the 2020 president ca candidates to address this. >> is up to 2020 presidential candidates to protect us from the tech companies before the tech companies decide for us. >> you can watch each studentcam documentary online at studentcam.org. coming up this morning, ywca the efforts about to keep victims of domestic violence- domestic safe during the coronavirus. chuck grassley comes into this -- calls in to discuss the coronavirus relief legislation. and then we hear from the county executive from new york on the impact of the pandemic in his county and the need for

additional federal assistance. later, pbs frontline correspondent talks about pbs frontline's latest documentary host: good morning, everyone. confirmed cases of the 780 7000,s stands out 960. conversation our with hazard pay for frontline workers. you think they should get paid more than their hourly wages or their salaries as it stands right now? we want to know your opinion. other essential workers, (202) 748-8001. business owners, is this feasible? .202) 748-8002 al

, first also text us name, city and state. we will post your comments on twitter. we will get to what you have to in just ahazard pay minute. some front page headlines we want to share with you this morning. oil street journal, u.s. costs less than zero after a sharp monday selloff. there is nowhere to store the oil that is being pumped. the president tweeting out late last night in light of the attacks from the invisible enemy , i will be signing an executive order to temporarily suspend emigration into the united states. no details on when he will sign long he willd how

suspend immigration. there is no travel ban in place right now. the president is talking about stopping immigration. cnn wrote the story last night. the north korean leader kim jong on is in grave danger after surgery. hazard pay for frontline workers, what do you think. andrew, no the governor of new york had this to say. >> two thirds of those frontline workers are women. one third come from low income households. they've been doing this work. they are going home to a household that has to wage earners, one is not working. they are living just on that one salary. after all of that, we see the infection rate among african-american and brown

americans hire proportionately than other groups. why? because they are out there exposing themselves. i believe all the studies will wind up saying when you are home with your doors locked, dealing with cabin fever, they were out there dealing with the coronavirus. that is why they are more infected. pay them what they deserve. pay, givey hazard them a 50% bonus. i would do that now. that is governor cuomo on hazard pay. we want to get your opinion on this. medical providers, (202) 748-8000. if you are another type of essential worker, (202) 748-8001 . does this owners, is it feasible?

-- business owners, is it feasible? (202) 748-8002 is your line. this is from a few weeks back. he's been pushing for essential inkers to get up to $25,000 hazard pay. under his new plan, essential workers would include medical arsenal like doctors and nurses, also pharmacists, truck drivers, building cleaners, transportation security administration and transit workers that interface with the public every day. -- the pay increase would be retroactive through the end of the year. this is the same hazard pay military receives. the proposal also calls for

15,000 recruitment incentives to retain medical health care workers amid the pandemic. sender peters and other democrats are pushing for this aoposal to be included in fourth economic aid bill that congress is debating right now. $450so far includes billion. it includes money for small businesses aid, hospitals, money for testing. do you think frontline workers should get hazard pay? deborah in maryland did what do you think? caller: it is scary out there. my husband is still working. he works at a body shop. i haven't received my stimulus

check yet. do i get one? host: do you make less than $75,000? get $800 for social security disability. host: if you go to the washington post website and put in the stimulus checks, they have a section about what you need to know about them. james is in stafford, virginia. what do you think? former -- i a retired from the department of corrections. at least one person who is virus.d has the a shame they have to be there, but they do.

thinks about corrections officers. i hear about police and the fire department. corrections officers are stuck in there. they are around a lot of people. aboutre you have heard some of the complications of the virus in jails. i haven't heard the news say anything about these people. these officers deserve money. they deserve extra pay for the hard work they do every single day. i think it's a shame that the news, not one station makes them a priority. not one. i have never understood that after 30 years of working there every single day. now, they are putting themselves and their families on the line. they are not getting any real support. either from the administration, the public, from the news stations, from the president,

from the mayors. i think they deserve it. host: how much on average do these prison workers make? caller: on average, they make about $45,000 a year. everybody thinks that they make a lot of money. that's not true. we don't make a lot of money. where the money is better. part, the average person is not making more than $50,000 per year. host: let's go to mount vernon, new york. caller: i work for the water department. still,ou are working going into the office? caller: that is correct. i am still working. , even though we have gloves and masks, we don't make

a lot of money. we do everything to make sure hydrants are working, anything that concerns water to make sure it is running properly, doing samples. sure the city water is working. we fix any leaks of there is a water main break. we are essential workers. without us, there wouldn't be any water. that's what we do. host: how much do you make? caller: we get paid wages. it's salary. we get salary plus overtime. $60,000.oint, we are out there every day. since the pandemic happened, we

come to work every day. deserve hazard pay. we are on the front lines. officers,the police like the doctors and nurses. somehow, they forget about us. we are on the line every day and we are making sure there are no leaks, people have water coming into their house in the wire hydrants are working for the firefighters. host: rick is in florida. what do you do? we are not working right now. we are doing virtual. i know the parents and families with their kids to go back to school. we need to get that hazard pay.

are you part of the teachers union? has there been a discussion , not going back unless you get paid more? caller: making sure the guidelines are right when we do go back. kids carry germs all over the place. at, thechool i was whole school was sick. the basketball coach was sick. if it wasndering bronchitis. the whole basketball team was sick. i would like to have a show on consumers we need that lift. the $1200 should just be for food. host: as a teacher, would you

take mortgage relief over hazard pay? caller: yes, i would. lucky, theif i'm teachers will still get paid. that's a big part of the deal. that's almost 80% of my bill, the mortgage. if we could get some relief off mortgages, that would help out. rick in florida, before you go, what do you think about the beaches being opened up in your state, reopening the after he put in stricter guidelines? caller: people are out anyway in florida. people are at walmart. i see them everywhere. they are going to have to be smart about it.

i wish he would have done it early. get control of the sting. right now, it's a testing problem. we don't know if we have it or not. half of the population doesn't know if they are carriers. host: this is a story from cbs news. emergency doctors are taking a cuts. the financial fallout of the pandemic is affecting some of the vital health care workers. cbs news talk to your doctor's. they are taking pay cuts of up to 40%. they are cutting benefits and shifts to shut down.

we are asking all of you, should there be hazard pay for frontline workers? felicia in georgia. what do you do? caller: good morning. i am a respiratory therapist. 0 host: have you seen covid-19 patients? the regular. then i took a job working in a nursing home. there is definitely covid in the nursing homes. say one of the other colors said correctional officers, police officers were not being mentioned. this is the only time we have

ever been mentioned. we are the main ones that incubate the patients, but in the air weight. we run the ventilator. we needed it to her three months ago. host: how much do you make? here, on thedown last tax returns, $42,000. i hope they put some student loan forgiveness. i risk my life every day for my patients. i love my job. i have a 12 month old. i have my senior mother i come home to. i'm stressed out and worried that i'm going to bring this to my home. host: what do you do to protect yourself? caller: i stay out in the country.

i am taking off my clothes, my shoes. before i grab my baby, i hop in the shower. i'm not touching anything. i'm leaving my close outside. i'd bring them in later in a bag and i washed them immediately. i'm not playing games with this. i have two children. my oldest is eight years old and he has asthma. my youngest doesn't have a full immune system yet. citizen, i don't need this coming up in here. it is stress to go to work every day. most hospitals are reusing ppe. how are we decreasing the spread if we are reusing personal protective equipment? it's ridiculous. we need hazard pay. i'm on the battlefield just like these soldiers are.

please help us us in as possible. why are you scared of getting this? describe what you have seen when you treated these patients. when they finally make theo the hospital, presentation can get worse. there is extreme shortness of breath. needing higher than a little settings. the family members can't come back. they can't talk to their family. worse.e getting anything wes on have dealt with. we need the support from our leadership. the governors, senators, the

president, we need representation in health care. help.d more we need more equipment. usingon your point of more staff, we will go to the washington post. told on being an er nurse in an overwhelmed hospital. this person writes,

cornell in south carolina, what do you do? you are an essential worker? good morning. you've got to turn down the television. caller: hello? you work with somebody with special needs? you have to leave your home to work with that person?

caller: yes, i do. host: you've got to turn down the tv. good morning to you. caller: i don't think they should get hazard pay. life is about choices. you can die at any time. read your bible. life is a hazard. this way of life is coming to an end. do you think military personnel should get extra pay when they are on the front lines of war? caller: yeah. i see this a little bit differently. that is military. that's national defense. this is a national defense. you can get tuberculosis from a deer. or leprosy from an armadillo. host: michael, what do you do?

caller: i worked for the cable company. host: are you interacting with a lot of people? caller: every day. host: has business gone up? caller: it has tremendously. we have to go into houses every day. i think we should definitely get hazard pay. host: what do you do to protect yourself? ander: we wear masks sanitation products. you don't know what you are facing when you go into a house. host: does the company provide ppe? caller: yes. host: have they offered bonuses? caller: no. host: are you working more hours? caller: yes. host: are you making more money? you could really say no,

but yes. host: how much do you make per hour? at $16.right host: no discussion of hazard pay? caller: no. host: are they hiring people? caller: not at this time. michael, if you were to receive a bonus or hazard pay, what would you do with the money? caller: save it. you never know it's going to happen in the future. host: do you have health care for your company? caller: yes. host: what are they set about covering you if you get covid-19? caller: time off with pay. host: ok. cable worker in alabama.

tj is in california. what do you do? caller: i work in a doctor's office. i take appointments at the doctor's office. everybody, anybody who works in the general public, should get hazard pay. it's nuts that you can't get testing. trusting the government, i have so many patients that come in that haven't gotten their stimulus checks. it's amazing. there is something funny going on. host: these patients that are coming in, are they coming in to see the doctor? for a variety of reasons? just covid-19? i don't know if they

have that or not. primarily, no. it's dangerous because you don't know, you have no idea what you are dealing with. you don't know if they have it or not. host: are they wearing masks when they come in? caller: yes. they are not allowed to have family members in the lobby. we take three people in the lobby at one time. that's how we work it. host: are you seeing less patients now? maybe a little bit. we are still pretty busy. host: tj in california. an update for all of you on negotiations over a fourth economic stimulus bill.

table,llion is on the most going to the small business pay protection program that ran out of money. so that is for hospitals and more testing. this is the speaker of the house on anderson cooper last night. conversationsin with the final language. i think we've come to terms. it is always in the fine print. hopefully we will come to a conclusion tonight so it can be taken up in the senate. have at go until we final agreement. more financial relief is in the works. follow up the rescue

package with more tests and more testing. talk has turned to a larger economic recovery package that into send more cash struggling americans. this would be another economic aid bill, a fifth one. people would be eligible for cash payments of $2000 per month for six months. lawmakers are piecing together the next package. could be partef of that package along with assistance to hospitals. that is an update and wants happening here in washington.

some members would like to see hazard pay. we are asking your opinion about that this morning. charlie is a business owner in florida. what is your business? caller: i do environmental consulting work in oil. shutdownrimarily because oil prices have collapsed. i was a firefighter. we get hazard pay. turnedr the helicopter over, we got 2.5 times hazard pay. it's no different than a firefighter or nurse or doctor, they are still working. they are being exposed. you see the problems in the nursing homes are they didn't get the protective gear. store,go to the grocery nobody is wearing a face mask.

though those people have been tested. they are just as critical, the people who are handling our food. use of the story about the smithfield plant. how do you have one third of your employees come down with a virus? a lot of people there are illegal or living with 20 people in a home. they get no vacation time or sick leave. you can expect some is it doesn't have sick leave, if they are sick they've got to go to work. for is the cost we pay seven dollar and wage. -- minimum wage. are you agreeing with hazard pay? i agree with hazard pay, absolute. would give hazard pay

to workers. first of all, they should be tested. $2 trillion just went out to ruth's chris steakhouse. why not give the money to florida and have everybody tested? taiwan, they tested 10% of the population. if you look at the sample in timesrnia, they found 60 the number of people had the virus in their immune system. is, are they passing the virus to other people? out,u don't get the test you will never get the economy up and going again. host: that is echoed in a headline in the new york times. testing needs to triple before

the u.s. can reopen, according to experts. what is dr. fauci. caller: it needs to be more than tripled. if you want people to get back to work and be in close contact with each other, they've got to be trusted. assume you've got a negative test, you could need another test. now they are saying most of the tests they've been doing are coming back 60% in error. you might get a false negative. that's like a pregnancy test, there's a 50% chance. the opinion page of the new york times editorial board writes u.s. workers deserve that are protection. they write about the

occupational association. measuresld require such as staggered shifts and lunch breaks to protect employees and jobs like manufacturing. guidelines evaluate that permit employers to bring some back to the job. some say the new policy is meant to keep businesses running risk theory -- risk free.

you can read more in the new york times this morning. monica in michigan, what do you do for a living? caller: good morning. right now, i am furloughed. social security disability for homeless clients. my husband is immune suppressed. the doctor ordered me to stay home. my coworkers are still there. they are at the homeless shelter. they are not getting any hazard pay. they don't get extra time off. one of them contracted the virus this week. i am sitting home. are paying more to sit at home than they are paying my coworkers to be on the front line of this. those people need hazard pay and they need it now. host: how much are they making

an hour? caller: everybody does different jobs and gets different levels. i know that right now what i am making on unemployment is $100 per week more than when i was working. host: is that because they boosted benefits? lucky: i am one of the ones. i am safe. i am wracked with guilt because my colleagues are there every day. they get a minimal amount of ppe. i was there for a couple of weeks before i was furloughed. they issued us one mask. i don't know if it's gotten better since then. the homeless people that we take care of, they are there 24/7. the staff is there .47. host: do they have protective

gear for the homeless? caller: heavens no. there is nothing for them. there is one bathroom in that shelter for all the homeless. there is one bathroom for the staff. that's why i had to go home. if i caught the scent of it home to my husband, it would potentially kill him. so many people so close together, it's only a matter of time before somebody got exposed. it happened last week. i am so frightened for my coworkers. it's just not fair that i am home safe and i get the benefit of that and they aren't work and they get nothing. they need hazard pay. this tweet:

says:r viewer cliff says: sam and georgia: scott in houston: alicia in michigan, you are a

medical provider. caller: i'm a home care aide. host: you are in the home of your client? caller: yes i am. host: full-time? caller: pretty much. out: you don't go in and and spread the virus? caller: exactly. i asked myconcern, employer if they were going to a that. the answer was they couldn't afford it because they are small company. i just had a conversation with the agency yesterday, they said they have applied for the loan. they don't know if they have been approved or not. impression that they were going to cut the employees short. who is to say that they are not going to get this hazard pay and

then not pass it on to the employee? i remember on the television they said if they got the hazard pay, they will go retroactive back to when this started. says that is at the employees discretion. this is not helping the company out. the: you are referring to article i read at the top. this is from a couple of years ago. it is being pushed by senator gary peters. you are right. he said to make it retroactive. there would -- it would be the equivalent of $13 per hour. it would be retroactive.

attract for $15,000 to medical workers amid the pandemic. i don't know how it would be distributed. this is something the senator once to include in a fifth economic aid stimulus bill. there is a fourth bill on the table that deals with small business loans. this would come later. we are a couple of weeks away from this fifth economic aid bill. is that what you are referring to? caller: exactly. there is more to it than that. saw were telling me when i and heard isn't what i saw and heard. that theys feeling are not going to be fair with their employees. as you know, some

governors are starting to reopen their states, including the georgia governor. reopening announcing on friday. >> given the favorable data, enhanced testing, improvable of care providers, we will allow barbers, gyms, or artists,, nail care schools, massage therapists to reopen their doors this friday, april 24. unlike other businesses, these unable toave been manage inventory, deal with payroll, take care of administrative items while sheltered in place. this allows them to undertake

baseline operations that most other businesses in the state maintained since i issued the shelter-in-place order. this measure will apply statewide. it will be the standard in all jurisdictions. takenaction cannot be that is more or less restrictive. host: the republican governor of georgia, let's listen to gavin newsom in california. this is what he had to say. globe thatts of the did move forward by opening up their economies again because of see frustration only to they had to pull back again. singapore is an example of that. what china opened up, they have closed again. we are eager, we share exactly

the same desires and goals to reopen the economy and address these challenges and help support those who are struggling. primarily do that is based on where the virus is at any given point and whether or not it is being transmitted and whether or not we see a reduction in transmissions or hospitalizations or the number of icus. determinants, science will be the determination. host: that is governor newsom in california. compare those two governors with is sayingw cuomo about the future of that state. -- >> we are better than we know. we had superstorm sandy on long island. it was terrible.

thousands of homes were gone. today ford is better having gone through superstorm sandy. situation.se this stop saying reopen, reimagine and improve and build back. you can ask this question on any level. i do we have a better transportation system, better public safety, better social equity, better use of technology. people who are working from home, they should've been doing this all along. we've been very slow. why were people going to a doctor's office all that time? why haven't we been using more technology for education? why haven't we incorporated these? because change is slow. host: we have been covering

several of these governors across the country. if you are interested in watching what they have to say, you can go to our website c-span.org. the key to reopening is testing. that's what medical experts are saying. we showed you the new york times headlines. testing needs to triple before the u.s. can reopen. the vice president yesterday talked about testing that is available to states. that told the governor's we have enough testing capacity today for every state in america to go to phase one. if they meet the other criteria. ansyss of reduced cases sufficient hospital space. we have a testing capacity for every state in america to go to

phase one. we are going to continue to work around the clock to expand the testing capacity, support supplies, support their efforts to encourage social distancing. --t has brought us to cut progress we see. host: c-span has been covering these briefings for the past several weeks. we have put together some interesting data on the different briefings, who has been speaking and for how long. if you follow us on twitter or facebook, you can find that data. evening'sver this briefing. bradenton florida, we are talking about hazard pay. what do you think? caller: i think the postal

service workers should be getting hazard pay, especially the ones that go into the mail processing facilities. managersd include the and rank-and-file workers. that's all i have to say. i'm a former postal employee myself. thank you. host: brad in kentucky. caller: good morning. askingnd of crazy to be if a certain group of workers should receive extra pay when there is such a large amount of people receiving no income at this point. to earn ant able

income at this point. to ask if others should receive more seems out of touch. i don't think i've seen anyone the amount of on destruction that the current. correcther it's for reason or not, the amount of destruction that is occurring in the country right now because of shutdown, it's a reaction to something else. i want to thank you. it was important to hear her. i hope she is doing all right. her grandson needs are. i hope they stay strong. economy,uction in the these are lives.

i understand this is hurting lives as well. destructionreater in the mental lives of americans that could be far more impactful. host: i take your point. whether or not congress acts or businesses give frontline bonuses is something being debated. that's white we are asking your opinion on it. -- why we're asking your opinion. i'm a certified nursing assistant. i work in a long care nursing home. we take care of the patients. work in the coverage unit.

this is my three weeks stay at home. i think frontline workers should get compensated. my coworkers, we deserve compensation. we have never seen anything like this before. time i've seenst anything of this manner. steve is in north dakota. what do you do? caller: construction worker. what kind of construction? build the industry a

sickly. hazard payn't think is something we need to be talking about like the earlier gentleman. we need to get people back to work. occupationsgerous are the fishing industry, aircraft pilots. drivers, constructional steel. dangerousthe most occupations traditionally. the people that are in the medical industry, they are doing their job. that's great. certain things are going to happen. host: this is what members of congress are saying. this is adam schiff from

california. ro khanna writes: you have bernie sanders writing:

finally, he is pushing hazard pay appear on capitol hill. his proposal is called the covid-19 heroes fund proposal. richard is in nashville. good morning to you. what do you do? caller: i work for one of the largest grocery chains in america. if you see another name, they own them as well.

across the country, they own a lot of your convenience stores. i work in the online industry. all this country -- they are doing is transferring their business online. it has jammed it up to the point that you might have had 30 online orders that day. now you've got 200. the company i work for is hiring people. generally children, 17-20 years of age. if you raised children like i have, they don't do a lot of things. out, thisgiven company gives you two more dollars per hour is hazard pay. our, it's amore for

bonus on your check. that's fine. it's appreciated. at the same time, most grocery stores whether it be walmart or kroger, they have pharmacists who are treated as doctors. he does what a nurse or doctor does. it's not like the old days. you've got lines backed up at the pharmacy. when you come into the pharmacy, we start testing people right then. in the grocery store, they do what they can. you can't get sanitizer because it comes from china. we haven't had sanitizer in three months. -- i'm a parent. my children are grown.

i see a lot of these children. 17-year-oldallow my to work in a grocery store and put themselves at risk whether they catch the virus or aren't carrier. people need to understand. i love my freedom. moment, i taking this theteenagers driving around parking lots. i see them everywhere. people are coming in with four or five kids. i saw a woman with a four-month-old av with no coverage. the store had two people that got sick and tested negative. i have a good friend that worked for this company. she got sick and was on a ventilator. luckily, she pulled out.

she's on long-term disability. this is a union company. the union isn't doing anything for them. ask yourself this, if bernie sanders won the democratic nomination, would your union presidents, would they have backed bernie sanders? you are going to see donald trump win big time. they have not done what they should have done. they got caught with their pants down. know howust want to much you make the grocery store? caller: it's a union company. grocery stores are set up like this. a grocery manager makes $60,000

to $150,000. when you go into a store, you see so many registers. you see no employees. $1.97 billionade in profit last year. it might take you five minutes to grab something. it will take you an hour to get through the line. this company can afford to pay people more. an start off around $10 hour. some are not unit -- you nice. -- unionized. make $19 an hour with a pension and benefits. if he doesn't maintain a 30 hour week, he can get thrown off health care for the year. it's always a battle in the grocery business.

profit, theye in will tell you across the board there is a 4% growth margin. when you look at the investors they areholders, making nothing. making $13 persons per hour. host: do you get health care? caller: i get health care. $14 per week. $20 co-payay a depending on the facility ago two. i have a deductible. from $3300 towent $5,500. if you have to go in for elective surgery, you may meet that $5,000.

you are going to exhaust everything. insurance companies will not allow you to be paid for until they diagnose it properly. knows you've got to have an elective surgery, the insurance companies are holding them up. than anhy pp is better hmo. host: i'm going to leave it there. james is in texas. what is your business? caller: trucking. how many truck drivers do you have? caller: just one. host: just you? caller: yes ma'am. host: what do you think about hazard pay? caller: i think it would be great for the trucking industry. a lot of people overlook the trucking industry.

if the trucking industry shuts down, all of these other jobs cease. it to the to give heroes that are out there still rolling to make sure the superstores are still intact. nobody looks at that. think we are the most frontline personnel there. host: james in texas it.e appreciate coming up, the domestic lot -- domestic violence is on the rise as the coronavirus lockdown continues we will be joined by our guest about programs to support those victims. and miles o'brien will join us to talk about the latest film preparing tonight about the first coronavirus case on

american soil. but yesterday, the director general of the world health organization defended his organizations approach to and itsand from nation, relationship with the u.s. center. how it is strong and influence the whole world. and many want to have an institution like cdc. cdc, because of its capacity works with many countries. but at the same time with the who. that helps us, we work together. and it helps us do more. cdcat the same time, having staff means that there is nothing hidden from the u.s.. from day one.

because these are americans working with us and it comes naturally. and they tell what they are doing. who, it's open, we don't hide anything. it's open. the cdc sending we want all others, countries to get the same immediately. because that helps countries to , and to prepare quickly. so to the question you asked, it's true. we have cdc personnel, but not only the u.s., all countries get information immediately. their presence does

not give them more advantage than others, we give permission to everybody. our cdc colleagues also know that we give permission immediately to anyone and they pass information no problem. whoe is no secret in the because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous. it should go immediately. that's why everybody, whether they are inside with us to help, or other experts from other countries send out messages immediately. that's what we want. whoe's no secret in the because it's about lives. >> washington journal continues. sen. schumer: -- >> here to talk about the coronavirus pandemic,

our guest, alejandra castillo. what is your mission? >> the ywca is the oldest women's organization in the country. we were created to provide a , especiallyor women since the first industrial revolution, when women were coming into the city. this is a safe place to be. we have been at the forefront of some of the most pressing issues that have defined women's lives. everything from childcare and afterschool programs, to launching the eight hour workday. there are so many issues defining women's lives, but we are also the largest network of service providers for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. our footprint is a national footprint and we have 204 ywca's

across the country serving 2.3 million women a year. we really have our finger on the women, anded to children. during the coronavirus crisis, we are very concerned about how women are being disproportionately impacted, especially women of color. is mission statement eliminating barriers and powering women because we have to anchor our work around women of color if we want to lift up all women. we have an amazing organization, 162 years working on behalf of women and children. during the pandemic, what are you seeing with domestic violence. the unfortunate story as

we are seeing a rise in the mystic violence. what's unfortunate is that is not -- in domestic violence. what's unfortunate is that it's not a surprise. when communities are stressed we see to mystic violence increased. how it'sre seeing is playing out. and the fact that social distancing, in order to protect the health of individuals we are asking them to stay home, that's aggravating the situation even more. because women are now trapped in situations with their abusers. we are seeing that women are now within the home, they are now unable to make that phone call and are unable to reach out to their loved ones when situations are getting very bad.

in particular, as well as other organizations become a because this is the work we do in collaboration with other organizations across the country are being very mindful, and paying attention, and keeping our doors open. we have kept our doors open through the crisis because we know that when women need help and they make a bold move to leave their home, we must be there for them. we will talk more about it but i want to underscore that women do not leave their homes alone. they take their children with them. that's one of the major issues, leaving your children behind. resources,find those but as the largest providers of housing in particular, we are seeing emergency shelters at capacity, if not overflowing. host: when you say women make that phone call, are you talking about your hotline which is available 20 47? -- this is the

domestic violent -- the national domestic violence hotline cometh not our hotline, but it does refer services and that's where we come in. we provide those services when the calls come in. we are concerned. we are very concerned. we want to make sure that not only are we able to respond but that we can respond quickly. many of our emergency shelters are -- and under covid-19 we have to take precautions to make sure that not only those women who are in our shelters are kept safe and healthy, but the ones who are coming in. we have to be very innovative and nimble and adaptive to make sure that everyone within our care is healthy. host: and i know we have been

showing the number, but i'm gonna say it for our radio listeners. 00-799-safe, 7233 is the national domestic hotline hot number. what happens when they call? guest: a couple of things. making sure that they are ok, speaking to them, providing information, making sure whether they need to send an ambulance, police, how do we provide them the resources they need at that moment time? giving them the referral that they need, and also referring them to the counseling. with of this has to do making sure at this moment in time, this particular individual , i want to say individual because we talk about gender-based violence. in many cases they are women but there are situations with an as well. for our particular organization,

we focus primarily on women, but we do talk about gender-based violence. to answer your question, once the phone call is made, at that moment in time, we make sure that person is safe, we make sure whatever resources they need are available, whether it's emergency care, sending the police, or making sure that we can find them a safe place to be. that's where the emergency shelters come in and that's where the counseling comes in. and i want to underscore that we this, --ns to all of we take a trauma based lens to all of this. there's a lot of trauma involved, making sure but children are involved, sometimes a woman cannot leave because of children or an elderly parent. so making sure the family is

safe area there are a lot of elements that come into play. we want to make sure we are taking care of not only a woman but her entire support system. host: we want to invite our viewers to join in, if you live in the eastern central part of ,he country: at (202) 748-8000 or mountain and pacific call in at (202) 748-8001. ms. castillo, how does unemployment contribute to the surge in domestic violence? guest: in december the bureau of labor statistics showed that women work in biasing -- comprising a majority of the labor force, and now women are comprising a majority of the service industry, it hit that covid hit the service industry very hard, hospitality and restaurants. the unemployment rate is impacting women in particular.

i want to go back to what i the laborin december, statistics, the bureau of labor statistics mentioned that women were comprising the majority of the labor force per the only other come -- important payonent is because of disparity, women were taking on two or three jobs to make ends meet. women ared that bearing the brunt of the economic downturn. , becauseunfortunate they are also in the service industry and in many situations they may be deemed essential workers. so they are overly exposed to situations of covid. but there's a confluence of factors that are also impacting women in a very disproportionate way. we are concerned about that. report ofust issued a

how we need to make women and girls at the center of this situation, and how we need to put out the message in order to help recovery. it's women who are bearing a lot of the brunt. and the other thing i want to mca, were, at y w andide childcare services we do childcare for health-care workers. when we talk about health care workers we are not only talking about nurses and dr. ears, we are also talking about everybody working in the hospital, a janitor, some of he working in a cafeteria, childcare is a critical component that needs to be focused on when we talk about women going back to work. as we another element talk about relief and response. as an organization, we are also

thinking about how we rebuild communities. childcare is going to be a very important factor to help women get back on their feet. and i want to tie this back, i know i have been talking about a -- what may feel like very different issues, but let me bring it back together. when a woman is going through domestic violence, part of the challenges when making that decision can be financial abuse. not being able to leave that to messick violent situation -- that to mastech violence -- isestic violence situation because the means to leave is ,ot controlled by or -- by her or she may not be able to access resources. time, this economic

access is doubly important. how do we felt women financially get back on their feet so they can always be in a safe place of their choosing. we talk about employment and workforce development, but also providing childcare that they need in order to be able to go back to work and know that their kids are being taken care of. host: we will get to our calls and our viewers are lining up to speak to you about this issue, our guest, alejandra castillo, the ceo of the ywca usa, here to talk about domestic violence. go to william in new york. good morning, thank you for c-span trade a lot of these programs that come up with addressing domestic violence and abuse come about when there's federal attention to it and there's federal money out there. unfortunately there's a lot of players in the game that over report stuff tied to money.

so you will find people getting reported for something that they didn't do and an overzealous government comes in and makes a big monster out of anything. you cannot rely on agencies because they are always going after the federal funding or the state funding or whatever it is. like if you look at the who, i'm sure they have something on domestic violence. taiwan knew about corona way back on december 31, but the who doesn't listen to taiwan -- host: i'm going to stop there and take your point about trusting the government. ms. castillo? government.ieve in i've worked in government, i worked in many entities of the government, i've worked in the

nonprofit and the private sector . when were talking about challenges that impact society, haveimpact families, that situations of trauma involving children and women, we have to have some faith and i will tell you why. issues like domestic violence leaves lasting impacts. these are issues that can only be addressed when people come together. domestic violence does not discriminate. i've spoken to women who are in silicon valley, and manhattan, and women and will latch she -- iowa. the impacts are lasting. i believe in many situations we have to understand that the approach that is required is a multipronged approach, and government has an important role to play.

we have seen with covid in china, italy, france, domestic violence cases were on the rise. and it's on the rise in the united states. from ourcts and data association. we are seeing the hotline increase in the numbers of calls . so at the end of the day, i trust that as humans we have to care for each other. i would like to see more engagement. i want to thank the washington journal, we need more journalists to cover this issue. it's one of the most underreported crimes, only half of domestic violence cases are reported to police, and one in four women experiences domestic violence in their life. we have to come together. there's a moment of reckoning and i believe that covid is one of those moments that is telling us that issues like domestic violence needs be addressed, wholeheartedly and with complete

engagement from all corners of life. in --phyllis, in message in michigan. good morning. go ahead. i have a sister that she has aichigan, boyfriend that she had left and she came back home. continues, i don't know why she puts up with it. but right now, we believe he has covid-19. when i call her, he's in the background, she tells me she doesn't feel good and she has grandkids there, she had a grandbaby born two months ago that she's taken care of and her other grandson is nine years old. do, ore something i can someone i can call to put it out there to let them know what's

going on? if that man has that and he ,efuses to go to the hospital it's possibly going to affect the kids there. thank you for your good work. guest: i do want to thank the concerned.use she's sometimes when we are concerned we don't know what to do. the fact that she made this phone call is incredibly important. that intervention is very needed to save a woman's life, and to make sure that they are safe. so one of the things i would say is to definitely call the hotline, ask for resources in your area, and some guidance on how to approach it. and that'stuations, what makes domestic violence so challenging, it's in the private

space and people feel uncomfortable. but making sure you can intervene in a way that can help your sister. of the things that would be important would be talking to your sister and providing information, also providing information on how to address covid because that's one of the crackle issues as well. you areng sure that being there for her. asking to her, reaching out frequently as you can, because at the end of the day, part of what challenges women were going through domestic violence is isolation. catch.ing covid it's a we are asked to isolate to keep also aggravating the domestic violence situation. so continuing to reach out to

her, and calling the hotline for more information on resources that might be available for her as well. -- host: and sharon, in hyattsville, maryland. c-span, fork you educating me and others. i don't have much to say, but thank you so much. i have experienced domestic violence myself, so it is hopeful to hear you come out and educate and help people. do if they want when itteer or help out comes to domestic violence? guest: let me say, thank you for

your call. i am humbled because i can hearing your voice how brave you for your thank you phone call. i cannot tell you how empowering it is when i hear women like , and to tell your story be able to be willing to help others. that's the richness of our humanity and i am moved by you. you have made my day. there are so many ways to help. needed,w, donations are as you can imagine. the national coalition against domestic violence led by northglenn is doing incredible work. i recommend reaching out

reaching to the coalition. and i will tell you to go to our at our and look organizations across the country, donate anything you can, we need everything, from diapers, to grocery carts, but most importantly, when we get through this time, i will also tell you to volunteer at an emergency shelter. spend your time with women who need to hear that there are better days. there is so much you can do. but most importantly, being able to tell your story is incredibly -- empowering. it's letting them know that there are better days. so i want to thank you for calling in. host: what are you hearing from victims about what they need during this pandemic?

much, one iseed so to know that they are not alone. that there is help. know that they and their children will be ok. being able to know that when they come to our shelter, they will be taken care of. underscore isll letting them know that we too are taking every step possible to ensure their health, so it's andjust come to our shelter a lot of misinformation is out there that if you come to an emergency shelter you are going to get covid. no, we are taking the highest precaution to make sure that shelter durings situation, that we are

making their health as paramount as their safety. that has required us to be very innovative and nimble. nashville thatin have used rvs to make sure that women are families coming in are either quarantined and monitored , so as to not impact the ones that may be in our emergency shelters, and we have others using hotels to make sure that we are housing women during this time. not onlyking sure that is there safety paramount, but that their health is paramount. many ywca'sng that our overcapacity.

and 48 had 28 women children in their facility as of last week. making sure we can find expanded capacity to house women and children during this time. there's a lot going on. and we are one of those organizations that will never close our doors. we are here to serve the women and children that we have served for 162 years across the country. host: rodney, in taylor, michigan. alejandra, is the hotline number the same for men as women? the last 16 years have been glorious to this second wife. was 34 years of terror. when she found out that i did

not hit women it was all downhill. thank you. ,uest: thank you for your call as you may have heard me speak at the beginning of this interview, we talked about gender-based violence and recognition that we have situations where it's not just women. we have situations where it's , we have situations of qomestic violence across lgtb communities as well. definitely will provide you services, and take calls and give you guidance. ywca's thatdo have make sure to house men, but we do it in a different manner because we want to make sure our housing facility is upgraded. so where we have situations with

men we would probably make arrangement to provide shelter through hotels or motel arrangements. but we do serve women and men butn all wy ca -- ywca's, in some of them in recognition that gender-based violence is rampant. i want to thank you for your call, i'm happy that you have found a loving relationship and you are happy. to joe, in next boston, massachusetts. we are discussing to mystic violence during the pandemic. caller: if were talking about to domesticolence, -- violence, here in boston we work with a father's rights group and we find that men are often charged with domestic abuse and domestic violence and there's no

violence involved. moneymay be issues about and in the violence against women's act, nobody -- nowhere in that bill is violence defined. so what is must violence? guest: that's an excellent question. there's a lot of ways that domestic violence manifests. abuse,uation of control, psychological, emotional, financial, and even reproductive abuse. there's a lot of manifestations of how domestic violence presents itself. and you have pointed out, some abusers are very clever not to and arey physical marks very deliberate and how they

psychologically and emotionally have a persistent and deepening abuse of their partners. it with not confuse just physical abuse, although it does in many cases involve physical abuse. it takes a lot of different manifestations and it is the control, in many ways, in the household and the demand stick domestic-- and the relation of one individual or another that creates lasting impact and a lot of trauma. we see various manifestations and the way it exhibits itself, even after the individual has left the household takes a long time to repair. i spoke at the beginning of financial abuse.

we work very closely with women who are trying to get back on their feet and one of the things we see is financial abuse, and repairing credit just to be able to get their own apartment because their abusers took credit cards and different things. it is an expansive definition, and we need to be very mindful what has at play and impact on the individual and their lives. host: let's go to victor, in dallas, texas. caller: i would like to say thank you for all of the work that you do, and your staff. , there's nog is excuse for violence. can you hear me? host: you can, you said there's no excuse for violence. caller: yes ma'am, there's no excuse for violence. my wife and i have been together but13 years, it's been hard

you have to work through it men, i'm a man myself and i wanted to say thank you for the work you all do. ,hat's all i have to say ma'am there's a better way. fort: victor, thank you those incredible words. , it's to also say individuals like victor that we need more of. ,e do work with men as allies we have some incredible programs like a game changers out of knoxville, tennessee. and another program called amend, out of nashville, tennessee, all focused on working with an -- working with men, and young men in particular, to make them allies, to understand we need to break the cycle of violence.

and making sure we understand that as victor said, relationships are complicated and difficult. it's through communication and understanding, it's through working hard that we can get through it and make them as beautiful and productive as possible. thank you. in tuckerton, new jersey. caller: i'm calling on behalf of two women that i know who are in terrible domestic violence situations. and the men were smart enough to know that the girls were going to call the police so they called them first. these women are sitting in jail, beached pieces -- beat to girls tried to defend themselves. when they get to that point of violence they would do anything not to get arrested. so these small girls require medical care while they are

sitting in jail. and the prosecutors will take the case that these men had made , and take it to the jury -- host: take it to court? when someone gets prosecuted they had to take it before -- anyway. jail,girls are sitting in grandparents watching the kids, they have been beaten to pieces. come?blem is how because they get to these police first and they are not condition and they get arrested? host: let's take that question. here's is what i will say, i don't know the details of the case but here's what i will say. went to mystic violence gets to do anoint, we have to

analysis on a couple of things. where are the points of intervention? where are the points where we parties in the situations to make sure that we get them the right help and the right resources so that it does not get to that point. and we have not talked about the fatalities happening in domestic violence cases. it's heart wrenching. in this case we have two mother isting in jail which impactful. and i want to make sure that we talk about how do we intervene and make sure that these women are being helped through the process. host: kathleen, in dayton, ohio. caller: thank you. it's a tough topic. i'm 68 and grew up in a family where my now 92-year-old mother

who i have been taking care of , my-time for six years stepfather was extremely, physically, emotionally, and financially abusive of my mother . they married when i was seven and went on to have three kids. toa child i tried like hell get between his abuse of her, and then i was physically abused as well. talking to my mother over the i would hear her threatened and call the police. we lived across the street from priest and across the alley from the nuns. they did nothing, and the police, when called, did nothing. mother why she

stayed, it was all about control, he threatened her life and threatened to kill us. so talking about the changes over the decades, because there are lots of older women who now talk about this who were terrified to talk about it then. and i'm asking all men and women, anyone who is doing abuse to please reflect on your own you are, because destroying a lot of peoples's lives in this process. i would also like to ask c-span, as i've done before, to do a deeper dive into nurses aides at underpaid,es, the understaffed, overworked, because there's no question in my mind from that i have what nist, what -- what i have witnessed is that the coronavirus is not being consciously passed on to patients, but those nurses aides

are overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and i have been asking media outlets for over 15 years to dive deep on that issue. kathleen, as i hear you -- i hear the story so often. , children see it, they see it, it is with them as they grow and get older. stayuestioning why did you , there are some of the reasons why women, our mothers in generations past, but our job is to change that. that you have made this phone call, i am grateful. it elevates the awareness and the consciousness. on ones has been going

of the first things i will say is that we cannot judge women for the why. we need to make sure we are all playing an important role in being there, making sure they know they are not alone. when they are ready to make that decision that we are here for them. can help them find getting themce financial independence, getting them workforce development and job training, caring for their children, caring for their elders. women have a lot to contend with. thatne of the worst things can be done as a society is to judge. i'm so grateful you made this phone call. it reminds me of how much work we need to do and how much andeness we are picking up

your second point on nurses, the stressors they are experiencing is unimaginable. i want to make sure that i join with you in making sure that we are also looking at what's happening with women who are on the front lines. host: thank you. let me give the hotline one more time. 0-799-7233. guest: and you can also text loveit to 22522. that's important as well. when you're trying to make a phone call, especially when you're social distancing in your at home and for monitoring you, sometimes placing a text can be easier. the national domestic hotline

atld be texted at lovein 22522. there are some incredible organizations and i represent the ywca, but the national coalition against mastic violence, -- against domestic has many organizations. and i want to mention casa e beranza, because we want to culturally sensitive and specific in terms of how we provide services. we know that among women of there are increases in domestic violence as well and talking about native american , african-american

latinxities as well and latnix and others. inx culturallat backgrounds, and domestic violence is taboo. so speaking in a way that's culturally appropriate is something we are mindful about. applying a trauma informed lens, but a cultural appropriate lens is critical in how we lift up and serve women who are survivors of domestic violence. ywca.org,your website ceo ofra castillo, guaido bca, think of your time. thank younk you, and for covering this issue. i'm very grateful. host: we are taking your phone

calls coming up, returning to our conversation with all of you from earlier this morning. hazard pay for frontline workers , do you think there should be hazard pay or bonus pay. we will get to your calls in a minute. senatorining us is chuck grassley, chair of the finance committee. let's begin with the fourth economic aid bill that's being debated by chuck schumer on cnn this morning, saying he think the senate will vote. what can you tell us about when that would happen and what's in this legislation. happen athink it will 4:00 today and it will include 300 $51 million for small businesses -- three hunter 51 billion for351 small businesses and money for hospitals and testing. i doubt if it has been changed a lot from now to the afternoon,

and it will go a long ways to helping small businesses get the money they need to start their business up again after the government shut it down. and if there are any fiscal conservatives, as i am a fiscal conservative, wondering about spending this money, the rationale is for the first time in the 240 year history of the nation, theur government, state and local, made decisions because of public inlth that we had to shelter and shut the economy down. and when the government does that, the government has the responsibility to get the economy going again. $351 billionis makes up for the previous $350 billion that we thought was going to be enough to get small

businesses started. but it did not turn out to be enough. host: it was tweeted by cnn about the minority leader's, saying that schumer signals that $150 billion for state and local governments will not be in a deal. we will fight that on covid four very strongly he says, there will be an ability for state and local to use existing money to make up for lost revenue. are you in support of money for state and local governments and another economic aid bill? >> -- guest: i think there will be money, the amount and how it is distributed will be in dispute. i will say it's nearly a foregone conclusion because the federal government shut down business, so income tax and sales tax that support most state governments are coming up governmente federal

has some responsibility in that area. but how it's going to be distributed, for what purpose, and whether there is any restrictions on it will be left for a later date. disconcertingy about this whole deal about getting more money for small business, of all of the different programs that we did in phase three to get money to , none ofconomy running the money had run out yet except for small business. so we figure we ought to take it a step at a time and supplement the small business. but in order to get a bipartisan agreement, we had to put $75 hospitals,e into even though there are $70 billion appropriate already that has not been spent. we figured that we ought to do it on a step-by-step basis and

make sure that we were not spending more money than needed. but to get the bipartisan agreement we had to go beyond the money for just the small business loan program. host: what about large corporations getting millions of dollars from the small business loan program? guest: they should not have gotten it because they have more than 500 employees. they could have legitimately gotten help from another government program because we appropriated $450 billion to back up everything the federal reserve did, and they should have gone to the federal reserve to get it and not get it from the small business programs. and let's talk about your state, rural health, will the rural health facilities in iowa and other states be seeing more money? do they need it? guest: yes. we had a briefing on the bill

will come before the senate president andice secretary of treasury. and by the chief of staff for the president. that's one of the issues i have 120p, because we hospitals in iowa, but probably 80 to 90 of them are rural hospitals that are losing money because a lot of their income comes from elective surgery. equipmente all of the and time and professional help virusp those who have the that weted to make sure kept them going, because they could not do elective surgery. so in the 75 billion going out situationprobably a

where a lot of the money will be going to rural hospitals. host: what about the farmers in your state? how are they doing? and the food processing plants in your state. guest: first, a farmer is always optimistic. travel, iowa today, yesterday, maybe one day last weekend all of this week, the sun was shining, it's not raining, they are outputting seed in the ground for what we hope will be an abundant crop. my son is doing that even late last night on our family farm. you are optimistic. but right now, corn prices are lower than anybody would have ever anticipated over the last 20 years. as one example.

but you point out a major problem, packing plants. the operation when you are slaughtering livestock and cutting it up in the chain is moving slowly and everybody has a specific job to do and you are working shoulder to shoulder , it's a perfect environment for the virus to get into everybody. that is what has happened in iowa and other places. operating, butre may be at 75% efficiency. and we are in a terrible situation where if there is not tough room and employees ,ake care of the slaughtering particularly in iowa, because we

are the number one state in the production of pork, if i could say this way. there is a very precise and sophisticated process from the birth of a baby pig till six pound later when a 260 pig is slaughtered. if you don't keep that process going, you will reach a point where you will have to euthanize big pigs, and what do you do with them at that point? that becomes a public health problem as well as the virus. so we have to keep the plants going. and you have to make sure that there are safe working conditions. so we are trying to test everyone when they go into the separate are trying to people as much as we can, putting protective equipment on each person and space between them as much as we can. but it's a difficult thing to do. host: president trump tweeted,

in light of the attacks on the invisible enemy and the need to protect the jobs of our great american citizens, i will be signing an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the united states. is that a good decision? guest: i don't know. i figure we are a nation of ablerants, we ought to be to be open to about one million people year coming in legally. we are all against people violating our laws coming into our country illegally. but we are a welcoming nation and we need people. so i don't know what the president's decision was based on, public health or just a feeling that at this point when we have 22 million people filing for unemployment compensation that it's not time to bring in other people.

it's difficult for me to comment on it, but i welcome legal immigration and do not welcome people violating our laws coming to this country. host: and you are on the president's task force to open the economy, are some states like georgia and florida, are they opening too soon? guest: i'm going to leave it up to the governors of those states. there are 50 different ways of opening up our economy, it's good to be up to the governors. i expect that they are going to follow the guidelines very well, but even within a state, you may have a different opening for upper new york than you will for new york city, for example. it's gonna have to be done very slowly and it will have to be

done with public health people it's gonna take a lot of testing and i think we will have greater testing capability than before and so testing is very important. it's hard for me to realize that you are going to be able to trace people from one to the thing, it it's a good seems to be an overwhelming job to take care of anyone who has had contact with somebody with withirus, and then contact everyone else who has had the same person but if we have the capability we ought to do it. it starts with testing and with $25 billion in this bill casting -- passing today, i think we can ramp up testing. areink a lot of people

thinking in terms of testing 328 million people and do it frequently. and i hope everyone realizes that's not a possibility. but we have to test in a sophisticated way. i think the best way to do that is to follow the advice of people like dr. burke and -- dr. birx and dr. fauci. host: we are asking our viewers this morning should front-line workers receive hazard pay during this pandemic? petersues of yours, gary , is pushing for 25,000 of retroactive pay for frontline workers, beyond medical personnel. would you support that? or no tofore i say yes that, i want to see beyond doctors and nurses how many other people are going to qualify or it and whether or not we are being fair and equitable to everybody that went above and beyond the call of duty to do

their job. truckers being praised as being essential because they are delivering food and i want can eat to know how far down the chain that's going to go before i make a decision. because if we are going to start singling out some people for going above and about -- and beyond the call of duty i want to list of all of the people that we think went above and beyond the call of duty. thank you for your time. guest: thank you very much. host: let's turn to our conversation with all of you. hazard pay with frontline workers. gina, in florida, what do you think? caller: are you there? host: yes, we are listening.

caller: i think yes. from the people who pick up our trash, to the people in the grocery store, to anybody who is out there. get every pay -- every bit of hazard pay. i have not even got my stimulus check, my husband is out there working outside in construction and he does not get paid a lot of money and we are getting older and i'm disabled. we had to split up our sons in two bedrooms and i don't want our government to come back -- to come after us. daughter in miami working at jackson memorial in intensive care because before the virus, she took a next of

responderbe a first in the hospital. if she gets beeped she has to go on try to say that person's life . and now this pandemic has my daughter, the only daughter i have, dealing child i have, she is so beautiful inside and out, andi've seen so many videos it's not comforting. hern't cry when i talked to and i hope she doesn't hear this . she's probably at work right now. 7:00,ork from 7:00 to with maybe one or two days off and they stay in hotels. you should see these videos.

i wish the whole world could see them. 2.5 hours and came out aanging between rooms to send tape to her mom so i wouldn't be worried she was dripping wet from head to toe with her scrubs mom, i she said yes think i need a raise. please, i don't want her to go. and she says i can't do it no more and i want to help, and i know mom, that you would be the first to go. she thinks about me, because she knows if anyone came around me i would get sick if they had the virus. florida, the only test they have here are the ones that test if you are someone who

has had it. to see if you could helphelp sod it. right, testing to see if you have the antibodies. . caller: yes. my daughter said don't go anywhere until i tell you where to go. she is so scared. host: how much does your daughter make? caller: i don't know. she's an rn. she works at jackson memorial in miami. she makes good money but it ain't worth it. long,been doing this so since the pandemic started. host: thank you for the phone call and sharing the story. mark in staten island, new york. what do you do? manager in a produce the specialty, private owned

supermarket here on staten island in new york. host: what is it like for you to go into the grocery store and work? caller: it has been very nerve-racking. some customers don't get it. i would be out on the floor working and they come into the store and they see us working, but some of these customers are in such a hurry to get in and out that they won't even give us time to pack the stuff out that needs to be put out on the stand. they will start reaching over our shoulders and getting real close to us. i've had a couple of battles with a couple of customers already because they just, like i said, they just don't get it. host: how much do you get paid and our? -- an hour? caller: $22 an hour.

they pay for my health insurance, which is over $900 a month. i don't have to pay anything into it. i'm very appreciative for what my boss does for me. another thing i wanted to mention was i work with a lot of mexicans. this is the first -- i have been in this business for almost 45 years. this is the first time i really worked with illegals and stuff. i got to say, they are the best workers. they are very productive. they are dedicated. they are there every day for me. the only thing i'm concerned the gentleman from tennessee called earlier. he's in the same business. a lot of these mexicans live like 10 people, 12 people in a house. that is my main concern. they are in close quarters with one another because their living conditions are the way they are.

i am concerned about that just as much as i am concerned about the customers that walk into the store every day. host: how much are they getting paid? about: they get paid $14-$15 an hour. the mexicans at my store. host: mark in staten island. we will get more phone calls coming up. arrow --mark mullen molinero the talk about the cost on local communities. how many residents live there? how many cases of coronavirus are there? is abouttchess county 90 minutes north of new york city. we are a suburb of a suburb. still a significant impact. over 2000 positive cases in our county. we are monitoring just about that many that are still active. with new york city being the

epicenter, counties like ours, only 295,000 people, we have a major responsibility. at the same time we are part of that frontline response. the county governments like ours are helping to respond, to monitor, the test, and ultimately help rebuild the economy. host: this is personal for u.s. well? -- for you as well? guest: many are struggling. in our case my father lost his battle with coronavirus about a week ago. when into the hospital. was immediately put on a ventilator. sadly just had his body shut down over the course of two weeks. what i can tell you is he was surrounded by amazing caregivers. that is something we have to remember. onmany people from the staff the floor to the doctors and

nurses all trying to not only provide care but personally connect families who cannot be in the rooms with their loved ones. for me it was surreal. i have been enormously distracted but the loss is still real. there are so many others dealing with loss like this. host: we are sorry for the loss of your father. time you are dealing with this you are dealing with the cost of this for the community. you talked a little about it but what do you have to pay for right now? what are you seeing the impact of that on your budget? guest: it's important for americans to know the county governments are really responsible for that first line of response. we administered 1900 public health departments across the country. are public hospitals county-run or administrated. --nty governments have been

goals of the federal or state government. the national association of counties are calling on congress to provide the eight necessary to do the work -- aid necessary to do the work they expect. programheck protection and small business and ministry should load, it is our staff working day and they out to be that direct connection with small business owners. americans out of work trying to make that connection. in my county's case, we had to establish the testing site. on the state once a site operated, county governments are buying the tents and staffing from local hospital. when it comes to confirme caugh -- confirmed positive cases and the thousands of people who are self-quarantining, we are the ones that have to track and manage those 170 dies in this is

those.tle -- manage when somebody dies in the battle, we have to monitor the data. again, starts to reopen he will be county government on the front line providing that direct service. in my county we are talking about $40 million to $50 million of lost revenue. our employees are gratefully being paid but paid to do a job. in many cases we had employees either sick or out or redirected, doing jobs that are really pandemic-focused and not necessarily their original line of work. all of that is critical. it is critical for mayors and governors in the president for county governments to be providing the service. we are asking for the help. mako has been aggressive. we are calling on congress

defined within this legislation, the 3.5 legislation, a proximally $30 billion for county governments for the work they need and want us to do. host: we just learned senator schumer did with cnn this signals the senator $150 billion for state and local governments won't be in this deal. the usa today reports it could be another week or two before congress agrees on the fifth economic aid package. will that be too late? many counties are running on fumes. we have economically sensitive revenues, sales tax, etc. that's in a steep decline. we are not struggling harder than the small business who had to close the door. we are making the case that $30

billion does not cover the costs county governments are incurring and losing now. -- it'ser two weeks another two weeks for us to scramble to try to hold things together while doing the work the state and federal government expects. local economic development teams like our own, we are the ones making the connections for small business owners. we are taking the phone calls, helping them get to the loan programs. we're the ones taking the calls on the unemployed to connect them with food stamp assistance or unemployment insurance. nobody's complaining. that is the way we respond to emergency in america. local governments are the first line of defense. we are providing that service ably and responsibly and hopeful congress will reconsider as they debate 3.5. we will keep pressing as they debate the next bills. we are not asking for something outlandish. we want to do the work the

federal government expects us to do. we want to be that lifeline to families and businesses and presidents -- residents. we need the help of the federal government to accomplish that. host: thank you very much for your conversation this morning. we appreciate your time. guest: you're very welcome. keep up the good work. host: hazard pay for frontline workers is our conversation. eva and sparta, michigan. what do you do? caller: i work for an afc home, adult foster care. i think hazardous duty pay is a good thing. my daughter works in a drugstore. she gets two dollars an hour. the company i work for a supposedly federal and state-funded. we hire at $10.50 an hour and it is total care. it just seems like the weights could come up in compensation for the people who work there.

it is hard for us to get new employees. host: it is hard to get new employees. why? caller: the pay is low. the type of work. these people are totally dependent upon the people who care for them. how are you protecting yourself? caller: we have everything we need. we have masks and hand sanitizer. we have everything in the home. we are locked down. we have no visitors, no family. the employees are fantastic as far as keeping up what has to be done. host: ok. one in riverside, california. should there be hazard pay? caller: yes, i do. i believe it is essential. arend it hard that people

so easy to put a price tag on the life when people have been out there since the very beginning of this whole situation. they put their lives on the line. i have over 12 family members, sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews that had been working since the beginning. they have done it voluntarily. that ifn't understand something happens to our frontline workers, what is the dollar value you can place -- that a family can place on a family member that they have lost? i understand we have to get back to work. we do. compassion to have -- people because people

when we go back to work, the people that have lost their lives during this entire situation, they are not coming back. thing i think for all of this is that the people that are losing their lives, they are doing it alone. they are not doing it with their family members. we lost our dad in september. i just thank god i don't have to worry. the stress. it is bad enough sitting and watching the news and trying to stay updated and trying to keep my family members updated and encouraged, and my friends too. i think we have got to take a step back and just think. what exactly -- what is the magic number for people to die for people to really get it? i see people walking around with no mask.

life is not as precious as it really is. xost: dennis in fairfax, county, virginia. caller:, tower crane operator. host: what is it like to go to work? caller: usually a long climb first. we have a masked requirement at our jobsite. everybody must wear a mask in order to work here. i don't understand why congress or somebody in some committee isn't putting forward a law that requires everybody in this country to wear a mask. this is a pandemic, not -- this is something that the president is doing a superior job at this. somebody in the white house

asked the president if he can make an executive order requiring people to wear a mask? we have got to have a law. ,f you have the virus apparently it will stop the transmission. we need a lot requiring everyone in public to wear a mask. wear a mask to protect yourself. i understand you can still get it, but it is some protection. also, since this is not it private family thing, this is a pandemic, just like we do with k.i.a.'s in the military we need to publish the names were dying, where they are located in who they are. -- i even just use understand privacy laws and hippo laws. -- hipa laws. this is in private. this is very public and we need to publish the names.

i don't know why they want to hide that. we need to pass a law. mr. president, if anybody in the white house is listening, have a mandatory executive order requiring anybody in the united states in public to wear a mask. host: dennis in virginia. when we come back, pbs frontline correspondent miles o'brien will talk about the series' latest film that premieres tonight about the coronavirus -- the first coronavirus case on a wreck and soil. yesterday, georgia's governor brian kemp gave an update to the pandemic. he's announcing certain businesses can reopen this friday. [video] >> given the favorable data, enhanced testing and approval of the health care professionals, he will allow gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, bodyguard studios, barbers,

cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artist, aestheticians, massage therapist to reopen their doors this friday, april 24. unlike other businesses, these entities have been enabled to manage inventory, deal with payroll and take care of administrative items while we shelter-in-place. this measure allows them to undertake baseline operations that most other businesses in the state have maintained since i issued shelter-in-place order. this will apply statewide and will be the operational standard and all jurisdictions. this means local action cannot be taken that is more or less restrictive. over the next few days we will continue to closely monitor existing and potential hotspots in our state.

i stay in regular contact with local leaders across georgia, especially those in doherty county and surrounding counties to ensure we are providing adequate support. right now in albany and doherty county, we are seeing greater improvement. i talked to the commission chair on a regular basis to ask if further action is warranted. rest assured, if any community needs the state intervene, we will do so with their input as well as their partnership. the next point is a very important one. the entities which i am reopening are not reopening as business as usual. each will be subject to the specific restrictions, including adherence to the minimum basic operations, social distancing, and regular sanitation. >> washington journal continues.

host: pbs frontline is that with a documentary about the first coronavirus patient on u.s. soil. it premieres tonight. take a look. [video] 2020, atuary 15, 35-year-old local man from washington lands at seatac airport in seattle. he is traveling from wuhan, china. >> he was having a cough. he had been having fevers at home. >> he's 35 years old and otherwise healthy. >> he began developing symptoms today after he arrived. ♪ >> four days after returning from wuhan, the man goes to a walk-in clinic and describes his symptoms. he tells him where he has been for about six weeks.

seriesvestigation into a pneumonia outbreak has it in a fight a previously unknown coronavirus. >> in seattle, a city known for its cutting-edge medicine and technology, as well as ties to asia, officials are on alert. >> the clinic appropriate the isolated him. the health district contacted the cdc that advised testing. the clinic at the appropriate gear to safely test the patient. he was advised to go home and quarantine. >> the clinic sends a nasal swab they have taken from the man to the centers for disease control and prevention in atlanta. within 20 were hours, the test come -- within 24 hours, the test comes back positive. the first covid patient is confirmed in the united states. he is transported to providence regional medical center just outside of seattle for medical staff are ready. >> it took us about two hours

for us to get our staff, personnel, supplies in place to be able to give the ems the green light to come in. we were ready for. >> they were ready. less than three weeks earlier, providence regional medical center had conducted an elaborate simulation. pandemic training. chinese experts report a new coronavirus. >> we were aware of what was going on in wuhan but it was part of our structure to prepare. >> we had to go to plan. >> we had a game plan in place already. >> we had everyone involved, including the local ems. the people that bring the patient from point a to point b. we had a variety of scenarios. host: the writer and producer of ist series, miles o'brien

joining us now to talk about this new documentary. what do we know about patient one that we did not learn just there? guest: he has connections to china. he's a local person with a strong connection there and spend some time there in the wrong time in the wrong place. it's important to get across that he did everything right when he realized he had symptoms. he did not delay. he went right to the walk-in clinic. he explained exactly his scenario. he is been very reluctant to come forward. we tried repeatedly to see if he would participate in the documentary on camera but does not want to do so. the concern is, i think, he believes he would be vilified by people for bringing the virus over here, which is completely unfair.

host: he was in wuhan for six weeks. does he know how he contracted it there? that we don't know who he is? what has taken place to keep his name and his identity protected? guest: public health officials and the hospital here have been pretty scrupulous about that. he did not go to the wet market where it is believed the virus began in wuhan. he thinks maybe he picked it up at the airport going in or out. probably out of there given the timeframe. no one knows. a virus like this, presumably there are quite a few more people at that moment in this area and other parts of the country that had it and did not know about it. part of the story i discovered as anythinguch

it began here because people were looking so hard in advance. they knew it was coming and they were looking. host: why is it they were looking forward? because of their location? why were they ready? guest: you would predict the pandemic would arrive in american shores on the west coast. that would be the logical assumption. seattle has strong ties to asia and a strong chinese-american community. presumedicials here they would be among the first to see it on u.s. shores when it arrived. on top of that, there is a pretty -- the medical health technology community here is among the leaders in the epidemiological world. very smart people who spend a lot of time thinking about these issues that happen to live in seattle. that group of people was really dialed into what was going on in wuhan, was expecting it, look at

the traveled patterns, the flights that arrive every day and correctly assumed they would be the first place. host: talk about how the responders there, the medical staff, the ambulance driver, when they went to pick up patient one, talk about how they did that and how they kept him and everyone around him safe. guest: everything they were trained for -- they had the drill three weeks prior -- was built around in a bowl epidemic. -- an ebola epidemic. they took precautions beyond what would be necessary for coronavirus because they assumed it would be something as lethal as ebola. that is why they were so me precautions taken, including the iso pod device, the plastic bag with its own self-contained filtered air, etc.

that was not necessarily the case for coronavirus. more simple precautions are ok. a simple mask and gloves and gown. they decided to presume the west because at that point did not know much about the virus. we know more now. there is still a lot we don't know. host: how is patient one? guest: he is back to his life. he has done well. in the middle of treatment he was not doing well. he was developing pneumonia. dr. diaz had heard about this antiviral drug that people are now becoming familiar with. he was able to, in an emergency basis, get approval to use it on a compassionate use basis on him. within 24 hours his fever broke and not long thereafter he was leaving the hospital.

one, andint of anecdote, but dr. diaz is involved in the chronicle trial. he is seeing a lot of optimism in the results so far. nothing he has published or wants to share with specificity, but his inclination here is this is a good way to stop the advance of the virus. host: when patient one arrived in the united states, when was that and what happened after it was known he had the virus? did he then give it to those around him? guest: this is where the plot thickens, greta. he arrived on january 15. all those events you just saw in that clip unfolded in the latter part of january. they did that study. 60 people. try to imagine thinking about

all the people you come in contact with over the course of a period of time for 10 minutes. yet to give the guy credit for figure out who those people were. they did this investigation. the presumption was there was no spread at the time. it turns out later with more thorough and detailed genetic testing there had been some spread. the story actually shifted from washington.kland, what happened there was a cluster of severe respiratory illness inside a nursing home. the wider community outbreak was discovered, because a doctor at the evergreen ce theal in kirkland, on cdc gave permission, started testing sick people in the hospital and immediately he got positives. it was so overwhelming. he had 32 positives in his hospital.

most crucially, some had no connection to that nursing home. to sleuth out the fact there was widespread community spread of the coronavirus at that time. host: what to the governor and state officials do next? guest: they went public pretty quickly. within about a week or so, a state of emergency occurred. the business community acted almost unilaterally. microsoft and a lot of big players immediately encouraged people to stay home. there was all most an automatic response here. not a lot of indecision about it, frankly. they came forward and very quickly some of the precautions that are now so familiar, social distancing, sheltering at home, were put in place here. they acted quickly. the data we are seeing now suggests what they have done has worked.

host: i want to invite viewers to join in on the conversation. their questions and comments for you, miles o'brien. in the eastern part of the country, (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific, (202) 748-8001. medical professionals, we want to take your question and comments. (202) 748-8002. you can text us with your first name, city and state at (202) 748-8003. about abrien, you talk tale of two washington's. what did you mean? part: as i just told you, of what drew me to this location, not only because it was first and as a science correspondent i was interested in how the people on the ground used shoe leather to figure this whole thing out. it is a detective story after all. -- the relationship between the scientific community here and the politicians, the

policymakers, is not adversarial. science and data are actually at the center of a lot of decisions here. that- i found interesting and frankly in this country these days kind of rare. i came here to see how it all works or doesn't work. playing that in contrast to what we are seeing in washington where for decades of discounting and diminishing and ignoring the advice of expertise and the scientific community, political leaders in washington did the same in the midst of a pandemic. to do that frankly cost lives. i felt like that was an important story to tell. host: what is happening in washington at this time? washington, d.c.? people here were coming to terms with the fact there was widespread community outbreak of coronavirus, much

bigger than anybody could have imagined, it was difficult to detect this one. in some cases the symptoms are mild. there is a 14-date incubation period. it's difficult to really identify it. the real key is testing. testing remains this theme throughout the story, even to this moment today. cdc, the centers for disease control, was in the midst of trying to get testing kits out to the nation so people could try to quantify the problem. the cdc made a crucial decision not to use a test developed in germany and adopted by the world health organization. the cdc generally does its own testing. it is the gold standard health service in the world. they went their own way. unfortunately the test they created did not work. precious time was lost at that

time when tests should have been out here and elsewhere trying to identify the extent of the problem. it was worse than that because there was a local lab here at the university of washington medical school wherever researcher actually created his own -- he called it a homebrew test. it worked in the lab. he try to get approval from the fda to use it here locally to try to understand the operating. he ran into just a bureaucratic rick wall. -- brick wall. it took weeks to get through the red tape. in the end, again, precious time was wasted on the testing front. the testing was crucial on the front end. is crucial to date as we think about how we get back to work and get back to her lives. host: miles o'brien is our guest this morning from pbs newshour on the new documentary airing one, thebout patient

first coronavirus patient on american soil. robert o'brien, the president's national security advisor wrote seven decisions the president made. first, the president assembled a team on january 29. he established the coronavirus task force. january 30 one, mr. trump ordered travel restrictions barring foreign nationals who'd recently been in china for mentoring the united states. third, arch 11, mr. trump suspended travel from foreign nationals who had been in european nations. is that i've 16, stretch public resources, the president issued the 15 days to slow the spread. for many weeks he pushed for the innovative use of therapies to fight the virus. sixth, mr. trump announced the cdc would issue guidelines recommending americans use cloth masks.

seventh, since the extent of the danger became apparent, mr. trump at his tina contracted with more than 10 ventilator -- team have contracted with more than 10 ventilator suppliers to fight production. guest: i think there are couple of things missing from that. testing is such a key component of this. the fact the u.s. was caught flat-footed on the testing front and made that crucial decision is a decision that will be looked at with some criticism. no question about that. the other factor here is the operating took off x financially, has outbreak -- thenentially as average do, protection equip and has been a consistent problem which lingers to this day -- equipment has been a distant problem which has lingered this day. the full weight of the u.s. manufacturing capability through the defense production act to produce the kind of things to

intect these people is still fits and starts. dpa administration has used in some cases, including yesterday indicating it might be deployed in some fashion to ramp up the testing capability. in the case of the ventilators, this is a good news-value story. the anticipated need for the ventilators has not been what was expected. me, as, the experts tell reflection of the fact what we are all doing right now, staying at home, staying apart from each other, is working. cases where the administration has responded. there are some big gaps in there as well. we need to make sure as we march forward here we don't overlook the fact the testing is lacking

in the personal protective equipment -- it's a correlated issue. you have to be fully garbed to do the testing. as we march forward we need to make sure those -- the supply chain is running smoothly. certainly in this country, if we turn on a dime world war ii style, we can do it. host: you can watch the full documentary tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on most pbs stations. you can watch it online at pbs that work/frontline -- pbs.org/frontline. isabel from new york. caller: hi. i'm impressed with the amount of information the gentleman has gathered and devoted himself to being very specifically exact on what he is looking for. i am very grateful for people like him. i think he might've answered some of my questions. as a new yorker, i'm wondering

with all the wonderful data if you have gathered and knowledge, what do you think we need to do to get better on this? new york seems to be out of control still. the testing you just mentioned. somebody at home wants to know if they have this virus or not, yet they tell us delays and this and that. mail me a test or something like that. what you think of this, if i may ask you this? guest: thank you. i appreciate that. this is a key point. we live in a world of 23 and me where the test kit capability, the infrastructure to do that is not unfamiliar to all of us. why shouldn't we all be able to identify at least if the cold you had a month or so ago was more than a cold and you have the antibodies and you are safe to go back to work?

that's a crucial piece of information. andre all right now at home pretty fearful about the consequences of going to a restaurant. until we can identify who has got it now, who has had it, whose immune and who has antibodies, we are stuck in neutral here. that is a key point. in new york what we are seeing was bad. the population density of new york increased the challenge dramatically. we watched that all unfold. the numbers are better than now -- there now. i'm sure this will be studied more scientifically down the road. the only thing that has changed in new york his people stayed home and socially distanced. the virus does not do that on its own. the virus will spread until it runs out of hosts. the fact that kerr was going you -- curb is going down, can't say it's a natural

occurrence. we took action. we have to keep her i on the prize here. if we get impatient and get back to our lives to soon, the experts tell me we will have a complete resurgence at the same level we have right now come june and july. this is not the time to slow down. host: hollywood, florida. mitchell, good morning to you. effortsi noticed in our e and emphasis on the economy versus testing he hit the nail on the head. this virus spreads. let's take the scenario of the barbershop. i am versed well in this area and in the ministry with people. we go into the barbershop and beauty salon. those blowers pull the hair -- blow that hair and the razors

used for cutting and edging the in, unless yous take the person from the outside before he goes in and dresses them and prepares them one-on-one, it is going to spread. it is obvious. we thank you for stressing the point. use the scenario that some governors and all are putting economy versus our safety. educating is necessary and it's going to come back to haunt this trump administration who was caught flat-footed from january until now. host: miles o'brien? guest: thank you, mitchell. for your question. i think this idea there is a choice to be made as to whether die,conomy tanks or people

that's essentially the decision being made. we will put it this way, if we go back to work too soon, get the economy back going and we get sick again and larger numbers of people get sick, where are we then with the economy? it's a matter of having a little patience in letting this process work its way through. whichwe have a vaccine, unfortunately is at least a year away because of what it takes to do that. until we have a vaccine all we can do is what we are doing now. until we have testing we are pretty much stuck doing this. he makes a good point. who was going to go into the barbershop safely not knowing who has it, who doesn't, where the virus is? people can be carrying it without being systematic. for all me know everybody in the barbershop has had it and has

antibodies, but we don't have the information. knowledge is the key here and that is why testing become such an important issue. host: kathy and belleville, new jersey. caller: good morning. thanks for having me. mr. o'brien, i love you have this new document are. i do plan on watching the whole thing. my question or comment would be not knowing this pandemic was even going to happen to us, i read a book. of 1918." influenza i was wondering if we could put any type of information from that time, from the past, as well as what we are doing in the present to compare the two. at that time they were like 500 million people that became infected. 50 million people worldwide were killed. what about that parade they had in philadelphia?

these people did not want to listen. they were all hyped up over the war effort. 72 hours later, so many got the influence or passed away. they had bodies upon bodies. they did not know what to do. i don't think this is a cakewalk or picnic. i still see people walking around without masks and gloves in my local area. i don't know what it would take. do we need to put a fear factor into them from the 1918 virus? host: let's take those points. guest: i'm a history major. those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. those historical parallels you bring up are really fascinating and troubling. human nature is what it is. beings and as human human lifetimes make it difficult for us to recall exactly what that was like. you had to really study it to understand what happened in

1918, the last time a pandemic of this magnitude ripped around the planet. the same human response is occurring now. in many ways we have not learned the lesson. even though we knew this was going to happen. the experts have been telling us for quite some time. we've had several shots across ow with ebola or sars or mers. jump from thethat animal population to humans are not a diminishing problem but an increasing problem as the population grows and we move into areas where the animals have not had -- if we are eating exotic animals, as they are in china and these wet markets. of the onem is sort we knew was going to happen. we saw it coming for more than 100 years. yet because of the volley of

human nature -- folly of human nature we are still caught unaware. it's important to read the books and in the heart, number those lessons. host: -- from ever those lessons. host: remi in california. caller: i'm glad that you mentioned the folly of not understanding history. azar in january was having a hard time convincing the president the coronavirus was going to be a serious situation. between then and the end of february our president was was a the pandemic democratic hoax and it was going to go away. they were only going to be a few people. it was going to miraculously disappear and whatnot.

abouteally concerned politics sacrificing people's lives. i would like your comment. guest: yeah. thank you. that's a very thoughtful comment. here is the thing. this is not a new thing. manipulating of science or discounting science or science being ignored because when it conflicts with political ideology or a vested interest -- i'm thinking here about climate change and how that has all played out. over time what has happened is the great and glorious scientific enterprise of this country, which is the best in the world by far, has been put to the side and viewed with skepticism in some political quarters.

on the assumption they have a political agenda, which isn't true. these people are about data. they are about looking at the facts. unfortunately, politicians who don't like what the facts tell scientists -- put them in a bad light. view of science, of facts, of reason, of understanding the data has been in some political quarters discounted for a very long time. enter a pandemic and you have avoidance of of the facts that come before you from the experts. in this case it cost lives. the same argument can be made for climate change. it is just a little more slow-motion than a pandemic. it is time we thought once again

about how we treat science, look at the enterprise. we live in a very complicated world and we make it more complex every day. to not listen to the people who understand the nuance of that complexity and the dangers that might arise from it is pure folly. it will lead us to ruin and it could be right now. host: for viewers interested in the comparison of the 1918 influenza and covid-19, we talked here on washington journal primetime with the author of the great -- "the great influenza." if you would like to learn the lessons learned, go to a website at c-span.org and find it there. we are talking with miles o'brien, pbs frontline correspondent about the new documentary about patient one. we will go to denise in raleigh, north carolina. caller: thank you very much. good morning.

i would like to thank c-span and thank mr. o'brien for the work he has done in this area. my question is, we know there are 400,000 plus students that come into america every year to attend our schools and our universities. there from europe as well as china. for our highe in schools and middle schools because that is where a lot of my experience is. i would like to know since young people seem to not be as -- it mayy this appear as a cold or a sniffle -- is that a possibility that we are exposed long before this came out as a pandemic? host: miles o'brien? guest: yeah, i think that's an

important insight. these initial cases of this gosual pneumonia in wuhan back into december, maybe even before then. the thing about trying to identify something like this is you don't really realize you are in outbreak mode until it is really gone a long way. next financial growth is not something we have to wrap our brains around very well. when something is doubling back quickly, it grows faster than we imagine. couple that with the combination of factors you just pointed out. young people, who were not compromised in any way, it can be just like any flu or cold. the symptoms kind of match. you really don't know what you have. it has this long integration -- incubation period. you combine these things and maybe someday we can figure it out.

there was a study underway in seattle when this all broke, the seattle flu study. they had taken swabs from people for many months to understand how influenza spreads in the community. in the middle of this crisis the researchers of that team asked permission to take the samples off the shelves and test those same samples for the coronavirus. they were told they could not do it. the institutional review board at the university and federal officials all said no. you are doing this study on the flu. although samples sitting on the hugees might unlock a story for us as to how this thing was spreading and really how far back it goes in the community. people in this community were complaining about a lot of unusual illnesses much earlier than the arrival of patient number one on the shores here. it could have been going on for quite some time, as you suggest.

after all, we have a very small world. we hop on planes in one country over another. to think it was not here earlier than we think, i think is not really paying attention to the facts of how epidemics spread. host: miles o'brien, you are still in seattle reporting on this story. what comes next? guest: we are finishing the film this morning. it has been one of those. yes, it will be right up to the moment. we do hope people -- we would love to hear your input. i'm not sure what the next story is going to be. i'm interested to see how we figure out how to get back to our lives. --s is will be all right this is where we are right now. we went to resume our lives and our economy needs to get going again. we can't be sitting around

indefinitely. how we do that safely is an interesting problem. how we can get testing going on. how to figure out new rules of engagement for all of us. using some of these restrictions . that's an important story and the one i want to look at next. host: you can watch the full documentary tonight on most pbs stations at 9:00 eastern time. .ou can watch it online frank and middle island, new york. whatr: my question is, happens in washington before this gentleman had the test and ran into a wall of bureaucracy? what happened with the governor and the scientific community there? was the decision made to go directly to the federal government? i would like to know if your investigation -- what your investigation uncovered there. guest: the governor would not

necessarily have been in that decision-making chain of command for the researcher at the university of washington. he was able to get things approved through his academic institution. his regulatory body to get a test out the door is the federal government, the food and drug administration. local and state health authorities would have loved to have the test up and running. dated not build or make a test in that timeframe. that would not be something sent to the governor's desk for approval. maybe that is something that should be thought about in the future or maybe a more streamlined emergency process to allow local testing to occur faster. that would be a good regulatory change or outcome out of this whole thing. the flipside of this it's important to remember you don't want to have test out there that are not good. the fda has rules for good reasons.

having false positives and false negatives in either case can have great consequences. argument when an it's really hitting the fan and you have a test and it's verified, if you can fast-track that into usage so it does not demonstrating a specimen is stable and all those things, if you can fast-track that and get ahead of these things, the sooner you can -- betterhe numbers off you are. it is hard to keep up with that anyway. time is so prescient and you have to move so quickly. nature regulations by that slow things down. you have to have an emergency bypass that needs to be adopted. maybe over time we will look at that. it is too late to fix that now but they will be another time.

hopefully that lesson will not be lost to history as well. host: the next caller comes from washington, d.c. bathsheba, is that your? go ahead. caller: i own a small barbershop in washington. i live in maryland and my shop was in washington, d.c. i take the bus and metro everyday back-and-forth. about all the barbershops. how are we going to do it when we go back to cut hair? we are in people's faces. hair six feet away from the customer. i think we should wear a mask, a shield just like at clinics and hospitals. us, should provide them to the government or the state should provide them to all the barbershops and beauty shops and all the people in the faces of

other people. the barbers should wear a mask and the customers should wear a mask. i don't know if that is going to be possible. i'm not talking only for myself. i'm talking about the barbers who are scared to death to go back to work. ideasd like to hear some or advice to that. how are we going to do that? do you have any thoughts on that? guest: i thought about this a lot. i have not had a haircut since i got out here. this is a difficult problem. i will harp on testing a little bit because once we know who has had the disease and has immunity and is not going to spread it, that's a key piece of information so we all know who can go to the barbershop safely.

yes, wearing masks. we will be wearing masks for a long time. what's important for her to understand is we all have to get confidence back collectively to do this. disease, wef this don't believe it is an airborne spread. it does not linger or float in the air. days in the tiny droplets of saliva that come out of our mouths as we are speaking. the mask is a good preventative tool in this case. place where we know who has what over think and is the elton suspenders approach, you put them -- belt and suspenders approach, you put the mask on, i'm sure we can make that safe. have opinionsts

about how a barbershop or nail salon to get back in business. i hear the anguish in her voice. there is not an easy path back interpersonalof intimacy to cut hair or trim nails. there are a lot of people that rely on that for their livelihood. they can be solved. host: miles o'brien, a little bit of a technical difficulty. we will end and thank you for your time this morning. the pbs front line documentary patient one airs tonight and then :00 p.m. eastern time. -- at 9:00 p.m. eastern time. miles o'brien, thanks for the conversation. we want to thank all of you for watching today, for calling in. we will see you tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern time.

♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] >> c-span has round-the-clock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, and it's all available on demand at c-span.org/coronavirus. watch white house briefings, updates from governors and state officials, track the spread throughout the u.s. and the world with interactive maps, watch on-demand, anytime, unfiltered at c-span.org/ coronavirus. coming up later today, north carolina governor roy cooper will hold a reading on his state's efforts to respond to the pandemic.