the former capital police chief testifies about security failures that occurred on january 6, 2021 during the attack on the u.s. capital. he testifies before a health administration oversight subcommittee, live, today, beginning at 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span three. and online at c-span.org. >> healthy democracy doesn't just look like this. it looks like this. where americans can see democracy at work. when citizens are truly influenced. get informed, straight from the source, on c-span. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. from the nation's capital to go wherever you are. the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable. >> joining us this morning is dr. benjamin, executive director of the american public

health association. let's begin cawith the new booster that was announced by the fda and the cdc for covid 19. what should americans know about this? >> thank you for having me with you this morning. covid is still with us but we have much better tools that we have developed over the last 2 1/2 years. we know a lot more about the character and the way the virus functions and we have better vaccines and we have debtor therapeutics and we've learned a lot about how to protect ourselves and treat ourselves should you get exposed to the virus. >> if you get exposed today, what is the viruslike and is the booster needed? >> i think the booster is absolutely needed. it's an updated vaccine and, what happens for most people, we now know that users had some

degree of protection because you've been vaccinated or you . were exposed to the virus and you were infected. so, in that environment, the vast majority of americans do have some degree of protection but it wanes over time and that means that this updated vaccine is important to maintain the high level of protection that keeps them from getting really sick. >> who needs it? >> everyone over the age of six needs it. everyone over the age of six and older should get this updated vaccine. >> what do we know about covid- 19? what are some specifics that people should know about what fi was learned over the past 2 1/2 years about the virus? >> we know the virus mutates ke frequently and likes to change. that, at least so far, when it

has changed, for the worse, it gets a little bit more infectious. we know that it is easy to pass from one person to another even if you don't have symptoms, which makes it very difficult to detect from one person to another when someone gets infected. we know that if you are older or you have a lot of immune compromised, chronic disease, heart disease, lung disease or kidney disease, you are more r likely to get really sick if you get exposed and infected from this virus and we know that we can protect ourselves. and, we know this is true from adults and for children. even children particularly don't get as sick as adults. we do have children that get om very sick and still die from this disease. >> what we know about how long our immunity lasts?

>> somewhere around three to four months after you get your vaccination it begins to wane some. and the waning is in such a way that you can still get infected and, in addition, if you do get infected, most people who have been fully vaccinated don't get really sick, but, we still haves seen deaths and we are not seeing deaths in people who have been vaccinated but that is because their immune status has waned. >> how concerned are you about vaccine fatigue? it seems you would be given l what you've said. >> i'm very concerned about it.i all of us want to be over this but we still need to be vigilant. this is not a minor cold. this disease can still cause significant disease and, more

importantly, that increase in chronic disease state in a number of people called long covid and that is chronic joint aches, sometimes persistent weakness, -- just a range of t symptoms we are still trying to get our hands around exactly all of the things that it does but we know that this virus can affect almost every single organ system and this long covid phenomenon is in addition to the acute disease that we see when people get infected. >> what is the american public e health association? >> the american public health association is a professional society of people interested in public health and we've been around for since 1872. 1 so 150 years. >> adele in springfield, illinois. question or comment?

>> welcome back. i do have a comment and a question. my comment was with the ai that we were just discussing early on the first time. i think science would be one ofb the benefactors of ai in terms of research and treatment. but, the specific question was, i had a question regarding cdc.gov listing that i saw that those who already had covid and those who have the vaccine and the booster are more susceptible to this current strain, and i didn't understands how that could be. c. it was on the cdc.gov website. o can you explain that to me? >> not that they are more susceptible. let me tell you what i do know

about people who have been infected and then got vaccinated or got vaccinated and then got infected. it does seem that those people overall tend to do a little better. em because of the different le viruses they've been exposed to. but, i'm not aware that there u is any evidence that you are yo much more likely to get this new strain. the new strains or that you will get any sicker. >> michael, deerfield beach, florida. hi, michael. >> hello. i wonder if you would comment on the fact that california right now has asked all pediatricians to conduct an age study and if you are aware of the kaiser permanente study because it's really

foundational. i'm afraid you and the american public health association are going to be found historically complicit in literally tens foop -- and not to do with the covid issue but due to our support, your support, of a discriminatory and class-based health delivery system, founded on a false understanding of p evolution that was promoted in 1960, the evolution is based on competition, not cooperation. that is a falsehood. evolution is not synonymous with competition. ousaying that this class- based system of our healthcare, our education, and even our ? economics is based on science. it comes from herbert spencer, m the founder of the american education system. >> i'm going to jump in. are you following, dr. benjamin? >> let me just say the american public health association has strongly been in support of a o health system with everyone in and no one out.

>> mary, in nevada. >> good morning. i had a question on how much further would we have been ahead , or how much better off we or would have been or how many lives would have been saved, if we knew the origins of the covid? especially like patient zero, and the fact that the cia covered up that it was -- it originated in the lab instead of in that wet market? how much more information we would've gathered and how much faster? sa >> dr. benjamin, do you have thoughts? >> let me just say that, i do think it's important that we understand that the origin of this virus is, because i think it helps us with forward o leaning in terms of being able v to protect ourselves in the at future. that's the first thing. secondly, i think that there in are lots of delays in our

understanding of this, because of the fact that i don't think we got early information from china that we really needed to h have early on. ve i think that did inhibit this and our understanding, quickly enough. we did have a lot of international collaboration and some rnfrom china. some from scientists in china, r but it's clear we weren't getting good information right away. i think all of that contributed to part of our problems here ind the united states, but we also did not do this well in the united states. there were many things that we did not do well. there were some things we did id do well but there were things we didn't do well, and i think that, had we been more collaborative at a much better s public health system that we had built to respond to this t kind of emergency, had we had a consistent leadership and

consistent message and kind of an all in, with everyone's sleeves being rolled up all in k the same direction, all the , time, every time, and less belittling, lives would have been saved. we need to think of how we as a society, address these kinds of societal health threats and focus on the real enemy and stop blaming each other. >> ray in syracuse, new york. you are talking with dr. georges benjamin. go ahead. >> good morning. my first adercomment is, i will never trust anything comes from any health provider again. i heard so many lies during covid. being an elderly person, i'm 66, certainly intelligent, worked in science my whole

life, and i was lied to every which way. i can't even count the ways and they are still lying about it, by the way. and of course dr. fauci was the public one that we saw lying. he is still lying. but, i can't imagine anyone ag trusting anything ever again. i don't even trust my doctor of 40 years anymore. because he went along with it. i don't -- >> let's get a reaction. >> look, i am a physician and i -- what i can tell you is that -- i will give you my best advice and i encourage you to check it out. i encourage you to find someonec that you do trust you talk it over with them. someone who is knowledgeable and lethen follow what i hope would be good advice that you would get from them. trust has been a real problem during this pandemic. and i hope that people -- we

can earn people's trust so that we don't go through this again. >> elliott in new york. >> hi, thanks for taking my call. dr. benjamin, i have a couple of brief questions just to amplify my understanding and i am not looking for precision to the 10th of the decimal point or whatever. i am wondering, you talked about long covid. do you have a range of percentage of how -- how many people who get covid end up with long covid? >> i don't know. there's a lot of estimates out there. the challenge we have is, we don't know how many people are actually getting infected. because, now that we've gone to self testing, we have a lot of people that are positive that don't reported and they have

mild symptoms and they do just fine, so we don't pick them up. in terms of giving you a good percent, i really don't have a good number for you. secondly, we are still trying to make sure we have a good case definition for long covid. somewhere around 10 or 12 weeks out, most people are fine who get covid but there are a population of people beyond that that have persistent symptoms and they can go on for years. we've already been doing this for 2 1/2 years so we don't know for sure what the long- term duration will be. but, it's substantial enough that we know we need to pay a lot more attention to it and we need to pay a lot more attention to it with more diligence than we are doing right now. >> we are talking with dr. it georges benjamin about the updated covid-19 booster that

is now available. . cdc recommended. where can people get it and is a free? >> so, the good news is, that almost everyone should get the updated vaccine. ou if you have insurance coverage, you should be able to get it through your insurance company so it shouldn't cost you anything. if you are niuninsured and don' have a regular source of care, the federal government has an access program now that will allow you to get this vaccine for free. and that is through local health departments or your community health centers or certain pharmacies. pharmacies that have contracte with the federal government and our understanding is that thoser contracts are in place and they are available in the next day

or two. >> chris, from florida. your questions or comment for the doctor. >> good morning, dr. benjamin. thank you for taking my call. yo i was wondering if you are familiar with arrow cleanse. you can go there to get information on new technology ne for disinfection and aircraft a cabins and labs and hopefully into other areas, which is a novel idea. it is in the process of being approved and it would eliminate airborne viruses and other pathogens and it is an awesome product. aerocleanse.com gives you all of the white papers , journal articles, et cetera. i would love to see c-span invite dr. gary allen to

discuss this. they have been involved in this. it's imperative for people who know about this. thank you so much. >> thank you. i'm not familiar with that pa particular company or organization. i can say that we now know that there is some degree of aerosol a station that occurs with this virus and that air quality is important. obviously places like airplanes and commercial buildings and schools are always concerned about having good air coquality and that is something we ought to be paying attention to. and something we are paying a lot more attention to as one of the new tools that will protectr us against airborne viruses and bacteria. >> up to massachusetts, john. good morning. >> i have a question, all av right? we have people that come up pretty much are not voted into

office. has nothing to do with our government. i basically know, because i was around back then, that in 1965, there was a virus created by our government, which is the coronavirus. and that virus was pretty much held up in government labs until it was the perfect time for the world health organization and all your globalists -- black watch -- >> all right, we are going to move on. anton, .in florida. > i have a question for dr. benjamin. i called c-span in the very beginning of this covid what i call basically, it was weapon eyes. anyway, i called c-span. john was the host and john

reported at the time that 291,000 americans had died of covid and i talked to john that day and said, john, it cannot be true. how do i know? thanks to c-span. because four days earlier i called ahead and asked one of those scientist doctors like dr. benjamin if anybody can die of covid by itself alone and the answer was basically know. so, of course, i never got a shot and i had the chance to talk to dr. scheffer on c-span later on and i told him how an old man like me, 80 years old, i haven't and sick a day in my life. what would happen to me if i take that shot at the time and r he kind of warned me against it so, does covid really exist? >> dr. benjamin, what do you say to that caller? a >> look i'm glad you're nd something years old and you

sound like you're doing well. it sounds like you've got good genes and you're doing good. i still encourage you if you are older to get vaccinated for this disease because it does i tend to impact people who are much older. we know that 1 million people have died from covid. that's probably an undercount because of the way we capture ap people in our system who die in a way we diagnose the cause of death in our country. there is an undercount for sure. and, there's also been a big n debate between people who die of covid and people who die with covid and getting those numbers straight. so, as we go forward, we need to do a better job of differentiating between, yes,

that was directly attributed to covid and people who may have died from a heart attack with covid or a pulmonary embolism with covid or some other infectious disease that may have been secondarily affected after they had covid. so that is an issue. but we knew that at least 1 m million people to die from ev covid. >> kevin in oregon. >> and that's just in the united states. >> all right, kevin, it's your turn. you've got to mute the television. go ahead. >> i just had a really quick , question. last year, last october, when i got my fourth vaccination, they said i was good for a year, so i was scheduled again to get iti this october, which, the new covid will be out, but it sounded like it was only good for six months again? so i want confirmation. was it going to be good for a year or do we go back to doing s six months?

>> i don't think we know for sure, to be honest with you. we are seeing that your immunity seems to wane about five to six months. ft i think practically, that most folks will probably get the shot and assuming we do it annually,o they will get an updated wi vaccine available every year and that is probably what most people will do. but, i can't promise you that is what that is going to do. we are learning as we go along here to some degree, but, you know, practically, i can tell you that what i plan to do is at least get -- i will be getting the updated vaccine. as soon as i can -- it's available and i can get to the store to get it read and i -- if it turns out that five to six months from now we are r seeing another up surge and we attribute that to significantly waning immunity -- that is a keyword.

significantly waning immunity, then i would be game for this ca being a twice per year shot but i think practically, once per year is certainly more likely what we are going to see. ni >> thomas in pennsylvania. . good morning. >> good morning. dr. benjamin, will there be another mask mandate or will it be that we have two stand six feet from each other or it's going to be up to the individual to wear the mask or not? >> i don't see broad mask mandates but let me tell you how i think about masks. masks work. they absolutely do work. none of it is 100% and you have to wear it properly. you have to wear the masks very tight around your face. there's a difference between an and 95 mask or multilayer cloth masks. each of them has their benefits. i do think that, if you are going to be going to a large

event and you are in a community where there is a surge in covid that is occurring, if you're going to be around people who are potentially immunocompromised, if you're going to go see grandma, or someone that is sick on chemotherapy, then i r would encourage you to wear the mask, because it protects you from them and them from you. so, it's a little inconvenient, but, wearing a mask is really not a big thing, and tragically, we've allowed this very simple protective device that offers us a significant degree of protection, depending on the situation, we've allowed it to becomes politicized and it makes no sense. there are other societies around the world that have become mask wearing whenever you have these covid flu

seasons. and, by the way, it also protects you from the flu and n. from the common cold. so, it does offer some degree of protection so i encourage ofs people to mask up. >> speaking of the flu, should americans get both the flu n' vaccine and the latest covid-19 vaccine? can you get them at the idsame time? >> i absolutely think americans should get their annual flu shot and get this updated covid vaccine. as well as, if you are over the age of 65, contact your healthcare provider and see if the vaccine for rsv, is something that you ought to have too. i can tell you that lli have ha my flu shot already. ad and i have had my rsv shot. . i am over the age of 65, and aso soon as i can, i'm going to geta

the updated covid vaccine as well. >> and what else should people -- >> you can get the flu shot and the covid shot at the same time. one in each arm. >> what are your concerns about the rise of flu, rsv, and covid, as we head into fall? >> this is the season. and, we are going indoors more, we are going to be around each s other more. we are sharing our dorms more. kids are going back to school and they are sharing their respiratory germs with each other. so, we are in a higher risk ds season. washing your hands, not coming to work when you're sick, if there's any way possible to do that, wearing a mask in appropriate settings and being properly vaccinated is the bedrock of protection and i

think it's the best thing for us to do for us to have a more healthy society. >> all right, dr. georges benjamin, executive director of the american public health association, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> the formal capital police chief testifies on security failures that occurred on january 6, 2021 during the attacks on the u.s. capital. he testifies before the administration subcommittee life, today, beginning at 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span three. c-span now our free mobile video app, and online at c- span.org.