So were worried, were being very careful especially about seniors and i expect to see changes today that really restrict gatherings of large clouds and thats going to be critical slowing the spread of this disease. Explain more the changes that youre expecting. Well, rumor has it that we will have no gatherings of more than 250 people. As declared by the governor . By the governor. My understanding is Nursing Homes in particular are having a lot of new restrictions, really discouraging any visits or anybody from leaving and i know cms has been really involved in making sure that every nursing home is following the absolute best standards for infection control. And then of course everybody has to make their own decisions and i think people are very, very attuned to this in Washington State, being ready to just hunker down, shelter in place for several weeks if needed. What role since we mentioned the governor is the state playing, what role is the federal government playing and are those two hands coordinating well . Well, first of all, just a big shout out to our governor who is doing an incredible job of overseeing this and making smart decisions based on science and evidence and Public Health experts and a big shout out to our Public Health officials in Washington State. They have just done a supreme job of limiting this outbreak and tracing contacts. Frankly, if it had to happen anywhere king county and Washington State Public Health are astounding. There is coordination. Vice president pence came out with all of our delegation, republicans and democrats to Washington State just last week and they are helping us with the national stockpile, with getting mass kt and other personal protective equipment for health care provide sneers let me give the phone numbers, democrats 2027488000, republicans 2027488001, independents 2027488002 and medical t professionals 2027488003. A pediatrician for over two decades before you joined congress. Do you mind talking for a minute about why children have been spared thankfully so far from this. Theres a lot we still dont know about this disease. I cannot even imagine in my wildest dreams that children are not getting exposed and getting infected, but they seem to not have symptoms and similarly pregnant women, another group that is usually at high risk for things like the flu, they dont seem to be as affected. So there is a theory right now that it is actually more the immune response to this virus that causes some of the awful pulmonary symptoms as opposed to the virus itself. Explain. Well, again, this is theory and were going to know more we get epidemiological studies and when we really see how many kids are carrying this and whether they can spread the disease, but children and pregnant women have suppressed immune system or not yet fully developed immune systems, whereas older people will mount a more vigorous response. So it is thought that it is some of the cytokines, too big word for a normal show, causing inflammation that leads to some of the really tragic pulmonary symptoms and thats why perhaps pregnant women and children seem to be spared some of the worst symptoms. Up here on capitol hill whats happening in your office, any additional restrictions youre taking, what advice as a medical professional are you giving your colleagues up here . First i am telling everybody and in caucus last week, spoke up and said, hey, guys, wake up, ive seen a bunch of people in this room cough into their hands and wipe their noses and you guys have got to get on this. Because it started in our county and it is spreading fast and killing people in our county because it hit Nursing Homes, which is incredibly vulnerable, but it is everywhere, we just havent found it yet. So we are making changes we always elbow bump, we have purell everywhere, we are being conscientious about not touching our faces and being careful about infection control. I personally and you have to remember that pediatricians are kind of like Infectious Disease doctors because we live in petreegj dishes all the time. I am very good about not touches my face but i also have decided to forego any communal breakfasts, things where everybody is touching tongs. I open doors with my elbow. I think we all have to be aware of hands and faces. That phone line for medical professionals 2027488003. Phone lines as usual, democrats, republicans and independents. Barbie is up first for you out of brooksville, florida, a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. I had hoped to speak with the previous guest, but my my problem is everybody wants to jump on the bandwagon of blaming and i feel that since trump has gotten into office he has believed in burning down rather than building up and i think the cdc has been behind on jumping on to this. You could have shown a clip of dr. Redfield in his congressional hearing the other day saying that they had been defunded, the workforce had been pretty much decimated. That sort of thing just helps along this growing problem we have and thats my comment. Well, thank you for your comment. I really prefer to kind of take the high road right now in terms of second guessing and creating a political issue out of this. First of all, the scientists at the cdc and nih and hhs have been tremendous. Yes, there were missed steps along the way, there were problems with coordinating different agencies, i think that brakes were put on at places where there shouldnt have been, for example, in todays paper and yesterdays you could see that there was a doctor in Washington State who does flu surveillance who can take those samples and surveil for co individual as well, for coronavirus as well, and was stopped from doing that. You know, in retrospect we will look back. At this point lets look forward. Were getting more test kits, bringing in universities, bringing in the private sector, making that available. In my state we have places doing drive through testing and the more cases we find the more we will be able to control this illness. And right now democrats and republicans have to come together. This is a time when we are fighting a common enemy. This does not discriminate based on what Political Party you are in and so i was really pleased to have Vice President pence come out to Washington State and i know hes working hard to get more masks to our state. The caller mentions dr. Robert redfield. If you want to go back and watch that hearing in its entirety where he testified yesterday alongside some other medical professionals you can do that at our website at cspan. Org, just type redfield in the search bar in the top of the page and you will have a chance to hear from dr. Redfield again today, that hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee beginning in about 45 minutes from now and we are going to air it on cspan 3. You can also watch it on cspan. Org, listen it to it on the free cspan radio app and joining dr. Redfield will be dr. Anthony fauci, one of the other faces so far of the federal response. You mentioned just a second ago the democrats and republicans have to come together. What do you think that they can do this week possibly before this he leave town when it comes to blunting the economic downturn caused by coronavirus . Sure. Well, we came together really quickly last week and put together an 8. 3 billion package that will be used for everything from developing vaccines to evaluating treatments and getting them out to reimbursing local Public Health authorities for all the work that they are doing and have done, but it also has some economic measures as well thinking about what we need to do to keep Small Businesses up and running. Now, our governor has gotten ahead of this. They are doing things like having emergency unemployment so that if people cant go to work either because their children are, you know, in school and they need to stay home or because the business business c is too slow to employ them, theres temporary insurance. Were making sure this test is available to everybody in Washington State without charge. Theres no theres nothing discouraging people from getting treatment and getting tested and i have a bill that well be looking at today to do the same thing federally. The big thing that the white house is proposing among their package is a payroll tax break. Yesterday from the white house at the press briefing, it was larry kudlow who spoke about it. This is what he had to say. Well show that to you in just a second as we hear from thomas from north carolina. A republican. Go ahead. I got two quick questions. Do you think that this will get worse before it gets better. It seems like theres more and more cases every day. And my second question is, i dont have a problem with it, the funding. Would that hurt other parts of the government using the 8 billion. Will our taxes go up . Im wondering where the 8 billion is coming from. Thomas, thanks for that question. The first part is, look, weve known since day one or at least people in the medical world have known that this was going to come to our shores. Theres only so much you can do to delay Something Like this from coming. We have pourous borders. This was going on in china before it was really announced as kind of an epidemic and an outbreak there which means people were traveling all over the world. This was just a matter of when and not if. You can absolutely 100 expect this will get far worse before it gets better, that this will spread. It already is. We have Community Spread and theres still so much we dont know. Our kids potentially spreading it to their grandparents. These are things we need to find out in order to slow the spread and contain. We also know that seniors and people with preexisting conditions are far more impacted and so i would anticipate more struggles there if we cant protect our seniors. The answer to your other question as far as where that 8. 3 billion is coming from, we made sure were not pulling from other places because we need to keep our entire government working. And, yes, at some point, were going to have to pay for it. Heres the thing and i want to drive home this point, the Economic Impacts of this disease, if we do not get hold of it and slow it and contain it will be far worse than whatever financial impacts these kind of rescue packages have. I also want to drive home the fact that we cant go from crisis to crisis intervening only once a disease is at our doorstep. We need steady, regular investments in the cdc and Global Health to catch these diseases before they turn into a big deal. And i promised you larry kudlow on the administrations payroll tax cut proposal. Here he is from the white house yesterday. On the economic package, the world unveiled was just used but so far the public has not seen it. How big is this package . How big is the payroll tax cut going to be . When is the general public going to see what you all put together. Larry . We are working out details right now. I dont want to quote any numbers ahead of time. You make a proposal, were checking with the leaders of both parties in both houses and see what is doable. I dont want to get any detail. I think the outline of the thing is very important. The payroll tax holiday is probably the most important powerful piece of this. But on the other hand i want to draw attention, we can use administration and executive authority, again, to help unpaid sick leave people, which is very important, we can use it for the medium and smaller businesses which is very important. Other distressed sectors, we have some leverage on tax deferral. We know look, i will say again as i have for quite some time, the economy is strong. We also know there are going to be problems ahead. We know there are going to be challenges ahead. Dont deny it. Well see. I want to take that a day at a full time and a fact at a time. But, anyway, this will be the broad package and at some point in the near future, we will outline a more detailed package for you. Congresswoman kim shrier about the package that has been outlined. My comment would be that first, im really happy that were looking at the economics of this and taking it seriously. I think it has been a real determent to the ability to address this to have mixed messages coming out of the administration. Down playing this, i understand the reason is that our president didnt want to see the stock market hit hard. But his viewers, people who follow him who are seniors, they need to understand this is just not a seasonal flu. This is a bigger deal. First of all, im thrilled to see its been taken with seriousness. I think all options are on the table. A payroll tax will help. It will help Small Businesses and people who are employed. But theres a lot of people who will lose their jobs or be out on sick leave or who are part of the gig economy who will not be helped by this. And people may lose their jobs when businesses close or slow down. And so i think that we need to think more broadly. We need to think about paid sick leave not just for seven days. If people have to be home for 14 and their children get it, i think we should be thinking in terms of a month. I think we also need to be thinking about emergency unemployment insurance, like were doing in Washington State so that if somebody losing their jobs for a couple of months, we can help them. I dont want anybody to get kicked out of their apartment, not be able to pay their mortgage. Not be able to put food on the table. Theres a couple other things that weve been thinking about which is, there are a lot of Safety Net Services out there. Food programs, s. N. A. P. , wic, school lunches. We need to make sure that people are still made whole during this time. A payroll tax could be part of the picture but we need to think bigger. This is cheryl in independence. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to report a few facts that ive found with regard to this coronavirus. On october 18th, 2019, there was an event that took place in new york city. It was called event 201. It was hosted by the Johns Hopkins center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic forum and the bill and Melinda Gates foundation. It was an extremely fascinating pandemic similarization because it was an exercise of a coronavirus which would take place about six weeks after this event took place. The coronavirus virus is patented by a company by the name of pure bright institute. Its funded in large part by the bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Carol, youre saying a virus was patented . Caller the virus was patented by pure bright institute. I will let you respond. Im not sure, carol, exactly where your question is going. Im make a couple of comments. The first is, yes, its really important to have these pandemic simulations. Sometimes its about a novel pandemic flu, sometimes its about a coronavirus, both mers and sars were coronaviruses. That would be a typical type of virus to involve in a simulation. This is why, by the way, we need steady funding for the cdc and Public Health and Global Health because thats the funding that pays to prepare communities and hospitals and doctors for these kinds of emergencies. Im not sure where youre going with the next part. Im going to take a guess because i think this is an important issue to address. There is misinformation out there that this virus perhaps was manufactured in some way, that it was it was altered in a lab that immediate it more infectious. I even heard it brought up by a member of congress and this was fl flatout denied. This is a natural mutation of a virus that came from animals to humans and has the ability to go very easily from human to human and theres no evidence that this came from a lab anywhere in our country or in china. Let it go. Lets look at the science and the facts. Mary is next. Good morning. Caller good morning. Hi. I hope this isnt too farfetched, by i have been thinking after the coronavirus hit, i wondered, gee, President Trump in november i guess the middle of november, had this strange trip to walter reed so that he could be he said partial physical. Now, he didnt meet, didnt he, with several chinese officials in late october, early november. Could it be that he went to get tested for the coronavirus and they covered it the media is just saying that nobody really knew why he had gone there . Congresswoman . You know, mary, this is another one of those im sorry to be at all dismissesive. Its a farfetched theory. Its not a place to put our attention. Its highly unlikely that he would go to walter reed and come out looking good and healthy if this had anything to do with coronavirus. Its more likely that somebody in his late 70s would go to the doctor for another reason, like heart, lungs, Something Else that older people get. Lets push that aside. Everybody has their own theories. At this point we have to take on whats happening now and protect our communities. Time for one or two more calls with kim schrier of washington. Kathy is in delaware. Caller i want to let you know how my family is handling this socalled crisis. My niece is in paris this week enjoying her spring break. The rest of my family is our way to cancun for a spring break and enjoying the weather. Were totally confident with the Trump Administration the way its handled this whole situation. Now, if you would do me a favor, could you possibly Say Something to Chuck Schumer about his rhetoric. It is so inflammatory and caustic, its not good for the democrats. Not that i want to give you any positive advantage over the next election. But its going to come back to bite the democrats and if you look at england, for instance, theyve had 850some cases of coronavirus, six deaths. This is not a crisis. It is a crisis if we youre right, if we dont come together and on the same page, act civilized and stop beating up donald trump. Hes doing a very good job. And were very competent that he will by the end of march, i think youll see this thing start to wind down. Thats my thats kathy. Cathy, you brought up a whole bunch of issues. First of all, i agree with you, this should not be a political issue. We have to join forces here and take this on. I am concerned that you may be minimizing the impacts of this. I dont think theres any chance this will be winding down by the end of the month. March 31st, its only a few weeks away and i would anticipate this will be worse before it gets better. You can take your own perspective on that. But science is science and this is spreading. Each person who gets this potentially is spreading to two to 3 1 2 other people. And if we dont take aggressive action now, the numbers will escalate were quickly into the hundreds of thousands. Now the other issue you brought up is travel. I think this is really important. Look, i travel every week back and forth from my home in king county, washington, epicenter of all of this, to washington, d. C. And i have some anxiety about being on a plane, but im very careful about cleaning everything and i also have less anxiety because if i did get infected, i could isolate myself either in my apartment in washington, d. C. , or in my home at home. Now, when people travel, i think you really need to take this seriously. First of all, if youre in a highrisk group, i just think you shouldnt be doing voluntary travel right now. Second, if you go to france where there is an outbreak and your niece then gets coronavirus there, your niece will be stuck there somewhere and i dont know where travelers can shelter in place. I dont know if she will have 14 days to hunker down in a hotel nor if a hotel would want her there with this disease. And i certainly dont want her then getting a cough and a fever, dismissing it as being nothing and getting on a plane with hundreds of passengers coming home. So please, please, please, you know, take whatever risks you want to take. But understand what those consequences may be and you might be stuck in france or in cancun for a couple of weeks sick. And i also think you need to think about those health care systems. So please, please, please do not underestimate the potential disaster that we are already seeing in king county from this illness. Congresswoman from washington, the cochair of the Health Care Task force, do appreciate your time. Thank you very much. A live picture from capitol hill where we will bring you more on the coronavirus pandemic with the cdcs dr. Robert redfield and
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