>> listen to c-span's podcast, the weekly, talking about women and the recent elections with the center for american women and politics at rutgers university and what changed the election cycle for women and wives. you got your podcast, the weekly, live on c-span. >> we are back with marcus who is chief medical officer with the association of state and territorial health officials. what does your organization do? >> we are a professional who represents the leadership of state public all departments and territorial public health apartments across the united states. >> who do you work with? >> we work with the state health officials and in every state the public health apartment has a lead or commissioner or health official and those are our main constituents although they have larger leadership with deputies and people who are running things on a d-to-day basis and those --

>> what would your role or what has been your role during this pandemic? >> it's been very involved in this pandemic and how the frontline response so the organization i work for works closely with them supporting response and on researching issues for them and also on communicating to other stakeholders like the centers for disease control in congress and the administration. >> what are your thoughts on rent headlines about the spike? in covid cases? wall street journal describ it as everywhere. >> it is very concerning and it is something that we knew there would be the likelihood can happen as we move into the fall months but you kw, as everyone knows we are seen levels of infecon we've not seen before in this country and when you look at whatappened on the east coast back in t spring and how quickly we got to

the situations where we almost went over t capacity of the hospitals and now is across the nation and it's concerning. for that reason, we can't let ourselves get to a poi where you don't have the ability to take care ofeople who get sick and acquire hospitalizatis. >> we are getting news reports this morning about vaccines getting to a successful levels, the hill newspaper had this headline. maternal says coronavirus vaccine is 94.5% effective and then matth dalton who writes for "the wall street journ" treats out, not only does madonna's vaccine work but is stable at normal fridge temperature r 30 days compared to previous estimat of seven days and that would be a big advantage over the visor vaccine which must be stored a negative 70 celsius what you know about this news this morning. >> this is good news. the big concern or to concerns

that we want to make sure we have a safe vcine and i think we are still following that but need an effective vaccine. ccines are effective in the 90% and that's very, ver good. i think that is the kind of thing that will encourage people re to get vaccine as well so when something works well peoe are more likely to participate in if the effectiveness is lower. we pleased at such high levels. [inaudle] there will be more to com on this but it is iscertainly good information front and were optimistic. what role would your organization play in the distribution of any vaccine and how does it work? the vaccine will be -- distribution of the vaccine will be led by the public all department and the actual providing the vaccine in a different setting wl be done

through cdc and cdc will have or has aa contractor who wil deliver that vaccine directly to where it needs to go but what the state will do is look out ahead of time in the position to provide the vacci enemy doses so the state will figure out who will get the vcine and how many doseso to each place soan were lking at that information for the federal governmt and when the vacci will be provided to them. mymy organizion's role is to just help with that and research and helping troubleshoot problems but beyond the oundwork will be done by each of the states. >> do you need a federal position to oversee all of this, something like what you've seen people putting in that role to respond to hurricanes in certain areas. do you think that that or that that would be more efficient? >> yet, having federal

oversight, that's useful as far as trying to make sure that the response is consistent across the nation. generally, the medicine [inaudible] when it comes to distribution that's their expertise. that is what we are hoping to see more of an them getting a chance to take on that role and all of the state just submitted vaccine plans, initial plans of how they are intending to put this back and cities are doing that now. that will help some of these issues o equality. >> [inaudible] righ on november 10 the problem with waiting for details on the vaccine to be revealed is that mass immunization is a multilayer process involving public education campaigns, ordering of equipment, hiring of staff, training of vaccine providers and the added

complexity in this pandemic of making sure all vaccine sites are safe and will contribute to the spread. operation warp speed haser set goals to ship the day the vaccine is given the green light by the fda. states need to be ready at any moment. are they? >> i think they are in a good place andt the first part of yr statement is correct.t the more we know about vaccine the better and unfortunately there are some things we won't know about this vaccine as we finish out the trials and is the vaccine effective in people over the age of 65 and people under but we want to figure out how to prioritize who gets the vaccine annexed. [inaudible] states know they are preparing for that particular rollout in they will learn is that rollout goes forward and wherever we decide the next priority is.

their plan will be flexible in making changes but they do have a plan and this is the first time we've had in the pandemic to get out in front plan for and get ready for it. it makes a big difference. >> your group wrote a letter to congress saying the states will need more than $8 billion in funding for vaccines distribution. why? huge scale to vaccinate hundreds of millions of people and that is the scope of that is enormous but also the speed. we need to do this as quickly as the vaccine is ready quickly as the manufacturers can get it to us. we need to get that out and administer it to people and we don't have the capacity to do that we don't have people sitting around in hospitals and doctors offices and with nothing to do but we will have to gear up, bring more people in, have people work overtime and all of

that will cost money and we also need to upgrade our systems and to make sure that profits carefully and mitigation plans and as you mentioned earlier it's very important that this is not a vaccine that, you know, makes the disparities wee. seen worse. we need to find ways to reach out and communicate and build trust among some of the populations that have historically been more [inaudible] i think it will also require resources. >> what will cost a billion dollars? >> a range of things. a lot of the cross will be having the personnel in the capacity to administer the vaccine and people communications campaign and expenses involved in the data prstems ande are the process of developing those so these are the big ticket items in the 8 billion-dollar budget. >> i want t run this by you

from greg sargent who tweets out this is gting worse with door anthony fauci a member of tom's own administratio set on nbc this morning that he's worried that the transition could mess up the prospects for a quick vaccine distribution. marcus, your thoughts? >> well, i think we are in a good place. states have laid out plans and you know, i think that it will be challenging in the midst of rolling outst a vaccine and at e speed and there is no question about that but the people in the administration who are ultimately the ones who have the expertise to do this and a lot of them will stay on the transition in our civil servants who move through various political administrations and even some of the people higher

up on the leadership. i know these people and the very committed to make sure it's done and it's i done right. there will be challenges with this and most will be communication challenges but were anticipating that and as we move into situation where it's the state who are taking the lead on getting the vaccine out to the people in the state so is much more of a localized transition issue. >> we want to know what it's like where you live and covid-19 response if you have questions about that and also vaccine distribution. we delighted the lines regionally if you leave in the eastern central part y, (202)748-8000, mountain pacific area, (202)748-8001, medical professionals we want to get your thoughts on the medical vaccine, 2,027,488,002 laura, good morning. >> good morning.

god bless america and god bless c-span. first of all, everyone has serious concerns about allowing a president who has lost an election to hold an entire nation in danger and that is one thing. lyas a totally ordained pastor i yewalked with the lord for 72 years andnd i'm not a young lady but i'm familiar with the bible and i a poor everything about the florida of our pre- born and we know it as it orson. >> host: gloria, let's stick to the topic. >> caller: hello, inner regions down here in florida of course our governor is an unfortunately full denial along with president so when we consider things like rolling out the vaccines and things it assumes concern and

there's talk about the international courts coming after both our governor and others because her to immunity is basically genocide and promoting nets. were specifically to your doctor there his outfit does research in support and because of the history they've denied aerosols and it is aerosol so there is a questionable history there so they minimized tracing, masks, distancing, testing and i'm concerned that they are minimizing air filtering because the cdc has come out and said that it's safe to tral in airlines which is a confined environment for a couple of hours which is similar to classrooms and they say it's only safe if you do roughly 20-30 times air filtering and

there is probably a belief you can't do that in the classroom or a home but you could if we weren't keeping things on the download and we put it out there that this is needed so solutions appear in one of the solutions would be to have air filters and i used to work with them and make them into a box and put them on one end of the other of the fan and you can get really high air filters with you could use stem kids and it kicks out 15 minutes with duct tape into box fans so there are solutions out there. my concern is this is the time of maximum effect. if we focus solely on vaccines people will downplay other solutions and if you got to solutions that address them from different ends independently they put onn but you have 100% o same thing here, if we were to implement masking air filtering, tracing, testing, masks and

distancing in addition to the wonderful thing which is almost a panacea of having the vaccines that is the maxim and in utrticular impornt if there is a slow rollout of a vaccine. >> host: michael, let's let the doctor jump in. ul guest: i couldn't agree more with what michael was saying particularly towards the end. we can't see the vaccine as the cure all in the sole way out of this pandemic we will have to use the vaccine together with many of these other interventions that michael went through. it's very important that people continue to wear masks even if we rollout the vaccine until we get to place where they have a lot of the spread and community. it's important that people continue to be careful about keeping their distance is an important that they have more

testing capacity and we figure out how to use that and use it appropriately. it's important we continue to test out some of these other things that are emerging. air filtration that we spoke to. were still learning about that and he's right, there is some real potential promise there but we don't have to put a definitive answer on that. we all want firm definitive answers and sometimes we've been slow to come back and say yes, we know masks work now but early on needed to make sure that was true. same thing with whether the virus was aero but that is science. with science you have to keep testing things until you come out with a more firm recommendation on what works and what doesn't work. i think we are getting there but it's been very challenging given the scale and the timeline of the pandemic but i think the

important thing here is the vaccine is certainly encouraging and we have to have the strong tools but we got to make sure use everything else that we've got to help us get through the pandemic and togh more those who are vulnerable and have severe reactions and are infected with covid. >> host: doctor, cnn is reporting on this matnal vaccine and as you noted 94% effective and on the testing that they did they gave 15000 people in the test the vaccine and only five got sick. what you make of that? >> guest: well, i think the more people tha have been infected with covid durin the trial the better because it gives or allows most people getting affected who did not get the vaccine and so if i heard you

right there only five they got sick in the vaccine or onlyive overall. >> host: five got sick who received the vaccine but they did another 15000 and gave them a placebo and more of them got sick. >> guest: that is what we are looking for. familiar with the pfizer trial that came out a week ago. the smallummers are pfizer and almost00 people got sick but very few people got sick will onto got the vaccine. that came up with this number that theaccine is looking at % infective. it's good to have two different ccines in case we find there are glitches in one or the other. again, i would cauon everybody that press releases and those will see the real data coming out of the trial and looking at exactly how what you're looking at there safety that will be

equally important and ts is a very good place to be with the vaccine that appears to be effective and to vaccines and that's encouraging. >> let's go to luis and fredericksburg, virginia. your next. >> caller: hello. from what i could understand pfizer has invented a box that could store this at the right to mature to ship it to the drugstores and the doctors offices and then they will give them just like they do a normal pneumonia shot and then i understand that the effective rate is, it doesn't mean is doctor anthony faucija said on jake tapper yesterday that he said that that means five out of 100, he didn't say but he agreed that five out of 100 would get it but that is not what this means. this means that everyone who

gets the vaccine is 95% effective in each person and that is how that works and from what i can understand the distribution problem is already fixed and they are going to the drugstores and to the doctors offices and they will prioritize the vulnerable first and then it will be given to us and we'll go to your local drugstore, go in and get a shot. if it is two shots it's like my pneumonia shot i get two shots or pneumonia shot so i don't know what all the fuss is. >> host: louise, l's let the doctor -- what you think of what she outlined their? >> guest: i areciate her optimism and i think there is reason to be optimistic. ninety, 95% of effectiveness is accurate and again we need to

see some of the data before we get behind that but for the vast majority of people who get this vaccine they will be protected from covid and they [inaudible] they will need a second dose and there have been concerns about the logistics of moving the vaccine around and the pfizer has almost 100 degrees below zero celsius and that's a really, really cold and not your average, your average will not do the trick for that but the vaccine is shifting in the box where it's shipped in dry ice in the box will keep it at that temperature for days and i do think that we will ultimately make this work and we may not be able to get the pfizer vaccine out into really rural remote areas as easily as we can get the maternal vaccine that doesn't have cold storage

mechanisms but now that we have a way around that but there will be some challenges around the temperature there will be other challenges that we don't know about now and that's the nature but already with the cold temperature thing i think pfizer came up with a very ingenious solution for that and that is what we will be doing going forward with troubleshooting but i think there is a lot of reason for optimism and a light at the end of the terminal but the problem is that the tunnel is a dark. we are in a bedtime getting very, very high end with some communities whereig we are gettg to the place where hospital beds are getting tight and we don't want to get to a place where if you're sick and there's nowhere to go. that's maybe where it needs to take medication intervention in the past.

>> host: would you like to see a national mask mandate or a lockdown for six weeks? >> guest: i don't know that it's possible to hav a natural mask mandat but there's a back and forth about whether they have the ability to do that. i'd like to see more and more states move toward mandating the masks. that is the thing that helps people see this is serious and something we have to commit to. and particularlyyith states where cases are going out. the mass thing is theirst step makes the most sense. i know it's become controversial but it doesn't effect the economy the way somethings do but it's a thing we can do to help eachther get through this and wish there was more cooperation around that and i do thin that having a mandate i serious and it's something we will want to have done.

i hope we will not have to move to these shutdowns like w had inhe spring for six weeks. we wanto see is states that have not alreadyegin to do some of the measures and you ow, limit the size in states wher were having the huge outbreaks b we can't have 50, 75 people coming for various gatherings and in some of these ples we need to drive home to people that getting together with the large families liberation for thankiving is a risky thing to do and do you really want to do that? by next thanksgiving i thinke will be in a different place but this will be a disappointing thanksgiving but tt is just the sacrifice w need to make. it's those things and there may be some differences where the businesses uncertainly restaurants and bars have been harmed by this and i love restaurants but these may be

some pces where we have to makentervention and hopefully by making tse kinds of interventions we can keep from the more approach back in the spring were most everybody and so you have to think it doesn't have to be all or nothing. i think we could start doing things that we are most effective that will help and see some of these things begin to get back things under control. t host: what is your reaction to some governors saying when it comes to your thanksgiving gathering no more than three different households getting together? >> guest: while, younow, i would urge the public to be careful around thanksgiving. inks giving is t time traditionally where families come together and that maybe eight multigenerational families me together which we g people here who are the age rang over 50, 60, 70 or 80 and if they contract covid it could

be very serious a severe for them. also, you often all know the ople in your family may have ongoing medical conditions and the puts you at a greater risk. we are urging the public to d a more qui state home kind of thing and that isisconcerting. i love getting together wh my family at thanksgiving. i'm starting to not be able to do that butut we will really lit that and they need to look forward invite next the things ging will be in a different place. by next summer will be in a different place and able to get back to the weight we want to live our lives. right now it makes sense to be cautious and you know, make these changes because were looking out for each other looking out for families. >> host: richard in massachusetts. >> caller: good morning. i say this tribute the vaccine

to slow the country and you have people to apply it [inaudible] why couldn'they do something like this and move theeople to the gymnasium and then -- >> host: i think he's asking about the role o the military. >> guest: i think it's about being more efficient and the vaccine administration looks like guns and a lot of people to be quickly administer it. we are certainly moving towards doing tngs as efficiently as possible. you ow, so far i think we have a system usi health departments but particularly people 60% of people get their flu shothe every year through te healthcare system and the medical care system and 20% go

to the pharmacy and we have a pretty goodystem out there. we don't need to have the army, and administer the icc the army is a ver efficient but some people might [inaudible] i think we can d do a very efficient job of vaccination which are caller was and we can do that to optical stems with medical care providers and in a setting that is very and also familiar to people with other vaccinations that they get on a recent basis. >> host: lets go up to albany, new york. bill, good morning. >> caller: good morning. doctor, if i could ask you two questions, one is the manufacturing of the pharmaceuticals i understand mostly are out of our country and not here in america and i

know predent trump was going to g try to work on getting them back we can manufacturer drugs they are. any part of these vaccines and i know forxample most medications china holds 97% of the ingredients and india may have the raw material may be 90% of that. ho are we set up? i understand there's only three places that pfizer has in her country so how are we set up here, number one, if i could ask that question before i forget number two, they say to give it to the people at risk first but my doctor was telling me that people you know, they should wait to see how it goes and then administer to them and then i will listen now. >> host: okay, bill. >> guest: first of all, this issue of that's a good question. we all were frustrated early on with we cant get enough tests because so manyf the tests were mad elsewhere and i think

the same with personal protectivequipment. that's been challenging because there's not much of that in were competing with the rest of the world and i think we have advantages with the vaccine and that we have contracts i place with some of tse companies and they manufacture the vaccine for us and we know we also have what they are loong towards and th've had a significant investment to begin, not just experimenting with the vaccine buto produce it and i mean, many of themlready scaled up that there vaccine will work and hit the ground running and then gethe green light and they probably always have some of the vaccine they made. i think we will see a different situation. we are competing with rest of the world but it' important that they get the relief from the pandec as well.om if we don't include the

situation everywhere things lik [inaudible] will bempossible in international tvel and that so important to us. that is the first part of t question and the second thing about who should get it, you know, i think when we have more information inhe coming days as we start t see some very specific data from the phase three trial. everybody has to feel confident that the vaccine is safe and i think that's really, really important. we don't want people doing something tt they're anxious about and no one will be ford to get the vaccine. the benefit of getting the vacce early as if you are at higher risk is that those are the peopleri who when they get help wil get severely ill and even potentially died. theyre testing the vaccine, not just from the general polation but testing it in people's underlying conditions. i think as we get data that it's

equally and even if you are older en that should be reassuring for people and you know, it's the cautious approach that sounds like you doctor was articulating. as your docto learns more about the phase thr vaccine trials and what safety data looks like i wonder if your doctor may end up feeling more confident in recommending that you get the vaccine early but we will just have to see how that safety data comes out. >> host: pat and clayton, north carolina. >> caller: good morning. >> host: good morning. >> caller: in my opinion the way things are going right now i do everything i can to take and be proactive for my own health. i've gotten my flu shot and i

got my pneumonia shot and i've done my singles shots and my vitamin regimen. i have not been sick for the last three years since i've been doing this that i feel like that if i get the covid, so be it, it's the lord's will. thank you for your time. >> host: let's go too darlene in las vegas. darling, your next. >> caller: good morning. good morning, doctor marcus paid good morning. you look beautiful as always. i was worried about how quickly pushing these drug etrials and there is a reason te drug trials take so long and how many drugs have come out that the fda has approved and then turned around and yelled bad drug, recall, recall. there is a reason that they take so long to get a drug to market and it is because of safety issues. i'm one of those people who got

an injectionti and my daughter told me itld was perfectly safe only to have a whole bunch of bone in m my jaw, upper and lowr die and have to be surgically removed soo again, the fda telling me it's safe doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy. >> host: darling, thank you. doctor. >> guest: i think this is an issue and it is true people are anxious about the fact that we are moving so fast on the vaccine and it does usually take longer and i understand that. a couple of that i will say that may be reassuring to you. one is these are -- in phase three trials which is the last big trial we've got tens of thousands of people participating in this and pfizer will have a 40000 people and that's a lot of people to really test things out and look for but the thing is we have a lot of

vaccines and generally if the vaccine will be a problem it happens quickly. don't tend to get these long lingering things i'm not saying that's possible but most vaccine side effects, significant side effects are not pretty quickly so we can see them in those trials if they go forward and then the third thing is they take so long to get a vaccine out is the whole process of producing the vaccine is very, very lengthy and the way we used to do it. the reason they come out so fast is because they're using methods that deal with the genetics of the virus and those advances have allowed us to move faster and there are a couple of vaccines on the market now that have relevant using these vaccines appear to be safe. i understand people being

apprehensive but the more information we have that will allow people to make their decision about when and if they will get the vaccine but you know, i do think that there is a good strong process and of course, we monitor the vaccines the moment we start giving it so other things that pop up we will be aware of. >> host: your question or comment from the doctor. >> caller: i have a comment trade for the last month i've been here in texas because my oldest brother has contacted the virus and these people here in texas are going on like it is nothing wrong and they just opened up a big resort and last weekend when i passed by it was packed. you go in the stores and people don't have masks. go to the restaurants and people are not doing what they are

supposed to do.ve you could he all the vaccines in the world but if the people in the place don't believe it's nothing wrong they will not take the vaccine. >> host: to your point, doctor. >>uest: i'm sorry about your brother. i hope he is doing oka yeah, it's challenging in this pandemic because there are simple things you can do like wearing a masknd yet some people aren't doing those. i think we just have to be patient with each other but it takes time for people to mak changes and most people now wear a seatbelt but that's not always been the case but there are many things that people require change and take time to get people topl come around for tha. i think we really need to spend more time trying to communicate why these things are important and y we need to do that and then, you know, we need to get to the culture where were all chipping in together and he wear a mask to protect yourself but you also wear mask to protect

other people. that's the unselfish part of it and the part tha makes us a strong society. i think mosteople have it in them to do the right thing and i think were in mask right now is the right thing to do for you d everyone around you. >> host: on distribution, how are states deterning which geoupsri are which populations t the vaccinfirst? >> guest: there is a group called the advisory council on immunization practices made up of some of t top scientists and the public health professionals or experts indexing use to come together and providede recmendationsor a wide range of this on how vaccines fidgeted and it is that group thatha will put out recommendations for you know, who should be prioritized and traditionally i will say being a

physician myself the advisory [inaudible] that's where i go to for everything. if they do i will so i think most providers would follow that but my understanding ismo mos states will follow that as well is highly regarded and they don't these are scientists who generally work in hpitals or in research or academic settings so that is where we get the recommendations and [inaudible] >> host: what is that acronym again? >> guest: aci b, advisory council board on immunization practices. >> host: they have a website. >> guest: yes. >> host: for our viewers who want to learn more. i appreciate conversation this morning.

>> c-span's washington journal every day we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day and we discussed policy issues that impact you. coming up thursday morning the latest on the 2020 presidential election results in the january 2021 a senate runoff election in georgia with georgia republican congressman ben carter and georgia democratic congressman hank johnson. also, wall street journal's talks about his recent piece examining the efficacy of federal stimulus aid to help u.s. businesses amid the covid-19 pandemic. watch c spans washington journal life at 7:00 a.m. eastern on thursday morning. be sure to join the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages and tweets. >> book tv on c-span2 has top nonftion books and authors every weekend. coming up this weekend saturday

at 1:00 p.m. eastern from the recent virtual brooklyn book festival. authors on the suffrage moveme movement. then, authors brian and clarence on the history of civil rights in new york and at 7:25 p.m. eastern adam, author of midnight in chernobyl, untold story of e world's greatest nuclear disaster on sunday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. more from the brooklyn book festival as autrs charlton, joanne and frank discussed the past and future of technology. then mark, paul and sonya on the potential effts of the coronavirus will have o societ society. at 9:00 p.m. eastern on "after words" political scientists and author deborah stone talk about her book counting: how we use numbers to decide what matters. she is interviewed by data scientist and author kathy o'neill. watch book tv on c-span2 this

weekend. >> th coronavirus cases increasing across the coury usour website c-span .org / coronavirus to follow the trends, track the spread with interactive maps and watch updates on demand anytime at c-span .org / coronavirus. >> british prime minister boris johnson took part in question time earlier today and he took questions from members of the house of commons primarily on the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. the prime minister was a self isolating at home after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for covid-19. he answered questions on the uk's current lockdown, scottish independence and concerns that even with contact tracy measures many low income families cannot afford to self