a note from the doctor that we are over 70 and should not travel because were such, we got the runaround. Dropped calls and they never answered and i finally got through on the new jersey call and they finally gave me a voucher. They would not recognize anything else in spite of buying all this insurance. There are a lot of scams by people like cheapo air and one travel and its difficult to travel in these times. I understand their predicament but theyre not responding ethically. Thank you. Host Sally Greenberg . Guest i agree with everything you just said. Wheren the same situation we paid for airfare and i did it through a tour agency and i have friends who called me and asked what i would do. They wont give me my money back. We have found there is a very thin layer of protection from consumers. Im not getting a full ralph and for a full refund. I paid for the same thing, insurance, cancel anytime insurance. The company will give me some refund but they are keeping my insurance, they are keeping my cancel for any reason insurance. I didnt cancel, they canceled. You should call your attorney general in arizona. You should report they are keeping your money and they want to offer you a voucher. The second thing is we have two great senators in washington who andesent massachusetts connecticut, senators markey and blumenthal. There are a handful of other senators who have introduced give me my money back, give me my refund back now. Forceot there to consumers to take a voucher. You didnt sign up for that. You are not required to give this company a loan. Flights were canceled without your having anything to do with it. My flight was canceled, my trip was canceled, i feel and you and all the other americans out there who paid good money and got insurance should get every single dime back. I am frustrated as well as you are. We are trying to get members of congress the support they need so we can get this bill passed. I can look up the bill number but in the meantime, you should call your attorney general and say i demand to have every single dime back i paid. This was through no fault of my own. Im not 100 sure on this but on the insurance piece, i bought insurance in case something happened to me. I didnt buy insurance in case they canceled the trip on me where i had no choice of going. I bought cancel for any reason insurance. I feel like thats on them. I think i should get all my insurance money back. That is an insurance i bought to protect myself if something happened like i broke my leg or a Family Member needed me to stay in town. We are fighting that Battle Alongside you and im glad you called and glad you have an yourtunity do call Attorney Generals Office. I think you should probably write us and we will send that information into members of congress. Im not sure we have a as good a database as we should have in all the billions of dollars cap by the airlines and live eventers in the space or tourist space and i cant tell you the number of friends who called me and said i cant get them to give me my money back. Host for the viewers who want to write to you, where should they go . Go to fraud. Org and we have a portal for collecting complaints. Host tom is next out of illinois, good morning. Tom. R this is host go ahead. Caller i have been using it for i use this saline solution for my nasal cavities and i gargle with it as well. I got a post on my email the other day that there was a claim that when you did that, the virus does not live in a saline solution and that you actually are protecting yourself by keeping your nose clean because you dont let the virus multiply. Whenever i go out in public, i do it before i go and when i come home, i do it after i get done. I dont know whether this is true or not but i havent gotten sick and ive been in a lot of public situations. Is it true or not . Know its difficult to whether products are living up to the claims they are making without having any Scientific Evidence behind those kind of claims. Drug, take a prescription that has been for many letters of vetting and scientific peer trials whereinical they have tried and proven that the product works. Overthecounter aspirin or a sleeping pill or prevents high Blood Pressure or cholesterol, those products have all been tested and the fda has given them approval. The overthecounter products you are talking about dunker dont go through that robust testing. There is all sorts of stuff on the market that claim to do a variety of things where there is no Scientific Evidence. It may work for you. You havent gotten sick, fortunately, but millions of americans have not gotten sick so you may be in a category where people where you wouldnt get sick anyway. I am very skeptical of those claims. I tell them not to believe it and if i see a scientific basis for making those claims. Youre probably wasting your money if youre spending especially on overthecounter drugs or medication or a solution or whatever. You can do a Little Research but im skeptical. Im not sure you are spending your money well. Host sally greenberry is our guest this morning, the National Director of the National Consumers league. You can call and ask her question about scams and fraud. Is theue you brought up congressional hearing you testified at this month. You had concerns that you have had doubts about the federal governments ability to regulate household products at a time of quarantine and social distancing. Can you delve into that . Guest sure, we have a federal agency called the Consumer Product safety division. Ther job is to regulate 1520,000 household products, it sounds like a lot but if you look around in your house and your car, any of those products, productits a cleaning or whatever ingredients may be in that, it could be a classic tablesaw, all the products in a nursery you take care of children whether its a high or products tog clean a kids face or whatever. All these things are regulated by the Consumer Products safety division. Skateboards, we want to make sure that if things go wrong with any of those products that there is an opportunity to recall them. Many times, product or not made in the way we hoped and they are not as safe as we hoped were in the case of toys, they may have high lead content. Not so much anymore but a number of years ago before we got a strong bill passed, we were having high lead content in toys and kids were getting poisoned. What you want in that situation is the company to be able to take the toy back so you wanted to be recalled. You want a company to be able to be in touch with the consumer and right now, because of covid, its been difficult to get the robust as wes as wanted to so Companies May not want to take products back if they are found to be defective. We are just letting consumers know that if you have a product that you go online and find it has a defect of some sort especially of its interacting with kids or an older person in your home, you want to be able to send that product back to the manufacturer. If the manufacturer doesnt want the product, you need to get a refund and dispose of the product. That process has somewhat come to a halt because of covid. There is a dangerous situation for Young Children and that is the problem of furniture tipping over on them like dressers and tables and television sets. There have been hundreds and hundreds of children who have gotten pinned by heavy furniture and the way around that is to design the furniture better but if you have a piece of furniture in your house, there should be some way to anchor that furniture to the wall. Furniture companies were coming out and installing anchors for products that had a tendency to tip over and they cant do that now because of covid. We are concerned about that. That gives you a sense of how that process has slowed down. We won companies to resume coming back and helping families anchor product because the risk especially to little children and older americans, we won many of these products designed in such a way that they dont tip over. Have you ever experience where you pull out a drawer in a file cabinet and you try to pull out a second drawer and it wont pull out . The reason it wont pull out is because its been designed to not tip over. If you pulled out both of those file cabinet drawers, the whole file cabinet would tip over. We want designs like that in furniture where the physics has been studied and the piece of furniture is prevented from falling over and you dont want to risk the lives of little children but many have died. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] host Sally Greenberg joining us this morning. We are taking a few calls from linda in orange, connecticut. I dont have a personal experience but i have a question based on the comments that sally has made. Able to buy products that they say they can reference thatogle and products could be scams or hurt them, that they would poorly ingest medication or anything like that. Where are they finding them . Are they finding them on marketplaces like ebay and facebook . Is, i seequestion these tv ads for products like butilege and p revagen none are approved by the fda but they have very aggressive Marketing Campaigns and they are not inexpensive and they make some pretty big promises. I was wondering how we have so many things that are openly advertised on television all day that arent approved by the fda and yet they are readily available on the market in stores and on tv. Any of thoseu seen advertisements on social media . Where have you seen them and what kind of products . Onler i have seen things ebay but i dont use facebook. Loluca andone called you are supposed to drink it and its a grand cure. I am skeptical so i dont really delve into them. People are just selling them randomly but i dont really understand how they are able to do that anywhere in the United States if we have any sort of Consumer Protections at all. It varies state to state but nonetheless, it seems like its pretty much a wild west of products that people can just buy even instantly. They are buying them up on facebook or ebay or wherever the bargain news is. They are not hiding the fact that they are selling them and they make some pretty grand claims. I really dont understand how this is legal. Host thank you for the questions. We are hearing from elise in california. Good morning, you are next. Caller i might share with your audience that it was 121 degrees the other day in rancho mirage. Yeah, we are in the palm springs area. Host do you even go outdoors when its that hot . Caller very quickly just from your house to your car to wherever you are going. You go to the market and back again. We are in a heat spell out here for the past few days. Host i hope it breaks soon, go ahead. Caller this is the way the palm springs area is during the summer but during the winter, when the entire country is covered with snow and cold, we are nice and warm at 80 degrees. You giveandtake with where you live. Up the i want to bring program that president obama created and he had Elizabeth Warren put it together and its a Consumer Financial protection bureau. Elizabeth warren put it together beautifully. She has her complete staff, her job was to find fraud, help the consumers with either credit , faulty pieces of equipment, foreclosures that illegal aid and fraudulent foreclosures. She was incredible. She is incredible and we have all seen her during the debates. She is one smart cookie and shes committed and shes incredible. However, as soon as donald trump into office, that was one of the first apartments he gutted along with now the Justice Department and now the state department. Its just terrible because we are losing protection instead of gaining any. Dont know sallys position, if you worked for the government or has her own private organization or whatever but there have been over 400 bills that congress has been trying to put through for Consumer Protection. The senate with Mitch Mcconnell hasnt cast anything. The consumer is pretty much screwed when it comes with any kind of protection because they are not doing anything. Takinggot the president hydroxychloroquine and saying is beautiful. It doesnt do anything. It gives you a heart problem. Host we got your point, lets let Sally Greenberg jump in. Guest of course, these are very important federal agencies and it was the brainchild of senator Elizabeth Warren. But iter ran the agency was run by very competent former attorney general from ohio named richard cordray. They are important in financial protection. That the industry, whether as the Auto Industry or the Mortgage Loan industry where the Financial Services industry , payday loan regulations, important with the Consumer Protection bureau and its able to do its job. We are big fans of that agency and yes, there have been many bills in congress and sometimes, the bills passed even in times when you dont have necessarily the votes for all the things we want to do for consumers. We get a lot done. Im with a private organization. Understandrtant to is there are both federal agencies that are paid for buyer tax dollars like the cfpb, Important Agency that we all should support because they are out there protecting all of us. This is an ecosystem of nonprofits like mine which support the federal agencies which take fraud complaints and send them to the federal agencies and we all Work Together. I will agree with you. We could do a whole ledbetter and must do a whole ledbetter on protecting consumers whether its financial fraud, payday loans, whether its charging people too much on their automobile loan or skimming money back or taking advantage of communities of color which happens across the board in health care. We can do a whole lot more for Consumer Protection. I am with you 100 on that and we got bills stacked up in congress. I mentioned about the refund. This is so critical that consumers get the refunds back. Its through no fault of their own, their flights were canceled were tours were canceled step im like wheres my refund. To have everyight dime back i spent on that we are struggling with that now. We have great members of tryress who are helping us to get the money back from Companies Including airlines that got 50 billion in the ppe money. They were given 50 billion for infrastructure and some of that money should be going back into the form of consumer refunds. I am all about the consumer and i very much agree and like what you had to say. Host im not sure if you heard the other question from the previous caller was when it comes to these scams, where are they mostly . Is it facebook or ebay . To are these scams allowed be advertised on those platforms . Guest thats a good question. The consumer reports, the magazine, which i worked for for many years, they did a kind of test case. You might call it a sting where they put a bunch of phony ads up and tried to get them on the internet and facebook accepted a bunch of them. It was ads for products that have no scientific basis. You can look that up. They did that in april and they were covid related ads. And facebooksystem should do a far better job vetting ads for products that dont work that could harm consumers. Consumers may use this when they should be using legitimate medical interventions were seeing their doctor. We heard about a man using a product that a not been vetted. It probably wont hurt them but you dont know. Yes, we are calling upon the facebooks and twitters in all of these sites with 70 billions of people using them to vet very carefully what goes on their website. It is done through social media and its unacceptable these phony and bogus products are being advertised. Having said that, amazon is trying very hard with a whole team of antifraud people. Their walmart has been on website and vetting products that are bogus with their algorithm, keeping out people who are gouging consumers. Its a big problem around the states and being charged huge amounts of money for products that shouldnt cost that much. Its an ecosystem. We got the Business Community and we pushed them hard to do the right thing. We are a nine profit that works on behalf of consumers and we work with government agencies. To call out those who take advantage of the covid crisis. This ecosystem is very important. We need to Work Together but we also need consumers to come forward and report that examples of phony products, phishing scams where people are asking you for information and all they want is your money and they offering you a product or offering you a chance to win money or they are scamming you and i want you to send money. They were to consumers, if anyone comes forward and says to us money up front and you will get this product, thats a red flag. It is a scam. They want you to send a gift card thats a scam. No federal agency will ever call you and frighten you. Weve got people who said they have been called by the Social Security administration. The Social Security administration will not call you on the phone. They will not threaten you. The irs will not call you on the phone or threaten to come and arrest you for not paying your taxes. They are amazingly effective and people get scared. Please tell your family and friends, dont fall for a scam like that. Bogus and phony offerings of products that will protect you from covid. One thing that has happened is people are frightened to go to the Doctors Office or frighten to go to a hospital. If you have a serious condition, hospitals are set up to keep those suffering from covid separate from those who have a Heart Disease or maybe suffer from cancer or may have a respiratory illness or have contracted pneumonia. We still have illnesses and diseases around. Covid is separate. It may be related. Dont delay going and seeing your medical professional. The other thing we are seeing which is troubling is people are delaying their Preventive Care like adding back or for themselves. There is very important adult vaccines out there. There are shingles shots stop you do not want shingles. Get thoseraling vaccines. Go to your Preventive Care as you always would. Ive been to a number of Doctors Offices for Preventive Care myself. They are very careful and everybody has a mask and they dont have a full waiting room. They are all covered in protective equipment, call your physician if you need the Preventive Care. Especially for the older population. To dont want to fall victim covid and not have your pneumococcal vaccine. With little kids, measles, people are not taking their kids to go get the routine vaccinations. Measles spikes when we dont have herd immunity were not enough people are getting vaccinated. Dont put off that Preventive Care. Host on people buying products and falling for scams, a question on twitter thats an interesting question. We are scam experts. We work with lots of people who are in the throes of a scam and they will say i got a call that if i send this amount of money, i will get a check from the irs ad that the irs where the on office was supposed to send me 600 and they got it wrong. Are experts at what they do. They know how to get people to fall for their scams. They prey upon the trusting nature of most americans. Peoplenot talking about who are just stupid or gullible. People trust that other people picking up the phone and calling them and telling them they have something for them are not to be believed. Phds, doctors, lawyers, accountants, architects all of home my Family Members have gotten scam. Becausen for a scam these people who perpetrate scams are very good at what they do. We try not to blame individuals. We want you to look for the red flags. We can be helpful in saying and say the irs is calling and threatening me and they told me to put money on a gift card. We tell them its a scam and they said the person sounded very nice. They said they understood we would try to pay. We say its a scam, thank you for calling and checking. We also have to be aware that there are millions of people who are trusting and that the scammers a very good at what they do. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] nancy is next at a pennsylvania, good morning. Hi, i want to tell you that the cvd does work. It takes a while for it to kick in and i stopped all my cortisone shots and everything go do myable to Grocery Shopping so it really does work. You get it at a health food store. Host do you want to respond . Friends andgot family to swear by it and think it works. It may have some therapeutic value out there in the world. There is one product that was affirmed by the fda and cbd is the active ingredient but that product has been through a very robust process and Clinical Trials that is the Gold Standard at the fda. Yes, cvd really works for me from some friends. Our point is there is no Scientific Evidence backing up any of those cvd products. And i people use them know people like them. I have used them. Brought i bought cvd products for my dog and they did absolutely no good and didnt improve his condition. For some people, it may work. All we are saying is if youve got a product you think is very orective against arthritis the condition you are suffering it and do itove through a process that is here forewed that is reviewed Peer Reviewed through a scientific process. Its a multibillion dollar industry and we worry that people will turn to cvd when they have serious conditions and may not get proper treatment. There are cvd products that claim to cure cancer, parkinsons, hiv, Heart Disease and a whole host of other conditions which are very serious and we are worried that consumers and patients will turn to a cvd product that doesnt have the scientific validity that other products have that have been through this very robust process at the fda and may, in fact, suffer the results of that. Host maybe one or two more phone calls. This is peggy from jacksonville, florida, good morning. Caller good morning. I had a question about the travel insurance. Ive been waiting for three months to get my refund. Reasonhe cancel for any and i resolved myself to the fact that i will get 90 but i didnt cancel the trip. I cannot get a hold of the Insurance Company. They just they are better replying. The travel agent said we cannot help you and i said you sold me the policy. Floridaam a resident of , the Insurance Company is in connecticut and i didnt know if i should go through the connecticut attorney general or. Lorida stuf guest im in the same situation where i got canceled for any reason. I said i want to be completely protected and i want my money back. , its reallyth frustrating and its actually an outrage that these travel companies refuse to refund consumers and they dont pick up the phone. In this case, you have an Insurance Company i havent tackle that one yet but i was waiting to see if i would get my flight refund. There is an association of Insurance Commissioners, naic. I dont know whether they will help you at all. I hate to put you through this kind of work but this is what we have to go through and thats why we need for better Consumer Protection. I would call your attorney general in florida. They sold to the package. I would report this to her agency the soldier the package. Call the connecticut Attorney Generals Office and tell him about the connection with insurance they may send you to the National Association of insurance commission. Every state has an insurance commissioner and they work on fraud stuff perhaps you will talk to the insurance commissioner in connecticut and talk to the Insurance Commissioners office but start with your state ag, the attorney general. Google attorney general Consumer Complaint division in florida and see if there was someone there to talk to. The attorneys general are very good at these situations and sometimes they have a mediation process where you can sit down with a company and get it mediated. Trial those things stop im sorry for you. Its an outrage. And we as consumers should be really angry that we have not been treated well by the companies we are doing business with. Host in our last 60 seconds or so, this is jodis tweet is there an information on the robo calls going down . Number of robo calls is actually way up. Thats how scammers, they use social media but they also use robo calls. You are lucky because i can give you my list of robo calls that have come through over the last six months. That the call will sais but say potential spam. I know not to answer but it annoys the heck out of me that i get interrupted in a meeting with a phone call which is a spam call. We are doing our best to get the fcc and companies to screen out these phony robo calls. You dontpick up come hear anything on the other side so they are trying to gather information, they are doing whats called fishing with a ph. But the number of robo calls is out. Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumer league. We appreciate your time this morning. Guest and we love talking to consumers, thanks to everybody who called in. Host stick around, more to come this morning on washington journal. We will next be joined by Sidney Mcphee president of the middle State University who is regionally at the white house to discuss School Reopenings in the fall. We will hear his thoughts in a moment. Next week, the house and Senate Return to legislative business before the august recess. On monday and tuesday, the house takes up the fiscal year 2021 National Defense authorization act. The bill establishes policies for Defense Department programs. Votes are expected early monday. Wednesday, the house will consider a bill to remove the bust of chief Justice Roger b tony, the author of the 1857 dred scott ruling from the Old Supreme Court chamber and to address the issue of confederate statues on display in the u. S. Capitol. The senate also convenes monday to resume debate on the nomination of Russell Vought to be director of the office of management and budget and for the remainder of the week, the Senate Continues work on the annual 740. 5 billion 2021 Defense Authorization act. Watch live coverage of the house on cspan with live coverage of the senate on cspan two and watch any time on www. Cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Sunday night onqa a, the american conservative executive director on the special edition of the magazine. I conceived of the project because there was a lot going on in our country now and its unsettling times for a number of americans, everything having to do with the covid crisis to the lock down, to the killing of george floyd and the subsequent protests and riots and the president ial election. So a lot of people are taken the opportunity to reexamine First Principles and trying to figure out where we stand as a nation. Watch sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. Watch book tv this summer, every saturday evening at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, settle in a much several hours of your favorite authors saturday, New York Times best selling author and journalist malcolm gladwell, author of several books including talking to strangers. Watch next saturday, july 25 where we will feature books by president donald trump, barack obama, george w. Bush, bill clinton and george h w bush. Binge watch book tv all summer on cspan two. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app. And be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feed. Cspan, created by americas Cable Television companies at as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Washington journal continues. Host we returned to the topic of school and university reopenings our guest is Sidney Mcphee, president of middle tennessee State University. Viewers mightve seen you when you participated in a Panel Discussion at the white house last week to talk about reopenings and how it might happen. What did you tell the president and Vice President at that Panel Discussion . Guest good morning and thank you for having me on your show. I told the Vice President and ourpresident that university was being very measured and had taken great preparation to safely open our university for our students this fall. There were a number of challenges that we had to address in order to make sure the campus was safe and that we were ready for the onset of 22,000 students and 3000 faculty and staff at one of the top universities in tennessee. Middleou announce that tennessee State Universityunivet to announce that you would open in the fall. How do you plan to do that, and what changes does that mean for how your students will experience school . Yes, we were the First University in the state to announce in april that we were going to offer inperson, oncampus courses, and bring our students back. At that time, the curve was flattening, and it looked as though the it was going to go down, and we certainly knew that in any day based on this virus, that could change, but we made a decision decisively. We actually did a survey of our students and our parents, and the vast majority 90 indicated that they would like to see the campus open up for inperson. Now, we have taken a number of steps. I have always said that the safety and the security, and the health of our students and employees is our number one priority. We would not do anything at this university that would compromise the safety and the health of our students or employees. Things that other schools have not done. We have gone to single rooms. We have cut our residents all populations down to have Residence Hall populations down to half. Focused on three things. First, we wanted to make sure that we had enough testing. We wanted to make sure that indeed in the mitigation process we had enough rooms if there were issues for quarantine and isolation. Then we put in a very comprehensive contacttracing protocol in place. Not for folks who are familiar with middle tennessee state, how big is it, how many students live on campus versus offcampus, and how do you navigate this back in the spring when shutdown started . Middle tennessee State University is about 37 miles east of nashville in a suburb. It is one of the top universities in the region. We are a princetonreviewed top300 plus for 2020. We have 2300 23,000 students, 3000 employees, five campuses, one of the best aviation programs in the country. We own about 37 planes. Our Recording Industry program is number one in the world, and it is a great public university. We prepare our students and our employees to make sure that they know and have some degree of mtsuce that mts you will offer a quality education, no matter where it is online or on campus and we are one of the few universities that, in march, we made a very decisive decision in february to bring all of our students who are studying abroad back to the campus, and we began to make plans to address this virus. Really, the end of january, first part of february. So, we are in a position now, because we kept about 500 students on campus during the the experience of a few students that were infected and had to go through the process. We developed a sound protocol process in dealing with the crisis. 44 st say that only actually 44 of our courses are offered online through the fall. We have 40 that will be oncampus, and then the remaining percentage are internships, dissertations, etc. We have worked very hard to deal density issue and i think we will be prepared for the eventualities. Host what was life like for the 500 students that stayed on campus in the spring . Do they eat in dining halls . What were they allowed to do and where were they not allowed to go . Guest we had a comprehensive program at our Residence Hall. We closed down our cafeteria. We provided food. In the Residence Hall. We give them some flexibility in terms of how they could get around campus, but we set some restrictions on who could get in the door through card access. I walked the campus a couple of times each week. Obviously, it was a campus that when you dont have 22,000 students, youll may have 500, it does look and feel of it air y, but we encountered no problems at all. It was a tough decision for us because we have the majority of a ct,udents, very high very high gpa, but we are a firstgeneration college campus, john,ny of our students, did not have anywhere to go. Unlike other institutions that found students to find other places to live during that period, we decided we would keep our Residence Hall open and take care of those students and that worked out quite good, actually. Host if you want to ask a University President about School Reopens in the fall, now is a good time to call. Phone lines split up by College Students and parents we want to focus on the faculty and staff here at middle tennessee state. Headline, there is a colleges turn to layoffs. Have you had to do any layoffs and what is your budget look like in the coming school year . Guest obviously, it is going to be a challenge, but we are very fortunate at this time at our university that we do not have orresort to layoffs furloughs of our factory faculty or staff. I have been president here for 20 years and i have gone through a lot of challenges the 2 08809 the 20082009 recession we did not lay off folks than. We are looking at enrollment. I am pleased to say enrollment is up by 2 right now for the false investor. So, we are in a position to manage whatever deficit we are going to encounter as a result without, atemic this point, laying off any faculty or staff at the university. Host did the University Get any cares act money, and how did you use it . Guest yes, we got about 19 million, primarily because we have a lot large percentage of our students pel eligible and lowincome. Half of that money went directly to the students. We tried to get those funds out as quickly as possible. The other remaining part of the cares act we used to help us instructional and Educational Programs dealing with the technology. For example, we actually purchased, using cares money and the university funds, a 7 million new technology that taped faculty to be electronically, to have that tape archive, and that any student at any time can have access. For example, if a student gets ill during the fall and they cannot come to class, they will have the opportunity to access those educational support instructional programs and keep up with what is going on. If they have to take care of a sick Family Member, etc. We support ford some faculty and staff. So, i think we made good use of and we payers dollars, focus on making sure we maintain the quality of the programs and our offerings at the university. With a few chat callers gabriel is up first out of greensboro, maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I listen to the radio. I never get to see you guys on tv. Two points real quick, and it is not directly with college, but it is about schools. I think two things should happen i kind of want his opinion as far as kindergarten through 12th grade, and even colleges, but two things is if we want the kids to go back to school, we need to double the pain whatever a teacher is making for kindergarten through 12, we need to double their salary. The second point is kids do not need to go to school for as long as they do. The day needs to be cut in half. That is all i have to say. Thank you, god bless. Do, gabriel, before you are you with us . Caller yes. Host would you be willing to pay more in taxes to double teachers pay caller pay . Caller sure, i definitely would, to answer your question, yes, but we spend so much money on worse, on killing people over the years i feel like there spentmuch tax money being we need to pay teachers double, and schools will open because teachers are so important. They are so, so important. That is all i have to say. . Uest may i make a comment he is absolutely right. My father was a high school principal. Years come over just celebrated our 40th anniversary on the 12th of this month, she spent 39, 40 years as ofeacher, and regardless whether or not we are dealing with the pandemic or other kinds of crisis, gabriel is absolutely right. It is for our society what we pay our teachers is really shameful, frankly, and we talk about how important education is we hear i am the education governor, president , mayor, and then you look at where the resources are going, and it certainly is not matching up. I would say not just the pandemic issue, i think teachers need to be paid much more than they are, and i would give credit to our governor, bill lee and the budget this year even though he had to cut the budget, there is a significant allocation to increase teachers pay. The governors, the last eight or 10 years in tennessee have focused on that, but we still need to do more. Host have you been able to give pay increases to the professors there at middle tennessee state, or have there been any calls for pay cuts amidst the Energy Situation we are in now . Guest first, we are not planning at this point to do any reduction in salaries or pay cuts. We were scheduled before the pandemic to give a raise to our employees, and obviously, as a result of the Economic Situation of the states, we are state public supported institutions through appropriations from the state. Economically, the state is not in a position at this point we set aside the 2. 5 , 3 we were scheduled to give. Greensboroam, carolina. How are you . Guest good. Caller good. How are you question mark host doing well. I want to ask the guest, where does he go to school, did they receive funds from National Black colleges, and how is he treated when he went to washington . Bachelors degree is from prairie view university, i got my masters at the mercy of my, and my doctorate at our university is an historically white institution. You. E not nhs and hbc about 20 are either africanamericans for individuals of color. It is historically, comprehensive researchbased university that is over 110 years old. In washington i had a very productive set of discussions with experts on the roundtable that was sponsored by the Vice President and the president , and we came away with a few points that i have been talking with my Leadership Team about with regards to how we can better be prepared for the fall semester as we open up. Host and what were some of those points . Guest well, the first point was that we developed what i call some criteria and indicators that will tell us when we need to visit or transition from oncampus depending on the nature and the activity of the virus. I have always felt that as far as decisions regarding university and this virus, the virus makes the decision for us. We are in contact with Public Health officials. We have done table talk tabletop exercise. We have provided a number of rooms offline in case we need those. We have contact with a local hospital. These were discussions that we were able to fine tune. Host john is next out of oklahoma on that line for parents. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host glad. You are on with president mtsu. President mcphee. I want to talk about slavery for a moment. It was one of the worst things we have had in the net states, and the black folks living here would not be here if it had not been for slavery. So, as bad as it was host we are talking about School Reopens right now, but if you would like to talk about this issue of Racial Justice and protests from George Floyds death, can you talk about that issue and what it was like for your campus in june . Guest it is an area that has been a concern for our university for a number of years. Are we doing enough . Absolutely not. Can we ensure we do more . Absolutely yes. In fact, i am really pleased that you brought this up, john, because i actually have a virtual zoom meeting scheduled for monday where i have invited faculty, staff, community members, to begin a conversation with regards to this issue of social dust social justice and equality, and our how our university can be more actively engaged in young with the issue not just on campus, but in the committee. It is my goal in my vision that the monday the mondays in session will be a listening session. There are no speeches on my part. I will listen to hear peoples feelings, experiences, suggestions, and from that we will then put together a reasonable, doable set of initiatives that hopefully begin thereress obviously are years and centuries of this problem being part of our society, and i am under no illusion that we can deal with this in any short period of time. R within a year or two we are going to try to develop a measured approach to address the issue on our campus or in our community. Host katrina is next out of hyattsville, maryland. Good morning. Good morning. I have been listening to the show this morning and i am an earlychildhood educator, and we have not closed. All the Staff Members wear a mask, but the students dont mostly due to their age. Wondering why is it that students are having such a difficult time trying to figure out how to reopen when our center has been open this entire time, and if everybody is just following the rules of wearing a mask and everything, why is it so difficult for kids to go back to school . Yes, katrina, depending on the region and the activity level the surge of the virus there are certain challenges that schools in those areas might have. It makes it very difficult. Never, like you, we really shut down the university. As i said, we had about 500 students on our campus during the peak in march and april, and we were able to take care of those students. Making sure that you communicate to the community and the faculty and staff, the expectations for example, we are requiring students to wear a if they dont, they will have to resort to the online version of our programs, or they will have to find another institution. We will be very strict. We also have programs in place working with the historically black africanamerican sorority in putting together an Educational Program that will on howudents information to put together. You have to take care of yourself, wash your hands, and if you dont do that, then of course what is going to happen is the university will have to resort and pivot to the online. Most of our students want to be on campus, and the message we are giving them, if you want to be on campus, what the university to continue to be open, you need to do these things, wash her hands, do all we have great things under control. Host i wonder if this survey fits with what you are saying on campus at middle tennessee state. Respondents say they would attend inperson classes if available. 79 said they would not attend parties. 95 say they would currently wear masks when they cannot socially distance. Caller those are excellent results guest those excellent results and consistent with what we are getting from our students and our parents. I am pleased to hear that 90 said they would not be attending any mass gatherings. Host 79 . Guest i hoping it is 96 . 100 atbe pushing for our university, but that 76 is very high. That is one of the concerns we have on our campus. Risksure we understand the at largegatherings parties, fraternity parties we will get that message out clearly to them that it will not interest and will not help the university. Host brad is a student out of georgia. Caller i am in savannah now. Host ok. Good morning, mr. President. My fear is, as a graduate student, i am looking at this and i am wondering there was a 20year break between my undergraduate and my pursuit of this particular academic journey. We are not learning the right lessons from this and this has pulled back the curtain at those ugly scabs that have been there for a long time. Same. Is not the now it is good enough. I do not hear anybody addressing that. I could build a hydraulic slab in my garage if i wanted to, but then again i have been charged for lab fees forever. How do you reconcile this . There is a safety thing here, but there is a bigger issue. If you could speak to that, i would really appreciate it. Thank you for that question. I will tell you as part of the demographics of our university, we have a very large percentage of our students that are adult students that have responsibilities with their families that are not the typical 17 21. To 21. On the issue of the fees, we have been conscious of that. Of education for College Universities have skyrocketed over the years. One of the decisions we made, this year, we decided and i recommend it to our board of trustees to not increase tuition and fees, and were in the process right now of looking at those fees that we are typically charging where students dont have access, or because they are not on the campus, they are not , and weose facilities are in discussion about making some adjustments in that area as well. You make a very good point, and i will tell you that it is something that has been on our agenda and on our radar at mtsu. Pittsburgh,ut of pennsylvania. What you teach, troy . Caller computer science. Host what is your question for president mcphee question mark mcphee . My question is if the numbers are down before we went into corona with only 32 of people Online Learning being successfully completing degrees, how are we going to keep going online, especially at my school where i have nontraditional students that need that handson, onground educational background for their success . And, also, at the Community College level nationally, the Graduation Rate is only 21. 5 . We are going to lose a lot of people being successful in their careers and going on in education because of this situation. Guest you are on point with all of the comments that you have made, and we have heard from some of our students i told you we did a survey of our students during the transition fully online this past spring, and students have different learning styles. We recognize that. We also recognize that online teaching and learning is not for everybody. So, one of the reasons why we have developed this hybrid approach at our university is to give students options to go online and or come to class in person. It is one of the reasons why, when it is safe and as soon as it is safe, we should have students return to campus so that they can have that interaction with faculty and staff in with their peers. We are very much sensitive to that issue, but the alternative is if it is not safe to be on the campus, and we bring students on the campus, and we put them in their families at risk, the other option or alternative is that we shut everything down and that the students have no experience they cannot finish their degree programs. So, we try to do the best we can to help those students forward that not only students, but some of our online are not in the area. Ofare working with them course. Ofbeats the alternative shutting the university down and totally stopping the university the learning process. Host you want social distancing among your students. You hope that the numbers of those not attending parties would be well up into the high 90s, but how do you enforce social distancing with your students if they are not . Guest guest very challenging. As we discussed a Mitigation Program at the university, i use as an example our smoking policy on the campus. We have no smoking a nosmoking policy on our campus. We have four campuses at this university. Our main campus is over 500 acres. Acres and have0 monitoring every minute of the day . Absolutely not, but what we can do, john, is we can get the message out. Message, andthat very diplomatically, when we see situations where that is there is not that social distancing, with Great Respect we ought to address it with our students. Tell you campus can they can manage and make every student comply in the social distance criterion for reducing this virus, that would be very difficult to do. We are not going to stop. A are going to make that priority for our university, and, again, we will tell students if you want to continue you Money University to continue to be open, you must do these things you must social distance. You must, indeed, wear a mask, and you must wash your hands and take your basic health take care of basic health matters. A student was repeatedly not wearing a mask, not social distancing, would you kick them off of campus . Guest yes. Host chris is next. Port jefferson in louisiana. Go ahead. Percent,his is porcher long island. The Port Jefferson long island. I want to make a comment about teachers getting extra money getting paid i agree with that 100 of their so many of the people connected with the school. It is not just teachers. You have people that claim, when it snows, the ice, the cook, the girls in the kitchen i used to deliver to the kitchens these girls work so hard to get kids good food, one, healthy, clean. Everyone counts. Everyone that is connected to the school. It all matters paid they should all get something, not just one branch of the school. Peoplem one of the because i see what they do they work so hard. Without them, there is no safety if the hall monitor lets anyone in, anyone out, or the cook does not care about keeping things clean it starts at the very bottom and everyone in the school works very very hard. Ive seen that with my own eyes. They are passionate about their work. They want to make sure kids get good food, that the plates are cleaned, stabilizing. Sterilized that i cannot believe the way they work. My other comment is about opening up schools. They should open up schools but a couple of things should be done we have seven days in a week. Lets say you have a student of 30 people in a classroom three days 15. Seven days a week, keep it going andou can social distance the kids that are not here today, they will be home the other half comes on tuesday. Then monday comes back on wednesday, wednesday comes back on thursday you could break it down a couple of times. At times like this, these are the things we can do to keep children safe. President mcphee . Guest i cannot agree more with the speaker, the caller you are absolutely right. It is an area where even before the pandemic for our university we have paid some attention to with regards to those noninstructional staff that make this university what it is today. E have a beautiful campus obviously, for faculty to be in a position to deliver a quality education, we need the rooms to be clean. We need, you know, the lights to be on. We need everything that runs this university it includes a team. I fully agree with you, it is not just the instructional staff. I also agree with you with regards to looking at being very creative in how you structure the time that students on campus and the types of instruction. We actually we actually have that as part of our scenario we are ending our semester early pay the last day before thanksgiving, we are once the student leaves for thanksgiving, they will not return. Their finals will be given online. That areome courses put in a position where students dont have to come to classes every day. So, i agree with you on all the comments youve made. Host time for one more call. David has been waiting out of springfield vermont. Good morning kid you are on with president mcphee. Caller good morning, how are you all doing this money . Host doing well. Caller i want to leave this out there there are plenty of safefor to keep schools for children who have honorable conditions were teachers. We have the sanitizing lights that saks fifth avenue put into their store that the airlines used to sanitize airplanes after each flight. They could be put into the schools and replacing florescent lights that sanitize the air. You have the medicinal aerosol that can be put into the ventilation system that kills the virus and goes into the lungs and creates Hydrogen Peroxide in the immune system that kills. You have hydroxychloroquine, zinc can be used as a prophylactic by the kids. No matter how many do want to dispel the 65yearold drug that has gone through Clinical Trials and is saving lives right now are either ignorant or they are uninformed about the safety of the drug that can be used as a prophylactic and for mild to moderate symptoms. They need to get those mild to moderate symptoms so they can get over them that much faster so they are no longer contagious to those that are most vulnerable to infection of covid19. In vermont. S david president mcphee, i will give you the final minute or two here. Guest yes pit one area that i would like to let our audience know is the distortion amount of the impact of the virus on African Americans and people of color. We are very much aware of that. We are very much aware of the issue of lack of technology in that studentseas are unable to afford. This year we have given out 459 673ops to our students, hotspots we have a partnership with tmobile. We have given 101 laptops to our faculty and 235 internet hotspots, and as i mentioned to , while we areect targeting all students, we are particularly focusing on African Americans and people of color since this virus has such a , significantly more than others in our population. So, we are managing this we are looking at the activity thiss, and if we see that control,getting out of the university will take quick action to protect the health and the safety of our students. Host Sidney Mcphee is the president of middle tennessee State University. If you want to check them out online, mtsu. Edu. Guest thank you, john p2p should the opportunity. Host about 20 minutes left in the washington journal today, and we will end with this question, your top 2020 Campaign Issue. Phone numbers are on your screen. Now,an start calling in and we will be right back. American history tv on cspan3. Coming up this weekend, saturday, at 6 p. M. Eastern on talk l war, historian historians talk about artifacts related to the july 1863 draft riots in new york city featured in their joint publications, the civil war and 50 objects. On sunday at 6 00 p. M. , we will tour portland row, the largest port in the United States which sits at the mouth of the chesapeake bay. Hear how it served as a beacon of Freedom Force laypeople who how they held and Jefferson Davis as prisoner for two years after the war. At 7 00 p. M. , a look at fdr, truman, and the atomic bomb on the heels of the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings on hiroshima and 9 smi with president truman grandson. Fdr president ial library and Museum Director and an historian. On the presidency, Ronald Reagans 1983 interview with readers digest, and his both conducted from the white house discussing a number of issues including his hollywood days, the bombing beirut, his vision for u. S. Soviet relations, and the assassination attempt that left him seriously wounded. Explore the american story. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Journalngton continues. Host there are 109 days until election day 2020. Were spending the last 20 minutes of our program asking you what the top Campaign Issues are. Phone numbers [indiscernible] 2027488000 for democrats. 2027488001 four republicans. For independents. Host the line for democrats. Theer thank you for opportunity to express our concerns for the election. My concern is i would love a in the for maskwearing states of the United States because of people dont start Wearing Masks everyone is going to get sick. It is a nightmare. We have a right that we know that people have a right to choose not to, but for the love of god, stop being selfish, people. Stop not social distancing. Do your social distancing. I dont care. For the love of god, where a freaking mask. You want that coming from the federal government there are 28 states that have mandated mask use, but you want that coming down from the president. Caller i wanted coming down from the president , every city, every mayor stop being excuse my french it i know i should not curse, but i really want them doing it because if they are not doing it, they should be put in jail for murder. That is what they are doing to our families. That is what is going on in america, cleansing. Thanks for your time. Have a great day. God bless. Have a good weekend. Host that was john in minneapolis, minnesota. We focused on the issue of masks, and one of the reasons why is because of what is happening in georgia right now. Kempsr brian administration going to court seeking to block atlanta from enacting coronavirus restrictions and requiring residents to wear masks, setting up a legal showdown over efforts to contain the disease. That is the lead graph of the lead story on the Atlanta Journalconstitutions website this morning. This is from Governor Brian Kemp, from his press conference earlier this morning on mask wearing. [video clip] kemp i will continue to listen to the guidance dr. Cathleen toomey and her team every single day like we have done for months now. The second thing is, i am sure you are aware there are people on our roadways that dont follow the speed limit. We have people that dont follow government laws and mandates, but when you have existing executive orders that have been on the books for weeks and four months now that the local elected officials asked me for Enforcement Powers early on so they could enforce when they were so worried about this they now have not been doing that. Mandate thatother is not going to be enforced in communities that have not enforced other orders, in my opinion, is a failed policy, and we shouldnt have to ask people to do the right thing. We need their help we are asking them again, for four weeks, wear a mask, socially distance, wash your hands, and follow the guidance that dr. To me and her team have given me to put out for months now. It worked before. It worked in albany, georgia. Nobody really followed albany. We obviously did, we were working with them 24 7, flying supplies, but, they were as bad a hot spot is anyone in the country when you look at the numbers. As bad as new york, new jersey, wherever, and we did not have a mandate. Nobody was even talking about a mandate. Host Governor Brian Kemp from about one hour and a half ago. Eric is in the springs, missouri. Independent. Erica what is your top Campaign Issue for 2020 . Caller yes, high. Thank you for having me. My issue with the campaign is first, i want to let you know i am a descendent of the deep south. My grandparents grew up republican, and it was not until president obama got in office is where i went to school, i became a social worker, i got into this whole hippie mentality of socialism and marxism, and i was blind i was blinded by Everyone Needs equal rights, and Everyone Needs that, and that is true, however the problem is, you know, equity. Now, fast forward to today. I have learned more, and learning more, i have learned ,hat we must maintain tradition traditional values, and never lose our heritage. History,ve some bad but the goodness of that history tells us that our ancestors on both sides, white and black, fought for our freedoms. Project,and that 1619 and i also understand the 1776 project. So, if you hear me out, fossil fuels and carbon the Industrial Revolution was the greatest thing that happened to america. And im getting a little nervous, so i hope i am not rambling, but hear me out. In the 1960s, the heart still grantedwas an act that everyone who wanted to come to this country an opportunity to make it. Failuree the act was a because the folks who came over here, they didnt really understand our history. Host you say we need traditional values what our traditional values . Understanding the constitution, our history, and what america is all about. America is about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is what i have always been taught. Work hard work as hard as you can to get to where you want to be, not to get where you need to be, because some folk in society feel some folk need to be in certain positions. I understand that. We all understand that, but that is not america. America is the land of the free. Host that is erica in missouri. Surely in orangeburg, south carolina. Democrat peer what is your top Campaign Issue . Caller i cannot wait to get to the polls to cast my vote against donald trump. Let me tell you, i lived in new ark for 44 years and i know little bit about donald trump when he came on the scene. All the people calling in here trying to make this man out to be a saint, why up to talk about the three wives he has got . One other comment, a black woman called in from georgia and she talked about joe biden and all of that. Aboutesnt somebody talk all those wives and children the donald trump got . Thank you. Host annie. Fairfax, california. Public in. Your top issue. Two. R i have i am a weird republican, i guess. It is hard for me to vote for donald trump. I have not voted for him yet. Are abortionsues and reparations for descendents of slaves. Ont and where do you stand those issues . Caller well, i am against abortion and im in favor of reparations for descendents because they built the wealth of this country and there are no two ways about it. I am not your typical republican. Host how much do you think we will be talking about those two issues in the next 109 days . Guest reparation caller reparations maybe a little bit more because of the black lives matter movement. On abortion, i am not sure it will get talked about a lot but some of us are pretty passionate about it. Host wilberts next out of culpeper, virginia democratic and good morning. Caller i am hoping joe bidens Campaign Manager is listening this morning. I hope when he announces the Vice President that he goes to the Supreme Court and announces his Vice President right on the steps to let the American People know that this man trump is trying to take their preexisting conditions from them, down to alabama, georgia, across the country if you have preexisting conditions, trump is no good for you. That way joe biden can get this issue for the American People. Wake these people up because this is the real thing. Joe biden, go to the Supreme Court, announce your Vice President on the steps. Host who do you want that person to be . Caller i like the gentlelady down in florida. Keep florida in play. Host congresswoman val demings . Sir. R yes, that would be a strong statement coming out of florida. Florida has this coronavirus it is terrible. You put trump on the defense. Issue. Ll be a powerful mr. Biden, go to the Supreme Court, announce your Vice President pick. Host that is wilbert in virginia. About 10 minutes left in our program today. We want to give you aware of some of the other programming happening throughout the day. Today at 11 00 a. M. Eastern, dr. Anthony fauci will speak before the u. S. Chamber of commerce about the pandemic and his role on the task force. Cspan2. Vering that on you can also watch it on cspan. Org and listen to it on app. Ree cspan radio at noon, the house ways and means subcommittee examining the Coronavirus Impact on Social Security beneficiaries will meet. You can watch that live on cspan3, cspan. Org, and listen on the free cspan radio app. Coming up in just over a half hour, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Small Business administrator of the corolla will testify on the status of Small Business owners loans for those impacted by coronavirus. Back to your phone calls for the last 10 minutes of our program. Mark is here in d. C. An independent. What is your top issue in campaign 2020 . Caller top issue would be education and college. The u. S. Has one of the highest ,ates of obesity in the world and it is a primary indicator in the survival and mortality with the covid. And there needs to be a focus on fixing that. It really has to do with nutrition, fitness, and bringing these things back into the schools. Mark, on schools, do you think they should reopen in the fall and how should they reopen . Caller yes i think they should reopen, yes. Students have cdcnih indicated that the students have basically zero risk. So, i think the worry is about the teachers who have underlying conditions, and they can teach from home while the students are in class. Host that his mark in d. C. Cliff is in san angelo, texas. And republican. Caller good morning. You know, what i see is all of these issues health care, the seeemic, rioting i individuals being talked about as far as donald trump is this, and joe biden is that. I am for donald trump. That is fine, but all of these issues mean nothing if we go socialist communist in the fall. That is not a hyperbolic statement. That is out of what has been written down in a democrat playbook. Oc, the lady from minnesota, who i think it is, who the other day said we are going to totally remake our economic system, redo our society. If people look at what the philosophy that is being talked down and they are writing on the left, we have, for the first time, i think, in the history of this country, and election that will determine whether we remain a free enterprise, democratic, free society, or we are going to go the way of venezuela. Host cliff and texas. Of course it is not just a president ial election. Elections asate well. We spent an hour earlier this week doing a deep dive into the senate races. Here is some news on the fundraising front, the fight for the dollars as the Senate Campaigns continue. Democrats fighting to capture Republican Health republican seats outraised their republican opponents in at least one doesnt races according to newly filed disclosure reports. One of the biggest gaps was in North Carolina were democratic challenger cal cannot him repaired it raise three much as much as tom tillis. The disparity was as needed. Early as great in maryland in arizona, mark kelly has banked 24 million, more than twice the cash that lookin senator Martha Mcsally reported having on hand at the end of june. Just some of the numbers from the latest disclosure reports pit to the house races, we turn report,ook medical one of those publications that ranks each house race in play and they made 20 rating changes overnight, all of them toward democrats. This is david wassermans write up President Trump abysmal polling since the pandemic began to seriously jeopardizing downdollar republican fortunes. We might be approaching the point at which doesnt of house dozens of House Republicans will need to decide on cutting offeringdent loose assurances of moving too far left under a binding administration. A couple of more calls. Seth. Alexandria, virginia. Democrat. Good morning. Caller my number one issue is getting this hate filled divisive, ignorant man out of the white house. Host window. Republican. Caller the guy commented that donald trump is ignorant. He is ignored. Children are killing and babies. If you vote for joint binding, you are voting for hillary. This will go to hell if democrats get in. Host lens next out of illinois. A democrat. Caller high, john. Host good morning, glenn. Caller i got this feeling about sending the kids back to school i am 80 years old. Kids thatndkids and age, and i dont want to see them opened. They were in here in the fall or earlyspring. They have done it online and they had no problems. Now trump is going to push to get the schools open. He has that secretary of education that aint got no education at all all you have to do is go in and check her records. You would not believe it. Closed untilp them we get past this thing. We are working on it now. We are staying home. , and we are masks finally, i think, going to get a hold on it. Host that is glenn. This is jesse. Time for just a couple more calls salisbury, North Carolina. Republican. Caller i am tired of everybody talking about trump. If they would leave him alone and let him do his job they would see more things done, and this epidemic thing i dont think is as bad as they act out there here on the news. The thing with the masks, i think it is another way for democrats to try to keep gun supporters from carrying their weapons. If everyone would get together, stand together, pray, god will take care of this epidemic stuff. Let the man do his job. He has done more for this country than any president has ever done. Host carolina. Danny in kirksville, missouri. Say i think weto should vote for biden because the trouble of the virus and the economy, and international stuff. Thats all i want to say. Host our last caller. We will be back here tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern, 4 00 a. M. Pacific. In the meantime, have a great friday. Which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events. Watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app. Key part of the National Conversation through cspans Washington Journal Program. Cspan, created by americas Television Companies and brought to you today by your television provider. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin appears before the house Small Business committee on oversight of the Small Business administration and department of treasury pandemic program. Live coverage begins today at 10 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Barr this month, william appears before the house judiciary committees general Oversight Committee on tuesday, july 28. Watch live coverage of the nguyen hearing today had 10 30 uchineastern mn hearing today at 10 30 a. M. Eastern. Week, the house and Senate Return to legislative business before the august recess. On monday and tuesday, the house takes of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense authorization act. The bill establishes policies for Defense Department programs. Votes are expected early on monday. Wednesday, the house will consider a bill to remove the bust of chief Justice Roger b tawney, the author of the 1857 dred scott ruling from the Old Supreme Court chamber and address the issue of confederate statues on display in the u. S. Capitol. The senate also convenes on monday to resume debate on the nomination of russell to be the director of office of management and budget. The Senate Continues work on the billion Defense Authorization act. Watch live coverage of the house on cspan, live coverage of the senate on cspan2, and watch anytime on cspan. Org, or listen on the go the free cspan radio app. Ntinues. Sally greenberg testified before Congress Earlier this month about scams consumers face during the coronavirus pandemic and she is the executive director of the National Consumers league joining us via zoom this morning. Is and howt thencl you track consumer scams. Good morning, the National Consumers leagues an organization thats been around since 1899. We are the