the latest on the coronavirus and the u.s. response with julie associate professor at georgetown university's center for global health science and security. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. 2020.friday, march 13, congressional democrats are close to a deal to provide economic health for those impacted by the coronavirus. negotiations continued as u.s. stock markets have seen their worst day of losses in 30 years. life amid adjust to global pandemic. we are getting your reaction to the federal response to coronavirus. phone lines split regionally. in the eastern or central time zones, 202-748-8000. if you are in amount or pacific

time zones, 202-748-8001. a special line for medical professionals this morning. that number, 202-748-8002. you can send us a text. that number, 202-748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media. on twitter it is @cspanwj. on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. you can start calling now. here is the headline from late last night from the hill, pelosi house close to striking a deal with trump on coronavirus response package. we will be delving in more, but the house will come in early today, expected at 9:00 a.m. eastern. if the deal doesn't fact come together when it comes to how much that potential package could cost, here is a story from

the washington times. president trump's wish list includes a payroll tax cut. he says he wants to see it disappear for the rest of this year, which the committee for responsible federal government says could cost $840 billion. add another $50 billion of emergency lending power and the chance for taxpayers to put off filing taxes. that price tag nears $1 trillion. the democrat wish list includes government-backed paid leave for employees, a boost to unemployment insurance and an infusion of cash for states whose dedicated systems are under pressure -- medicaid systems are under pressure. the price tag could run from $30 billion.o $180 that is what we will be talking about, the federal response to coronavirus and taking calls as

usual -- i am sorry, split regionally. in the eastern or central time zones, it is 202-748-8000. in amount or pacific time zones, it is 202-748-8001. that line for medical professionals, 202-748-8002. president trump up early and tweeting this morning and the president focusing on former president obama and the cdc in his tweets saying the cdc looked at and studied the testing system, but did nothing about it . it would always be inadequate and slow. a pandemic would never happen, they hoped. president obama made changes that only complicated things further. the president going on to tweet as well about the president's response to the swine loose saying their response was a full-scale disaster with thousands dying and nothing meaningful done.

until now, changes have been made. already tape has been cut, ready to go. that was president trump up early with a pair of tweets. getting your thoughts, your reaction. tied in california. go ahead. -- todd in california, go ahead. host: i thought that was with the phone line said you were. are you not a republican? caller: i am. i call all the time. i did not identify myself as republican. it did not come up. promotec-span did not panic and hysteria every day for weeks. it took obama to declare a state of emergency. c-span did not take cheap, political shots. the president did not deserve it.

coronavirus mortality is about .7% in south korea, which has the best numbers in the world. according to johns hopkins, 80% of those who contract coronavirus will not even know it. 37 americans have died of this flu. 19 in a nursing home in seattle. 20,000 americans have died this season of the regular flu according to the cdc. we are not promoting panic, we are simply asking the question -- caller: do you think he is going to die? where do you think he is going to be in a month? how long do you think it will take him to recover? to shut down the nba, march madness, this is an insane overreaction and you are promoting it every morning. host: what would you like to see

to keep people from overreacting? who should be the one to calm those fears? caller: maybe you should not talk about it all day, every day . all stores are closed except pharmacies and supermarkets. if you are a barbie -- a barber, sell tv's, you are out of work. no weddings or funerals. the entire travel industry, look what is happening to the stock market. you are really hurting people. you are making this sound a whole lot worse than it is. the flu has killed 20,000 people this year. coronavirus has taken 37. host: this is scott in new york, you are up next. is scott. name i don't want you to hang up. i have something i have been

trying for seven weeks to someone who will accept an email. with -- thatmpany is proven to cure viruses. the coronavirus -- we have done tests and i need somebody to send me any mail if i can hang on the line, i will give them my phone number. host: what is your connection. how have you learned about it and why don't you think the federal government learns about it yet? caller: i have been trying with the cdc to send the proof of paperwork. all the lab reports. it has been on the market for two years. the fda approved last july. i am connected as a partner. fungus.kills bacteria i have proof, test reports. all i need is an email for

somebody to accept it to get it to a government agency. i have proven certain things that it has clued sars, dengue fever, malaria. rob out ofis maryland. go ahead. caller: how are you doing? host: i am doing well. caller: great. . am 77 years old every president we have had from franklin roosevelt to barack aama whenever they faced controversial issue, each one of those presidents stood up and dealt with it. in the current situation with press was-- when the inquiring how he was going to deal with it, it is the first time i have ever seen a president turn his back on questions and walk out.

this guide isg me not know what he is doing. i see all these countries all over planet earth using the government to help their citizens while our government is refusing to get involved and putting insurance companies in charge of helping people rather than the government at this current time. host: you say the president refusing to get involved, we saw the president with an oval office address making that move to ban flights from folks who have been in 26 european countries and promising new loans. you don't think he is involved enough? is that what you are saying? caller: the thing that blew my mind is the other day, maybe it was last week when the press was inquiring from president trump.

host: the president talking to reporters about the possibility -- here is what the president had to say. [video clip] >> travel restrictions within the united states to washington state or california. >> we have not discussed that yet. , it is aa gets too hot possibility. you see what they are doing in new rochelle. it is not enforced. people know they are being watched. president trump yesterday at the white house. the plan is to talk to the mayor of new rochelle later in about half an hour or so this morning to talk about what life is like inside that containment zone.

stick around for that discussion. that was the president yesterday. morning.he tweets this one of the things he talked about was the obama administration response to swine flu virus. a fact check from fact out this morning as more and more discussion in the wake of what has been happening with coronavirus has turned to what other publicng health emergencies and they took a look at the obama administration's response, declaring swine flu a public health emergency six weeks before it was declared a pandemic. recordedeaths had been in the united states at the time when the obama administration declared it a health emergency. declarationer that when more than 1000 deaths occurred, president obama declared it a national

emergency. kevin in massachusetts, you are up next. your thoughts on the federal government's response to coronavirus. caller: thanks for taking my call. it seemed like the federal government is basically incompetent. i am not surprised about that. it seems the states handling the situation quite well, very well and that is basically all i have to say. that caller like 4 calls ago sounded like me going off about the panic with the media. my wife, i said it sounds like me and she agreed. you have got to do what you have got to do and i agree about canceling the sports events and stuff like that. i think that is a federal response.

that seems to be the right thing. host: you first started talking about the state response and then federal response. who do you look to for leadership? who is the face of the response for you? who is doing the best job? caller: i think the states are doing the best job. host: who in your state in massachusetts? caller: governor baker. declaring a state of emergency and he gave a press conference the other day. he sounded reasonable in his approach. that is what he feels is right.

all in all, i think the states are doing a better job. idea.s governor cuomo's from what i understand it is not like you cannot go here, cannot go there, it is not a good idea. host: we will talk more about that in about half an hour or so. ray is next out of arizona. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning. host: go ahead, ray. what are your thoughts on the response to the federal -- the federal response to the coronavirus? caller: pretty pathetic. he is twisting in the wind. he is exposed as the fraud he is. host: what concerns you most? we have seen the oval office address, him taking questions from the press.

where is your concern most been as you have watched the president's performance this week? .aller: a total lack of concern host: you disagree with what he has done with the travel restriction from europe and efforts to get the small business administration to help businesses around the country? caller: it is probably too little, too late. he is just reacting, not leading . he is trying to blame the media and he blames obama for the lack of readiness, lack of preparation. host: phone lines split regionally. 202-748-8000 in the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001 in the mountain or

pacific time zones. we have the line for medical professionals, 202-748-8002. we showed you the headline off the top of the segment, nancy pelosi the house is close to striking a deal. that story from the hill and one of the reporters joining us now by phone. what is the latest this morning on a possible vote in the house and what happens in the senate? caller: all eyes on the house and the expectation is as nancy theyi said last night would bring a bill to the floor quickly and send it to the senate, which canceled their recess so they can work on it next week. the expectation initially was the house was going to pass their own democratic bill. they were going to pass it

yesterday and get out of town and go on their 10 day recess and work on it later. wednesday and thursday, everything went haywire. sports league started canceling all games and spring breaks on the stocks tanked and tom hanks got the flu. this combination of things, you lawmakersxiety among was palpable. they did not want to have to tell contingent -- tell constituents they passed a bill, but did not enact a bill. and steve mnuchin, the treasury secretary were on the floor for five times. we expect that bill this morning. host: we know the bill nancy pelosi announced were

coronavirus testing, strengthen food security initiatives, increased federal funding for medicaid. how much of that is -- will end up on what ended up in the house floor? is insisting it will all be in there. majorre not talking about changes, they are talking about tiny tweaks to language. yesterday the sticking points that were remaining -- there was language -- if you are either ork yourself or quarantines have to stay-at-home because your child has been forced home because of school closures, there is a provision in there. if you read the language, it goes beyond the coronavirus and it would extend to even the next public health emergency.

republicans do not want to create a new entitlement program. there was talk about removing that language that makes it permit and limits to this coronavirus outbreak and the second sticking point was there is a lot of health care provisions in this bill and republicans were insisting on none of language to say that funding, taxpayer money services.o abortion we see this almost universally in health care debates on capitol hill. ideological amendment republicans insist on almost any time there is a health care provision even though there is not a health care component to the services provided. we will have to see what happens with those provisions. who is going to win that fight? is there some compromise they

can reach in the middle? iron those outto today. you call it a potential entitlement benefit, that is what one of the concerns is. the way that would work is the government would pay for is notcy leave -- it mandating that employers pay their employees, this would come from government coffers. host: it would require employees to pay the leave, but there is a huge expansion of medicaid and that paid leave would be administered by the social security administration. there is no price tag on that particular provision. is need-based and they are doing this on the fly, so they have been reluctant to put a

price tag on these provisions allowing for the money to go out based on need. they don't even know what the need is right now. it wouldn't -- it would require employers to do it, but managed by the social security administration, so there would be a taxpayer component to it. it sounds like they are a public-private partnership type of thing. republicans are concerned because of the taxpayer component. host: is there any talk about canceling congressional recess or potentially bringing back members early or this idea floated of possibly having members vote remotely. is that possible? caller: on the latter, pelosi and steny hoyer have been clear they do not want to vote remotely. they think that opens a can of worms that would be abused later down the line.

i don't think that will happen even though some members have so.oduced legislation to do the senate has already canceled their recess to work on this bill as well as the government surveillance bill they were unable to pass yesterday. they could be in all week next week although the expectation is they can wrap up both of those bills in a few days and retain some of their recess. the house is going to leave today if they pass this bill, which is expected and they think they will be gone all next week and they think the recess could be extended. on the ground, if the number of cases spikes and there is pressure for people to stay off airplanes, you can envision a scenario where the house extends their recess beyond the 10 days.

at the same time, if something happens and they need to come back and pass emergency legislation, they have left open .he door to come back early the door swings in both directions. they might extend, come back early, or keep their recess as is and come back the week of march 22. we don't know and everything depends on the evolution of the virus and events on the ground. we will check your reporting. the hill -- thehill.com is where you can see. back to your phone calls asking for your thoughts on the federal response to the coronavirus. brenda, you are up next. caller: thank you for having me. the news media, you all keep reporting this. keep talking about it because this president is very incompetent.

like the gentleman was saying he was reading a prompt like he was a deer in headlights. he is not competent at all and we will not recover from this. i believe we are going to a one world order. other countries are laughing at our president because he is so ignorant. i have never seen anything like it. it is not about being a democrat or republican, this is about american health. all americans. and this man get on tv and lie through his teeth. who is to its there and then put it on obama? obama put money in place. everything he did, he dismantled it. he does not want to follow behind a black man. that is all that is about. host: here is one of the stories from the wall street journal. several callers today already talking about the issue and the

president's response to age. hear your comments until 9:00 a.m. eastern. florida, goodand, morning. agree with theto lady who was talking. this is president trump, he is incompetent, unprepared, unprofessional and does not know what he is doing. he has been unfit to be president from day 1 and this is his biggest test. you have to be the one that has to be the leader. the governors will do what they have to do because they have emergency responses in place. you have to show leadership, guidance, any sort of confidence to give the people confidence and what they need to do. that is why everybody is in a panic because he doesn't know what he is doing. i watched the news conference

and he lied throughout the entire process. who do you think has been professional and competent in this response? caller:caller: the medical scientists he hired, those are the people doing the work and telling the truth. he is saying everything is okay, we have enough test kits and stuff going on and that is a lie. they are looking at the fact we do not have those. we have 300 million people in this country and we were not ready to go. when obama was in office, he put all those protections in place for wall street and put a government agency he funded with over 1500 scientists across the world. he canceled all of that stuff and we have this virus and he doesn't know what to do. the virus --ll

host: here is karen looking at one of the faces of the response facing anthony fauci. calling him a familiar media presence during this crisis. his expertise and credibility shine against the contradictory and false messages coming from the president. while trump tries to play down the severity of a public health crisis that might affect his laidction prospects, fauci out the best assessment of the stark danger. -- of the danger in stark terms. here he is talking about the status of a coronavirus vaccine. [video clip] >> it really is the culmination of a lot of basic research over the years and we thank the committee for the kind of support congress has given the and ih, which does research

ourselves and funds throughout the country. the platform we use, this isn't the only one, there are more than a handful of vaccines. the ability to use technologies we never had before to take the sequence so the chinese did not have to send us the virus. we knew the gene that would code for the protein we wanted to make our vaccine. all we did was pull the information out of the database. we synthesized it very easily overnight, stuck it into a platform and started making it and we said at that point it would take two to three months to have it in the first human. i think we will do better than that and i would hope within a few weeks we may be able to make an announcement to you all that we have given the first shot to

the first person. having said that, i want to understand -- i want people to understand that does not mean we have a vaccine we can use. it is record time to get it tested. it will take a year to a year and a half to really know if it works. kelly is next out of maryland. your thoughts on the federal response to coronavirus. caller: i am really surprised people are saying he is incompetent. i support president trump. i did notice he may have been reading from a teleprompter, but i think everybody does. i think what he has done is completely bipartisan. he is telling the american people he wants to provide financial aid to them in some way. he is doing that for businesses and individuals.

to sit here and say he is incompetent, i am flabbergasted. i don't understand where they -- theyt that from when kept saying he was lying through his teeth and i am sitting here thinking if you want him to be a leader, do you want him to be a leader that invokes fear? he may not have been telling all the truth about how severe certain things are or how test are hard to come by, but i don't think he wants somebody to invoke more fear. a great leader is somebody who tries to take control of the situation, which i think he has by not allowing travel. that is taking money from a lot of corporations. he did that because he is trying to help us. rick is next out of new

hampshire. good morning. caller: doing well, sir. --how are you? host: doing well, sir. caller: my problem with the president, he has been in contact with people with this stuff? am i right or wrong? he was supposedly standing near someone who had the disease. am i right or wrong? there have been concerns about the people the president has come in contact with and their exposure. caller: he said he did not get tested. am i right? host: yes. caller: he did not get tested. am i right or wrong? host: his doctors said he did not require testing. i can go back to the statement from stephanie grisham after that question was asked at a press conference. -- do you you think

think the people standing around him, the doctors and stuff standing around him are comfortable with that? it seems to me the president of the united states did get tested, just like that guy from utah jazz got tested right off the bat. are, i guess.u i don't think he is being transparent like the lady said before. he is a leader. i don't know about that. you have a nice day.

host: here is the front page of the wall street journal, dow posts its worst day since 1987 as the outbreak's impact deepens. usa today taking a look at the economic toll around the country, just a few snapshots looking at various industries around the country. here is a few different ways to measure it. 89% of shoppers worry coronavirus will get worse over the next month and 27% say they will make fewer trips to the mall. movie box office receipts down about 40% last weekend. in the san francisco bay area, plungedd ridership because people avoided being in .ight proximity to each other the international air transport association which represents global airlines boosted

estimates of the global financial hit from covid-19 from $29.3 billion to between $63 billion as the falloff has spread beyond asia and that would put airlines in the most precarious position since after the september 11 terrorist attacks. amtrak bookings down 50%. revenue for a hotel room down 16% for the week ending march 7. just a few financial snapshots. on the line for medical professionals. what line of medicine are you in? caller: i am a registered nurse practitioner and my certification is pediatric primary care. host: what has been your experience so far and what is happening at your office? caller: i actually am no longer working directly with patients.

i have colleagues that are. i am working more within the governmental side of things and i cannot necessarily comment further because i would have to disclaim. what i did want to address is the misinformation when it comes to the coronavirus being influenza. there is a difference between symptoms and being the influenza virus. this is not influenza. this is a completely different virus. i think people are being -- iized as opposed to

think the narrative means to be more balanced to say most people will recover. it does not eliminate the fact others will recover. there will be some people that will recover, but after experiencing life-threatening illness that may need life support through the mechanical ventilation, lung and heart bypass, which is happening in the state of washington within the long-term care nursing facility. i think the ones of us healthier and are not high-risk. that does not just apply to the elderly. that applies to anyone immuno

compromised. anyone that has a chronic medical history of lung disease, diabetes.ase, -- do whats our job we can to protect them and decrease their risk even if that means staying indoors until the government and other medical providers have had a chance to get ahead of this to a larger extent. thank you for your time and i wish everyone well and i hope everyone is able to overcome this health crisis without experiencing the illness. that red number on the

side, the total concerned cases. 135,000. to the caller's last point, total recovered numbers have been taking up as well close to 70,000 at this point and rising. the green number on the right is what you are looking at for the total recovered numbers. the largest number of those recovered in the country where this was first detected. 40 deaths so far in the united .tates the green number on the right was in the single digits earlier , above 12 at this point in the

united states. 500 on the end of the week. early is next, good morning. caller: it would not matter if the vaccine that cured the whole world, they would not give him credit for it. it is kind of a shame because the governor of california is no big fan of president trump, nor is the democratic governor of new york. both have complement to the president of his handling.

i will go with those guys because i know they don't love him. as far as president trump's federal actions on this virus and other issues, he started working on this over three years ago when he stemmed in legal immigration coming into our country. this is part of the reason for it. in california, we get to see a lot of the illegal immigration. they come in with all types of diseases. back into,000 of them mexico and they have to wait for three years instead of stealing social security numbers. i think we are blessed to have a president like this. half of my news i get from c-span. i channel surf all three of your

stations. the rest of it i get off the internet. contrary to what democrats think, i seldom go on fox news and cnn anymore. one more point if i could make it, most of these people they think are all stupid if we are backing the president. we were uneducated buffoons. we are not trying to get our ourent debt deferred who is degrees while we are working at starbucks. you got a degree in retail finance, congratulations. from a few responses twitter as we have been having this conversation asking about the federal response. what response question mike where are the test kits. the president said anyone who wants a test will get a test. tests for the virus enough to

spread -- in terms of testing kits and the availability of them, that topic came up yesterday when senior federal health officials went before the oversight and reform committee and here is a bit of that conversation. [video clip] >> i am asking for a name. who is in charge of making sure people who need to get tested -- indicated to be tested can get a test? who? >> i was trying to say the responsibility i have at cdc is to make sure the public health labs have it and they can make whether they use it. >> they have been saying they have been turned down. is it you? because to be saying

you cannot name anyone specifically that there is no one specifically in charge we can count on to make sure people that need to be tested, there is not one person that can ensure these tests can be administered. yes or no? >> my colleague is looking at me -- here we go. >> i do have another question. >> the system is not really geared to what we need right now, what you are asking for. that is a failing. it is a failing. the way the system was set up is the public health component that dr. redfield was talking about was a system where you put it out in the public and a physician asks for it and you get it. the idea of anybody getting it easily the way other -- people in other countries are doing it,

we are not set up for that. do i think we should be? yes. we are not. >> that is disturbing and i appreciate the situation. if you want to watch in its entirety, it is on our website at c-span.org. annie out of michigan, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think the federal government response to the coronavirus has been a mixed bag. i am independent, but not a fan of this president. i think it was good he early on closed the borders with china. i think the ball was dropped. we knew there were a lot of cases coming out of italy and a lot of reports suggested nobody was tested when they got off their flights from italy. no temperature taken, no literature taken.

we missed some big opportunities after the last pandemic or epidemic, not restocking the facilities.rage not making sure we have a pandemic response team the old minute -- obama administration funded. i have been proud of watching in the congressional hearings and seeing dr. fauci and the other gentlemen from the cdc -- host: dr. redfield. caller: dr. redfield giving their testimony in answering questions. i feel like congresspeople are taking question seriously and doing a great job. the particular congresswoman who brought the whiteboard and got dr. redfield to agree he would to make surerity everybody could get a test and that it would be paid for out of the cdc's authority, she is my new hero.

have been some heroes and the federal government between congress and the president have done some good things. i think there have been some opportunities missed to do better things and i have to agree with the caller who said the state responses. living in michigan, i have been proud of our governor witmer and i live close to detroit, about an hour away and i have seen the news coverage of their mayor and he has done quite well and we just had our first corona case diagnosed in county i live in and i have to say our public health director and our mayor has been wonderful about how fast they are trying to mitigate spread and close down large gatherings and things like that. it could have been better, it could be worse, i think. that is kind of my -- host: thanks for the call from michigan. you talk about local response, let's go to new rochelle,

viewers have likely seen headlines like this from the local cbs station in new york, new rochelle's one-mile containment zone takes effect, district closes all schools. we are joined on the phone by the mayor of new rochelle. what does it mean to be in a containment zone and what can and can't your residence do right now? guest: it is important to know what the containment zone is and what it is not. it is an area in which a large institutions, which is a sensible means to control the spread of the virus in an area where there has been a concentration of positive tests. oris not an exclusion zone quarantine zones, nobody is prevented from entering or leaving and restrictions do not apply to businesses or individuals. the label can create a misleading impression and working hand in glove with state

authorities, we are trying to make sure we have a response calibrated to the scale of the challenge we face. host: how many coronavirus cases have been confirmed in new rochelle? guest: it is roughly 100. it changes so frequently. a majority of those can be traced back to a patient that has a great number of relationships within our community. we expect that number will go up. we have to be cautious how we interpret the data. as we test more, there will be positive results. host: headlines like this inside new rochelle's containment zone, a toxic haze of anxiety and frustration. thedaily news of one of front pages calling it new

roch-hell. guest: we were not happy with that front page. this is a big challenge for our city, not the kind of challenge the community would welcome. there are folks concerned about their own health, the health of their families and neighbors. for those individuals under quarantine, this is burdensome. cannot go to work or school or have normal interactions and when public schools are closed, that creates a disruption for families who have to concern themselves with childcare. having said all that, i think the people of new rochelle are rising to the occasion. there has been no panic, no hysteria. there has been a calm willingness to accept the guidance of public health officials and a supportive attitude for neighbors. i think new rochelle is demonstrating itself to be a strong and resilient capacity -- community that has the capacity to overcome this challenge.

host: what do you tell them when they ask when it will end? it to ourowe residents to be honest about what we know and do not know. this is a national and global challenge. anyone who makes a firm prediction about how and when it will end is doing a disservice to the public. what we should do is be flexible in our response to change as ands on the ground change share information in the most transparent fashion possible. everyone has the tools they need to protect themselves and their families. host: one of the tools they have is a drive-through through testing station for coronavirus? guest: yes, but we have to be careful about how we describe that. it is not something anyone can drop by and get a test. you need to contact your own doctor and your health care provider in order to be approved for testing. this is because even though the

state has done a good job ramping up test capacity, there is an overall shortage of testing. the supply is not adequate for the demand and testing needs to be prioritized through protocols that have been established by the state. anyone who wants a test needs to contact their doctor or health care provider to be approved for it. ahead,ou have a busy day we appreciate your time, the mayor of new rochelle. take care. thank you, sir. back to your phone calls asking you about the federal response to coronavirus. jill is next in washington, good morning. jill hung up. sean in columbus, good morning. caller: just wanted to respond. i think the issue people are mixing up that if you criticize the president, you are against him. he is human, he can make

mistakes. i agree with his border shut down. the problem is with his history of border shut step -- border shutdowns, it is hard to believe he is coming from a faithful place when he says things like if contained -- it is contained, it is no big deal and we don't have enough tests. they have 10,000 test taken so far out of 300 million people and i am wondering since they don't seem to be making testing a priority. i think as an administration, they want to downplay it to hopefully not spark fears, but also downplay it because if it does just go away, then you are seeing us looking forward going positive. if it goes south and things get worse, this is where they will not believe the white house because if it is all about reelection and a positive spin -- until we get the numbers,

until they get the test and it seems like the states are doing a better job getting the test to market and ready much better than the cdc. host: why do you say that about the states? what is happening in ohio? caller: according to some reports, there are a handful of tests, which are probably true because you do not want to spread panic and say we have no tests. we have a few confirmed cases, but it doesn't seem to be that bad of an impact. if you get the testing available now, not in a week, not in 30 days, not in 90 days, but get the testing done now because the cdc turned down the world health , said theyn's tests were not good enough, we are not going to go that route, we will go our own route. this was three months ago and we are so far behind the curve that the states are just now catching up.

the federal government. i am not sure if their hands are tied by the administration because if they make an impact move like make testing a priority in the numbers come out negative, i don't think the administration wants to see that. host: a snapshot chart from vox.com on covid-19 testing per one million people. the number right now, some 23 per one million people in the united states. that compares with japan's 66 per million people. perhe u.k., 147 tests million people. in israel, 401 per million people. people826 per million and china, 2820 per million 3692. and south korea, those numbers as of march 11 showing the testing going on in

each of those countries. richard in california, you are next. good morning. good morning, finally. everyen to c-span about day and i can say honestly most of your ignorant callers are the black -- i am black, so i can say that. host: let's not try to classify callers. let's talk about the federal response. caller: give me a chance to speak, i will do that. host: i don't want you to insult collars prayed i want you to speak about the coronavirus response. january 31 president banned flights from china. the obama administration did not ban any travel. over 1000 people died from the under obama., 2010

in april, butt it did not declare it a pandemic until october of that year. president trump is doing everything he can. he is now trying to ban flights from europe because they are leaving from china to europe to .et to the united states joe biden just called him a racist yesterday. the man cannot do anything right. trump is a leader and he has reason to downplay it because he feels he has nipped this in the bud. that is richard in california. we have the turbine -- so we have the terminology correct, it

was six month after the initial declaration of the emergency when 1000 deaths occurred when the obama administration -- president obama declared h1n1 a national emergency, but the obama administration declared swine for a public health emergency six weeks before it was declared a pandemic globally and the fact check noting no h1n1 deaths had yet occurred in the united states at that time when it was declared a public health emergency. the issue coming up of h1n1 and swine and the obama administration's response coming up at 6:30 a.m. in a pair of tweets by president trump. just a few minutes left in this segment. rich in illinois, you are next. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i think a lot of what we are experiencing now is a result of our presidency -- when we talk

about all the fake news and who spread this onit untrust, unbelief in our system. how can you trust and believe because you have been told whatever you are hearing is fake news? this is a result of this presidency, how it has affected everybody, they are really worried and scared because they don't know who to trust, who to believe. host: who do you trust? who do you believe? caller: i don't trust the man in charge. host: who do you trust? more the tend to trust people when they speak. if i see they are talking the truth.

you have to do your own investigations to see -- host: is there anyone specifically you would point to that you have been watching? caller: right now there is too much chaos. you are trying to look for answers and solutions to arelems that -- how severe they? how well are they tested? they an incident where called it bronchitis, but they did not test. i went to see the doctor, there was no test administered to me and i think a lot of that is our system of how we treat things results you are going to to how youortionate have treated and acted and what systems you have in place. host: caller: are you still with me?

host: i am. go ahead. caller: i wanted to let you folks know whether you heard it there was a commission or whatever you want to call it that was in charge of pandemic trump in the year 2018 killed that department completely -- wiped it off the face of the earth. today, whetherbe it was killed or not, would be a lot better off if not completely safe. he killed this thing and nobody else seems to know about it, nobody, including the democrats, seem to be talking about it. he killed the regulations. nobody i spoke to believes me.

stock brokerage, which is the biggest in the country, and it took the 20-year-old guy, maybe 40 seconds to find the exact date, the exact act, the exact act number. he said you are right. caller: i wonder what you set your stock brokerage and wonder what you are doing with your finances right now. host: thank you very much. i am 73.5 years old. i have lost 95% of my retirement. caller: in the past week or two? host: in the last three or four weeks, at the most. course, the dow is up 1000 points. you can see that in january, the dow was 30,000.

24,000 -- itin the is really sad for us. -- i was in notice the motion picture industry, that rather than getting what we get on a monthly check for retirement, they are going to cut it by at least one third because we don't quite cut the limit of what we are allowed to have in our reserves. host: that is chris in california, our last caller. up next, we will be joined by julie fischer, an associate research professor at georgetown university's center for global health science and security to discuss the u.s. response to coronavirus. we will be right back. ♪ annual us for the

abraham lincoln suppose him, live from ford's theater in washington, d.c., where lincoln scholars highlight a legacy of our 16th president. include multiple authors. and a scholar. the lincoln symposium, live from fort theater, saturday, march 21, starting yet 9:00 a.m. eastern on american history tv, on c-span3. sunday on afterwards. former deputy national security advisor katie mcfarland gives insight into the trump

administration and her latest book, revolution, trump, washington and we the people. she is interviewed by an author and columnist. >> we are a dynamic country. economically, we are constantly reinventing ourselves, not just as individuals, but as a nation. is a status quo institution. we will always do this and do with the same way again. thele get stuck and it is status quo. america is set up to have political revolutions. we had one in the beginning with the american revolution. ever since then, we have had revolutions play out at the ballot box. >> watch kt mcfarland with her afterwardsy night on on book tv.

>> washington journal continues. host: julie fischer joins us now. at is a researcher georgetown university's center for global health science and security. when it comes to the virus itself, what do we know at this point and how much remains unknown? guest: we have a lot of data from what unfolded in china early in this epidemic. the situation evolved quickly. we are trying to understand some of the basic biology of the virus but we have a grasp of who is at moderate risk and who is at severe risk. understanding who needs to be most protected of transmission and understanding enough about the virus to start putting together diagnostics and begin the process of developing vaccines and other countermeasures. it is a long process but we have enough knowledge to get on that

pathway. host: what is the most important thing to learn about the virus? what termsnderstand mean. we are throwing words around. because they are technical terms, they have a different meaning to people working in epidemiology and public health than when they might be echoed in different settings. the most important thing to moststand is we think young, otherwise healthy people, are at risk of infection, but not necessarily at risk of severe disease. people who are older, who have underlying conditions, cardiovascular disease, heart appear, diabetes, they to be at higher risk of more severe disease. those are the people who seem to be at highest risk of severe pneumonia.

that is what we clearly understand right now. when we throw around terms of case fatality rate of 2%, 3%, it gives the impression we have a strong grasp on a ratio that is still an estimate and we are trying to understand it. host: another term thrown around. coronavirus has been genetically sequenced. what does that mean? guest: that is an interesting and exciting development that happened quite early. the chinese researchers published a full genetic sequence of an isolated coronavirus from a patient relatively early in the outbreak. they sequenced it from a patient -- they published the full sequence in january. it means we have a map of the full genetic complement of the virus. it helps us understand, first, medially, which viral family belong to, it helps you

understand what the characteristics of that virus are likely to be. the second thing is that genomic sequence, the letters that make up the full genome of the virus, ae blueprint of the virus, or template we used to make diagnostic testing kits using molecular diagnostic testing, which is a rapid way of testing viruses that does not require you to need a lot. when we say we have the full genome of the virus, it lets us do several things. we can understand characteristics about the virus isolateets us compare from different times to understand if the virus is changing. host: are there different strains? isolates that are being sequenced and being published in databases suggest the virus is not changing rapidly. there are enough viral clues

that tell us when a virus has been introduced into a population and use it as a clock but that -- there does not look like a huge amount of variation. -- it suggests it is the underlying health of the population being affected or something about the way the outbreak is being managed. host: julie fischer is sarcastic, and associate research professor at georgetown university's center for global health science and security. she is with us to take your questions as we try to understand coronavirus. phone lines are split up regionally. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, it is (202) 748-8000. if you're in the mountain or pacific time zones, it is (202) 748-8001. the line for medical professionals is (202) 748-8002. the phone lines are open, so you

can start calling in. julie fischer is here. south korea being lauded for its testing capacity. what had they been able to do right and why can't we replicate that, or are we replicating that? guest: just to begin with what south korea is doing and why we are looking to them, south korea was very aggressive right out of robuste in developing a diagnostic testing capacity -- the ability to test a lot of people accurately and quickly. about trying to learn their diagnostic tests out the door. what they have done is they have really pushed a positive risk communications message and done a good job figuring out how to manage cases and test them outside of hospitals and other health facilities. they are getting out the

message, if you think you have been exposed, if you have symptoms, if you're even work, here are testing stations. pictures,e have seen they are drive-through testing stations. come here and get tested. we will collect your contact information. we will let you know in a few hours what the results are. and then they are following up aggressively with people tested. you can get a message via text or other electronic -- good news, or you have tested positive. if you have these symptoms, here is what you should do. you can self-quarantine, try to keep yourself from infecting others. if you are not comfortable with that, and you need to be with people, they have set up care facilities that are not necessarily medical facilities, they are converted government

facilities, community center like approaches, like we do in a disaster like a hurricane, or you give people shelter. people can have meals and they can be sheltered with others so they don't feel isolated, but are still quarantined, but not putting a big burden on the health care system. hospitals toing provide care for the most severely ill. what is fascinating about what south korea has done, they have pushed testing, have been transparent, they are letting people know on a micro geographical level on where cases have occurred near them and urge them to take precaution and be aware. they are giving people options for care with clear instructions about what requires follow-up. host: on testing, how do you read the story from bloomberg? the emergency approval -- approval from the u.s.

government potentially speeding up the ability to test patients. the food and drug demonstration granted in emergency use authorization for the test. .he tool is available in europe there is a lot of jargon in there. what does it mean? guest: emergency youth authorization is a key term. early 2000ven in the after anthrax with the recognition that we need a better way to get diagnostic test kits out quickly for diseases or conditions that might not have been a priority before. we have not had to use them. procedure is a regulatory procedure that takes some time to go through all of the testing. that emergency youth authorization allows the fda to say in a public health emergency, we can use diagnostic

tests that are demonstrated to work without the full licensing process because we don't have anything else to offer right now. it is basically an acceleration ,hat lets government agencies state public health laboratories and the private sector bypass some of those slow approval processes to meet an immediate need. that is one of the many has been that identified by the private sector did issue because fda that emergency use authorization, it allows the private sector to offer up testing kits with the hope they can be rapidly effective. during the seek outbreak, there were more than -- during the zika outbreak, they were more than a dozen kits approved.

host: we are giving our viewers a platform. if they have questions about coronavirus, julie fischer is our guest, a professor at georgetown university. if you have questions, now is a good time to call in. she will be with us for about 45 minutes. woodbridge, illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. i called in earlier but i was disconnected. would you think that the government has a certain role to states have a bigger player in dealing with the people in those states and they are failing to do that? agoinstance, three weeks with the president was talking, telling us about this, i am 55 and i have copd.

i had to go to the doctor every three months and she checked me out. i called, she called me back and she thanked before. she does not want me to come in. she has all my medicine and wants me to stay out of public. i listened to the president and the medical field that was around him at that time. on south korea, she was talking about how fast they have gone. i don't know if they have a parliament or congress like we have. do you think when they have these hearings, if they have them, and the witnesses come in, all they do is beat these people up, point the finger at the administration. i feel they should have more closed hearings and let's talk about the subject and see what we can do. let's get the funding to them and go forward with it. host: thank you for bringing those up.

your point that you used the information to identify you are in a high risk group and work with your medical partners to cigarette how to diminish our risk is a good listen -- lesson. two states have a role to play? absolutely. the federal government has resources, technical assets and the decision-makers who can help move money and people around to where they are needed most. ultimately, it is to states and your local government who are dealing on the ground with the reality of people at risk, people who need to be tested and people who need both medical care and follow-up care that might not necessarily be medical, like making sure if someone is self-quarantined they have food, access to prescriptions and someone there to check on them. none of those things can happen from the federal level.

they require cooperation from local government and state health departments. point, letting the state and public health officials and scientists who can do the laboratory work proceed with resources they need and the knowledge they need is the most critical thing we can do. and everyone playing together on the federal level helps make that possible. in ondo you want to weigh how helpful these hearing set been? right what is important now is transparency. we know in public health that the most important thing that we can do as leaders and spokespeople is to be absolutely, 100% honest and frank. that is the role of public say, what do we know, what do we not know and what can we do to close that gap?

we have a lot of health authorities in our country that are knowledgeable and capable of speaking on these issues and letting them speak and answer and address those questions is important. politics creeps in because politics will creep in. as long as we focus on what are the questions, what do we know, what do we not know and what do we have to do to close that gap? host: louisville, kentucky. this is richard. good morning. fischer, you have a calming effect and i appreciate you speaking. people are running around with their hair on fire. how many people will die this year from the flu? you are think what talking about is the risk comparison, why people are panicking in the face of coronavirus.

we do have in any given year tens of thousands of deaths from the flu. it has been a bad flu year and it does not make people afraid in the same way. i think you are absolutely right that we are looking for parallels and ways to manage concern. the real difference is in the year were tens of thousands of people die from the flu and no one brings it up, it is because we are familiar with the flu. we have tools to deal with it. the public does not take the risk as seriously as a child, particularly those at high risk. but they feel it is familiar and they understand it. coronavirus is. the biology is new and 100% of people on earth are susceptible to infection. i get your point and you are 100% right. this year, there will be tens of thousands of people who die from the flu and no one will get alarmed because they feel they

have the knowledge and tools to manage their concerns. with coronavirus, there has been conflicting information. there are a lot of risks we don't understand and people are alarmed but, sir, i completely get your point. we can have 36,000 deaths from the flu in a season and nobody gets particularly alarmed while this is provoking a lot. host: if and when we get a vaccine for coronavirus, will that be shots people have to get when they go and get vaccines before flu season starts? is that something we should expect, a double shot? guest: the biology of the virus will drive how many vaccinations are needed to make people immune. virusese other corunna that cause common colds -- there are other coronaviruses that don't cause dramatic illness. host: is that what we don't

develop vaccines? guest: there are also a lot of viruses that cause upper respiratory tract infections and it would be difficult to vaccinate against all of those. we aim for those that are most likely to cause disease. once a vaccine is developed, there will be testing to show if the vaccine is stable. immune response that is protective. works, that could be enough. if this virus becomes part of the background disease burden that is always with us, the vaccines will be developed and optimized and deep -- and become part of regular. host: the death rate of coronavirus is higher than the flu, it is more dangerous.

but why? what does it attack in the body that makes it more dangerous? guest: part of the problem is everybody on earth is susceptible, every single one of us. not everyone will be infected. of the people who are infected, not all will develop severe disease. those who develop severe disease will be at risk for life-threatening pneumonia. the virus binds to a receptor and gets a foothold in the lining of the lungs, where it attaches and infects. what happens in terms of the disease process is people who have a severewho disease outcome tend to have inflammation at the surface where the lungs meet air. what that means is the immune response creates a vigorous interaction, trying to destroy the infected cells to keep the

virus from spreading further in the body. the damage that can cause at the surface of the long, where we acrosschange of air very, very thin layer's of cells in our lungs, it depends on the cells being permeable. for people who have severe pneumonia, the inflammation of the surface can lead to fluid ofumulating in the air sacks the lungs. people are struggling to get enough air in their body. with enough of those air sacks being filled with fluid, you see pneumonia. people with fluid in her lungs have difficulty breathing. -- people with difficulty. different about this virus, pneumonia. it is the number of people being infected at once.

percentage of them become severely ill, it is large numbers of people being infected, even if only a small percentage become severely ill, that is a lot of people. host: coming up at 8:30. the house will be in at 9:00 a.m. matt in california, you are on with julie fischer. caller: hello, professor. thank you for your calmness. i work at a post office. i wonder if you have any guidelines for people in the public sector. they have been telling us to wash our hands. what about wearing masks or gloves? i woke up with an itchy throat this morning. is it irresponsible for me to go to work? host: thanks. guest: those are some important questions. i think that right now, the recommendation -- going to your

last question first -- if you are symptomatic, and itchy throat is a symptom of respiratory infection, it is also a symptom of allergies. the recommendation is to avoid exposing others. if you are actively coughing and sneezing, one way to avoid infecting others is to wear a surgical mask. it does not sound like you are personally in that boat right now, but it is one thing being recommended. in terms of should you go to work, i think this is a place where, again, guidance from your employer -- from all employers is important. if you are symptomatic, what should you do? contact someone in your office? let them make the decision? self-quarantine until you are clear? these are conversations that should be happening among

employees and management in every setting. particularly in places where we are depending on people to show up and do their work. what are the plans to help people know when they should come into work, to help make clear how they will be paid and supported if they don't come into work? these are important questions. i can't tell you, individually, to go to work or not go to work. i recommend talking to your supervisor and working out a plan for when what happens when people are symptomatic to try to prevent the spread to others. in terms of should you be wearing masks in the workplace, the general recommendation is wearing a mask if you are healthy does not do a lot to prevent infection by others. wearing a mask for people who are coughing and sneezing is really helpful at not spreading the droplets that carry the

virus to other people. even though we feel like ,andwashing is comforting because it seems simple, it is helpful and effective in protecting you in the case someone else sneezes into their , and touches a surface then you have to come along and use the same services. if you touch those and then touch your eyes or nose, you can infect yourself if there is virus sitting there. we touch our faces so often without noticing. the handwashing is an important intervention. the most important intervention is trained to encourage people who are sick to not expose others. i commend you for thinking forward about your role in protecting other people at your workplace. we are all depending on each other right now. , socials that we have

distancing tools, the hand hygiene tools, the self-quarantining tools, those are old-fashioned, non-technological interventions. they are what we have right now and they can help slow the spread of this disease, so that everyone in the workplace, in the community does not become sick at the same time and overwhelm the ability of our health system to provide care to those who are the highest risk of most severe disease. host: when people talk about flattening the curve, can you explain that? guest: the epidemiological curve. the full way of presenting what an illness looks like. when people in public health talk about the epidemiological curve, they are talking but the number of cases over time. right now, when there is a sharp increase in the number of cases, the curve looks like this. host: we can show viewers the

chart that is on the editorial curvef usa today of the without protective measures over time. guest: what that curve is showing us is we predict many of cases would occur in a very short time. the concern about that is our health care system only has so many intensive care unit beds, we only have so many respirators and we only have so many health care workers. if all of those cases occur in findsharp peak, we might ourselves in a position or we don't have enough resources to provide care to those most severely ill. flattening the curve means slowing down the number of new cases in that epidemiological cases instead of all the occurring in a few days, it is spread out over a number of days. that does it necessarily reduce

the number of people infected overall, it might, but most importantly slows down the number of new cases so that the number of people who become severely ill are spread out and we can free up hospitals and health workers to provide them with the standard of care we expect for ourselves and loved ones. host: new jersey is next. you are on with julie fischer of georgetown university. caller: good morning. i am so happy i am able to talk to you. i have two questions for you. i am a 64-year-old grandmother. i adopted by beautiful granddaughter and retired early as 62 to be a full-time stay-at-home mom. us just got- all of and it was a monster.

the baby brought it home first -- she is six years old. and then he got it, and he almost died from it. i got it after both of them ,ecovered, but i had a flu shot and the baby had a flu shot and he did not and he got the worst of it. first,tion to you is, virus, or thethe baby brings the virus some, what do we do? do i have to separate myself from her? do i have to make alternate plans? is my other question for you , how do they treat this disease if you are positive? host: thank you for the questions. guest: thank you so much.

i know that recovering from influenza and facing this again, it is a lot to deal with in a short time. you have some really good questions. going backward from your last question, what did they do to treat this? infected and they have a mild disease, coughing, fever, but they are not severely ill, they are not having problems breathing, no other impact on their other organ systems, then the treatment right now is very noninvasive, supportive care. asking people to stay home and make sure they have plenty of liquids, make them more comfortable and help them breathe, like they would for any other respiratory infection. it is not specialized care. for people who are severely ill, the hospital treatment is to help them breathe, make sure

they get enough oxygen, so there other organs are not damaged, they can continue to breathe until the liars has cleared. and told -- until the virus has cleared. is like caring for other respiratory infections -- we don't have good medical therapy. in terms of what you do if your baby brings it home -- if your granddaughter brings it home, this infection, there are guidelines for care that have been developed and published. the best available technical advice on how to care for someone who has covid-19 without becoming infected. having the infected person wear a mask -- that might be hard with a six-year-old, but

it can be done -- and helping advise the people providing care on how to get rid of the waste that the infected person produces when they sneeze and cough. frequent handwashing, disinfecting surfaces at your home. it is tough. of are in the quandary potentially having to provide care for someone and putting yourself at risk. that is something we are all having to think about and plan for. my advice is to go to the cdc website, read about it, make yourself comfortable and knowledgeable about the guidance. talks about achievable and commonsense measures, getting someone to wear a surgical mask so they are not coughing and sneezing on you. if they can't wear the mask, there are measures to protect yourself, cleaning all of the services in your house, keep them isolated as much as

possible so you are not disinfecting every surface, every minute. just try to contain the spread of infection so you, yourself, are not infected. i wish you the best and i hope you are all able to get through the next couple of weeks without anyone having to deal with the situation. host: our guest is julie fischer , a research professor at georgetown university's center for global health science and security until the house comes with us at 9:00 this morning. we are expecting a vote today as negotiations continued into the night last night on the economic relief package. negotiations between the democrats and president trump over what should be included in the economic relief package. here is the story from last night about the house being close to striking a deal with president trump on coronavirus response. president trump weighing in

about six minutes ago on one of the aspects of the relief package. he said if you want to get money into the hands of people quickly and efficiently, let the people have the money they earn. approve a payroll tax cut until the end of the year. you are doing something meaningful. only that will make a big difference. we are expecting votes today on capitol hill. unclear if that tweet will change anything. the house will come in at 9:00 a.m. julie fischer, this is greg here in washington, d.c. caller: you should be the one that is talking, because what is coming up from the administration is totally, totally unacceptable. they have political people try to talk about this, it is terrible. from the guideg that is sitting there, it is not helpful.

people who know and can inform people and i really want you to get out there and let people know. my mom has cancer. i have talked to her. really, youe is know, could be in that group. it does not matter if you are black or white. you are the people who should be talking. not these other guys who were trying to do this politically. it is not a political issue. it is a health issue. i commend you for doing this. guest: thank you, sir. i really appreciate your kind words about what i am contributing. part ofng my best to be the public health risk communications effort and i appreciate your kind words. i agree 100% that this should

not be political. this is a crisis we should be facing together. one of the most important things is having the technical experts upfront. there are people in the who are technical experts, who understand the challenges being faced at the federal level and it is good to see them outfront communication. i agree that this is a time to not talk about the politics of this and focus on what we can do together and i wish you and your mother the best of luck. what is the center for global health science and security -- besides coming on this show in this conversation -- are you involved in the official response? guest: like other academic groups, our role is to fill in

the gaps that the government does not necessarily have time to fill during an overwhelming response. try toanalyze data and identify trends, understand what is happening, identify gaps. the biggest role for academia during this covid-19 outbreak has been the realization that we -- academicsroup can pull together a lot of information quickly about the actual situation and what is casesing, in terms of new and responses. understanding what interventions are being taken in different places and trying to identify the best practices. while the federal, state and local health officials are filling an absolutely critical role of making sure that diagnostic tests are available to those who need them, that there is good communication about what people should do and

how they should protect themselves, and what they should do if they find themselves sick. our role is to look at the big picture, identify what works, the best practices, and share that information with the state, local and national public health officials. host: tim in wisconsin. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. good morning, professor. my questions are about paper products -- the mail. would it help when you go to your mailbox -- so you are wearing gloves -- you put your mail in a plastic bag, put it in a freezer, with the freezer kill the virus on the mail? second question, money. how should we handle money? third question is, if the u.s. post office was to use ultraviolet light on the mail,

would it kill it? do you think it would help if the federal government would help funding of new doctors and nurses, because obviously they will be needed? thank you. money, uvve mail, light and funding for new doctors and nurses. been a studyhas that is coming out soon that has been shared from federal researchers that did show -- it asked the question, how long can the virus really last? they did some careful work and , just inat the virus droplets, lasts for a number of short hours. if it is sitting on a surface like steel or plastic, or if it is sitting on cardboard, the

virus can last for several hours, and on hard services, may be couple of days. they did not look at paper. is youey demonstrated might be able to find a live virus. if someone sneezed on their hand and touched paper, envelopes, dollar bills, it is theoretically possible there could be live virus on those surfaces. there has been nothing to sneezed onif someone their hand and handled your mail or money and you picked it up, you are unlikely to put it back in the air in a way you could present in. the worst thing would be touching it and then touching your own eyes or nose. handwashing is important.

it is not impossible there might be traces of virus in the community on dollar bills are envelopes, but if you wash your it should offer you adequate protection. you should not have to take any major measures. in terms of uv light at the post office, the virus is very easily eliminated by applying uv light in our laboratories. in some place you are dealing with large amounts of mail, there are other ways the mail could be treated. andould be pretty intensive it might give you a false sense of security. even if they could treat the mail at the point it is being handled, it will be taken back out in the community and handled to your mailbox. the careful attention the postal workers are paying attention to their own hand hygiene. the most important thing is

thinking about the simple interactions -- the interventions you can take. if you have interacted with mail or dollar bills, wash your hands afterwards and avoid touching your eyes and nose. it is something that is effective. it really is biologically the best protection. washing your hands carefully so for 20 seconds. virus spread in swimming pools or the beach? guest: i do not think there is any evidence the virus can spread in swimming pools. gooding pools usually have chlorine amounts. that durable.not surfacestick around on if not disinfected, but if treated with a disinfectant, it is easily destroyed.

swimming pools are large and there would be a lot of dilution. people who are outside in the sun at the beach, that is probably the best place to be with a virus affected by uv light. iseracting with other people your big risk, not the virus spreading in the environment. host: steve in asheville, north carolina on the line we set aside for medical professionals. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you, professor, for your wonderful discussion. in my humble opinion, you come across very knowledgeable and i think more people can relate. ma'am, ion to you, used to work as an infection control nurse and it really bothers me to see that nursing home up in seattle to have such an outbreak.

my question to you, i am still working in a different area as a --se, my question to you is my friend is that a local nursing home in nashville and what i would like to introduce -- you do clinical research, so you are the perfect person to ask. why don't they put the most vulnerable patients, the ones debilitated with associated diseases, why can't they isolate them in the nursing homes in certain parts, and have limited access because exposure is the key to it? elderly fromlp the maybe getting infected because they are more vulnerable to dying. i don't see anyone in the asheville area, or no one has talked about it, about keeping the elderly people more protected because the normal

vulnerable. host: thank you for the call. guest: you are absolutely right. you raise the essential role of in -- infection control nurses. this is our first line of defense against not only covid-19 but any of the transmissible diseases. understanding what our options are for minimizing the spread of disease between health workers and patients and among patients and visitors, health workers and support staff in health care settings. you are 100% correct. our most vulnerable populations are concentrated in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. i think there has been some good publishedm the cdc that is applicable and publicly available on how best to manage populations that are at high

risk when you have a finite health care staff. some of the interventions proposed by professional associations that look at infection prevention and control, and health care workers and by researchers, is the idea of having a dedicated staff for expected covid-19 cases that does not come into contact with patients who are not exposed and infected. in the case you are talking about, in a long-term care facility, where you have many people at high risk, the idea is you are basically functionally separating the staff working with people who are potentially infected and people working with people who are at risk in unexposed. administrative controls, depending on how we manage the flow of people potentially infected and prevent them from

interacting with those who are the highest risk, that is the huge issue right now. that is something, we have had a heads up since december that there is a crisis unfolding and spreading. at this point, the people who are managing health care facilities, including long-term care facilities, should, if they have not already, develop a plan for using engineering controls, ways of moving air differently, to keep people who are infected from inadvertently affecting others. controls likeing putting them in separate areas, using administrative controls, thinking about how you miniature people to decrease the chance those who are infected mixed with those who are not. and then using personal protective equipment. the masks and the gowns, how to use those effectively and make

the most efficient use of them, if they have not come up with a plan, they should. health care workers, making sure your administration and leadership have communicated clearly to you what the plans are for protecting health workers from infection and the most vulnerable populations from infection, using whatever administrative, engineering and equipment controls you can. this is the time to ask -- and you are asking the right question. there is one quick add on. areink this is a lesson we unfortunately learning from italy. we know the people at the highest risk are older people with high-risk conditions, grandparents, great-grandparents, important parts of our community. how do we protect them without making them feel isolated? that is a tough question. also think about what can be done to keep up morale and make ways to communicate with family

that is not putting them at risk. tools, notctronic always intuitive for older people to use, but there are ways to think about how to make the best use of those tools. host: staying on that line for medical professionals, darlene in florida, good morning. caller: good morning. on theto thank you statement that we should have transparency with the lack of truth and belief in science. staffstion is, with the you have received from italy and has that been prevalent? guest: hello, darlene. thank you. a systemwide infection that has a cascading catastrophic effect

with the immune system is activated to prevent a systemic infection. chinak what we saw from and a growing amount of information from italy is people have severe pneumonia. is havingoncern enough respirators, intensive care support to help those people with pneumonia essentially getting enough a level ofaintain body function for the rest of their organ systems until the virus can be cleared by their own immune systems. most of the reports have been about severe pneumonia, followed by multi organ failure and people who have underlying they are the most high-risk group. host: we come back to this chart

from the johns hopkins university, the total confirmed cases around the world. at this point.00 i want to look at that number of total recovery, close to 70,000 around the world. is there anything we can learn from them or they can do to help those who are confirmed with the case? is there such thing as using blood or serum from recovered patients? guest: with other viral diseases, when we don't have other measures, vaccines, affective medical countermeasures, one of the tools is to use the anti-bodies from people who have recovered from illness. anti-bodies are part of the immune system. they are produced by the body to flag, bind up and identify infectious agents so other parts of the immune system can eliminate them quickly. blood, they stay

in the blood for some time after someone has been infected and recovered. there is work going on to the blood from people who have recovered from disease that have anti-bodies in it that can be collected and used therapeutically to protect others who are high risk and to try to reduce the severity of infection. host: silver spring, maryland, good money. caller: good morning. quick question. givehe pneumonia vaccine any added protection for people from infection, or if someone who has gotten the virus? can that help? vaccinehe pneumonia that you are asking about -- there are vaccines for influenza. , thereer your question

is a vaccine that is offered every year, particularly to people over 65 or at risk for disease. the influenza vaccine is being offered. those do not offer specific protection against this new virus. they can help protect you against other diseases that are circulating at the same time that have similar symptoms so that you might not need to go to a doctor to be diagnosed and put yourself in the pathway of this new virus. they do protect you against respiratory viruses that have already circulated in our population, historically, and continue to be important causes of disease, but they don't protect you against this specific infection. host: with about one minute or two before we expect the house to come in for the day, i wonder what have it covered yet in the

past hour that you think is important? guest: i think what people are asking now in their communities. when we are seeing such widespread social disruption enclosures, a lot of people are asking, are we overreacting? is this a crazy thing to do? the answer is, right now, because we have not had diagnostic testing, we don't know the level of spread in some parts of this country. those measures are our best tool to try to flatten the curve to slow the spread of disease so that we make sure we have enough medical resources to care for people if they become ill. we don't want to put ourselves in a position to have to ration care and decide who gets the best quality of care and who does not. while these are very disruptive to our daily lives, it is us as a society using the tools we

have two try to protect those most vulnerable and it is a disruption and having impact on the economy, and some people will have to make hard decisions about working and staying home and caring for the families. it is the tool we have and the protection we can offer to each other. host: when you talk about flattening the curve, how long? guest: at this point, anyone who tells you they know the exact and date of this, it is conjecture. we can look at each of our committees and tellme health care beds we have, look at the size of the population and do some back. math.some how long do we have to spread out the curve so we have enough health care units. the cane modeling tools be used by local and state officials to do that math. i think the answer is we are trying to push it out now in the short term for about two weeks in the hope that in most

communities in two weeks we call flattened the curve and spread out the infections. people could mix and mingle again and the spread of the disease will be slowed down enough that just doing the math, we will have enough beds to care for those who are severely ill. i think people will have to reassess again and see if we have done enough or if we need to keep pushing. host: julie fischer is a research professor at the center for global health science and security at georgetown university. thank you very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] we will be taking you live to the house floor. deal to becting a reached on an economic package and the response to coronavirus.

[captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. march 13, 2020. i hereby appoint the honorable susan k. dell ben -- delbene to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. haplain conroy: let us pray. god of mercy, thank you for givis