Coronavirus relief negotiations. Well also take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal is next. As the United States approaches 5 million confirmed covid19 cases, White House Coronavirus response coordinator dr. Deborah birx says that we have now entered a new phase of the pandemic. Good morning, its monday, august 3, 2020. We will start the program talking about that new phase. We will hear comments from dr. Birx on the state of the Union Yesterday and we will look at other headlines as well. Thes how to be a part of conversation. For those of you in the eastern and central time. 202 7488000 mountain and pacific, 202 7488001. Send us a text if you like, 202 7488003. Make sure you tell us your name and where you are texting from. Your tweets are welcome as well, cspanwj, and we will look for your posts on facebook. One view from abroad, bdc and the reporting on her comments yesterday, headline from the new phase oftering coronavirus outbreak, america has reported about one quarter of the worlds infections the worlds infections. For thedical advisor president warned the u. S. Is entering a new phase, telling cnn that the disease was extraordinarily widespread across the country had a greater threat they are the outbreak first [no audio] [video clip] statecould see that each has a tailored set of recommendations. Based on what we are seeing at the Community Level and relevant to the hospitals. East of each of these responses has to be dramatically tailored. We have to see an impact from the mitigation of features that many state and local officials have put into place, but i want to be very clear, what we are seeing today is different from march and april. Next external its extraordinarily widespread and everyone in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from the virus. We keep saying no matter where you live in america, you need to wear a mask and socially distance, do the personal hygiene pieces, but more importantly if you are in multigenerational households and there is a outbreak, you need to consider wearing a mask at home. Assume that you are positive. This epidemic right now is different, its more widespread, its rural and urban. Host dr. Deborah birx yesterday, warning of a new phase of the pandemic. The Washington Post, here, warning of greater precautions. The nations top Infectious Disease experts have warned 20 states that there virus spread is accelerating within their borders host these comments reported in the Washington Post. Your comments are welcome, 202 7488000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. 202 7488001, mountain and pacific. We welcome your comments on twitter and text as well. Comments from twitter, host from John Hopkins University and their latest reporting, worldwide into the United States, global confirmed cases, over 18 million. U. S. Cases, 4. 6 million and climbing, 100 and 54,860 u. S. Deaths according to Johns Hopkins university. Your calls and comments are welcome. Joe, georgia, good morning to you. Caller good morning. Ive been calling for 30 years, you got a great network, you do a fantastic job. Ive got Outstanding Young people and we are take teaching them to wear a mask and of course, we are all Trump Supporters, but i heard someone say that we dont pay any attention. We do. We tell these Young Leaders to wash their hands and social distance and where the mask when you go in a place. Peopleoe, are you seeing there in lj following that lead . Sir, for the most part, thats correct. Im teaching a Leadership Class with hannity books and all that. We are all strong Trump Supporters but telling everybody, yes, young people, wear our mask, social distance. I think we are going to get it under control. Im extremely optimistic. Im also encouraging my Young Leaders to watch the great cspan, yall do a great job and i got the best Young Leaders in america and might leadership last. Host great to hear from you. Frank, missouri, you are next up. Caller hello, am i on . Host you are. Go ahead. Caller i was just wanting to say that with where im at, a lot of people are not wearing a mask, you know . Its kind of frustrating because i live with my grandmother, who is elderly and has physical problems. My uncle to staying here and he has physical problems. Importantnk that its that everybody just follow the guidelines and stay makes feet and stay each other socially distant with this. You dont know who you can infect if you have the virus. You dont know who could be infected. Host let me ask you about the comments from dr. Birx yesterday, who said that in addition, people are moving about, summertime, they are on vacation and whether they are doing what they used to do is less certain. But people in general are moving about the country. How concerned are you about people in your area and elsewhere traveling and going to different places where the virus might be, might be more view real and virulent . Caller its worrying. A lot of places that ive seen, like larger cities where they have more aces, i guess its more rampant where its at. You are right, a lot of people come, come, come and travel and through no fault of their own, they dont know they have the virus and its really kind of worrisome. When you see video of people getting together by the thousands, by the hundreds, pardon me for saying thousands, but in mass crowds, you know, a lot of these are young people, people my age. Its kind of, you dont see them Wearing Masks. Its concerning, you know . When you live without really people who are more susceptible, scary. Host pretty tight control in the liberty bell, a place hundred guests promoted by operators is a favorite venue of new yorkers for parties, fundraisers, and other trendy events on the water and it has become yet another symbol of reckless socializing host reston, virginia,. Jeff, good morning. En host host , actually. Sorry about that actually. Host sorry about that. Caller has anyone calculated the mortality rate for people with similar symptoms that decide to stay home . Im not sure about that. We will ask that question later this morning with our experts. Glenn, detroit, good morning. Caller the new phase has got to be the higher level. Before that, on the lower phase, 19,000 on the 20,000 cases per day, know it as at the higher phase and they call it a new phase . . Ew phase are we supposed to just live with that and open schools and have our kids go to schools when the lower phase didnt work. All the people got infected because they opened up everything. Like we are talking about now. I believe that children should not be used as a test. See what happens. Host i will read you this comment from dr. Birx, the headline in the New York Times this morning. Its extraordinarily widespread. Heres some of what she is. Eeing today saying its in rural and urban areas. Everyone in a rural area, you are not immune. Further down, i want to read. Is from meet the press from the assistant secretary of some efforts seem to be helping to reduce the number of cases in arizona and texas that have been hard at the summer host here is more of what he said on meet the press. [video clip] from the emerging red zone and yellow zone states, if you do simple measures like avoiding or indoor crowded places like bars, but you cant have 100 people at your house either. Do less indoor dining, thats another place. Wearing a mask is incredibly important. We have to have like 85 or 90 of individuals Wearing Masks and avoiding crowds. That essentially gives you the same outcome as a complete shutdown. Why do i say that . Theoretically we can go through the models, but look at arizona, louisiana. The measures are being implemented and numbers change. The key is, and this is why we are going to all the states, local radio, we give specific instructions to every governor by county, what we need to do when they start to tip yellow, thats the time you have to tamp it down and institute these measures. The virus will keep doing what it does unless we make an affirmative change. Quek sounds like you just made the case for National Mask mandate. Meet 85 to 90 compliance, sounds like a National Mask mandate is needed. Is that a recommendation that has been made to the president . Our Public Health recommendations are acrosstheboard. You really need to have mask wearing at a high degree. Theres is a debate as to whether a mandate is an affirmative thing or people will rebel against that but it has to be voluntary by the american people, whether it is mandated by the city like in phoenix or in other certain states, but the Public Health message is that we have got to have mask wearing. More of your calls and comments coming up in a moment. , theadline in roll call person you are negotiating with. As to want something one of the coauthors of that piece joins us this morning. Thank you for joining us this morning. The two sides met over the weekend. The Democratic Leaders in congress and the principles from the white house, chief of staff mark meadows and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin. Where are we on this monday morning . Where do things stand on a possible breakthrough . Guest it doesnt look like there was a ton of it through, so to speak, over the talks are certainly continuing. ,peaker pelosi, senator schumer along with chief of staff mark meadows and treasury secretary mnuchin, they were huddling over the weekend. More meetings are expected. At this point though there is this fundamental disagreement as to whether to do this sort of stopgap measure or a skinny measure that would address the crisis ande eviction the matter of the expanded Unemployment Benefits that have now lapsed, versus a broader package closer to the one the House Democrats past several months ago. So, we think the senate this week, we think they are going to have votes on the various Unemployment Insurance proposals , without any sort of agreement going anywhere. So, that is sort of where we are, waiting for an agreement, but basically the house isnt really in town and as we have seen this week they are waiting to find out if there is going to be a deal. The housenth ago passed what they called heroes act, the 3 trillion measure and now on the floor of the senate is the Senate Republican measure , 1 trillion act called the tols act, increasing things 200 weekly, including direct payments to 1200 per individual, 2400 per couple, a new round of ppp program loans, Liability Protection from covid19 lawsuits, money for virus testing, and for schools and colleges. Clearly its at the heart for Mitch Mcconnell. Thehat still a part of negotiations from what you understand . Guest my understanding is that this is still a priority for the white house according to the chief of staff. But if there is a skinny deal, it may not be as necessary. What we heard from the white , press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany was asked whether this was a priority for President Trump, she basically literally referred the question to senator mcconnell. Yes, senator mcconnell will certainly want this in, but it is curious, perhaps, that this is not a big four negotiation. Its a negotiation between the two Democratic Leaders and the white house. We are not seeing Kevin Mccarthy or Mitch Mcconnell in these talks. I was going to ask you about that. It was similar in the previous relief bills. Why arent Republican Leaders part of the negotiation . Instead its a direct line to the white house for Democratic Leaders. Guest well, part of the problem for senator mcconnell now, and i guess its true the house , its that you are in a situation our mcconnell is admitting that there are about 20 members of his conference that wont vote for much of anything. Republicans, at least one third or up to one half of them think nothing should be done in terms of Economic Relief related to covid19. Box,you are in that mcconnell has leverage because ultimately not even just to get over a filibuster, not even just because there are 60 votes, frankly mcconnell needs dennett democratic votes just to get to a simple majority. Host one more thing this morning, coronavirus cases in congress, Louie Gohmert testing positive, they pointed out that a couple of months ago the white offered 1000 rapid test kits to the congress. Later mcconnell and Speaker Pelosi turned the tests down. Is there increased pressure to approve testing among members of congress and staff and the press there on capitol hill . Guest there certainly is, particularly in the aftermath of the gomer situation from last week. We have been hearing rumblings that Kevin Mccarthy, the House Republican leader there, is maybe trying to come up with a system to sort of get some Testing Available for republicans in the house at least. Maybe broader than that, outside the normal scope. The last i heard, Speaker Pelosi and others had said it was up to the office of the attending physician. Problem going on in congress of course is that members keep going home to their districts and coming back. When you have that many people traveling to that many different parts of the country, there is a real argument for their needing to be more testing. My colleagues on the press corps, on capitol hill, a lot of them are regularly getting testing because of their regular withwith mr. Gomer Louie Gohmert. But there is more testing to be would like to see as well. You for being with us here on cspan this morning. Guest thank you. Host we will get back your calls and comments on this new phase that dr. Deborah birx says that we are in with the pandemic. 202 7488000 eastern and central time zones, 202 7488001 mountain and pacific. The pandemic says is different than in march. Link carl, thanks for waiting. Scientist, im wondering how the mask is going to work. Dioxide is carbon 250and 50 pico meters pecan meters, the size of oxygen is a hundred and 50 pico meters is 150 pico meters. You have to be able to take out oxygen and breathe out Carbon Dioxide. Thats life. A pebble, up up, from that, Carbon Dioxide is a larger pebble. Expelling it at such a rate . You are flowing out as much coronavirus, even more, as you are bleeding oxygen and Carbon Dioxide. Its impossible for a mass to work unless it cuts off your oxygen supply. The media has the democrats going on and republicans are scared of the media. Host is there any sort of mask that would work . Guest it couldnt possibly. You couldnt possibly. The size of the virus is some kind, its amazing. Host kevin, good morning. Aller the previous caller is perfect information perfect example of people who swimming misinformation. People swimming with misinformation. Refuse togroup, they mitigate the virus. Louiessman Gomer Gohmert is a perfect example. Twice. As worn a mess history books will look back on this and show the greatest failure of leadership that we have ever seen during a pandemic like this. To the gentleman from georgia leadership . Teaches this is an example of bad leadership that costs america sad. In its side people cannot even do anything to try to save lives in this country anymore, we are so selfish and there is such a fringe that has a platform to talk. You are a fringe part of the country. In november, god help us, lets hope that we vote out these folks destroying the country and destroying this country and our lives. Vote out these people. Its enough. Lets get back to some normalcy in this country, please. Right, kevin, maryland. This is richard, athens, tennessee. Caller that was an interesting previous caller. These people that he talks about, theres a lot of republicans out there. We are not all fringe. But anyway, i live in southeast tennessee. Im a factory worker, my wife is a schoolteacher at an economically depressed school. We have no internet at my house or at the school. Buy hotspots for it. The long and short of it is that we have traveled to florida this year with our family, we have traveled to the Smoky Mountains and camped. Learn how toto deal with this virus and live with this virus. About theme ask you smokies, one of americas most visited parks. How was that camping experience . How did you make sure that you stayed safe . Well, we stayed in the camper, right outside the park. We didnt use the campground facilities. We use our own facilities. Social distancing. We dont get in crowds. And if by chance we do get in crowds, we wear a mask. Workst for sure that that , but if by chance it does, im going to do it. Im 58 years old, getting close. O the age complete shutdown of the economy is not an option. Because the talking heads on tv that go home and work from home fail to realize that there are people out there that not only live week to week, but day today. A complete shutdown of the economy is a no go. For the democrats that say that this is how it is supposed to be and shovel out millions of dollars, trillions of dollars we dont have, we need to learn to live with it. Host appreciate your views. This from robert on twitter asked theha rattus same question. [video clip] birxu accused dr. Deborah of spreading disinformation about the pandemic. Is that true . Do you have confidence in her . I think the president is spreading disinformation and she is his appointee. I dont have confidence there, no. That was yesterday on abcs this week. Responding to that, heres what dr. Deborah birx said. [video clip] i have tremendous respect for the speaker and i think its unfortunate that the New York Times had that article without speaking to me. The day that they are talking ,bout that i was pollyannaish but the ongoing cases in houston, logarithmic spread agoing outbreaks, this is not pollyanna schmidt pollyannaish view. I will state my 40 year career in those fundamental principles of utilizing data to implement programs to save more lives. Saying that we are entering a new phase, we get your calls and comments. Anne, jamaica, vermont. Caller what happened to the quick testing . We were supposed to have quick testing . What did we do here in vermont . Flattened the guideline flatten the curve with General Stores that set the tone. They did curbside pickup, baited masks, they are still doing masks. We have volunteer firefighters. People can sacrifice for their fellow citizens. We stay home so that the essential workers can work. People sacrifice from traveling. We have to be adaptable. People are hurting now. We have to get our leaders in place so that they can help us. Food banks. We need more money for the food banks. Was going to provide this . They need to follow the facts. Where do people need help . Food. We are in this together. We are in this together, americans. What else did we do . We invested in advertisements to tell people what to do. Mitch mcconnell says he has senators that wont do anything . Vote them out. Senators that wont do anything, take it to the floor, comment on it, take him to the floor and get them to comment on it and get it on record. Everyone needs to talk to representatives and senators and they need to hear from constituents. If you cant get through, there is something wrong. Appreciate you. Host thank you. The senate is in session this week and they are officially on the bill with what they call the act, there heals response to the heroes act passed by the house last month. Good morning. Caller yes, good morning. E have here Governor Newsom we have been in lockdown since march the 15th, tax force guidelines to the t. They closed my business on march 15. And twon june the fifth weeks later, lo and behold go the state number one in infections. He doesnt understand it, hes very upset with everybody, but this is why we are. I dont understand why everybody doesnt mention california as number one for following guidelines it we are number one in infections. This is hysterical. Following that diet following the guidelines of the democrats for 47 years. Promisingromising, the same thing in every election. Anyway, the situation is that the workforce in america is 145 billion people. Theres only 30 million, 40 million lockdown. We need to understand that theres a lot of mental illness, emotional disk s, hopelessness that people can die of as well. Everything is being drowned by protest, paid to, professional protesters. We are lost. Host all right. We go to gregor, next, morrisville, pennsylvania. Caller how you doing . Host doing fine, thank you. Youer i wanted to say, cant call everybody for donald trump on the fringe of things. Me. s a divisive to i dont understand why people are doing that. The guy questioned what Scientists Say about the masks . I wear a mask. A 1700y, we sacrificed trip to North Carolina. But then we see these people know down to celebrate a great mans life in georgia and they exempt themselves from quarantining, you know what im saying . Like thats bad leadership to me. Why is everybody saying that donald trump is the one bad leader when they are all doing a pretty bad job of it. Host this from twitter headline is in the Washington Post, triumphant end to historic mission. Mission. Heres a look at the splashdown in the gulf of mexico. [video clip] splashdown. As you can see on your screen, we have visual confirmation for splashdown. [applause] mains cut. Rabbinate dragon endeavor has returned home. Time int was the first the 59 year history of crude American Space travel that astronauts had used the golf the gulf as a landing site. Others pointed out that the site since 1975. And aree made history entering a new era of human spaceflight. Going back to your calls and comments spaceflight. Going back to your calls and comments, new phase according to dr. Deborah birx. Steve is in new haven, connecticut. Caller thank you for taking my call. Im going to comment on the previous caller who called himself a scientist and was wondering about the size of the oxygen molecule, coronavirus and all that stuff. To my understanding its not the or the the molecule virus itself, its because the molecule travels on the water that comes out of us when we sneeze or cough. Thats where the mask does it. Not just the virus. Its the water molecule. Thats what gets stopped at the mask. Tos no harm for everyone wear until we are positive. If everyone thinks the mask is working, everyone will wear a mask. Whats the problem . Its not hard. Its uncomfortable, id rather gee, lets take a chance. Cautionr on the side of. I dont know. Thanks. Host steve, good morning. Caller this is my opinion, we need to get on with our lives and let people wear a mask. Open the stores, let people know. If we keep this on, comedy goes down. Work ando go back to get the economy going. People going to die . They are going to die. We are america. We are not chumps. We have to get our lives going again in this country. Its a sign that we need to get things out of the way and get our lives going on. President is doing all he can. Hcl, whatever that stuff is, will work. Hydrochloric acid, whatever that stuff is, will work. Quick cutting off the people with adverse views about whats going on. Democrats are putting the fear into everybody. We are not afraid. We are americans. Host michael, louisiana, making reference to hydroxychloroquine. A frontpage article here, the ,octor that fights for options for ag on the steps viable, earlystage treatment for those that contract the coronavirus. Twitterby the backlash, pulling it down host here is what the assistant secretary of health said about it on meet the press. It looks promising, there were not definitive studies. At this time there were randomized placebocontrolled trials. At this point in time, we dont recommend that as a treatment. There is no evidence. On the other hand we have remdesivir and steroids, reducing mortality. We still dont know about immune plasma. It has worked in many other circumstances, there are many trials and you heard the National Call for that. The vaccine looks promising as well. We have many things that do work. Hydroxychloroquine, i cant recommend that. Are you concerned that because of this mixed messaging, that it is going to continue to fog,of create this sort of if you will, treatments and misuse of this drug . So, hydroxy hydroxychloroquine needs to be prescribed by a physician. Itre may be situations where is prescribed, but most physicians are evidencebased that are not affected by twitter. We need to move on from this and talk about what is effective from a Public Health standpoint. The mask, crowds, wash your spaces. Void indoor we know that if you get covid now, your chances are chances of dying are less than they were in april because we have , remdesivir,rapies steroids, promising therapies, and a vaccine on the horizon. And back to your calls comments. North carolina, good morning to connie. Hi, thisigh, that is connie. Inhave people coming in North Carolina every day trying to get into our restaurant without mask. We tell them that they have to wear them at the door. They will stand and scream in the middle of the restaurant our president doesnt wear one, i dont have to wear one either. Im an american citizen. I have the right to say no. We have had to call people to get them back out the door because they refuse to wear them. My son works at a racecar track. You wouldnt think they would even be open. Some people will get in groups, 200, 300 standing in line, trying to get in the place. They will scream and stomp because they tell them they have to wear a mask because they are in a crowd. My president doesnt wear one. Its all we hear. If trump would wear a mask and be serious about making one,body waiver where maybe we could slow this down. We get fewer cases and then we let people in, 350 cases in a short amount of time. They send them back home. But they are the ones that caused the problem. They have to get the cops. The business they were cap, people want to fight them. They would scream and cuss at but for what reason. Because i didnt want to wear a mask question mark mask . Its all you heard. Its ridiculous. Host similar view here from vince, in michigan. Host doug is in honolulu. Good morning, doug. How are you . Caller im doing well, thank you. , we keeploroquine bouncing around like its a volleyball. It seems that there is no clear message from leadership on where we are at with hydroxychloroquine except i think i read that in one country othern a than ours, it proved to be useful. But that country probably doesnt have obesity rates like we do or some other kind of preexisting medical condition. Our country is different. It might not work here. Host sounds like, from the cliff that we just played, the guidance from the food and Drug Administration is that hydroxychloroquine is not a treatment and is certainly not a cure and i think the admiral made that pretty clear in the comments we just played a few minutes ago. Journal,wall street they write that the july jobs or pork, coming out friday, could be the most politically consequential of the downturn. Aused by the pandemic jobs report, coming up friday, could be the most politically consequential of the downturn jersey. Eehold, new good morning to rhonda. There. Hello new jersey, you are on the line the more time. Caller can you hear me . Host you are on the air. Caller im so sorry. Good morning, america. I live in new jersey. Here, theng good cases have gone up, i knew that was going to happen when they opened the beaches. But our governor is on top of that. Donald trump is deliberately spreading this virus so that he can win reelection. He is going to petition the fact that we cant vote so that he can stay in office. I truly believe that. We all know that this virus is killing us. We all know it. We all know that we need a National Testing plan and need to shut the country down for six weeks. We know that. But he would never do that, simply because that would mean he would have to admit that he was wrong. My advice to people is to believe god. He is not mocked. This is a plague because the United States is so reedy that they dont care about ordinary people. Host it is august 3. The election, three months away, november 3. This piece from usa today, Election Night might be election week. There will be no electionmillin november 3 and the Television Networks will go walltowall with coverage of votes dribbling in. There will be graphics and weighty commentary host boca raton, florida, danielle. Hello, im a physician and i have to tell you, i cant believe, for four years of being in america, i emigrated from europe for freedom in the United States. I cannot believe how this country is divided. We have a president who makes the fantastic decision to close the influx from china because of the virus. Congress was complaining and criticizing trump, President Trump, President Trump, for months. Making jokes. Then they went to san francisco, and inviteo play immigrants. We have no problem with virus. We were attacked by Chinese Communistic Party and we have to fight it. The biggest culprit is the china communistic party. Only President Trump understood this from the first moment and did the right decision. Protect the elderly people in the nursing homes. Close the nursing homes. Not the stores. First of all, protect them and not send covid virus back to nursing homes, like new york did. The mayor and the governor of new york, they were creating the biggest problem in that state. Most people, elderly people, died there in the beginning of of thedemic because wrong decisions of those two ofple, and the governments new york city and new york state. Minnesota, go ahead. You are on the air. The nationsre in capital, washington, d. C. , maria, good morning. Caller yes, that was a good decision, but it was a late one. The virus was already here. Yes, some politicians were making that decision, but they didnt have the amount of information that this president had and sat on. But anyway, my comment is about masks. Masks, like another caller said, they do prevent the droplets the infected from getting to us or for us to spread what we have in our droplets. And heres the thing, to. Its not just about wearing the mask. Its about wearing it properly. You hear a lot of people saying that i had a mask and call it still. Got a the thing, youve perfect example from jim jordan the other day. He was wearing his mask and he decided to take it off you speak and yell rather, and he put it back on. You see what im saying about we havepropriate use . To be serious and follow guidelines correctly. Follow science. Not just whoever says what we want to hear. Thank you. Host comments from twitter, this one says this host bonnie, annandale, minnesota. Caller high, this is bonnie in virginia. Ini, this is bonnie virginia. Thank you for taking my call. I believe in science. I believe in metaphysics, too. But thats neither here nor there. My sweetheart came down with a and the doctor gave him, the dermatologist, hydroxychloroquine for. So, he took two pills a day for two months sorry, one month, and then one pill per day for two months. After, almost at the end of these three months he said, bonnie, look at this. He put out his forearm and he just tapped his forearm, not even as much as you would tap for the game pay the game paper, scissors, rock. This huge blood blister wound on his forearm. We went back to the dermatologist and the dermatologist of course said stop immediately. Not only that, but his numbers for kidney and liver numbers were up like 100 points. Which was not very good. Its just what happened to my sweetheart. Anybody whos thinking about hydroxychloroquine ought to know that there are serious side effects. Its a year and a half later and he still gets these blood blisters, although not as big. Thats very serious. Its also very interesting that the dermatologist estimated that because of the severity of this it three he had gotten years previously. Three years previously, he had taken a flu shot. Really important to know what is in a flu shot. Read, long time ago, this excellent article called educate before you vaccinate. Im going to let you go, there. Thats a different topic and we will get back to vaccines later in the program. We go now to deborah in pennsylvania. Thankk you, caller you, virginia. Good comment. I subscribed to the highly respected nature journal. I would like to share some information. I made some notes, over the last few magazines i received. Mind you, the magazine is for scientists and it really has a lot of information thats over my head, however these are some of the notes i made. The ifr, infection fatality rate is hard to gauge. The ifr and herd immunity threshold of an epidemic lets us know how seriously we should take this disease. Now, there are a range of messages from various countries that show five people to 10 people will die for every 1000 people. The author of the one article that i read feels that its about 0. 5 to 1 . 20rently, there are 100 and prevalent surveys out in the world that tested for antibodies, people, and those results are expected to help numbers between getting infected and dying. And also, you see, some of the results from brazil and spain came in and showed that there were 10 deaths for every 1000, but researchers are waiting for the larger studies that will estimate the ifr across age groups and among those with preexisting conditions so that we will get a more accurate picture. Host we will get one more call on this topic. Earl is next in redding, california. Go ahead. Caller god bless cspan. Listen, that surgeon general, the equivalent, i have seen him several times saying the same thing and it sounds to me like hes pushing a vaccine. He keeps saying there is no that hot the chloride and zinc works. But you get these doctors on their busy schedules, sitting on the steps of washington, d. C. , all swearing that it works . Fine. In the military, and vietnam, we all had to take it all the time and i never had any side effects at all. Host you took it for malaria . Caller absolutely. Im talking millions of soldiers took it, millions that served theater. The ater in my whole outfit i never heard of anyone having a side effect. Host thank you for your service and thank you for calling in. We will change it up a bit and turn to politics her campaign 2020. We will be joined by the National Journal hotline editor to talk about 20 20 and the races coming up. We will be talking to a member of Childrens National hospital, talking about coronavirus and its effect on children. This week marks the 75th anniversary of the atopic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki. Watch cspan washington journal live with the author of twilight of the gods. Spnspn and the grandson of president harry truman. Sunday watch American History tv and washington journal live at 9 00 a. M. Eastern as we look back at how the bombings ended world war ii and their legacy in the decades ahead. Join the discussion with your calls, text messages, facebook questions and tweets. Watch the 759 anniversary of the bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki this week on washington journal on cspan and American History tv on cspan 3. Tonight on the communicators. Ohio congressman bob latta for the need for better maps so Internet Access can be delivered to underserved rural areas. A really good thing that happened was they admitted at the s. E. C. We have to look at this, we have a problem. We put money out there to help gets these maps correct and we had legislation that i ways a part of from the gitgo and its important we get it done. Again, if the maps arent right, were going out there to get the dollars into the areas where you need to have them. It wont happen. Unite be putting money into areas that might have services in underserved areas and not getting the dollars into the unserved areas. Ohio republican congressman bob latta tonight at 8 00 eastern on the communicators, n cspan it. Washington journal continues. Host well spend the next 45 minutes talking politics. Were joined by the editor and chief of National Journal hotline. Here to talk about the president ial race, the Key Senate Races obviously. Let me start first with a piece of yours from last week in National Journal that was headlined divided party or big ten. The sub head said while the g. O. P. s ideological diversity is straining to govern, democrats divisions are propping up a big tent for now. Tell me about the democratic side of things first. Joe biden has key decisions to make here in the coming week or so about who will be his vicepresident ial pick. What do you think that comes down to in terms of the important things in his decision, whats going to count most . Guest right. I think the number one issue for joe biden is doing no harm. The vicepresident ial pick is only going to have so much of an impact on the general election in november. What he probably is most concerned about at this point is making sure hes choosing somebody not going to hurt his prospects. Luckily for joe biden democrats are not in a majority in the senate and they do not have control of the white house. That means that all those democrats divisions we hear so much about and that were front and center in 2016 president am primary are not really being showcased right now because theyre not democrats are not having to make agreements to actually vote on legislation. In the house they do but they have the Republican Senate majority to check them. That means that joe biden will be able to create this Democratic Coalition that includes members of the party along with more moderate especially the suburban former republicans we keep talking about. All under one coalition with kind of a common enemy in donald trump. Meanwhile, republicans in the senate are having to grapple with their ideological divides in terms of especially the budget and spending as they figure out how to deliver a relief package which is going to be especially important for the most vulnerable senators in 2020 in november. Two of them are seeking reelection to states that Hillary Clinton want in 2016. Host go back to the image of the big ten for democrats in terms of the vicepresident ial pick. Former republican governor Chris Christie was on this Network Interview last thursday or friday with bob kosta of the Washington Post and said vicepresident ial pick doesnt matter. In terms of the democrats does it matter who is picked as Vice President . When it comes to voting on november 3 . Guest it does matter in terms of the idea that the vicepresident ial candidate could introduce issues that become divisive. Again, more of a do no harm issue rather than trying to encourage more voters to come out. There is a sense that if theres a particularly exciting candidate possibly democrats could get enough enthusiasm, something they are lacking in november, something that republicans, donald trump knows nervent fervent supporters are more excited to vote than joe bidens support. What joe biden has which is a big advantage is this major slate of women who have already been pretty heavily vetted and thats because a lot of them ran for president. And people like senator kamla harris was once seen as a frontrunner it seems like forever ago but was once seen as a frontrunner for the democratic president ial nomination and shes gone through the gauntlet in terms of media scrutiny and Opposition Research and shes been on the small stage. In a lot of ways shes a really safe choice. Voters tend to know her a little better than they might know a member of congress he might choose. Host let me get a snapshot of polls from real clear politics, this is what they do in amalgamating polls together but some of the states, their latest North Carolina trump v. Biden show biden up by four and in georgia up by one and the latest on the general election is up by friday from real clear politics and shows biden up by four. What in general is your take of polls at this date three months out . Guest so right now you would rather be a democrat than republican in the current polling. Now that doesnt mean that donald trump cant win in november, and i want to make that very clear because i feel like that was one of the issues that came up in 2016 over and over again. In places like North Carolina and georgia, even though joe biden is in the lead, in most polls coming out at this point, hes still within the margin of era and supposed to be reading trends not individual kind of moments. For that reason, i think that donald trump is a lot more to worry about in michigan and wisconsin where polling has shown him trailing beyond the margin of error, sometimes up into the double digits. For North Carolina and georgia, what republicans now have to deal with is in addition to being president ial battle grounds now, it is not necessarily expected a few years ago. Theyre also setting battle grounds. So republicans have more if they lose North Carolina in the president ial race, they also could lose it in the senate race and governors race. These are really high stakes states in november for more than just the president ial race. Host leah is our guest talking and is the ection hotline editor. 20274880001. 2027488001 for republicans, democrats, 2027488000 and intents and others, 202748800 20274888002. Lets focus on kansas and the race good republican representative Roger Marshall facing off against the secretary of state in that state, crisco balk who served for a brief period of time in the Trump Administration. Tell us about what plays in kansas. Guest republicans in d. C. Arent too concerned about the Senate Majority are concerned bout nominating kris kobach. , kris could win with a plurality of the votes. The reason why republicans are concerned about that is because he mocked a governors race in and has a mocrat fervent base but the former governor made him a larger risk and though kris could absolutely win a general election it probably would mean that republicans would have to invest in that race. Kris could lose the general election of kansas which most republicans could not. In addition to this kind of understanding map with georgia and montana, competitive races in North Carolina, the idea republicans would also have to invest in kansas would be a major blow. Host well look at the course of the races in our conversation and get the calls. Well hear from edward first up in marry mack, new hampshire. Republican line. Good morning. Clinton caller i noticed something about joe bidens pick for Vice President and says he has to pick a black woman. When the women dropped out of the debates he lost the womens vote and when patrick dropped out he lost the black vote. I guess he figures a black woman will capture the people who vote their color and gender and not worry about the issues because joe biden doesnt have any issues and he cant run on his record so he doesnt have a record so i kind of find it ironic he would marry his choices on that basis. By the way, any black woman who would consider running under that kind of a program i have some recommended reading called uncle toms cabin. Guest black women have been democrats most loyal supporters in elections going back. This is not necessarily an issue of joe biden trying to convert black women. Its an issue of trying to run up enthusiasm and possibly increase turnout. The idea that joe biden has lost women because he took women out in the debate, that doesnt really have much merit to it considering that women have been trending towards the Democrats Party especially since the Trump Administration but this has been going on for over a decade now. Joe biden is going to have to work for women and was going to be the case as much as the vicepresident ial pick might be exciting news right now and is absolutely consequential because it is the second in command for the entire country on top of voters minds is not necessarily being the vicepresident ial pick but in donald trump and that is going to be more of a concern to women and people of color than the vicepresident ial pick. That said, joe biden has been struggling to increase his margin with latino voters and that could be an issue especially in places like arizona where narrow margins could make a big difference and not in the president ial race. Host lets hear from sergio in policy an beach, florida. Democrats, live. Caller how are you this morning . Host were doing fine. Go ahead with your comment. Caller good morning, leah, how are you . Guest good morning. Caller my question is to you upon the campaign. How would that straighten the campaign 2020 especially the Democratic Convention thats coming up and that will help more of his votes and the biased president ial pick as well and the Republican Base as well. Guest the Democratic Convention is a big question right now because were not sure what will end up happening. We have never done this before, an entire Virtual Convention. Usually democrats and republicans see a post Convention Bump where they see an increase in their polling. Theres no guarantee that is going to happen this time around. Theres really no guarantee there will be a ton of people watching. We dont know what will be on the republican side. We do know on the democratic side, the obamas will be speaking which should increase viewership but thats a big question mark right now. Right now both candidates, trump and biden want to increase their enthusiasm as much as possible and its just really hard to do that amid the pandemic and the convention is just the latest example of that. Host there was a report ever the weekend, no press, a delegate vote to renominate trump, the vote to renominate President Trump is said to be conducted in private this month without members of the press present said a spokesman for the Republican National convention citing the pandemic, a Convention Official contradicted that segment sunday emphasizing no final decisions have been made. You just mentioned the lineup for the Democratic Convention, some of which will be held in milwaukee in august, so so far we dont really know any sort of lineup or schedule for the r. N. C. Virtual convention or whatever their plans are . Guest no, thats the big question mark is we know that there are some things that are going to be happening on the democratic side. Theyve been planning this Virtual Convention for months. Republicans kind of shifted their plans much more recently in the last couple weeks so we just dont have a sense of who will be speaking or whether well even be able to see trump accept the nomination. Hopefully well have answers soon but we night not have those answers until the day of the convention. Host to jack in michigan, independent line. Caller good morning. Good morning to you guys. Glad cspan is on. I have a couple questions i want to ask and then i have a couple comments and wont take much of your time. But i heard this morning on the news that democrats, im sure thats the leadership of the Democratic Party, is going to try to keep joe biden from debating. And what i was wondering, how do they think he can win the presidency if hes not capable of debating, what kind of president . But i also believe when i hang up you can listen to it in a minute but i also believe hes not making the decisions anyway. They know hes not going to be president but thats the reason hes taking as much time for picking his running mate but i was wondering if thats true, of course theres so much stuff that comes out and put on cspan and one of the news channels they were going to try to keep him from debating. But either way he goes it will hurt him. That will be fine. I dont want to see him win anyway. Host all right. Any indication that joe biden wont debate donald trump . Guest the number of debates is something we see constantly. For example right now, the republican senator challenged the democratic challenger to 16 debates. Were seeing across the board this is nothing new. But is a little more new at the president ial level. The argument being had is not whether joe biden will debate at all, its how many debates will end up happening, whether it will be a traditional number or whether they can increase that so that joe biden can have a little bit more air time. The crux of that whole argument is that right now republicans are in a pretty dire position in terms of polling. And a lot of republicans are seeing the debates as a marker of that potential change. So the idea is that once viewers get to see joe biden on live tv nationally in a major event, then its possible that voters will change their minds. Thats what a lot of republicans are pinning their hopes on at this point and probably part of the reason why the debates are being discussed so widely right now as a hot button issue. Host i want to ask you your thoughts on the lincoln group. First, theyre in the Washington Post this morning reported about here in a story headlined, their goal, troll trump, hoping to drive the president out of office. A team of republican activist is creating the most talked about ads of the 2020 campaign, thats george conway, kellyanne s husband, steve wilson and steve schmidt. Want to play you their latest ad. Great independent leaders rise from maines hard soil, always have and always will. Take Margaret Chase smith, when the men were terrified of joseph mccarthy, she called him out like Susan Collins stands up to donald trump. Wait, Susan Collins never stands up to donald trump. Thats why maine is done with her weakness and excuses. Collins isnt an independent, shes a fraud. Mitch mcconnell and donald Trump Control her voice. She makes excuses for corruption, for criminality, for cruelty all while pretending while shes worried, concerned, hoping donald trump learns a lesson this time. He never does because she never stands up, never speaks out. Never does what a maine leader should do. Susan collins doesnt work for maine, she works for them and maine deserve as leader, not a trump stooge. Its time for Susan Collins to go. The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of advertising. Host the ad by the lincoln group, the Lincoln Project, there were initially ads against the president. Theyve dived now into the senate races, whats your take . Guest this is probably the biggest changes in 2016. In 2016 we did see republicans deflect from the party. The republicans say they would not vote for trump and didnt see a lot of money behind that and also didnt see a lot of republicans say that because they were not voting for trump they then would vote for Hillary Clinton. In 2020 we are beginning to see that a little bit more. The biggest kind of example is this is probably the Lincoln Project major Financial Investment not only in the president ial race but on the ballot. Now, that ad was targeting Susan Collins in maine. The fact they actually talked about donald trump directly in the ad is significant. In other states we are not seeing the Lincoln Project talk about donald trump in the senate ads in the same way in places like montana. In 2018 we rarely saw democrats talk about donald trump at all. He was at least in the background, at least the vulnerable democrats running for competitive seats. The fact they think they can raise him up and then connect him to Susan Collins as an effective strategy speaks to their confidence that donald trump is cratering. If we see it in other states that would be a indicator that trump is continuing to deteriorate across the country. Host in the Maine Senate Race the key focus for democratic efforts obviously, she faces Susan Collins the incumbent, republicans facing democrat sarah gideon. This was senator collins response to that Lincoln Project ad [. Susan my opponents say ive changed but i havent. But politics sure has. The nonstop attacks against me began more than a year ago him. Especially offensive are the outrageous attacks on my integrity. The suggestion that i traded my votes for Campaign Contributions is appalling. It never happened, not once, not ever. I was raised in caribou by parents who taught me to be honest and to work hard. Mainers have entrusted me with their vote in the senate and i cast it more than 7,000 times. Never missing a single one. I will not back down from doing what i believe is right for maine. Im Susan Collins and ive approved this message. Host we get back to your calls, the editor and chief of the hotline, talking campaign 2020. Markup next in summer field, North Carolina. Caller yeah, i think both Chris Christie and your current guest are completely incorrect about the effect of the vicepresident ial pick for biden who is going to be inconsequential. Unlike any other candidate in my lifetime, and ive lived quite a long time, its really not been a factor but ive in discussions with people that udgingly vote for biden, they all admit they dont think hes going to last four years. They all admit they think hes going downward in terms of his mental capacities and theyre going to be looking at the v. P. As the nextnext president in a most certainly they think thats going to happen. Biden wont even last one term. I think it is going to be credibly consequential and again will be a huge factor in the race. Host guest to be clear, i dont think the decision is inconsequential. I think that people who are going to the polls will make decisions based on a variety of factors and dont think the vicepresident ial pick will be the top one unless something changes, unless theres a big controversy or scandal surrounding one of those vicepresident ial picks. Obviously in terms of the future Democratic Party that has a major influence, were seeing joe biden talked about ving a younger cabinet and more diapers bringing in the challenge after leader and in that sense it is inconsequential but in terms of what voters will be deciding when they go to the polls voters care about a lot of different things, obviously. Weve seen Approval Ratings of nancy pelosi being taken into account and what they think about the economy and investment in education and all sorts of issues. What were looking at as election analyst is what moves voters and at this moment does not appear the vicepresident ial pick is at the top of that list. Right now the election seems to be a referendum on President Trump. So a vicepresident ial pick will have a pretty big burden to carry with the sudden change and now the election was about the vicepresident ial pick. It definitely impacts it. Host our caller was from North Carolina. Let me get your quick take on that race. Some say that could be a race in play. The incumbent is tom phil till us the republican and the challenger democrat Cal Cunningham, what do you think . Guest thats one of the most important races for Senate Majority. The democrats need to pick up three seats for control with a democratic president and they need four seats now for a majority. Its hard to imagine a scenario and North Carolina is not those three to four seats. Right now North Carolina has become a stuff state for republicans in the president ial level and republican race but republicans not running away with the state. Its an incredibly close contest and the polls suggest its within a few points. Tom till us is in a really tricky position because he does have the kind of responsibilities of appealing to trumps base while also appealing to the suburban voters who have been critical the 2018 ts when in race and thats kind after tough balance to strike. Meanwhile, Cal Cunningham relatively unknown and kind of a safe alternative rather than the beto orourke we think of in 2018 kind of an inspirational message, a lot of these candidates in 2020 on the democratic side are kind of projecting themselves as middle of the road kind of crack the poll figure and not trying to light the world on fire, just trying to show that they would be a practical alternative. Host President Trump weighing in with his own poll information. As he often does with the rasmussen poll saying this orning 96 Approval Rating in the Republican Party and higher than obama at this point in time. Thank you from President Trump. Readsburg, wisconsin, is next. Kerry on our democrat line. Go ahead. Kerry in wisconsin, go ahead. Clinton yeah. I think when biden makes his pick of the Vice President running mate, i think he should pick somebody thats a good debater, and i hope one of their messages is they do something with their medical insurances, you know, if everybody should have some kind of affordable insurance. If we have that, it would probably put everybodys assurances down a predominant price and wouldnt be so high pricey. People say they have such high priced insurance. O i think that would be a good thing, too, you know. But i think also, theyve got to Work Together and try to unite this country again because its so separated right now, and so with the two of them together, i think they can do it. And thank you very much for cspan for taking my call. Host ok. We talked about health care but havent talked about issues. How high of an issue is health care in the 2020 race . Guest for democrats its towards the top of the issues theyre talking about creating this condition especially this was already the plan before, the pandemic, it was the number one message during the 2018 mid terms among most democrats and looks like theyre trying to repeat that in 2020. Youre most likely in those competitive pages hear democrats talk about health care than it is to hear them talk donald trump as their number one issue. For republicans its not an issue theyre focusing on and wont necessarily be one they dont want the elections to be about. Obviously democrats have a sense they could theoretically put something through. I think that will be tricky for democrats is it they win the majority in the national, if they do win the white house, their vision for medicare for all and all the different intricacies of policies are going to be front and center. But right now democrats basically say no, were the party of health care and well come up with a plan. Republicans had their chance and have not. Thats not a conversation the republicans would like to be having and would much rather talk about the idea of socialized medicine and bring hat into an argument that have come to an extreme trying to stave off those suburban voters by telling them democrats embrace some democrats embrace medicare for all is a sign theyre not the party for them. Host heres one of the latest joe biden ads focusing on the pandemic. Joe today were facing a serious threat and have to meet it as one country. Numbers dont lie. The infection rates are now going up in more states than theyre going down. Weve got to fight this together. Wear a mask. Keep your distance. Limit the size of crowds. It may be inconvenient and may be uncomfortable but its the right thing to do as an american. We need a president who will level with the american people. Tell us the unvarnished truth. The president should take responsibility instead of always blaming others. The president will listen to the experts, policy the science, allow them to speak. A president who will lead and be an example for the nation. We have to do all we can to keep our fellow americans safe and healthy. Im joe biden and i approve this message. Host back to your calls. Ed is next in lebanon, indiana, republican line. Go ahead. Caller i wanted to compliment the Democratic Party for the act Blue Association thats their grassroots booster. But i knowed something funny in the contributions that black lives matter is their largest contributor and since they have 400 billion 400 million from just the nfl and from the Forward Foundation and they keep routing that on through to the democrats. I dont see how we republicans can ever catch up with their numbers and with them cutting off all our social media and all the news media thats on tv, it really is kind of tough for us to fight back against that large of a monster deal. But i do have to compliment the democrats on their very good way, theyre cutting off the republicans solely. The more riots and protests the more black lives get and the more they donate to the Democratic Party. Thats an amazing feet ofer ining. Host this over the weekend, the Trump Campaign taking a break with tv 5ds and reported their discomforts in the wake of the change at the head of the Trump Campaign. Theres also an indication the president retooling his message to voters. What are you hearing . Guest number one, i want to talk about act blue for just a moment because theres a bit of misunderstanding what that platform does. Basically its not an organization in and of itself. Its a platform for democrats to donate money through digital fundraising and it has been incredibly successful and appears theyll take it up. What were seeing on the republican side in terms of spending is trying to figure out what this whole map actually looks like. A few months ago it might not have seemed donald trump needed to invest into the state where it went from purple to red and now the state can get attention. It looks like the joe biden in ign got some attention texas which is a red state becoming maybe purple but theres not been a democrat statewide in years. What were seeing is trying to figure out where the map is especially after this socalled blue law tumbled down in 2016. So are the key swing states traditional, wisconsin a ohio or are they now arizona, number and georgia. I think theres probably an answer some place in between there and democrats have plenty of resources to invest in both but the r. N. C. And President Trump are the stronger National Fundraiser and democrats have incredibly Strong Fundraising but trump has been republican strongest fundraiser and the Republican Party is having a pretty tremendous fundraising success. Host a snapshot view of the ads in the wall street journal in the blue is the democratic spending the Biden Campaign and the Trump Campaign, the falloff in the week of july 28 increasing in the last three weeks of the Biden Campaign. This is an ad from america first, a pro trump pack and focuses on the protest and some of the rioting that followed and the efforts by some democrats to, quote, defund police. Heres the ad. Come here, honey. On the stairs. Baby, its going to be ok. You have reached 911 emergency services. Because of the budget and increased criminal activity, they are busy assisting other calls. The hold time is 17 minutes. Yes, absolutely, yes. America first action is responsible for the content of this advertising. Host as the issue of protests in cities as those protests begin to die down, though, how does that maintain, how does that stay an issue for the Trump Campaign . Guest the idea that democrats are too extreme has been an issue republicans have been trying to get in the front of voters minds for really years at this point. At the beginning of the cycle it seems that republicans would be able to deliver that through highlighting medicare for all, through highlighting the brandnew deal, for example. Those are issues that just are not at the forefront at the moment because of the pandemic nd also because of the major throw tests protests happening. Republicans have kind of realt to on the new get the same message across theyve been trying to get across to years and they tried to get across in 2018. What is tricky about this is seeing what i mentioned earlier about voters, joe biden said early on he disagreed with calls to defund the police. The idea the protests will have more of an impact on peoples decisions than the pan democrat sick a pretty risky one and its a pretty risky bet. Right now the pandemic is shaping most peoples aytoday lives but the idea of what the Democratic Party could offer is nothing new for the republican strategy and is a key tenet to what they believe would need to happen for donald trump to win reelection. Host back to calls and hear from frank on the democratic line in spanish fork, utah. Caller i have a question for your guest but want to make a comment first if i could have the gentleman speaking about act blue. Ive been donating to Democratic Candidates for act blue since 2015 and i looked at it as always a grassroots, its well run and easy to make even small donations on. Ive never heard about it accessing these huge amounts that the caller earlier was saying, you know. I think its just look at it as a well run grassroots fundraising apparatus. But my question is, it seemed like in the 2016 democratic sanders, that bernie his type of outlook on politics was not it seemed to me like they sort of undermined the Sanders Campaign at the convention with the comedians undermined him and biden has been middle of the road and im wondering if youre hearing anything about, you know, biden, if he gets in, will he go back to being more middle of the road . And im saying this because the democrats get accused, oh, there will be socialists and theyre listening to the squad and the more left wing type of stuff. I think biden will tend to go back into the more moderate democratic stance. I wonder if you have comments about that and if its a problem. Host does joe biden have to appeal to the sanders supporters of 2020 and of 2016, what does he have to do . Trump has those to do it for him and bidens argument is trump is not a good fit for the presidency of this country and thats the main argument whether he is progressive or moderate. In the 2018 midterm, House Democrats won the majority through candidates that are not members of this block. The majority was won through members who are now members who on a public ed action of health care who said medicare through all would be a good option for the future but is not for right now. Even that were seeing some of the progressive challengers in addition to the open democratic seats are seeing a mix of candidates coming, some who are progressive and some who are not selfdescribed progressive or that you can be progressive without reporting medicare for all. These are the issues democrats will have to grapple with it they win the white house in the senate that right now are kind of hopeful to have all of these different view points because it means you can build a staged coalition once they become the governing party, thats when it becomes an issue and when republicans can start making gains in the house where democrats will become vulnerable in 2022. Host we wont have time to get to the Key Senate Races but wanted to get your quick take and thoughts on the arizona race between two genuine american heroes you could say, a former Fighter Pilot and senator martha mcsiley and former astronaut mark kelly. How do you view that race . Comes mark kelly when it to fundraising and polling, he is the most vulnerable republican senator at the what and has to think needs to be different this time around and it appears a lot of the effort would go into making sure that some states are heard as the biggest ally and that would be both of their paths to victory. Trumps numbers begin to fall throughout the country, it is for ing much tougher mcsally to find other ways to differen she eight herself. Shes been talking a lot about china and one of the issues that hes talking about in order not to talk about trump but she is probably the most vulnerable republican. Host lets hear from joe from maine. Caller id like to make a comment from Susan Collins who repeatedly lied to the people of maine. Thats all. Thats why shes in trouble in the race. Ts as simple as that. We can start with cavanaugh. On the first 25 list, not even on it. So she has no excuses. She refuses to talk about it. But my point is this. What can the republicans run on . Seriously . Out is no plans to get us of covid. Theres no plan to bring jobs back. None. Zero. Theres no plans. Theres food lines in america. Host well hear from our guest. Guest the message is on democrats. When you look at individual senators like Susan Collins and cory gardner in colorado, youre seeing them talk about key pieces of legislation that they passed. Their individual records and if youre in maine you probably have seen that ad when Susan Collins talked about her perfect voting record. Youre in colorado youre seeing cory gardner talk about his work on the environment. Theyre trying to draw to individual things in the state so they dont have to talk about a National Environment to help them overperform trump. Especially in places like colorado and maine, those are the places where Republican Senate candidates will have to overperform trump more than any place else. Host well have to get you back to go through the other senate races. Im sure we will 90 days to the election and weve been speaking with the National Journal editor. You can follow their reporting on twitter at nj hotline. Thanks for being here. Guest thanks so much for having me. Host still ahead on washington journal well be joined next by the Childrens National hospital discussing the latest on the coronavirus and impact on children. Later on a bit more of your phone calls as well as washington journal continues. Host tonight on the communicators, Ohio Republican congressman bob latta on the need for better maps so Internet Access can be delivered to underserved rural areas. What happened they admitted at the s. E. C. We have to see this. We have a problem. We put money out there to help get the maps correct and we had legislation and i was a part of right from the gitgo and its important we get it done. In the maps arent right, were going out to get the dollars where we need to happen it wont happen. In some cases you might be putting money in areas that already have services, underserved areas and not getting those dollars into the unserved areas. Host Ohio Republican congressman bob latta tonight at 8 00 eastern on the communicators on cspan 2. During the summer months, reach out to your elected officials with cspans congressional directory containing all the Contact Information you need to stay in contact with members of congress, federal agencies and state governors. Order your copy online today at cspanstore. Org. This week marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic ombings of hiroshima and nagasaki, watch live thursday morning at 8 00 a. M. Eastern with the discussion about the bombings with ian toll author of twilight of the gods and the grandson of harry truman. Sunday watch American History tv and washington journal live at 9 00 a. M. Eastern as we look back at how the bombings ended world war ii and their legacy in the decades ahead. Join the discussion with your calls, text messages, facebook questions and tweets. Watch the 75th anniversary of the bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki this week on washington journal on cspan and American History tv on span. 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 feeds. Cspan, created by americas capable Television Companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television rovider. Host washington journal continues. Joining us next is dr. Roberta diasi the division chief of the pediatric diseases chief at Childrens National hospital. Thanks for being with us, doctor. Guest good morning. Host how many cases of covid19 have you treated among children at the hospital . Guest we started seeing cases in the middle of march and now had over 600 children that have come to the hospital with symptoms, about a quarter of those have been admitted to the hospital, so about 150 of those and about a quarter of those or a 1 3 of those have needed our intensive care unit. Host whats the pattern among children, what do you see and how are their symptoms different from adults . Guest we really are seeing several different patterns of disease. So of those 600, the vast majority of them, and this really has been seen in other parts of the country as well, they have mild to moderate illness where they have typical respiratory symptoms either fever or cough and then have runny nose or sore throat so very mild moderate illness. The children admitted fall in several different categories. Some of them have what is similar to what the adults have seen with a severe pneumonia or clotting issues. But then we have another set of children very young who have a neonatal c fever, sepsis type picture. And our third category we have 50 of these children that have come in since the beginning of may with this multisystem inflam story disorder which is a little bit different where they dont have the respiratory symptoms but are coming in with prolonged feefers and other symptoms that show inflammation throughout their body including their heart or coronary artery or other organs. Host since the start of the virus broadly what do you think weve learned and how has your treatment changed in terms of treating children. Guest weve certainly learned much in the adults and children and have very much still we need to fill in the gap. What weve clearly learned is that in the beginning we thought and we heard from other perhaps children were not able to be ineffected or not as much as adults but its clear children are hospitalized at lower rates than adults and is certainly important for everyone listening to know. Though im telling you about these cases the vast majority of children dont end up in the hospital and have a mild to moderate illness. However in the last several weeks and months there is more and more data coming out of many countries including the United States that show clearly children are infected at all ge groups. Even in our own center when we published looking at different age groups 01 or 510 we did not see a difference in the number of infections across the age groups but its the or young who are likely to be hospitalized but its the minority of those children that end up hospitalized. There was a very important last that came out just week out of chicago that looked at the virus that could be recovered from the nose of children in particular Young Children and its there its obviously there at higher levels in some cases than adults. What we dont know yet is how well is that virus thats there transmit to other children and ther adults. Many studies in the United States a study of 6,000 people which will be a cohort of 2,000 families looking carefully at how the virus is transmitted throughout the family, is it going from the adults to children or more likely going from the children to the adults. And also theres really important studies in schools coming out of the united ngdom as well as germany where theyll look at a regular basis the amount of transmission by virus and antibody levels in the students as well as the staff and teachers in those schools. St our guest is dr. Roberto dbiasi Infectious Diseases division chief with the Childrens National hospital in the nations capital. Welcome your comments and questions for dr. Diabia, i. A parent 2027488000 and all others 2027488001. In the Washington Area you see young kids Wearing Masks. In your view its the proper thing to have kids doing . Guest absolutely. There are certain circumstances that doesnt apply. So if you have for instance a child under 2 years of age its not considered safe to do that or a developmently disabled child that cant keep it on or has problem with their respiratory secretions its not recommended but for other people 2 years of age, otherwise normal children should be wearing their mask and this was highlighted just last week and unfortunately a large outbreak of a camp in georgia. Even that camp took many measures the c. D. C. Recommended and to distance and do as much as they could, the one thing they didnt do is masks and they had, for instance, children in cabins up to 15 ids overnight in cabins. And unable to use masks in congress get settings and a large number of people, almost 50 of the people in the camp became infected. Masks really are very important and weve seen it in adults and now seen it in children as well. And this is going to be a key part of how we think about oing back to school. You mentioned dr. Fauci from his testimony last week before congress, dr. Fauci said kids over 9 years old can transmit the coronavirus as well as adults as some schools reopen. I want to play you the comments of dr. Fauci in questioning from representative maxine aters of california. Now this president who expects us to believe him rather than the medical experts is saying children are almost immune. Is that an expert medical conclusion, dr. Fauci . What does that mean, children are almost immune from this virus. Dr. Fauci generally when you say a person is immune, theyre protected from getting infected and children who get infected. This is not an expert medical conclusion we have documented somewhere . Dr. Fauci if youre talking about a conclusion that children in general are immune, that children do get infected we know that, so therefore theyre not immune. I must say when children get infected that when you look at consequences they do much better because if you look at the hospitalizations children have a much lower rate of hospitalizations than adults. In fact the curve goes way up as you get older and older and when you get to the age group of children, they generally do not get serious diseases much. I understand that and have been listening and understand what youve just described. But what i was asking really is about this president s latest comment that children are almost immune and so i think i ot the answer to that. Host let me ask you about immunity among kid and others, how will we know when immunity presents itself . How will that become apparent in treatment of patients . Guest this is a complicated issue. So the atlanta body test is a test that looks at the Antibody Test is a test that looks at the response of the virus and is going on through multiple groups including our federal government in multiple cities looking at the Community Level in certain cities and looking nationwide to see how many people actually have had evidence of infection, whether or not they realize it. Because another thing weve seen is that up to 40 of people will have no symptoms whatsoever. So what i mean is they dont have any idea, they dont remember having symptoms but we can find evidence from their blood that theyve had an immune response or antibodies. So what is going on right now in Childrens Hospital is a big part of this in d. C. , particularly in the pediatric population. We really have no idea what percentage of children in the city, for instance, new york or in d. C. Where there were large number of cases, what percentage of the children have actually been infected because we know that they are less likely to get severe disease. So the zero prevalence is really going into a population and figuring out how many people have actually been infected. The second part of that thats really complicated and waiting to find out is how long do those antibodies last and are those antibodies even protective against a second infection if this came around again in your community . Host before we get to callers let me ask you one more thing about the severe side effect that happens among a very small number of kids called multiinflammatory syndrome, misc, how prevalent is it and tell us a little bit about its symptoms. Guest as i mentioned at the beginning, this was after we had seen the first wave of infections throughout the United States and really throughout the world, right around the end of april and the beginning of may, our colleagues in europe and then right away right after that in the United States we started seeing this different presentation associated with sars covid19 infection and for the most part these children dont have symptoms of covid, meaning not but we can find evidence with antibodies in their blood that they recently had it. And what these children are coming in with is what we call hyper inflammation or too much you mean immune response. Children, for whatever reason, and we are studying this, is it something about the children, is it something about the virus that has changed, for some reason, that a mean response is not turned up. They show up with prolonged fevers and a variety of organ systems involved, whether that is their heart, their coronary artery, their kidneys, their liver, their skin, redness of their eyes, multiple ways they can present. The good news is there have only been around 300 cases in the United States. All of our colleagues are putting our Heads Together to come up with the best treatment. The good news is they do seem to respond to antiinflammatory treatments. Each hospital is doing a variety of different things. We are going to soon have information about these children six months down the line from all of these different treatments we have been using. Host we have calls waiting on our guest, dr. Roberta debiasi. Good morning in nashville, go ahead. Caller good morning. Old, basicallys the last year of his adolescen ce, sliced a consider him an adolescent, even though he is 21, he got it, his roommate got it. He had four days of fever and maybe six hours of gastrointestinal upset, and then was fine. He is going to have the Antibody Test. He is under the care of our doctor. Hes going to have the Antibody Test in a couple of weeks. Middle of august is what the doctor said. He is being monitored. Of course, he is fine. His school, middle Tennessee State university, he will be a senior this year, they are having inperson classes. I guess my biggest concern is him getting it again and or having some adverse effect in the future. Did something happen in his body that we need to be worried about . Like a said, he is fine, he feels great. He is a very good eater. I think a lot of the information problem with kids has to do with their diet. Far too manyeat carbs, fat, sugar, and salt in america. He is a healthy kid. He is doing well. I guess my question for you is, effects. Affects i know it is hard to say because nobody really knows what will happen to the kids that have had it. I am worried about his internal organs. He did not have the respiratory issues, but is it going to come back . Will you be ok in the future . Will he be ok in the future . Host thanks, derby. Guest you are asking the same questions we ask in our families, communities, and schools. How is this affecting our children and how will we know and when will we know . We all have to remember even though it feels like we have been home forever, as has been going on only for several months. In the d. C. Area, we have only had cases in children from around march. We have less than six months of followup on these children. Like your son, the vast majority of children will be completely fine. Six years fromou now we will not know more and perhaps there may be some side effects. Someone had pneumonia, it could have longterm effects on their lungs. It is also possible they will have no longterm effects. We dont have the answer to that. To tellif people try you they have the answer, it is not true. We do not have enough longterm followup on these children. Children with inflammatory syndrome, we are more focused on their hearts and the coronary arteries because we know from a similar presentation of kawasaki disease that those children can have longterm issues with her heart. That is a very intense area of focus across the world, to follow up very carefully on children with multiinflammatory disease. As a mention, that is a very small number of children, in smaller than the number that have the typical pulmonary disease of covid. Your question about going back to school and you are worried it will come back, it is possible there will be more waves of disease. We are seeing this now. We had this short time where things seemed to settle down on the northeast coast. But now we are seeing large numbers of increases across the south, southwest, california, and out west. Point of how we decide when it is appropriate to go back to school. The very first thing we need to look at is the local situation. I mean the county, the district even, because looking at a state is not helpful. It can be vastly different what is going on in her parts of different states. The schools are working closely with the Health Departments and jurisdictions. That is the first step deciding whether we can take the step one decision to have inperson classes. An editorial cartoon over the weekend capturing perhaps some of the dilemma parents face. Damned ifyou do and you dont. Megan is on the line. I want to give my sincere apologies to the woman whose son was affected. I hope everything works out well. We live in hempstead, maryland. We have people leaving states like new york and florida, hotspots, and they are coming to different states even though they were supposed to put mandatory restrictions. Going back to school i do not believe is a wise thing to do. I dont to get has to do with their diet. Children are less immune to getting this. For children to go back to school when they dont have a vaccination is not recommended. I know a lot of people want to get back to life and work, we all do, but just going back to school in person is not good. The woman that called him before, her son gets it again, he may get worse because we have no clue what this virus is doing. About 25 of the teachers are 55plus. People fauci said, most in the Older Age Group get severe problems even if they do not have underlying conditions. Host we will hear from dr. Debiasi. Guest great points. I want to touch on a couple of them. The first is the concept of, should we not go back to School Period . This is a really important point almost everyone agrees on. In an ideal world, we know it is better for children to be in school. It is not just for academic reasons. There is a host of reasons going to school is important. There are social implications that are not theoretical damage. We have already seen this. When we weigh the risk and , it is notgoing back like just staying home is a harmless thing to do and we cannot just compare that to the potential risk of going back. We have had huge increases in anxiety, depression, concerns about suicide, children being targeted on the internet with pornography because people know they are at home. We have children who have special needs not getting access to care. Occupational therapy, physical therapy, hearing interventions. Children that are arelopmentally delayed not getting their individual educational plans met. 12 million children do not have access to food in our country and they depend on the school to get that food. We have a whole host of reasons. We could talk for an hour just about this. All i am saying is that does not mean we say everyone must go back to school. What it does mean is we have to carefully weigh the known harm against the potential risk. And that risk is vastly different in different communities. For instance, in maine, there is basically no circulation. Weigh their theres ait in maine, very low risk of transmission because of their community. The caller mentioned new york. There was a large outbreak. Right now, model is new york as a model. You have hardly any transmission going on they have hardly any transmission going on. In virginia, we have higher circulation than new york. This is key. People have to know that the locales are very specific where there is a hotspot or large amount of transmission. We measure this by a variety of things. It could be the number of cases over seven days per the population. It could be how overwhelmed hospitals are. It could be the percent positive of tests coming up. It is clear there are many parts of the country where things are under control and there are many parts of the country where they are not in control. We cannot use a onesizefitsall approach to bringing kids back to school. Host obvious the, you are at a specialized hospital. Do you ever feel overwhelmed at Childrens National . Did you ever have issues with equipment, personal protective equipment, related to things like that . Guest we are very lucky in the washington, d. C. , region, we learned from what happened in new york because the huge wave that overwhelmed the Health System more and other parts of the country to do very significant shutdown measures. That really did flatten our curve in the d. C. Area. We have had lots of cases but they did not all come within a twoweek period. We did not get overwhelmed. We were quite busy but we had enough personal protective gear. Did not get overwhelmed, including at Childrens Hospital. We were able to absorb some of the i. C. U. Load from of the younger adults, up to 35 years of age, we were taking care of some of those patients. We did not have a situation. But that is a direct effect of people taking this seriously and not allowing the number of cases to get markedly out of hand like we are seeing in some parts of the south right now. Host not surprisingly, everybody is on our parents line. Donna is in vero beach, florida. Go ahead. Caller i wonder if there has ever been data taken on these children of whether they have had all of their childhood inoculations because it seems to me because they have had inoculations recently, they are kind of covered somewhat for all diseases. And i have another part to my question. What happened to the home testing kits the president promised us in april . Host ok, donna. Guest the first question about vaccinations, unfortunately, vaccines for different pathogens, for instance against the pneumonia bacteria, will not protect you against a viral pneumonia like influence or covid. Protectivity. Ross we have not seen that children with no vaccines are likely to get covid. Conversely, we have fully vaccinated children, the vast majority of kids that get this disease, they are not less likely to get covid. There is not a crossreactive productivity you are suggesting might exist. What was the second part . Host she asked about the availability of home test kits. Guest we want to be able to do testing on a bigger level than we have. We are doing much better in the United States with access to testing in general. We cannot all just do a test in learnede we have testing is not the whole answer. In some cases, it can give a false sense of security. If i was aware of one of my family members that had covid to i was expend exposed them, there is a 14day window where i could develop symptoms. If i do a test five or 10 days after that exposure and it is negative, that does not mean i am not infectious because i could develop it in the next three days. Campwas seen in the outbreak i told you about in georgia. You had to bring a piece of paper and say you had a test within 12 days of showing up to camp. In the additional 12 days, the children and adults were in the community doing other things. The only way testing would be helpful is if you could do a test on yourself every day before you go off and do something. That will not be practical even with a homebased test. It is too expensive and there will not be enough tests to do that every single day. We need to have tests when someone has symptoms in a School Setting or office so we can do Contact Tracing and follow the tracing toacts with see who needs to be quarantined and isolated this is the part we are all still learning about. What is the frequency of testing that is best so we can keep people home and away from work or school as short as possible without putting other people at risk. One last thing i wanted to say. There is interest in the salivabased test. We do not know how those perform compared to our standard blood test. But that is one area we are studying at childrens trying to look at how well the salivabased home swabs will perform. Host dr. Debiasi a couple of times mentioned the outbreak at the georgia camp. Coronavirus infected scores of children and staff at georgia sleep away camp. Good morning. Good morning. This is lauren from shepherdstown. World, kidsan ideal should be back at school. I agree. I am a parent and a teacher. We are talking about schools across the country that have. Een chronically underfunded i am aware of schools where windows cannot open. Of classrooms of my colleagues do not have windows at all. Finally, we have terrible ventilation systems. What do you say to those parents and the teachers teaching in those circumstances . What is the ideal world then . Guest this is a great question. When we talk about going to school, lauren is a teacher and on the frontline. We talk about doctors and nurses on the frontline. Teachers will be on the front line, too. What we talk about when we go back to school is to not go back to the way it was. Let me take one step away from the situation she is describing where there is not good ventilation. The first step is looking at community circulation. We do not want to open schools when there is rampant circulation in the community. Be anshould not be even attempt to have inperson classes. If you are in a region where it is controlled but there is still a bit of circulation, that is what is going on in virginia and maryland, then it is reasonable to think about opening schools. But then you have to look at the specific school. Every school even within a district is not going to be able to make the same decisions. Ifause, as lauren mentioned, you have the ability to move your children to other Community Locations to spread out the children, that is a big difference than a school where everyone has to be in one closedin smallspace area with windows that do not open and ventilation that does not work. That is a huge difference from a school where there can be outdoor classes for the summer and fall months, where there otherbe a movement to use underused Office Buildings that could be used for classes. It will also differ depending on the grade level of the kids. Elementary school may be more conducive to keeping kids in small cohorts and perhaps the teachers rotating rather than kids moving around all day. In high school, that is more challenging to do because there are different subjects and levels and the kids typically need to be moving around. s answer,o lauren if you are in an area with a small amount of circulation, those concerns about the ventilation are less of a problem but not zero. But if you are in a place with lots of circulation, they are a huge problem because ventilation is important. We want to keep windows open as much as we can. We want to be outside with the kids as much as we can. If you are in a situation where that is not possible, the risk level is going to be higher. The other point this teacher pointed out is we do worry about the children, but as we have heard from the data, they may not become as sick but we do need to worry about the teachers. And the teachers that have underlying conditions that are older. All those things need to be taken into consideration in a particular school making the decision about when to go back and how we go back. Host our guest is dr. Roberta debiasi with Childrens National medical center. Eva is onalifornia, the line. Caller thank you. I have a question. My granddaughter is 12 years old. She will see her doctor. When she was three years old, she had a rash like i see on tv happened to the kids. Could that be connected . Should we mention to the doctor . They said it was an allergy. Guest there are many, many causes of rashes. Your doctor will be able to take a history and get all the information about what happened before and what is happening now and make a judgment about whether things are related. For instance, there are rashes due to medications, due to changing your laundry detergent, due to other viruses, strep throat. There are many reasons why someone would have a rash. We dont want everyone to think every rash you have means your child has this extremely rare syndrome. It is unlikely. Host the caller asked about vaccines children are required to get to go to many schools. With the inability to see doctors or get the vaccines, how concerned are you that kids are prepared to physically go back and have the vaccines done before they into the School Building . Interthe School Building . Guest great question. Schoolbasedse clinics to make sure kids are eating vaccinated getting vaccinated. That is the main way vaccines are obtained. That is another reason why keeping schools closed may be a problem. Is extremely important everyone get their influenza vaccine this year. It is almost impossible to tell a child coming to you with influenza or sarscovid infection. The more we can prevent influenza, the less confusing this will be as our societies open up. The less influenza we have circulating, the easier it will be to understand what is going on with covid. One thing we have not touched on is when we open up our society, school, businesses, communitylevel activities, we make the decision at the point when things are in somewhat control. For the most important part is to not let our eyes off the ball. Survey,to continue to its disease comes back because of those changes. And able toe nimble pull back if we need to. The ability to do this will be critical for any decision we make about school or any other reopenings. Host john is next up in palm bay, florida. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Dr. Roberta, it seems we are not prepared to open up schools right away right now. We have some schools going back next week. The way you sound and the way the president and our governor here sounds, we need to hold back and maybe go back in january because we do not have a plan. I am a schoolteacher and a basketball coach. And we are still trying to have sports. I would like to get your opinion on sports for high school students. Host i will let you go. Go ahead, doctor. Guest you are in florida so you are kind of in the hot seat right now. I think this caller is highlighting that the local situation really does matter. One point you made is that we do not even have to say we are absolutely not going back to school for the entire year. In that particular location, it might be appropriate to have a delay and put in some measures to distance again so we can get the rate down where it is a safe number to open the schools. As we saw in march, when we all did a very good job of distancing and shutting down, which is not a permanent solution by any means and it is harmful to people socially, economically, and otherwise, but if we do that for a short period , we know that drives the rate of transmission down and puts you in a situation where you could consider opening the schools in a safer way. The question about sports is important. Not all sports are equal. If you are outside doing crosscountry running practice and everyone is far away from each other and outdoors, that is very different from a contact sport like basketball in an enclosed area in a gym where there is no way to not be within six feet of people. You are breathing heavily and in an enclosed space. Blanketot do a statement for sports. I will give an example. For soccer, it might be more appropriate ramping up to focus more on drills and skills where the kids can be outside working on all those important skills and drills but hold back on the , intramural competitive activities. If you are going to have some competitions, keep it to a cohort of kids. Not have interschool competitions. Certainly not going to different states to compete. All of these are nuances that have to be taken into account in will we talk about going back to sports. Host what do you think about these socalled pods people are forming for education . I dont know about sports, but for kids to be together in a setting of known other kids and parents. What yourenk talking about is if you choose not to go back to the full School Setting, could you have a Smaller Group of children doing distancelearning in a Smaller Group at home so you are getting a little bit of the benefit of the socialization, the Group Interaction . I think for some families, that may be a good option. We did not talk about this. I talked about the first level of look at your Community Level of circulation. That is number one. Number two is to look at the situations. Ool and what is the ability of that school to do all the things we know will decrease the use of transmission . The masks, the distancing, alternating days, using more outdoor space, open windows, all those things. How good can the school do that . The third is even if all of those things are great, if you are in a household with four elderly people and a disabled child at higher risk, for you personally, it may not be the right thing for you to have your children going back to school because you will have problems, increased risk in your own household. This is the scenario where i think smaller pods are a reasonable thing for people to consider. But again, you have to know what the people in your pot are doing because the risk is when they leave the pod. Areour friends in the pod going to house parties and the beach and hanging out, that is more risk than going to a school where there are measures in place. Host a couple more calls. We will go to david, a parent, in fairfax, virginia. Good morning. Caller my question is more long term the Immediate School year coming up. I am aware the cdc and various organizations are saying they estimate the number of people aboutve cases likely is 10 times, the number is 40 Million People probably have had it. My question is, at what point do you think we may reach some herd immunity . New york was awful for a time and it has come back down significantly since then. At what point do we see things slow down out of the natural process of a viral infection where the community has reached some sort of immunity . I know we dont know everything about covid right now. Is there some research that says at some point, we will reach a Tipping Point and this will come down naturally . Host thanks, david. Guest this caller is right. If you let a disease go rampant, eventually it will run out of people to infect. The concept of herd immunity is when you get tweet critical Tipping Point of people who have thatr developed immunity it is harder for the virus to spread from person to person. For some diseases, it is very high. You need to have 80 and 90 of people who have had infections to prevent it from spreading in a community. With this virus, we think it has to be at a minimum 60 to 70 of people. We are nowhere near that. In new york, we have looked at how many people have developed antibodies. It is still less than 10 in most big cities that have had an outbreak. In washington state, it is only Something Like 3 of people that have had infection. We are nowhere near where we need to be for herd immunity. Cannot afford to just allow the virus to go rampant. Even in a place like new york, it completely overwhelmed the system. It is something we cannot allow in this day and age. We cannot do that ethically. Another point i think is important is all these numbers and herd immunity we are talking about our only true if the antibody or the immune response is permanent or durable, meaning at least six months to a year. What we are learning about these antibodies is they may not last that long. Many studies are being done to systematically look at how long those antibodies stay in the atod and trying to correlate a quantitative level done in a lab, does it prevent infection . Those are all unknown questions we do not have the answer to get. But we are looking at it carefully. Observationtter, that children are bug bombs. You seem to get sick sometimes just from looking at them. Lets get a call from rodney in houston, texas. Caller good morning. Askroberta, i would like to this question. Im asking you to be a straight shooter. I am from houston, texas, third ward where george floyd was from. I went to the same school. The reason i am bringing this up, we hear a lot of issues about black lives matters. Theres a lot of incidents of prejudice in schools. The teachers are being put at a disadvantage. This is a scenario. Lets say a white teacher is teaching black kids. Taughts are not being how to wear the mask at home, or maybe they are, and the kid get that disease. Parent wants to accuse the teacher because they said you did not Pay Attention to my allowedmy kid was not to watch his or her hands, and they was not wearing their mask correctly, you did not do anything . To me, the teachers are at a risk. It seems like a lot of education should given in the home, from the schools, some kind of curriculum. And the last question i want to we glad this is not a Nuclear Attack . Host ronnie, i will let you go. We are running short on time. Guest these are really important points. There are so many issues when we think about this virus and how it is affecting our society. Texas is an area that has a lot of circulation in several areas. I am not certain of these pacific that specific area where this person called from. The decision to go back to school will probably not be appropriate in a community where there is an controlled large amount of transmission, regardless of any other mitigating things we can do to lower risk in an area where there is low amount of circulation. None of those measures are going the primaryt determinant, which is how much is going on in the community. The issue of Racial Disparities is really important. We have seen in adults and children, and it has been confirmed in this daddy our center is putting out soon the study our center is putting of sin, the children hispanic ethnicity or black race are at higher risk for infection as well as hospitalization. We are also seeing this in our native american population. There are differences in our communities about who is at highest risk. We cannot ignore that. Some ofhave to look at those sync up relations are at the higher risk of harm if they do not have access to food, education, and interventional services, Mental Health services, all the things that Everyone Needs but are at a higher need in those populations. It is a very complex issue. There really is not a simple answer. Is the chiefiasi of Infectious Diseases division at Childrens National hospital. We look forward to talking to you again. Guest thank you. Host we look forward to talking to you as well about your top Public Policy issues. En up our phone lines for republicans, democrats, and independents and others. We will be back to your calls in just a moment. This week marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki. Watch cspans washington for discussion about the bombings with the author of twilight of the gods, and the grandson of president truman. Then sunday, watch American History tv and washington journal live at 9 00 eastern as we look at how the bombings ended world war ii and their legacy in the decades ahead. Discussion with your calls, text messages, facebook questions, and tweets. Watch the 75th anniversary of the bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki this week on washington journal on cspan and American History tv on cspan3. , the Ohio Republican congressman on the need for and delivering internet to underserved areas. [video clip] they admitted we have to look at this, we do have a problem. We put money out to help get these maps correct. We have legislation i was part of. It is important we get it done. If the maps are not right when we are going to get dollars out to the areas where you need to have them, it will not happen. You might be putting money into areas that have services and not getting the dollars into the unserved areas. The ohio congressman tonight at 8 00 eastern on the communicators on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host we started the morning talking about the coronavirus, the new phase dr. Birx called it of the spread of the pandemic in the u. S. What is your top Public Policy issue . You want to talk about the pandemic . That is great. Anything else . The line for republicans, democrats, and independents and others. President trump, several tweets so far this morning. A couple of them. Visit last week to texas and florida had massive numbers of cheering people gathered along roads and highways. Even bigger than the crowds of 2016. Supporters, and at some in the fake news said it was an equal number. Sad many countries are now having a second wave. The fake news is working overtime to make the usa and me look as bad as possible. The headline, democrats warned gop, do not fill the vacancy in 2020 or we will retaliate. He writes that democrats are warning republicans not to fill a potential Supreme Court vacancy this year saying it would embolden a push on the left to add seats when they regain power. In 2016 they were lying when they said we cant do this ,cause it is an Election Year senator tim kaine said. Line first up, from virginia. Caller i wanted to make a comment. I wish i could speak to the doctor on your prior program. I wonder if anybody is exploring technologies being tested or approved, whether in the u. S. Or abroad, that are very effective against covid19. In specific is cold plasma. A lot of people are talking about reopening schools, restaurants, and bars. In schools, they could effectively diminish the spread of covid19 or any emerging diseases. I wonder if anyone is looking into it. I attempted to reach out to the , my congresspeople, and even the president and Vice President. I did not get a response from the white house. I did not get a response from the senate. Someone at dhs contacted me willing to expose a product. These things are out there. I wanted to make the comments of people are aware of these technologies. Host also in virginia, jack on the democrats line. Caller thanks for having me on. I wanted to advocate my support for [indiscernible] as an issue as we go through this harrowing time. Is something obviously we do not have to worry about much in the u. S. , but it is still rampant abroad and has the potential to do serious detriment to countries that are less developed than the u. S. , especially during this time with the pandemic. That asit is important we still have a lot of focus on our own issues as they are still mounting, that we look abroad and see there are other countries that can benefit from endid and things like the acterculosis paston 2019 past in 20 in 2019. Host that was part of the budget. Trenton, new jersey, is next on the independent line. Tony, go ahead. Caller a simple question. I am an epidemiologist. The way we treat pandemic, we look for the source of the virus. The source of the virus. This is missing in the argument in america. That is why it spread like fire. You cannot jump the gun and then start fighting the virus. We look for the source. But nobody is talking about the source. It is going to be a catastrophe if we do not go to the source, where the virus is coming from. There is something. The source is there. We have to look for the source. As an expert, when i look at field, in the medical it has been like a business. It is oriented toward business. And peoplebbyists interested in making money. If you look at the head of the becauseis like an enemy he stands in front of the pharmaceutical industries. It is only now people are taking the epidemic seriously. We have to be realistic and sincere. We have to look at preventive measures in the future. We have to be ready for any pandemic. That is what i have to say. Host ok, tony, appreciate that. We talked earlier this morning with Niels Lesniewski with roll call. Morningrt this saying Steven Mnuchin and the chief of staff at the capital to meet with Speaker Pelosi and senator schumer. In new york, this is scott. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am a godfearing american who loves the human race. I believe somewhere in the bible, it talks about a lie being a tool of satan. If we have all of these politicians from the top down lying to us, they are basically doing satans work. I cannot understand why these socalled christians are pushing because we will be keeping ourselves from going to heaven if we follow satan and that christ. Host another stories this morning on a trumped nominee that gets new pentagon post. They write that after failing to secure a Senate Confirmation hearing, President Trumps most divisive nominee so far has taken a less senior policy role at the defense department. A retired Army Brigadier general who has called former president obama a terrorist leader< will. Fficially perform duties in theory, the position would still offer some degree of influence on pentagon matters, potentially including iran. Callingion to falsely obama a muslim antiterrorist, he is called congresswoman Maxine Waters and African American race baiting racist according to nowdeleted twitter posts seen by reuters. Days afterthe move the Republicanled Senate abruptly canceled his confirmation hearing. To bobby in virginia, republican line. Down your volume and go ahead with your comment. Caller all right. Thank you, sir. Is, whym calling about is all we hear even from the doctors of science, wear a mask and sixfoot distancing . That is not going to kill the virus. What we need to do, we need to be doing something to kill the virus. Why are we not spraying these big parking lots with some kind people gozation where through these great big parking lots and spits and throws their cigarette butts down and Everything Else . We are carrying it in the stores and back home with us. Are we going to wear the mask the rest of our life . Are we not going to try to kill this virus . What i wanted to go on to say is the Chinese People smarter than we are . I saw a clip a few days ago were they were washing their places down. Host tupelo, mississippi, democrats line. Caller i have a question. I wonder if anyone has thought about the fact that they are saying if trump loses, you may not want to leave the white house he may not want to leave the white house. Has anyone considered if he wins and stays there from november to january, the damage he could do to a lot of the policies and things he has control over . Is that something that could be put in place, where if he does not win, that he is not able to destroy a lot of things that he could destroy from november to january . Host i appreciate you calling in. This is an opinion piece in the Washington Post this morning written by President Trumps National Security advisor, robert obrien. The headline trump has shown russia his resolve to defend the u. S. He writes that Ronald Reagan is looking down on us with a knowing smile. Like reagan, President Trump strives for good relationships with all nations, including russia. But no nation should doubt the president s commitment to defending the United States and our allies. He writes that President Trump is demonstrated what he has said about putting america first. Russians know from experience it will pay a price, even if that price never becomes public. Trumpeks ago, president againstmore sanctions the owner of a troll farm that spread disinformation around the 2016 election and the wagner group whose mercenaries are deployed in syria, ukraine, and libya. The president also announced new guidance to deter companies from assisting russia with its pipelines. Projects would make our European Partners more dependent on russian interests energy. He writes that these steps are unfortunately necessary given russian actions that threaten the United States and its allies. This includes interfering in western democratic elections in 2016 and 2017, propping up brutal regimes in syria and venezuela, engaging in Cyber Attacks on america and its allies, violating important arms treaties, and attempting to kill a british subject with a military grade nerve agent. In response to this conduct, the Trump Administration has imposed sanctions on hundreds of russian entities. South bend, indiana, deborah is on our republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Questions tothree ask. When are we are, [indiscernible] why are we . And i need an answer. , when didn by that is woulde that a virus kill us . Whereen the next one is, did this fear come from . Did we next one is, why do it . Was it political . World, we cant pay our rent, our mortgage. That are thees beneficiary of when and where. We just want to know why did you do it . And what answers can you give me . Host we are thinking your thoughts on your top Public Policy issue on the line for republicans, de democrats, and for independents. On the line for independents, it is date from michigan. Go ahead dave from michigan. Go ahead. Caller can you hear me . Host yes. Caller my beef is a little bit with how the house o representatives is televised. When they call a representatives from different states, they will jump around the different states. Unless you are really taking them, i would like to see stay with the state. Every time they call someone up from texas, i want to hear the republican side and the democrat side from texas. And then, go on to the next state. There is a mix of misinformation within those states or our states or whatever. This is what i like to see instead of jumping around. Host you mean on the floor of the house . Is that what you are talking about . Caller that is correct, yes, if you know what im trying to get to there. Host keep in mind that we do cspan does not control the cameras in the u. S. House. That is number one. Secondly, when a bill or measure comes up, typically, there are members from all different sotes backing that one bill it may not follow the democrats from virginia. They come up as part of the Committee Supporting the legislation. Does that make sense . Caller kind of, sort of, stays within the realm of their bill. I understand that. But we are only getting a little bit of one side of the story on that within the state because it is so mixed. Host thanks for your comment. A story about the search for the missing marines off the california coast. Eight Service Members assumed dead. Massive search and rescue operation for eight marines and a navy sailor that went missing after a training accident. It has been halted and all are presumed dead, be said on sunday they said on sunday. On thursday, there could be as assault vehicle began taking on water and sank. Eight marines were pulled from the water. One died and two others remain hospitalized in critical conditions. Annandale, virginia, next up on the democrats line. This is matt. Good morning. Caller good morning. I guess my number one Public Policy issue, i would like to piggyback on what the previous caller said and say i do think it is good for us to have clear comments from all of our numbers on legislation. Often we do not get our representatives ideas on things unless we ask them. We should not have to ask them to put out what they believe. That is like the basics. I think our representation in congress is unrepresentative of this country. Number one, we need to decrease the amount of people each representative in the house represents. I dont think when the founders made this country they would believe that representing one Million People would be possible for one person. And we have congressional seats nearing one Million People, especially for those with one state one representative. The second thing is i think we need to have a Constitutional Convention and get rid of the senate. The senate was created to keep slavery in place by giving the southerners equal representative with the north. Why do we still have it . What is the point of the senate . It should be the house goes back and forth and we should not have this senate that only seems to make legislation more difficult to enact any country that has more pressing needs, more diverse needs. It is a vestige of the colonial age. I understand its purpose at the time was to put steam off of the impending civil war. But we do not need it anymore and should do better. Host ive been doing the show for a number of years. It is an interesting idea but i have never heard anyone mention an amendment to get rid of the u. S. Senate. Thanks for making us think this morning. I appreciate you calling in. We go to tim in lakeview, arkansas. Caller good morning, bill. Thanks for taking my call. Number one is the culture, because theres a culture war going on right now. Is beauty of this country contract we have with one another called the constitution. That guarantees my rights and your rights and also the limitations of the federal government. What we have with the left and the progressives is a continual push towards chaos because chaos allows them to call for change. And change is how they grow their power. So, when they talk about systemic racism and some Government Entity, the next thing they say is we need more power in that Government Entity to solve the racism. The last caller said there are so many issues the government needs to deal with. That is because the government makes more issues. We did not used to have obamacare and so many health issues. We had less hospitals when this virus broke out because obama cut the number of hospitals. Progressivesthe only want to change and tear down this country. They said it, fundamentally change. I hope everybody is prepared for giving up everything they like now. They want to go as far as having federal government take care of your local zoning. None of these seated. Why do we keep pushing for changes that have failed in the past and will fail again . Do it for this morning. Morehead tomorrow morning, washington journal live every day, have a great day. [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] ahead today, join us later for a discussion on executive power and constitutional normals during the Trump Administration. You can watch live at 11 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan two. Later this morning, a congressman talks about that response to the pandemic and the efforts to pass another belief package. You can see that life starting at noon eastern right here. Taking a look at congress, negotiations continue on another round of covid relief on the hill. Over the weekend, nancy pelosi and Steven Mnuchin both said the latest talks were productive, but more work is needed. The house has begun its summer work period members may be asked to return. The senate is back in session today to work on a nominee for happy energy secretary. The schedule for the rest of the week depends on the status of the relief package. They a s