impact. with rosemary gibson, author of .china rx" washington journal is next. ♪ host: good morning and welcome to washington journal. with fears of the coronavirus the stock market has seen huge swings in the last few days. with vacations at public gatherings being affected by worries of the virus many travel, chris pratt, -- restaurant and has been telling the companies are seeing plunges in stock companies are trying to figure how they will keep going if people are ordered to stay at home. some investors are seeing an upside with prices dropping to bargain prices that have not

been seen in a long time. our question for you this morning -- do you have money in the stock market? are you buying or selling? does the coronavirus have you worried about your retirement funds? we are opening up special lines. if you have money in the stock market and you're concerned about the coronavirus, or not, if you have money in the stock market we want to hear from you .t (202) 748-8000 if you do not have money in the stock market but still worried about the economic situation, or maybe not, maybe you have your money somewhere safe. we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8001. you can always text us your and we at (202) 748-8003 are always reading on social facebook.witter and

the new york times has a story on the front page that deals directly with this issue and we are going to read a little bit. "there is nothing investors hate more about uncertainty. that is all there is. uncertainty about the severity and duration of the coronavirus epic ripping around the world. uncertainty about how the global economy will fair at factories, airports, stores, schools, entire cities are shut down. the uncertainty of governments to contain the disease. uncertainty about how all of this uncertainty will last. this spiraling fears have caused financial carnage. the s&p 500 index has dropped 12% since february 19, the sharpest dive in nine years.

nearly $3vious trillion in wealth. " we have bloomberg senior editor to talk about the coronavirus and the economy. michael, good morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: are we panicking for no reason? his wall street panicking for no reason? guest: they are definitely reacting to everyone agrees is going to be economic damage being done. it is already started with the cancellation of countless events, big conferences. the airline industry is clearly suffering. people are afraid to fly. we know there is going to be damage to the prophets of airlines, cruise ships, that sort of thing, hotels.

but it gets further than that, jesse, because oil prices have crashed with the stock markets. mobil and chevron are struggling. one of the most alarming things going on in the markets -- if you were to guess what was the hardest hit sector over the duration of this, you might be surprised to hear it is the banks. everyonen for that is is getting out of the stock market, buying treasuries, and that reduces interest rates sharply. it is less profitable for banks to loan. they worry about the loans the banks already have in the market. if you are worried about the credit quality of companies going forward, especially the

ones hardest hit like the energy companies, travel companies, it is easy to see how the damage being done from this -- and more to come -- trickles its way through different sectors. it all goes back to the basic fundamental, most important piece of information investors want to know -- how big of a prophet are all these companies going to make this year? that number has simply been wiped off the board. many companies are coming out not only saying we expect lower earnings but we cannot quantify what the effect will be. the mostemoving important information to esters -- two investors. that from the biggest companies in the world like apple all the way down to the smaller companies.

i don't think i would necessarily call it an unjustified panic given all the uncertainty. the uncertainty about the fundamental piece of information , how much company's are going to make, is a rational response. host: we a lot about investors and corporations but has a trickle down to where it affects ordinary americans? guest: anecdotally, yes. if you are planning a vacation, it is affecting your lives. people are canceling travel plans, they are going out and yes, it is food, so impacting people. the weekly jobless claims the government reports -- how many people are filing for

unemployment insurance benefits -- that number has not yet started to skyrocket but you might worry it would indicate like this. claims were low. it is in keeping with the trend we have seen. the issue is how long does this last? when do companies start laying people off? we have already heard some airlines -- especially overseas -- are thinking about it or doing it. travele to wonder about and leisure companies. mebe one of the most -- to one of the most important industries to watch is restaurants. we have had tremendous job growth in this country over the past few years. is of the big sources of job eating establishments, bars and

restaurants. --se jobs could be especially if you are a small establishment that cannot weather a storm where people do not come out to eat -- that is a very vulnerable sector of the employment market. we have not seen a big upset in unemployment benefits claims yet but that i think is what everyone on wall street is watching. the harm to the individual average worker. we will be watching that every thursday going forward. host: michael, tell us what a correction is in the market and whether we are in one. guest: we are in a correction. it is a 10% drop from a recent high.

the s&p 500 said the last record high on february 19th. it is down 12% or 13% in stem. once you reach the threshold of peak that isecent considered a correction. others may have a slightly varying definition. when you get to a 20% decline, that is considered a bear mark. host: the federal reserve cut rates this week. will it possibly have a long-term effect? guest: people are debating left and right whether it was the right thing to do. they had to do this. is the bankingn sector, the credit markets. how many companies are going to

be impacted by this they may not be able to pay their loans and corporate bonds. that is a very troubling in the markets. reducing the interest rate sort in that ease the stress part of the financial markets. no one expected the interest allow theo completely recovery instantly. we know there is only so much the federal reserve can do to an economy where the concern is not the cost of money. it is, are people going to be too afraid to leave their house in areas where this starts breaking out? it is breaking out in more and more praise -- places. cut, we wouldt look at bigger declines in the stock market.

i think it did help. last question, what should we be watching this week with the economy? guest: obviously the only number that matters to most investors is how fastlevel the virus spreads. everyone is going to be keeping a close track of where it is spreading and what the numbers look like. more people catching it? are more people dying? the economic numbers reported are so backward looking that they do not matter. we had a very strong jobs report for february and it did not move the needle on the price of anything. everybody is worried about what is coming next. in order to stem the spread of the virus, governments and companies and individuals are

going to take measures that create more damage. how fast the virus spreads is the most important economic indicator. host: we would like to thank michael regan for being with us this morning. thank you so much. guest: thank you, jesse. host: our question for you this morning is do you have money in the stock market and are you concerned about the coronavirus and how it will affect your stock? let's go to the phone lines and start taking calls. let's talk to oliver: from no.inia and oliver says caller: good morning. host: you do not have money in the stock market? caller: no, i don't. my main comment is about the coronavirus. i have lived in the metro area all my life. the maryland, d.c. area all my

life and i don't want to offend anybody but i would like to say -- pleaserican people wake up. the administration in the white house is not prepared for this. americans will die if we do not get somebody who can handle the situation in the proper manner. -- obama administration had handled ebola perfect. we need a person who will take charge and see the the right things are done. i have nothing against donald trump. he has done an amazing thing to get the american people to buy into his train of thought but the country is being torn at the seams and american people, please, i'm begging you, i am a

65-year-old black man who has done everything in my life correctly by following the laws and doing what i need to do. i am afraid. host: let's go to alan who calling from scottsdale, arizona and he has money in the stock market. .uest: good morning caller: i just bought another 20% more shares myself and i am not selling. it is a long-term investment correct, pedro? jessefirst of all, it's but are you worried about the stock investments? caller: not in terms of the

portfolio i have got right now. it is more local for the united states with the companies i have but you don't get into the stock market and start selling. side, we haveirus never got our hands around influenza and there is more people dying every year. at the amount of supplies that are being jesse, ited in china, is a wake-up call to say we need things manufactured in the united states. the other side is the obama administration sold off uranium one to the russians.

-- obama administration host: let's go to tony who is calling from tampa, florida. caller: how are you doing? host: just fine, go ahead. caller: i do not have money in the stock market and i think it is that how this country has catered to the stock market. the treasury bonds are only 0.96%. all of these low interest rates the trump administration -- as well as the obama administration has had -- we had a record $900 billion in credit card debt. now -- you don't hear anyone bragging about it -- 1.8%. we have added $4 trillion to the debt under this administration

plus bush and obama. when you look at the valuables, 85% of the stock market is owned by 2500 people and those tax theys -- you don't think want buybacks by these corporations? the market was due to bust. this coronavirus was a very small reason. it was going to be any reason to make this happen. this is not a good economy. if it was a good economy, those treasuries would be paying about 4%. onto jerome powell who addressed the bank's decision to cut the interest rate and the current economic effects. >> earlier today the federal open market committee announced a reduction in the federal funds

toe bringing the range 1.25%. my colleagues took action to help the u.s. economy keep strong in the face of new risks to the economic outlook. the fundamentals of the u.s. economy remains strong. the unemployment rate has been at sentry lows for more than a year. job gains has been solid and wages have been rising. these strong labor market conditions have underpinned solid household spending which is been the key driver of economic growth over the past year. at the time of our meeting in january, prospects for continued economic growth remain favorable. we judged monetary policy was well placed. since then, the spread of the virus has cut new challenges and risks. the virus has afflicted many communities around the world and our thoughts and prayers go out to those harmed. the upper because also disrupted

economic activity in many countries and prompted significant movements in financial markets. the virus and measures taken to contain it will surely way on economic-- weigh on activity. we are seeing affect centrism and travel and hearing from companies that rely on global supply chains. the persistence of the effects on economy remain up in the air. against this background, the committee judged the risks to the outlook of changed materially. we've eased the stance of monetary policy to support more economy. the ultimate solutions to this challenge will come from others, particularly health professionals. we can and will do our part to keep the u.s. economy strong as we meet the challenge. as always, our actions are

guided by the congressional mandate to promote maximum employment. we will closely monitor developments and applications for the economic outlook and we will use our tools and act properly to support the economy. host: let's look at social media followers and what they are doing. invest in any disinfectant. you will be a wealthy person. us, they have put no money in the stock market since last christmas. made a transition into cryptocurrency. mike, i do not but people are panicking way too much. more people have choked on food than died from the virus. do we stop eating?

3000 people have died from gun violence. do we stay from home? let the experts handle this, not trump. another said, we have investments and are not terribly concerned. the world economy is population growth and that remains strong. the world economy is like a bulldozer and coronavirus is a fairly small bush that it will tear through. once again, our question is do you have money in the stock market and are you concerned about what is going on with the coronavirus? let's go back to our phone lines and talk to alan who is from asheville, north carolina. do you have money in the stock market? caller: good morning. i think everyone has a little bit some way or another with pension plans and that type of thing. the 2009talking about

h1n1 pandemic. i don't think many people could call in and tell you what it was without looking it up. it was the swine and it started in april 2009 and went to april 2010. it was september before the government declared an emergency. there was no panic. the market did not crash. ,ver 12,000 americans died 274,000 were hospitalized, 60 andion cases were described -- this comes from the cdc -- we are panicked because of the media. programs like this are getting people worked up. back then, no panic from the media. ,ou can look on new york times

2009, there's an article the president obama declared the swine flu and national emergency . the market did not go down because it was already depressed. they did not want to panic everybody. we have a healthy stock market, people are working, the economy is better, and it is not easy to run economy like this worldwide. any other gentleman that called said wise 80% of the medical supplies produced in china? why is that? how did that happen? factresident ran on the that may be china has too much of a boot on our throat. it is scary. it seems like this is a media driven panic. the market is going to crash then what happens?

nobody goes to restaurants, movies, nobody uses gasoline, all the markets come down. all of the restaurant workers get laid off and we have a huge decline in jobs. cj calling talk to from baton rouge, louisiana. morning and kudos to the guy ahead of me. he hit the nail on the head. that is what i was going to say. i am calling on the line for i do not have stock in the recent i do not is because i'm taxed to much. host: are you retired? caller: not yet but we do not have a pension at work. we did but we do not have it anymore. host: how are you planning for retirement? caller: i am not, sir.

host: keep going. caller: i can't afford it. host: what do you plan to do? caller: i really don't know. are you worried about the economy and the coronavirus at this point? caller: yes, i am because of what the guy said in front of me. it is the media flu is what it is. the media is hyping this as much as they can because they did not --this during this one during the swine flu. pete: from desto moines, iowa. caller: good morning, jesse. i love the show. best show on television and i

always look forward to saturdays when you are on. i've been invested in the stock i was in a tax-deferred program where i was and i left my money in. it has gone through some bad and now ii left it have been drawing on it. it is a little scary right now. my comment is about president , when the stock market is booming, he takes all the credit. but when things are failing, you don't hear anything about his contribution to it.

i think it is typical of trump and everything is about him. his image is all he is worried about. he is not worried about doing something about this coronavirus. deniseet's talk to calling from concorde, california. caller: good morning. area and wee bay can see the ship on the ocean and we are mighty afraid. we don't know what will happen to the people on the ship. we need somebody in office that knows how to handle a crisis. host: are you invested in the stock market? do you have pensions, 401(k)? caller: i do have a pension and i am concerned. i'm more concerned about the health of the people and what is

going to happen with the ship out there. thank you. host: let's talk to david calling from bloomfield, michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, david. caller: i am invested in the stock market and have been for a number of years. is, thingsbout it like this happen and people panic. sell under theto and i bought shares yesterday and will continue to do so. i think there will be more virus here. i think it is already here but

since there is no testing we out, it willde it be over. host: what sectors are you looking at when you're buying? are you just looking for the best deal you can? in my case i buy mostly dividend stocks because i am looking for a place to make money on investments because of the low interest rates, extremely low interest rates, there is no place for retired people to invest their money. market,ook at the money it is paying less than 1%. i am not going to give money and only get 1%.

think if the interest rates went up, it would benefit and i canople remember back in the day when i used to buy bonds for my anddren and get 5% interest now those are in the past. rick who istalk to calling from new mexico. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to talk about the consuming interest rate. i am a retiree and not invested in the stock market to any great extent. i saved during my working years and bought some real estate. that is what i live off of, my social security. having said that, with the fed knocking interest rates down to almost nothing it is making it difficult for people in my

category to survive on the retirement. i think that is another area we should be concerned about that we do not hear about. fine for market is some people but for others it is not. i think emphasis on the stock market really should be balanced thatthe emphasis on people are saving oriented. thank you. host: the question about how many people are actually in the did amarket and gallup poll on this issue last year. here is the results. americans that 55% of reported they own stock in april 2019 -- similar to the average of 54% they measured since 2010

-- is based on the question asking about into. funds they may own like i 401(k). stock ownership was more common 2008 but this fell to the end of the 2007-2009 recession and is not fully rebounded. let's go back to social media and see what they are saying about stock prices and whether they have faith the stock market. here's a tweet that says, buy low, sell high. an opportunity to invest is when the stock market is down. it will go back up. texted, follower who andrew from new jersey saying i

have investments and i'm not buying or selling right now. the shame is that it took a virus to lower prices. prices should be low in the first place. no reason for the cost of living to keep going up with no wage increases. in, daleiewer texted from florida said, not worried about the stock market. i am worried about the overseas supply chain affecting jobs in our country. get back to me when it starts affecting the young and healthy but the spanish flu. part of text that says, my 401(k) is in the stock market. some is in the money market. the thing i worry about is the failure of the federal reserve and central banks worldwide relying on factual banking. what replaces that? speaking to reporters yesterday from the white house, counsel director larry kudlow said the

administration is considering tax relief or airline travel and cruise industries hurt by coronavirus. here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> you mention cash injections. how would that work? >> we have authority in many -- i'm going to call them operations that would provide cash assistance. fda.for example the otherave emergency funds departments -- i don't put any secretaries or administrators in if weter i am just saying decide to go there, we may have to go back to congress for additional appropriation requests. we don't know yet.

please, the story i'm trying to tell is a story of timely and targeted micro-forms of assistance not gargantuan, across-the-board, throw money at the problem which is never worked. we think we will get out of this within months. that is what we think and we think the economy is fundamentally sound. host: we want to know if you have money in the stock market and are you concerned about the economy considering all of the worries about coronavirus. let's go back to our phone lines and talk to robert who is calling from waverley hall, georgia. caller: good morning, how are you? host: i am fine. go ahead. caller: i have money in the stock market but i want to make one thing clear -- a gentleman stated that everyone has money in the stock market. i don't know where that comes from, that is not true.

not everyone has money in the stock market. i'm taking everything out. to put my money safe. money movingh this up and down. i'm getting out of it. host: do you plan to get up permanently? are you waiting for prices to go down and will jump back in? host: i'm getting up permanently. i've had enough. 2008 when the craziness went inn i said, ok, i left it and lost a lot of money. now, it looks to be going the same way again with this coronavirus and the fact is we have officials running this government they cannot tell the truth left from right. you cannot trust them. the best thing for me and my wife to do is we are going to

take everything out and we are not going back in. : fromlet's go to john saratoga springs, new york. caller: good morning. host: are you still in the stock market or jumping out like our previous color? aller? caller: i am still in. old.1(k) is like 25 years i would be more worried. my problem with this virus is .he fear that is driving this i am not a democrat or republican and i never would be but to say that democrats are making people scared, all of these countries are quarantined and china close down for like two weeks.

people are afraid. this is a contingent of the entire country -- contagion of an the entire economy and it will not go away until they know how bad this thing is. host: let's talk to douglas calling from laramie, wyoming. good morning. caller: good morning. i have almost all my money in common stocks. i have been depending on investments for 10 years. they have served me well and i am not emotionally involved with the markets or any fluctuations. i'm expecting great opportunities in the coming months. i'm expecting further declines in stock prices and i'm going to be buying on the way down especially in a few months.

i am about 40% in cash and ready to put most of that to work. host: are you looking to buy in any particular sectors or looking for the greatest bargains you can find on the market right now? attention toetting the travel stocks. travel and leisure stocks are declining rapidly but i am expecting some recovery within a year. i will be putting money into cruise lines eventually and airlines too. they were higher yesterday. host: let's talk to michael calling from petersburg, virginia. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, michael.

caller: how come the people who pay taxes don't get benefits but everybody gets bailouts? bailoutssinesses get moneyhey get all the offshore? now they're bailing them out again. for what? the people who cannot work, like disabled people, never get any benefits. what is the government for? i've got to go with bernie sanders. you people are killing me with your crap. host: let's go to bruce who is calling from kalamazoo, michigan. caller: how are you? host: just fine, go ahead. caller: the stock market does

not make america great. america makes the stock market great. we are doing the same thing that happened in the 1920's where everybody gave people money and loaned money and it is going to crash again. they are going to say, bail us out. it is just a gambling scheme. if everybody looked at it that way, they would be better off. host: what are you doing for retirement? how are you planning for retirement? caller: i have always been suspicious so i just got 1.3% interest which seems insane to me because if you go to borrow money, they want more than that. i don't like the way the banks tried to back up the stock market because it bleeds to the gambling on the stock market. story in cnbc a this morning about what is

happening with americans who are nearing retirement. i want to read a little bit from the story. retirementnearing among the many fear the market affects of the coronavirus. as fears arouse economic damage causing a steep selloff last week the potentially upended the retirement outlook for many individuals. the s&p 500, dow jones, and nasdaq composite would serve as the barometers for the u.s. stock market. each fell more than 10% last week. the biggest decline since october 2008. these declines occurred as the number of coronavirus cases outside china has increased. more than 60 countries have confirmed cases. thanow index pledged more 3500 point, the largest point drop in history.

the dow was up nearly 1300 point as of monday fourth biggest ever one-day gain. that means any retiree with all the money in a mutual fund tracking the dow index would have lost more than 12% of what the earmarked for retirement. many people think a 3000 point drop will reduce ability to do that today. dean of the marriott school of business. want to know if you have ."ney an we want to know if you have money in the stock market. let's talk to don calling from new mexico. caller: i would like to point to two factors that have not been

addressed. you should understand that $50.5 billionwe in debt. $15.5 billion in debt. corporations have used the tax cuts to buy stocks back. now they hold all of the stocks in their portfolio and they have to make payments on the debt they own. we are in a very precarious position. i would also like to point out that student debt is at an all-time high, car debt is at an all-time high, credit card debt is an all-time high, and housing debt is high also. people have not been able to buy homes. in terms of what i have done with my investments, i have half of my money in a federal money market account. i have the other half in a very

conservative account. for those that think all of this will blow over, good luck to them. from let's talk to tom: winterhaven, florida. market andm in the no, i am not concerned. marketre looking at the the way they may look at how much milk is in the jug in the refrigerator, how much money is in checking or savings. they are looking at those things. there is only one way to view it but the market -- you are in it for the long haul. you know the next trade day is going to be able market. that is the nature of it. low, they buy. i am not concerned about how the

coronavirus is affecting the market. you just have to be in it for the long haul and hopefully you do not lose your money. host: let's talk to david calling from summers, new york. caller: good morning. i am in the stock market and have been for a long time. intarted investing back 1985. you there? host: we are listening. moving.i saw your lips [laughter] i am a little concerned about coronavirus. we don't really have a handle on it. are you hearing me? host: we are listening, david. saying anyways, i was i'm a little concerned about the coronavirus. you guys had a great guest on yesterday that talked about getting a handle on it. i was very impressed with what south korea was doing. i think it will take 4-6 weeks

until we get data and from south korea in terms of how many people are catching it and how quickly it is spreading. once we have a handle on that, i think the market will return. host: jacob packer is a professor of political science and director of the institution for social and policy studies at yell university. he had this to say. "journalist are assessed with this markham -- stock market but for most americans, it is a sideshow. what really matters to them is the security of their jobs and health care in the amount they have to pay for big ticket items like housing and education. " let's talk to people who say they are not in stock market. scott callingth stoc from georgia. caller: how are you? host: just fine, go ahead.

inler: i had money back 2008. i lost my share. as to what is going on now, i was down by the cdc yesterday and mr. trump was down here. and i amwn there really concerned that he is saying everything is perfect, everything is great and then pence came on he is saying, it is not that way. there are not enough tests out there and then i talk to somebody from the cdc and they they were sore on the tests for the fires. i'm really worried about this. host: as far as the finances go, you are not in stock market? how are you going to pay for retirement? i got allu know what,

money invested in my house. if this goes under, i am done. everything i have is invested in this. i don't note to do, my friend. i am really worried about the future the way our country is going right now. host: let's talk to jane calling from cleveland, ohio. jane is also not in the stock market. caller: good morning. caller whoh the phoned saying it is not about us having faith in the stock market. we should not have faith in the market because the market is just taking our money. feele who invest individually secure. it is an individual game in the u.s. and capitalism is supposedly making people feel secure individually. we need a little bit of

socialism to balance that out. what i was intending to talk about -- i always get off-topic -- is poverty. i have been listening to all of the experts and nobody ever talks about. it. nobody talks about the people who are vulnerable. it is us old people -- i'm one of them -- but 40% of people who are financially vulnerable. experte public health that was on did not touch that. people living in polluted , horribly polluted neighborhoods in many areas -- host: let us look at some of our text coming in one last time before we end the hour. yes, my retirement accounts are

still invested in mostly stocks. at almost 62 years old, i need to move funds to less volatile investments. here's one person who texted, harry from pennsylvania, i own and divulge jewel stocks -- individual stocks and buying more. the 10 year treasury bond yield was as low as 0.66% yesterday. that makes my backup 2% yield look very good. is aer comes saying, longtime saver with no stocks i migrate the fed lowering my der tost rate and or bail the 10%. tony in florida said modest income seniors will suffer. pensions,no defined

less work for the government, extra low interest, and a single stock market works havoc to the iras. let's go back to the phone lines and see if we can get a few more calls and before the top of the hour. let us talk to gerald calling from georgia. caller: good morning. would you believe me if i told you i made a 55% return in the coronavirus crash? host: tell us how you are doing this. everybody wants to know that. caller: i am a realist. ever since this was coming i went to an inverse etf. for every percentage point the stock market goes down i make a 3% return. they also have a series of triple options which i like to use for my retirement portfolio. every percentage point the market goes up you make it 3%

return. it makes it where you do not have to put as much capital into investing stocks but you still get a return for doing a full 3% or even doing an inverse 3% for when it goes down. down the thing has gone 15%, 17%, we need a lot more news on the coronavirus. we need to see it get better. howard government is not handling it right. i've told everyone from the beginning they are absolutely incompetent. until they can show us that can be trusted to actually keep this under control and not let cases spread, no, this gets worse before it gets better. host: let's talk to tom calling from paris, california. good morning. caller: good morning.

host: tom, you are not in the stock market? caller: i am not but my concern disability. i was wondering when it would be good to start borrowing right now? would it be safe to do that being how the credit market as and how much lending is out there? i know the percentage is low to borrow but is it a good time to do that? dollylet's talk to calling from texas. good morning. caller: good morning. let me tell you that the strategy to be viable financially when we get older is to be out of debt, to own our homes, and to have all of our trustee in qualified

a bank. it is in short and that is what i did -- insured. i have two homes paid for and i did not make a lot of money. i worked until i was 81 and did not do that because i needed a hobby. there are ways around the money market scheme. how can you depend on it? the money in your bank is in nsured. host: are you considering jumping into the stock market with the price being so far done? caller: absolutely not. the money does not come into the stock get because i am not employed. 401(k) and ihad a

had many good things from employment that went into the stock market and at the end of the year, i transferred trustee to trustee to my bank which was insured. host: you are invested into real estate and the rest of your money is just working for you in the bank? caller: that is exactly right and you have no debt. you must get out of debt and concentrate on paying for your home so you have a place to live when you get older. then you can share with your family if you need to. way to go commonsense about being financially viable and we work hard and we deserve to have a good life when we are older. the only way to do that is depend on our own resources. host: let's talk to gary calling from vermillion, ohio. go ahead gary.

time i watched the show. i have no debt, i have no credit good financial -- edward jones -- who helps me out. i am not worried about the coronavirus. host: are you invested in mutual funds? are you buying individual stocks? how are you investing right now? powder i got 30% dry that i got out of if you months -- out of a few months ago. ford.anges from tesla to then i got mutual funds but i am very careful.

i don't have a single credit card payment. i don't think i will ever buy a house because it does not make sense. host: are you worried about the stock prices that seem to be going up and down right now? even with mutual funds, are you concerned about that? caller: not really. and itsome dry powder dropped like 4000 points but i get out and took about $40,000 out. i think it will go right back up. i am just waiting to go back in. host: we would like to thank all of our colors in social media followers -- callers in social media followers. us roberta debiasi will join

and later we will turn our attention to the u.s. reliance on china for drugs and whether the coronavirus will impact the supply chain with author rosemary gibson. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ a state dinner at the white house, vice president and misses lyndon johnson join the president and misses kennedy honoring the empress. 1962 film, "nd, -- with thee" by alliance between the shah of iran. >> i speak on behalf of all of

my fellow americans and welcoming you to the united states. the interest in both of us is the same, to maintain our provide a better peace, and freedom, provide a better life for our people. sunday night on q&a, peggy wallace kennedy talks about her father's controversial career and what expire -- inspired her to write her book "the broken road." son996 we took our youngest to the martin luther king museum historical site in atlanta. church, and his

grave and over to the museum. being newly constructed at the time. the we were going through exhibits and came to the exhibit , the alabama exhibit. it shows the bridge and the bombed out church, fire hoses, dogs in birmingham, and george wallace standing in the schoolhouse door. and burns looked up at me and sad, "why dido pawpaw do those things other people? and it broke my heart. whyi said he never told me he did those things to other people, but i know that he was wrong, so maybe it will have to be up to you and me to help make things right. >> watch sunday night at 8:00

p.m. eastern on q&a. journal" can content -- continues. host: we are back with roberta debiasi. thank you so much for being here with us this morning. so, what do we know about children and the coronavirus. we have heard a lot about the elderly, what do we know about children? learn we are going to more as this starts to circulate throughout the world, but we have preliminary data from china, and there has been two big studies that are somewhat reassuring for how severely children are affected. what we do not know is are we not seeing cases in children because they are less likely to get infected, or are they getting infected but they have a milder disease?

so they are not coming in with as severe as a disease. that remains to be seen. host: i am a parent, i have a 13-year-old and 11-year-old. what are you all suggesting that schools do at this point? guest: schools need to work hand-in-hand with the local departments of health, and i think all schools are aware of that for any of the infectious diseases, even the emerging infectious diseases are not different. if you have a population of students who have traveled abroad, and they are coming back, even without symptoms, the schools need to work with the department of health to understand if the student should be quarantined at home for a period of 14 days prior to them going back to school. they would also work with the department of health to get recommendations about if any students develop symptoms, what should they do? what would be the things they

should do at the school to make sure that other people are safe and not exposed to the virus? host: i know we are talking about children, but let us add in these college-age students were going on spring break right now. should that cause any concern for their age group as they go into their spring break destination and head overseas? guest: isn't it amazing that this virus picked the worst times to emerge. over the chinese new year, and spring break with all the schools and college students. the overall number if we look at ages affected, in a very large series. looked70,000 patients at, less than 1% were under 10 years of age and another 1% were 10 to 19 years of age. overall, it was 2% in this group that you are talking about.

that does not mean they will not get infected, but it is reassuring that in that large number of patients, which were skewed towards those probably very ill and got picked up and hospitalized. even in that group, there was not a large number that were in this adolescent or younger age group. guest: what is the difference that we are seeing between this younger age group and this older -- i'm not going to cl -- to say elderly, but does older group that is more susceptible or the people being tested positive. is it stronger immune systems? what is the difference or do we know? guest: we do not, but we will find out. there are over 70 countries that have this virus circulating, and we have had two months to put in place a variety of ways to look at what we call epidemiology of

disease. we can actually go into communities and see how many people are infected whether or not they are having symptoms. that really tells you a lot about the virus. how much is out there and affecting which groups. as opposed to who is sick, showing up, and getting tested. to get back to your question about why would one group get ill and one would not, there is a variety of reasons. one could be related to immunity , it could be that younger populations have stronger immunity overall. the 1918her hand, in pandemic, younger people got sicker because their immune system was so good that the virus set up an immune response, and inflammatory response that made it worse. that is not always the answer. it is not a matter of young people have better immunity. the 2009xample is influenza epidemic, the younger

kids were more affected. that was because the virus had some similarity to a flu strain that had circulated in the past. older people had some circulating immunity that helped make the disease less severe. we do not know the answer yet. host: what are the suggestions that you all are giving to parents and schools to ensure that if -- that kid stay safe. what are your suggestions? guest: do not panic. everyone has heard this over and over, but it is true. we are well prepared in the united states to face any emerging threat. we have systems in place that are not visible to the public on a daily basis, they should have some understanding that we do not just respond to things when they happen. this is going on every day of the year. when something like this happens we are in the position to make recommendations the public based

on information we have before it hits your community. not is number one, do panic. another thing that we say, you have got to use good hygiene, because the way this virus, and most respiratory viruses get from person-to-person is droplets. when we talk about droplets, we are talking about little droplets that are big enough that when you cough and sneeze go out and get on our hands or bodies, and then you touch it and get it into your body that way from the initial droplet. they are not just floating around the sky were coming to attack you. it is just droplets. if you are good about hand hygiene, and you have all heard about that, wash your hands for 20 seconds, seeing the twinkle, twinkle little star song, that is by far in large the best way to prevent inoculating yourself with the virus that has been spewed on you. you also want to get in the

habit of social distancing. right now would not be the time parties,ing crowded hugging everyone you know. i am not saying we need to become hermits. but it is reasonable during a time like this to back off a little bit from crowded situations. and that is a very effective way to stay away from respiratory viruses. host: point number one, wash her hands. guest: just like your mom told you. host: let me remind our callers that we can join in. we will open up regional lines for you. if you are in the eastern or central time zone, and you want to talk about coronavirus and children, your number is going to be 202-748-8000. once again, eastern or central time zone, 202-748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zone, your line will be 202-748-8001.

once again, mountain or pacific time zone, 202-748-8001. we are going to open up a special line for medical professionals so you can tell us what you are hearing and seeing out there. the number for you if you are a medical professional will be 202-748-8002. once again, medical professionals only, 202-748-8002 . keep in mind we are always reading on social media, and twitter, facebook. had reported earlier this week that there are millions of students around the world who are at home because schools are closed. i will read a little bit from their story. cases continue to be identified, the efforts to stem its spread has kept 290 million students home from school.

according to the united nations, as of tuesday, 22 countries on three continents have closed schools because of the virus. is that something that american schools need to start considering, especially in places like washington state, and pennsylvania where we heard here in maryland that someone from this area who tested positive winds to a school in pennsylvania. -- went to a school in pennsylvania. should more schools think about closing to stem the spread? guest: this is a great question and i guarantee you that schools are thinking about this. it is not on their own that they make about -- that they make these decisions. let me go back to talking about internationally schools closing. it depends on where your school is. there are five countries where there is a large amount of sustained community transmission

, and those are japan, south and italy., in those areas it becomes more important to use public health measures such as school closure to heighten this social distancing that i was telling you about. on the other hand if you are in maryland, we have had three cases, but those were purely imported from people on a cruise. we do not have any evidence of sustained community transition -- transmission in maryland. it might not be appropriate to say we need to shut down all of the schools, but that might change day to day and week to week, and school closures are very effective and long used tradition of social distancing. what is great in 2020 is that we have ways that children and students will continue their education if that happens, because we have electronic ways to teach and there are ways to

continue our educational process for students, whereas 50 years ago if we closed schools, they were not getting any learning for whatever time the school was closed. we are in an improved situation because of modern technology. i should mention the idea of electronic -- use of electronic measures is not just for schools. we use telehealth, for which children's national is well known. we use it internationally to see patients, so there are many ways that we will be able to meet this challenge, whether it is educational or a health challenge for parents and families. host: how do you suggest parents talk to their children about coronavirus? my son came home and set a friend of his told him that someone had died in washington from coronavirus and i had to explain that they met washington state, not washington, d.c.

i had to have that conversation with an 11-year-old. what do you suggest that parents tell their children aside from wash your hands? guest: children process things differently than adults. you do need to give them a facts and always be truthful, but it is helpful to put it in context that thing -- of things they can understand. is, understand what a cold having a runny nose and a cough and not getting that sick. what we need to drive home is that the vast majority of people, even if they get the new virus, that is what they are going to have. even in the large series from china, 80% of the patients were mild disease. it is true that an unlucky smaller number of people will get severely ill and can die. year wea, every single

have 30,000 people that can die from influenza. we do not want to scare the kids, but you want to put it in context that we do not expect every person to get coronavirus to get severely ill or die. in fact, it is reassuring that two of the viruses that are the most similar to the virus circulating had a much higher case fatality rate. the middle eastern respiratory virus syndrome had a 30 or 40% were tally rate. compared to this virus which at twomost only looks like percent to 3%. once we get more information and test more people, we will be in the range of 0.1% or 1% like flu strains or one of the mild pandemic flu strains. does that answer your question? host: i think i will say all of that to my son later on. -- j.d. fromojd

hot springs. let us see if we can get them on here. springs, national park, and arkansas. caller: every time there is an outbreak like this, there is a lot of conspiratorial things that come up, and i heard on the , likethat there was a lab an infectious disease lab in wuhan where they started, and these people over there had been in trouble before for selling lab animals to the markets around there for sale to the public. have you heard anything like that at all? and i have a follow-up question after you answer this. guest: i have not heard that, but i would say that there is a long-standing knowledge that animal viruses can be transmitted to humans. it is usually an accident. viruses are smart little germs. hostadapt to infect the

that is most likely to allow it into the host, and then the virus takes over the machinery to make more of itself. thathe most part, a virus is well adapted to an animal almost never infects a human. it is an accident. examples of that similar to this virus are these coronavirus is, which tend to hang out in bats and then bats as an intermediary will transmit to another animal that humans tend to be closer to. for instance, the sars epidemic in 2002 and 2003 originated in a andand went to a civet, then humans around it accidentally got infected. or the mers virus, again bats, but the intermediary was a camel.

because people in that region are in close proximity is to the camel, they accidentally got infected. what are -- what we are waiting to figure out is the intermediate host. i am secure that we will find out what that is because this is extremely similar, 80% similar based on the genetic sequence to these other viruses that have circulated in that manner. we do not need to find a conspiracy theory. these are well-known ways that these viruses get to humans. host: make your follow-up quick. suppose one of, you two had this virus right now and did not know it, could just sitting there talking to him or him talking to you, but that infect either one of you? just through the air without sneezing or coughing? just natural conversation? guest: that is a great question. i am more than six feet away from jesse, and that is the

magic number for transition of viruses trends knitted -- transmitted by droplets. that is different than if jesse had the measles. i would be able to get the measles easily because that is airborne, meaning it floats through the air, not just droplets that need a shorter distance to get to. so, the answer is no, i would not be able to catch it from jesse because we are six feet apart, and i'm going to wash my hands like crazy once i leave the interview before i touch my eyes or my mouth. that is an excellent question. host: bill from georgia. you are in the medical profession. what are you saying? pediatrician, and i have not seen anything like what she is claiming is out there. the reality is, number one is that most of time seeing is the

end of the flu, so i am seeing a lot less flu cases a month ago. otherd like to make one comment about the corona vase -- coronavirus. there are many illnesses, like chickenpox which are much more mild in children. ityou remember chickenpox causes a lot of the classic rash and high fever. were sick for and got overor so it. unlike adults. i wish parents would understand that children have a different metabolic rate than adults and they may not suffer from this illness at all, which is what we are seeing right now. host: go ahead and respond. guest: there are a lot of

things. i agree it is important to reassure parents that the vast majority of children we have seen do not get severe illness. i will say that children with underlying conditions, and we take care a lot of those children, we need to be prepared for severe illness because it will occur. have adren's national we well-worn path to deal with emerging infectious diseases. we have a special isolation unit where we can take care of patients with airborne or droplet transmission, and extended bed space if we are wrong and this does affect many children and need to be hospitalized, we have a safe place to take care of large numbers of children. going back to his point about a completelyt is different category, and sometimes people lump all viruses together. chickenpox is a highly contagious virus caused by a

different class of viruses, and although it is true that many children have mild illness with chickenpox, or did before the vaccine, i can tell you that 20 years ago or 30 years ago before the vaccine was available, every single week i took care of a child with a severe complication of chickenpox. this was either pneumonia, encephalitis, or more likely, bacterial infection of the lesions that the virus caused that could cause sepsis and illness. i do not want parents to walk away thinking not it is such a benign bill -- illness that it should not be vaccinated. when that was instituted we saw all thedible decline in severe complications of chickenpox. i do not want to get too far off topic, that we want to talk about respiratory viruses. it will remain to be seen if

children truly do not get infected or if they get infected and get a mild disease. we do not have an answer. host: let us talk about hand sanitizer because we are seeing runs in stores. it is sitting on the same shelf as soap. no we should wash our hands, those hands in a ties or help, should we douse our kids hands in sanitizers or just tell them to wash their hands. guest: in general, soap and water is still the best because an only is it anti-infective, but it is getting the particles of whatever is on your hands off. alcohol works, and you want to make sure you are using an alcohol-containing solution with 60% or 90% alcohol to be effective and kill this virus. if you have particles of dirt or you have used the restroom and

you have particles of stuff, not just the virus on your hand, you are putting alcohol on top of the particles where it is better to just get them off. you and water, as long as do it correctly for 20 seconds, you cannot just pretend, you have to do it properly. as long as you are using it correctly, it is more effective. if you have alcohol sanitizers, that is a great thing to use in between. one thing i have to say is that all of the stock may have been falling, but the one stock climbing is clorox, because of bleach. aboute been talking a lot disinfecting ourselves, which is super important, but these viruses can live for hours on surfaces. for instance, coffee cups, cell phones, anything that is a high touch area. doorknobs, anything that we use

frequently, at least once a day try and disinfect those areas with something containing bleach or that content of alcohol we talked about. host: let us go to our next caller, john from montana. john, good morning. caller: good morning. sick, and itly got am not sure if it is the coronavirus. it could be flow. i was wondering are the hospitals able to test specifically for coronavirus, and how long after your symptoms go away should you worry about infecting other people? guest: these are good questions. a week ago, things were completely different on the testing landscape than they are this week. this is how it is with an emerging virus. not things change, it is because the prior information was wrong, it is because things have evolved. specifically about lab testing,

week ago the only place to get lab testing was through the centers for disease control. for that reason, the criteria was much more restricted in the united states. over the next week, we have had the fda allow other labs to validate the tests or similar tests so that this ability to get a test local to where ever you are is much easier now, although still not up and running to the extent it will be next week. localr change is that the departments have the ability to do the testing so it does not need to go all the way to atlanta, which will expand the access to the test. academic epidemic -- centers are developing tests within their hospital. it will become easier. having said that, we will not be recommending that everyone run to their local doctor or

hospital and say i am curious, i would like to know if i have this virus, because it would not be appropriate to use the tests for that purpose. it is expanded, we will certainly use it in hospitalized patients where we do not have an alternative explanation for severe pneumonia that is requiring critical care support. and, we keep a close eye on that because we have lots of children with respiratory disease that can become very severe. we will also use it for other criteria met the cdc and world health organization identify as this evolves. as you have heard thereof been outbreaks in a long-term care facility, so we might have a lower threshold to test someone in a long-term care facility with a respiratory illness, or, you heard about the cruise ships, there might be a lower criteria to test those individuals. it will evolve, but the testing will become and already is more

broadly available than it was. host: one of the things we have not talked about is pregnant women and coronavirus. do we know anything about the impact or how it affects women who are pregnant? guest: children's national, we are very invested in our fetal medicine program and we work hand-in-hand with the fetal medicine program. we have a track record of looking at the effect of any infection on a pregnant mother and how that affects the pregnancy, the baby and the longer-term effects on the child. instance, cytomegalovirus, syphilis and rubella can affect a pregnancy. and the zika virus. we are leaders in that area where we have characterized what it does to the mother during the pregnancy. but we are well-positioned to do is put that to work and see what

does this particular virus, if a mother is pregnant when she gets it, does it have any problems with the pregnancy or the baby? or its long-term development. what we know so far from what we know from china is that in general, a fever in the first trimester of pregnancy for any presentan affect if the -- pregnancy is lost or if the child is potentially born preterm or small. it is possible that a mother who got this coronavirus or any virus with a high fever in the first trimester could have an effect on the pregnancy. but we do not know is any direct effect of the virus on the brain of the baby. these are things that we and other centers will be looking at closely. host: let us see if we can get a couple more callers in. let us talk to joseph from maryland. good morning. caller: good morning.

thank you for your work. we appreciate it. aam heading into a d.i. destination imagination, and i have my daughter. i am a judge and my daughter is a contestant. my daughter had cancer a couple of years back and all of the cuban therapy did a lot of things to her hot -- chemotherapy that today a lot of things to her heart, so now she is 12 and takes eight pills a day for her heart. we are blessed, and so blessed for the medical people. told my doctor do not go to this place where all the kids are. and then the adults, they are at risk too, but everybody is mad at me because you need to go because they are counting on you all. i do not want -- know what to do to be honest, i am driving there right now and i do not want to go. guest: the problem is that we

are at a point where if you are in a country that has already been labeled as level 3 alert, he would not be having this struggle. he would say, of course i cannot go. if you are in a country that had never been a case, you would not have this struggle. it is going on right now is we are seeing expansion into other countries, including our own. i do not think that you would be unreasonable with either decision. one decision would be, i am not going to take any risk. my child has an underlying disorder and i do not want to take any chance that they would be exposure because i am going to be in a crowded situation. that is a valid decision. at the end of the day, you are the advocate for your child. that would be an appropriate decision. on the other hand, if you could organize your trip such that you could not shake everyone's hand and not hug everyone and be at

somewhat of a distance and spend a shorter time than you had planned, if they really are depending on you for one event, that would be a reasonable decision. it is personal, but both are valid. on the side of reason, but if it were circulating and i am not sure and i had a child with an underlying problem, i might say let us err on the side of not taking a risk. host: renee from new york. in morning. caller: good morning, i have a question and concern. we live in upstate new york, and in our school district we have families from 60% of families from all over the world. my concern is that i have a grandmother who is 85 and i note the kids are not being affected as much -- i know that the kids are not being as affected as much as the elderly. do i keep my daughter away from

their grandparents? the kids' families are traveling all over. the kids might be ok, but they are bringing it back into our community through the children. that is my concern. guest: is the grandmother living in your house? is thet i was asking answer to that question is if the grandmother is living in a house, then of course there is no way to stay apart. you can certainly avoid heavily kissing and touching, and backing off a little bit. using the six foot rule. on the other hand, if the grandmother is out of the home, you can try at least not to have your children visit -- children visit when they have symptoms. if your child has a runny nose or a fever, you want to stay away from elderly individuals or immunocompromised or any underlying condition. is if thereot know

is significant transmission when someone is asymptomatic. there is a little bit of data that shows there is not a lot of transmission when someone is completely asymptomatic. based on what we know about other respiratory viruses, there is some chance. the biggest risk and a time to do the distancing and aggressive handwashing and disinfecting is if you are actually symptomatic. if it is possible to stay away while they are symptomatic, that would be the safest thing to do. host: we would like to thank you for being here today and being -- and giving us good information on what to do about coronavirus and our children. thank you for being here. coming up next, we will take your calls on the top public policy issue that you want to talk about. we will open up regular lines. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002.

but first, newsmakers interviewed the top republican on the house select committee on the climate crisis -- crisis. the climate crisis committee is to prevent -- is to present report with its findings. near the congressman talks about whether republicans will join democrats in writing a joint climate report as well as the issue of fossil fuels. [video clip] thatu have heard folks say we need to eliminate all fossil fuels. i do not agree with that. i do not think the data shows that is the right approach and i think it would be contrary to the objectives at the climate advocates are talking about, and it would be contrary to the interests of the united states in terms of employment, trade deficit, and wages, and opportunities for americans. whereabsolutely are areas we have bipartisan consensus, and i'm excited about working

together in a building on some of those successes. but there are other areas where i am concerned about some of the statements that we have heard from leaders that i think would be very dangerous to the united states. we are making sure that we are pulling together our thoughts and whether we can incorporate them into the main report or have them as alternative reports. we are not sure. we will have to continue working together with members on both sides of the aisle and see where we can build a consensus. >> that position on fossil fuels, it seems more like an m energy efficiency built rather than a climate bill. also talking about that, i was wondering if you could say something about the difficulty of having a climate bill when the president has declared a whole -- the whole issue a hoax. >> let us be clear, it is not a bill, this is a report or strategy.

think thatll, i would be a fundamental mistake to separate the two or trying separate the two. let us be clear why. when you look at the greatest success in reducing emissions not just in the united states around the globe, it is actually a result of transitioning to cleaner fossil fuel technology, so i will say that again. -- mayomething that macy seem counterintuitive that it is clearly supported by facts. the greatest emissions reduction we have had around the globe has been a result of transitioning to cleaner fossil fuels. "--[end video clip] journal" host: continues. we want to know what your top policy issue is. let us get into the breaking news that happened.

aboutgain, let us talk the switch up in the white house where president trump has a new white house chief of staff. let us see what politico writes about this. "president donald trump announced that mark meadows will become the new white house chief of staff. a dramatic reshuffling of his senior aides in the midst of the coronavirus affecting the united states and the world. meadows, a conservative republican who helped overthrow one republican p speaker -- overthrow one republican speakers and pushed trump into a disastrous shutdown, will be his fourth chief of staff and over three years of office. mick mulvaney, the acting white house chief of staff will become envoy to northern ireland." president trump has a new chief of staff, mark meadows. and we want to know what you think about that, and whatever

other public policy issue that you want to talk about. let us go to our phone lines and talk to mira, from hubert, north carolina on the democratic line. good morning. my name is myra. host: good morning, go ahead. caller: i know you just finish the coronavirus, but i am wondering about -- i am a senior citizen, i cannot really get on other lines, and i have heard people all over the place, but they never said anything about pets, so i am wondering if some nudity could address that so i can hear it in the news. host: let meanders -- let me make sure i understand what you're asking me. what about animals and pets? caller: for the coronavirus. we interact with animals, and so

do the farmers. host: may be one of our phone -- callers will have an answer for that. i think it is right now mostly in humans. we will have to see if someone can inform us on that. but escoto paul, on the -- let us go to paul on the independent line. caller: good morning, i would like to mention my key issue, which is the use of light in medicine. as an independent, i am looking to see which party will be the first to introduce this. for example, it can be used as an antimicrobial, and to disintegrate viruses. if you are interested in these topics, the national center for biotechnology information but that into your search -- put that into your search and it will filter out nonrelevant stuff. it can be used for diagnosis,

for therapy, and for surgery. about a it is getting penny out of every dollar or $10 out of funding, and the reasons for this is that medicine has been a tradition of field and big pharma is influential and does not like the use of light since it can be cheaper, and safer. and, effective. i am waiting to see who will actually take advantage of this. ,hat is why i voted for trump because he seems to be a guy who is willing to go outside of the box. we need to do this otherwise this is going to keep recurring. itt: since a caller brought up i sat here and tried to find if there was any information about pets and coronavirus. now science has a story out that reads, and i will read it

to you. "a pet dog belonging to a woman with covid-19 has contracted a low-level infection from its owner. the pomeranian tested weak positive for the virus last week according to a statement released by the hong kong agricultural fisheries and -- agriculture and fisheries department. at the time scientist could not determine if the animal was truly infected or if it had picked up traces of the virus from a contaminated surface. the dog was taken under quarantine and inspected by experts from the university of hong kong city university in the world organization for animal health who agreed that these results suggest that the dog has a low level of infection and is likely to be a case of human to animal transition according to the morning post." -- should the public

worry about picking up covid-19 from their pets? no. also contracted acute respiratory syndromes of the 2003 outbreak. animal head health expert vanessa bars told the south china morning trout -- post, previous experience of just cats and dogs will not become sick or transmit the virus to humans. at that time a small number of pets tested positive but none became sick. hopefully that answers are caller's question --our caller's question. let us go back to the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning, thank you you for the call. i wanted to also talk about coronavirus. with 35immunologist years of experience -- expertise in the fields of inflammatory

diseases and cancer biology. i believe the outcome of this corona scheme is is a transfer of another $8 billion from taxpayers to the government, and the pharmaceutical companies. we do not have a healthier nation, although we spend trillions of dollars for cancer research and therapy. my last two articles regarding cancersnd the fact that -- cancer is an induced disease injected theat we public with a vaccine that has viruses. and my other article relating to hpv vaccine.

public'sking the immunity weaker, not stronger. host: john, calling from columbus, ohio on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. watched a tv program one time about the sterilization of products coming from other countries, and i just wonder is that -- is this the problem why 2, andhaving these 1, three little infections across the united states in several different states? that that is failing and not working anymore? and it program on it seemed like a good idea, that they were sterilizing anything that came through the united states.

i am pretty sure. host: let us remind you about a couple of events coming up on c-span today. first, joe biden holds a community event in st. louis ahead of missouri's democratic presidential primary. you can watch this at noon eastern on c-span. online at c-span.org or listen live on the free c-span radio app. sunday, bernie sanders will hold a rally in grand rapids, michigan ahead of that state's democratic presidential primary. you can watch this live, sunday at 12:30 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span.org, or listen live on the free radio app, but i have to remind you that tomorrow, clocks do change and you will spring forward. take sure that you tune in at the correct time tomorrow. let us go back to our phone

lines and talk to wayne from pensacola, florida on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. calling about voter fraud. nancy pelosi and stacey abrams stating that it does not exist bothers me. in-line with people who complain about the line floridaoo slow in because they wanted to go and vote in louisiana again. that is an issue for me. there are patterns that exist with this. alabama could be a good test case to follow. host: let me stop you and make sure you understand correctly. you have been in line waiting to vote and you have heard people waiting to vote saying that they were going to vote in another state as well on the same day? caller: yes. they were complaining that the

line was moving so slow, and i reported this to the democratic national party in 2004. actually, i was received as if i thatistaken or something, this could not happen. but it is. away theama giving voter id cards, the next move will have to be to relinquish the registered republican role. donald trump has done his part polls.inating the voter they are working hard. host: let us to judy from tennessee on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. it is nice to get to talk to you. i just wanted to say that i and itulate mark meadows

think that is a very wise move on the president's part. one thing that that's criticized a lot about that when obama was president -- but former president obama and former president bill clinton moved in and they wiped out all of the staff. host: we couldn't hear you there. caller: they completely got new staff. hillary, sheth fired the cooks and so forth. so, when president trump came into office he had 350 something president obama rollovers because they thought that the next president would be a democrat. i watch meadows over the last eight years, and i am impressed

with him. choice,it is a good and, like i say, president trump did not come in and fire everybody. host: let us go to johnson from minneapolis, minnesota on the democratic line. good morning. caller: how are you today? host: fine. go ahead. caller: first off, i have not gone out of the house for seven days because of the scare. we got our first case in minnesota yesterday. that the media and people of different worlds that we live in are all freaking out. nobody would say hello to each other or shake hands. i am a hugger and shaker, i like to talk to people and be interactive with people when i go out. because of this coronavirus, you

can walk in downtown minneapolis, it was about 40 degrees, it was not one single person on the streets in downtown minneapolis due to the coronavirus care or people were staying home because of it. i am afraid of what it will do to the economy and the people who live off of tips. i have had maybe two tables last night in a restaurant. please support local businesses and go out to dinner or go to a show. do not let the fear mongering scare you. host: let us go to pat from strongsville, ohio on the republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning. retired,ears old, and i am definitely a trump fan. i am tired of the media and democrats blaming trump for the virus. he can snap his fingers and have a million kids played out.

i am so sick of the media. thisthing that happens in country, they blame it on trump. i am a veteran of the korean war. i believe that he takes care of his veterans, and he is good for the economy of this country. and i think and hope that the republicans will go out there and vote and get rid of the socialists. edie fromus talk to hampton, virginia on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. eddie. host: my fault. go ahead. public policy issue is reparations for descendents of slaves. i think that democrat or republican, i think that is something we should address. for me, that is the only way to move forward as a national

destination. you have to address that issue. i wish that the democrats that say that lack people are the people--black -- black are the heart and soul of our party will address it. anyone who says that we should not because i was not here and did not do it, it does not matter. everyone who lived in this nation has benefits from the free labor of slaves. for me, that is the most important policy. host: let us talk to leslie from alexandria, virginia on the democratic line. good morning. thank youod morning, for taking my call. i wanted to comment back to the lady who called a couple of callers ago that said something about trump did not fire people in the white house when he got there. my husband worked under the obama administration in the white house. he was a butler. yes, she was right there were

200 and 300 people who work in the white house and do service and behind-the-scenes work. trump has not called them. the old group is not there. i wanted to kind of clarify or say something about that. host: let me make sure you understand. you have not say called them, did they leave the white house under obama and trump did not bring them back or that trump let them go. clarify what you are talking about. caller: what i meant was that they just do not call them anymore to come into work. my husband was a part-time overflow person where they had a big event they would call him. they do not call the people anymore to come that used to work there under obama. that is what i meant. host: got you. let us talk to grady from north carolina on the independent line. do i have that right?

zirconium? caller: yes. i just want to say how proud i ofof president trump by -- cutting shutting down our borders and keeping it out as long as we could. that bought us time and gives us a future. host: let us talk to chris from waynesville, missouri on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i wanted to say that i read a book called "the last stand" in the name of the disease was captain drips. i am sitting here right now and my nose is running and then it clogs up and then it runs. tested, and this reminds me of the captain drip in the book by stephen king.

they overlooked it and it came back around. the second time it came around it killed a whole bunch of people. everyone should read the stephen king book. host: are you getting treated for your condition? caller: i do not know. i am quarantined in my house. i called the hospital and they told me to stay inside because they did not have tests. want to comment about the republican party. have you ever seen the movie kevin causings her and it is about the guys -- the republican party is just -- it reminds me of have you ever seen a dog in heat? host: let us go to silver spring, maryland on the republican line. do i have that right? i just wanted to say,

follow the instructions, they have stated the instructions --arly on the media so that host: go ahead, turn your television down, and go ahead. caller: i just wanted to say that, please just follow the instructions. the only thing we can do is pray to god so that we get the vaccine faster. some brain will get there. -- will get the solution so we have to pray to god, ask god to give us a solution as soon as possible. republican,e democratic, or media problem, everybody problem. pray to god so that god will help us. host: let us go to vicki from

maine on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to thank the man who called earlier for his service. is that it? caller: that host: host: is it. -- caller: that is it. host: ok. we would like to thank all of our collars for calling in on public policy issues. coming up next, we will be joining by rosemary gibson, the author of the book "china rx" for a discussion on the shortage of life-saving drugs. ♪ >> this weekend on otb -- on

book tv, "mayoral -- tonight, at 11:00 eastern, in the nation city, more -- former chicago mayor and rahm emanuel on innovation at the local level in cities across the country. and on sunday at 750 time, in her latest book, the watergate girl, jill wine-banks talks about her legal career, including her role as one of the three assistant special prosecutors in the watergate afterwards, 9:00 on lee druckman argues in her book -- in his book, breaking the two-party loop, that the system is damaging america's democracy. he's interviewed by author matthew dallek. >> what would be the chief advantages of having a multiparty democracy? >> democracy is always going to the challengest,

we need to have -- the challenge is we need to have some system by which we can agree that some set of rules are fair. and those procedures are fair. and we can abide by those outcomes. emanuel, jill wine-banks, and afterwards with lee druckman, this weekend on book tv. tune in for our two day live coverage of the film festival of books on book tv. on c-span two. washington journal continues. host: we are back. joining me now is rosemary rx,on, the author of china exposing america's risk of dependence on china for medicine. thank you for being with me again. guest: it's great to see you again. host: tells about your medical background. butt: i'm not a physician,

i have spent three years researching and figuring out, where are medicines are made -- where our medicines are made. and it's amazing how much we depend on china for our generic drugs. host: you are a senior at the hastings center, tell us what it is in the type of research you do. guest: it's a bioethics think tank, and we do lots of work on ethical issues, certainly availability of good medicine is one of those. tells about your assessment of the extent, let's talk about coronavirus. assessment ofyour the extent of coronavirus right now. host: i don't want to scare people, but we do have an issue with coronavirus cases popping up around the country, and we have to be careful, doing all let'sings we should do, hope that it passes quicker, and

then we can get back to normal. so the subject of your book is about the fact that china makes a lot of the medicine. thet: and most of ingredients to make them, they have a global chokehold and we have a global pandemic. guest: -- host: thousand and question trade with china making a lot of ingredients for medicine, first, thewe seeing a down take in number of medicines coming out of china to the united states right now? or is it too early to tell? production is shut down in china, particularly in areas where the coronavirus is hit badly, wuhan is a hub for making a lot of the chemicals for antibiotics. and that's a problem. and you have a lot of transportation routes being blocked.

this is serious business and we predicted this in china rx. in the event of a natural disaster, or global health emergency, if the doors were shut on china export, we could have problems. and these are the basic medicines, one that 90% of our medicines are generic, this is what makes hospitals run every day. dr. anthony found she was asked by representative -- asked china'ssentative about role in manufacturing these drugs to here's what he said. [video clip] >> i'm concerned about the fact that as we have said in conversation previously, the number of other drugs made with active ingredients -- [no audio] we will get back to that tape in a minute. but what type of ingredients for

drugs do we depend on for china -- from china right now? are we seeing those ingredients vanish? are seeing is that china has a dominant global market share on antibiotics. and these are antibiotics that treat in practice disease caused by bacteria. it would not help the coronavirus, these are bacterial infections. the firsta announced shortage of the medicine directly because of coronavirus, and i'm told by those who work in hospitals that it could be an antibiotic. so we are seeing the effects of it right now. but bear in mind, we have drug shortages and have for 20 years. if you add coronavirus on top of greatere need is much for ensuring that we have medicine. and i can expect that china is withholding supply because they

need medicine for their own people. guest: we have a question from one of our viewers who wants to know, let me see if i can pull this back up. why are we dependent on china for making the ingredients for pharmaceuticals? why can't we make our own? labor costs question availability of resources? host: -- that's a great question, we became dependent on china in the 90's and it really ramped up in the early 2000s when the u.s. opened up free change -- free trade with china and the tariffs came down. that's when we lost our penicillin plant, and most of our other generic antibiotics. we cannot make vitamins like vitamin c anymore. who knew our trade laws would have such an impact. that's where we are. and yes, we can make them here, but china has fixed prices, they

control supply. these are all illegal trade practices. and the chinese government subsidizes chinese companies. so you have american companies competing not with chinese companies but with the chinese government. make the medicines here. that's what i've been working on the last couple of months. because of the earlier show i was on with you, other people have reached out to me who are really smart and brilliant people who know how to make medicine. they want to start small companies and say we can make this end we can do this. so we can do it, and with new technology and advanced menu fracturing -- manufacturing, we can make it cheaper in the united states. lower,osts are a lot we've been making medicines for the same way for hundred years, the same way we make potato chips. this has advanced far more than how we make our medicines. medicine in the

united states. our is really important for health, security, and national security. host: how long would it take to ramp up the production of the ingredients for the medicine in the united states? as opposed to depending on the ingredients coming from other countries. and another quick question, why china? why is china the hub and not india or england or nigeria? guest: because china had a goal, that we are going to be the pharmacy to the world. they have a whole industrial policy, a plan, on how to do that. to their credit, they are executing it beautifully. if you are a country more than a billion people, you need to have medicine. they are accelerating very quickly to become that global pharmacy to the world. india,point that even

even india which is the biggest generics maker in the world, india depends on china for core components. so when china shuts down, as we've seen with coronavirus, it affects everyone. remind viewers they can take part. we are going to open up regular lines this morning. ,or democrats (202) 748-8000 for republicans (202) 748-8001, for independents (202) 748-8002. we are going to open up a special line for medical professionals, i want to hear what you are seeing out there in pharmacies, hospitals, doctors offices, are you not being able to find medical supplies right now? we want to hear from you specifically, your number is (202) 748-8003. us youralso text questions and comments at that same number, (202) 748-8003.

and we are always on social media, on twitter and facebook. now, you have said this line specifically earlier, i remember it from our last show. you said no one job in the is to knowernment who controls the drug supply. that was eight months ago, is that still true? fda is working as fast as it can to figure out where these core crime michaels -- these core chemicals are coming from and do we have any alternative sites. but this should have been done years ago. we have not been well prepared. so now we are playing catch-up. what i hope, is that we can make medicines in the united states, so we don't even have to worry

about this next time we have a coronavirus or whatever the next thing will be. we can fix this. there will be hearings next week canongress, and we hopefully talk about the kinds of solutions that we can implement today. if there was money we could implement solutions to bring back medicine making for those really essential medicines needed for caring for people. here's an interesting data point. let's take people who are hospitalized with coronavirus, that's a small percentage. they have to be cared for. fentanyl, youike need pressers, antibiotics in case they get a secondary so there's a group of people who actually makes medicine. these are the men and women in this manufacturing plant, and how dependent are we, what percentage of those ingredients to make those in central

those essential medicines, how much comes from china? 90%.body said 90% of the ingredients to make to treattial medicines people with coronavirus, not to cure them, just to care for them when they are hospitalized, we depend on china. we have a strategic decision to make as a country. path, ordown the same bring some of that manufacturing back home, and we can do it cheaper. we can sell medicines cheaper than we do now with advanced manufacturing technology. let's go back and see about what dr. anthony said about drug shortages and the role of manufacturing those drugs. [video clip] >> i am concerned about the fact that we've had the conversation previously about this, the number of drugs made, active

ingredients made and i would add medical devices made in places like china. do we really know what that supply chain is with the various companies. we did a letter this morning with the top 20 prescription drug companies asking this question, but do we keep track of this anywhere? know how many drugs are made in places like china and where we could see potential shortages in a case like this? does, andve the fda the fact that you concern -- that's when we have been talking about as far as preparedness for years, when we put together the plan back in 2005, we said one of the real problems as the supply chain. i was somewhat impressed and 90%ked that something like of the fundamental ingredients that go into many of the drugs, not the actual drug itself comes from china. that's a real problem.

and i don't have an answer to you. it's not something we do but it impacts us. >> a quick follow-up, should we be tracking active ingredients in medical devices as well? yes.would imagine but that's out of our purview. host: go ahead and respond, what do you think? should have been prepared a long time ago, but the good news is that china rx broke the story and it took three years to figure out because it was so hidden. so it's finally out there, about how dependent we are and we are trying to scramble in the moment. but i hope this is the moment where we decide to bring some of this medicine making back home so we are not dependent on any country. any country that has a public health emergency or natural disaster, they should keep their medicines at home. in europe, or canada. so we have to realize that in

make sure we can take care of our own people in the united states. host: let's let viewers join in on this conversation. jody,start with joey, -- in michigan, on the democratic line. caller: good morning. my question is, what's needed to get the funding for the pharmaceutical companies to get started. legislation and the second issue is what the to provide the ingredients that they needed. is this like a silver lining, now that we are aware of this with all of the possible things that have come out of this, is this something that might promote the united states to become the center and to have a positive impact out of all of

the devastation that has caused issue for many family. -- that has caused issues for many families? guest: you are right about this being a silver lining, we have an opportunity now to know where we are vulnerable, where we are -- it is no secret anymore. and what will it take to rebuild some of our manufacturing base. it has collapsed over the past 25 years. plans have shut down, jobs have moved to china and other countries. so we have to rebuild some of , those that are still standing we have to refurbish them. if we can use advanced manufacturing technology, it takes a smaller physical space, a smaller environmental footprint, which is much more efficient. it will take some funding just on the infrastructure side. i think the real innovation is

going to come from smaller companies. one of the interesting things to think about is who are the western generic drug makers now? mylan was the largest u.s.-based drugmaker making generics. pfizer. merged with they arere moving out, based in morgantown, west virginia. and we have two european , and another israeli company, they have been discontinuing products in recent months because they can't compete with china, because there companies are being subsidized by the chinese government. when we talk about pharmaceutical companies in this space, generic drugs are the new orphan drugs, big pharma companies are not interested in making them because there's not much margin. they can make much greater margin in the more innovative

products, brand names. but there are smaller companies that are innovative, that don't have any legacy ways of looking thisis, saying let's bring new technology to bear with continuous process and make medicines here. and how soon can we get going? up i've spoken to could start within days, to begin to make the active ingredients here and then to make all of those active ingredients totally in the united states shortly thereafter. so it takes money to good people who want to do it right, but it cannot just be tax credits out there and hoping something happens. we need to be targeted and specific that whatever we fund, companies have to produce product and make those products in the united states to really help us meet our national health and security needs. host: i want to read to you from a story that came out earlier this week, the fda on thursday said for the first time since

the outbreak, a drugmaker reported the coronavirus related shortage for none undisclosed drug, because they cannot access enough raw components, which are made in china. the fda did not name the drug, the condition and treats, or the manufacturer. the shortages due to an issue with manufacturing over the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in the drugs, the agency said in a news release, while knowing that there are available substitutes for u.s. consumers. do we know what drug this was? what manufacturer? do we know anything more than that short statement? did not name the drug and that could be for good reason. bydon't want any hoarding hospitals if they purchase all the supply. what we should be doing is whatever supply system is distributed to those patients who really need it. panic.t want to cause

and i can understand why the fda -- the fda did it. we have a lot of things that are being, in short, rationed. the official term is allocating we are rationing essential idicine including antibiotics met an ems worker, somebody who sheet i atbulances -- i said what do you have? and she said we don't even have epinephrine to revive. so i asked what do you do? and she says i try to drive faster to the hospital. that's not an answer. the american people should not be satisfied with that. it's probably not because of

coronavirus, that was probably going on before all of this. isthe coronavirus highlighting not just how dependent we are on china, but how we have the shortages and how we have allowed them to happen for 20 years. drug shortagess before the coronavirus hits. the fda does not tell us the real reasons. we need honesty and transparency from the federal government on why we are not seeing these medicines. and what we are doing about it. there is a nonprofit called civic rx, formed by 1300 hospitals, mayo clinic was one of the leaders in this, it was crazy to have drug shortages and

so how did they fix it? do what everyone else does when you have a shortage of tomatoes and you cannot make pizza. they went down and identified theyworthy manufacturers paid a fair price, not a race to the bottom price, and they gave a long-term contract to invest in manufacturing. transparency, country of origin and cost. within a year of start they were delivering injectable bank myosin, that's a serious antibiotic. within a year they could deliver it and they delivered 18 other drugs in just a year. shortages are not just inevitable, they have been allowed to persist and it's unacceptable. host: let's go back to our phone lines, chris is calling from silver springs, maryland, on the

republican line. good morning. politically popular to attack pharmaceutical is anies, and there preoccupation with organ's eyes -- reorganizing our health care. lobby,think the chinese to keep american production in disruption, and the question i have, do you think universities can help in the production of needed pharmaceuticals and other things? i will hang up and take your answer. guest: thank you for those questions. , as it becomes a pharmacy to the world, this is a tool of great leverage. politically, if you are sitting in the white house and you get a call from a ifnese government official,

you don't do xyz we can withhold medicine. death kind of lever china could use. and china has threatened the u.s. government in the past in a different situation with drug so china is using the control of the global supply for geopolitical purposes. we have to find people with the talent to put this together, and had the experience of actually manufacturing product. it takes a lot of different skill sets to bring to bear. in writing china rx and researching it, i developed a healthy respect for what it high-quality

medicines, every pill, every vile, every patient, every time. someone with the right combination of skills can be a part of the solution. let's talk to ron, from new jersey, on the democrat line. caller: i work for a company out they were the largest pharmaceutical company in the world and they were bought by merck and bankrupted. one of the big problems is greed . if you make generics there somebody buying -- selling them for more and they will buy you up and put you out of business. i watched it in my lifetime. guest: i think what the caller is saying is a very clear reality of what happens in our medicine markets. we bring manufacturing back

home we have to treat it a strategic asset, not an entity that can be bought and sold for financial purposes. oil,uld not do this with we would not do this with food supplies. we need to treat our medicine is something valuable, it is essential to the survivability of our country. that's why, there's ever any federal support, which i hope there is, to rebuild some of our infrastructure, that there actually be contracts so that manufacturers will know what's expected of them, and also provisions that five years from now, if china wants to come in and buy it for a billion dollars accounts will. this is a national security asset for our nation and we need to make medicines for our military, for the men and women in uniform. for seniors, for all of us. we need to treat it in a way that's immune from a lot of the market ups and downs that have

really contributed to our infrastructure based being decimated. one of our social media followers wants to challenge you. they want to know if it is so profitable to make drugs with new technology, why isn't big pharma doing it? guest: here's why big pharma isn't doing it. if they had a brand-name drug, most of the funding that goes into that is for r&d. for them it hasn't been worth it to invest in this advanced manufacturing technology. and it's also habit. they have been really slow to the game here. but where there is urgency around generic drugs, there's nobody here, we are talking about generic drugs, the lower cost products that are off patent, they don't have much margin as the branding products do. and generics are 90% of what it

is we take. there is not much margin. that's why we need new entrants into the marketplace with great capability and need a leg up, so they can get in and make medicine for all of us. guest: one of the -- host: one of the things i keep hearing when you talk about medicine as a strategic asset is government, government control of medicine. is that something we should have? should the government get involved in controlling these necessary medicines? guest: i think the government's role is to know who controls our drug supply. to be prepared for events like we are seeing now with coronavirus, and have the resources and take the action steps necessary. here is what government could and should do. if we can make the core ingredients in our medicine here in the united states, which we can do with incredible chemistry

and technology, we stockpile , and we have stockpiles, they will last longer. and if we have a coronavirus outbreak, or whatever the next issue that comes up, all we have is have facilities right next door, get them up and running, and within a month, you can start producing products. so we don't have any shortages. that is the type of planning and preparation that we need. and i hope this time around, that there is government support to do exactly that. we should never be caught off guard like we are now. but we are getting smarter, but now we have to invest in that infrastructure and production so we are ready to go. host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to valerie, from florida, on the independent line. caller: hello.

know, how our government could get us into this predicament, that we have to depend on china for our medicine. this is america. we are a great country. why should we ever have to , no more than we had to depend on iran for oil. we are dependent on the oil but we need to be self independent, and stop and think about it, with china, we do a lot of trading, i understand that. but china has wanted to be the greatest and they are not, they are trying to be. and what are they putting in our medicines that could demean us

so that they could take over one day? guest: the caller is on point with why are we doing this. if you talk to the average person on the street, if we go to constitution avenue and start talking about this, people will be apoplectic. and they are right. that is the voice of the commonsense norms of the american people to come to washington and say we need to fix this. with regard to china and quality, where i'm concerned is that the fda has correctly recalled their inspectors from china, because they don't want them to get sick from coronavirus. so that means there's no one over there inspecting the manufacturing facilities making medicines, producing food for the united states. timenk it can be a long before the fda gets over there. there in mind, something i learned recently, that those who

do inspections in china, these are highly technical people who go into these plants, they look to see if the way they are made meets the gold standard, the u.s. standard, the highest in the world. to do that work you volunteer. so i cannot say to the fda, you have to go to china and volunteer -- you have to go to china and inspect that plant. cool want to volunteer to do that? to stay for the remainder of the year? and even in the future. -- think ofheard it, you are inspector -- are an inspector, you will be the inspector that says sorry, this product does not meet standard, so the fda will end up blocking it, the company cannot sell it to the united states because of quality problems, do you think the chinese government will want to give you a visa next time you

want to come back to do an inspection? you will not be well received. so what we are seeing with globalization is a new form of deregulation. the last time we spoke there was blood pressure medicine, do you remember? the active ingredient was made in china, it had carcinogens in it. a few hundred times acceptable limits. per pill. and the chinese company knew it had a problem, it would medicines in the united states on the rest of the world did not meet standards. but they sold it anyway. his cavalier attitude is just not going to work for the serve -- for the foreseeable future. so what i'm thinking as we learn more about this, i think we are seeing the beginning of the end of the fda's ability to be effective in china. james is calling from

connecticut, on the republican line. caller: thank you. you are preaching to the choir, my question to you in this would also be, do you feel that the environmental byproducts, like fentanyl, a drug that can help but a drug that can kill, or heparin is often produced an injury, do you think we have to at the environmental regulations, not in lowering them, but allowing companies if they were to open in the united states to not be subject to litigation, provided they meet in even higher government standard? i think part of why we don't have these companies here is that it is so easy to sue them for massive amounts of money,

and that risk prevents companies aom wanting to invest, even small pharmaceutical plant will be 10 million, just to get off the ground. i will take your comments on the air. thank you. that's a great question, one of the reasons that china's cheaper is not just because of subsidies but because labor costs are lower and environmental regulations are certainly not what we have here. so by outsourcing it we have actually increased global pollution which comes from pharmaceutical manufacturing. what i have been impressed with coming back to this is the new chemical processes that we have which dramatically reduces the environmental footprint. if we can learn to make our medicines differently and adopt those practices, we can mitigate the environmental impacts that come from traditional ways of making medicine.

host: in the a $.3 billion coronavirus spending bill, it was pointed out that there are 61 million dollars for medical countermeasures, and mitigation of supply chain interruptions. now is that we are talking about here? that could be for masks and personal protective gear come sure a lot of people have heard about the shortages of masks, because they are in short supply. that isink a lot of going here, but this will not take us far if we want to ring some basic medicine manufacturing. you don't have to produce all of this, but at least have a basic level, to fill our national stockpile. what should the government be doing now, and are they doing

it? guest: what i'm recommending an testimony this coming week is that there be funding for investment in capital and equipment, for those companies that want to use new technologies making our to launchhere at home this at a commercial level, and those medicines have to be used for strategic purpose, it has to be done in the interest of national security, that's what congress should do. moses,et's talk to calling from newark, new jersey, on the independent line. caller: some of the callers have taken a little bit of my thunder already. to have so many small themaceutical plants around

bristol-myers, all of these becauses have gone now, the companies overseas, germany, israel, china, israel, they are getting all of the medicine and making it. and we are left in the cold. you are right, that's what has happened. our manufacturing base has collapsed. and we are maybe making some finished drugs in the final stages, which is less complex haveess costly, but we lost, and one thing we have to make sure we do is not lose the human capital, the talent. we have to capture that now before it is gone. so we can be self-sufficient in the next coronavirus, and frankly so we don't have all these shortages of lifesaving medicines.

i have told doctors that people have died because of drug shortages, this is pre-coronavirus. we don't want that to happen. and the fda comes out and says there's a shortage of this product and alternatives. those alternatives are second-best. they can have impacts that you probably would not want to have as a patient. so we should make sure that every patient, every time, has the right medicine, and not have unavailability or products discontinued. call your member of congress, and say this is what we need to do. host: so let's take coronavirus out of the discussion, if we were talking about the same drug shortages, even for the , so the drugsts we were talking about previously when you were here were drugs heparin. is there still a shortage of heparin on the market? are there any other drugs that

there are shortages of immediately question mark what drugs you see coming up because of what's going on in china that there may be a shortage of in the future? guest: recently, two days ago, the indian government announced that it is banning the export of 26 products to the world. because they cannot get the core .omponents to make them it's called clindamycin salt, that's ingredient for an .mportant anti-biotic this is not just the united states, we are talking countries asia, whichurope, are affected by this. this is what happens when you have a centralized global supply chain in a single country. you have to break that up. there's another really important antibiotic used to treat people

with sepsis, which can be deadly. a lot of people die from that. 27,000 people every year. this is an antibiotic that's in shortage now. if we go back to what happened five or six years ago, there was a plant in china making the .hemical, it blew up likely because it was not made with safety in mind. so they rebuilt the plant. ok,fda went in, and gave an saying this does not meet our standards. but they allowed it to be sold anyway. to prevent a shortage. so now we are at a point in the united states where we are making trade-offs between allowing substandard medicine to be sold, better to have something that have nothing. and the american people knew that they would be really

unhappy about it, rightly so. host: let's go back to our phones and talk to chris, from columbus, ohio. he's in the medical profession. what do you do? paramedic, i work for public safety for a municipal fire department. i want to add a point of clarification. ms. gibson had mentioned that there is a shortage of ,pinephrine, that is correct but we do have it available. there are different concentrations of the medication, what we do not have available, or what there's a 1010 or shortage on is thousand, that's the preloaded injection for cardiac arrest. vials,do have epi in the we just after drawing on the scene and mix it to use it. so we do have it, the comment is that is not available and the ambulance drivers have to drive quicker to the hospital, it's not true.

i just wanted to make sure that was clear. we are seeing shortages, but we do have epinephrine available. it's in the field. it's in ambulances. we just have to draw it up into a larger concentration. i just wanted to make sure that that was clear that we have it out in the field in 911 and ems. host: how much longer does it take for you to mix it up then if you had it ready to go? caller: it's a negligible amount of time. in drawingmore steps up that medication. it's no different than what happens in hospitals on a regular basis for various medications. that even the nurses on the pharmacist draw. it's a little less convenient, but it generally doesn't affect patient care per se. just a complex or steps we have to take. it's an inconvenience but the medication is available. the injectable form is more

there is a slight delay but i wanted to make sure that it's clear that we had that dedication available. guest: thank you for that information. i imagine that there is variability in supply and what different hospitals have and ems systems have available. this was shared with me by and ems worker on the east coast who was out on the ambulances frequently. we should never allow this to amounts andhatever products that are necessary, it's not a thing you should have to do in the last moment. -- let's talkll to alan on the democratic line in indiana. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my calls. c-span, been watching washington journal for years.

speaking, i agree to some things but i think there's an unrealistic solution .o the problem the problem is this thing called capitalism, when the trade laws are changed with china and new mexico, you have american businesses that happily ran to china and mexico for cheap labor , nonunion, no safety, no osha, no paying out for vacations, and kept the prices the shame -- kept the prices the same. and walmart got its billions by demanding that all of their products were made overseas and not with american labor. so the pharmaceuticals have not been hurting for profits, it takes about five steps and three are funded by the government to help them get their product out

there. once they do that, they are looking to get the price up, and they send the manufacturing to china, outsourcing. you cannot force american businesses, not just the drugs, doctors and goods, we are going to have shortages in our stores. we do have provisions, you are right in that the marketplace is what it is and has contributed and caused the situation we have now. government is in for things that we need for a country to fund, like energy and oil supplies, food supplies. we don't leave it totally to the free markets. ourrwise we would have petroleum reserve purchased by iran or other countries. i think most people would find that unacceptable. and we don't allow foods to be

driven by the marketplace. there are subsidies and a lot of people have issues with that. but we want to ensure that we have the food that we need to feed the population. medicines, they are made by private companies and serve a public purpose. if you have an infection and you go to the emergency room, you want to make sure the antibiotic is there when you need it. there is a public good aspects to it. if there's going to be any targeted investment, it needs to be for producing product. withve federal contracts companies to manufacture the fluke -- the flu vaccine. this happened because a number of years ago, there was a flu vaccine manufacturer in another nottry that suddenly could supply 50 million doses of flu vaccine. so congress approved public-private partnerships and a contractual arrangement in the

united states to make sure that we have a flu vaccine. i think we need something similar for essential medicines that are necessary to care for people in a coronavirus type situation, certainly to prevent the kinds of drug shortages we've having. host: a two-part question, the first comes from one of our social media followers who want to know, does the u.s. any brand-name drugs. the second part comes from me, the drugs we are talking about, are we talking specifically about drugs only used in hospitals, or over-the-counter drugs and the drugs you get from pharmacies to take it home? talking aboutlso over-the-counter medicines like iva pro for nand acetaminophen. aspirin -- i the pro for an -- ibuprofen and acetaminophen. aspirin. chinese complete came in and drove out the last u.s. aspirin plant. this is the person making the

active ingredient, not the finished product. so we cannot make aspirin anymore. and the first question? host: does the u.s. manufacturer any brand-name drugs? any brand-name drugs manufactured in the united states question mark guest: yes --? . guest: yes, there are. host: are they affected? the companies want to protect their intellectual property, that's in the active ingredient, so they tend to not make them in china. but with the chemical components needed, they do depend on china. going to calm -- they are not when it come out and broadcast widely that the chemical components come from china. it's really hard to get this information, they don't want to tell you, when i was working in

china, the most transparent folks were people in europe. ass brand-name as well generic drugs that are having the issue. john, on thealk to republican line, in illinois. caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. my mother was diagnosed with high blood pressure and a fib. a few prescriptions , do you happen to know if any orthe drugs come from china the main ingredients? the activeaware that ingredients for some of those medicines, the chemicals to make them, are made in china. where the finished drugs are made, the actual pills she's

taking, that could be done in multiple countries. there is a website to find out more information for your viewers, it's called daily med on the website of the national institute of health. it's an authoritative source you can see the labels of every drug authorized to be sold in the united states. it may have some information about the manufacturer. some companies just put the name of the distributor or where they do business. but you can look at those labels , and call up the company and ask to see if they will tell you. a company that's proud of words medicines are made will tell you. those that don't want to tell you, you have to wonder why. daily med is the website, the official website of the national institute of health and the national library of medicine website. that you mentioned have testimony coming up in

front of congress this week. where you going to be and who are you testifying to? guest: i'm not sure it's official. so i want to be respectful of that, stay tuned. i am delighted that this hearing is going to take place, because it will shine a light, i hope, on how we can solve this problem. so what we saw with the coronavirus package, that was an emergency measure for new vaccines, therapies to treat coronavirus. that's the emergency side. so what can we do to plan ahead so we are not in this situation again. which we will be. what i'm worried about is that it will hit the fan someday and we don't have to let it happen if we prepare now. host: let's get in a few more callers before the top of the hour. anne, from louisville, kentucky, on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning, this is a comment, on who makes the

were having, we trouble getting the new shingles shot. that needs to be taken in two myes, this was for 83-year-old mother, who is definitely at risk. we were finally able to get the first shot, and they were .ontinuously out they ran out so quickly. i think it's within two to six months you're supposed to get your second shot, and we could not get the second shot. i don't know what would have happened if we had got it in within six months. it's funny, you mentioned about the over-the-counter drugs, another thing we've been having trouble finding out is the aspirin. her doctor says she supposed to have an aspirin with a specific coating and we've only been able to find it in the low dose. guest: this is the reality on main street. my best wishes to your mother. , and the voicele

of the american people has to be heard here in washington to say we need to assure that the medicine that we need is available to us when we need them. our social media followers has a suggestion and i want to see if you agree. we need to require country of origin labeling for the finished products and a breakdown of origin of active ingredients and use of out of country components, would you agree that? guest: it would be great, because then the fda, it is currently scrambling to find all this out. but here's the challenge, there are a couple of bills in congress that would require companies to tell the fda where the active ingredient comes from, and where all those chemical precursor materials come from. china makes 9% of our generic drugs, and they make a lot of the api. so will china -- are we relying

on china to tell us where they are getting their material from? we are doing that now. i think we have to be realistic about what we are gonna get, china's gonna tell us whether chemical plants are to help the u.s. government and emergencies -- in an emergency. i'm not sure that's a strategy that will service. we just need to bring it back home. the long supply chains don't work. in two moreget callers. alisha is calling from columbia, maryland, on the independent line. jesse, and good morning to everyone. and your guest, ms. gibson. following, especially the fda, how they , how their next have

been stepped on by different administrations, it started especially in the 90's, to deregulate, to deregulate, to deregulate, that's where one of our problems is, we do not have enough workers in the fda. we need to increase the people. they not only review what comes in with different drug topanies, and what to apply have that application approved. people who need .nspect companies and that's been going down both sides. we really need scientists. that's where our main problem is.

americansnot enough going into science. host: go ahead and respond. guest: the caller makes a good point about the fda, but the fda is also under the influence of is anry, what we need independent voice on behalf of the people which speaks clearly to the public, the reality of drug shortages, one of the most shocking things i realized in doing china rx was how much was hidden from policymakers. people in the national security apparatus about the defense capability we have. they did not know. me, as a private citizen, telling them this. we have to clear out the underbrush and have the capability and the federal government that knows where our supply of medicine is coming from. and sees this as a national security issue, and is empowered and accountable to ensure that our situation does not happen again, and that we don't have

any shortages of medicines in the united states. host: a quick question from our social media followers. i wanted to make sure that i asked, they want to know, does china make drugs for canada as well? the question i have is this a uniquely american problem? guest: it's global. this is global. europe, canada, everywhere. all roads lead to china when it comes to making the core components of our medicine. we will be lining up with themone and competing with . host: let's go to mary, calling from lancaster, california. ,aller: i did have a question about a year ago i was watching a steve harvey show, they had a businessman from africa who said that africa is the only continent that does not depend on trade because they have all

the resources they need. they are not in that same position, how did we allow that to happen? i'm hoping in the primary, and the general election, that this situation will be addressed with how manufacturing is not local. question, if you could talk about how coronavirus can be passed through circus -- surface contract -- contact. if some he was handling a drug coronavirus, the what happens when we do get medicine here. recall of 9 was a inlion surgical gowns used operating rooms in the united states, they were tested and found to contain some sort of

contamination and had to be recalled. the same with surgical instruments used in operating rooms. i don't think they came out and say -- and said coronavirus. we don't have the testing process in place to test everything that comes in from china. so what the caller is talking about is a real risk. who will be checking? testing? fda inspectors will not be in those plans. when they are, it's for a shorter duration. thankwe would like to rosemary gibson, the senior advisor from the hastings center and more portly the author of china rx. thank you for being with us. great to see you again. i would like to thank all of our viewers, all of our callers and guests for showing up for another washington journal. join us again tomorrow at 7:00 for another edition. everyone have a great saturday.

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