will be data-driven, we will continue to watch the trends. if the percentage of tests start increasing or hospitalizations start increasing, we will kick back one of those phases. we can obviously reserve the rights to back up if we need to. we can have a measured reopening. have a great relationship with the mayors across the state. i am putting guidance for the whole state. i had never been heavy-handed with the mayors across the state. i let them make decisions with the mayors across their cities. i have given guidance. if the restaurants don't really they are ready to reopen, they don't have to. if you don't feel like it is time to go by appointment only to a barbershop, you don't have to. we think it is time. we can always back up and extend these phases. >> washington journal,

primetime, a special evening addition of washington journal on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. david weiner, dr. director of the vaccine and immunotherapy center in philadelphia. he talks about ongoing efforts to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus. and great ferrera, on how the nations -- greg for aurora. increasingk about social distancing regulations. join the >> here is some of what is coming up tonight on c-span. ,q&a" is next with chris arnade talking about his book, dignity, which deals with the plight of those living on the margins of society. after that, prime minister's questions from the british house of commons with the foreign

secretary sitting in for boris johnson as he recovers from the coronavirus. then karen pierce on her government's coronavirus response. ♪ susan: i wanted to put the cover of your new book, "dignity," on the screen. and have you explain its essence to me. chris: it is a book about my five years driving around the united states, spending time in what i would call back road america, the part of america that is everywhere.

it is not a red state or blue state thing, it is the towns and communities that have been ignored or left behind or forgotten. places like selma, alabama, like the north side of milwaukee, places like the bronx in new york city. places that are kind of stigmatized and defined in various ways as being places where there is high crime or poverty, but places that make up a large part of the united states. susan: that is the back row, the front row is -- chris: the front row is me. me and my colleagues. i used to work on wall street. i was there for 20 years before i did this. i have a phd in physics. those are what i call front row professions. people who have harvard degrees, yale degrees, people who make up

a large part of the political class. people who make up a large part of wall street and journalism, the media. people who are very different in many different ways but have a similar lived experience after high school, which is primarily about where they go to college, where they go to school. susan: and the poor, which a lot of these folks are, have always been a part of our society, many western societies. is there anything distinctive about people who are poor in america right now? chris: the gap -- first of all i would say that part of the change over my lifetime certainly, i am in my 50's, is the income gap between the poor and wealthy. both statistically has grown in the last 30 years. what i have found and what my book tries to highlight is the differences are not just about statistics. the differences are about how people live, how people think, how people -- their whole

worldview. what i learned in my book, and i hope i can communicate to the reader is that being poor, or being forgotten or left behind is not just about a statistic. it's about a way of life and feeling humiliated, feeling disenfranchised. it is about feeling the whole way you view the world is ignored and demeaned and looked down on. and i think -- i call the book "dignity" because what i found during those five years all over the united states in these communities was i found a frustration and humiliation and a search for dignity, a desire to be dignified. a desire to have dignity, despite what statistically is really bad circumstances. susan: the concept of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps has been part of america from its

very beginning. you think about abraham lincoln , running from office -- running for office from the log cabin to the white house. is that concept one that is grounded in reality? chris: i certainly don't think so. i think it is a wonderful .cosystem -- a wonderful ethos i think everyone i met during my journey has aspirations to pull themselves up, but i think the ability to do that is very much about where you are and who you know. i think in this world we have created, where i say we have this gap between the front row, the educated elite, and the back row, the people i spent time with, that gap is so large. large not only in material terms, but also in how people think about the world that some people in the back row don't even know what it means to

be in the front row. they don't know how to pull themselves up. one of the things we in the front row, we educated, we know how to -- we know the rules. we know what we are supposed to do. we are supposed to study real hard, sit in the front row, listen to the teacher, perform well on tests, go to the right school, build a resume that gets us into the right schools, which gets us into the right jobs, which gets us into the right neighborhoods, so on and so on and so on. the people in the back row don't know that, some of them don't know that exists. they do not know the map. they don't know how to do it. even if they do know how to do it, there are so many obstacles in their way. i liken it to -- to succeed in the world we have created, to be successful, to go to harvard on a scholarship and go to graduate school and work as a wall street trader, you have to walk this tightrope of doing all of these

things right from the very beginning. if you make one mistake and fall off, you often cannot -- it is over. you cannot do it. book, is dignity, the inherently political? chris: not explicitly. i certainly intended it to be a book that was timeless in that sense. it was not -- the five years i was doing the research took place during the election of 2016. it is hard not to have politics explicitly in it. but explicitly, i think the 2016 election is only mentioned three times in the book out of 300 pages. but i think the political ramifications are clear. i think -- what the book -- i hope communicates to people is that if you are in a forgotten

community and you feel humiliated and you want dignity, there are political ramifications for a lot of people feeling that way. if a large percent of the electorate is so frustrated, so humiliated, the political consequences are clear. you're going to have people who, in some cases, just remove themselves, they are so frustrated. they just opt out of the system. i call it justified cynicism. they just look at the system and say nope. why should i play this game? and then there is another group of people who are going to basically knock over the table. things are not working for them as is, so why not knock over the table and try some thing different? susan: i heard in an interview that you said the book has generally been ignored by people on the left of the political spectrum.

if that is the case, why do you think it is so? it seems ultimately something of an indictment of capitalism, so why would it not appeal to that side of the spectrum? chris: i don't know. it is for me a little surprising. for some background, my parents are both democrats. i was raised -- we had democratic club meetings in our house as a kid. i am a lifetime democrat and i count myself as a leftist. i felt the book was -- to the degree it has an ideology, as you said, it is an indictment of the current capitalistic system. i think part of it is, one of the chapters is called faith. and one of the lessons that i learned over those five years was the importance of faith and the very dignified role religion

plays in people's lives. i think that caught people on the left off guard. i think some on the left don't particular want to hear that. i say this as somebody who started the project as an atheist. i count myself now as agnostic, i guess. but spending five years with homeless people and in neighborhoods blighted by poverty and drugs and seeing that the only thing that works for a lot of people was religion. and it was not just a pragmatic role. it played a real, central role in their life. i could not ignore that. i could not look beyond that and not write about that. susan: it is clear this was an evolution for you. in order to understand that evolution, tell me more about your roots. where were you born? you mentioned your parents were democrats, tell me how you were

brought up. chris: i was born in a small, southern town in florida. a lot of people don't think florida is the south, but believe me, my town was very much the south. 500 people in town and my parents were a bit of the outsiders. they arrived in the late 1950's when most people in the town had been there three or four generations. my father was a professor. again, one of the few professors in town. and that is where we grew up. this 99% white working-class community in the south. and the minute i could, i got out of there. i was good at math, and as much as i liked the people in the town, and i did like them, it just was not for me. and i was an altar boy and did all of the things in town,

played little league, played high school football. but by the time i graduated high school, i was reading science books, i was an atheist, and did not feel like i fit in and wanted something different. so i left, i went to college, got an undergraduate in math. susan: where did you go to school? chris: new college in sarasota, florida. susan: how did you get from there to the phd? chris: i took tests and was good at it. it came naturally to me. i was always into the big questions. the big question in my mind was cosmology. i went to johns hopkins, which had the space telescope. this was in 1986, 1987, i went and got a phd in theoretical physics. susan: and from there to wall street.

what was the path? chris: [laughter] susan: that doesn't seem like a logical progression. chris: i was one of the first people to do it. it is now a pretty common route. they call them rocket scientists. at some point people on wall street realize it is all numbers and here is this group of people who are good at numbers. i was not particularly great at physics. to make a career in physics, you have to absolutely love it and i liked it but i did not absolutely love it. and so -- i was not particularly good at it, so i left and went to wall street. susan: were you good as a bond trader? chris: yeah. i was. susan: how long did you do it? chris: 20 years. susan: how did your lifestyle change while you were doing that? chris: quite a bit. me and my family would like to say we did not change much, but i think over time -- i got paid more my first year than my father ever made. far more, 10 times more than i got as a grad student.

know, we lived what i thought was a relatively modest life, but it was not. we had a big apartment in brooklyn and sent our kids to a private school and did all of the things you do when you live in new york city as a wealthy person. susan: so then what happened? chris: i always was -- i always took walks to relieve stress, long walks. like 20 miles. and being something of a science geek, i made a goal to walk the entire length of the new york city subway system above ground. and i had done that and then i realized at some point that i had not gone to the bronx. so i took -- i called them my terminus walks.

i would take the subway to the end and walk along the route. in 2008 during the financial crisis, my life changed dramatically because of the financial crisis. my kids started getting older, my walks could be longer. i started making those walks not just about the goal of completing the subway system, walking wherever you could, but i started realizing what i enjoyed about the walks were the people i met during the walks. the kind of things you had to experience that you would not necessarily want to experience or did not plan to experience. so eventually i started bringing a camera along to document the people i met and the stories i heard during these walks, and that evolved into me taking pictures of people and writing their stories. susan: what kind of camera did you use? was it an obtrusive one? chris: initially it was a little point-and-shoot, but then i got

a real camera. for the photo geeks, a nikon d5. susan: had you done photography before? chris: just as a hobby. susan: from there all the way to publishing a book essentially a -- of photographs, you found something you were good at and could use to tell a story? chris: what i like most about a, people liked having their photos taken. the minute my camera was there, folks would ask me to take their photos. that allowed a conversation to develop about them. you know, when anybody saw my camera and wanted their picture taken, inevitably they would spend an hour and a half telling me about their life. you know, for the viewer, these are not people who usually have pictures taken. these are drug addicts, homeless

people, the poorest of the poor , often. in neighborhoods that to be blunt, a lot of white people will not go. largely hispanic, largely black neighborhoods. and it was a conduit -- in retrospect it was a conduit for me to learn more, to learn in a different way, to learn from people rather than books and spreadsheets and articles. susan: you ended up spending quite a bit of time in one part of the bronx called hunts point. why did this part of the city , in such a big, diverse city, attract you so much? chris: a variety of reasons but initially i went because i was told not to go there, which is kind of my way of dealing sometimes. i remember i was on wall street and people were like, where are you walking this time? i said i'm going to the end of

the two train, i believe it was, and then i'm going to walk home. they go, you're going to have to go -- that is the bronx. whatever you do, do not go to hunts point. ok, i am going to hunts point. susan: sure. chris: the reason they told me that is it is considered to be the most -- the poorest neighborhood in new york, it is long stigmatized as being poor, crime-ridden. hbo had done a salacious show called "hookers at the point." so it has a big stigma attached to it because of drugs and the sex trade. i did not know much of that but i knew i was not supposed to go there. i remember when i first walked there, -- i just want to say it is a wonderful neighborhood before saying anything else and that's what i try to communicate in my book. i saw that the minute i walked in there. it is a tongue of land cutting -- jutting out, if you ever fly into laguardia, you fly over it

coming from the north. it is a tongue of land that juts out into the east river most -- almost directly across from laguardia airport. and it is kind of a gated community in all of the wrong ways. on three sides it is cut off by water, and on the fourth side, it is cut off by the massive interstate, the expressway. it is kind of where new york puts things it does not want. garbage dumps, junkyards, auto body shops. but it is also home to 40,000 people. susan: and who are they? who lives there? chris: mostly -- i think it is 99% hispanic and black, working-class. 50% below poverty level. and they live in one area. the minute i walked into the neighborhood, i felt, in an odd way, it was like what i had

grown up with, which is a small town. a place where people watch out for each other. it also, as a photographer, because it faces the south, it has good light. it doesn't have tall buildings , it has good light, so it was very beautiful photographically. susan: i want to put another picture on screen. this is a person his name is to keisha. who is she? chris: she was the first -- there is a sex trade, and she is a homeless addict. i mean, she is much more than that, but that is what she would be called. she has been living on and off the streets for 40 years. she is one of the first people i met in hunts point. i had kind of intentionally --

she is always walking the streets and i had intentionally out of respect for what she is doing and knowing the big difference between us, i had given her space. eventually she called me over. she kept on yelling, come take a picture of me. so i walked over and took a picture. it was a sunday morning i believe, or a saturday. it was empty because -- all the semi's were gone. she was in the industrial part of hunts point. immediately her intelligence just kind of came right through and we spoke for about an hour, half an hour or so. she told me her life, which is just, you know -- it is like a cliche of everything wrong that can happen to somebody. eventually i asked her what i asked everybody i photographed, which is, what is one sentence -- how do want me to describe you? give me one sentence.

she shot back, "what i am: a prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of god." susan: you have been done with this project for years and it seems like you are still emotional. chris: yes, sorry. susan: why is that? why is it you bring so much emotion? chris: because i think -- sorry, i tear up when i talk about her. i just -- as an author, there is a frustration of not being able to communicate how rich of a person -- you ask who she is. and i go to the cliche. she is a homeless addict, but there is so much more than that. so part of it is the frustration of an author not being able to say, well, she is this immensely rich, smart, wonderful person who is going to be called a homeless addict.

and, you know, i also get emotional because i know how rough her life has been and how rough her life still is and how unfair that is. susan: you said she became your guide to hunts point. how did that relationship work and who were the kinds of people she introduced you to? chris: it's basically, i call it a street family. it is roughly 30 -- a collection of 25 to 30 people who call each other sister, mother, father, brother. they act like a family. they are homeless. and they shoot up heroin, often 10 bags a day. they live under bridges, in abandoned buildings, and broken down cars, on roofs, in pits.

under expressways, wherever. and some of them do sex work. some of them don't. some of them scrap iron, some of them steal, some of them rob. they have to make $150 per day to shoot up heroin. and she and i -- she, amongst others, basically let me into their lives. and kinda guided me through this community. and for roughly two and a half to three years, i was kind of an outsider, fly on the wall, if you will, and an honorary member of this family. they were kind enough to let me in with my camera. susan: at what point did you quit your job on wall street? chris: after about nine months of hanging out in hunts point

and doing that, it was absurd. i mean, i couldn't. i had this absurd, weird life being a wall street trader day and on the weekends, being under bridges with heroin addicts. susan: when i was reading your and there are two parts to it, which we will talk about. one at hunts point, and one around the country, but i kept thinking about your own family. clearly you were changing so much, and you were leaving them at odd hours. how did your family members react to this journey you were on? chris: i have a supportive family, which i am very fortunate of. and i think -- the way i explain it is this was more me than being a wall street banker was, and they knew that and appreciated that. if you knew me growing up or knew me in college, i was not a wall street banker. this was more who i was. so it is kind of like, oh, you

are back to being you again. but also, once i quit, i was physically around my family more. i may be gone two months at a time when i ended up going on the road, but i am also back for two months and always there. it has been tough on my family. that is part of the problem with doing something like this. it changed me. it is unfair to my family. it is not fair, they did not sign up for this. i think the old book is "mosquito coast," about a guy who goes on a journey and drags his family through hell, and at some point i said i am not going to mosquito coast. i have to put boundaries. that is partially why i stopped going to the bronx. susan: along the way, you write about the fact that you got very involved in people's lives. and of course, some of the critics of your book suggest that's where the line with journalism stops. if you involve yourself. what do you think about that? chris: i could spend hours

talking about it. susan: the rulebook? chris: i do my best not to get too angry. the rulebook is well-intentioned. but it is conveniently a way to keep people from doing projects like this. it is conveniently a way to keep a boundary and not get involved in people's lives. i got criticized for helping people out financially, which i can't imagine not doing. how can i not buy people food? how can i see somebody who was a friend of mine at that point and withdraw and not help them find money? it is just basic human decency. these people accepted me into their lives and for me to not help in a way that i could -- you know, i had money.

and it was not just money, it was driving them to detox, visiting them in prison, taking them to hospitals, taking them home to visit their family. how could i not do that? the idea that you are not supposed to get involved with the subject is well intended and i understand why it is there, but it is also a way to keep people from writing about these things. i find it unethical for a journalist to do this, or an artist to do this, and not help out. to come in, get somebody's stories, and leave. susan: what kind of boundaries did you give them about how you would use their stories? do we know their real names, did they give you permission to use their photographs? chris: yes. in hunts point specifically was a three-year project and there are a lot of pictures i haven't published, a lot of stories i haven't told. there are pictures i have taken

off when requested. one of the things i do regret is i don't think anybody can fully understand what the internet is. and so initially -- susan: how exposed you are? chris: yes. and i think everybody -- i am fully comfortable with the level of understanding everybody had at the time. i can't say now i am comfortable necessarily. i did not know it would become this and i could not have predicted it was going to become this. i don't think anybody else could have. so i think there are cases where people might feel uncomfortable that it is out there, but for three years they told me they were comfortable and i have to go with that. susan: what was the progression from you walking, meeting, taking photographs, to you doing blogs with photographs to appeared in "the

guardian" to this book? how did that all happen? chris: it was basically that progression. it was just -- susan: did "the guardian" see you on the internet and come find you? chris: it was an editor, heidi moore, who knew me for my business writing. she saw me on twitter and asked me to write some business articles for her, which i did, on wall street. not very favorable to wall street articles. from there, she introduced me to the op-ed people and i started writing more political pieces. susan: who -- how did the book idea come together? chris: that was entirely accidental. meaning -- i did hunts point for three years and eventually i had to leave for both emotional deepn, i just was in too and it was not fair to my family id it was not necessarily --

was drinking too much. it was not a good place. to see such pain, to be surrounded by such pain. i exercised the option few people have and i left. i decided to be a geek about it , to be mathematical about it, to put on my old science hat. i had learned all of these things in hunts point and i want to see if they were translationally invariant. was it just hunts point? what i was seeing at hunts point, the vast injustices, but beneath it all still human dignity that shone through, was this something that was unique to hunts point, or was this elsewhere? i got in my van, after clearing my head and getting sober, and went to other places.

susan: before we leave hunts point, tell me about one other person who impacted you. chris: that would be millie. again, a homeless addict. she is dead now. and it was her death -- her lifestyle, part of the street family. and she went missing. just kind of, you know. it is kind of common. people just disappear. and then rumor fills the void. so she -- some said she got stabbed, some said they found her body in the east river, and fanciful tales were told. i had figured that what had really happened, like in most cases, was she was either in prison or had gone to detox, or managed to find family members escape the streets for a while. but eventually i found her body.

she had died at lincoln memorial hospital. and she had died with no papers. no identification. and so after six months, her body was buried on something island, an island in the east river where about a million unclaimed bodies are buried. they have been burying people there in new york city since 1865. a paupers' field i think is what they call it. put in a plywood box in a trench and buried. eventually i went through the legal loopholes of getting her body exhumed and properly buried. but -- you know, i kind of both smile which is not a nice thing

to do, because i think back to old me. because when i found out she was buried on an island -- you cannot visit the island, by the way. there are a million people buried there. it is run by the department of corrections, oddly. now because of the work of one woman, this wonderful woman, melinda hunt i believe is her name, you can visit once a month. you can take a ferry and step on the island and that is about it. you cannot go to any grave. and i kind of think back to old me, when i found out she was buried in a trench on an island you can't visit, i would have said, so what? she is dead. what does it matter if you can't -- what does it matter where somebody is buried? being a very rational, scientific guy. as someone said to me on the streets, when they eventually got her a proper gravestone, helped people get her a proper

gravestone, they said her memory really doesn't die. until we stop telling stories about her. and having the physical gravestone there allows that. susan: you left hunts point and set out on a three year journey? chris: roughly two and a half. susan: how many miles? chris: somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000. susan: how did you choose the communities you visited? chris: kind of the way i chose hunts point. you know, i kind of was mean about it to people i like because i would say where should i go? and i would go where they would not tell me. they would say, oh, you need to go to blank. ok, i'm not going to go there. i wanted to go to places people never go to, like hunts point. i ended up going to places -- i used poverty maps, maps of addiction, maps of crime rates,

to find places -- i had this big map in my mind of places i wasn't going to go to that people told me to go to them, and places that stood out because they had high poverty or high crime. susan: i'm going to put another photograph on screen, and that is of mcdonald's. for you, it became a locus of your exploration. why mcdonald's? what does it do in these communities? chris: in hunts point in the bronx, i found myself in the mcdonald's all the time, the reason i found myself in the mcdonald's all the time was because everybody else was there. keisha, millie, shelley, ramon, sarah, they were all there at mcdonald's. it was the only place that offer them a respite from the streets, it allowed them to use the bathroom, allowed them to use the internet. if they had a phone, it allowed them to charge their phone.

it was basically a community center where people did not judge them. susan: this is true throughout the country? what institutions is it replacing in our society? chris: the town square in some ways. the community center. i think people -- when i write about mcdonald's and how it has become this ad hoc community center, this place where people who live on the streets can gain a moment of dignity by rejoining society and not being stared at and being allowed to go there. if you go into any mcdonald's, you will find them. people like keisha and millie, people who are living on the cusp. you see them in a booth, maybe with their old cell phone with cracks on it, maybe with a bible. they are escaping the streets, hanging out for three hours. i would say that in many ways, role, too.orm that

susan: how does mcdonald's corporation feel about this? or the local managers? do they encourage -- chris: i don't know. i do know that in every -- susan: do you ever see managers chasing people out? chris: no. i think maybe one out of a million. you know, i mean -- i think someone, i can't say for a guarantee because i haven't asked, i suspect -- i think mcdonald's knows what it is doing. it knows its clientele. because often, you know, it is people who are friends with the workers. mcdonald's is very reflective of the neighborhood. the people who work at mcdonald's are from the community. and so the bonds between often the employees and the people using it as a shelter. they may know them from high school, they may know their brother from high school, they may know their sister from high school. in many cases, again, very much

-- the employees are very much part of the community as well. susan: you referenced this earlier, but small churches, not the big institutional churches, but small churches were very much a part of what you found in these communities. where is this one? chris: that is prestonburg, kentucky, i believe. susan: what do they represent? in these folks lives. chris: absolutely everything. this particular young lady was part of a family that -- i don't want to use their names -- who had, they did not have much. they didn't have a car, they had someone drive them the 35 miles from the place they were living down to this church for sunday night service. six hour sunday night service and i was there for the entire thing. it was everything, it was their community. it was their day, it was their week, it was everything.

susan: how did the presence in those churches in the time you spent impact your spirituality? chris: again, i jokingly say with mcdonald's and the churches , i went from being a vegetarian atheist to a meat-eating churchgoer. . susan: do you still go to church now? chris: not as much as i should. susan: time to time. and before you went not at all? chris: not at all. susan: i want to move quickly to another photograph that i went back to a number of times. this was in portsmouth, ohio. and this is a father pushing his kids in a shopping cart. how did you happen upon them and what is the story you wanted to tell with the photograph? chris: they were -- before getting into this, i want to say the father was doing everything

he could. he was a good father. i think people would think probably not, but he was doing what he knew. as he said, two kids came into my life and i was going to do everything i could to raise them. susan: did he have a job? chris: no. not seen in the picture is the mother, who i talked about in the book briefly, standing along that road panhandling. that road is right outside of the mcdonald's outside of portsmouth, ohio. the church was preston berg, kentucky. this is portsmouth, ohio. they were just there in the community. the father, while the mother was working panhandling, the father would push the kids around, maybe sit under a tree and play with them. susan: where did they live? chris: they lived, in his telling, they lived in a garage behind the home of someone he knew.

as he said, it's not that bad. out, he saidrd sometimes we can run a cord out there to run a heater but it is not that bad right now because it is not that cold. susan: did you ultimately -- i think i read in one of the stories about this, that you ultimately struggled with it but called social services on these folks. chris: yes, i did. it took me -- believe me. i was in town three different times or four different times, say an aggregate maybe three weeks, and this trip lasted maybe four days. i ran into them on the first day and the fourth day before i left, i called social services. susan: what happened? chris: they cannot tell me. but from what i can read between the lines, they came and took the kids away. which was the right thing. it was hard because they trusted me. susan: and you feel that you violated that trust?

chris: it is hard to make a decision for someone when you don't know the full story, but, you know, it was the right decision. i asked three or four other people's advice and it was the right decision. but i guess what to me was the bigger take away when i try to explain in the book is this was not -- this father pushing two kids around, and those blankets are filthy by the way and the cart is filthy, it doesn't come across necessarily in the picture, but it reeked. which is partially why i called. but nobody cared. it was just normal. like, it was shocking to me, and i have seen a lot. this is near the end of my five years and i had seen a lot. i had been in crack houses, i had seen people have septic wounds.

i had seen people do desperate things for drugs and this shocked me. what shocked me even more was that cars just drove by. like this was normal. there was a minister who came and gave them a bible and some slabs of water but otherwise people kept driving by. the fact that it became normal was what was shocking to me. susan: in selma, alabama, you met tony. we don't have a photograph. chris: that is correct. susan: he had been shot six times? is that right? susan: -- chris: i checked my notes, i messed up, it was nine or six. i saw every bullet wound. susan: the interesting thing is he accepted this as his life,

this is what -- the options available to him. what does he do? how does he make his money to live? chris: drugs. susan: he sells them? chris: yes. susan: where did they come from? chris: i suspect from -- sometimes you learn not to ask questions. i suspect from up north. but i did not want to know. susan: the connection with mcdonald's that was compelling is that he says i am unhireable. if he went to work at mcdonald's, what would happen? chris: i think the phrase to use -- he used, he showed me his gun, he was proud of his gun. everyone would show me their guns. they would always flash me their piece. he said, if i put my gun down and put on an apron at mcdonald's, someone is going to put a cap in me, someone will shoot me. this is the life i live. i have to shoot first or i will be shot. susan: how old was he approximately? chris: 32.

susan: he'd been doing this a long time. chris: yeah. one of the things, you talk about permission. i don't have a picture of him, but he wanted me to take a picture of him. that is a case where i chose not to take a picture. i said, i don't think you want me to take a picture of you. you are running from six felonies and you just admitted to me that you have been involved in nine shootings or six shootings, don't let me take a picture of you. >> another story from selma was the brick reclamation. what is that? chris: the person who was friends with the drug dealer was a former drug dealer himself who said you have to see this. i'm like, what? there were these four or five old massive cotton warehouses that were built in the 1850's or so that were being dismantled and now they were just piles of rubble. and people were being paid to

sift through the rubble, scrape the bricks off, stack them into stacks of 500. they would get $20 or $10 for doing this. people's hands were bleeding and this was all the work they had. this is the only work paying people hard cash. susan: in selma. chris: yeah. and the people working were not angry. they were not -- they were like, yeah, this is work. you have to do what you have to do. i've got three kids to feed. i've got to do what i've got to do. susan: the last stop i have time for, i'm sorry because there are so many stories, is lewiston, maine. chris: yes. susan: a very different group of people you got involved with photographing there. who were they? chris: somali refugees. somali-americans. they had -- you know, lewiston i

think excepted its first -- lewiston was a primarily quebecois, french-canadian american town that had mills and the mills left, and 99.9% white and then catholic relief agencies moved in an african family and within 10 years, they are at roughly 15,000 somali-americans living in downtown and turning it into their home. susan: successfully? chris: yeah. susan: starting businesses? chris: starting business -- they have reclaimed downtown. downtown was dying. it was nothing. susan: what is the moral of the story? chris: there are a lot of morals there, but i think -- i understand, you know, there's a lot of -- there's a lot of -- immigrants in the united states face a lot of problems.

but i think the lesson of lewiston is how well it works. you have this somali-american community that moved in in 1999 and dramatically changed the town and the town by and large is working ok. there are problems but it is working out. susan: in the brief 10 minutes we have left, i wanted to put a first of all, we have talked about poverty. the federal poverty level is $12,000 and change for single and $15,000 for families. just this month, congress -- the joint economic committee in congress released a report that says the mortality from death of despair far surpasses anything seen in america since the dawn of the 20th century. the recent increase has primarily been driven by an unprecedented epidemic of drug

overdoses, but even excluding those deaths, the combined mortality rate from suicides and alcohol-related deaths is higher than at any point in more than 100 years. statistically, there are 70,000 drug overdose deaths and 2018 and 88,000 deaths in the country from alcohol. you have documented a lot of this. what do you think is going on in our country? what is the cause for this happening? chris: i am a bit of an outlier. i don't think it is about supply. it is about -- addiction is not about supply, it is about demand. to be politically incorrect, drugs are popular because drugs work. the way they work is they numb the pain. and there is a lot of pain in the country. susan: how did we get to this point? chris: people feel humiliated. people feel a lack of -- you know, the phrase i use is people want to be a valued member of something larger than themselves and currently right now, a lot

of people don't feel a valued member of something larger than themselves. what used to be -- one of the forms of that, to be a valued member of something larger than yourself, was faith. church. in many cases, we have been, -- we as society have demeaned the value of faith so that if somebody does feel religious, they feel a built humiliated, a bit scorned for it. community, local community, was another. to be a valued member of some thing larger than yourself, a member of your community, to be part of a bowling league, the elks club, part of the county fair committee. we have become so mobile and so much emphasis put on we in the front row. we move, move, move. we tell everybody they need to move. --your town is diane, just

if your town is dying, just move. if you stay put, you are a loser. so, all those things, noncredentialed forms, the things that provided people -- you did not have to build a resume to get them. you had your family, your place, you had your faith. those gave you -- those grounded you and gave you a role and made you feel valued. we have devalued those to the point where a lot of people, unless they are economically successful, unless you are -- which which means gives you the path to be economically successful, that is the only real thing we value these days, how much stuff you have and how much education you have. that has left a lot of people feeling like they are not valued. and, you know, crack houses, drug traps, and prisons are filled with people who don't

feel valued. they felt like they were kind of humiliated, left behind, scorned, ignored. you know, that's -- if you feel rejected, and we have made so many people in this country feel rejected, one of the ways to deal with that is turning to drugs. susan: what about the absence of jobs? chris: that has hurt. again, one of the things, one of -- part of the reason these communities are falling apart is, in every community i went to, every place, people could literally point to a field that was either surrounded by barbed wire or was just empty, or it had a dilapidated building. and they said, that's where the jobs used to be. and you guys took those jobs away.

and those jobs -- i remember in battle creek, michigan, the madeich is where cereal is , the couple who told me that they literally walked onto the factory floor out of high school where they worked for 40 years, and that enabled them to build a life, the stability to build a life, build a home, -- everybody wants to build a home. everybody wants to have a family and build a life. job,abled them to get the have stability, buy a home, raise a family, have grandkids. and that stability is not there anymore. susan: the cover of your work has a blurb from the best selling author of "hillbilly elegy." the quote is, a profound book . it will break your heart, but also leave you with hope. i am struggling to see the hope. chris: [laughter]

the hope is that at every -- people endure. you know, one of the things i wish i did more of in my book, you go into a crack house, you go underneath the bridge with addicts, there are jokes being told. there is humor, there are moments of levity. there are people celebrating birthdays. i remember, i think it was sarah's birthday. homeless, literally under a bridge where we had to crawl along the pipe for about 30 yards. and it is odd because it literally goes over the -- underneath every once and a while, the sls speeds by. we are sitting there, it is like 12:00 at night, filth. the train zooming by every once in a while. and someone stole the cake for her.

someone crawled through with this cake. they had gone into the shoprite, whatever, and lifted it. they managed to steal a whole birthday cake. and it was a birthday party. susan: are you going to stay on this beat or have you exhausted it for yourself? chris: i am not sure. it is hard. i do not want to -- i am not going to say woe is me because i have been very lucky, but it takes a toll. partly because it is so frustrating. it gets to be so frustrating to see something and not be able to rejoin polite society. and just not feel -- people don't get it. and so that is frustrating. susan: for the last bit of time, what is your hope that the book will do? what would be the best outcome?

chris: that readers, before you judge somebody, take a moment to realize they are probably going through a lot. before you judge someone's decisions on an individual or group level, re-think whether it is a personal flaw that got them there or it is the situation they found themselves in. nine times out of 10, a person is doing their best against overwhelming odds. susan: that is it for our time. thank you very much about -- for telling us about "dignity" and your work documenting the back row, as you call it, of society. chris: thank you for having me. ♪ >> all "q&a" programs are available on our website or as a

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presidential impeachment process , and now the federal response to the coronavirus. you can watch all of c-span's public affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app and be part of the conversation through c-span's daily "washington journal" programs or through our social media feed. created as a public service and brought to you today by your television provider. >> the british foreign secretary took questions on the coronavirus pandemic from members of the house of commons. he was standing in for boris johnson, who is recovering at home from coronavirus. we also hear from a new labour party leader, who recently replaced jeremy corbyn. this was the first time members were able to ask questions

remotely and in person. >> thank you, secretary of state. we go to questions for the prime minister, for 45 minutes. to answer the engaged questions and welcome to the dispatch box. >> thank you, i have been asked to respond to the prime minister, he is making a good recovery and in good spirits. the coronavirus pandemic presents us with one of the biggest challenges we have faced is a country in decades. our message to the british public is clear, please stay at home to protect in hs and save lives. is a government we continue to take the right measures guided by the signs and medical

experts was i paid tribute to the enormous contributions our nhs and other frontline workers made to tackling this virus, we owe an enormous debt of gratitude and continue to do whatever it takes to support them. the aim is to save lives and incredible support, we are doing that with the peak of this virus. thank you for your efforts to ensure parliament can meet in private scrutiny and we embrace, the house meets in challenging times and we will defeat this virus. >> we do wish the prime minister a speedy recovery but the house withdrawal, i am welcoming in these folks. >> can i thank you, house

authorities and staff for allowing us to meet in this way today, it is important to have this scrutiny in our best wishes to the prime minister for a fool and speedy recovery, we send our best wishes to all of those affected by coronavirus and to all of those that have lost loved ones. for the whole house, deepest thanks to those on the front lines to keep us safe to keep us going. i promised we would give constructive opposition with courage to support the government where that is the right thing to do and to succeed in defeating coronavirus but we have to have the courage to challenge where we think the government is getting it wrong and in that

spirit i want to start with testing. testing is crucial that every state of the pandemic, we have been very slow, way behind other european countries, the health secretary made an important commitment to 100,000 tests a day by the end of april. yesterday the figure for actual test, 18,000 a day, down from monday, we are way behind the curve, the end of the month this week tomorrow. what does the first secretary expect to happen in the next eight days to get us from 18,000 tests a day to 100,000 tests a day? >> congratulate the right honorable gentleman on his success as leader of the labor party. i will pass on his best wishes

to the prime minister, i know he would want to be here in person and i join him in paying tribute to our front-line workers, the crucial issue of testing will be incredibly important part of the strategy in transitioning from the current social distancing measures but i have to correct him, our capacity for tests is 40,000 per day. that is an important milestone. he's right to say that in the final week that will require a big increase but with the project like this it requires in a financial increase in the final days in the final week of the program. i can reassure him about a range of commercial partners to boost testing to get to that 100,000 tests a day. fully functional and glasgow will be opened later this week. >> thank you very much, thank you for the kind comments.

the figure for the actual tests, the first secretary says the capacity for 40,000 test today and it is important that we fully understand what the secretary said because that means the day before yesterday, 40,000 tests could have been carried out but only 18,000 tests were actually carried out. all week i heard from the frontline from care workers who were desperate for tests for their residents and themselves, they would expect every test be used every day for those that need them. there is clearly a problem. why is the government using every test available every day? >> it is important to pay tribute, getting the capacity part of it, making good

progress and i hope he has conceded the point. the issue of increasing the demand is something we've got control over. of course we are making sure the eligibility is broadened, our focus i think he would agree should be on frontline nhs staff broadened out to care workers and other key workers and done in a way that the system can manage. we have confidence that based on our test capacity we can deliver that and in relation to the capacity itself a range of issues, the astrazeneca cambridge university -- we will deliver and those tests will be crucial not just in terms of controlling the virus but allowing the country to move to the next phase. >> i welcome the fact that capacity has gone up.

it is not a question of driving up demand, the health secretary said every chair worker who needed a test would get one. the position is this, if a care worker has symptoms of coronavirus or a family member has symptoms he or she has to self isolate. to travel to a testing center, many miles away. social care workers in leicester at nottingham, 45 minutes drive, there are lots of examples across the country. there is a problem with that system. they have symptoms of family

members have symptoms, they couldn't use public transport, there's little wonder, they have pictures of half-empty testing centers, that's not about driving up demand but tests where they are needed. care workers on the frontline, things improve fast. >> it is certainly about capacity. it is about demand, we need to encourage those who take the test forward but he is right to say it is about distribution and the logistical and transport challenges, in getting to the test, working with local resilience to make sure it is as effectively as possible. we go to those areas with the

hard-to-reach, using the army to make along with other key contributions. it is important to have a target and drive towards the target. we are making good progress, and should join with me in engaging the national effort while saying the laborers will help to get it and abandoned the welsh targeting labor on wells. we need to work together in all four corners of the united kingdom, it is all about capacity, it is about distribution. >> i recognize how hard people are working to drive the number of tests and only eight days left.

sadly died of coronavirus, respected widely across the country, instrumental in building up emergency services. sadly, one of the many healthcare workers to have died from coronavirus in this crisis. and how many nhs workers died from coronavirus and how many social care workers died from coronavirus? >> i highly agree with the broader point he makes and key workers in the nhs and social care who are pending for the most vulnerable in society who need full support and that is what is important to ramp up the deliveries. on the latest figures my

understanding is 69 people died within the nhs of coronavirus, more difficult to establish in relation and we can all agree, that can only double down our efforts to tackle this virus and do everything we can to support the amazing workers, to take the battle to the coronavirus. >> i think the secretary for giving us the figure in relation to nhs workers, a tragic case each and every one of them. i'm disappointed we don't have a number some social care workers, i will ask the same question again next week. mister speaker, with risk on the front line, risking their lives to save hours, the least

they deserve is the right protective equipment. we heard countless examples of front-line workers not getting equipment, this from a unison care worker and i quote in a nursing home i am terrified, i don't know if residents have a virus. i am very scared. i've heard that many times in the last few weeks. half of nursing staff are under pressure to work with higher levels of equipment set out in official guidance. this is a stress test of our resilience and the plan is not working. can i ask the first secretary to tell front-line workers, when will we get the quitman we need to keep them safe? >> can i first say in relation to all those frontline staff who passed away as they battle coronavirus, worked so hard to

protect other people who are suffering our hearts go out to them and we must do what we can to protect them. we really had a consultant who passed away at kingston hospital, where they were born and delivered, how important that is, how personal it is to so many of us and we agree on the need to protect them and he will know that getting the ppe where it needs to be is a massive international challenge the country faces globally from china to germany and we have done a huge effort to provide for example ventilators that bolstered the nhs during these difficult times. we've not been able to do that. the nhs would not be able to cope and since the start of the outbreak we have delivered 1 billion items, tens of millions from the administration.

we recognize we have to strike even harder in this incredibly difficult and competitive international market. that is why we brought in my friend from dayton, chief executive of the london 2012 ethics who was pointedly on the domestic efforts. we delivered 34 million items of ppe across resilience and established a hotline for procedures and the website to make sure not only we got the amounts of ppe we need but also the most vulnerable and those on the frontline who need it most. >> i joined the sentiment of the press secretary relations all those working on the frontline and pay tribute to all of those who have been incredible to see what is happening in the next few weeks. i understand the challenge of getting the right equipment to

the right place every time, the secretary knows there is a gap between promise and delivery and over the last few days it emerged that british manufacturers got in touch with many members of the opposition, probably members across the house saying they offered to reduce the equal and but didn't respond from the government. i understand do diligence couldn't be taken up but some of those who wanted to help are now supplying to other countries. so clearly they could have supplied in this country and something is going wrong but there is a pattern emerging, we are slowly looking down, slow on testing, so -- slow on protective equipment and slow to take up the offers from british firms. the prime minister said this is a national effort and he is right about that so in that spirit, the minister commit to operating with the opposition, taken up with manufacturers for protective equipment as soon as possible. >> the secretary.

>> i think the honorable gentlemen but i don't think we can slow. we have been guided by the chief scientific advisor and chief medical officer in every step of the way. if he thinks he knows better than they do with the benefit of hindsight, that is his decision but that is not the way we proceeded and not the way we will in the future, he mentioned from british businesses, not quite right to say they must have been acceptable by uk standards because of different leads in different countries abroad but i can reassure people, 8000 businesses offered ppe in response to the government's call and every business receives a response, 3000 of those 8000 have followed up where they thought the specification or volume that makes it something for the nhs to do and he did make a

sensible point about specifications and health standards. he will note from the reporting in other countries that distributed ppe without those high standards, they had to be recalled and health workers in those countries had to go into isolation. i appreciate that he wants to put pressure in scrutinizing the government but i hope he will understand the need to take the right decision and scrutinize very carefully the precious ppe we are putting on the frontline to protect our key workers. >> david mendel would be unable to connect with his first of two questions. ian blackburn. >> thank you, mister speaker. the courtney kube -- the covid-19 pandemic continues but we are reminded of the terrible toll it takes on our society but also of the heroic efforts by front-line workers and i would like to take the opportunity to put on record

our gratitude for everything they do. mister speaker, it is 64 days since the chancellor announced a package of economic support, a package of support for all businesses and workers during this health emergency and yet thousands of businesses and individuals found themselves with no income, no support and no end insight and all because of arbitrary cutoff dates and barriers caused by the uk government. people are being left behind. today, the national party leaving a corrupt party call for universal basic income to finally protect everyone. it will put cash in people's pockets and help ensure strong economic recovery. the first secretary of state give us a straight answer today.

does he support the proposal or does he reject it? >> thank you, mister speaker. i pay tribute along with the honorable gentlemen to the workers that served every one of our nations and in relation to scotland the we recognize the uk efforts to tackle coronavirus, the helicopters helping scottish patients get treatment in scotland setting up test centers in glascow and 1 million items of personal equipment that were delivered from central uk government stock to make sure as when united kingdom we defeat the coronavirus. i don't agree with the point on universal income. the chancellor quite rightly adopted and series of measures second to none in the world to support workers and through the attention scheme to make sure those who don't qualify increase universal credit and

working tax credit are able to deal with the challenge and we need to have a very focused approach providing resources to those that need it most and universal income would provide that. >> ian blackburn. >> the simple fact is many people are being left behind, many people are not getting an income, a universal basic income is the right economic policy at the right time. the time has come. 100 members of parliament, political parties from across the four nations and regions of the united kingdom have come to 2 together to support the solution. polling shows 84% of the public now support this. universal basic income is a solution that will support anybody crucially, it will

leave no one behind. a solution that deserves more than the answer we got just now. the government should think again, shouldn't be left in a situation that the self employed, seasonal workers and others don't get the support they deserve, the government, do the right thing, make sure no one is left behind. yes or no? >> secretary, i think the right honorable gentlemen but i make clear we want to provide support to those who need it most was a universal approach uniform without reference to need or income is not the way and i respectfully suggest to achieve it. our plan is one of the most extensive in the world. it makes your workers, 80% of their salary, 2500 pounds, we extended this to june, we made other forms of support for

those who don't qualify, talks about the self employed or others, i made clear the increased universal credit and working tax credit, the mortgage, the energy bills, that is the way we have an approach that is targeting the resources to those who need the most and allow the economy as a whole to go through the coronavirus. >> we are now going over to peter. >> mister speaker. in this time of national emergency many people are forced to use their bank overdrafts yet the banks are charging 20% interest per year, going to increase to 40% in july. at the same time, they are offering a frantic interest rate on 0.one% yet these are the same banks that were saved by billions of pounds of

taxpayer money. what on earth is going on? when are the banks going to act in the national interest? >> i think the secretary can get the best -- mister secretary, i think the honorable friend, i got the just and he is right to refer to the support banks need to be providing to customers and thanks to the work of the chancellor, they have provided relief to those impacted by coronavirus including d3 mortgages of the loan payments and increasing overdraft and increasing credit card limits. by the first week of april, 1.2 million mortgage payment holidays have been granted and in this national effort as we pay tribute to those across the country stepping up to the plate we expect the bank to do better. >> we are now going over to

lucy powell. >> thank you, mister speaker. like some and hundreds more in manchester, nearly three quarters don't qualify for grants in the hospitality and retail sector are the lifeblood of our sector, the longest enforced closure. will he extend cash grants and come up with a rescue package for hopes, restaurants, shops and venues from disappearing altogether? >> first secretary. >> i think the honorable lady and agree about the challenge we've got across all sectors she mentioned in making sure we see them through this difficult period and make sure the country, the economy, small businesses and sectors she mentioned can bounce back.

the chancellor introduced a range of measures in relation to finance grants where they are capable of being made and other tax deferrals to enable small business and any particular businesses take them away and make sure the chancellor can assess if there's any more we can do. we got to make sure to those sectors which are adding huge value to the economy the we are in position after the coronavirus once we come through the initial crisis to bounce back and look after all those small businesses and sectors she rightly described. >> we are going over to sully and part. >> beautiful hastings heavily dependent on tourism as a major driver in the local economy. covid-19 badly had the tourism,

leisure and hospitality industry. have my right honorable friends considered what measures are needed to encourage domestic tourism and secondly, ensure the tourism and tourism related businesses are getting the right support to enable recovery from the impact of covid-19 and revive our local economies? >> first secretary. >> my honorable friend makes an important point. we know that the coronavirus is accepting the tourist industry. that was the point made by the previous honorable lady as well as the chancellor set out support for businesses and workers including those in the material sector, business rate support for hospitality and leisure businesses, we also announced 1.3 million pounds scheme to visit england to provide support to management organizations that receive closure because of the

coronavirus pandemic seen through this difficult time and we are committed to helping the industry get through this crisis to encourage people to take holidays and revive the tourism sector as we come through the crisis. >> barry gardner. >> the government scientific advisory group on emergency is recommended urgent lockdown to save lives on the 20 sixth of february but it took another 3 and a half weeks to implement. the government likes to claim that it has been following the scientific advice but it hasn't, has it? >> first secretary. >> we have increased stage from january when the crisis started to break out in china, and social distancing measures

followed particularly carefully the advice from key scientific advisor and chief medical officer and as a result of the measures we put in place two things have happened. it hasn't been overwhelmed, i pay tribute not just key workers but huge sacrifice made by the british public because of compliance with social distancing measures. it only happened because we've taken the right decisions based on evidence we had at the right moment in time and that is what we continue to do. >> now we go to nick fletcher. >> one step the government has taken to make sure the nhs are adequately supplied equipment.

>> it is critically important, i agree with him on the imminent need of getting their ppe, since the start of the outbreak we delivered 1.3 billion items for personal protective equal in, make sure we distributed it that all four nations get the women they need as we are working through local business forums, and nhs key workers on the frontline and other workers that everyone who needs it is getting the ppe they need and with help of milo noble friend lord dayton we are going to ramp up even further capacity to not just procure and produce ppe to get to where it is needed most. >> in a time of national crisis it is critical the government, local councils are insured communities get the support

they need, the work taking place in bradford, will he confirm the promise to fund whatever is necessary is fully confident them for all the costs related to the covid-19 crisis, not just funding announced not only partially what councils have done. >> first secretary. >> i pay tribute to the councils up and down through social care and what they provided residents. i can assure the honorable lady we announced an additional 1.6 billion pounds to support

in the age -- the northeast hospice. >> first secretary. >> record funding enshrined in law, the largest program in a generation. in response to the coronavirus, coronavirus emergency response of 6.6 billion, in relation to the northeast. and nhs infrastructure, looking

carefully at all of those. >> we are going to stephen conduct. >> the steelworks is beating heart of the economy. there will be no post pandemic recovery honestly have strong and healthy, and 50 million pounds is only one tenth of what will be the cash flow impact. the government urgently take steps to lift the loan caps, a fighting chance of surviving this crisis. >> the business interruption loans, available for small businesses.

we are seeing changes to the loan scheme. the chancellor is looking carefully, and all of those directly benefiting all of this scheme to make sure the round is providing the measures we see in a targeted way that crucial elements of the economy. >> one of the most striking features, the way in which so many public-private and other organizations put themselves out of shape to deal with the pandemic not least in our own constituency. the spirit of the british

people and outline the essential ingredient to getting our country through this. >> the challenge we have not faced, and it is an incredible national effort. not just nhs workers, but also, people understanding more and more are part of the key workers, people working in the supermarket and all of those steering us through this time of national crisis, they can rise to the challenge, i'm confident we will rise to the challenge as one united kingdom stronger than ever.

>> for weeks there has been a significant, the reality that has been experienced by our constituents, so when will the government learn from the delays they experienced so far, learn from other countries, when will they learn from the best in crisis decision making. >> first secretary, actually with an unprecedented crisis, there is no country in the world addressing the crisis, an incredible achievement in this country. people said we couldn't build a hospital in this country at that speed. we built several with more to come, that we wouldn't be able

to -- personal protective equipment, there are no challenges and she is right to make the point, the lesson says we go. going along a deliberate way, listening to the efforts and advice from the chief scientific advisor, how they get through this crisis. it is worth noting that one of the big risks, the fear that we find the nhs overwhelmed. when you look at critical care capacity, and individual achievements as institutions held up well and that is a good example how we have risen to this challenge and continue to do so. >> we are going to nicola richards.

>> thank you, 100 constituents only in india during the pandemic which is why i welcome the bold commitment to international partners, and the progress of this scheme. >> first secretary. we have been working flat out with the foreign office international network on that, working with foreign governments and airlines, we returned over 1 million british nationals, and we also introduced, a whole range of international uk airline signed up to it.

10,000 on supplies, in the last few weeks they had 52 flights to get 10,000 back from 16 countries including 5000 from india. india, pakistan and bangladesh. >>? >> in an answer, a consultant who died at kingston hospital, my local hospital, the consultant's name was anton sebastian billi, who came to the uk after qualifying as a doctor in sri lanka in 1967. he worked in the nhs for decades and was treating coronavirus patients and sadly died. he was the best of us. on behalf of and one, nhs and

care workers who made the ultimate sacrifice for others and learned lessons urgently have a future pandemic, will the government commit itself now for a future independent judge letting corey into how the crisis has been handled. >> i joined him in the tribute he made to doctor anton sebastian - i have been treated there by the incredible work they do. i won't take up his offer of committing to a public inquiry. to get through this crisis it will be important to come together to understand with an unprecedented challenge on

international scale to avoid it happening again. from our key nhs front line workers, i would expect our fool focus to come to the peak of the focus to make sure we save lives, protect the nhs and steer the country through this crisis. >> we now go over to faye jones. >> the army has played a vital role in the uk response to the coronavirus. he may not know, the joint military command in my constituency. they have been supporting them around the country with regional help boards.

will the fed secretary, and -- >> first secretary. >> one of the questions in relation to scotland. looking at all four corners of the united kingdom in particular wales. it built the hospital's, delivered it to where it needs it most along with other key workers, we pay tribute to the fact that the uk armed forces in all four corners of the united kingdom helping to deliver the coronavirus challenge. >> let's go to liz roberts. >> one nation or region past the peak. we will see confusion and

people running around and that run the risk of further infection. if the formation approach is to be meaningful, the governments must have equal say, the lockdown can only happen by the unanimous agreement of the four governments together. >> first secretary. >> paying tribute to the administration in northern ireland, scotland and wales, i am fair to say excellent cooperation between all four nations and with the current mayor of london. that is quickly important. if she looks at the social distancing measures there has been remarkable consistency in all four nations in compliance, continue to work together on a collaborative basis as we look towards the second fate on behalf of the uk government. >> going across to doctor luke

evans, doctor luke evans. >> world renowned for the consolation work, protecting endangered species, endangered itself with 650,000 pounds a month with no income coming in. they are asking 100 million pounds for health care for animals. just like animals they protect, they learn from them in the future. >> first secretary. >> i think my honorable friend and agree with his question, all the incredible animals on display for all of us and i'm pleased to announce as a result a engagement and consultation we announce a new zoo support fund which will be launched,

able to provide dedicated support alongside that made available by the treasury to care for animals during this crisis. those who's concern to look at the rate of financial support already available but also make contact with officials to make sure how it can be tailored for them. >> now to the final question. >> thank you, mister speaker. the uk in 18 countries endorsed a comprehensive communiqué on covid-19 and global pandemic preparedness. this much-needed action plan was vetoed by the usa, on the world health organization. the prime ministers reported to have spoken to donald trump yesterday. can the right honorable gentlemen assure the task,

britain believes the world health organization is critical to the future of global health security. this country will not be drawn into the us president's disgraceful vendetta against the world health organization. >> i assure the right honorable lady we support the international effort. it is getting through the global crisis. we recognize there is a role to play, it is not perfect, no institution is. we consider it, an >> you have been watching prime minister's questions. the next question time is this wednesday. you can see it live at 7:00 a.m.

eastern. to c-span.org to find video of past prime minister's questions and other british public affairs programs. we have round-the-clock coverage of the federal response to coronavirus. demand onavailable on our website. briefings, house updates from governors, and state officials. tractor spread throughout the u.s. and world with interactive maps. watch on-demand, any time, unfiltered, on our website. monday night, the cofounder of netflix and author of the book that will never work, shares his experience starting the online streaming service. >> we hit a few keys and we were

alive. -- live. and began opening bottles of champagne. a few minutes later, three more orders. we were so excited. then we got two more orders. in all the excitement, we lost track of things, until someone noticed it had been a while since the bell had rung. is there a problem? the firstout that in 15 minutes of being online, we crashed all of our servers. >> monday night at eight a clock p.m. eastern. >> wildly pandemic continues, your members of congress are working from their home districts. folks are in the automotive industry. the other majority are what i

would call front-line workers. now they are considered essential workers. these are the people who help the groceries on the table. they have been demanding a $15 minimum wage. they are the ones keeping us afloat. >> this is a very serious issue. listen to the federal authorities and state authorities and local authorities, the health experts. stay away from people right now. i see this is a war. the u.s. is at war with this virus. using our newly updated congressional directory. it has all of the contact information you need to find your senator or representative. order your copy online today.