epidemiologist dr. emily landon. and later, u.s. attorney g. zachary terwilliger joins us to discuss law enforcement issues during the pandemic. "washington journal" is next. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] ♪ host: on this friday, april 10, one of the headline this morning covering the latest jobless figures reports that nearly 17 million americans have now lost their jobs due to the coronavirus and it took just 21 days. 21 days. and this as congress is said to be at an impasse of what to do next to help people, this economy, following this outbreak and pandemic and we want to get your thought this morning on what congress should be doing. should more be done by congress? is more needed? the senate did meet about half an hour yesterday. did not advance any legislation. do you think more is needed at this point from u.s. congress? if so, what specifically is

needed in your view? eastern and central time zones, , mike trout 8000 and pacific, 202-748-8001. go to send us a text or acebook.com/cspan. u.s. "today" front page, unemployment amid outbreak hits 17 million. layoff spung economy into a hideous state, just below on this front page of u.s. "today," you can see a woman here in her car wearing a mask in hialeah, florida, collecting unemployment . the story says the economy continues to shed job that are jaw-dropping pace and there is little sign that payroll losses will ease significantly any time soon amid the spread of the

coronavirus pandemic. here is the front page of the "new york times" this morning. "it's terrifying" says the headline from one person who is being interviewed by "the times." millions more out of work. efforts by the u.s. to halt economic damage can't keep up. that's the "new york times." in terms of keeping up, congress as we mentioned did meet up yesterday but lawmakers hit an impasse of the next step. a congressional effort to boost funding for small businesses as republicans and democrats rejected each other's plans for the next trong of coronavirus leave. congress passed and president trump signed a massive $2.2 million relief package less than two weeks ago but the depth of the downturn rushed lawmakers to he negotiating table --

>> we need to patch holes as we see them and keep moving forward together. everybody in the senate voted to send historic funding to hospitals and health care providers. everyone supports funding hospitals. i'm in favor of even more funding for hospitals and providers down the line. i've been talking to a number of them as i'm sure our colleagues have over the last couple of weeks. but certainly, we need to see the fixing, the existing funding begin to work before we know what additional resources may be needed. i've been urging the secretary

to push this money on the frontline as soon as possible. i'm glad tens of billions are going to go out tomorrow. there's only one part of the cares act that is already, already at risk of exhausting its funding right now. only one part of the cares act is at risk of exhausting its funding right now. the paycheck protection program. we're asking small business owners across america to place their faith in us. we're asking them to keep workers on payroll because congress, the treasury and s.p.a. will have their back. we must not fail them. my colleagues must not treat working americans as political hostages. this does not have to be nor should it be contentious. we don't have to divide along the usual lines so soon after we came together for the country. divide democratic colleagues,

please, please. do not block emergency aid you did not even oppose just because you want something more. do not block emergency aid you do not oppose just because you want something more. >> the majority did that p.p.e., the paycheck protection plan is running out of money. it has not. it has not been released but there are programs under cares act that have run out of money. he emergency disaster relief loan program which provides we've r businesses and allowed businesses that have been affected by the coronavirus to file those claims, that has out of money.

and i'll give you the numbers in a minute. and the grant programs that is included in case, up to $10,000 where a small business can get a grant from the small business administration is out of funds. they need money today in order to process applications. the s.b.a. doesn't need money today to process paycheck protection program. the paycheck protection program was negotiated in good faith but senator rubio, collin and myself, and we're very proud of that program. it's working very well. it's a good program. we strongly support it. it's bipartisan. but this unanimous consent request was not negotiated. there was no efforts made to follow the process that we could get this done so it won't get done. it's not going to be enacted and the majority leader knows that. so what democrats are prepared to make clear and support every

small business that's eligible to receive the paycheck protection plan, we're going to support their applications being received, processed and fully funded and we will put as much money as needed to make sure that every small business can participate that's eligible in hat program. host: from the floor of this is senate yesterday, "washington post" headline says senate continues to clash as competing proposals for more rescue funds fail from here, it is uncertain where the standoff will go with both the house and senate out of session now and lawmakers unwilling to return to washington en masse because of health concerns, nothing can pass either chamber without bipartisan agreement that has the unanimous support of all lawmakers.

any one lawmaker of either party has the ability to object and block any legislation from moving forward. to your calls now on whether you think more health is -- help is needed from congress at this point in the coronavirus pandemic. rob from boca raton, florida, you're up first. caller: thank you. thank you for c-span the work that you do. you know, mitch mcconnell there is bending the truth quite a bit and the republicans, they're blocking the emergency aid by not allowing proper oversight of our money but that's not what i called to say. i don't know why the republicans are against oversight. that's part of the problem. i trust them as far as i thousand them. so i want oversight of our money. that's our tax dollars. i never thought i would say that but medicare for all with coronavirus. i'm not a medicare for all guy, you know. i'm not a tree hugger. i'm not one of those people but it's been floated out there that

the idea that you have uninsured people that are coming down with this horrific illness and it suddenly made sense to me. medicare for all with the coronavirus. you know, they ought to bring back the cash for clunkers to try like they did 10 years ago to save the auto business. and my final thought. i'm not a hater, but this ridiculous president that we have who's put on the trump show and pretending to put on a serious news conference when he's really just doing these -- he's doing his campaign rallies but when we should be listening to doctors and he's out there spinning and lying and carrying on like a high school student judge judy says that was her high schoolers, she used to say that when their lips are moving, they're lying. unfortunately, our adolescent

president, same thing's true for him. thank you. host: heidi, good morning to you. what's the situation in the borough of brooklyn in the city at large there? caller: yes, hello. i hope everyone stays well. thank you for having me. i believe that more money should go to small business, individuals and localities on the most important thing is that we have oversight to make sure that these republicans don't give money to big business. we need public financing of elections so that the people can be heard and the people get what they need. we were not ready for this pandemic. it's scary that we have this government still in place. we need to vote the republicans out immediately. we need true government. thank you very much. host: all right. and michael is calling now. let's go to south carolina. aiken, south carolina. michael, good morning. why don't you describe the

conditions these days with the coronavirus and then you can answer our question. how about that? what's the latest news in south carolina? caller: well, it's -- we laid off from work and they passed this thing. they are going to pass another bill to help us out. well it passed $2.2 trillion bill about three weeks ago and when you get laid off, you have no waiting week. well, three weeks when you got a check. they send you a letter first first week saying oh, your h.r. t you approved for unemployment. weekend week, they send you a letter saying you will get $256. but what about that $600 extra you're going to get? no, that's not in there. then the third week, no check. so why should they pass more aid

for the american economy? they will send out nothing. i don't understand that. and then the people at the plant, the four people that are working there, the plant manager, the assistant plant manager, the supervisor and one other person, h.r. woman. and they getting a check just to stay open. i know they are. but it don't make no sense why are they going to pass more money if it ain't coming to us? host: michael, thanks for calling we go to norman. is more needed from congress and if so, what is it? caller: that's bottle, washington. host: yes, bottle. caller: i've been retired 17 years. i'm a retired educator and in both cases, we were supposed to get in 2008 a cost of living raise. this year, they were talking on

a cost of living raise for us and then we hear the senate, the senate denying money to the state's legislatures to give money to them so that they can support the people they have on retirement. i'm really fed up with these people. i don't really know what's going to happen to no cost of living, i have improved my income only by the stock market. and then look what the stock market did in 2020 and look at what it did in 2008. host: norman, what's the state -- what's the specific message to congress then? caller: i want them to give funds to the state legislatures to support this state -- its state's citizens. host: ok. thank you for calling, norman. taking your calls this morning and whether you think more is needed now from congress. this following a half an hour of session from the senate

yesterday where they did not advance legislation on small business. some of the reaction from members of congress. sheldon says a political stunt comes from people are relying on people to get things -- congress s getting things done. emergency money for hospitals, states and food assistance. that's sheldon white house. here is liz cheney from wyoming. nancy pelosi and senate democrats are blocking small business relief. his is despicable. and nancy pelosi did an audio briefing for reporters yesterday. and here's what she had to say about small business. >> on tuesday morning, secretary mnuchin called, that would be two days ago, secretary mnuchin

alled and asked for a water of a trillion dollars in 48 hours. with no data. just a quarter of $1 trillion in 48 hours. peter mcconnell honored that request, i said honored, really, dishonored the needs that we have put a stunt on the floor of the senate to esting that $250 billion no data as to why we needed and the rest. when they are outstanding needs, we should have been doing and what we offered to do was to sit down and figure out what the numbers are that are needed most urgently. and so you may have seen this morning that the stunt was performed by the leader knowing that it would fail and in good

faith proposal to negotiate and address the immediate needs that we have put forth by the senator ben cardin, the ranking member on the small business committee and kristin holland. host: more about what the democrats are looking back on that "washington post" piece. democrats would proposal andy drirble -- additional $250 million. speaker most has not spoken with the secretary but reiterated his proposed $250 billion increase would never pass the house by unanimous consent. it is the basis for some negotiation but it would never pass the house by unanimous consent. let's go to carlton.

what about congress at this point? is more needed? aller: yes, sir. they need to give more money to the rural hospitals. that's what needed to be done. but the rural hospital, they are shutting down and laying off personnel. the rural hospitals need the ost to keep operating. that's my comment. you have a good weekend. host: thank you, charlton. shawn is here from lakeland, florida now. good morning, shawn. caller: yes, good morning. i want to talk about the forgotten demographic, the non-essential worker who is a non-custodial parents. if you owe child support, you don't get a stimulus check. so if you're a non-essential worker that's on child support,

you are getting charged every week. f you're in florida like i am, i mean, i am an essential worker, i'm working. but it's people that aren't working that are paying child support, that are trying to file unemployment. unemployment has at least a five-week backlog. so it's going to be six weeks before you even get a check. so in those six weeks that you're not getting anything, who knows how long you've been out of work? you could have been out of work three weeks ago. host: shawn, what kind of work do you? caller: i have two jobs and. i work at a food warehouse and at dollar store. host: what are conditions like the workplace? how are you protecting yourself and what's the level of concern that you have and your colleagues have right now? caller: it really depends on the person. at the dollar store, i'm one of the people -- we had a couple of employees quit because of just their fear one of them had

previous respiratory issues so she was like she didn't feel comfortable being around people like that. and then the other one had just had a baby. so she didn't want to get anything and take it home to the kids. and at the warehouse, they basically, they cut third shift completely out. urloughed a lot of people. they cut us back to four days a week. they cut the hours so much we're working four six's now whereas other people are working 10 and 12 hours a day, five, six days a week assignment cut back, but, i mean, think of all those people. because i know there were people who i was working with woo was paying child support who got furloughed. that was the whole thing. like how are they going to get a check? and it's people they're trying to get a job. a couple of guys got pizza delivery jobs and stuff like that. but i mean, everybody's trying

to get those jobs right now. there's so many people that's annoyed. so how is like they're -- unemployed. and this is the killer about the whole thing. they gave the kids $500. so if somebody owe back taxes, they get a check. if somebody owes student loans, they get a check. so it's like hold up. you could owe student loans, back tax, you could owe any amount of money to anybody. you could be on s.s.i. everybody gets a check except for the person who when they was working, they are already getting less of a check at a time when america was supposed to be what they were saying everybody is 60% or 4 a% of americans were $500 away emergency would break them. ok. this is that $500 emergency. because i guarantee you $500 won't last nobody six weeks. host: all right, shawn, thanks

for answering our question and telling us about your situation. one more call here. pat from win instead, connecticut and then we'll get to some more tweets and social media. pat, go ahead, please. caller: hi, good morning. i'm a health care worker and i'm on my fourth day of quarantine. d i'm dismayed to learn that there is a health care provider and first responder exemption paycheck ype of the protection program, anything like that and we are able to get a family leave if we were on sick or vacation time. but i would like someone to try and explain to me why the health care providers and essential workers have an exemption. and that makes no sense to me for everyone touting the front

lines, i hope it would be followed by please take care of yourself because if we need help, we're left hanging with no recourse. host: pat, thanks for calling. marlin where is congress should do what they voted to do. where are the checks? where is the small business aid? we also have mike in orlando. congress should mandate virus testing by everybody. by doing this, you can establish who is infected and re-establish opening the economy. congress is not doing anything and we will continue to take your comments by social media and text and calls. here's a couple of other handle this friday morning. fed provides $600 billion business loan infusion.

part of $2.2 trillion. that's in "u.s.a. today." "wall street journal" puts it this way. fed's new loans are broadest ever. the federal reserve is going further than ever unveiling programs to lend directly to state, cities and midsized business that is have seen revenues evaporate amid efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak. and the central bank would expand plans to backstop lending to large companies by supporting riskier bonds issued by corporations that have lost their investment grade status. the brookings institute. the fed chair spoke with folks there in a virtual type of event and here's what he had to say yesterday about the economy and where it might be headed. >> our emergency measures are reserved for truly rare circumstances such as those we face today. when the economies well on its way back to recovery and private

markets and institutions are once again able to perform their vital functions of channeling credit, will but these emergency tools away. none of us has the luxury of choosing their challenges. fate and history provide them for us. our job is to meet the tests we are presented. at the fed, we're doing all we can to help shepherd the economy through this zl time. when the spread of the virus is under control, businesses will reopen and people will come back to work. there is every reason to believe that the economic rebound when it comes can be robust. we enter this turbulent period on a strong economic footing and that should help support the recovery. in the meantime, we are using our tools to help build a bridge from the solid economic foundation on which we entered this crisis to a position of regained economic strength on the other side. host: that was fed chair j. powell speaking with brookings. we go back to our discussion with congress. here's the headline.

no deal on fresh coronavirus aid package. risk over side and shape of relief package threatens the small business fund. brenda from south carolina. thank you for joining us, brenda. caller: yes, my comment is basically a very disappointed in the republicans asking for more money and the shape that the country's in right now with the medical workers and the nurses and not having p.p.e. equipments to work with to help with the sick people. i don't understand why they're asking for more money and without oversight. it's almost like asking for money for small businesses and the american people who really need the help, they can't get it and the briefings that they have every day. i don't even watch it anymore. host: how come? caller: because the president gets up there and performs and acts and don't tell the truth. so, that's my comment basically. host: ok. thank you for calling. let's hear from jay from reno,

nevada. is more needed from congress at this point? caller: yes, i think so. and thank you for taking my call. host: sure. caller: i got a couple of things. as i get kind of perturbed with mitch mcconnell. host: how come? caller: saying that the democrats are playing politics when they structure bills. they always seem to leave out incidentals that really help the little guy. smaubs -- small businesses, hospital, emergency people, so on and so forth and then he says that nancy pelosi's playing games. well they're not playing games. they're trying to help the people that you decided to leave out. and which right now, there hould be more working together than what is really happening. i mean, there's still so much standstill and despite between -- the despite between each ther it's amazing.

we didn't have to do what we're doing and when this is happening under trump, what i think should be done is trump seeing how he likes to use executive orders should put the executive order out on freezing all types of loans and payments. this way here, nobody gets messed up because, you know, owners of businesses they have to pay their loans to the people who financed it. so if everything is frozen, this wouldn't hurt as much as it's doing because everything stops right there in a dime. rent, credit card payment, car payments, house payments, so-so nd so forth. but i think trump should just let the doctors talk about what's going on and nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell, they really

need to work together and stop trying to outdo each other and forget the little guys who are really hurting at this time and thanks very much for taking my all. host: congress should not be giving away a blank check without any kind of oversight. here is elizabeth warren, the senator on massachusetts on the democrats' side tweeting the next package congress passes can't nibble around the edges. hospitals, workers and small businesses and families need a lot more help and a lot faster. voter, taxpayers and consumers need real protection. and she talks about reading her priorities at an op-ed in the "new york times." senator mike brawn saying it is sad that democrats have added aid for small businesses. will run out of money. we will do this for about

half-hour more asking your thoughts about whether more is needed from congress, the senate has another one of these pro forma sessions early next week. the house meets in a pro forma session at 9:00 today. we don't expect anything to happen the house floor today but we'll watch it anyway starting at 9:00 eastern business section of the "new york times" this section. here's that figure. million have -- 16 lost their jobs. it took 21 days. the subhead says across the country, unemployed workers are setting online communities to --p communities and crashing eileen is here. talk us to about congress. caller: good morning. host: what should congress be doing? what more at this point? caller: we should -- the

congress should be listening to the doctors and the scientists. they're the only people that know what they're doing right now. i have been locked in my house and i am 86 years old and i have been in my house for three months due a head cold and this this virus and i will not leave my house. my daughter takes care of me. we live on the same piece of property. i don't like what's going on to my country. i am leaving the republican party. i'm going to become an independent because it seems like oregon -- or oregon, excuse me, it seems like the democrats and the republicans cannot get along. and they have to get along before we'll progress. and sometimes i sit here and cry when i listen to you people on tv. it's horrible. and being locked in your home

for three months -- because i want to be locked in my home for three months. i don't want to expose anybody in case i have this horrible thing, which i don't think i do, but it doesn't matter. i have to act as if i do. i don't know what's going on. i just can't stand this craziness, this lack of intellectual smarts which we don't seem to have right now. everything is wrong and nothing is working right. and i'm so sad. oregon's not doing badly with our death rate. any death is a bad thing. but at least we're not megaamounts but we're not a megastate either. i just it's got to top. it just has to stop. host: eileen, appreciate your call from oregon. jim from buffalo has somewhat similar sentiment.

he sent us a text. i'm out of work and i don't qualify qualify for any unemployment or aid program. don't understand. the on guarantee we have is that they will be all re-elected. very sad. president trump is up and he is tweeting on this friday morning in part, he is tweeting the following. democrats are blocking $251 million funding booth. i think he meant to say billion for small businesses which will help them keep their employees. it should be only for that reason with no additions. we should have a big infrastructure with payroll tax cuts and more. big economic bounceback, where is the president and he said this week and only four days, we have the biggest stock market increase since 1974. we have a great job for a really big bounce when the invisible enemy is gone here this president yesterday talking about federal health through the city of new york and the state of new york.

president trump: as the new york metropolitan area continues its battle against the outbreak, the full power of the federal government is there to support them, the javits center has been fully converted into a 3,000-bed hospital, one of the largest anywhere in the country and by the incredible professionals, i have to say the alex cora -- corps of engineers, they've done a fantastic job and they're building a nationwide 21 hospitals and care facilities adding 17,000 hospital beds and they did that all within a very short period of time. it's incredible what they've one. and fema has been outstanding. project air bridge continues to expand with more than 24 flights already completed and 49 additional flights now scheduled in the near future. so that's been very successful and that gear and those outfits

are being handed out as they arrive, they're going directly to point. the american medical system continues to perform beyond our highest expectations, reminding us that the united states is blessed with the most advanced health care and the most skilled health care workers anywhere in the planet. other countries are looking to what we're doing and our testing operation has now become far and away the most sophisticate and the best anywhere. and we want to thank all of the heroes in the front lines as they fight to save american lives. we're at the top of the hill. pretty sure we're at the top. the hill and thousand we're going downward in some cases, we've already started that process. host: president trump on the briefing yesterday at the white house as we look at congress, here's how the "washington times" sees things right now with its headline. senate democrats blocked $250 billion in aid. one in 10 americans now out of work as businesses shudder

during pandemic. there is a picture here of a woman in front of a work center type place where it says another 6.6 million americans file for jobless benefits last week. that's the cut line under the photo. we go to john now in trenton, new jersey. one of the hardest hit states in the country. john, why don't you tell us first about conditions in jersey and then you could talk about congress. is that ok? caller: yes, that's ok. it's a ghost town. you go to the train station or ou go to any businesses uptown and it's a ghost town. everybody's hiding. i have two things to say before sentence n collude my here. mitch mcconnell called himself the grim reaper of the bills. now instead of paying attention to the first bill of business

that he should have took care of was health care, he went ahead and he took care of the business thenization who was funding republican senate. i used to be a republican. i'm no longer a republican. he and his men in the senate have disgraced me. and the president, i consider him as good as a motorer because he didn't go out and take care of this business and -- in the first place. health care should have been taken care of and there should have been no trips to china or friends with ng putin and the there's a little something that's going around on

the streets. now they say that this thing was manufactured in a laboratory and it escaped like the aids virus. i don't know about this. i don't have any proof about this. and it's just something that's going on around the streets. now i would like to say two things. if america can't work together and can't throw these people out, he should have been thrown out of the white house a long time ago because in my opinion, it's not -- he's not doing his job. his job is not with the kushner and his daughter and everybody else around his circle. e should hire professionals. he shouldn't have hire nobody that didn't have a degree in medicine and let them do their job instead of going out on these tv teleathons.

i'm so sick and tired of seeing his face and hearing his voice about nothing he don't know about. host: all right, john, thanks for calling. tony is in maryland. tony, tell us what you think congress should be doing at this point if anything about coronavirus. caller: well, what they should be doing is finding out why president trump wants to cut money for testing. i just received e-mail this morning from my doctor stating hat and to spread the word and president bone spur here, he has money for big business and corporations but not for the working class people. they found that in small rural communities where they were testing, they found that it was more people that had the virus han they knew about.

and because these small communities have the virus, he don't want anybody to know it so they want to cut the testing. it's crazy. why do they need the money for if they're cutting the testing? host: at facebook, they write we need to go back to work. we didn't shut down the government for the aids virus and there are still no cure. come on, americans. we are american strong. we desperately need term limits from congress. they are the on one receiving a paycheck and they want a raise. here is the new york dayly news headline. andrew coma says breathtaking. new record, 799 new yorkers die in a day. warns against underestimating the pandemic. here is more from his briefing yesterday.

>> you're tough because every day is tough on many, many levels. i get it. but every day that we are new york tough, we are actually saving lives. and don't underestimate this virus. i think that is a mistake we made from day one. we as the collective, we as the global community. this virus is very, very good at what it does. we lost more lives yesterday than we have to date. we understand and all the experts have said, dr. fauci did a from day one to me, you will see the deaths increasing after the hospitalizations because the death increase the longer a person niece the hospital, the longer a person's on the ventilator. i understand the scientific concept. i understand the data. but you're talking about 799

lives. the highest number ever. it's gotten to the point, frankly, that we're going to bring in additional funeral directors to deal with the number of people who have passed. if you ever told me that as governor, i would have to take these actions, i couldn't even contemplate where we are now. and to put all of this in perspective, i live through 9/11. 9/11 was supposed to be the darkest day in new york for a generation. we've done everything we can since 9/11 to make sure 9/11 didn't happen again. we lose 2,753 lives on 9/11. we've lost over 7,000 lives this crisis.

that is so shocking and painful and breathtaking. i don't even have the words for it. 9/11 was so devastating, so tragic. and then, in many ways, we lose so many more new yorkers to this silent killer. there was no explosion. but it was a silent explosion that just ripples through society with the same randomness, the same evil that we saw on 9/11. what are we doing? host: more than 7,000 deaths in new york as the governor points out, approaching 17,000 total here in the u.s. the number of cases approaching half a million now. by the way, we'll have governor phil murphy, democrat of new jersey. he'll be doing a briefing today live at 10:30.

and as we've been doing every day, we will cycle through various states and the governors of those states. we'll be putting a schedule together through the morning and through the-the-day so you can continue to watch those live and taped briefings. if there's another white house briefing, we will have that for you live on c-span. jack in north carolina -- jackie in north carolina. what would you like congress to do at this point? is more needed from them? caller: hi. thank you. yeah, congress is doing what they always do. they talk fantasy. they have -- they never complete a bill, a good bill. . e bill always cover the rich and congress, i guarantee you, they have a house full of toilet paper. they don't have to go out like us middle class. this is going to be a mill class

disease because we have to go to the store every week. we don't have millions in the bank. we don't have hundreds of thousands in the bank. we have to go to the store every week. i haven't been able to buy toilet paper for a month. and here's another thing. i think congress should pass anybody who dies from this coronavirus should have a free burial. it's ridiculous these -- when families lose three or four members, they can't afford burials when burials are so expensive. do something positive. send facemasks out to everybody. an body gets out on electric bill or get a little box of facemasks. we're left vulnerable. the politicians are not. and it just needs more action.

they need to do something. host: jamal calling from university park, illinois now. hey, jamal. caller: hello. first-time caller. host: welcome. caller: liked your show since i've been shut in place for a while. i've been checking out c-span a lot more. host: oh, good. caller: -- than i used to. i haven't checked out c-span in a while up until this point and i'm glad i am. but with that being said, a couple of things here. number one, what congress should do, i have no problem with congress trying to shore up loans for small business people because, you know, they're getting hit and they're getting hit because of the other state restrictions being put on them. i understand the intentions of the governors wanting to slow the curve of the virus. but i think in some cases, i onder if some of these shelter at home places edicts were

rationally thought out as compared to the impact that it was having on small business, especially more -- that's going on in michigan. how many businesses will be eft? i think the best thing that can be done is let the medical experts do these briefings and donald trump should stay the hell out of tv because he contradicts himself and i would take the word of the chinese communist government before i trust the word of president 45 over there and that's unfortunate for me to say. host: jamal, first-time caller, hope you will call back. thanks for joining us from illinois. tony is calling us from tampa,

florida. i want to ask you about what congress should be doing at this point. they are at an impasse after yesterday's session. go ahead. talk to us, tony. caller: i want to make a few quick points. first of all, the stock market had its best week with the country basically falling apart. that's up. unemployment up. how is the stock market making this great rebound? i wonder if some of the people that sold off before are the ones buying in? because nobody's got any money to buy into the stock market. second point, this is a country that pace out $880 billion in welfare. and we have a $900 billion record credit card debt. so some of these people should start spending their money judiciously and saving their money instead of depending on the taxpayers. third point. all this money spent, almost $6

trillion in this administration, they couldn't find $25 billion for the war that they promised us every day at a campaign. another point. while these small businesses are going out of business is because of the inflation. rents are through the roof. if they need repairs on plumbing or anything, they got to pay through their nose. government imposes wage laws to them. so, you know, i just -- those are just some points i want to point out. host: with all that, is there one message for congress about what it should be doing right now? caller: well, this congress, , humor have pelosi mcconnell and when they put rubio and collins in charge for the republicans side for anything, forget it. forget it. i mean, they're just spending money. i mean, and the inflation that's going to hit us and it's a shame

for the people that play by the rules, save their money. and that's another thing too. we can't even make any money on our money the bond market is gone. treasury bonds are no good. fixed annuities are no good. c.d.'s are no good. treasury bond less than 1%? did you ever see such rates? host: all right, tony. charles from charlotte, north carolina, you are up now. charles, how about you? what should congress be doing at this point? caller: i think congress should be doing more but i have another comment and i hope you'll give me a minute to make my point. i watched c-span for a long time and "washington journal" is one of my favorite shows. i tell my friends i wake up in the morning not with msnbc or cnn or fox. i wake up with "washington journal." but when you allow someone to come on your show and to call

the president a murderer, i for one think that you need to have standards and you have devolve into allowing people and i understand their frustration. they don't like the administration. they're not going to vote for president trump but you allow him to call him liars, bonespurs. if andrew cuomo a liar, are you going to allow anybody to get on the phone when you have a guest and call them murderers or liars or just throw any kind of criticism at them and go to the lowest common denominator. i think you need to have community standards on c-span and not allow people to name call. you thought aught to shut them off when they call them names. host: charles, we get the point. anything else you want to add about conditions out will? caller: i think people are anti-business. business people are going to be the ones to hire people back and people who say get the noun the people, they're trying through business but we have to keep the

capital system going and hopefully, they'll hire people and we'll get on the other side of this quickly. host: ok. that was charles from charlotte, north carolina. facebook comment. either fund businesses with the requirement to keep all employees on their payrolls or do what canada is doing and sending citizens $2,000 a month for four months. and let's -- there's a tweet there from the president again. this morning. congress must go back to de ductibility by businesses if they are expect expected to flourish like never before. one other storyline yesterday into today as the president seeking an easing of the shutdown. he's looking for something in may. but some are fearing a second viral wave. that's the headline in "the washington post." the trump administration is pushing to reopen much of the country next month, raising concerns among medical experts and economists of a possible covid-19 resurgence if americans

return to their normal lives if the virus is truly stamped out. behind closed doors, president trump concerned with the sagging economy has sought a strategy for resuming business by may 1. with these talks and phone calls with outside advisors, trump has floated trying to reopen much of the country before the end of this month when the current federal recommendations to avoid social gatherings and work from home expires the people said. that's in the "washington post." and politico, nancy pelosi did an interview. pelosi warns trump not to reopen the country too soon. and the story goes like this. the speaker said that the house is unlikely to return to session later this month. congress like the rest of the country could remain shuttered for weeks or longer as the coronavirus crisis continues. that's from the pages of politico. here is dr. anthony fauci about

predictions and the impact of physical separation on the rate of cases and death rate in this country. >> it is in the sense of deaths we've had weeks. every day, there seems to be a record of number of deaths compared to the day before. in fact, new york today had, again, another record of i think the city itself was about 820 plus deaths. but what we were predicting with the increase and the real adherence to the physical separation, the guidance that the vice president talks about, the physical separation, at the same time as we're seeing the increase in deaths, we're seeing rather dramatic decrease in the need for hospitalizations like yesterday was something like 200 new hospitalizations. and it's been as high as 1,400 at any given time. so that is going in the right direction. i say that and i always remind myself when i say that.

that means that what we are doing is working. and therefore, we need to continue to do it. i know i sound like a broken record. that's good. i want to sound like a broken record. let's just keep doing it. i get questions a lot, dr. burks and i, about these numbers they can projections went from 100,000, 200,000 now down to 60,000. that's a sign when as i keep saying, when you take the data you have and you reinsert it into the model, the model modifies. data is real. model is hypothesis. ok? so that's what you have to do and that's what we're seeing. the other thing that just some broad general good news from the standpoint of a scientific standpoint, that there are a lot of candidate potential therapeutics that are going into clinical trials now that we're sponsoring at the n.i.h. that will give us the answer. are they safe? are they effective? and what is the capability of

using them under what circumstances as treatments, and early disease and late disease. so as the time goes by and we have the public health measures to try and contain this, we're doing an awful lot from a scientific standpoint so that when we do get to next year, next fall, next winter, hopefully, we'll have something that we can offer in addition to the very important public health measures. host: as we round out the first hour of this program, a couple more calls. from virginia. susan, what would you like to say about the congress this morning? is more needed from the house and the senate? caller: i don't think so because ey haven't even managed to make packages available to the people that they were supposed o -- they were intended for. so why go out and appropriate more money which is going to be

borrowed money and never -- you're going to pay interest on that too. you know, so they're acting like they don't even know banking 101. host: ernest from jacksonville, florida now. caller: i think congress should do more to oversee this money. small businesses need the money these large corporations, the money needs to go down to the employees. and also in jacksonville, florida, there are going to be -- there are going to be testing done in less prospering areas and this testing for the coronavirus that's being done is being done with a test kit that has not been approved by the food and drug administration. in these areas, why aren't we getting the test that has been approved by the food and drug administration to make sure that we get a good result in this

area? congress needs to do more to oversee stuff like this. host: clinton calling from new orleans. clinton, why don't you describe the situation in new orleans and then you could talk about congress? caller: all right. do you hear me? host: yes, sir. caller: hello? >> go ahead, clinton. caller: yeah. i'm in new orleans. this is where i'm at. and it's not anything so horrible in the streets once you get out and it's empty. a lot of police. a lot of military. that's what i'm seeing. it's stressful dealing with as far as trying to readjust, being out of work. i'm nervous. excuse me. can you hear me? host: yes. keep going, clinton. caller: right now, i'm not wasting my energy and my health on what congress should be or shouldn't be doing.

and we in the middle of a pandemic. it's about our health. those people are not going to suffer. if anything trickles down or if it blows completely out of proportion and it's a pandemonium, no one on any side of that coin is going to suffer like our family. so my top priority is my health now waiting -- not waiting on a vaccine and it's about improving our health and our community. everything is augmented. it's ridiculous. i see a bunch of big wigs playing politics with our life. if i'm in the middle of a pandemic, i'm taking care of me to ensure my health is fine and not worrying about the partisan is. they don't know i exist. so it's just us screaming at the screen. and i'm reading official, official, not no just internet news piece. official news pieces that are talking about after this and we

get to the new norm, there's going to be bio metric to tag people. how is this turning into something that is a militaristic and dealing with our security? why is this long-term prediction dealing with a new norm going to be the same? we have to be followed. our security will be -- it's just a bunch that is our last call as we end this will -- this our. thist of pope francis on good friday, they have a shot of him delivering his prayer from a window overlooking st. peter's square, and when it comes to social distancing, pope francis uses a light touch. hisas forced to postpone first overseas trip of the year to malta.

he does his prayer from the -- as francisking guides the catholic church through the pandemic, he has no -- helear he feels has tried to maintain his near-normal day schedule, even as the virus has reached closer. discovered inase san marta, the hall where the pope lives. your questions and comments about the coronavirus pandemic with infectious disease specialist dr. emily landon and lately -- later we will talk with g. zachary terwilliger about law enforcement challenges.

shelley baker addresses the unemployment situation in his state at a briefing yesterday. new dataorning, released by the federal department of labor revealed people filed more for unemployment in massachusetts last week. , nearly 470,000 individuals filed new unemployment claims, and to put that number in context, typically in massachusetts over the course of the past six or seven months we would get 7000 to 10,000 new claims a month, so 470,000 over three weeks versus what would have been something more in the vicinity of 10,000 to 20,000, it 30,000 over a three week period. ande numbers are staggering

we know the story behind all of these is more than just numbers. hardship caused by the unprecedented impact of this virus. we know the virus has caused people to lose their jobs, in almost all cases through no fault of their own, and has created anxiety in households across the commonwealth and the country. people have had come -- trouble getting through to the website and are waiting for callbacks. the administration is working hard and we continue to expand our capacity and help people filing applications. we are glad the online system has been able to withstand the new volume without crashing, and that is thanks in large part to work we did to migrate the system to the cloud. this new volume of influx means we need to do more.

the department of unemployment assistance has been working nonstop and they are paying unemployment to more than 250,000 massachusetts claimants, but given the volume of new claims, people are working through the application process requires ame cases personal connection from the staff. and smallustrating mistakes can prevent a claim from getting processed right away. in situations where people need to access unemployment benefits quickly, it is crucial we do what we can to help resolve those issues. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us is dr. emily landon with university of chicago medicine. why don't you give us a sketch on the latest on the coronavirus

pandemic in chicago, across the state of illinois, and one is the peak expected? guest: tough questions off the bat. illinois is going pretty well. we are seeing a lot of new cases every day, more than we want to see, and the university of chicago has about 100 patients admitted on average every day with coronavirus. we are doing just fine. ppere stretched with our but have enough to get us through this time now. we prepared for the surge of patients and are prepared should the numbers get higher. the stay-at-home order in illinois is making a difference. see it helping to us flatten out the curve, and a steady run in the hospital to be able to manage those patients.

we have a lot of critically ill patients across the state of illinois, and you have seen the demographics that suggest illinois and chicago, the demographic is affecting our african-american population a lot more than some of our white neighborhoods. takee doing our best to care of them and provide outstanding care. i think you wanted to know when this will all end, and that is the question of the day. one important thing for people to understand is the point of flattening the curve so we can spread out the infection. that does not mean we will be able to shut it down completely. we are still having contact with other people. there are still opportunities for spread, just fewer of them with these stay-at-home orders. it will take a while before we are able to get back to the containment strategy, the public health containment strategy we had at the beginning to get us

out of this. we need to contain the virus. host: phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for our guest. eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific, (202) 748-8001. a third line just for medical professionals, (202) 748-8002. dr. landon is an associate professor of medicine at the university of chicago. typically, how long are people in the hospital when they come in for a coronavirus case? how is the rate of recovery going? guest: the most important thing is about 80% of people will be sick for about a week and will never need to be in the hospital. 15%t 20% of people, maybe get worse. get worse in the

beginning but the majority get worse in the second week and that is when they end up in the hospital needing things like oxygen and fluid and supportive care, to be monitored closely. of those, a portion will go on to need intensive care, a ventilator or life-support measures. if a patient comes in just needing oxygen, often times we that andhem through out in less than a week, and then they are on the mend and doing better. those who go on to have intensive care needs are often in the hospital for another week or two. we are seeing a good rate of recovery. we are able to get a lot of our patients off the ventilator and are seeing fewer people died that we put on ventilators then were reported from other countries, and we are really proud of that. there is still a long time to

go, as you might imagine. the ventilated patients that are critically ill lag behind because it takes a few weeks, maybe four weeks from being exposed to someone to being so sick that you need a ventilator. there are certainly plenty more patients that will come our way and we are doing our very best. i work with some of the best doctors in the world. these people are amazing and they have the best strategies to try and get people through this. not just our doctors but doctors across the country have found that turning over, laying on your stomach can make your breathing better because of the dynamics of the oxygen and the blood flow in the lungs. one thing they are doing for patients is they give them oxygen and asking them to lay on their stomach. that is able to keep a few

patients also ventilators. this is not a strategy i would recommend doing at home. if you are short of breath, you should go to the hospital where we can keep an eye on you, but little things like that can make a big difference. i am so proud of our medical team for the work they are doing , and what an amazing job they are doing. host: we are going to go for calls for dr. emily landon. eric is calling from rome, georgia. caller: don't you think that we need a health care system for all? in adequateas shown and capitalism has failed. we have went to a socialized system. the money is being spent and because this system is done for profit, not for people, bernie sanders has been saying unless everybody has health care this

will continue to spread because there are people that are homeless, people that will not get checked. a time tohis be socialize the health care system so everyone, because homeless people continue to go in the grocery stores and walk around with this disease, and that is the only way you will be able to kill the disease? the great depression, 2008, and now, and the money is being put in the socialized system, but the health care system is not being expended. host: thank you for calling. landon,ar from dr. talking about the economic system and public health care. guest: i am not an expert in the economic system, but i will tell you we are taking care of anyone that comes through our doors and i am painfully aware of the fact that it can be a disincentive to go to the doctor if people feel

like they have to pay for it. we are working with everyone at the university of chicago to provide care to matter what your level of need is for economic ability to pay is -- or economic ability to pay is. this is a difficult time and we need to work together to get through this, and then maybe there are changes we can make. we can decide this as a nation together, we can vote, and we can change. i can hear the desperation in eric's voice and i know there are so many people who feel the same way. just know that we as medical care providers are here to take care of you no matter what. there is a lot to figure out, but we can work with you to figure it out after the fact. if you are sick now and need help, we will help you now. host: the headline from "the -- the mayorimes"

will be cautious before lifting the stay-at-home order and it will depend on the amount of testing available, and people should have a level of confidence about whether or not they are infected. what about testing? guest: testing is so important. we are having even more testing available at the university of chicago, but we have cobbled together a system to meet the need in our community and we still need to do more. we have three or four different platforms we use in our hospital , but the supply chains for the reagents is getting a lot better. we are able to test most of the people that need to be tested, however what lori lightfoot is saying is true and had a lot to do with what the last caller was saying. we need more than just a health system, we need a public health

system. in chicago, we need really good public health that is able to provide testing and containment strategies like helping get people quarantined in a targeted fashion instead of having every single person stay home. we can get targeted people to stay home and cocoon those that are sick and provide them what they need and testing, but it starts with knowing who is sick and who is not sick. the best thing we can do is have widespread testing, the availability to test everyone we need. the tests are good and can tell is who is sick now and who was sick so who is now immune. the tests that measure if you are sick, that look for the actual virus in your nasopharyngeal, or knows and back of your mouth -- nose and back of your mouth swab, and we

need to look for antibodies to know if your body has seen the disease so if we were not able to test you before, we can look at your history and tell us whether or not you saw the virus or had the virus, and we will have a better idea about what is happening in our population and when it will be safe to cut back on these measures. ruth from pennsylvania for dr. emily landon. caller: thank you, doctor, for what you do. i heard that somebody from russia was saying the way they are handling this virus, they found it does not live in an alkaline environment which means we might be able to control our by controlling our diet. i don't know. i think people who live on hamburgers and soda might be on a higher risk of not surviving.

if this thought has anything to i, it might be anecdotal, but put it out there because it sounds like it might make some sense because we don't know who is living and who is dying once they contacted. guest: your question has a complex answer. inside our bodies is our blood and organs and tissues. our body has a number of systems to maintain the ph or alkalinity or acidity of our body at a constant level. you can eat as much as it is you want and it will not change what your ph is in your tissue. alkaline,t as much drink as much alkaline water as you can find, and the alkalinity of your blood and tissues will not change. we only see those things change when the body gets really sick

that it cannot manage it and at that point we are giving fluids to keep the body in balance because our bodies do not work well at any ph other than a tightly held range. if this is true, it would be helpful to control the virus on surfaces and the environment, but inside the human body we have to live with a ph of 7.4 or else we will not survive. no changing of the ph inside the human virus -- body will help fight this virus, but the better our nutrition is, some vitamins do make a difference and there is preliminary evidence about that. eating a healthy diet, getting lots of exercise and plenty of rest. there is plenty of evidence that enough sleep can prevent illness. we need to do better with our

diet, exercise, and sleep, and mental health. being stuck at home for long periods of time can be hard. i work at home and i worked to arrange things. i do not see frontline patients because i myself am immunocompromised, so this is my work too. that mental health piece is not insignificant. we all need to make sure we are doing our best. host: karen is in clayton, indiana. caller: hello, and thank you so much for bringing up the idea of public health system. that is comprehensive. i worked for the health department in indiana for a long time and my question is this -- how are the chicago hospitals, the mayor and the governor utilizing your rural health

hospitals? i believe the rural health hospitals are all kind of floundering at this point with regulations and lack of equipment, but this would be an opportunity to shore those up for the hundreds of thousands of people in rural areas. host: thank you for caller. -- calling. a couple of callers calling about rural hospitals. guest: it is tough for us to keep up with the rules and regulations and instructions coming out of all of the literature being made, and this is not because people are trying to make it difficult. this is because we are learning about the virus and doing it in real-time. any time we have a substantial preponderance of the evidence that says we need to change something, we need to make that right away, and good -- in a can

be smaller for rural hospitals to keep up. we are making our policies and procedures available to anyone who needs them. we have heard from colleagues and friends and we are sharing with cities across -- hospitals across chicago, a number of us are involved in citywide and statewide organizations to make sure everyone is getting the help they need. your work in indiana public health is valuable. we cannot discount how valuable our local, state, and federal health departments have been. they have been providing the links to the rural communities and larger communities to meet this challenge. friends and colleagues in the public health department in our local chicago department of health every day.

it is tough for all of us to get the ppe and ventilators we need and the help we need, the doctors and nurses that we need, but no one is struggling more than rural health. i understand that. we are doing our best to make sure -- make our advice available. i have family in rural communities in illinois, and i know what great things these systems can do to help out, and how hard they work and how difficult it is for them. all i can do is send them my help and encourage more public help. we all can see the need for stronger, more robust public health department. it is essential to our safety and health. host: a text from robert in california -- should hospitals invest in uv lighting because it kills the coronavirus? is that true? guest: uv lights to kill

coronavirus. we have had these fancy uv robots for some time. we put them into a room when the patient is leaving the hospital and we need to do what we call a terminal clean on their room. it gets completely cleaned with bleach and then we put these ub -- uv robots in -- they don't look like humans, they are just lighting structures. we put one in the room, one in the bathroom, close the blinds, and set them to shine a light -- people have said sunlight is the best disinfectant and this is the inside the hospital version of that -- we shine a light on all these different surfaces in the room and that does help kill off extra germs. there is evidence at works for

coronavirus. if your hospital does not have one of these systems, it can take a long time to arrange. , andare not inexpensive bleach and regular disinfectant kill coronavirus too, so it is not essential, but certainly if it is part of your long-term cleaning plan, we like it and use it for specific circumstances, not for every single patient but when we need it, and we are using it for coronavirus. in some of our procedural areas, health care workers are wearing for procedures that are pretty low risk, but because they have these aerosol generation things happening during the procedure, even if the patient is not known to have covid or symptoms of covid, there is a risk and we want them to wear their n95.

we do not have a ton of supply and we are trying hard to not have them reused so we disinfect them and we use uv light. our colleagues at the university of nebraska came up with this plan and our colleagues at argonne national lab, we are working with them. they helped us to work on calculating exactly how much be,t, how close it needs to and after you use your mask for a procedure you turn it back in with your name on it and they put it in a little shelf like lightto hold it up to the , and we blast them with uv light long enough that we know it will penetrate and kill off coronavirus on both sides of the mask, and return them to the same user. that can be effective in making

sure they are not contaminated. it is not a fabulous plan if you have used those and a highly patients withith known covid, and we have not done that, but we are doing it in some procedure areas. ast: dr. emily landon is chief infectious disease epidemiologist at the university of chicago, a medical agree from university school of medicine. on the phone, we have jackie. caller: i am 71 and i have asthma, but the questions i have, i don't think it relates to my circumstances. what is to prevent somebody from being tested in the morning and being free, and then later that day they catch it, or the next day they catch it, or the person

that is having their temperature taken to go to work and they have no symptoms, but they say you don't have to have symptoms to pass on the virus, and it seems like the only thing that really makes sense to me from listening to all of this is that people get a test and they are they goee, and then into a section of society where everybody is virus-free and that is the only way you can truly be safe. otherwise, you have to keep taking precautions. super jackie, you are up early in santa clara, california , and you should consider a second career in public health. you have great thoughts. it is important to note that especially when we test asymptomatic individuals, it does not give us any guarantee

about tomorrow or later today. the tests are not that great in asymptomatic individuals. i know you hear about this or that person being exposed and tested negative. that does not tell us anything about whether they will be positive tomorrow, and we don't know. temperature taking methods are great for if you, for example, we ask health care workers to take their temperature twice a day because if you are starting to see a fever, that can give you a heads up that things might be happening, but it is not the only thing. we should not assume because somebody does not have a fever they are completely fine. plenty of people have had coronavirus and covid-19 and did not have any fever. we have had some people whose only symptom is a little bit of

congestion and not being able to smell or taste, so we need to be thoughtful about what we are feeling. now, i want to get into this issue of the mask because it makes a big difference. fabric masks are being recommended at the cdc and we are using them at the university, not so much because they will protect you from people with coronavirus but because you can contract it before you get sick. i do not have a crystal ball to know who will be sick in two days, but a couple days before you get sick you can transmit coronavirus in the respiratory droplets when you sneeze or talk. right now, mine are in my living room and i am in a safe place because only my son and i will have contact.

i ami leave the house, if going to get sick in the next couple of days and i wear a mask , that keeps my respiratory droplets inside my mask. unless i am sneezing or coughing, it will do really good. the respiratory droplets off my fingers and that means they will not be carrying respiratory droplets onto the other things i am touching, which will help in public transportation and grocery store. it would be great if we could all wear surgical masks, but there are not enough of them and we have to save them for medical workers. those masks are best used by them. fabric masks are the way to go. we made a bunch of them at my house. masks and i made some

with leftover fabric and old clothes. sort of iron it together and use hair ties as the ear holes. i got information on a number of different websites and we were able to make those, and that is the answer we are looking for right now. there is really something important to say about who is sick and who is not sick. host: 15 more minutes left with our guest, dr. emily landon. i meant to ask about the cook county jail. chicago's jail is now the top u.s. hotspot as the virus spreads behind bars. what is being done about it? guest: i am not on the inside of what is being happening, but i can only imagine what it is like . i have seen the numbers and talked to people involved, and it is a tragedy.

it is just not the ability to keep people separated. it is different than a nursing home outbreak, like we saw some homes in washington, incidentally being propagated and we are having that same experience in nursing homes across america. they are doing an amazing job trying to control this virus and keep it out of these nursing homes, but it is such an incredibly high risk population. my heart goes out to all of our loved ones in these places, and it is hard because you cannot visit them and this sort of thing, but those rules are really important. many of them are doing a heroic job trying to protect their patients, but the same thing is true inside the jails. people are living close together. i am not a public policy guru and, i am a health person,

from a health standpoint i think we need to do more. i would like to see more masks, but i know the people working on this problem inside the jail are doing everything they can, and to be honest, those numbers could be a lot higher if it were not for some of the amazing work happening with my colleagues in public health. as awful as it is, i want to try and look at the bright side that they are doing something, and everyone should know that every time you hear about one of these horrible outbreak situations, that everyone is doing their best. we need to keep in mind, no matter how divided we are as a nation and as a people and whether we agree on this or that policy of doing things, everyone is in this together, and we are doing, health care workers, economists, policymakers are all doing our best to try to get through this unbelievable situation. it is truly historic what we are

experiencing here together. i have had the opportunity to talk to people i never get to talk to, people in different walks of life, people in different parts of community and society that i would otherwise never have a chance to get to know, and that has been a real silverlining. it is a thin silver lining for many of us. you should know that we are working together and some of the connections and contacts we had will make us better as we go forward into the future. from we have a caller montana. caller: i would like to address the question of the test. any listeners can go to the seas read whatwebsite and this pcr test can and cannot accomplish. it says if you test positive for this virus, it is the case that

you have an infection with it but it does not mean that this is the cause of your illness. it also does not mean that you do not have the flu or some other bacterial infection or something else causing you to be ill. it also says if you test negative, that does not mean you do not have the virus. clinical information must be taken to figure out whether or not you really do, so that means you could test negative but have the flu, go into the hospital, but your son just got back from wuhan, china, so we are going to write this down as a covid infection. the healthinister of ministry in italy has admitted that italy has been very generous and what they are calling covid. basically, that is what you are doing here. people who have pneumonia and flulike symptoms and this, that,

and the other, you are calling it covid, and if you look at the numbers, they are not great from a fear point. in a normal flu system -- season , 60,000 people die and in 2019, 70,000 people died, not counting your copd and respiratory deaths. this is a big scam being played on us and bill gates and others are behind it. epidemiologists need to go through these charts. back in 1984, fauci and others went off the map and changed virology forever. in the old days you isolated a virus and you had antibodies and that meant you had encountered it and were not likely to get it again. host: thank you for your points.

you can respond to any part of that. guest: you are making important points. this medical test is not perfect. no test is perfect. we need to take clinical consideration and account with every test we do. we can say yesay or no, black and white for every diagnosis, but it is not like that. the diagnosis in the united states requires a positive test and a positive test means you have covid. whether or not you died because of covid or with covid -- those are different things -- are very different. what goes on to a death certificate is based on what the physician or medical examiner thinks resulted in the death of the patient, and covid has been an important indicator. so many people want to compare apples to oranges and say we

have so many deaths from the flu each year and that is why we should not worry about this. we have got to stop this thinking. the math is real. if we do not social distance, we will not be able to control this virus and we will have thousands and thousands of people dying in what i call preventable mortality. these are people who would survive covid and we can have a 1%, 2% mortality rate if everyone can get the care they need. if we have too many people sick at the same time, we will not be able to provide the medical care and people will die waiting for medical care. the difference between the flu and covid is every year, many people are immune to the flu because you see the flu every year and some of them are the same. every year, 20% are immune of experiences before. we also have good antivirals

which help us take patients who are high risk and keep them out of the hospital. you can use it to prevent outbreaks and places like nursing homes. we do nothas things have in coronavirus. social distancing, our huge flu outbreak went to zero. maybe one case a week. this is very different from flu. flu left to run rampant in our community is held back by immunity, vaccine, and antiviral . when coronavirus runs rampant it is not held back in our medical systems do not have any slack. we have only enough beds as we need. it is expensive to run medical care in the united states. we don't have a bunch of extra

beds. i know some of you have had the experience of waiting for a bed or having to stay in an emergency room, and that is without a pandemic. ,e do not have extra facilities physicians, ppe's, anything to take care of the extra people that would get sick in a pandemic, and the only option that leaves us with you because of the way things have been set up is to stay home. i know you want to look at this and say it is not bad. please, let's not make it bad. that is what our mental health, what we want to do as humans, say, this is not bad. we want to look at the silverlining. we want to be optimistic, but i do not want people to die. host: mckeesport, pennsylvania, richard. --ler: i am just wondering and this is a common sense

question and i would expect a common sense answer -- first of all, leaders forgot to read the book about leadership 101. you lead by example. what i don't understand, and every viewer will agree with me, why on television, especially when the president is on the air every day, including you, beginningy in the now, why did they not lead by example with social distancing? these people on that little stage that the president stands at the podium on were standing shoulder to shoulder just to get there mug on a screen. why they were not practicing leadership by separating themselves, they are shoving it down everybody's throat to keep

six feet away from everybody and they weren't doing that on television. host: thanks for calling. what do you make in the general sense of the leadership and the federal government, and from the state government, beginning with folks in illinois in springfield, chicago, and elsewhere? guest: i want to tell richard, you are preaching to the choir. i have been saying the same thing since the beginning and you can ask anyone in my hospital. the first thing i said is we need to be separated. no one can share offices, no one in the same room. i am reticent to answer your question about the federal government response because i am a hospital epidemiologists, and i want to say that everybody is doing their best, but i do want to make a comment about this social distancing piece because it is really important.

the most important thing i can say is we need to lead by example. we need to stay six feet apart. i am in my living room because i do not need to be in my office at work answering these questions so i am out because that is the safest thing. essentialmportant for workplaces to find a way to make it safer for their essential workers to be there. in the hospital, we have to keep having a hospital. we are not doing business as usual. we are doing business better and safer, meaning we are wearing ppe not just when we are next to patients, but we are using fabric masks to protect other health care workers in case someone gets sick. we are doing social distancing. people do rounds the way i am doing with you. instead of everyone going into a room together, we have one doctor go in the room and

everyone meets via videoconference and discusses what to do about the patient instead of having everybody in there. some of our teams have one person who goes in at rounds, local on the floor and goes in and examines the patient's, and they report everything that is going on so they can get the insight and help they need from the experts and clinicians without them having to be at the bedside, because we never want people to be less than six feet apart. we removed computers and workstations. we took chairs out of waiting areas. we made it impossible for people to congregate. saying,roving monitors get on the phone, talk that way. when we started doing that, health care workers stopped getting sick. we had a number that were sick very early on in this pandemic

and we have been testing them to make sure we do not have covid positive nurses getting -- treating our patients. these were not providers seeing or taking care of our covid patients. they were catching it from outside the hospital and spreading it to people in their area in workrooms, when they were congregating for lunch, so we closed all the seating at the cafeteria. everything is mobile and take out. sick healthcell -- care workers has plummeted between social distancing at home and at work. we are keeping people and patients safe, meaning patients that come in with covid and without. we are providing the care for anything. becauseble to do that we know our health care workers are safe because we are

practicing what we preach with social distancing. everybody needs to be doing that in our grocery stores and our essential businesses because everyone deserves to be protected, even people who have to go to work. host: we know you have to leave in about a minute. final thoughts on what you will be looking for in the numbers in the days and weeks ahead. guest: it is so important that we have a good plan for how to get out of this, and that will include social distancing measures. i am working closely with premier economists at the university of chicago to help figure out ways to be more nuanced about how we start things again so that places at the lowest risk for creating bad health incomes but the highest benefit for the economy can be restarted earlier and we can do it safely with a good public health containment strategy on

the back and. --end. we will learn new things and blaze new trails, and together we will figure out a way to get through this unbelievably historic and difficult time. my heart goes out to all of you suffering from medical illness and suffering from the similarly bad economic losses that are happening to people. i understand. you need life support in the same way our medical patients need life support, and i strongly encourage everyone to work together to provide the economic life support everyone needs. my heart goes out to you. the last thing i want to say is a heartfelt and absolutely genuine, from the bottom of my heart, gratitude and thank you to all of the health care workers out there and all of the public health officials working. i am right there with you.

it is hard work. you on the front lines wearing uncomfortable masks, uncomfortable ppe's, with sick i amnts, we are with you, with you, and thank you for everything you do because you are getting us through this. att: dr. emily landon university of chicago medicine, thank you for your time and expertise. guest: thank you. host: we will continue to take some of your calls, sort of an open phones segment on the coronavirus. the house is coming in at 9:00 eastern for a pro forma session. that means no legislative business expected, should be a brief session, and then we will talk to the eastern district of virginia's attorney, zachary terwilliger.

the guest is gone, but do you have a comment? caller: yes, i do, and i was hoping to get this to the doctor and i was hoping you could pass this along. i have tried texting and emailing but i'm not getting through to the people. i need to ask a question, is any doctors using repair of a cane -- injections in the lungs? infection and i get i get these injections and i breathe. it will not help with the inflammation inside the lungs, but i am a massage therapist and anybody who has breathing problems usually has back, scapula, neck tightness. , the closest thing

i can think of is like a novocain and it lasts about three days, and it might give some time to get through this. i am just asking the question if they have tried this, because it is so effective, at least for me, and it does not have a lot of bad side effects, at least not for me. along pass this question -- i have tried dr. fauci and i am in california and we have gavin newsom. everyone is overwhelmed in terms of phone calls and trying to respond, but this has been such an effective and quick treatment for me. host: mary is calling from goldsboro, north carolina. about: i want to find out 1945am 88 years old and in

, i had diphtheria. what we did was i was taken to hospital and then they did a fumigation to the house. i am wondering why they are not doing this. , ifou fumigate every house they come up with something for fumigate in each house, it would kill the germs. if they have a smoke fumigation put in, the smoke will enter all the cracks and all the spaces. this way it will kill all of the germs. also but bring this up in france, we were military, we lived in base housing, and they had six families in a stayaway. we had trouble with some roaches and we went to the office and

told them we had seen a few roaches. they came to the apartment when we were out and told us to leave for two hours, and they fumigated the apartment with some kind of smoke fumigation. when we came back two hours later, we could not put our feet down on the floor because there was innumerable roaches. we could not count them. why can they not fumigate places, even the ships that had it the beginning? host: kenny in whitehall, illinois, what are you waiting to say? on, i: the virus going worked 30 years for school districts and maintenance. you never hear anything -- and i watch the hospitals when i take my wife to her treatment -- you don't see any of these maintenance guys with their

on theith filters to go heating and cooling system, changing them and all. i remember we had a flu epidemic years ago and that we would change them filters once a month. to we changed up weeks, twoo to three weeks was the best to change them filters and everything. how come you don't hear about what they are doing on fumigated the heating and cooling systems -- fumigating the heating and cooling systems? you understand what i'm saying? host: thank you for weighing in. politico has this headline -- treasury expected to get started on stimulus payments today,

talking about paper checks. they are expected to take the first steps giving access to millions of americans. paper checks will start going out early next month so some could take up to five months to reach recipients, and there are still unanswered questions about how banks will handers some of them. response includes ensuring the money well make -- , 1200the right accounts for individuals, $2400 for --ples, and $600 for kids $500 for children. . personale federal protective equipment stockpile has been depleted.

face shields, gowns, and the remaining 10% will be reserved for federal workers. that will not be sent to the states. we have june on the line. caller: i have a quick question regarding the doctor. host: she has left, but what are you interested in? caller: what i understand, the outcomes of covid related deaths and complications from mechanical ventilation and into baiting patients, that is all -- patients. host: patrick is calling from st. louis, missouri. caller: i am calling because i have a few things to say. for the people in the suburbs of the larger cities, we all are

toys "r" us kids. we all know where toys "r" us are, but they are all shut down or shuttered. our question is can the emergency powers act, takeover like empty, shuttered real estate because instead of making tents like hospitals, there would be controlled environments and things like that in shuttered businesses like old malls and stuff like that. thing, my thoughts and condolences to all the people who have lost people. thank you very much to the hospital staff, nurses, even custodial workers and rest in peace, john prine and joe diffie. maybe those faces will get some help from the government. thank you so much, c-span.

host: stephen is calling for murrells inlet in south carolina. caller: an observation and a common. last week we had the president going up on a conference about how they put all these people back from different countries, 50,000 people. he showed a diagram. all those whites came into new york city, san francisco, and texas. i find that pretty interesting. was there any follow-up on any of those people? it is just the way it was done. you brought all these people into the states -- he is not a big fan of these two states -- and my observation is if we are in a grocery store -- and i see this constantly -- if you pick something up, buy it. do not pick it up and look at

it. quit picking it up and looking at it and putting it back down, please. it is all i can do to say something so please out of the respective everybody, stop picking stuff up and putting it back down. if you are going to buy it, buy it. thank you to the young lady who was on earlier, the doctor. she is incredible. host: dr. emily landon was our previous just. you can watch that full segment -- previous guest. you can watch that full segment on c-span.com. the coronavirus outbreak came from europe and other parts of the u.s.. research projects suggest it may have been circulating in new york city earlier than thought and earlier cases were from travelers from europe and other

parts of the united states, not china. as early as late january the virus was circulating in new york. the new york times has this story -- deep drop in mail volume leads postal service and a bind. ,order crossings are plummeting according to border officials, crediting trump policies. fewer than 100 migrants are being held in cbp facilities, down from a struggle -- staggering 20,000 last may. farmers are dumping food as demand drops. closed restaurants creates surplus of milk, bacon, chicken, farmers cannot use. isolating against the way to a newiving threat, starvation. murphy is calling from shreveport, louisiana.

caller: how are you doing? host: doing good. morning, the guy you had came on and was talking about paying child support but not getting a check. can you hear me? host: yes, we are listening. caller: he was saying that everybody is going to get a , even behind on child support. senator grassley came up with the idea that people who was behind on child support should not get a check, and i want to make them does i want to know what makes them think a person who cannot pay child support does not have a hardship too? people are struggling like everyone else and saying they ain't going to get a check. on the second part of your

program, mitch mcconnell, they whole and we go along. they are passing from the very beginning. there andhere and still we are just on the test people. they need to come out and say everybody in america has to be tested so people can be talking about going back to work. no use in talking about opening up the economy unless all america has been tested. -- they arethis is pushing out the old people and pushing out the poor people. again andonomy going start everybody out and go through everything, started all over again. host: more of your calls later.

we have to take a brief timeout to take you to the floor of the house of representatives. they will have a pro forma session. we expect no business. from g.at we will hear zachary terwilliger. we will come back with our guest and your calls.