oren cass, thank you. thank you all for coming. >> this language of attack, of harm, of damage, that by expressing an opinion that people don't like, you have inflicted an injury. i found that very striking and frankly rather frightening, if the truth be told, and quite emblematic of the way that the left is now responding to any sort of dissent, and especially trenches on identity grievance politics, which of course is everywhere and has infected everything. >> university of pennsylvania law school professor amy wachs

on the limits of free expression on college campuses in the night's states, sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q and a. now, i discussion on u.s. preparations and the event of a plague. from "washington journal," this is about 30 minutes. ed young, science writer at ," is the united states ready to battle a major epidemic? : probably not. the u.s. has many strengths. it has a great research arm. one of thethe cdc, world's greatest public health agencies, but it is also disturb on the vulnerable. recent brushes with pandemics and epidemics have shown that. the last pandemic in 2009, a strain of the swine flu, the u.s. was caught unprepared.

its surveillance network was looking in the wrong parts of the world. its ability to make vaccines was too slow and vaccines only rolled out after the pandemic had paid. and hospitals were stretched thin, as is often the case with our he centralized health care system. so there were many, many vulnerabilities that could be easily exploited by a much deadlier pathogen. host: what's the scariest thing you found out? ed: it is that the world runs on this just-in-time in economy and we rely on so many supply chains that could be fractured during an easily-spreading disease. this year when hurricane maria hit puerto rico, it knocked out a large portion of the manufacturing capacity for iv bags. doctors had to stop using

syringes to inject saline and other fluids and we started having a shortage of syringes. and a lot of these supply-chain problems extend throughout our health-care system and make us vulnerable to something that spreads quickly around the world and causes large amounts of societal unrest and death. we want you to join the conversation this morning. if you are in the mountain and pacific time zones, called in at (202) 748-8001. and if you are in the eastern time zone, call in at (202) 748-8000. crisisre is not a major dining at our doors, and it is precisely now when people are

a crisistheir guard, hits and everyone throws money and investments in people pay attention, and then everyone forgets. it is this cycle of panic and neglect that dooms us to this level of constant unpreparedness. now is exactly the time when we need to be raising awareness of the threat and what we can do to fix it. this is not a problem we need to need tot, but we do make investments right now. this is when it counts. host: what should the government doing right -- government be doing right now to prepare for the next pandemic? ed: i would say a lot of investment in public health. training epidemiologists, in, all of those things require money and resources and they have been constantly and increasingly

underfunded for a long time. public health jobs have been cut, money going to hospitals to prepare themselves has been cut. that needs to increase. and also, we really need to step up our game and terms of helping other countries to increase their health security by investing in the ability of poorer nations to control the disease is within their own borders. that is by far the best way of and the that america rest of the world is safe from diseases and an era of globalized, easy travel. is this a critique of the current administration or is this a problem we have seen with revia's presidents as well -- with previous presidents as well ? both, thise bit of idea of forgetfulness and shortsightedness, every administration has to deal with this. the one we have currently has a

few unique problems. first, the lack of expertise. arms andtific advisory typically allow administrations to know what to do in the sense of a disaster are largely absent or have this revolving door policy. new people coming in all the time, and there is a lack of solid expertise. to i think we can also look how president trump has reacted to past outbreaks. it was not14-2015, scientific evidence and issuing, messages to people that provides a unifying spirit you need during an outbreak. it was probably the exact opposite, and that is concerning, in terms of our our how ourip -- of leadership would react to a future disaster.

caller: i am glad to see we have a gentleman that is investigating this. i've along to a group that is called africa fighting malaria. we have been using ddt which would wipe out the mosquito in africa and the tree huggers are worried about egg softening. we lose one million babies a year in africa to malaria, one million. and it seems to be of low concern to anybody. i hope this gentleman will undertake the investigation and ddt out just how we can get back into the system. we can save one million lives per year. it is the reason we don't have malaria in the western hemisphere.

most part, they were wiped out by ddt since 1932. irregardless of the details about ddt and malaria, i think this caller has highlighted the importance of global health, of trying to ensure that you help other countries to deal with their health problems. this is especially important now, in this age when air travel is so widespread emma and diseases can spread so easily. it means diseases that used to be perhaps one country's problem are now everyone's problem. and by far the best and most cost efficient way of helping to protect the world and this particular country from those diseases is to help other nations improve their ability to lrevent, detect and control

outbreaks. and we've seen the value of those investments in places like and we've seen the value of those investments in places like uganda, where u.n. investments have helped them to stem outbreaks of ebola and other diseases, and places like nigeria, where ebola was expected to arrive in the big poliofrican outbreak, investigators funded by the u.s. and other places were able to keep it under control. is a lot of historical evidence that our investments in global health have really paid be, and those need to increased. they look like they're going to be cut in the future and that is a problem for us. host: kelly from westfield, virginia. what is your question? i think it's a problem

that needs to be addressed, but just like all the problems in the united states our population -- our politicians seem to be grandstanding, just like with immigration and saying we need to do this or that for the immigrants while ignoring their own people. i think the united states needs to be taking care of its own people first, and investing money in the united states and quit trying to save the rest of the world. i don't think that you can do that. just like with the immigration, the don't grandstand like democrats and some of the republicans have been doing. ed: i don't know about the grandstanding but the threat of all diseases extend beyond a level of a political cycle, which is why people get shortsighted.

they can't just say america has to deal with its own problems first before helping the rest of the world, because the whole point of the world we live in is that everyone's problems are shared, that drawing a border around the country and only dealing with internal problems will eventually leave us massively unprepared for threats that spread through flights, through all kinds of other travel. that ethic of helping other countries, even if you don't buy the moral imperative to do so, important from a completely self-interest in perspective. it is by far the best way of ensuring that outbreaks don't go out of control over here. and there is a huge bipartisan history of support for this idea. and it's an idea that the vast majority of americans also support, from different sides of the political spectrum, that

health problems are easy to control if we help other countries to deal with theirs. host: john from trenton, new jersey. we are waiting for you. know i was on,t i'm sorry. thank you for having me on c-span. the gentleman before me talked about it being a politician's deal. it is in a politician's deal because your neighbor shares your community, and the global community has all the same problems. my question for the gentleman doing to get rid of the mosquitoes, the bedbugs, the ticks, and whatever transmits these insane, mutating

germs that are going around the earth? --ause i think we can do it an insect is asexual and we can get rid of them, too. ed: there are several groups of researchers dealing with creative ways to deal with diseases spread by insects. in my book i write about a group common bacterium that is in the insect world and they're trying to get it into mosquitoes that spread diseases to us, as when it is in their it stops -- ere it stopsn th those mosquitoes from spreading yellow fever, dengue fever. it has got a lot of potential, but let's be clear that is only a small proportion of the diseases that are out there, the

ones that are spread by insects. things like ebola and other viral-hemorrhage fevers are not spread by insects. mers,e things like sars, mostve flu, probably the pandemic threat of all that is found in birds, poultry and chicken and docks, it is found in pigs, it circulates around the world all the time. so this is not something that is going to be debt with by dealing with one particular sector, like insects. it is something we need to think about holistically in terms of surveillance, getting hospitals ready, getting vaccines ready, and as we talked about already, getting politicians on board with the seriousness of the potential threat. therehow much concern is

that a pandemic will happen in the united states now? ed: it is really hard to predict. it's almost a cliche but the predict is itsan unpredictability. we are in the centennial of the 1918 flu pandemic, when the great disasters in history. he killed between 50 million and 100 million people. wellhing like that could turn up again. flu pandemics repeatedly happen. 2009 was very mild, much, much milder than 1918. same kind of deadliness back then would turn up in today's modern era, it would be a big problem. bill gates is not someone given takes this but he very seriously. he refers to simulation that say a pandemic of that nature could kill, i think it is 33 million people in 250 days. intohat is not even taking

account the social unrest, the economic harm, all of those things. it would be a problem. it's a question i think of when, not if. recently recovered a hearing where disease experts came in and talked about what they see is the biggest threat. here are some answers. so many threats emerging and i wish i could take some off the table but they keep coming at us. even more concerning is technology advancing so much that it can change biological threats that we know today into something different that we may not be prepared for. i think the biggest dread is our response capabilities, and being able to respond to anything that comes our way. >> is there one biological threat at the top of your list? is there when the gives you greatest concern? >> influenza needs to be at the top of my list. it can affect everyone rapidly and is constantly changing, and

with pandemics, all the population of the world can be susceptible. so the threat of a pandemic has to be at the top of the list because it can happen fast. my number one, and may be number two and number three is influenza also. i agree for the doctor has mentioned. when you have a respiratory virus that can be spread like droplets in aerosol, and you have morbidity associated with that, you can have a catastrophe. we experienced in real world those types of things, the one we talk about is the 1918 pandemic which killed between 50 million and 100 might people. it is likely it would be an influenza, but if not influenza, an influenza-like respiratory virus. we had a scare with sars. fortunately, public health

measures were able to contain it but influenza or something like influenza keeps me up at night. ed is a science writer for "the atlantic." influence of the biggest concern for a pandemic in the u.s. right now? influenza the biggest concern for a pandemic in the u.s. right now? ed: yes. pandemics take us by surprise. r beforeever heard of sa it went sweeping around the worlds. influenza is what is keeping people up at night because it can spread so quickly and eve all -- and evolve so quickly. make new vaccines, we have surveillance networks, we can see new strains around the world, but even in 2009, all that infrastructure was unable

to prevent a pandemic. even this year, the regular non-pandemic seasonal flu stretched the american health care system very, very thin. and i think that is a disturbing harbinger of what could happen in the event of a full-blown epidemic of the kind we saw in 1918. host: carol from elgin, texas. carol, what is your question? i haven't been on with you before and thank you for having me on, and thank you for c-span, and thanks for this program. my question is, how far along is the zika virus in its progression in the united states? how soon do you think it will be here? we are already receiving warnings from public health here in texas. you stole my thunder about all the comments about the 1918 pandemic. i know this killed something

like 1% of the u.s. population and this affected my great grandparents back in their day here in texas. aboutw concerned are you the lack of support on science-based ideas and in texas ourn here official position by our state is that there really is no such thing as global warming, and they tend to ignore the science for that, even though we had record rainfalls from hurricanes last year, c-level rise taking place, how concerned are you about governmental positions that some people taken the parties and the partisan influence on? this -- on this? is a great example of a

disease taking us by surprise. we knew about it in the 1940's but we neglected in until it spread around the world. -- we onlyson lies recently realized it could cause things like micro encephalon he and children. encephaly andphalon children. it is a problem for the future and it is a sign of how diseases can take us by surprise. your question about partisanship, when the zika epidemic was manifesting, obama asked congress for appropriations to try and fight it and they devolved into partisan squabbling. that delayed the passing of those appropriations by several which things had to be kamala lysed -- had to be usedbalized from things

for influenza and hiv and the cause problemsn and how we deal with these diseases. i'm concerned about the lack of for scientific evidence and the value it brings. we need scientists to show us how best to fight these diseases and to influence effective policy. and the lack of scientific advice in the white house and in the administration at the moment should be a cause of deep concern to all americans. there is no scientific advisor in place. the office that provides the service is very, very thin, and there are just few qualified people to provide that kind of advice in the event of a future disaster. the torilla from oregon. victoria, what is your question toria from oregon.

ictoria, what is your question. i am a registered nurse and i remember the flu and our hospital was quarantined, and it was really scary. my concern is about the lack of access to health care from state to state in this country. west virginia has not expanded medicaid and their underlying pulmonary problems and things like that would be a real set up for some type of sars epidemic or influenza. and the state next door just expanded medicaid so that people have better access to health care. when every going to have more equality in health care, and how to, from state to spain, how will that impact a major pandemic? how willtate to state, that impact a major pandemic? : the decentralization of

health care means there is a huge variation in how different states are ready to cope with these kinds of diseases. theeporting out went to university of nebraska medical center which is probably the best repaired place for diseases like ebola or sars, deadly infections we know very little about. theyhey are ready because have had very, very thoughtful and visionary leaders who have facilities in place, long before those threats were actually manifesting at our doorstep, and they kept those facilities ready , even though they were largely dormant for years. i think it is that kind of commitment in the face of other and with the absence of any immediate threat, that is systemin a health care in which it is very difficult to get everyone on the same page.

preparedness basically boils down to individual wills. it boils down to whether this hospital and this administrator take the steps necessary to be ready for future threats or not. situation butbest it is unfortunately the one we are living in. host: don from corpus christi, texas. caller: i take it that he implied there needs to be more funding, when the u.s. supplies more than half of the $4 billion to the world health organization, we should probably be helping the experts on the virus in china. then being a communist contest them being a communist country, it's not easy for us to help them before those things migrate over here. : china has a good history of late of addressing those threats.

n9 flu is the strain that is most worrisome right now in china has taken pretty good steps to control that, and we are saying the successes of some of those steps this year. but that does not mean that the u.s. has no responsibility in helping to deal with infectious disease threats and a lot of other countries in the world, in parts of africa, asia, the middle east. called the agreement global health security agenda the stuffly says, all i have been talking about in this segment, that the entire world needs to come together to prepare for these kinds of threats. the u.s. put a substantial amount of money into that program and that -- and helped created in the first place. but those investments are being 67%, according to

trump's future budget for next year. that's going to cause problems. inmeans the cdc and usaid other countries will have to pull back and scale back on work that has already been done to build up the capacity of other countries to deal with those threats. it seems like a full list waste of money that is artie been expended. it is far better to continue building on that solid foundation and expand those relationships around the world. host: harold from palmdale, california. shots, going back to the last decade government and fluors have been pushing shots. i they breaking down our immune system, and are we becoming dependent on them? ourre they breaking down immune system's, and are we becoming dependent on them? d: that's not how flu shots work. they train the immune system to

deal with threats it hasn't seen yet. flu shots are a great thing. we are lucky we have them. they don't always work that well because flu viruses continue to evolve. every year, health authorities have to look at the strains coming up and try to make predictions about which to include in the yearly vaccine, which is why sometimes they have less effectiveness than others. but that doesn't mean we should be ungrateful for the fact that we have a flu vaccine at all. that is not the case for the vast majority of other diseases out there, things like ebola or zika or sars. if anything, we need more vaccines. we want a situation in which vaccines are readily available and can be easily made to new threats. there is a lot of research going on with this at the moment, and again, big international agreements to try and get vaccines made for diseases that are likely to pose us problems in the future, before they read but our doorstep

vaccines are a really important part of our defensive arsenal. and we need to mention appreciate them. host: would like to thank ed ," author"the atlantic of "the next plague: is america ready." thank you. >> coming up sunday morning, georgetown university professor michael eric dyson talks about race relations in the united states, and his book, "what your go nds like and andrew seeley and his book, the forces driving mexico and the united states together. the author of president, vice president, and pursuit of power. watch washington journal live at some of the clock eastern sunday morning. join the discussion. ♪

>> the c-span buses traveling across the country on our 50 capitals tour, the buses on its stop in juneau, alaska, asking what is the most issue -- the mostska important issue facing alaska? oile are used to money coming in and as a result of lower oil prices we are not getting that revenue. there are other revenue streams but it doesn't seem to be happening very fast. i think there are political reasons why people are afraid of implementing taxes, but without additional revenue coming in, the alaskans are facing a lot of crisis and a lot of areas. one is the opioid and substance abuse crisis. the more power economy goes down, the more people get upset and aren't living their lives in a way they are happy with, so

they and up getting destitute and turning to self-medication. that is a big crisis. the most important issue is child hunger and taking care of children. it is linked to poverty. >> we are going way back up. we have to stop giving all our money to oil companies and start spending this on children and the future. is ae of our big issues huge chunk of our economy. we are very concerned about the juno at a promote nationwide level. it is such a bright spot in our economy. >> as far as i can see from what i have been hearing in alaska, one of the big issues is his

homelessness. trying to combat it is an issue with the city since a lot of them are not actively seeking help, but the ones that do seem to be moving safety place -- save -- place to place. one of the big issues is homelessness and how we can combat it here in the state. >> from our perspex, the most important thing in alaska is to get a long-term sustainable plan in place for our state, which has ongoing revenue of light of our nonrenewable resources. -- arily because we have to so they can stabilize our schools.

or all of us the most important thing is to educate our students and the best way to do that is a stable school. >> be sure to join us when we visit our visit to alaska. c-spanlaska weekend on or c-span.org area --. now, president trump's remark earlier today at the republican party state convention in las vegas. this is about 40 minutes. ♪