doubt at this point, expect more curveballs to be thrown at us. if we had this interview ten weeks ago, we would not have been talking about variance in the way we are now. and yet look where we are at today talk about the severest challenges they present i would expect the unexpected it's still out there. there's much we can do, but at this point this is not going to be over with anytime soon. >> finds he spans the weekly where you get your podcast. >> bryan is joining us now he is the president i and ceo of the foundation here to talk about the role of public health for the covid-19 pandemic. what is yournd foundation? >> good morning thank you so much for having a. it's a private philanthropy was founded by two bowman who

also found a brookstone. when brookstone started is about practical tools. so we have taken that idea. it really works to create practical tools to help communities in the areas of policy change, developing partnerships and creating a strong public health workforce. >> house and as an organization yours responding to the pandemic? >> done some work and messaging live supported partners we have been very eafortunate where we could help our partners at the association of state and territorial health officials and the very important association of public health labs. we are there to kind of support, lift morale among workers. and really pitch in where we can. >> a gear into this, a year into this pandemic, and yesterday it marking come of this country marked a 5000 deaths due to this disease. what are your thoughts about

the role public health professionals have played over the last ten l months? >> i think public health professionals have thrown everything they have at this virus and at this response. the problem is we diddi not give them a whole lot to throw. we always knew that this was coming. it was never in if, it was always a win. and yet we have consistently underfunded public health. and so we created a bolder ability to emerging viruses and finally the bill came due. so backyard epidemiologist by training. what have we learned? what are the lessons learned about preparedness and responding to a pandemic? what needs to happen to combat this one and prepare for the possibility of the next one? >> what i think we have learned is our collective

safety, security and economic prosperity is really dependent on it robust public health system. and d most people who are watching this morning don't even think about how public health affects them every day. but we are seeing it right now. covid is shining a bright spotlight. we need to make sure that we have better p partnership between other sectors and public health. and we need to modernize our public health system. we spent $700 billion every year on defense. but i can't think of a, nation that taken 500,000 lives on american soil. we need to reprioritize our spending and make sure we are protecting the nation against the most -- the most challenging threats. and right that that is emerging viruses. >> as the house debates annexed the senate will debate 1.9 trillion more and economic aid to combat this pandemic,

from the previous bills, how much money went to b public health infrastructure? >> so the bills have given us money in the short term. ways that we can respond. but it is not building the overall infrastructure. that isme going to take a long-term commitment. we definitely are doing things in the short term to help us get through this pandemic, which we have to do. but when this pandemic is over , there are some vulnerabilities that are a existing. one of those vulnerabilities is the public health system and our chronic underfunding of the public health h system. and also systemic injustice that we are m much more acutely aware of now. if we don't address those things through policy change, then we will remain very vulnerable. getting back to normal, but getting back to normal as a

normal or we were vulnerable to this kind of devastation. that is partly due to widening racial gaps and encumbered housing security access to paid sick leave, and having a public health system simply underfunded and under person, understaffed to actually fight this virus. most the devastation was pretty preventable. we were just unprepared to do it what is public health infrastructure look like for you? where does it exist in this country. at the u.s. is going to be at the state and strong coordination with the federal government. and so what we need, the first thing we need is a better data system. we need the federal government to fund a data system and give that to the state so we actually have information. so we can make the right decision and make the right

plans and plan our strategies. right now the data are spotty at best. and that is not a way to make progress. that is not a way to prevent a disease process not the way to roll out a strategy. so we need the information and we need trained people we all governmental public health may not pay sopu well. we need to get the best and brightest young people in this nation going into governmental public health. because our safety security and economic prosperity are at risk. >> and want to invite our jute viewers to join in on this conversation the role of professionals in combating feel of the eastern central part of the country (202)748-8000. mountain pacific your number is (202)748-8001. and public health professionals your line this morning (202)748-8002. covid-19 briefing yesterday

dr. anthony fauci talked about the next steps in directly combating covid-19, here's what he had to say. >> the bottom line of what we need to do looking forward in the clear need in this is the development of potent antivirals directly acting on sars covid into. very similar to what was done with the highly successful drug development program for hiv as well as for hepatitis c. and what i refer to is the future development of therapeuticsas will be based on the identification, the vulnerable targets the replication cycle and the design of drugs to inhibit these vulnerable targets. as i mentioned, we are beginning this, this is going to be the direction of the

future. >> bryan, your reaction to hearing that from doctor fauci. and explain what he's talking about these therapeutics and how they would work. >> doctor fauci is a brilliant immunologist. and i i appreciate his dedication to wanting to find medicine that will help us with coronavirus and future viruses. but i really want to talk about public health. while we areo waiting for medicines to be developed, people are still dying. what we know right now is fox nation plus mask wearing, plus social distancing will get us through this coronavirus pandemic. i will get us back to the economy want and get us back to the enjoyable things in our lives. medicine is great when it's available. i be the first to take it. but until we get there we have to really focus oncu public health. >> when it comes to fox nation

what challenges are you seeing to the distribution of them because of the way our public health infrastructure has beenur built? >> the distribution has been challenging. i am eligible for the vaccine and maryland. andd i got sick of dealing with the six or seven websites that i tried deal with to get an appointment i for this is not how the rollout should have been. we should be engaging both our communities and our public health h system. we have this process of going to a website, coming up with an appointment and going when that appointment comes up. that's a lot of control in our lives. i meant home with two working parents, two kids, that is a little morect predictability than i have right now. even in my own life. this past weekend in philadelphia, physicians held

a 24 hour walk-up clinic to get vaccinated. we need a mobile fox nation clinics and communities need it most. wee need where there's a high rate of people over 65. we need to help people get the vaccine. 'that does not necessarily mean they have to conform to a relatively produced a process right now does not deliver. >> your group did a survey on people being hesitant about taking vaccines. what did you find? >> there are three things it got to about we talk about vaccines for the first thing we have to personalize it pretty got to talk about people protecting their families. this is about a national responsibility, it's about you and your family protecting yourself, protecting your family. we have to be positive or talk but the vaccine butgs not things are going to happen if you don't take it talk about the things will happen if you take it, hugging a grandparent, going to a vacation, doing a holiday with your family. these are all the things that

we cane get to live good fox nation update. and lastly we can't be judgmental. i would even say we need to retire the word hesitancy. when some essential vaccine hesitant that can be stigmatizing. we need to normalize concern this is a brand-new vaccine you should be concerned. we should be engaging people with the simple statement i understand that you may be concerned about the vaccine, what questions can i answer for you? and i encourage everybody employers, clergy, girl scout troops, fantasy football create spaces without judgment were people can ask questions about the vaccine. you can show your story about taking. we're not talking about the vaccine, there are those will be spreading misinformation. let's get the conversation going, especially among folks who are somewhat concerned.

often that can be in rural communities, young republicans, young black americans and young women. speckles go to jeff inw bayville, new york. >> thank you for taking my call. i would like to expand on something that you said doctor, you mentioned this is a largely preventable and the result of chronic underfunding. i cannot agree more thea. however, i've been trying to circulate a legislative proposal to address exactly your point. that seems to me that at the end of the day you have to ask the question, how can we sustainably fund this election cycle in periods of liberal democracy and populism if we don't feed the authority to fund this to the federal reserve and amend the federal reserve act. just like we do for the purpose of monetary policy of financial services.

we do this because they are unexpected sudden downturns that are catastrophic the pandemic has emerged with new catastrophic events the federal reserve after all presents catastrophe before. it increases no longer one had your events is 1918. history shows that increasing amount of epidemic and pandemic over the decades claim change and other reasons. i would like to know what you feel about this. also a follow-up after i hear from you if i could redirect. >> okay go ahead. >> guest: thanks for your work and supporting public health breed we need everyone pitching in. we are able to fund things that we partner. we are able across administrations to fund and we now need to prioritize public health in a way that everyone understands what is at stake. think coming out of this

pandemic, we have to be very clear with everyone. if you are on the left and you believe in strong public health support, you should be introducing bills and talk about funding it. if you are more conservative and on the right, we have lost 100,000 businesses because of this pandemic. if it's not working everything else is in jeopardy. what you do in your daily lives i don't mean individual health i mean individual health. i think we need to encourage everyone to think about how do we go forward? how do we fund public health? we have to not make it one budget one cycle commitments. we have to invest in infrastructure over the long-term. >> jeffrey are you ready for

follow-up? >> yes i am thank you. yes doctor, i would like to follow-up with the question to you w, i totally agree with your premise and ease to be funded over the long-term. but as i mentioned we have shown historically we are incapable of doing that since 2005, plans have been chronically underfunded, annualize her nearly annualized pandemic simulations were all of thehe principles charged with administering a pandemic response have warned public lawmakers to fund this appropriately. they have refused to do so. we have seen even more recently perhaps even more critically that politicization and an age of populism has compounded the problem dramatically. we did not act quickly for better outcomes that covid did. as a result of not acting on

the science, this is what happens. we are among the worst in the world in spite of our science and excellence of our public health institutions. this is unacceptable. we need to mitigate the risk of this happening again by funding it from a source that cannot be politicized. i just want to make one more point clear, it does not mean that communities won'tco be involved. it will absolutely be a question of providing community support and federalize communication to pardon all of the know-how and all the resource of a have in the most efficient way. see what alright thanks i gotta get other voices in, branko headed respond. >> guest: jaffe should be here you doing my job for me. you are right, you are one 100% right. and if we can't get past the partisanship in this moment,

then i do worry if were ever going to get past it, right? because if we have not learned from covid per let's be clear covid mortality rate is not inconsequential. the threat going forward is the next time this happens, let me be clear there will be a next time. if that mortality rate is ten, 15, 20% this to be much more devastating. and so we need to really batten down the hatches breadwinning to see the threat. if china parked an aircraft carrier up the coast of georgia there would be an immediate response. while this is the viral equivalent to that. and so we need to respond accordingly. split let's hear from victor in birmingham, alabama. >> caller: spent victor turned on the television listen and talk to your phone. see the rem ion? >> host: yes you're on yet to listen and talk to the phone. >> caller: okay. it's just not comingn? through.

i would like to ask your guests, i would like to ask the guest's but okay were going to move on, william and virginia. >> caller: yes good morning. i'm just wondering why we should open up our borders everybody come in. it's an article in the newspaper the week before last that biden is going to give $4 billion. we give all this forming to the countries what protocols are in place for delivering this vaccine? what do public health officials, do they have any criteria you they give it to?

everybody needs vaccine. i'm not immigration specialist. i do know if you're the united states are actually on the planet infectious disease so whether someone is in mexico coming to the u.s., whether someone is in england, eventually if we don't have everyone vaccinated throughout vethe world, this infectious disease will continue. and will continue to seek death and devastation from it. we have got too make sure, we have not only a fox nation strategy for the u.s., but a fox nation strategy for the world. that is where the u.s., rejoining w.h.o. is very important. it is important to help other nations purchase a vaccine

even if we had good her immunity in the u.s., it should not make us invulnerable when it comes to the virus. so when bryan, did you have a chance yet to read through the world health organization report on the origin of this disease? >> very briefly. what was your reaction? >> think we need to understand all of the opportunity for viruses to grow and develop in our work. doing the work in examining what happened. will prevent this in the future we been saying for a long time that we knew there would be coming up legs they

would actually threaten humanity. so we have to invest appropriately into the science, to identify and then mitigate any and all emerging viruses so that we can achieve the height humanity can. >> how do you properly in vest in and mitigatingic this type of pandemic? what is needed? >> i'm sure going to be surprise it's investing in public health. it's investing in science. it's investing in the infrastructure so we cang more quickly sequence viral variants. it's having surveillance infrastructure that can find viruses before they get too far. and we can have an immediate and exacting response so this does not get to the point where it has now. covid-19, the only solution really at the point at which endemic throughout the u.s. is

that the right? so what we didth not have was a good governmental trust. ready to rebuild governmental trust. we need rebuild our public health infrastructure. we need to make sure there are policies in place that protect our society before it even lands on our shores. many paid sick leave we need livable wage we need partnership between public health and other sectors. this is again the foundation of your house, you always pay attention there's a crack in your foundation. our foundation is cracked, we are not as healthy as we should be, whether we deserve to be we have to prioritize that in the biden administration and every administration after. >> host: what is viral sequencing and why is it i i important? >> guest: this is the work finding all these variants. looking at when someone has the virus what type of virus it was. is it different from what we are dealing with? we are seeing very from south

africa, the uk, finland now principal we have to do is know that those variance are there. because they may have different dynamics. in our vaccines may work differently for the different variancedi. for our prevention strategy we have too know. i am a kid of the 80s. i remove a g.i. joe telling me all the time, knowing is half the battle. we have not even one that half yet. split randy in williamsburg, virginia. >> caller: good morning bryan, good morning american thank you for c-span. ryan, i've been calling in for 18 years now, since i started mymy business called virginians for education. which is a custom trailer i pull around to schools. and other host organizations that wish to have a fitness prevention program supply on

site to any host organization. split randy can you tie this to the topic? b3 the physician just mention prevention. pen schools, we have been playing games with that. and we are worried about s children's health, wellness, safety whether it's in school or on the block. so until families, as they are, have support. because were not winning education health battles with law and order and authority. so what let's talk about physical fitness. >> guest: bryan your response. physical fitness is incredibly important. having good pe requirements in school is a necessary strategy. but we need to think more broadly. we need to think about our community. even if you can have pen schools you have a safe place to exercise its affordable in

your community. are there places that you can get fresh fruits and vegetables? is housing even affordable? because if you don't have a place to stay than fitness really becomes less of a priority. in so we need to think through how we build community that support everyone's individual health. the former cdc director always asked how to make healthy default choice? and it is more comprehensive than just physical activity or pe. but definitely one of the things that we can look at and we can work on. but it is much broader than that. sue and marion, iowa, jodi is from there watching us good morning to you. susie hello thank you. i was just unit after bryan was introduced i'm hoping ms in the right question here. i want to say first of all, biden should be reaching out to you. you are so practical minded.

you have alreadydy touched on points of interest that have spiked my concern regarding the vaccine and covid and so forth bright stuff that we do not normally hear like the foundation of your family being held absolute that care my father with cancer et cetera. as besides that the approach of everything pretty specially people who have concerns of the vaccine, which i am. i am not an anti- vaccinated at all. but when i am concerned with is that mike 91-year-old grandmother passed away following her first and then went downhill after her second shot of the vaccine. and it really concerns me. right now my 74-year-old mother just received it recently. there are what i've heard, there are pockets around the world which some nursing care centers have people that are

passing away i'm concerned i want someone to address it you seemed like the very person to reach out to you brought that to our attention for it yes, think the concerns are valid. what peopleli are hearing and they need to be listened to and responded to so that we do not close out of the way and more people get this vaccine going. thank you. >> guest: marion thanks, i'm sorry for your loss. i really hope your dad does well with treatment. here is the thing, the more people you vaccinate, the more likely there may be mortality. but it might not haveno anything to do with the vaccine. and so, you are looking at something temporarily. insane grandma gotay the vaccine and then she did really poorly. you actually don't know, she may have done poorly even without theve vaccine.

and what i know is that the vaccine has gone through safety trials. we have had every study, every phase has had the fda involved. we have on going safety monitoring boards. and we are constantly looking to see if there is a causal relationship between taking the vaccine and that subsequent mortality. we have not found evidence of that yet. and so what we have been seeing is the vaccine's mostly manageable there are some normal side effects after you take that it's really, really easy every time i born a blue hat i've never been attacked by a bear.

that doesn't mean blue hats keep away bears. an easy conclusion to draw. and so i want to pressure you are bit on your family is in jeopardy, they are older. so there is jeopardy from the coronavirus that we know. andw., per evidence we have the vaccine is safe. until i encourage you to talk to your provider about the vaccine. talk to your friends who have had it. but i think you can go ahead and protect your family with this vaccine. sue and phoenix is next in musil, montana parts met good morning. richard feynman the physicist said inside to should always go back to your first experiments and make sure they are correct. and this gentleman has put his faith in pcr testing to come up with this 500,000 death count. the inventor and nobel prize

winner, the tcr method said you cannot use this test to diagnose anyone. he says it so sensitive you can find a single molecule of any genetic straindi are looking for in anyone. and yet this is the test we used to saysa that a person dying of cancer, also has this coronavirus. if you look at the tcr method is nothing like the what they do is they take a random peace of from a patient that lopped off the end, they treated with foreign dna it assembles itself into a genetic strain. if they put in cancerous monkey cells in the sell side they say look, we have a lethal virus. this whole thing is justhi fake science. mean pcr is a great research

tool. it should not be used as a diagnosticic. i respect those perspectives. haven't spoken to people throughout the u.s. is we have lost a mothers, sons, daughters, to this virus. and debating whether we are using the right test is think is not getting it to where we be. we've lost 5000 american lives. we've shuttered wondered at that american businesses paid were not getting to do the things we want to do things that make life enjoyable. needed work together were debating whether there'sto 500, 600, 400,000 deaths. it's all too many. it's all too many. regardless of what test she is pretty what i want to do is

move to have confidence in the vaccine to wear masks and socially distance we together can be covid-19 respect thank you very much thank you for your time this morning. spent today the senate approved tom ville sac at. >> we are taking your calls live on the air, on the news of the day and policies effective coming up wednesday morning beach chair of the budget committee, discusses the american rescue plan. tillich $1.9 trillion in coronavirus relief. the business inside is kimberly leonard on confirmation on hobby air, and present of the group america for prosperity talks about president biden and legislation. watch c-span's "washington journal" live at seven eastern wednesday morning pressure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages and tweets.

>> today the senate approved tom vilsack as to be agriculture secretary. and u.s. of that un general assembly for the senate will work on more nominations this week. watch live coverage of the senate when they return at noon eastern tomorrow, here on cspan2. now here's a look at some of the floor speeches from earlier today starting with the senate majority leader schumer. >> mr. president, today the senate will complete the confirmation of two key nominees, linda thomas greenfield to serve as the un ambassador and tom vilsack to service agriculture secretary right as i said yesterday the senate will also confirm to serve as the next energy secretary and begin the confirmation of doctor miguel cardone to serve at the next education secretary. we also hope to do unit