The coexecutive director of the Heritage FoundationNational CoronavirusRecovery Commission also Vice President of the institute for Family Community an opportunity. First, talk about this commission and what you pu whent together, who sitsio on it and then we can talk about your recommendation. Good morning and thank you for having me. This is an unprecedented crisis and our president looked at the debate as it was developing and became concerned because a dichotomy between people are arg from a Health Perspective and argues for men economic perspective. At this point its hard to remember how suffocated people were in terms of Everybody Needs to stay home or go backho to wok to do is important to look over the horizon and see what is it going to take to talk about this issue holistic way of life and livelihood so she put the commission together and it was a fantastic experience and a great group of people 17 experts from all across the country an in all different areas andff walks of life. We wanted it to be something that represented all different societies. We have people from the healthcare sector, t people who represented a Small Business but also brought in people who have expertise in education, doctor management, different components that made up the things people were concerned about in the crisis. All conservatives . No. It was a bipartisan panel. The five phase plan includes return to a more normal level of Business Activity, cdc guidelines to slow down the rate of the cases, increased availability of diagnostic cests, establish future risks of dependence. Can you drill into the first one tturning to a more normal level of Business Activity can you do that when he says we are still in the first wave of this pandemic . Whatever ways we are currently in its important as nt see people going out into large gatherings. Its still with us we are still in the midst of it. Whats different now than a couple of months ago as this started, we didnt know anything about it. We were having to build from tht bottom up and what we are fortunate to have now americans always rise to these occasions with resourcefulness and coming together. What we know now as it didnt affect everyone and every place evenly. There were specific places that were hit harder. Everyone knows new york city had a tough time with this and still is not completely out ofof the woods that one of the things ita dont feel like we talked about quite enough is who was hit the hardest. Everyone knows elderly people with comorbidity were much more at risk but i dont know if anyone still understand how much more hard hit than everyone else, people in Nursing Homes and other tightly living together kind of situations particularly Nursing Homes and so as we move forward knowing these different data points we can be more strategic and focused in how we approach the virus. You also write continuing to guidelines to slow the rate of new cases ive wondered what your opinion is of President Trump holding this rally in an arena that seats 19,000 people in tolls for oklahoma saturday when the cdc says we should avoid large gatherings. I think acrosstheboard regardless what event is planned or with the person wants to try to decide about their vacation or going back to work we do have specific guidelines about how people can protect themselves. You can wear a mask and should be following all of the basic publichealth recommendations that weve all become familiar withec in terms of a washing yor hands and respecting social distancing. I went to a store yesterday for example they have markings on the floor now how to stand 6 feet apart, protecting people behind cash registersin with barriers. So we have come along way in terms of being able to go outside and be together in gatherings with other people and still protect ourselves and other people which is what wearing the mask is all about. Why did people on the commission and you believe one of the keys is increasing the availability of diagnostic tests, what did you find . You have to be able to know who has it and where it is. From the start its been a challenge being able to see where it is and weve made a lot of progress on that as well so thats something people can feel much more confident about as we move forward. What states have met these recommendations that you have put out and are able to move forward with reoffending without risking more cases . Im so glad you asked that question for two reasons. One is there is the wisdom of having a federalist approach ina the country and being able to make decisions at smaller levels than just federal government. And how the state and federal government have responded . I am calling concerning how the coronavirusco is doing and also to talk about the book. Lets stick to the pandemic. I think it will be quite a while before we come w back. We are suffering right now. Do you agree it will be a while . Thank you for thatck question. We need toto be realistic is not over we need to be smart and targeted just because we still face the crisis doesnt mean we dont have the tools to help ourselves get back to elwork. One of the things we found out to the process is you cannotth separate lives and livelihood over 30 Million People out of work has been devastating for the economy and Peoples Health we established 1 Million People in the healthcare sector filed for unemployment because we shut down all other healthcare rather than focusing on corona. We found we were not overwhelmed and other markers of health or Bad Health Outcomes were going up four years we have had Public Health messages going to people to know the signs and symptoms of heart attack and stroke if you feel the symptoms go to the hospital but people were so fearful thats there were very bad outcomes for those who did not feel comfortable following those guidelines to say we could open up the entire healthcare provision across all the different measures of healthcare challenges and we need to get people back to work republican line. Caller yes. With the d coronavirus joe biden campaigning yesterday his speech about all the trouble that trump has caused so this does affect how america comes back from the coronavirus. Las vegas january 6 over 1 Million People gathered together at the convention i was there. 400,000 chinese at that convention. There was coronavirus. I got the flu. Nobody was put down. Proven situation its not as bad as it says. They had a normal event at the Convention People need to talk about that because the democrats want to panic to continue to keep the economy k shut down. You make an important point pulled into a fine focus one of the challenges we had to confront the virus was the fact we didnt know how it affected different people differently. So we now know that the vast majority of cases is a challenge for young people this is why we are confident to say you can open schools backup but on the other hand we know what they are over 65 with simultaneous other Health Challenges at the same time that it is very challenging for them. That is important for people to make an assessment of their own risk as we move forward because therele are people and the asymptomatic people have h no symptoms or a mild case but there are some in the olderng age ranges who really struggle with this. Another thing that is very positive of how we progress in our knowledge is that doctors are starting to learn more how to treat this of those that have a theory that case and that is also helping. Democratic collar. Caller everyone is overlooking the virus first the president said it was a hoax it is his fault to lie to i you get to talking to people and another thing about the recovery all they are thinking about is money and when you set up to go back to a job that if you get sick what has happened . The government needs to stop lying to us and tell us the truth people are dying every u day. Telling people not to say how many people are dying wake up america have we need to get him out. I think one of the Biggest Challenges as we look back at the time might how america mobilize to confront the virus is that early january it started to be a global threat hours cdc reached out if we can send some scientist over to wuhan to be there and interact with the chinese scientist to have a sense and they rejected our efforts to doec that. Obviously the biggest challenge that we face it was a novel virus it had coronavirus before but did not react like this one did. As we get down the road we willtl look back to see who could have responded differently. Thats always important in the pandemic and frankly the last part of the report you can find online at coronavirus commission. Com the last part looks at how we can do better moving forward and one of the recommendations is to have a time when we look at the government response and better coordinate across different agencies within the governmento. Host how does your commission tell the government toen respond almost half of the country include florida 55 percent in texas 41 percent and oklahoma i will where the president has the rally how does federalhe and state governments respond . Its important to look at this as a community by immunity perspective at the local Community Level because we do want to continue to focus on the lives and livelihoods its super important to get people back bato work where it is possible to do that. Given the fact we do know how this has spread to protect themselves the fact that businesses are moving forward to put up barriers for their cashiers and wearing the mas mask, there has been a lot of conversation about masks that the commission has looked into the different elements and arguments related to the mask and we came out to encourage people to follow the guidance and where the mask that does make a difference on the larger level to help slow the spread. Host turn down your television and listen to your phone. Good morning. Caller how are you. We have sunshine which actually kills the virus here in hawaii that the government continues to extend the deadline coming from the us. We have a natural border of the ocean. But the messages are so politicized what do you recommend to get the politics found the message that you convey and as we all know john bolton was in charge of the Health Agencies prior and tried to streamline so what can you recommend with that nationalize message to all over all, of us here we have sunshine which is awesome. There is a lot of awesome in hawaii. [laughter] people should be able to feel confident there was an early story of one of the divisions reacting to pandemics and the truth is there was a reorganization and frankly what we are seeing is there are a lot of resources being brought to bear that are coordinating to respond one of the recommendations how the different elements of the federal government are coordinated that we have clear linesea of authority and a clear plan of how to coordinate moving forward i agree that shouldnt be politicized and thats why encourage people to stay focused on the data so people can take a look whats happening in their owns community to separate the political rhetoric and focus on the livelihood in their own community. Los angeles democratic line. Caller with the federal response has been utterly lacking from september 11, i see that federal response mobilizingal letting our kids go back to school in the fall i cant believe i heard on the station that you would strongly recommend sending our kids back. It is baffling to me that we are not mobilizing in a way that is reactive. I have cancer myself. It will never go away. It its chronic. I cannot leave my house anymore because the medicine i take is so strong it would be dead and just to brush off to say that people who are young are likely not to get the virus had it wont affect them as much there are millions of people like me all over the country suffering from a chronic illness and want way out of their houses and backs to society and to do it in a way that is meaningful. People are dying on the accelerated basis we already came out of phase one and now some states like oregon said they are starting to close backup. Im glad to have the opportunity to express my concern and to hear about your personal situation thats exactly the reason i started earlier in the segment talk about how important it is to focus on the people specifically at risk. Im a cancer survivor and my husband is as well. We pay very close attention to the recommendations for those in a higher risk category. One thing thats important to inform our conversation as we move forward this is still very much with us is first off you have to be concerned what is going on in your community. Your leaders need to make the decision there as opposed to the federal government thats a long way away from your situation geographically but in terms of the specific needs your community has to mobilize for that. So to respond with a lockdown across the country or the specific recommendationn is across a Large Population and those that need particular attention and Public Health approaches to protect their environment. And with the Healthcare Provider situation and then to be show on be sure they are protected. And everything we can to have a focus of those that high risk. And then just to get along. I have some questions and comments. Of many good arguments for that situation. When it comes to the coronavirus itself as a result of all of the death it is very discouraging. All the attention in the media seems to be given and then at the samee time it is very much discussing of the black policeman. Thats true it is all very bad. This is what i have to say. And to become so important in america that it gets all of this attention if it so bad then why are we not shutting down all of the killing of all the babies and everything like this . How many abortions in a day across america and those babies that are aborted are just as important as the white hoones. Host. And then to inject this into the public to address the virus taking effect . Im notno sure exactly which treatment he was referring to but i can tell i you that we are optimistic about is the sciences advancing rapidly in terms of experimenting of those different modalities and to help people to reassemble thebl panel with that highest quality medical input and there was an announcement justice last week that theynn discovered for the inflammation that goes along with it looking at how this virus presents differently than other viruses and other kinds of things that affect your lungs. We feel very optimistic the progress made on that front. Maryland go ahead. Caller. I have been reading some of the latest studies by nih and they did a study for healthcare workers to determine about the rna and is based on conversations and the study that i have been doing at the rna is that more than half those that were sick that does not have the rna which is the most accurate test of what it is testing for but its based on accurate testing they are not even using the test at the hospitals anymore. So to take that specific study to the more global question related to the virus thats one of the Biggest Challenges that we have had in that its presented in different communities and so one of the recommendations is to focus on the science and the exciting thing about america is we are the arsenal of democracy in world war ii and to ramp up across the private sector and having different experiments in different sectors because as you point out you cannot put all your eggs in one basket with one approach. And with the private sector to build up in a scientific area to continue and it is essential to come out to a place where we do know much more about this virus threat and i feel confident we will get there. As Co Executive Director the Heritage Foundation tnational commission thank you for your time. Thank you