and churches will -- pres. trump: my message to all americans, but to those americans that are going through a lot. we love them, we're with them and we will not let them down. thank you all very much. [indiscernible] >> dr. birx, do you believe that a chinese virus is ok to say? [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] announcer 1: c-span, your unfiltered view of government. created by cable in 1979 and brought to you today by your television provider. we are joined by michael greenberger who is the director of university of maryland's center for health and homeland security, a title which ties in really, michael greenberger both , of the issues facing the u.s. and the world when it comes to the covid-19 coronavirus.

but broadly, what does your organization focus on? michael: well our organization , was founded by the university of maryland president in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to deal in the first instance in those days with principally counterterrorism issues. days with principally counterterrorism issues. we are about to celebrate our 18th anniversary on may 15, 2002. , still do counterterrorism, but also we do controlling emerging infectious diseases, responding to superstorms like superstorm sandy, and also dealing with cybersecurity issues like ransomware. and since 9/11 the natin the world has not seen a epidemic like this. in your organization's experience in dealing with other viruses and health concerns, and

even the tabletop exercises your group may have done, what is your appraisal so far of 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 face going all the way back to 2001. we have had anthrax, sars, mers, h1n1, ebola, -- zika. this virus resents the worst public health emergency that we are had and i am afraid as other experts that it will be very much like the 1918 spanish flu where somewhere between 20 million and 50 million people .orldwide died from the flu i do not know that that is going to happen, but this is a much more serious problem then we

have ever seen before. in terms of the federal response, i like many other people wish it had started earlier. we are still having difficulty finding testing kits to determine who has the flu. without those testing kits 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 could look at somebody, they could be dealing with somebody who has a bad allergy attack, a bad cold, the seasonal flu, or covid-19. until we get a 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. i must to say south korea, which handled this, was testing tens of thousands of people a day. the u.s., even though we have

now ramped up and made it easier to develop testing kits, we are now -- still in the position of doing hundreds a day. until we get a handle on precisely what we are dealing with, it makes responding that much more difficult. host: i saw the headline this week that says the coronavirus -- a good significant challenge " disaster agencies -- a significant challenge to disaster agencies." do you see a clear line of command on who is taking the lead in response to the coronavirus? -- chain of command on who is taking the lead and response to the coronavirus? talk: usually when you about the emergency federal federalnt agency -- emergency management agency, you're talking about something that is mostly a state response. for example, wildfires,

tornadoes, hurricanes. when you have a public health emergency it calls into play not just emergency management, but also the public health side of government. those two aspects of government have to work in harness. i am comfortable that as we speak now, the federal government has got the chain of command in order. the other thing i would emphasize -- the president declared a national emergency on march 4. that is an unusual thing to do. usually what happens is urgency's sees our declared state by state. that may still happen -- the -- in fact, it will still happen. the fact that the federal government has declared this a national emergency makes it easier for states to get the president to agree with their assessment that they are dealing

with an emergency or disaster within the state. whatever the federal government does, and what the federal government does is important, but it is a supporting role. as we are seeing all over the country, it is the state governors -- 50 state governors and the mayor of the district of columbia -- who have the lead on all of this. states dealing with this problem. hass not every state, declared a state emergency and that is an important process because it frees the governor to take extraordinary actions the state.estate -- in new york,eeing california, or maryland, is governors are taking action, closing restaurants, limiting

the assemblage of people. they got support from the experts in the federal government, but this is going to be viewed principally as a state response problem. the good news there is as we work closely with governors and state health agencies and state emergency management agencies, the states are pretty well briefed to deal with this problem effectively. host: give us an idea of what your center at the university of maryland, the types of tasks or things you have been asked by state governors to assist with? byst: we have been asked state governors and agencies and localities -- also localities can on their own declare emergencies -- we have been advising a lot of large counties for example in maryland. montgomery and prince georges, which are just on the border with the d.c. and are very

populous. very well written -- run governments. we are advising them on date them responses as issue -- on day today responses as issues arise. howard county, which is between bc and baltimore and is a prosperous well -- between d.c. and baltimore is a prosperous well-run government. we ran a tabletop exercise going 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 happen asked to do that are being lined up. i must tell you we have a lot of existing contracts with counties and state governments into -- andthat have asked us cities that have asked us to do projects that now you not have

the immediacy that coronavirus has. we have essentially been told, "put the other things aside, throw your full weight behind working on the coronavirus, we will that back to those other issues when we can afford to do it." we are dealing with departments of health, hospitals, nonprofits, and it trying to give them advice on how to respond within the confines of the emergencies that have been declared and the powers or discretion they have to pursue public health ends. until 9:00ng us up eastern is michael greenberger. he is the director of the university of maryland department of health and homeland security. your statesear what are doing. number for000 is the

those of you in the eastern and central time zones. mountain and1 pacific time zones. for medical professionals, your .ine is (202) 748-8002 it invokes the stafford act and allows fema to tap into nearly $43 billion in funds directing aid to the states hit by crises. it instructs state governments to set up emergency operations centers. it directs hospitals nationwide to activate emergency preparedness contingency plans. it allows the health and human services secretary to hinder -- lift regulations that could hinder capabilities. that relief -- how quickly does not typically get to the states and localities? way public health

nonprofits may be entitled to a portion of that money. this,ly -- and all of even though it is a national emergency, every state that has a serious problem will declare a state emergency, which is very important. put will then go to fema to themselves in a situation to have additional funds sent into the state to cover work they do in responding to the coronavirus. whenhe powers of governors they declare these emergencies is extraordinary. it is important to the president did it. he did it under the so-called national emergencies act. and also something called a public health services act, it was put into motion on january 31 when we began to see people were -- returning from china possibly infected. all of those things allow the

federal government to waive requirements that may 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 -- and we are seeing this when we see the press conferences with the governor of new york, the governor of california, into the governor of maryland -- this allows the states, it paves the to tapthe states, one, the resources of federal funding available. requirement --t the expenses you have, so when you turn around to seek federal relief you have the appropriate evidence to show, but also what thepresident did sets

groundwork for states to declare their emergencies and recover further moneys from fema for work they do. these declarations of emergency at the federal level and state level are very important, extraordinary powers on the state level are wrought into play. -- brought into play. i might add quickly that public health emergencies in the states have been declared for other emerging infectious diseases, n1 or thecommon was h1 swine that became a serious problem in 2009. -- swine flu virus that became a serious problem in 2009. i think we will see people taking more extreme actions then we have seen in the past. i want totate -- and be careful how i use these terms -- set up a quarantine around .ero -- new rochelle

bars are closed, restaurants are closed, state workers are being's debt -- sent home, state universities are closing, all dealings with students are being done remotely, exams are remote. there are going to be as the days go on extraordinary powers -- the powers have been there, but they have never been needed except as we looked down the road to the future of this virus. they will be called into play in every state across the country. host: we have calls waiting. we want to remind our callers and listeners, (202) 748-8002 is the line -- is aligned to use for medical professionals. julie is calling from hot springs, virginia. tell us about what you do. nurse: i am a registered currently working in fairfax

county. definitely understand the goal of flattening the curve of the on this, working in the er, and we want to make sure we do not overload the system. one thing though that i think we need to be careful with is also flattening the curve of immunity. with such tight restrictions on movement, only time will tell. i say that without having a better solution. of course if we flatten the curve of the illness and we come up with a solution, whether that be a vaccine or a treatment, that doctors are willing to use or provide more hospital beds and two nurses, which are hard to come by. that is my -- hospital beds and nurses, which are hard to come by. that is basically my comment. i do not have a solution for it.

it is something to think about. guest: first of all, i say to all medical personnel who are dealing with directly the patient's, thank you for your , thank youpatients for your service. the best medical scientific minds are looking at this and the biggest problem they worry about is the danger of covid-19 is that it is highly infectious and unless restraints are put on the population, the outbreak could just soar to a point where we would not have hospital resources, medical resources, medical equipment, to take care of all of the patients at one time. there is no therapeutic vaccine yet, but in the absence of that, it is 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. from hhs to state health authorities to medical personnel who are looking at this feel right now the most important thing is to limit the spread and that is why you hear about thead -- importance of social distancing, with -- washing your hands. limit thehopefully infection to ais degree where it can be handled in our medical facilities. host: you mentioned possible extraordinary measures that have not been used to get.

front page on the new york times -- a "shelter-in-place order may be next as new yorker grinds to -- an, new york city and economic engine of the country grown to a halt on tuesday because of the coronavirus act break and restrictions on public life put in place to stem its spread. the city's mayor signaled the shutdown could go further with the possibility of an order to shelter-in-place, a decision he said it should be made in the next 48 hours. if that moment came, there are tremendously substantial --isions that would half to , mayor de blasio said." guest: shelter-in-place is basically do not go out into the public, stay-at-home as much as you can.

there is an ability when we look at these dramatic actions to place and quarantine those people who may be infected. 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. it is more in urging then mandating. there is a recognition that people will have to go to the pharmacy to get medications, they will have to go to grocery stores to get food, they will have to go outside with their pets, they will need to exercise. it is not a dictatorial instruction. look at thispeople especially in the vulnerable population, those who are 60 or older and have other medical problems that may make the

infection more dramatic, i think they welcome the response. military enforced quarantine, it is and i think sensible quarantine. i think sensible quarantine. it is not a radical solution. worried about shelter-in-place orders. most doctors are now telling ifple over 60, especially they have other medical conditions, to shelter-in-place, stay-at-home. that does not mean you cannot go out, that does not mean you cannot exercise, that does not mean you cannot walk your dog. the general thing is to limit your exposure to other people who might present the infection your way. host: getting back to calls with a quick check of the data -- the

number of cases worldwide now topping two hundred thousand from johns hopkins diversity. total confirmed cases worldwide 201,000. worldwide.eaths president trump tweeted minutes ago "i will be holding a news conference day to discuss their important news from the fda on the chinese virus." our next caller is from missouri. theer: i'm calling about trillion dollar stimulus trump was talking about. trillion has 12 zeros behind the one. dore -- that is -- if you

the math, everybody in the u.s. should get over $3000 a piece and we are talking -- they are talking about giving $1000 to each employee. if you have three people in your house, working or not, that would be $9,000. who do -- who is the money really going to? as a sideline, i am very interested in financial market distress. i teach a course on it. i was very active in the response to the 2008 financial crisis. when you total up what happened in 2008. the country put on the table $23 trillion to save the banks. and a lot of this going directly to those

affected, who have lost their jobs or have to stay home and not get salary, the secretary of treasury said if the federal government does not aggressively deal with the economic consequences of this virus, we could have 20% unemployed. 20% unemployed is approaching the unemployment in the great depression. the country, and i have been quoted on this, has gone -- come to a dead stop commercially. airlines are not working, cruise lines are not working, airports are shutting down, people cannot get supplies. everywhere you look there is a stop, stop, stop. the only solution is to stimulate the economy. secretary mnuchin, donald trump trump's secretary of the treasury, is at the forefront of sounding the alarm of the necessity of getting money into

the hands of not only corporations but of people. the possibility -- there is one possibility and that is not dealing with the health crisis. a lot of illness and a lot of death. we also have a fierce economic crisis that looks to me that if it is not stanched could be 2008,than what we saw in 2009. these things may seem dramatic, but the options for keeping the economy flowing are not great. my view is, there is no option forto spend this money example for people who are sitting at home not working, not getting their hourly wage, they do not have sick leave, they probably do not have health insurance, to provide help. it is true that this will go to whoever -- i think the limit is

$1 million a year income -- that will hopefully stimulate the of thatand keep us out 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 1919 with non vaccine ever discovered. 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 -- at the had against coronavirus. ,e 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 , 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. to use aan ability 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. virginia calling us from waldorf, maryland. listening to everything being said here. and grocerypen

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. asvice workers are just 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? c-store.t is a 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 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. everything.ose down

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 --ting 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 you will use hand , iansers, wipe down surfaces 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. 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 core ofl apply 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 directly.order 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. 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. --t: what are you hearing retrofit existing buildings. host: what are you hearing from the vice president? ventilators of all, which assist people and breathing are going to be very important because the infection

makestacks the lungs and breathing very difficult, especially in the over 60 population who have other complicating medical problems. of military just freed up 5000 ventilators, but we need multiples of that in the u.s.. 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 ,ew york -- of new york governor cuomo said, in china and korea the military they are

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 atk a very big effort creating facilities that will be worst-casese scenario patients. toill tell you, a hospital, 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. instance, that each we are dealing with fewer and fewer patients so that our supply chain can meet the challenge. ofhink with the addition 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 -- 1800s,ould say late early 20th century -- when did -- the state national guard was used to keep people in their houses when a quarantine was declared. 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. i am having treatments.

i had a fever. they set i had to go and be tested. it makes perfect sense. 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. possiblealso had 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?" up in getting the testing running has been shocking in the u.s.. the world health organization offered test kits and test kits 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." days agoout about 10 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. ofth korea was testing tens 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. andave a small island here 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. doit has not happened yet, i 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. appropriatet the 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. next to amherst, massachusetts. hello there. hi.er: 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. of them have died. 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 those beings one of 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 circumstances that 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. 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 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. survive thelly 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 -- 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. personnel are saying, "you are taking our property away!" "how can thesaid,

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 at -- to complain if 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. int: next up we go to ivan powderly texas -- powderly, texas. caller: i was wondering why the mainstream media is getting kind 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. this waswas proposing -- 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. -- at leastmedia 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 -- socialgent response like 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. michael greenberger is the journalr: washington live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. . coming up thursday morning, we will discuss the latest on coronavirus and the u.s. response to the outbreak. senior governor and's fellow james walter will be here to discuss congressional operations during the pandemic.