Milestone, 6. 8 million cases, 200,000 atsorth world wnd the combined. U. S. , about onefourth to one fifth of the worlds number of cases. Although we do have a big popul population but overrepresents in the number of cases. So we want to explore what is happening there and we have a doctor with the Johns HopkinsUniversity Center for Health Security who will be us or we had him, lost him, getting him back. We want to talk about flu season coming up, a lot of doctors fear the twindemic. We want to check in with dr. Alok patel who talked about the importance of the flu shot. Lets get right to dr. Patel because i got my flu shot yesterday, right . I posted about it on social media and i was flabbergasted at some of the responses i got. And ight, w t dress th i not controversial that i got a flu shot and i got some really earnest responses, dr. Patel, from people who were spreading myths about the flu shot and i just want to clear this up with you today. So one of the first myths that someone came to me is that, ive seen this Research Online that shows that flu shots somehow make you more susceptible to covid19. They are two different viruses and the flu vaccine is specifically formulated to protect you against the seasonal flu. That doesnt even make sense. It makes me believe that the conspiracy theorists are out there. Not true. What also happens is theres a kernel of truth. That was my midday coanchor talking to dr. Alok patel. But right now, dr. Amish joins us. Johns Hopkins University for Health Security. Thanks for taking the time today. Thank you for having me. Its been six months since the w. H. O. Declared a covid pandemic. Where do we stand now . We really have a hodgepodge of different policies and levels of control around the world and across the united states. But areas where you see the percent above and then taiwan, basically back to normal versus places like spain where the outbreak is out of control. I think thats what we would expect based on a virus that transmits efficiently and people having Different Levels of Public Health actions that come and go as hot spots go and this is probably going to be what we see until we have enough of the worlds population vaccinated against this virus. Interesting that you mentioned taiwan. Its pretty much a postpandemic world right now, everything back to normal. We are going to talk to bay area woman author whos in taiwan right now. Shes going to take us through her quarantine routine as she arrives as a visitor. I want to ask you, dr. Fauci weighed in today saying its reasonable to assume that this virus can spread by aerosol and you know friday, the cdc acknowledged that yes, that could happen but the cdc then blaming it on the failure of process. What do you make of that . Why is there so much back and forth confusion, at this point . I think theres a lot of conceptual differences in the way that Infectious Disease doctors and Public Health experts use the word airborne aerosol in the way aerobiologists do. The main way they get infected through the respiratory route. Coughs and sneezes. Some are droplets and some might be aerosols but doesnt change what we need to do. Still social distancing, face coverings, avoiding crowds. Thats the important message. This kind of semantic war were having between different groups in our field isnt something the public needs to worry so much about because it doesnt change our advice to those people are. While its clear there is some aerosol spread going on, were not seeing the epidemiology spread the way, for example, measles or chickenpox or tu banglade berculosis. I think sometimes the difference is confusing to the general public. What kind of additional challenges or risks do you think cold weather will bring . Were going into fall now. When it gets ocolder, less humid, this virus can accelerate transmission because of the environmental characteristics and also true that people change their behavior. Less able to do activities outdoors and we know the outdoors is less likely to lead to spread than indoors so we have to prepare. As the weather changes, for an acceleration of transmission. So we have to make sure that we have adequate testing and tracing, and isolation capacity as well as personal protective equipment at the hospitals because it is likely that we will see an uptick in cases. Right. And flu season is coming up as well where, you know, i know doctors are concerned about the onetwo punch. What do you think it is people should do to protect themselves . The best way to protect yourselves from influenza is to get the flu vaccine and its really important this year because the less flu we have, the more room we have to deal with covid19. Covid19 will compete for the same hospital beds, icu beds, ventilators, personal protective equipment, even diagnostic testing agents. So we want the space to deal with covid19, so its very important this season to get your vaccine. You want to try to keep yourself out of the hospital for the flu or anything else because you know there will be some covid cases there as well. I want to ask you, i read a new study today that shed some light on the longterm impact of covid on survivors, people who recover. Can you talk more about what we now understand about the longterm impact . So this is an active area of research. Most people do get covid if they had an uncomplicated case without hospitalization or the icu do okay. But there are some people, even when they have mild cases that can have chronic symptoms. It may be very fatigued, difficulties with their activities of daily living. They may also have difficulty concentrating, and this is an Important Group of people that even though its a minority of people who recover, it is something that were trying to understand why that happens. And its important because when we think about covid19, we cant just think about the deaths. We have to also think about the longterm effects, disability that might occur, the morbidity of this infection and something we need to calculate. If youve been in the hospital or icu, you can expect your recovery is going to be prolonged over a year and thats true for many people, any condition requiring an intensive care unit on a ventilator. Trick or treating is coming up. Were talking about the onset of fall. The cdc of course did label it a higher risk activity thats best avoided, at least the traditional way. Do you agree with that and can it be done safely . I do think its a higher risk activity versus other activities but no activity in the era of the pandemic is without risk. You can take some measures though to minimize that risk by trying to follow social distancing, face coverings, have the candy picked up instead of physically dispersed to children. I think some places where the virus is under control, trick or treating can go on with some kind of modification. Other places might be difficult but its important to remember if you do go trick or treating, that the virus is going to be there with you, so you have to make sure that you still follow those social distancing recommendations in order to just avoid having the virus ruin halloween. Were chatting today in part because were marking the six month mark. I wonder, what do you see will happen in the next six months, if you will . I know its a little bit like having a crystal ball but taking in all the factors, what we know, people want to know about the vaccine, but what do you see for the next half year . The next half year, well continue to see an ebb and flow with different hot spots like getting up in some places maintaining control. I suspect that the new York New Jersey connecticut region will have very well controlled number of cases with robust contact tracing. I think well see better tests, maybe home tests where people can know their status beforehand and use that as a tool to decide what activities they want to do. I think well start to see people get better at risk calculation, being much more responsible about what activities they do. They wont necessarily need Public Health laws to tell them its not the smartest idea to go to crowded places and then the vaccine. I suspect end of this year, theyll get access to the vaccine but into 2021, the general public will start to see the rollout of the vaccine as a priority groups and probably better treatments. Things like antibodies to decrease the mortality of people admitted to the hospital and that will something very important. It will change the Risk Perception of the disease and more tools over the next six months. I think its still going to be a challenge and Public Health emergency and the developingelog world, they may not have access will be hit pretty hard with covid19. Not done with us yet, thats for sure. Thank you for the forecast. Dr. Amish with Johns HopkinsHealth Security. Thank you for your time. Appreciate you joining us. Thank you. Folks, were going to take a short break. When we come back, a bay area author in taiwan right now, were going to talk with her about her experience in how taiwan is welcome back. In contrast with the number of covid cases in the u. S. , one place that has held the pandemic at bay where life is essentially normal is taiwan. Despitnd beingred miles off the china, taiwan with its 23 Million People has had only 500 cases and seven deaths. Its been averaging one or two new cases a day since april. Joining us now from taiwan is the bay area author who penned the bestselling novelbestselll thank you so much for having me. Long overdue. Where exactly are you in taiwan and why are you there . I am staying in a hotel in tye way. Its one of the government approved quarantine hotels, here 14 days part of the process for keeping the country safe or taiwan safe. Right, okay. So i want to talk more about the whole elaborate protocol there. Youll show us around the hotel room but last time you saw us here, march 11st, the last guest studio bore everything locked down and we n n to the reconnecting, there it is. Were showing folks our interview, we had on tape all this time. Im glad were reconnecting now because unique insight between the covid protocol and taiwan here in the bay area where you experience from the moment you landed or even before because i know you had to take a covid test briefly. I did. Its quite an involved process. So the reason im out here is actually working on book two for love boat taipei, set during the moon festival. Always planned to come out here and i didnt think i could go anymore and then what i found out is normally you dont need a visa for taiwan but what i was told, the borders are closed and then at first, actually moving very quickly in realtime, and then i couldnt get Accurate Information if the borders were s ou need to get a special , i visa. So fortunately, i was able to get invitation letters within the country to hold book events and other speaking events and harpercollins wrote me a letter and i was able to get a special visa to come. So the requirements, in addition to the visa, you need to take a covid test three days before your flight. So i did that and when i got on the flight, i wore my mask, pretty heavy duty. A surgical mask inside andab wes before i couldnt take it anymore. Everyone else was wearing surgical masks and my section of the plane was less than 25 full and i flew at 1 00 a. M. Everybody was sleeping the whole time. Felt very safe. So we landed in taiwan. How did they start tracking . Yeah, as soon as i landed, i brought an extra cell phone just for it but i was required to buy an taiwanese sim card to have a taiwanese phone number. Every day, i get an email or text message from their Central Epidemic Command Center to check on my health and still in quarantine. They use this to track my location and make sure i havent left. I know people in quarantine, if they dont touch their phone for a certain amount of time, theyll get a phone call to make sure theyre still staying put. Know . You left your hotel ro, well, the hotel would know and those in quarantine in their parents home, the phone would let the center know if theyre actually leaving their location. So youre at this hotel for two weeks, right . And if youre in the clear, you can get out. Show us what theyre doing to make sure everything was contactless. So its pretty amazing. I came in and sent you a video clip. I was put into the Service Elevator and went down to the basement. Came out and somebody sprayed me from head to foot with alcohol. My bags were sprayed, head to foot and went up another elevator to my room, no keys because im not leaving and here i am. So theyve given me thermometers to take my temperature twice a day. Someone checks on me and actually keeping track of it as part of a contract they gave us. A testing contract, theres all my temperature scores and then theyve given us ls, a pair of spoons and a bubble tea straw, which is great and my meals are delivered three times a day on a hook at my door and our garbages, we stick it out in a bin outside the door as well. I could show you around. Please, walk us over there. Would love to see how it works. Walk us over. Here we go. So they lea your food, right . Do you get a choice . I dont really have a choice. But here is the hallway where theyd put my food. You can see my neighbors trash who i have not they gave us this basket here, this is for our laundry, our own dishes because they dont have laundry service. Got it. I guess for an author, its fine because you spend time writing or researching but whats your big plan . When are you allowed out . I am coming out, my last day is midnight on friday over here, so then i can go out and pretty much free to go out and im so excited. Actually, i feel already just being in this hotel and being away from the need to daily decontaminate and worry about being exposed to covid, all that stress is just removed, and excited to go out and have life as normal. So the first thing ill do is a massage and a facial and a haircut. Those are things that i havent felt comfortable doing in the united states. Where are you going to go for that . A glimpse of your sequel. Yeah, so a lot of being here is really just kind of being immersed in the world that my characters are in. I came for a similar trip for the first book when i really connected with my characters to understand, how do they feel being back here in this country with their parents, but plan to do a number, and then see a lot of the festival activities going on for many people, its about having meals with their families, exchanging cakes and picnics in the park. Observing those type of things and then, of course, like different festivals that ill be attending which i love. Where does the sequel pick up . Will it feature the same central character ever, i think, the chinese American High School graduate, the love boat program in taipei . Right, right. So thats everwong. The sequel, this hasnt been announced but going to follow the viewpoints of xavier and sophie, two of the main characters in the first book and rick will also make an appearance and its actually a story. It takes place almost immediately after the events of the first book. So continues the journey and have another adventure here in taipei. That sounds amazing. Dont go away. When we come back, your connection to the late Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg and your we made usaa insurance for veterans like liz and mike. An army family who is always at the ready. So when they got a little surprise. Two . They didnt panic. They got a bigger car for their soontobebigger family. After shopping around for insurance, they cled aa who helped find the right coverage for them and even some muchneeded savings. That was the easy part. Usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it easy. We are back. Well continue our conversation with bay area author in taiwan to do research for the sequel to her hit novel, love boat taipei. Abigail, turns out before you were writing, you were a lawyer. Worked on the Senate Judiciary committee on the dc circuit and had met the late Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg on many occasions. So tell us about what you recall from your meetings and the conversations that you had with her. Justice ginsburg was a student at harvard and columbia law school, so the first time i met her, she came for her portrait hanging ceremony. Its a thing with judges, not only in institutions in the academy but as part of one of the ceremonies they do as a judge or justice her husband marty. It was quite an honor to have that opportunity. So i had a number of amazing conversations with her. For example, both of her were mothers during law school and we talked about how that was kind of an unusual thing at the time and she told me and i totally agreed that jane improved her grades in law school and it was true for me. While i was a first or second year student, and i think having child in law school requires you to focus on whats important and i probably would have overstudied but instead of thinking about most material to my work. Interesting. Going to law school, being pregnant actually made you a better student. I love that. A lot has been made of rbgs ability to connect with people, based on their traits rather than political means. Friend with a staunch conservative, late antonin scalia. What did you witness . You shared a picture that i love dressed in opera gear. I think thats the story most people are familiar with. She would go to the opera with Justice Scalia and justice thomas. They were friends across philosophical differences and her death is bringing that to light now, because everybody is mourning her across both sides of the aisle. It really showed that she was part of a time and an era where it was much more collegiality and much more interest, were all still in this together as human beings even if we have differences. I think you were an aide to ohio senator, right now with the confirmation. Right, so the work of the Senate Judiciary committee, one of the responsibilities is the judicial nominations, so theyre going to be holding hearings, preparing now for the hearings and possibly barbara, if she comes forward. The work is to prepare the questions, do the research on the candidates. And in this case, the candidates that trump is considering have all been vetted already. Theyve all recently come before the senate so i think a lot of that work is going to be already done, and that actually gives him an advantage for certain in bringing his nominations through. So because of that, is there enough time, you think, to go through the process and hold the vote before the election . Its tight, but i think its they have the numbers in the senate. I think mitt romney was the last person people thought could potentially be persuaded to hold off, and as i said, the candidates have been recently vetted. So theres a lot, i think, thats going for a swift confirmation. All right. Abiga abigail, i want to thank you for sharing all this with us. Good luck with your research. Congratulations on almost being done with your quarantine and i want to circle back once youre able to get out and about and get that massage, enjoy that market Delicious Food out there in the harvest moon festival. We definitely want to get that glimpse of what a postpandemic world would look like. Absolutely. Im enjoying it already. Thank you so much, abigail, and we are back. Thank you so much for joining us today on this interactive getting answers show. We talked with a doctor from the Johns HopkinsUniversity Center for Health Security about the u. S. Reaching 200,000 covid19 deaths. We also took you live to taiwan and talked about how theyre tonight, the u. S. Officially reaches that grim and heartbreaking milestone. 200,000 american lives lost. The u. S. Has 4 of the worlds population and more than 20 of the worlds coronavir each number, an american life, a family forever changed. President trump overnight saying of young people, it effects virtually nobody. Dr. Anthony fauci calling the numbers sobering and stunning. And tonight, 33 states with cases rising. Wisconsin now declaring a new Public Health emergency. And the fda tonight, the new move and what it now likely means when it comes to a vaccine in this country near election day. The other major story tonight, the Supreme Court battle. Senate republicans sick nalling they have the