But broadly, what does your organization focus on . Michael well our organization , was founded by the university of maryland president in the wake of the 9 11 attacks to deal in the first instance in those days with principally counterterrorism issues. Days with principally counterterrorism issues. We are about to celebrate our 18th anniversary on may 15, 2002. , still do counterterrorism, but also we do controlling emerging infectious diseases, responding to superstorms like superstorm sandy, and also dealing with cybersecurity issues like ransomware. And since 9 11 the natin the world has not seen a epidemic like this. In your organizations experience in dealing with other viruses and health concerns, and even the tabletop exercises your group may have done, what is your appraisal so far of how the u. S. Has responded, the federal government, to the coronavirus outbreak . Guest let me say this virus is more serious than anything we face going all the way back to 2001. We have had anthrax, sars, mers, h1n1, ebola, zika. This virus resents the worst Public Health emergency that we are had and i am afraid as other experts that it will be very much like the 1918 spanish flu where somewhere between 20 million and 50 million people. Orldwide died from the flu i do not know that that is going to happen, but this is a much more serious problem then we have ever seen before. In terms of the federal response, i like many other people wish it had started earlier. We are still having difficulty finding testing kits to determine who has the flu. Without those testing kits and moving as slowly as the u. S. Is, it is very hard to develop a response. Take for example medical personnel in hospitals. They could look at somebody, they could be dealing with somebody who has a bad allergy attack, a bad cold, the seasonal flu, or covid19. Until we get a handle on what we are dealing with and who we have to deal with in terms of therapeutics, we are really behind the eight ball. I must to say south korea, which handled this, was testing tens of thousands of people a day. The u. S. , even though we have now ramped up and made it easier to develop testing kits, we are now still in the position of doing hundreds a day. Until we get a handle on precisely what we are dealing with, it makes responding that much more difficult. Host i saw the headline this week that says the coronavirus a good significant challenge disaster agencies a significant challenge to disaster agencies. Do you see a clear line of command on who is taking the lead in response to the coronavirus . Chain of command on who is taking the lead and response to the coronavirus . Talk usually when you about the emergency federal federalnt Agency Emergency management agency, youre talking about something that is mostly a state response. For example, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes. When you have a Public Health emergency it calls into play not just Emergency Management, but also the Public Health side of government. Those two aspects of government have to work in harness. I am comfortable that as we speak now, the federal government has got the chain of command in order. The other thing i would emphasize the president declared a National Emergency on march 4. That is an unusual thing to do. Usually what happens is urgencys sees our declared state by state. That may still happen the in fact, it will still happen. The fact that the federal government has declared this a National Emergency makes it easier for states to get the president to agree with their assessment that they are dealing with an emergency or disaster within the state. Whatever the federal government does, and what the federal government does is important, but it is a supporting role. As we are seeing all over the country, it is the state governors 50 state governors and the mayor of the district of columbia who have the lead on all of this. States dealing with this problem. Hass not every state, declared a state emergency and that is an important process because it frees the governor to take extraordinary actions the state. Estate in new york,eeing california, or maryland, is governors are taking action, closing restaurants, limiting the assemblage of people. They got support from the experts in the federal government, but this is going to be viewed principally as a state response problem. The good news there is as we work closely with governors and state Health Agencies and state Emergency Management agencies, the states are pretty well briefed to deal with this problem effectively. Host give us an idea of what your center at the university of maryland, the types of tasks or things you have been asked by state governors to assist with . Byst we have been asked state governors and agencies and localities also localities can on their own declare emergencies we have been advising a lot of large counties for example in maryland. Montgomery and prince georges, which are just on the border with the d. C. And are very populous. Very well written run governments. We are advising them on date them responses as issue on day today responses as issues arise. Howard county, which is between bc and baltimore and is a prosperous well between d. C. And baltimore is a prosperous wellrun government. We ran a tabletop exercise going through what a coronavirus would call upon the Public Schools to do and testing Public School officers on how they would respond. We have other exercises we happen asked to do that are being lined up. I must tell you we have a lot of existing contracts with counties and state governments into andthat have asked us cities that have asked us to do projects that now you not have the immediacy that coronavirus has. We have essentially been told, put the other things aside, throw your full weight behind working on the coronavirus, we will that back to those other issues when we can afford to do it. We are dealing with departments of health, hospitals, nonprofits, and it trying to give them advice on how to respond within the confines of the emergencies that have been declared and the powers or discretion they have to pursue Public Health ends. Until 9 00ng us up eastern is Michael Greenberger. He is the director of the university of Maryland Department of health and homeland security. Your statesear what are doing. Number for000 is the those of you in the eastern and central time zones. Mountain and1 pacific time zones. For medical professionals, your. Ine is 202 7488002 it invokes the stafford act and allows fema to tap into nearly 43 billion in funds directing aid to the states hit by crises. It instructs state governments to set up Emergency Operations centers. It directs hospitals nationwide to activate Emergency Preparedness contingency plans. It allows the health and Human Services secretary to hinder lift regulations that could hinder capabilities. That relief how quickly does not typically get to the states and localities . Way Public Health nonprofits may be entitled to a portion of that money. This,ly and all of even though it is a National Emergency, every state that has a serious problem will declare a state emergency, which is very important. Put will then go to fema to themselves in a situation to have additional funds sent into the state to cover work they do in responding to the coronavirus. Whenhe powers of governors they declare these emergencies is extraordinary. It is important to the president did it. He did it under the socalled National Emergencies act. And also something called a Public Health services act, it was put into motion on january 31 when we began to see people were returning from china possibly infected. All of those things allow the federal government to waive requirements that may normally be in place in normal times. For example, a medical licensed person can perform services outside of the area in which they are licensed under that waiver. The critical thing and we are seeing this when we see the press conferences with the governor of new york, the governor of california, into the governor of maryland this allows the states, it paves the to tapthe states, one, the resources of federal funding available. Requirement t the expenses you have, so when you turn around to seek federal relief you have the appropriate evidence to show, but also what thepresident did sets groundwork for states to declare their emergencies and recover further moneys from fema for work they do. These declarations of emergency at the federal level and state level are very important, extraordinary powers on the state level are wrought into play. Brought into play. I might add quickly that Public Health emergencies in the states have been declared for other emerging infectious diseases, n1 or thecommon was h1 swine that became a serious problem in 2009. Swine flu virus that became a serious problem in 2009. I think we will see people taking more extreme actions then we have seen in the past. I want totate and be careful how i use these terms set up a quarantine around. Ero new rochelle bars are closed, restaurants are closed, state workers are beings debt sent home, state universities are closing, all dealings with students are being done remotely, exams are remote. There are going to be as the days go on extraordinary powers the powers have been there, but they have never been needed except as we looked down the road to the future of this virus. They will be called into play in every state across the country. Host we have calls waiting. We want to remind our callers and listeners, 202 7488002 is the line is aligned to use for medical professionals. Julie is calling from hot springs, virginia. Tell us about what you do. Nurse i am a registered currently working in fairfax county. Definitely understand the goal of flattening the curve of the on this, working in the er, and we want to make sure we do not overload the system. One thing though that i think we need to be careful with is also flattening the curve of immunity. With such tight restrictions on movement, only time will tell. I say that without having a better solution. Of course if we flatten the curve of the illness and we come up with a solution, whether that be a vaccine or a treatment, that doctors are willing to use or provide more hospital beds and two nurses, which are hard to come by. That is my hospital beds and nurses, which are hard to come by. That is basically my comment. I do not have a solution for it. It is something to think about. Guest first of all, i say to all medical personnel who are dealing with directly the patients, thank you for your , thank youpatients for your service. The best medical Scientific Minds are looking at this and the biggest problem they worry about is the danger of covid19 is that it is highly infectious and unless restraints are put on the population, the outbreak could just soar to a point where we would not have hospital resources, medical resources, medical equipment, to take care of all of the patients at one time. There is no therapeutic vaccine yet, but in the absence of that, it is very important to limit exposures and limit infections so that the health community, Health Services can deal with people on a rational basis. If everybody presents at a hospital at one time we are sunk. From hhs to state Health Authorities to medical personnel who are looking at this feel right now the most important thing is to limit the spread and that is why you hear about thead importance of social distancing, with washing your hands. Limit thehopefully infection to ais degree where it can be handled in our medical facilities. Host you mentioned possible extraordinary measures that have not been used to get. Front page on the New York Times a shelterinplace order may be next as new yorker grinds to an, new york city and economic engine of the Country Grown to a halt on tuesday because of the coronavirus act break and restrictions on public life put in place to stem its spread. The citys mayor signaled the shutdown could go further with the possibility of an order to shelterinplace, a decision he said it should be made in the next 48 hours. If that moment came, there are tremendously substantial isions that would half to , mayor de blasio said. Guest shelterinplace is basically do not go out into the public, stayathome as much as you can. There is an ability when we look at these dramatic actions to place and quarantine those people who may be infected. They would have to stay in a certain spot. There are a few exceptions to the quarantine process. When you look carefully at what mayor de blasio is talking about or seeing other shelterinplace orders, they are not as restrictive as you might think. It is more in urging then mandating. There is a recognition that people will have to go to the pharmacy to get medications, they will have to go to Grocery Stores to get food, they will have to go outside with their pets, they will need to exercise. It is not a dictatorial instruction. Look at thispeople especially in the vulnerable population, those who are 60 or older and have other medical problems that may make the infection more dramatic, i think they welcome the response. Military enforced quarantine, it is and i think sensible quarantine. I think sensible quarantine. It is not a radical solution. Worried about shelterinplace orders. Most doctors are now telling ifple over 60, especially they have other medical conditions, to shelterinplace, stayathome. That does not mean you cannot go out, that does not mean you cannot exercise, that does not mean you cannot walk your dog. The general thing is to limit your exposure to other people who might present the infection your way. Host getting back to calls with a quick check of the data the number of cases worldwide now topping two hundred thousand from Johns Hopkins diversity. Total confirmed cases worldwide 201,000. Worldwide. Eaths President Trump tweeted minutes ago i will be holding a News Conference day to discuss their Important News from the fda on the chinese virus. Our next caller is from missouri. Theer im calling about trillion dollar stimulus trump was talking about. Trillion has 12 zeros behind the one. Dore that is if you the math, everybody in the u. S. Should get over 3000 a piece and we are talking they are talking about giving 1000 to each employee. If you have three people in your house, working or not, that would be 9,000. Who do who is the money really going to . As a sideline, i am very interested in Financial Market distress. I teach a course on it. I was very active in the response to the 2008 financial crisis. When you total up what happened in 2008. The country put on the table 23 trillion to save the banks. And a lot of this going directly to those affected, who have lost their jobs or have to stay home and not get salary, the secretary of treasury said if the federal government does not aggressively deal with the economic consequences of this virus, we could have 20 unemployed. 20 unemployed is approaching the unemployment in the great depression. The country, and i have been quoted on this, has gone come to a dead stop commercially. Airlines are not working, cruise lines are not working, airports are shutting down, people cannot get supplies. Everywhere you look there is a stop, stop, stop. The only solution is to stimulate the economy. Secretary mnuchin, donald trump trumps secretary of the treasury, is at the forefront of sounding the alarm of the necessity of getting money into the hands of not only corporations but of people. The possibility there is one possibility and that is not dealing with the health crisis. A lot of illness and a lot of death. We also have a fierce economic crisis that looks to me that if it is not stanched could be 2008,than what we saw in 2009. These things may seem dramatic, but the options for keeping the economy flowing are not great. My view is, there is no option forto spend this money example for people who are sitting at home not working, not getting their hourly wage, they do not have sick leave, they probably do not have health insurance, to provide help. It is true that this will go to whoever i think the limit is 1 million a year income that will hopefully stimulate the of thatand keep us out which is an active threat not only outlined by the secretary of the treasury, but every respectable economist i know is worried about not just to the recession but a fiscal calamity that might exceed that of 2008. Host our guest Michael Greenberger. We hear next from new jersey. This is harry. Caller the flu of 1918 1919 with non vaccine ever discovered. Wondering, could this happen with the coronavirus . Could it disappear within a year with no vaccine ever discovered . Thank you. Guest the answer to that question is yes, it could, and i think the medical scientific hope is that it will. The spanish flu, when you said it lasted a year and then went away, there were more deaths from the spanish flu worldwide than from world war i. When you deal with an infectious emerging disease that strong, you are declaring a war. You are not using the military, you are using medical personnel. We cannot afford really to take the chance that we are dealing with the spanish flu here. Frankly there is debate about this. We do not know for a fact because we are not testing regularly. We do not know the circle of the infection, but where i am sitting today, i am worried that this may be worse than the spanish flu. I say this because yesterday the Imperial College in london today very careful study of worstcase scenarios and the infections and the death from infections were alarming. In fact, they were so alarming that it is said in the press that when donald trump saw this he overcame his reluctance to throwing everything the federal at the had against coronavirus. ,e ca