look at the first ladies influencing public policy on c-span. >> on newsmakers we are joined by the director of the national institution on health, director anthony fauci. to help with our questions in studio, we have jennifer have her core -- jennifer and leena from the washington post. we are chatting on friday afternoon. a few hours ago you briefed president obama about the zika crisis. can you give us a sense of what you talked to him about in that meeting? >> the meeting was a meeting between the president and secretary burwell, the cdc director tom frieden and me. update the president an

on various aspects of the zika issue. epidemiology and the status of the outbreak in central and south america, particularly concentrating on puerto rico. with the number of travel-related cases and the number of individual women who are pregnant and infected. he wanted an update as to the status of the vaccine development program. it was a lot of discussion back and forth and he went away from that pretty well briefed. >> what is the status of that development? >> faxing development? -- vaccine development? several candidates in various stages of development, preclinical, a few

getting ready within a few weeks. probably hours will go at the end of august and the beginning of september into a phase one trial to determine if it is safe or induces the kind of response that you predict would be protective. that usually anticipates a couple of months. 2017 isnning of predicted that we would be able trialance into a efficacy to ask if the vaccine works. does it protect people against zika? there are a couple candidates staggered behind each other but the early ones were aimed at inng into an efficacy trial 2017. the president was very interested in that timetable and the resources needed to bring that into fruition. sure that wemake

did not slow down or essentially interfere with the kind of things that i need to do at the nih and what tom frieden needs to do at the cdc. >> to that point on appropriations, it has been five months since the white house put in the request. it doesn't look like congress is any closer to getting this past -- pasesed than back in february. if conyers had approved it back in february, what be different in terms of vaccine. can you tell us what we would see right now? >> it is a complicated issue. with regard to the vaccine, it's unlikely there would be any difference. the difference will be going forward. we have borrowed money from

other accounts. i have discussed this may times. wethe beginning of january started doing lots. we proceeded to the months with no appropriation, the president allowed us to use some of the unexpended ebola money to continue. rear reaching the point that if we don't get an appropriation we propert do the implementation or representation of the morgue fenced phase two trial. advanced phase two trial. don't getis, if we the money soon, all of the things we have been leading up to you will not lead to the goal line.

soon,you don't get it when is your drop dead? you have to be preparing for phase two now. was it a couple weeks ago? another month? >> a good question. so-called that the dropdead point is different for the development of a vaccine and what we do and is different from what tom freed and the cdc do. they have an ongoing process of racing against this evolving outbreak in south america and central america. to your question about the to bringwe have money the phase one trial to fruition. as you are getting ready for a starttwo, even though it in the beginning of 2017, you

have to start preparing the sites now. it are not prepared to accommodate a phase two trial, you could slow it down or interfere with the efficiency of what you are doing so if we don't have a firm commitment to get the money to us within several weeks into the summer, we will have to scramble around and figure out how we can work so not to slow down the process. what you would want is a smooth transition from phase one into phase two. that starts sometime into the next several weeks. even though we don't start the trial in january with phase two, you don't start at that moment but several months before. the president has requested $1.9 billion and congress is a $1.1 billion piece of legislation.

how much of either of those go to vaccine research and where does the other money go? >> relatively speaking, since the things the cdc has to do are a broader scope with regard to vector control and a variety of other public health things, what we get is relatively small proportion. if we get the $1.9 billion, the get $277 million. the overwhelming majority of that is to vaccines. doctor felt she -- dr. fauci, there were senate democrats who voted down the request last week saying it had party -- partisan request that were unacceptable. is it at the point that congress needs to pass it regardless of ?hat is attached to it

somethingt comment on in the political arena. the president said we need to get this passed the without anything associated with it because we have an important job. as a scientist, i backed that up. we have important things to do. anything that delays it, the complicating the complicate getting that money us and as we can. itis at the point where needs to get the matter what is attached? >> i would like to see it get approved, i'm not in a position to comment about the political things associated with the legislation. >> would you take the $1.1 billion if it did have these other riders on it?

for theu take the money research that you need for what you are doing? >> even though we would like to have the $1.9 billion, you're asking what i take it if there were no other riders, of course, i wouldn't refuse it. i need the money. >> do you think you can talk to us about why researchers are confident that you could move forward with a good candidate .or vaccine maybe can tell us what is going on, what we know now about the virus and what are the critical questions that remain to be answered. >> a very good question. the reason that we feel reasonably confident that we can develop a safe and effective vaccine is that we have considerable experience over the

viruses whichvi include viruses like yellow fever, dengue, and west nile virus. the pastlook at experience and the ability to generate a protective response against these classes of virus, we have been quite successful. yellow fever vaccine is one of the most effective that we have. it has been very highly effective. study a few years ago. there were not many companies interested in partnering with us. dengue, it is more complicated. there are four types so for a good vaccine and need a good response against all of them. the precedent of getting a good

flavi virus is a there. the body's response against the hiv virus is not particularly good. it does not give you a roadmap to say, we know we can induce the body to make a good immune response. flaviviruses, they are generally protected it against .ther types of exposure the individual concept is there. that's why we feel confident. we just need to do it. we need to get into the phase one and show it is safe. then move ahead to efficacy.

and a half,t week there have been a couple studies using the prototype of the vaccines. they were able to induce responses by the vaccine. a protected those mice. we also have a non-human primate model which shows that once you infect a monkey with zika and the monkey recovers, that monkey is protected from a subsequent challenges. you put these things together and it spells a favorable issue with regard to our availability -- to our ability to develop a vaccine for zika. >> wasn't there bad news that came out of it also?

monkeys werenant affected with zika that the virus state in their system for times asr, up to seven long as non-pregnant monkeys. that is troubling especially for the implications going on. >> that is a very important point. it's a very scientific explanation for the considerable vulnerability of fetuses in pregnant women who are affected during their pregnancy. the virus, which in a non-pregnant monkey or person generally lasts for about seven days to two weeks at the most. it last for seven to 10 days and it disappears and you are done with it but the virus is usually transient in how long that it hangs around in the

plasma and the blood. but the study in the pregnant monkeys compared to non-pregnant monkeys the virus lingered on an up to 57 days which is explanation for why they are so vulnerable to the fetus. that as a vaccine that can be developed and is theloped, is it going to be new normal that pregnant women have to be worried about zika virus? i think it will depend on where you live. rubella. the example 1960's, rubella, it is a relatively mild disease. we found out that most children get infected when they are

in the once with the childbearing age were generally protected. some girls don't get affected. when they get to the childbearing age, they get -- there are about 20,000 rubella in thee babies each year united states, including babies with microcephaly and hearing and sight abnormalities. even though it is given to everybody, all children, ourselves included, the real women of childbearing age. if you vaccinate them when they are protected. if you live in a reason -- region where zika is endemic and a threat, this is a possibility

that might be incorporated into vaccines that are generally given to children to protect them during child could -- childhood. if you have a region or a i do think there's a policy that would have this as a broad vaccine for everything that you get with measles, mumps, and rubella. vaccinee we get to the for the people who live in those regions, should they get tests? to distinguish between testing for the virus itself, asking the question, am i infected now? you're the question

asking there is a very easy test to do called a pcr that can determine if you are infected. into some difficulty if three months down the pike anyone to ask the question, was i infected? am i protected? the difficulty with that is if you live in a region where there are other flavivirus floating those type of tests which don't test for the virus test for the history of being infected, they are quite nonspecific and they are usually not very sensitive because there are certain portion of people who, even though you would expect a good antibody response, they don't. where if that stage

you will rely on a good antibody test, we are not at the point where we are confident or comfortable with those tests because of the general lack of specificity sensitivity. only have a few minutes left, but dr. anthony fauci, lead aside. not just for you but all the agencies dealing with that response, what is the most critical issue that is not happening? >> it is that happening because it hasn't happened. let me explain by what it -- what i mean by that twist of words. we have over 900 travel-related cases in the continental united states and 2000 locally transmitted cases in puerto rico.

there are a few things of concern to me, others, including the president. acceleration of cases in puerto rico over the last few weeks. is other thing of concern that as we get into the more active mosquito season of july , particularly in the gulf coast of the united states, we are concerned that we will start seeing locally transmitted among people who never left the continental united states. and the real challenge will be controlsure by mosquito that those local cases to not become sustained or

disseminated. those are the concerns we have in the continental united states and the considerable concern over the vulnerability in puerto rico. the cdcf the stats on website is that there have been 13 sexually-transmitted cases of zika in the continental united states. are you talk -- can you talk about what you are doing to address that concern? a that's really going to be public-service type education of the public that, if you are a manned and could be infected and know you are infected or have been infected, there are a number of guidelines that are very will delineated on the cdc main thing is to protect pregnant women. if a man might be exposed from a trip, if you have a pregnant sexual partner to wear a condom

consistently and correctly for the duration of the pregnancy. he don't have a partner you should make sure to practice safe sex for at least six weeks. if there is no indication at all that you have any infection, at least eight weeks knees to be a practice of safe sex. we keep educating people on a couple major points. if you are pregnant, might be pregnant, travel to a region -- don't travel to a region where there is active transmission. beyou are a male who might protected for a variety of reasons i just mentioned, make sure you practice safe sex at the cdc. >> over the next couple of weeks as you continue to research how it could affect a pregnant woman, what other questions you are most looking forward to answer with confidence? one that i have is at what point in the pregnancy is the

infection with zika most worrisome and is there a point when that concern goes down considerably? we have a considerable amount of information already. there is no doubt that in the first trimester as with many infections that have fetal consequences to them that the first trimester is unquestionably the most vulnerable but there are a number of questions that you might be alluding to that hopefully will be answered. last week, we started a large in infancyd the zika and pregnancy study. we started it in puerto rico and we will continue it in priscilla and other countries. at 10,000 looking pregnant women and following them to ask and answer some of the questions you are alluding to, namely what is the rate of infection.

as are any difference between pregnant woman who gets infected and has no symptoms versus a printed woman who gets infected and has symptoms. are there differences in consequences on the fetus with regard to the incidence of abnormality? variouse question of trimesters, first versus second versus third, what is the relative risk you have within those trimesters and most importantly follow the children. follow the members, three months, six months and a year. what we're saddened to see, it's not a surprise that there are babies were born who look normal from the standpoint of not being so you say at least we don't have a microcephalic situation, but they may have abnormalities with regard to seeing, hearing and developmental landmarks. those of the things we will be following with this large 10,000

study.pregnant women >> do you think you can get the funding to do that? a good question. it is not already taken care of. that's one of the things that we had to start because we could .ot delay we had enough money to start it but we absolutely don't have enough money to bring this very important trial to fruition. >> dr. fauci, we will have to leave it there. we want to thank you for being our newsmaker this week. >> good to be with you. >> we turn to our roundtable. i want to start where he ended on the funding side. for the coming week on what congress is going to do about these funding requests. what do you see coming up?

>> congress only be in session for about 10 days and then they leave for the august break and that soundedsaid, like a deadline to me when he said this needs to happen in the next couple weeks. i think when congress comes back, mitch mcconnell said there will be another vote on this the zikan bill to fund request and democrats have been pretty firm and saying they will vote for this and they don't like this policy writer. also cuts affordable care act funding and moves that to zika. they've said -- the question will be, to the parties come together and can they come up with something that cuts both of their priorities. if we see a deal it will be on as 15th about 7:00 p.m.

they're ready to go out of town because that is when congress does something. >> if they don't, who gets the blame? >> i agree, something between now and the 15th. and who knows? florida just had its first microcephaly case. the governor has been very adamant in calling for additional funding. right now the washington post did a poll that shows most americans are not that worried about zika. there were much more worried about ebola, but i think that conversation will change once you get the first locally transmitted case. there may be one and we don't even know about it because the testing for this is so tricky. tested and infected, they can find the virus in your

blood in a small window but most people who get zika do not have symptoms. even if you have it, it is very mild. and you are not symptomatic and you happen to be pregnant, that is really dangerous. states, the parts of the country that are most susceptible are along the gulf coast but it is also where you have climate conditions and in neighborhoods where you don't have air conditioning or screens are there are a lot of tires or plastic containers, that is breeds.is sucker >> there are a lot of studies and mixed news about the zika studies going on. you think the cdc feels at this point they have their arms around the knowns and unknowns? whatorried are they about they don't know? >> i think they are pretty worried because tom fried says

he is ready worried because there has never been a mosquito borne virus that causes birth defects. 's almost every part of the cdc is working on this in real time. they are try to get the testing and the diagnostics ramped up and they are also trying to help with mosquito control. and effectorrol control is not something the federal government does. it's up to every locality. it is very patchwork. these localities may be able to do stuff to get rid of the larvae or deal with the adult mosquito but a lot of places are dealing with west nile virus which is a different kind of mosquito and requires different treatment. on the response from the cdc and how they are trying to get their arms around it. is exactly right.

there are a lot of things they know and a lot of things they don't. considering that there is a 40-week lag time, if someone gets pregnant and is bitten by a notuito with zika, we will see the effect. it will not be on the front page of your local newspaper for many months. >> i think that's white or is this urgency because the people who know this virus no that what we are doing now is going to change how this plays out when these babies are born. and nobody would like to see that happen. >> and nobody would like to wait until november because that's what the doctor said, that is one everybody is most worried. is goinginfection rate so high they are predicting hundreds of babies with microcephaly and the timing will be right around november.

>> think you for joining us for newsmakers this week. >> as i mentioned before, i never felt the urge to make money. what turned me on was to make policy. that'alwayss what drove me. >> tonight on "q&a," a two-part interview with mark green, author of "bright, infinite future: a generational memoir on the progress of rise" in which he talks about his life and career in public office. >> you've got to have a drive that may be undesirable to espouse, but you have to wake up and go to sleep thinking, i want this so much. if you do everything, you win. >> part one airs tonight at 8:00 a.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. part