[indiscernible] >> do you believe this is a chinese virus? is that ok to say? announcer: it is easy to follow the federal response to the coronavirus up rick at c-span.org/coronavirus. track the spread throughout the u.s. and the world with interactive maps and charts. watch briefings and hearings with public health specialists. at time, unfiltered, c-span.org/coronavirus. ♪ c-span, your unfiltered view of government. created by cable in 1979, and brought to you today by your television provider.

host: we are joined by michael greenberger. both of the issues facing the u.s. and the world when it comes to the coronavirus, what does your organization focus on? guest: it was founded by the university of maryland president in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to deal with counterterrorism issues. we are about to celebrate our --h anniversary they 15th may 15 and we have moved from counterterrorism but also controlling emerging infectious diseases, responding to superstorm's and also dealing with cybersecurity issues such as ransomware. 9/11, the world has never seen an epidemic like this

but in your organization's experience in dealing with other viruses and health outbreaks, health concerns, and even the tabletop exercises your group may have done, what is your appraisal so far on how the u.s. has responded? the federal government to the coronavirus outbreak. guest: let me say this virus is more serious than anything we have faced going back to 2001. sars, mers,thrax, ebola, zika, h1n1. virussit here today this presents the worst public health emergency we have had and raid will be very much like the spanish flu where somewhere between 20 million and

50 million people worldwide died from the flu. i don't know that that will happen but this is a much more serious problem than we have ever seen before. in terms of the federal response, i, like many would people, wished it started earlier. we are having difficulty finding testing kits to determine who has the flu. without those and moving as slowly as the u.s. is it is very hard to develop a response. take for example medical personnel in hospitals. they can look at somebody, dealing with somebody who has a bad allergy attack, a bad cold, the seasonal flu, or covid-19. handle on what we are dealing with and who we have to deal with in terms of

therapeutics, we are really behind the eight ball. this andea handled testing tens of thousands of people a day. even though we have ramped up and made it easier to develop testing kits we are still in the position of doing hundreds a day. until we get a handle on what we are dealing with it makes responding that much more difficult. host: the headline this week at i disaster agency talking about the federal emergency management agency. do you see a clear chain of command on the federal level on who is taking the lead in response to the coronavirus? guest: on terms of the chain of command, i think that has been ironed out. usually when you talk about the federal emergency management agency or the stafford act which

they are in charge of administering you are really talking about something that is mostly a state response. for example, terrible hurricanes, wild fires, tornadoes, when you have a public health emergency it calls into play not only the emergency management side of government but the public health side of government. those two aspects of government have to work in harness. comfortable that as we speak now the federal government has gotten the chain of command in order. the other thing i would emphasize, the president declared a national emergency march 4. that is an unusual thing to do. usually what happens is emergencies are declared state-by-state and that may still happen. in fact, it will still happen but the fact the federal government declared this a

national emergency makes it much easier for states to get the president to agree with their assessment that they are dealing with a emergency or disaster within the state. the states, whatever the federal government does and what the federal government does is very important, but it is a supporting role. ands the state governors the mayor of the district of columbia who really have the lead on all of this. -- not everystate state -- has declared a state emergency and that is a very important process because it frees the governor to take extraordinary actions within the state under state statutes and case law. what we are seeing in new york,

california, maryland, are the governors taking actions, closing bars, closing restaurants, limiting the assemblage of people. they have got support from the experts of the federal government but this is going to be viewed principally as a state response problem and the good news is -- we work very closely with governors and state health agencies and state emergency management agencies -- if the states are pretty well greased to deal with this problem effectively -- of whatve us an idea the university of maryland does. the types of tasks you have asked by state governors to assist with. guest: we've been asked by state governors and agencies -- all localities can declare emergencies.

we have been advising a lot of large counties in maryland. georgeery and prince which is right on the border with d.c. and very populous. they are very well run governments. we are advising the monday today responses as issues come up -- day to day responses as issues come up. it is a very prosperous, well-run county government. last friday we ran a tabletop through what a coronavirus would call upon the public schools to do and testing public school officers on how they would respond. we have other exercises we have been asked to do that are being lined up. that we have a

love existing contracts with counties and state governments, cities, that have asked us to do projects which now do not have the immediacy that coronavirus has. toldve been essentially put the other things aside, through your full weight behind dealing with the coronavirus, we will get back to those other issues when we can afford to do it. we are dealing with departments of health, departments of emergency management, hospitals, nonprofits, nursing homes, and trying to give them advice on how to respond within the confines of the emergencies that have been declared and either the powers at the discretion to spiritpublic health and -- host: joining us is michael greenberger director of maryland university homeland security.

we welcome your comments and calls. we would particularly like to hear what your states are doing. (202-748-8000) is the number for eastern and central time zone spiri. (202-748-8001) mountain and pacific time zones. for medical professionals your number is (202-748-8002). you mentioned the president declaring a national emergency march 4. fema can tap into nearly -- state governments can set up emergency operations centers. it directs hospitals nationwide to activate contingency plans. it allows the health and human services to waive regulations that could hinder health professionals' responses.

that $43 billion in relief, had typically quickly does that get to states? in thisy the way emergency you can have nonpublic, nonprofits entitled to a portion of that money but normally -- even though it is a national emergency -- every state that has a serious problem will declare a state emergency which is very important. they will then go to fema to put themselves in a situation to have additional funds sent into the state to cover work they do in responding to the coronavirus . the powers of governors when they declare emergencies is extraordinary. it is important the president did it. he did that both under the so-called national emergencies and thethe stafford act public health services act which

was put into motion generate 31st when we began to see people returning from china and possibly infected. all of those things allow the federal government to waive requirements that might normally be in place in normal times. for example, a medical licensed person can perform services outside of the area in which they are licensed under that waiver. the critical thing is going to be -- and we are seeing this when we see the press conferences of the governor of new york, the governor of california, and governor of maryland -- this allows the one, toto pave the way tap resources of federal funding. they will have to do that with appropriate proof of what they have spent. a very important requirement is thto document carefully

the resources you have so when you see federal relief, you have evidence to show. didalso what the president sets the groundwork for states to declare their emergencies and recover further money from fema for work they do. these declarations of emergencies at the federal level and state level are very important. extraordinary powers on the state level are brought into play. that publicquickly health emergencies in the states have been declared for other emerging infectious diseases. or thet common was h1n1 flu.e i think we are going to see governors taking actions that are much more extraordinary than in the past. new york state a few days ago

pretty much -- in a very loose way and i want to be careful how i use these terms -- set up a curren quarantine around new rochelle which is the epicenter of outbreaks. bars are closed, restaurants are closed, state workers are being sent home, state universities are closing, all dealing with students is being done remotely, exams will be remote. there ares go on, going to be extraordinary powers -- the powers have been there but they have never been needed except as we look down the road to the future of this virus. they will be called into play in every state across the country. host: live calls waiting. we want to remind viewers and is thers, (202-748-8002) line to use for medical professionals. julie is a medical professional

calling from hot springs, virginia. tell us about your experience and what you do. good morning. caller: i am a registered nurse and currently working in fairfax county. understand the goal of flattening the curve of the illness, working in the er and an ic nurse, making sure we do not overload the system. one thing that i think we need to be careful of is flattening the curve of immunity. restrictions on movement i think the only time will tell. i say that without having a better solution. of course if we flatten the curve of the illness and come up with a solution, whether that be thatcine or a treatment doctors are willing to use or provide more hospital beds and nurses which is hard to come by, i think that is just my big

concern. going too far with the restrictions and the distancing. that's my comment. i don't really have a solution it is just something to think about. host: thank you. guest: i say to all medical personnel who are dealing with -- dealing directly with patients, thank you for your service. it is very important what you do. i think the best medical, scientific minds are looking at this and the biggest problem they worry about is the danger of covid-19 that it is highly infectious and unless restraints are put on the population, the pointak could soar to a where we would not have hospital resources, medical resources, medical equipment to take care of all the patients at one time.

there is no therapeutic or vaccine yet. that it isabsence of very important to limit exposures and limit infections so that the health community, health services can deal with people on a rational basis. if everybody presents at a hospital at one time, we are sunk. hhs down to the state health authorities to medical personnel looking at this feel right now the most important thing is to limit the spread and that is why you hear let about -- you should hear a lot about -- the importance of social distancing, washing your hands. hopefully, limit the onslaught of this infection to a degree where it can be handled

in the medical facilities we have available. host: you mentioned possible extraordinary measures that have not been used. let me ask you about a story in the new york times. shelter-in-place order may be next is new york rinds to a halt. new york city of a .6 million people and an economic engine for the country rock to a halt because of the coronavirus epic and the restrictions on public life. the city's mayor signaled the shut down could go further. in order of in-place could be made in export eight hours. "if that moment came, there are things that have to be made." how is shelter-in-place and to think that would happen? guest: shelter-in-place is the

stay-at-home as much as you can, not go out into the public. we look an ability when at these actions to put people in quarantine and they would have to stay in a certain spot. there are a few exceptions to the quarantine process. when you look carefully at what mayor de blasio is talking about, or seeing other shelter in place orders, they are not as restrictive as you might think. urging andof mandating. also, there is a recognition that people are going to have to go to the pharmacy to get medications, they have to go to grocery stores to get food, they have to go outside with pets, they will need to exercise. oreo not a ticked l itruction -- dictoria

think people look at this -- instruction. think they welcome the response. enforced a military quarantine. it is, i think, a sensible quarantine. it will cause discomfort because our way of life will change but it is not a radical solution. worried about shelter-in-place orders. peoplectors are telling over 60, especially if they have other medical conditions, to shelter-in-place. that does notut mean you cannot go out, you cannot exercise, you cannot go to the park, cannot walk your dog.

the general thing is to limit your exposure to other people who might present the infection. host: getting back to calls with the quick check of the data. the number of cases worldwide topping 200,000. johns hopkins university confirmed cases worldwide is 1,684. president trump tweeting, i will have a news conference today to discuss important news from the fda concerning with the president terms the chinese virus. missouri.r hill, thank you for waiting. go ahead. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i'm calling about the trillion dollar stimulus trump was talking about. $1 trillion has got 12 zeros

behind the one. ,300 million people. in the united states. every person in the united states should give over 3000 i was a piece they're talking about giving $1000 to each employee. if you have got three people in your house, whether you are working or not, that would be $9,000. who is the money really going to? that is what i want to know. host: michael greenberger, your response. guest: as a sideline, i am interested in financial market distress and i teach a course on it. i was very active in the response to the 2008 financial crisis. when you total about happened in

2008 the country put on the table $23 trillion to save the banks. $1 trillion going directly to people who are affected or who have to stay at home and i could , as the secretary of the treasury said, if the federal government does not aggressively deal with the economic consequences of this virus, we could have 20% unemployed. approachinged is the unemployment in the great depression. the country -- and i have been quoted on this -- has come to a dense stock commercially. airlines are not working, cruise lines are not working, airports are shutting down, people cannot get supplies, everywhere you look there is stop, stop, stop. the only solution to that is to and thee the economy

secretary of treasury is at the forefront of sounding the alarm of the necessity of getting money, out into the hands not only corporations, but to people. the possibility -- there is one possibility of not dealing with the health crisis. doing with the health crisis. i have talked about that. a lot of illness and a lot of death. we also have a fierce economic me, if itt looks to is not staunch, it could be worse than what we saw in 2008 and 2009. soundk these things may or o-matic but the options for keeping the economy flowing are not great. my view is that there is no option but to spend this money does for people sitting at home and networking, not getting

their hourly wage, they do not have sick leave, they probably insurance, toalth provide help. it is true that this will go to -- i think the limit is $1 million a year income -- that will hopefully stimulate the economy and keep us out of that which is an active threat not only outlined by the secretary of the treasury, but every respectable economist i know is worried about not just to the recession but a fiscal calamity that might exceed that of 2008. host: our guest michael greenberger. we hear next from new jersey. this is harry. caller: the flu of 1918 disappeared in 1919 with no vaccine ever discovered. i was wondering, could this

happen with the coronavirus? could it disappear within a year with no vaccine ever discovered? thank you. guest: the answer to that question is yes, it could, and i think the medical scientific hope is that it will. the spanish flu, when you said it lasted a year and then went

away, there were more deaths from the spanish flu worldwide than from world war i. when you deal with an infectious emerging disease that strong, you are declaring a war. you are not using the military, you are using medical personnel. we cannot afford really to take the chance that we are dealing with the spanish flu here. frankly there is debate about this. we do not know for a fact because we are not testing regularly. we do not know the circle of the infection, but where i am sitting today, i am worried that this may be worse than the spanish flu. i say this because yesterday the imperial college in london today very careful study of worst-case scenarios and the infections and the death from infections were alarming. in fact, they were so alarming that it is said in the press that when donald trump saw this he overcame his reluctance to throwing everything the federal government had against -- at the coronavirus. we cannot ignore, as you said, spanish flu, no therapeutic, no vaccine. we will not have a vaccine for a year at the very earliest, but there could be a therapeutic, which is something like tamiflu, which people take to prevent or mitigate the response to a

seasonal flu. there are many clinical trials going on right now testing medical countermeasures that were approved for other reasons but there is reason to believe it might be effective in either preventing or mitigating the symptoms of the coronavirus. there is one developed by a company, which was a countermeasure for ebola, but there is intelligent thinking -- not completely decided -- that that therapeutic could mitigate or even prevent coronavirus. it is being used today compassionately to people in the seattle nursing home that are on death's door. there is an ability to use a drug for a purpose not yet approved by the fda. finical trials are underway right now and we may know within the month -- clinical trials are underway right now and we may know within the month if that therapeutic works. my own sign -- unscientific hunch/hope is out of all the drugs -- and it is not vaccines, it takes too long to approve a

vaccine -- there may be an antiviral that would be effective against the coronavirus. we will know within the month if we have a hope there. if this drug that is being tested does not work, there are others in the pipeline. the hope out there is unlike the spanish flu for which there was no adequate medical response and they had to resort to social distancing and all the kinds of things we are seeing today, that we will hopefully -- again, i cannot promise this but i have hope -- that we will have an antiviral coming within weeks that will be available to stem the tide. host: virginia calling us from waldorf, maryland. caller: i am listening to

everything being said here. stores are open and grocery stores are open and pharmacies are open. our coat -- counters are less than three feet apart and people are coming in sick as a result of them coming in and sneezing and coughing on me. pumps are open 20 47. you can order bursaries online. service workers are just as valuable as a state workers. there is no reason to keep us open. host: what type of store -- you do not have to tell us the company? -- whatever store you work at? caller: it is a c-store. guest: discretionary, may be mandatory with a lot of exceptions -- first of all, you're doing a very valuable job. second of all, the exceptions

usually are to be able to let people get food and medicine, which will beat -- your point is well taken. you can order online. maybe we will have to resort to that. i can tell you right now, we

have to keep a pharmaceutical -- pharmaceuticals available for people. we have to keep the food available to people and other so-called necessities. right now they are keeping stores open. i know a lot of stores, the major stores like target for example are going to have hours only for senior citizens, forcing people to go online to order, especially elderly people, that is not as easy as it sounds. we cannot close down everything. that is why i was saying earlier, a quarantine sounds

scary, but there are going to have -- they are going to have exceptions. people need to have access to these commercial facilities. i think if we resorted to completely online some people do not have access to the internet. elderly citizens do not know how to use the internet. we are going through a stage of testing but i can say this -- the availability to buy food, to buy pharmaceuticals, and other necessities is important. yes, if you go when you may be exposed, but you will use hand cleansers, wipe down surfaces, i can assure you at pharmacies those services are being wiped down regularly. anybody who comes in and is a sick, i believe can be thwarted through the use of these nonpharmaceutical responses. host: the federal response, particularly military and more specific on the corps of engineers, this is a story in the new york post of this morning. the feds will apply the core of engineers according to mark esper in a phone conversation

with the yorkie governor pledging to deploy the army corps of engineers to new york to help them combat the coronavirus. yesterday at the briefing president trump and vice president pence were asked about the role of the corps of engineers and the dod more broadly in terms of potentially building mobile hospitals are providing more respirators. here is what they said, michael greenberger, and then i will get your thoughts on that. >> how many facilities could the army corps of engineers build? >> we have ordered massive numbers of ventilators. we have by any normal standards a lot of respirators, ventilators. we have massive amounts of equipment. compared to what we are doing here this has never been done before. yesterday i gave governors the right to order directly. if they feel they can do it faster than going through the federal government. we have knocked out all of the bureaucracy, but it is always

faster to order directly. that was misinterpreted by the new york times unfortunately. >> the president directed us to work with the department of defense. there are two ways dod can be helpful in terms of expanding medical capacity. the governor of new york has asked us to look at the army corps of engineers that could possibly renovate existing buildings, but the president also has as inventorying mash hospitals that can be deployed quickly. we spoke with washington state. we have resources in that part of the country that we can move. as governors make these requests we will bring them to the president, but there are two different lanes that dod can provide in addition to medical supplies to augment our national reserves and to the president has tasked us to evaluate, make available, and consider every request governors for either

expanding facilities, or the army corps of engineers could retrofit existing fillings. host: what are you hearing -- retrofit existing buildings. host: what are you hearing from the vice president? guest: first of all, ventilators which assist people and breathing are going to be very important because the infection and attacks the lungs and makes breathing very difficult, especially in the over 60 population who have other complicating medical problems. the military just freed up of 5000 ventilators, but we need multiples of that in the u.s.. the military has been helpful there. there are two major hospital ships that may be deployed and repurposed. now they are focused on trauma for people who returned with serious war wounds but they can be repurposed to house people who are suffering and create more hospital beds. the hospital bed situation i am told is not as bad as might be feared, but as the governor as new york -- of new york, governor cuomo said, in china and korea the military they are dealt -- built additional hospital capacities.

it is not just renovating buildings -- it is building new buildings. the army corps would be terrific at that, but i think a lot of state national guards could be very helpful in that regard as well. we are going to see in the next week a very big effort at creating facilities that will be able to house worst-case scenario patients. i will tell you, a hospital, to be licensed, must demonstrate that it can handle a surge patient capacity over 20% of their full capacity. how is that done? temporary quarters are set up in

parking lots, in garages. that can be done, but i am hopeful that with the use of military know-how, we will have more permanent facilities built. we need to have that done. one further point. we have been talking about flattening the curve. if we flatten the curve, not everyone gets sick at the same time and it moves out over time. that means that each instance, we are dealing with fewer and fewer patients so that our supply chain can meet the challenge. i think with the addition of military supplies -- by the way, there is something called the national stockpile that is set aside for emergencies and with

all of the emergencies being declared, that stockpile will become available. that has personal protective equipment and other things. we are now bringing the resources of all those institutions that can help. the military has a very important role to play and they will be helpful. there are many medical personnel in the military that can be brought to bear on this. the one thing that is troublesome when you hear about the military is in the past -- and i would say late 1800s, early 20th century -- when did

-- the state national guard was used to keep people in their houses when a quarantine was declared. we were worried earlier, -- you are worried earlier about sheltering in place and i said it wouldn't be that your medic. we do not want to the army involved in law enforcement policies. if they are, that triggers a whole other set of statutory problems, which can be overcome, what i hope should not be raised.

host: our next caller is from bell buckle, tennessee. caller: i am having treatments. i had a fever. they set i had to go and be tested. it makes perfect sense. waiting for mike dr. to get that test i also -- my doctor to get that test, i found out a man came down with a confirmed case in my area. i know i also had possible contact. i still have had no word whatsoever about the outcome of that. the problem is my physician called yesterday and says she

has problems -- already rescinded from lab to lab to lab three times. labs keep promising "yes, we can process it," but then when they get it, we wait for days and then they go "actually, we can't do it we don't know how." i am not alone in having a test done. host: thanks for that. i will tie in a question from karen who texted us in -- karen in washington says "how can korea have so many test kits? what is the delay?" guest: getting the testing up in running has been shocking in the u.s.. the world health organization offered test kits and test kits have been used by countries all over the world, probably by south korea but i'm not sure exactly. our initial response was, "we are not going to use the world health organization and we are going to center the development of the test kits in cdc and fda laboratories." we found out about 10 days ago that some of the cdc laboratories that were developing test kits were contaminated. as a result of that the logical answer has been presented, which is letting all of the institutions in the u.s. that are fully capable of developing these test kits to go ahead.

there are joint ventures between public and private to develop test kits. the testing i think was the most serious problem we confronted. we do not know now -- when we hear there are 100,000 people who have had the virus, 100 have died, we do not have the data we need to have an intelligent response to this. that being said, this problem is well on its way, i hope, to being corrected. the experience of the caller is not unusual. the testing has been completely inadequate. they have been problem solving that issue. tests are being developed all over the country in many states in many health institutions. we are promised that a lot of tests it will be available. some people are saying, "we may not have the personnel to do the

test." that may be a problem, but we are as we should be now looking at this seriously. i hope in the next week or two there will be more tests available, results will be get back and faster. we talk about nurses and doctors going into the hospital -- there is a shortage of protective equipment they are using. they are confronting patients who can present anything from a common cold to the coronavirus and they do not know what they are dealing with. south korea was testing tens of thousands of people a day when we were testing hundreds. we are way behind the rest of the world in testing. it does not do a lot of good tuesday -- to cry over spilt milk. united states and state governments into state researchers are being put to work on this. host: we go next to hawaii to hear from jared. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, you are on the air. caller: i was wondering, how are we supposed to deal with this year in hawaii since we had two cases two weeks ago and now we have 10 the presumed positive. we are still allowing air travel and everything pretty much from anywhere and nothing has shut down. we have a small island here and

tens of thousands of visitors every day. how can we combat this? host: michael greenberger from johns hopkins, the number of cases confirmed in hawaii is now 14. caller: -- guest: if you're looking at washington state or new york state, the cases are double that. if you look at heat maps of where the virus is a presenting itself, there are big red circles around new york state and the immediate states there. it is a real problem.

if it has not happened yet, i do believe that there will be controls put in place about who can fly in and out of hawaii. you have a special problem -- you are off mainland. people need to get the united states and elsewhere in the world. i expect that the appropriate controls will be put in place. when you cite to those numbers that -- they are troubling, but they are not as troubling as what you see in the state of new york. i think with the social distancing and other measures put into place, that can be brought under control. host: we go next to amherst, massachusetts. hello there. caller: hi. i was just looking on the website for the eastern caribbean states and they said the island of st. vincent, the first patient has tested positive for the virus and they immediately ordered the treatment from cuba. cuba into the organization of eastern caribbean states, -- in the rest of the caribbean, there are 70 patients and to have them

have died. -- two of them have died. host: i believe there are 60 clinical trials going on right now -- guest: i believe there are 60 clinical trials going on right now to determine what therapeutic is safe. i am a most 100% certain that interferon is one of those being tested. host: where do we know that drug name from? guest: i believe it is an anticancer drug but i am not 100% sure. on that front, every conceivable possibility of bringing relief -- as i said, vaccines would be the best, because we have been very successful with vaccines that fight these emerging infectious viruses but there is not get a vaccine for the coronavirus. there is one that is started in text -- testing. you may have seen that there are

patients being brought into the test trial, but the soonest we will have a vaccine would be a year and under normal ums th would be lightening speed. on the other hand, the real help here is therapeutics. those are medical measures short of a vaccine that have been used successfully to fight other viruses or critical medical conditions. i talked about the jillian sciences test which is being administered to patients in seattle as a compassionate service right now under fda leadership that they are in trials. within a month we should know the results of those trials. the cdc and the fda on the front of trying to find a medical

countermeasure are moving as fast as they can. i might just add, the problem is the --'s -- the spread of an emerging virus is not novel in the u.s.. had a bola. -- we had ebola. all of this infrastructure was put into play. by the way, the white house was to have a pandemic expert who was sent away in 2018 by the trump administration, but we have finally got to learn at we must do more advanced planning. if we hopefully survive the coronavirus episode, i can guarantee in a year, a year and

a half, there will be something else coming down the pike and we can set in place and infrastructure that gives us in advance ability to deal with these things and not wait until people in seattle are on deaths door. host: this is the baltimore sun on one of the moves made by larry hogan. voters -- election is moved to june. michael greenberger, was your organization involved in consulting the state of maryland or other states who have delayed their elections due to the coronavirus? guest: we do give advice to the state of maryland and we have a close working relationship with the maryland emergency agency -- , which is headed by a former staff member of mine. we were not consulted on that. the importance of what you're saying is that is an example of the extraordinary powers a governor can use when an emergency is declared. i was called by the baltimore sun yesterday because they are allowing people who are in default on their leases, they

are not letting them be evicted during the emergency. real estate personnel are saying, "you are taking our property away!" the reporter said, "how can the

governor do that?" that is a minor thing the governor can do, stop evictions during the outbreak of the coronavirus and not putting people on the street when infections are rampant if there is no social distancing. that is an example of power the governor has. if you go down the list of powers, the powers are much more extraordinary than that. i will be quick to say that there is all -- also available in maryland for complainants to get -- to complain if a countermeasure is arbitrary and capricious. we saw that with ebola, a nurse coming back from a western african country, she was treating ebola patients and was quarantined in a tent outside of the new jersey newark airport for three days. there can be abuses, but so far, i have seen governors across the country respond intelligently and in measure to deal with these solutions. host: next up we go to ivan in powderly texas -- powderly, texas. caller: i was wondering why the mainstream media is getting kind of messy on this -- they blame donald trump for everything. is this just a cover-up? did our government come up with this to cover up for hillary clinton in joe biden?

host: ivan mentioned the mainstream media -- how would you rate the media in general in terms of the reporting and covering of the virus? guest: there is a lot of thinking at their --

unfortunately, there is not a lot of it. fox news was proposing this was -- well, the president called it a democratic hoax a few weeks ago. i think there is a recognition now among the mainstream medical community, science community, and the media that this is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. i would say i do not survey the media in its entirety, but i would -- right now i think the media is performing a very valuable service in getting a lot of the medical, scientific information out there so that people are informed. i think the media -- at least the media i look at -- has been highly responsible. this is not a hoax. the medical and science experts are saying and we are seeing in terms of the growth of infections worldwide into the deaths worldwide that this is a serious problem. my own hope is that with intelligence response -- intelligent response like social

distancing, washing your hands, hopefully within a couple of weeks a therapeutic countermeasure, we will get over this. as we sit here today all levels of government are working in harness and effectively to respond to the problem we face. host: we appreciate you joining us. >> the senate is voting on three amendments. a package. -- aid package. is easy to follow the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak at c-span.org/coronavirus. thek the spread throughout u.s. in the world with interactive maps and charts, watch briefings and hearings with public health specialists, any time, unfiltered at c-span.org/coronavirus. earlier today, andrew cuomo held a news conference to provide an update on the coronavirus response effort. the governor is proposed -- has proposed a mandated statewide