Journal. If you missed any of our live coverage, watch any time on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Washington journal primetime. For the next hour, a special evening addition of cspans washington journal. Your questions and comments about the coronavirus epidemic start now. Host the u. S. Death toll as a result of coronavirus continues to increase at a rate of 2000 per day. Tonight, it is approaching 86,000 with nearly a million and a half cases in all 50 states and the district of columbia. For this thursday, may 14, a primetime addition of washington journal. We turn our attention to arkansas appeared Governor Asa Hutchinson will be joining us live from little rock. Later, the chinese response to this pandemic. Well talk to the beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post and the senator from West Virginia. Join in on the conversation. In the eastern time zone. For those of you out west, 202 7488001 shared if you are in arkansas a resident, 202 7488002. Numbers with the courtesy of Johns Hopkins university worldwide. With more than 4. 4 million cases around the globe and a worldwide death toll now approaching 302,000. Joining us from little rock is arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. Thank you for being with us. Guest it is great to be with you any great to be on cspan again. Host new job numbers out today showing an estimated 3 million americans filing for unemployment this week alone. What has been the Economic Impact on this pandemic on your state of arkansas . Guest we have taken a serious hit. Whenever you look at the businesses closed for a couple months, you look at the unemployment figures that go up. Whenever you look at those who do not qualify for unemployment, the barbers and salon operators that are struggling, that has been a hit. Businesses,ditional we were not a shelter in place state. We did not issue that order. Many of our Retail Businesses stayed open. The consumers were careful. Many of them stayed home. They did not shop. The spending took a hit during that time. They are starting to come back. People are starting to have some confidence in going out and spending and reengaging in the economy. We took a serious hit but not as bad as it would have been if we laid off another 100,000 or so had we done the shelter in place early on. I think we managed to carefully with a targeted response to the coronavirus to the koba 19 virus, trying to address it, being careful, putting restrictions in place, recognizing we needed to move with our economy and reduce the Economic Impact on so many. Host as you probably know, one of the headlines getting attention, plans for a concert in your state. This is a headline from usa today. How has that been resolved and what was the concert . Guest the concert was travis mccready. Venue. In fort smith at a the challenge was it was coming about before we permitted that type of event in an indoor venue and we did not have it approved by the department of health. They clearly violated our requirements. There was a little bit of a standoff. The proprietors, i think they understood that they should not violate those kind of Health Department regulations. They postponed the concert. We want the music to return. I believe they have rescheduled it for next week. We will look at that from a Health Department standpoint, how of the social distancing have the social distancing in place. Hopefully that concert will go on. It will still be less than one third of their capacity in their venue. Spread out. It will happen. Music will return. I just could not in the timeframe they originally scheduled it for. Host we have been talking with governor larry hogan who has been discussing the hotspots in his state of maryland. Most notably nursing homes. Half of the cases in that state are in nursing homes. What is the situation in arkansas . Guest and has been a challenge for us like other states. We did not at first allow visitors in the nursing home. We go in very quickly. We do all the testing. We do the isolation. Every time we have had an outbreak in a nursing home, we have taken quick action that minimized the spread. It is still a challenge because they are the most vulnerable age group. We have had the number of deaths in there. We are looking at ways to improve the. Were looking at the possibility in theing everyone nursing home staff. We are looking at ways to do that to ensure the safety of the residents and make sure it does not get spread any further. St our line for arkansans, 202 7488002 appeared and other vulnerable group, those in prisons across the state could what have you thought out so far . Guest we have had in outbreak at the maximum security in outbreak at the maximum security facility. We had one at the federal facility in forrest city. This results in 300 and each facility or more have tested positive. We immediately segregate the populations. Those that test positive. Those that test negative. We make sure there is not crosscontamination in that environment. That has passed us enough that we are starting to see them recover and those numbers are going down. Like today, we had about 100 some cases that were tested positive only less than 10 were in the prison populations. We are making the progress that is needed. What we have to do also is control it within the prison. But then you worry about the staff, the officers and others that live in the community and go back and forth. We have an aggressive plan and regime to testing them so it does not get spread into the community. We have a good Health Department that acts very aggressively. Int is our future that whatever venue you are in, if we have positive cases, we have to test, isolate, track them and hopefully reduce the spread to go about our business because we cannot shut down our economy, our education system. We have to learn to live with a certain part of this virus and contain it so that we can go about our lives with a sense of somewhat normalcy even though it will be different. Host we have been hearing from governor andrew cuomo. New york has been a hotspot. He has complained in terms of buying ppe or n95 masks or ventilators, most comparing it to a game of thrones to get the equipment to his state. Are you finding that in arkansas . To, wei have compared it are trying to buy as a state, competing against the federal government, other states and so, it was very difficult and continues to be. Ppe hasay our supply of settled down in the sins of the sufficiency of in this sense of the sufficiency of the supplies are growing every day. We have increased our production in the United States. We have increased the supply chain overseas. Today, it is not the problem it was 30 days ago. We are fairly well positioned right now for ppe in the coming days. We have expanded the use. Now that we have opened our dental offices again, we have opened up our hospitals to surgeries. That results in more use of ppe. We believe we have a better supply chain now then we did 30 and have some confidence it will remain that way in the future. Host what is the biggest lesson you can take away if and when we are hit with a similar pandemic . Is it a governor as a governor dealing with the federal government, what is the biggest lesson . Guest transparency and Clear Communication with the people of our country, our state is absolutely critical. Once they understand, they usually make good judgments. You always have outliers who do large, and they have good information, they make good judgments. Secondly, in terms of lessons learned, the use of the defense production act was a critical tool. It made a difference for ventilators whenever we went in to the supply chain and meat processing. Those were critical steps the government took. Also in terms of the reagents and supplies for testing kits, the federal action in making sure the states had an adequate supply chain for those were critical steps. When you look back, maybe it could have been done earlier. Put those actions in place and made a real difference. Host we will go to brooklyn, wisconsin. You are on with governor hutchinson. Caller good evening. I am so glad to hear how you are talking because you are right on target on a lot of things. I have to admire you. Either you are a republican or democrat, you are a person governor. I like very much what you have said and done. I support you. I support what you are thinking because i am 77 years old. We make mistakes, but we learn from those mistakes. This is a very terrible conflict we are dealing with. I feel that you are doing a great job. You stick to your guns. Remember, you are a governor of people. Not republicans, not democrats. You are the governor of people. You care about peoples lives. I believe strongly that is what you are putting first, is there lives. Guest thank you very much for that encouragement. Let me comment in terms of the partisanship. The virus knows no political boundaries obviously. It has been refreshing to me to see republican governors, democrat governors sharing information, best practices. How does this work . It has brought all of the governors together. So much responsibility has been thrust upon the governors. It has been nice to see that working together atmosphere. I hope that sets a good example for the nation. Host we will go to harold in california. Good evening. Caller good evening. I would like to say to all the i am listening to the hearings on cspan. Everything is about not being prepared. I worked my last three and a half years in maintenance for the city. I would like to say that you need to look at your cities and counties. Time, theyes budget end up throwing a lot of stuff away when they are doing their inventories. If they haveto see stuff left, do not throw it away. Take and have give them a credit for it or give them something so they stop doing that. I have seen respirators and paper and Everything Else thrown away. In the dumps. My son, i was talking to him about it. Said in theme he 1970s, we used to go dumpster diving in the school and get papers and pencils. It has been happening for a long time. The waste needs to stop when cities and counties are pressured on their budgets. Host thank you for the call. Guest that is a very good point. Whenever we look at next year and of course people worry about a resurgence of the virus nobody knows, first of all, but we are trying to plan for it. That planning includes our cities, counties and hospitals. We want to make sure that whenever it recedes, we do not discard our inventory. We want to be able to save it for any possible future needs. We want to be able to make sure our cities and counties are part of the planning effort. Governor hutchinson served in the u. S. House of representatives and in the george w. Bush administration. Our next call is from mountain home, arkansas. You are on the phone with your governor. Caller i have a question. Why are there fewer and fewer masks being worn when initially, there was more when we were told to wear masks . Now that we are reopening, it seems that there are fewer people wearing masks. Guest that is a very good question. Of course, i set the example. I wear a mask when i cannot socially distance. That is something we urged everybody to do. We do not arrest somebody if they do not have a mask on, but what i ask is that the employers set the example in their stores by having the social distancing. They lay out their stores so people can be safe as they shop. They wear masks within the staff. That itself encourages the patrons to wear masks as well. It varies on the store you go into. I have been in some stores that 90 of them will have masks on. You going to others, it is a smaller percent. We continually try to push the message that we want to open up all the businesses. We want to make sure our economy continues to move forward. To do that, we have to be able to contribute our own selfdiscipline. Wearing a mask, social discipline so we do not add to the danger of others and spread the virus. Hopefully we can disciplined in that, but thank you. And the Fitness Centers opened on may 4. Barber opening on may 6. If you go to a restaurant in arkansas tonight, what is it like . Guest good question. I went out to lunch at a dining restaurant today. They are good they are doing an incredible job. All of the staff wear masks. Mask untilwears a the order or the meal is served meal or drink is served. You take the mask off and you enjoy yourself. There has to be social distancing between the tables. Has to be one third occupancy. Some of the restaurants say we cannot operate well when it is one third occupancy. We feel like in phase one, that is necessary. We are anxious to get where they can expand and have more space that is occupied by the dining customers. The owners are delighted to have that opportunity. They are being careful. I went into a restaurant today and they signaled, everybody wash her hands. Wash your hands. They are adding to the safety of the. The challenge is that a lot of people, maybe they are not comfortable to go out. We want people to have confidence in the safety and those measures at the restaurants they go to. Host the latest numbers from Johns Hopkins university in terms of cases in arkansas, just over 4200. The vast majority have recovered. So far, 97 confirmed deaths. A lot of people from your state want to talk to you. John is on the phone from arkansas. Caller good evening. I do not know if you remember me. A few years ago, you came to my high school in wake county. Us. Talked to a couple years down the road, i never expected to be where we are at. There is no stayathome order in arkansas that i know of. Part, the people have been doing a pretty good job. A tremendous rise in cases such as new york or california. Those states are suffering deeply. As you go out, there are some people wearing a mask. There are some people that are not. They have to go out and buy these essential supplies in order to live. They are trying to hang on to the last hopes of life they still can process. Home. Till have to stay at unemployment is rising. I just wondering, as an arkansan , as someone who is speaking for the population of arkansas, is there any way our state can get more tests or more masks that can keep us safe as a people . That can be this light in the shadow to lead this coronavirus effort. Not as a democrat republican but as an american. Our federal government is trying, state governments are trying. We still see the rise in cases. A lot of us are scared for our lives. Are there any encouraging words you can give to us, any information you can give to continue this fight Going Forward . Guest what a great perspective and great question. In your area, there has not been that many cases, but you go a little further north to cleburne county, and we had a breakout because early on, there was a Church Service that a lot of people tested positive from. We learned from that. People, of encouraging first, in terms of testing, which to me is like the radar. That gives us an Early Warning system of where the risk are risks are. We are increasing our testing. This month, we want to do 2 of the population. It will be more widespread and available. That helps us. Secondly, in terms of where we are, you ought to be encouraged by that. As long as people take it seriously, we are able to control this. We are able to go about more normal activity. We all have to set that example of making sure we do not contribute to the spread. I think we are in pretty good shape. We just cannot take it for granted. We have to relying we have to realize how long of a haul this could be. Regional there been a approach with tennessee, alabama, louisiana, texas and arkansas . Are you in coordination to make sure it is not just one state . Guest we communicate regularly and share information, which has been very helpful. We have great governors. Democrat and republican on both sides. Everybody is in a different position. Had a muchour south more to our south had a much more severe number of cases. They even got to the point that we offered to send some of our ventilators to louisiana. In tennessee, they have more population centers. Across our river into memphis, they had some spread. We share information, but everybody is in a different position. We make different judgments. We manage it at your. Own pace. In arkansas, we have been fortunate. I am glad for Good Neighbors who tried to keep a control on it. But also to make sure they do the testing that is necessary and that they are also trying to open up the business. We do watch each other. We have so many border cities. As texas opens up the restaurants, the texarkana arkansas side says, when are we going to open hours . We have those conversations because we are close together. Host we welcome our cspan radio audience. Our guest is Governor Asa Hutchinson who is joining us from the governors residence in little rock, arkansas. Welcome to the conversation. Caller hello. Is, [indiscernible] what is the question again . Caller what is the guidelines for the sleep labs in jonesboro even though we are increasing with the virus . Guest in terms of jonesboro, great city. Arkansas state university. Had yourday, we county had plus 20 in cases, which is something we want to watch. That is one of the areas we are trying to keep an eye on. Activities, you have the restaurants that are opening up for dining service. I hope you will see they are trying to follow the guidelines. The mayor, we work closely with. We have to watch that. We want to make sure we do not let that 20 plus increase rise to a higher level. That is why we are doing our Contact Tracing, trying to keep a handle on early. Host how big of a financial hit has your state budget had as a result of this . Guest it is about a 15 hit right now. That is just a guess. Gas is not the right word. Ess isa projection gu not the right word. It is a projection. No one knows the severity in the loss of revenue. Our best estimate is a 50 loss of revenue a 15 loss in revenue. We tighten the belt. We can get through this. We hope not to have to redo services. We are going to have to cut some things out. Some of the things we can postpone. Some of the investments we were going to make otherwise. It is a challenge for us, but we can get through it. The cares act funding that Congress Passed is a great benefit to us. We are trying to look at that carefully. We used part of it to bolster some of our Small Businesses and give them some grant money. Forre utilizing parts of it our Health Care Infrastructure from our increased testing tracing to our contact to making sure our higher ofcation has the capability quick testing of students if need be of faculty and staff. We are looking ahead to the future to utilize that money not to supplement the budget but to use the investment we need to make sure we can have a stronger economy next fall. Host brenda, you are on with the governor. She is joining us from montgomery, alabama. Caller what my problem is is children going back to school this fall. There is not enough testing. They do not have any cure. Re is nothing [indiscernible] we do not need to put children through unnecessary trauma. Host brenda, thank you. What is the projection for arkansas students . Guest of course, we closed for this year. We do hope to start next year. Schools,intendent of our commissioner of education is looking at ways we can restart with in classroom instruction next year. All of that depends upon where we will be at the time. The projections and what we believe will be in august is that we will be at minimal cases and we will be in a position to start school. We also want to be prepared in the event there is a resurgence in cases next year, that we are prepared to do quick testing, isolation, tracking and to continue on. We might have to shut down for a week in a particular school environment, but i see that more as an isolated response versus a statewide response. And then to do online instruction during that time. Classroom start to in instruction and we are making plans to do that. Host tourism is a big part of the state. If people are not coming to arkansas, what will that mean . Guest it means a terrible loss of revenue and tourism dollars to our state. Our Tourism Industry is our second largest economic driver in arkansas. It is mainly made up of small fitness owners that participate in the hospitality industry. Restaurants, hotels or gift shops. They are the ones that are hurting. As we open it back up, we have such great attractions. They will be coming back, but right now, it is going to take us some time to rebuild our Tourism Industry. We have to be careful. We wantscourage them to quarantine if they come from a hotspot here into arkansas. We are discouraging some of those outofstate visitors. We will slowly and gradually get back. Our state parks are such an attraction. Our Hotel Industry has been struggling. We will get back to where we can open those up. From our last color is fargo, north dakota. Is fromast caller fargo, north dakota. Caller just wanted to make a comment, governor. It is so refreshing to hear you tell the American People that or avirus is not democrat republican. It is getting to the point you cannot even watch the news. It is so bipartisan. It is out the window. It is so refreshing to hear you talk. It sounds like you are doing a great job in your state as ours is in north dakota. You are to be praised for the job you are doing. Thank you. Guest will thank you. That is very kind. North dakota i know they are doing very well. I applaud you all. Outerms of what this brings in americans, i love to see the compassion. I love to see trung to take care of neighbors even though to see trying to take care of neighbors even though we are isolated and trying to help struggling businesses. Anytime you have a crisis like this, it does bring people together. I love seeing i just so governor murphy from new jersey. His spirit and what he has gone through it is not in a partisan way. He is a democrat and i am a republican. You have John Bel Edwards from louisiana. He is a democrat, but he is a friend. We Work Together on these things. I hope that does had a good example for america. Every once in a while, there are philosophical differences, but it does not apply when it comes to fighting this battle. Host before we let you go, what part of the residents are you in this evening . Guest we are in the library here. Room inan historic which we do our budget negotiations. I have pictures of old governors. I have a picture of billy graham whenever he was here in the mansion as well as bob hope. A little bit of history. It also has some Great Outdoor pictures on the walls from some of our Great Outdoor duck hunting in the state of arkansas. Host Governor Asa Hutchinson, republican from that state s. Hope you will come back again. Our phone lines continue to be open. 202 7488000 if you live in the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 for those of you in the mountain or pacific time zone should we are going to turn to china. Its role and responsibility. First up, dr. Rick bright who was heading up the vaccine effort before he was moved out of that position and filed a whistleblower complaint. Today, testifying before the House Energy Committee to talk about the shortages of n95 masks and where things move forward. The full hearing aired live on the cspan network. Here is an excerpt. [video clip] we knew that medical equipment would be in short supply. I began getting alerts in midjanuary telling me from an outside view, the supply chain was diminishing rapidly. Telling the other countries that we relied on to supply these masks were blocking export and stopping transfer of those masks to the United States. You discuss a february 7 meeting of the Department Leadership group. You urged the department to focus on securing n95 mask. Can you describe what happened at that meeting . They informed me they did not believe there was a critical urgency to procure a mask. They talked to hospitals and some companies. They did not see a critical shortage. I indicated that we know there will be a shortage of these supplies. We need to do something to ramp up production. They indicated if we know there is a shortage, we will simply change the cdc guidelines to better inform people who should not be wearing these masks so that would save the masks for health care workers. My response was, i cannot believe you can sit and say that with a straight face. It was absurd. In fact, it took threemonth from your initial warning until mid april for the federal government to invoke its authority under the defense production act to require the production of millions of more n95 mask. S. Even then, the administration require the production of only 39 million masks, which is far fewer than you and other experts said we would need. What was the consequence of this threemonth delay and inadequate response . Where lives in danger . Lives were endangered and i believe lives were lost. We were forced to procure these supplies from other countries without the quite without the right quality standards. Doctors and nurses in hospitals today are wearing n95 masks from other countries that are not providing sufficient protection that a u. S. Standard n95 mask would provide them. Some of those masks are only 30 effective. Nurses are rushing into the hospitals thinking they are protected and they are not. Host that testimony earlier today before the House Energy Committee. Dr. Rick bright is Available Online at cspan. Org. Joining us from new zealand is the beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post, anna fifield. Thank you for being with us on cspan. Guest happy to be here. Host it is friday afternoon your time. Some of the looming questions involve chinas responsibility for this pandemic. What are your looming questions five months after the first outbreak . Guest the thing im focusing on now is how china tries to come out of this and manage this. I think they can see that when the dust settles, there is going to be a lot of fingerpointing. More fingerpointing now. A lot of blame shifting both from the United States, from europe. Tona has been trying rewrite the narrative and pretrade themselves not as the source of the virus but as the savior from it. Not so much on the United States but in europe in particular and africa and other parts of asia. We have seen them donating a lot of masks. Selling a lot of ventilators and other equipment to try to portray themselves as a helpful, responsible, global superpower. In a lot of cases, that has backfired because those masks have turned out to be substandard. China is trying to manage this and come out of this as best as it possibly can. December,g back to january, early february, what were the biggest missteps by the Chinese Government . Guest the biggest missteps was both was the attempt to cover up this virus. We know the first case was discovered in the middle of november. It was covered up throughout december and into january. It was not until january the first that they closed the market that was the source of the virus. It was not until the 20th of january that Chinese People were told the virus could be transmitted between people. By that stage, many millions of Chinese People, hundreds of millions of Chinese People were already on the road moving around china in preparation for the Lunar New Year holiday. Chinas attempt to cover up at the beginning and the first few beginning in the first few weeks, allow this virus to spread rapidly should spread rapidly. Host based on your expertise as the beijing bureau chief, what were they thinking . Guest they put politics first as they often do. The local officials in wuhan were very conscious of the political calendar. There are these political meetings that have been around china leading up to the big political meeting held in march in beijing every year. The meeting were held in the middle of january in wuhan. The local officials appeared not to want to allow the virus to overshadow those meetings or interfere with it. By putting politics first, they put Public Health second and someed the virus to gain traction. There has been a lot of anger in china about the fact that the people were not warned. That doctors and was a blowers andd to warn about the whistleblowers who tried to one about the buyers were silence. There was the case of the doctor who was censured when he tried to sound the alarm and ended up dying from the coronavirus. There has been a lot of anger in china. Thanks to the censorship and the political control within china, a lot of it has been repressed and put down. If you read a chinese newspaper today, it will be celebrating the strength of the chinese response. This is propaganda. This is the Chinese Communist partys narrative. They are always going to try to portray chinese leadership in the best a possible. Right now, they are seizing on the missteps in the United States and the u. K. And portraying Boris Johnson and donald trump as bumbling and indecisive in their leadership of the respective american and british responses to this. They are taking advantage of the comparison. Portraying china as being decisive and bringing this crisis under control with the leaders and these other western liberal democracies have not been able to do so. Host as a western reporter in beijing, what kind of pressure did you face as a reporter for the Washington Post in china . Guest being a reporter for an american outlet in china has become exceptionally difficult over the past year in particular. This year, it is very standard to have government officials block our request for information. Very standard. When you are reporting anywhere in china even in beijing on the coronavirus, i had people in plainclothes coming up and obstructing us on the street. Detaining us from being able to do our job. China does not want any independent journalism about anything let alone about the coronavirus. We face a lot of obstruction. More severely is the chinese reporters. Anyone trying to do independent journalism in china until i different story from what the official propaganda narrative is. They have been disappeared, detained, locked up to silence them. The obstruction we face is significant, nothing compared to what brave chinese reporters try to do. Is also theifield hor of the book we will talk about the north Korean Leader in just a moment. Katie is joining us from new york. Evening. Caller hi. Is this mean . Host yes, you are on the air. Caller thank you. , i do not know if it started in china. Does anybody know it started in china . It was on the news and what was going on. The president had to know what was going on. Illfirst person that became and tested and diagnosed with the coronavirus, he is like one person. One person. Why should i shutdown the whole country for one person . Guess what . It went from one person to over a million. Now, it is the innocence of the world, the children. Things are happening to our children. He wants to reopen the schools. That one person went to over one million. What is going to happen to our children . Our children are our future. What is going to happen . Host katie, thank you for the question. Did it originate in wuhan, china yucca guest in wuhan, china . Guest yes. All of the evidence points to hunt, china. Terry pompeo has been pushing this idea that it came from a lab. No evidence to support that claim. The scientists have told us this is clearly derived from nature. It started in a bat it seems. The question mark is about what the intermediate host was. Maybe a scaly animal. We know it jumped from bats and mutated and going to humans. There is no doubt that it began that way. There is no reason to believe any of these conspiracy theories that it was leaked from the lab in wuhan intentionally or otherwise. Host to this headline from the Washington Post at the Chinese Government with some additional cases is now preparing to test all 11 million residents in wuhan. How is that going to work . Guest that is a great question. To do that. Feat if they wanted to test, they said it would be a 10 day battle. Even thaticult to see the lab capacity would be able to process that many tests in that time. China has set out a goal of trying to look at how this has spread in wuhan. They are extremely sensitive to the political implications of this. There is this very important political meeting that will take place at the end of next week in beijing. China does not want any kind of outbreak to rain on that. They will duo on that parade. They will do a lot of testing in wuhan and other places where there are outbreaks. Whether it is 11 million are not as inconsequential i think. They will do blanket testing to make sure there is no second or third wave of cases stemming from wuhan. The bottom line, do Chinese People know that this originated from their country, from wuhan . Guest yes, they know it began in wuhan. People in wuhan were also calling at the wuhan virus. There was not much dispute about that. Having said that, the Chinese Government has been propagating its own Conspiracy Theory including this idea that american soldiers may have released the virus in october during the International Military games that were held in wuhan. There is no support whatsoever for that. By releasing this Conspiracy Theory, chinese officials have been able to muddy the waters in a way that american officials have also attempted to in the United States. Thism line, it is accepted began in the city of wuhan at the end of last year. Is thenna fifield beijing bureau chief of the Washington Post. It is early friday afternoon. She is joining us from new zealand. Peter is on the phone from rhode island. Go ahead. Caller good evening. I had a quick question. There was a doctor on cspan a few weeks ago. He is a worldwide expert viruses. He said one of his best friends was a leading scientist in china. He talked to him back in november. He warned thet chinese leaders this could be bad. He went to get in contact with the leading scientist again and he disappeared. Does that make sense to you . Guest i do not know anything about that particular case, but it does ring true to me. It is not necessarily mean he has been locked up or anything like that. There is such a climate of fear in china that people who may have a dissenting view from the government line are told to be quiet. Raise questions about this publicly in china, the police would be knocking on your door within an hour telling you to shut up. The government exercises a lot of political control. There is no freedom of speech in china. Reason than anybody, a scientist, doctor, truthsist who is telling the government does not find helpful would be silenced by the authorities. I do not know anything about that case, it rings true with other cases i do know about. Is fromr next caller delta, colorado. You were on the air. 19 87, i was aware of doctors being able to correspond with each other around the world. And we are 33 years later we have a major virus in december of 2019. For me to understand it is hard for me to understand why with all this technology and information and access to information, that doctors from around the world and all kinds of medical professions around the world were not aware of this virus other than proclaiming when itna covered it up was announced in december and january this virus was apparent. Host thank you, john. We will get a response. Guest yes, china was pretty quick after it acknowledged this virus had been breaking out in wuhan to share the sequencing of it and enable scientists around the world to look at it and try to figure out what to do about it. They could have done that a lot earlier. The lack oft now, communication is not because they do not have the technology or ability to share information and Work Together. It is more about political considerations. Perspective, they do not want to be blamed for this. They are trained to cover their behind in a way to make sure they are not blamed as much as possible. There has been quite a lot of cooperation between countries like italy and china and iran and china. South korea in particular. The thing that is constraining cooperation between the United States and china is entirely political. It is the fact that the two leaderships are locked in a much bigger, more existential kind of thele, which incorporates trade war, which incorporates technology and 5g and huawei. Twos the butting heads of global powers that is constraining cooperation on so many things. We have not seen the United States and china cooperate in a way we would expect. Kim jongun, there was a lot of questioning about where he had gone a few weeks ago. That is the kind of area north korea is the kind of area where china and the United States has been able to cooperate on an area of mutual interest in the past. Even 2008 or so, they were able to cooperate when there were similar rumors. Now because of the hostility between the two countries, they are not working together on areas where it is in both countries interest to do so. Up with the north Korean Leader . Death,tion he was near he was dying and then he shows up seemingly fine. Guest there are so many things with north korea we just do not know. There is no evidence to suggest anything was up with him whatsoever. It is not unusual for him to disappear for weeks at a time. The only thing different was the fact that there were unclear reports coming from south korea, which were picked up in the United States digesting he had heart surgery. The reason why these rumors took more traction than other rumors was because they seemed credible. In very bady physical shape for a 36yearold guy. There is no evidence to support putrumors he had a stent into his arteries, that he had any health problems. Probably, he was social distancing. Probably, he was hunkered down at his beachfront compound and keeping his distance from people because he did not want to catch the coronavirus like anybody else. All of north koreas relationship with the outside through china. He would have reason to be concerned about that. With northy things korea, we do not know and we probably never will. Host as viewers might discern, you are from new zealand. Your Prime Minister said your won the battle over coronavirus. What are the lessons for the rest of the world . Andt after almost 50 days pretty drastic lockdowns, yesterday we were allowed to go out again. Life is pretty much back to normal in new zealand. I just took my son down to get a haircut this morning. There are lines of people in restaurants. Out and about. If you look at it, the only thing you would notice that is different was the fact that everybody is asked to sign in everywhere. Leave your Contact Details so they can do Contact Tracing if they need to. We have had three days in a row with zero new cases. The virus is very much under control. The lesson from new zealand is we have had a very datadriven response, a scientific driven response where the Prime Minister has been crunching the numbers and looking at how this has spread. The modeling showed we were going to look like italy if we did nothing. Everybody was ordered to stay at home, to work from home. Schools were closed. It was very drastic. It hurt our economy a lot, but it was short and sharp. After 50 days, we are back to normal. The borders are closed, but the domestic economy is back to normal. The new zealand lesson is that a short, sharp, painful period is much better for the economy and health been al long, protracted half measure s. People here are very relieved. We are allowed to hug our loved ones again. It is great. As thenna fifield beijing bureau chief from the Washington Post joining us on what is a friday afternoon in new zealand. We thank you for being with us. Guest thank you for having me on. Host at the conclusion of each program, we turn to members of congress to find a how they are dealing with this pandemic. Yesterday, we talked to Shelley Moore capito from her office. My first question to her was what she is seeing in her home state of West Virginia. Guest like everybody, it is the uncertainty of not knowing exactly when business is going to open, when school is going to summer. What the is going to look like can we take the Family Vacation . When can i start seeing my friends and relatives and seeing my grandmother in the nursing home . The same kind of anxieties we see across the state. But we are hanging in there. West virginias are good at helping one another. We are all in this together kind of attitude. I think there is a certain restlessness with all the uncertainty. Host of course, the state already has a high poverty rate. How is West Virginia dealing with what i would imagine an increase in the Unemployment Rate . Guest we have over 100,000 people on unemployment than we did at the beginning. We lost a lot of our restaurants, manufacturing is down. Across every sector. I am going to say our workforce handling the unemployment chain unemployment claims has risen to the occasion and has tried to be at the cutting edge at making sure the extra 60 extra 600 a week is there. They have not been eligible in the past. There is still there are still people falling through the cracks in terms of unemployment, but we are working hard to remedy that. Host how have you adjusted to what has been a new norm using zoom and other technology to meet with constituents and hold Senate Hearing . Guest before we came back, i wearinged in my kitchen i will not disclose what from the waist down, my sweatpants. Municipalitie,s constituents municipalities, constituents and a lot busier than i thought i would have been. Here in d. C. , where we are having remote hearings, i prefer to go into the hearings myself. It is still odd because you are so far away from everybody. The rooms are cavernous in some ways. You have to be six to nine feet apart where your mask and all that. It is still very foreign to me. We are getting some things done. We passed a bill out of the pw last week. Business is moving forward. Host to fed chair Jerome Powell says the government needs to pump more money into the economy. The house on friday is expected to pump a 3 trillion bill that is expected to be dead on arrival in the senate. What has to happen next . Guest we have to get an accounting of where we have come to this money and where we need to put on the brakes or make some more provisions. We saw that with the ppp program already in terms of our Small Businesses. Our hospitals have not received the full 150 billion that was originally up for originally appropriated and another 100 on top of that. There is still money flowing in the pipeline. I would prefer we look at how this is rolling out, where we are able to assess that peoples heads are above water. Hospitals are starting to do surgeries. Those are the things we need to make a clear assessment on. We have had a couple hearings already. Aviation and broadband were two hearings i was in over the last two weeks. I do not think putting another 3 trillion in at this point if you look at this bill, it is kitchen sink. Has got everything in it including permanent changes to election law and all kinds of other things. I think that is a wish list that will be dead on arrival in the senate. Host do you think there needs to be another stimulus plan in some form . Guest i think there probably will be. I am one of the senators who believes that of the state dollars put forward, we need to give the governors flexibility to let that account for lost revenue. We are pushing that. We have a bipartisan effort going there. We have taken that to the white house as well. I think that we are going to be looking at other things. Businesses,s whether it is individuals, folks with disabilities, college students. I think we need to look at those segments of our population and try to figure out, do we need to put more stimulus in . How much and where is it better targeted . Targeted stimulus is where year is what youre going to see if we do another bill. It will not be another farreaching like the cares act was. Host on a personal note, how are you dealing with all of this . Your husband, your family, your children . Guest we are doing just fine. I count my lucky stars i got to spend others day with two out of my three children. I tried to stay healthy by taking walks. It is amazing to amazing how many of your neighbors you see. I do gardening at home. If you ever saw my yard, you would know i have not been in it much recently. I have tried to stay active. I am frustrated. I am just as anxious to get out as everybody else. I know that we are doing the right thing by sheltering in place and staying home and keeping our distance. It is working in West Virginia. I can tell you that. Host you think all of this is going to change the way the senate works down the road . Tost there is a big calling look at more remote voting. I personally have a problem with remote voting. We do so much of our work facetoface within the chamber. Having the interaction with one another, i would hate to lose that matter what the technology age. It is not the same as being in the same room together trying to work it i do think you will see more remote hearings. We have been able to do casework very effectively from our home. I think you will see things change. Certainly the Health Protocols have already changed. Some will probably stay in place as well. Joining uscapito from her Senate Office in washington, thank you for being with us. Thank you. This note after the House Rules Committee voted earlier today for the proxy voting debate. You can watch that tomorrow morning as the house convenes at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, 6 00 on the west coast. Live coverage on cspan. Expect a lengthy day as Lawmakers Debate and vote on the 3 trillion stimulus plan put forward by house democrats. Live on cspan television, cspan radio and cspan. Org. In the last hour look at the numbers. Coronavirus cases around the world and here in the u. S. Casesst 60 minutes 3700 globally, 1346 in the u. S. Worldwide deaths, 178, 78 in the u. S. All of our coverage has been online at cspan. Org coronavirus. The washington journal is back tomorrow morning. Thanks for joining us on this tuesday. Stay safe, keep healthy. From my home to your home, enjoy the rest of your evening. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Pediatricning, Infectious Diseases chair at the university of alabama at birmingham discusses how the pandemic is affecting children. Atch washington journal live 7 00 eastern friday. Join the discussion. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic with white house briefings, updates from governors and congress, and our daily callin program, washington journal, hearing your thoughts about the coronavirus crisis. If you missed coverage, watch any time demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Coming up tonight, i house subcommittee meeting with rick from theormerly advanced Biomedical Research authority. And mike bowers, from the surgical mask pet manufacturer. The u. S. House returns friday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern for legislative business to debate and vote on a coronavirus release relief package. It provides for over 3 billion of relief to state and local governments, funding for First Responders and workers, and individuals and families. The house is expected to debate and vote on house rule changes to allow proxy voting on the house floor during the Public Health emergency peirod. Inis expected to last late the evening due to social distancing guidelines. Watch live coverage on cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen with the free cspan radio app. Dr. Rick bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Development authority, who says he was removed from his job, testified before a committee, looking at the federal response to the covid19 pandemic. This portion of the hearing is almost four hours