influenza. we typically always respond best to the first influenza infection we have so if your first influenza infection in your lifetime was an h3n2, you're always going to have antibodies to that strain than any other flu strain that you encounter in your life and vaccine doses that you get later containing that will always boost your anti-body levels more than the vaccine willboost your antibodies to say h1 and one . that is a known phenomenon in flu, i don't know that that is true with coronavirus. i'll have to look into that. >> thank you very much for your time this morning andfor our viewers you can follow her recording@statnews.com. appreciate . >> thank you for having me. >> the ap headline, youmust

coronavirus death toll approaches a milestone of 500,000 . in their reporting, they write this. a year into the pandemic a running total of lives lost his 498,000, roughly the population of kansas city, missouri and just shy of the size of atlanta. figures compiled by johns hopkins university surpasses the number of people who died in 2019, chronic lower respiratory diseases, alzheimer's flu and pneumonia combined. president joel weisman will mark 500,000 lives lost with a moment of silence. a candlelight ceremony at the white house, biden will deliver remarks at sunset to honor the dead, the first known that'shappened in early february 2020 both of them in santa clara county california and it took four months to reach the first 100,000 day .

200,000 deaths since september 2000 in december. it took just over a month to go from 300,000, 400,000 in about two months to climb from 400,000 to the brink of 500,000 . doctor anthony fauci was asked about reaching this milestone. >> it's terrible. it's really horrible and it's something that is historic. it's nothing like we've ever been through in the last hundred two years. since the 1918 influenza pandemic. people decades from now are going to be talking about this as if it's a terribly historic milestone in the history ofthis country . to have these many people to have died from a respiratory infection it really is a terrible situation that we've been through that we're still going through h. that's the reason why we keep insisting to continue with the public health measures because we don't want this to get worse than it already is. >> doctor anthony fauci on

state of the union yesterday, your thoughts as the us approaches 500,000 deaths due to this pandemic. robert in texas, good morning, whatare you thinking about this morning ? >> i'm just thinking how terrible this has been and how it should be a good wake-up call that we need to get back to a very robust cdc and infectious disease control experts and let's let science do the predictions as they've done in previous years and prepare the country because i think this is kind of a wake-upcall and there will be plenty of these in the future . we probably are going to come out of this remarkably well unfortunately 500,000 probably 650,000 by the time we get a control on it but this is going to be part of the future in this ever populated world we live in .rl

>> robert, when you say a very robust cdc, what do you mean ? >> caller: i think we need to get the funding back up. so much of what's happened in d the last year has basically been not having the people in control to make decisions and implement policy and basically have the strong leadership that can dictate out to the public this is what we need to do and we need to do it now. there's been a lot of politics in it and we don't need politics. what we need is we need the scientists totell us the best approach tohandling situations like this . >> who do you blame for not having a robust cdc ? >> i think if you go back and like read bob woodward staying on fear, the administrations, it would be

the formerpresident view that he didn't want to alarm the public . he didn't want to shut down the economy in dielection-year politics, i guess. it's just pure politics. something like disease control, you don't want a doctor totreat you differently if you are a republican or a democrat . you want science to dictate hey, this is something thatwe just all need to buckle down and get through together . and i tend to trust scientists in determining the right path. not politicians. >> robert in greenville texas, and in washington dc ralph, good morning to you. yourthoughts on this pandemic and where we are at this point . >>. >> caller: i've been exposed, i've gotten theantigen although i had no symptoms. my doctor said i must have gotten it back in january .

my wife works atchildren's hospital and my daughter in new york , she came down with it and she lost her taste for a few days and that was it. this stuff is all over. i will say this, my wife works at children's hospital and one thing they're doing for preventative is there taking vitamin d. all staff, all doctors, all the workers and all the children are given vitamin d. there was a study that came out in indonesia at 95 percent of the people who died of track covid were vitamin d deficient and there was a study out of india and spain and out of england and all these studies point to the same thing. it's not going to keep you from getting it but it's going to kill the symptoms and for me i never even had symptoms and thank god my daughter wastaking vitamin d . he finally listened to me. three weeks for she got in her symptoms were mild.

>> host: what did the hospital say to your wife about the need for taking vitamin d? were they siting the studies, how do you knowabout ? >>. >> caller: i don't know why they do it, i know doctors are aware of it and it's if you do a google search and start looking, for example a study where they had 25 people in one group and 40 and another and the 40 were in the vitamin d group and they got what they call a derivative of vitamin d which is the body processes vitamin d and uses it and a different form. so the first 40.the vitamin d delivered and everybody got the same treatment. i was one of the first 40 that went into the hospital with covid and one into intensive care. the second 25 group all had covid and went into hospital. seven of those people went into intensive care and three never made it out so those

numbers are staggering and it's just not one thing but for some reason the media is afraid to do anything or recommend any kind of, i'm talking about cost-benefit analysis, there is no known overdose, you just take two pills a day and if i'm wrong here, all these studies are on your ouout 10 bucks but if you're right you'll never knowwhether or not you had . iguess for me i'm 66 years old . you know, i've got high blood pressure and i had absolutely no symptoms whatsoever but i do have the antigens and that the word i want to get out to the public. >> and will you get vaccinated? >> probably not, the whole purpose of the vaccine is to get the antigen . it's t to get the body exposed to saying that yes indeed, this is a virus that realizes i'm going to attack it but my body is already doing it. >> are you confident those antigens will last?

>> i'm confident the vitamin d will last and i'm confident that this thing is dying out. we are down 30 percent and what i'm saying and the public, all right, you need to be cautious. >> i'll leave it there so i can get in some other svoices. the number of cases is on the downtrend. and the number of vaccinations is taking upward. kathy in massachusetts, what do you think about where we are with battling this pandemic and aswe approach 500,000 deaths in this country ? >> i've been a social activist, thank you for taking my call. i have been a social activist since the 60s. and the people have to start to take responsibility first for themselves. and then for the country.

people should not have to be told over and over and over again wear masks, wash your hands. the american people since 1970 have not then taught to takeresponsibility . i call it everybody gets a trophy syndrome. but everybody has to be a winner. >> patty in massachusetts, usa today headline, us it's 500,000 deaths from coronavirus just as many states announce plans to ease social restrictions. and as we approach this milestone, congress returns to washington this week to work on president biden's $1.9 trillion relief plan. look at the headlines in the paper today, politico with the headline democrats

prepare to for party line houseboat on bidens pandemic a bill. that from politico and you have the hill newspaper, democratsface unity cast on bidens $1.9 trillion bill . the hill also reporting this morning, gop not worried about voting against popular relief bill. steve scalise in republican leadership in the minority in the house and he was also on the sunday show . he is on abc. >> the first thing the president can do is give strong guidance and follow the science. there is so much science that this is hurting kids and millions of kids in america that are not getting in classroom learning every day. you look at cdc guidance, you can look at the american academy of pediatrics and

they lay out how you can safely reopen school. 40 percent of children are learning in school so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. those rns hotspots and places where the virus is not a serious but if you lookat what the priority should be , it should be the children and that's not the case because right now you can see as the unions have stepped up and said they don't want in classroom learning using the white house pressured the cdc to reduce guidance which was clear but this money idea that you have to wait until the money comes out, that's not the case. there's over $60 billion still remaining in previous relief packages cynically for reopening schools. the money is there this idea you have to pass more money and the congressional budget office said the money moving through congress this next week, that money will not even be able to be. 95 percent won't be able to be spent until 2022 so do they really want to have a bill that's going to delay reopening schools even more?