then we look at how metrics play a role in combating the coronavirus with university dad.ington's ali mok "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: it's the "washington journal" for april 27. colorado becomes the latest state today to loosen its stay-at-home requirements with several states already doing so. some in those states have expressed concerns over that loosening and social distancing practices, and even the head of the white house coronavirus task force says she expects social distancing to keep going through the summer. our next hour, we want to you tell us about your experiences with social distancing, if you practice it, tell us how it's changed your routine. if you don't practice it, call and tell us why. you can call us this morning on one of several lines. eastern and central time zone,

it's 202-748-8000. mountain and pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. and if you're a medical professional with your own perspective on this, 202-748-8002. you can also text us at 202-748-8003. post on our twitter feed, @cspanwj. you can also post on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. several polls have been taken over the last few days on the topic of social distancing. this one was about americans oversandall their attitudes towards the process, saying about three-quarters, 70% of americans say they are more concerned with moving too quickly than slowly when it comes to this process. republicans are much more likely to say they are more concerned about moving to slowly -- moving too slowly to stay-at-home orders. it was evenly split, 74% to 53%, about those more concerned about moving too quickly in that process. when it comes to individual

states, new jersey releasing a poll from monmouth university found one of the residents of new jersey overwhelmingly support social distancing and some other measures taken top prevent the spread of coronavirus. the poll also finding support for its governor, saying at least 90% of people agreed with social distancing, wearing face masks in public, and keeping bars and restaurants closed for now. another one of those states being looked at, florida, 72% of those polled there from quinnipiac poll saying that those social distancing guidelines are continuing to next month. 72% of florida saying that 22% of people surveyed disagreed. and approve the ending of social distancing. that's some of the polling taking place not only nationwide and statewide. it was the white house coronavirus task force coordinator, dr. deborah birx, on sunday shows yesterday, on abc, was asked about previous statements by the vice president about whether the virus will be behind us by

memorial day. she talked about that, also talked about what she thought would happen when it comes to social distancing. >> if you look at those outbreaks over time, and you look at places like louisiana, if you look at houston, if you look at detroit, and you look at how they reached their peak and come down and what those cases look like as they come down, it gives us great hope when you project out boston and chicago, and certainly the new york metro, which we're all very focused o. they still have 45% or so percent of the cases in the united states, and a majority, about 40% to 50% of the mortality. we continue to watch this very closely, but that's where the projections take us, and it's very much based on detroit, louisiana, and other groups. and then looking at seattle that never really reached a peak. it has never really had a large outbreak, and trying to understand what we can do as a people to en sure -- social

distancing will be with us through the summer to really ensure we protect one another as we move through these phases. host: so you can give us your perspective on social distancing, if you have those orders within your state. if you practice them, if you don't, at 202-748-8000 for the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001 in the mountain and pacific time zones. if you're a medical professional, 202-748-8002. from our facebook page, a post this morning saying that there are days when i get restless, but deep cleaning the house has been helping in terms of killing time. maybe you have other offers there as well in how to deal with these situations. we'll start with dan this morning. dan from michigan, in detroit. dan, good morning, go ahead. caller: good morning. yeah, so i'm a political operative, and i had spent so much time shaking hands and working during the primary season, but now i haven't left my house in about a month, and

so it's totally changed the game as far as digital organizing, communicating over the phone, and social media. i mean, it is completely changing what politicians do. in my case, i'm working for a new party called the alliance party, and we just launched a presidential bid the other day, and everything is done online. so i think it's going to be a very, very interesting election, and i think it's going hurt trump, because he likes those big rallies, and it's going to help joe biden because he just doesn't generate a lot of excitement. host: in terms of what you're doing, what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing political work online? caller: the advantage is, in my case, i live in detroit, but i'm working on a campaign in texas. usually i would never be able to do that, but nowadays it's like, it doesn't matter whether newer tokyo or you're in moscow

-- well, moscow is not a good example -- or italy, you can work on a campaign anywhere, you know, just because if you have a phone and a laptop, you can do just as much as anyone. that's an advantage. but this advantage is there's nothing better than getting out there and shaking hands and talking to people. that's what i love about politics. host: you reference the 2020 election. do you think that in looking forward to that, do you think things like conventions will still take place? do you think if they don't take place it changes the shape of the political scene? what do you think? caller: tom perez of the d.n.c. said he plans to, and i don't see them taking place in person. again, our alliance party, we had our convention yesterday online, totally digital. so i think that's going to be the new reality. it's going to be a giant zoom meeting. host: the world of politics is how dan started it off when it comes to dealing with social distancing issues. we'll go to stephanie in new

york. good morning. caller: good morning. host: you're on. caller: yes, thank you. my social distancing, i was diagnosed with cancer and lupus about six years ago. so before this even came out, i wore my mask when i went out. and i live in new york city. so we are in the deep heart of this pandemic, and as an african-american woman, when it comes to pandemics, and it was always known to us, even from years when it comes to these diseases, minorities are forgotten. so they want us to die, this president, because it's less numbers for him for the campaign. so he doesn't care about us. he doesn't care about the minorities. just want us to die because african-americans, hispanics, and asians are dying rapidly from this disease. host: let me start with that then. how do you draw that directly to the actions of the

president? how do you make those connections? caller: oh, i connect it because he don't want to do nothing test. when he said to work for the people, but this president is all about him and his needs, and his needs always. so he doesn't care about the people, only donald trump. host: ok, so exactly then your governor, andrew cuomo, what do you think about his performance? caller: oh, he's doing a fantastic job. host: specifically how is he catering to the needs of the community you spoke about then? caller: well, he's doing the best he can. he's doing more than what trump is doing, believe me. host: ok, california, we'll go to ty. hello there. good morning. caller: good morning, pedro, and thank you for c-span. thank you for what everyone's doing. social distancing is good, but it seems to be very hard. but to my surprise, to my surprise, people are really doing it.

i mean, there's decals on the floor at supermarkets. there's places designated to go so people aren't milling around, deciding it's six feet or not. i mean, i think it's pretty well done. host: and generally, do you think people are ok with following the rules, following the protocols that are set up, whether they go from place to lace and they're out and about -- they're out and about? caller: that's what i'm saying. i'm titlely surprised. i went out, and people are totally following the rules. no one is arguing, no one is bickering. everyone is following the rules. and it seems beautiful. host: when you go out, how do you protect yourself when you go out? caller: well, i wear a mask, pedro, and hand sanitizer, and there's free masks, sanitizer, you know, all the businesses are really doing their job to

help. host: ok, "the washington post" this morning profiled the state of wisconsin when it comes to stay-at-home orders and social distancing that usually comes with that. a protest picture is what they showed to start with. the reaction to the governor there. like other protests here in other states in recent days, attendees defy the advice of healthcare professionals who have urged social distancing. they stood shoulder to shoulder, many without masks or face coverings that some say could prevent the spread n. wisconsin, 5,911 cases have been diagnosed as of sunday afternoon, including 331 cases saturday, the largest daily increase in the state so far, in part of the accident banded testing. so far, 272 people in wisconsin have died. state and local officials here insist the numbers would be worse if not for strict stay-at-home orders, and they have warned in recent days that if residents don't remain difficult can't about social distancing, cases could spike. carmen is next in nebraska,

lincoln. good morning. caller: hi. thank you. yes, i need to get out and get fresh air, but i noticed that it's kind of disturbing here in nebraska that some businesses are sneaking open, like the convenience store when you need gas and stuff. i go in there, and people are reaching in and getting doughnuts. they had closed down all the doughnuts for the convenience store. now they're back. a lot of people are not wearing masks. there's not hand sanitizer. you got to go into the bathroom, get soapy towels and, you know, i open the doors with towels and everything. i just think that's not right. people are reaching back to get a doughnut and getting germs everywhere. i got to go back to work with hazard pay. i don't really like the fact

that our governor is just like allowing it to happen. host: so are you staying at home from work because of orders from the governor there? caller: no, i got laid off two obs where they congregate, but i'm going back to a house for the mentally ill. there's 10, two staff, and we got to keep them apart, which will be kind of a challenge. and i know how to take care of myself, and hopefully my clients will cooperate. you know, they're allowed to go out for four hours. i don't want them to get sick because when the air conditioner comes on, it's going to be going through the house. host: ok. that's carmen in nebraska. albert off of facebook this morning adding it's easy to stay at home and watch movies and tv staying on lockdown, staying alive. you don't have to twist my arm when it comes to staying alive. i don't like lungs artificially

breathing for me. i'll just stay at home. again, some people sharing their experiences with social distancing. you can do the online, on facebook. if you want to post on our twitter feed, that's available to you too, @cspanwj. if you want to text this morning, 202-748-8003. all we ask is that you include your name, city and state when you do that for us. we'll hear from paul next in connecticut. paul, go ahead, you're on. caller: yes, i think people are doing a pretty good job with social distancing. the problem i have is our governor didn't do anything for nurses working in convalescent homes until a few days ago. they didn't even get p.p.e. they got no financial help or nything in this state. host: scott is from adrian,

michigan. caller: thank you. i also thank you for letting the people voices be heard. sometimes every once in a while a good idea will get out there, and when you hear it, you think, why didn't we think of that? i actually watched a youtube video last night that lined up with what i kind of thought all along, and in these times, kind of seems like a crazy idea, but i really believe that 20 years from now, that we're going to see social distancing as an impediment to solving this problem rather than the solution to it, because the idea of trying to quarantine everybody, not quarantining throughout history in these situations, they've always quarantined the people that have the disease and not the people that didn't have the disease. and in this case it's impossible to quarantine millions and millions of people without massive negative effect, which is what we're

seeing right now. if we concentrated on the people that actually have the disease and the ones that we know have the disease and the ones that are susceptible to dying from it are the primary ones that need to be taking action to keep from getting it so they don't die from it. realistically, most healthy people under the age of 60 or 70, i mean, it's kind of blown out of proportion because you can hear stories about that, but the statistics don't bear out that you're really in that much risk. when we undo this social distancing, you're going to get probably, in the next year, you're going to get pay more people from trying around again than what you're going to get from coronavirus. host: what do you think about governor whitmer's approach there in approach? caller: it's exactly what you'd

expect from a communist, you know? it's right in line exactly with what you'd expect from somebody who wants to drastically change this country to take away everybody's civil liberties and give them no choice in the matter because they're too stupid to figure out what to do. that's exactly what i would expect. host: shirley is next in myrtle beach, south carolina. caller: hi, good morning. host: good morning. caller: i'm surprised i got through. i can't believe it. so my handling of social distancing is i'm recently -- i'm a recently retired nurse, just three, four months retired, living alone. host: ok. caller: ok, good morning. host: you're on. go ahead. we can hear you. caller: thank you. my name is shirley, living in myrtle beach. i'm a recently retired nurse from atlanta. i moved here just a few months ago. of course, we are now in this pandemic. and in terms of social distancing, being retired makes

it easy. i don't have to worry myself with other family members and not much activity that i've gotten involved in, because i haven't been here long enough. there's my neighbors, community, everybody is so respectful and so willing to do everything they can, not only to protect themselves but also to protect others. and it's very appreciated. sometimes the neighbors gather in the backyard keeping social distancing just to chitchat and kind of wave at each other. one of our nice neighbors made masks and stuck them on everybody's door. and so we're kind of handling it. for me, i find myself feeling really insecure because i just retired, just moved, and i was feeling all kind of fearful that what's going to happen to me, what's going to happen to my 401. and then i thought people are dying and look at where my thinking is. so i took this opportunity to

do sort of a meditation and fasting and prayer so that i can kind of get in touch with -- there's got to be a better me in there somewhere. host: do you still associate with those in the medical community, and if so, are they telling you about their experiences dealing with this? caller: yes, they are, and it's tough. i miss them. i don't wish that i was there with them, but i know what it's like there. it's difficult normally, so i can just imagine now. host: this is don from south bend, texting us saying we wear masks when we go out, my daughter is a nurse on the front lines with a son. we have to be over cautious for our safety. i also wear a mask at work. i'm surprise when had we go to stores and see people without a mask. maybe they know something we don't. next up is isaac. isaac in baltimore, maryland, hi. caller: hi, good morning. thank you for taking my call. i just want to say that -- one thing, i wonder if we could all

just try to start physical distancing versus social distancing, because that's what i've been doing. i'm still being social with people, having conversations, facetime and things of that nature. but we're being physically apart. people just have a little bit of a misnoam when her it comes to social distancing. but i want to say that i wanted to commend our governor, larry hogan, i'm a democrat. he's a republican. i didn't vote for him. but the way he has managed and handled this situation for the last six, senchings eight weeks has been commendable. and i appreciate him for what he's done, what his staff has done, and keeping our community safe. host: what is it about specifically that you approve of most? caller: it's a comparison to the national comments on this pandemic. he has been straight forward.

he has been factual. and he has been quick to respond to incorrect information. you know, for example, when the confusion came out last week about the whole inspection thing, the very next day his staff was on it. people were calling in, you know, actually thinking about disinfectant as a type of cure. you know, the maryland staff out here were like, no, you can't do this, we're not going to do this. and then even last week he gave us a clear, concise plan on how he plans to reopen maryland in certain areas. i like it. in times of pandemic, people that are calm, people that are very precise about their word choices can either cause panic or they can alleviate stress.

and one thing that i've seen our governor do the last six, seven weeks is do his best job to alleviate as much stress as possible, be as proactive as possible, not being able to get the equipment he needs from the federal government, going to other countries, south korea, for example, to make sure that we have enough medical equipment to protect our citizens. so i think that the bottom line is for me, for governor hogan, he's been protifment he's been factual in his statements. he's just been very point-blank like this is the way it is. we're not in a place to open up, and he's being honest about that. that i respect. host: that's isaac in baltimore, maryland. colorado, denver post this morning, one of those states loosening restrictions as of this morning. the "denver post" says colorado shops outside of metro denver can reopen for curbside pickup. real estate agents can show homes. surgeries can resume monday after the governor ordered a

shift from stay at home to safer at home, also adding coloradans should stay home as much as possible and wear face masks. when it comes to loosenings, the governor was on cnn yesterday talking with one of the hosts, talking about the issues connected to that. we'll show you that in just a little, but that's colorado's experience. maybe your experience is different in the state and community that you live in when it comes to social distancing. you can call us and let us know. 202-748-8000 if you live in the eastern and central time zones. it's 202-748-8001 if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones. if you are a medical professional, give us your thoughts there, too, at 202-748-8002. wayne is next, south carolina. hi there. caller: hey, how you doing? host: fine, thanks. go ahead. you're on. caller: yeah, i live down in ottonwood, south carolina. i've been going out first when

this thing started, and i wear a n95 scommask bandanna, and i got kind of aggravated a little bit, because i think a lot of people that would just stop wearing their mask and stuff, and i'm sanitizing my hands. they were still having services on the other side. got aggravated. but i'm not going out a whole lot to stores and stuff, and my biggest concern other than the pandemic about it is that these governors have not shut the lottery down. and alcohol sales, i can't go buy lysol, toilet paper, things like that, but i can go out and i can buy all the lottery tickets and people can give us

money from the government, and they going to be buying all this alcohol and lottery tickets, something they don't need, but what we need, you can't find it, and i don't understand why they have the lotteries down. host: ok, that's wayne in south carolina. we'll hear from dave next. dave's in dayton, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning, yeah, this is dave. my wife and i are on social security. we're retired, social distancing to the best of our ability. so i've lot of time to follow this whole story, and one of the things that has really almost got me to the point of anger is the incredible anti-trump hate syndrome that doesn't make any sense to me. i understand that people don't like him. but on my tv, every night, i see him come out with his

pandemic team, giving us all the latest information, describing what actions they're the , getting together brightest minds from private industry, ford, g.m., pharmaceutical companies, all pitching in to try to come up with some kind of way to help us through this thing. now, i don't know what these other people that see the blank term for killing black people because of his irresponsiveness, i don't get it. i think the anti-trump haters are doing more damage to our country than the virus itself. host: when it comes to the briefings itself, do you think there should be fewer, shorter in time in length, or do you think they should change at all? caller: i do think they should change. they've gotten ridiculous in a certain way. and i'm hearing that that's the

approach that they're starting to take, is that they're going to focus more on the economy, take trump out of the picture, which makes a lot of sense he's got so many other things on his plate that it's time for him to get our country going again. host: back to where you started as far as social distancing is concerned, how far do you take when you leave your house? caller: well, i wear protection t. and i limit, i try to get whatever i need in enough quantity so i don't have to go back for another week or two. i see people in the grocery stores respecting each other. and, you know, we've learned a lot over the past month, haven't stpwhe we've learned that most people, healthy people can get this virus, many of them don't even show symptoms. now, the fact that they're carrying it around is a

concern. but it just doesn't help to just concentrate all your anger and hate on a guy -- and grock it's obama or trump or whoever you like or don't like, we've got to depend on our government to give us the wise counsel we need. host: gotcha. we talked about symptoms. the c.d.c. issuing more symptoms possibly connected with coronavirus. there's a report on that in "usa today" this morning. six new possible symptoms being added, saying coronavirus patients can experience a diversity of issues, from mild symptoms to severe. they generally appear 12 to 14 days after exposure to the virus. when it comes to those symptoms, saying it's chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and a loss of taste or smell, according to new

guidance from the c.d.c. when it comes to symptoms to look out for. akron, ohio, good morning, you're next up. caller: yeah, i just wanted to say about this social distancing thing. people naturally stay away from each other anyway. they don't really get right up in your face. there's always that personal space of about three foot anyway. people do that naturally. so i think this social distancing thing is going to go on a long time. another thing i wanted to say is, in regard to asking americans, being more -- can get it. i think they can get it, but they have more in line. i think the big thing for them is stay home. host: have you stayed home yourself? caller: as much as i can. you know, i'm retired. i stay home. i just go out when i have to. but the other thing i wanted to say was about trump. i'm not republican.

i'm not a trump fan. but i could not imagine being the president of the united states and have to go through this. i mean, he is doing everything he can with his power and the government's power to try to combat this thing. just like any president would do, i think. so i think people need to get off him a little bit. i think he needs to stay off the media now. host: should he stay away from the briefings then? caller: i think that should be a weekly thing now. i don't think it needs to be every day. it's the same thing over and over and over. and the media is terrible. i mean, they ask him the same questions over and over and over. a good politician will talk around that. so i mean, they need to come out with more positive stuff instead of all these negative. and that's pretty much all i wanted to say. host: from akron, ohio. social distancing, tweeting us this morning, social distancing has been normal going into the supermarket. we must have masks or gloves as an option, staying away from public transportation, buses, commuter trains, and subways.

no entertainment movies, adding concerts, and then meetings to the mix as well, adding the words it's scary. again, those are some of the thoughts people sharing when it comes to social distancing practices that they're doing, that they're seeing, how their states are experiencing. you can share those on twitter. it's at facebook.com/cspan. if you wanted to text us, it's 202-748-800 . include your city, state and name. you can always call us, too, 202-748-8000 on the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001 for the mountain and pacific time zones. medical professionals, we invite to you give input at 202-748-8002. from california, art is next. go ahead. caller: good morning, sir. thanks for taking my call. i'm just ready to go out and start my life over again because of the lock doufpblet i've been locked down.

i think it's against my constitutional rights. i just feel like a judge needs to tell me if i have to stay home. i didn't commit any crimes. i realize the pandemic is very bad. i'm 68 1/2 years old. i'm a white male, i'm overweight. i have extenuating medical things. and i'm in a high risk. but i wear my mask outside, and when i go to the store, i mean, there were 40,000 people on the beach yesterday and saturday and monday even more. at huntington beach in orange unty, and i don't need the cough police to be dictating that i have to stay in my house. i know i do. i believe the president. i believe all of his aides and his fantastic doctors. nd the press takes his comments out of context and

doesn't read the whole thing that he said, and i don't blame him for only being at his press conference for 19 minutes the other day. host: you talked about constitutional rights being infringed, but you also talked about people being on the beach. how can those two things be consistent at the same time? caller: they have the right to assemble. and it takes a judge to tell you you can't being on the beach, and they haven't done that. host: so are your constitutional rights being infringed? caller: i'm afraid i'm going to get arrested if i take my granddaughter to the park. they did it in ohio. they arrested a lady because she was -- they were on the 21st of april, and the police didn't think she moved fast enough, and they arrested her. and they had a city guy there, and he owns the playground, the city guy, and the city, they don't want him there, and the

lady was -- i don't know exactly what happened, she didn't move fast enough for the police, so they arrested her, put her in handcuffs. thank god they were able to get a call off to the husband because otherwise they would have called social services -- well, the children would have been taken care of by the other mother. host: ok. he was giving his experience, profile in "the washington post" this morning talks about georgia, saying it's the governor there, brian kemp, the republican coming under fire for the speed with which he's rolled back social distancing restrictions. sunday saying the former food and drug administration commissioner said the speed opening up there too soon, "georgia certainly jumping on the gun. i think getting to start too early relative to where they are in the epidemic. it was on cnn we told you about , the governor of colorado there loosens some of the restrictions there, and asked about it by the host of cnn's "state of the union."

>> are you worried that you're making a decision that could heoretically cost your constituents their lives? >> we always wish we had next week and next month's information available to me today. that's not the world we live in. we have to make the best informed decisions based on data and science with the information we have. what we know is that what matters a lot more than the date the stay-at-home ends is what we do going forward. and how we have an ongoing, sustainable way from a health perspective to have the social distancing we need in work place, where people re-create and across the board. otherwise if we can't succeed in doing that on an ongoing basis, the stay-at-home was for nothing. it doesn't accomplish anything if it's not replaced with practices sustainable that the weeks and months. host: from orange park, florida, william, good morning. you're next. caller: pedro, i feel pretty

good being 75 and i have people ask me if i'm wearing protection. host: jan in indianapolis, indiana. you're next up. caller: hello, pedro. how are you doing? host: fine, thank you, go ahead. caller: living in indiana, i think our governor is doing a great job. he's telling us everything we need to do and stuff. so i think it's -- i think he's being fantastic. i social distance because my husband has stage three cancer, so i try not to bring anything home to him. host: how do you do that practically? how does that work day-to-day? caller: well, i go to work. when by to work, i wear a mask at work. i come home, i wash my hands, shower, everything i need to do , and then i stay home with him. i don't go out grocery shopping or shopping, if i need anything, i order it. whip type of work do you do, if

i may ask. caller: i work at retail. host: what's it like there? if you're a retail person, you've stayed open during this time, or have you been out of work and went back to work? caller: no, i've stayed open the whole time. we've been busy. it's been crazy. people are out shopping like they never shopped before. host: is it a grocery store or some other type of retail? caller: other type of retail. host: ok. you wear a mask, and you're saying even that type of business still showing life even though a lot of businesses are not? caller: correct. everybody has social distancing. we have markers on our floors and stuff, and we have masks for all the employees. so everybody's doing their part. it's just been crazy. it's like christmas all over again. host: is there discussions about when things will return to "normal," what that would look like for your business as well? caller: they say it will be a slow process.

they don't know when anything will be returned back to normal. the governor says may 1, they're going to start gradually reopening. but as far as our business, we're just taking it slow. host: ok. that's jan in indianapolis, giving us not only the personal ways she takes care of herself, but also in her business life as well. she's still working in retail. the folks at wallet hub have released a survey looking at states that are most difficult to social distance. they say in order find out where social distancing is most difficult, wallet hub compared the 50 states and the district of columbia across 13 key metrics. our data set ranges from whether residents have supportive relationships, how nonessential travel has changed due to the pandemic, and how much consumers spent on social activity before covid-19. when it comes to the list of states itself, the findings where states are self-isolating, most difficult, they rank the first, utah, with

a total score of 74 based on those metrics, followed by new hampshire, montana, colorado, alaska, massachusetts, wyoming, virginia, and it goes on from there. you can see that full survey, all the metrics that they talked about at the wallet hub website, if you want to check out their findings. kevin from california, hello, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i'm surprised no one else has said that social distancing sucks. for the past six weeks, i haven't seen my mom. i haven't seen my dasmed i haven't seen my brother. i haven't seen my family. coronavirus took my liberty of being able to go out and do what i want to do, and that's really been a bad situation. i don't think anybody likes that. with that said, my father is a cancer survivor. i have a grandma and i have my grandma-in-law. they're older. my grandma has copd, and that's what it's all about. regardless the fact i like it, i've been home. i'm staying home. i'm going to do the best i can to keep it up until the very

end when either the governor or president says it's safe. if they don't want to be on board, i'm going take it to the end. although i miss everybody and looking forward to getting it back. host: is the only reason you're staying away is concerns from spreading or possibly spreading it to members of the family? caller: oh, yeah. i'm healthy. i'm a young man. i'm healthy. i work hard. i'm not sure -- it's a dangerous virus. i don't want to get it myself. i definitely don't want to give it to my family. i definitely don't want to give it to anybody else. i'm cautious of other people out there, their medical needs. a lot of people out there, they don't know that they have high blood pressure or diabetes. they haven't been able to go to a doctor and get that kind of care. they're not knowing they could get this virus, and that's a serious problem. if i can do what dike to keep that down, i'm not really suffering. i don't want to use the word suffering, but if i can do what i don't want torksd i want to go out, get back to normal. if i can bite that bullet for the greater good of other people, i'm more than willing to do that. host: the previous caller from california made this point,

maybe you want to talk about this. there's photos from huntington beach, people there on the beach, probably the same in other sbeaches as well. when you see the photos living in california, what do you think? caller: that's a great point. i'm in orange county, and i saw this, 40,000 people were at newport beach the other day. it reminds me of when they were at daytona. when they were at daytona, that was about two weeks into our stay at home. so i've been out, i saw daytona, and i got upserkts i'm doing all this, holding it down here, and i'm going get it anyway because people are not paying attention to the rules. at the end of the day, my decision about that situation was i'm going to do the best i can. that's out of my hands what other people want to do. if people want to go out, that's america, that's their freedom. i'm more than happy that -- i might be disappointed about the decision, but at the end of the day i can do what i'm capable of doing and do the best i can to protect my family and myself and protect the family around

me and make sure they don't get sick. host: that's kevin in california. this is maria off of facebook this morning, saying that the only reason i don't like it is i missing with my family. worst part, not being table hug my mother. she is 82 years old. her time on earth is very limited. arlington beach, virginia, not too far from here in washington, d.c. this is linda. hi there. caller: hi. yeah, i'm retired. name my mid 70's. basically very, very healthy. so i have no underlying health conditions. but i'm staying in. i've been out like half a dozen times in the last eight weeks. and i only go out when it's an emergency, like had to get my phone replaced. all these people, listening to c-span, watching what's going all over social distance, keeping in touches, and we're all hunkered down. i've taken it as a personal challenge, because i see all these people out there that are

flaunting -- we're not going to socially distance, nobody is going to tell me what i can't do, blah, blah, blah, and they're flauting it. i've taken it as a personal challenge. i plan to outlive them. i'm not going anywhere. i'm protecting myself. this other group of women, we're kind of watching out for each other. yeah, i think it's -- i think these people that are flauting -- this is a social responsibility. and, you know, people are just being stupid because they think, oh, nobody can tell me what i can do. they're putting others at risk, including healthcare workers, their neighbors, if they go into the grocery store, they go anywhere, they're putting grocery workers at risk. this is really selfish. it's irresponsible and selfish. i think it's a really bad marker of our society. host: ok.

this is james jackson from des moines, iowa, texting us this morning, adding the thought, please explain why it's not violating your rights to make sure you wear a seat belt, but violating your rights to require to you stay at home. again, texting is available at 202-748-8003, like james did. put your name, your city and state. if you get through, then we have the possibility of reading that on the air for you. one of the people from across the pond, boris johnson back to work after he contracted the disease. he appeared before going back to his duties as prime minister, talked about coronavirus. the headline from "the guardian" saying that he says too early to ease the lockdown as a second peak arrives of coronavirus contractions would be disaster. he talked about the situation in the u.k. as well as social distancing. >> when we're sure that the first phase is over and that we're meeting our tests, rate

of infection down, rarely sorting out the challenges of testing and p.p.e., avoiding a second peak, then that will be the time to move on to the second phase in which we continue to suppress the disease and keep the reproduction rate, the r rate down, but begin gradually to refine the economic and social restrictions, and one by one to fire up the engines of this vast u.k. economy. host: greg, huntsville, alabama. go ahead. caller: hey, how you doing, pedro? i tell you what. february 3, my wife and i both contracted, we both tested now and have the antibody. we were pretty sure that we had had it. this was february 3 in the state of alabama. this was a serious virus.

i'm a very healthy man, 55 years old, work out every day. it put me on my back and just wiped me out for eight days. i was three weeks getting over it, took off, went to the beeven, took a little time afterwards to get to feeling better, not knowing what we had had, just simple workout down there, and things weren't back to my shoulder, tore my shoulder, and i'm waiting on surgery because it's elective. it was a serious virus. people need to really take it serious. i can see where this could be for someone a little older could be a very serious situation. but with this social distancing, it is what it is at this point. there's 8.9 million people in 303 square miles in new york. they're on top of each other. they're now saying that their pollution, so on and so forth. new york was just a disaster waiting to happen. you cram too many people into too small an area. you take alabama, madison county, north alabama, got about 400,000 population, they're not on top of each other. one size doesn't fit all on

social distancing. but with the social distancing, you know, as they come out and give us our information that they take an hour and a half to give us 10 minutes worth of information each day, we probably could do without that, pedro. i think, really, at this point, everybody gets it. until there's a vaccination, we're not safe. host: what was the time period between when you started showing symptoms and when you were actually tested? caller: oh, well, there wasn't a test around in the state of alabama. when i went to the doctor, they said, hey, you do have pneumonia, and we believe it to be viral, we're going to treat you with an antibiotic. but i tell you, pedro, i never even heard of corona on february 3. i didn't know anything about it, didn't suspect it being here. but when i went in, the first, spoke with a nurse practitioner, the next thing i knew there was a doctor in and both of them were wearing p.p.e., and they were like, we don't know what you have, but we're sure you're sick.

we kind of laugh, i told them i'm really sick, i don't get sick like this. and my dad is so sick she can't come in with me, see what i got and see if we can get some treatment. but there was no movement off the couch. we were delirious. unfortunately, it was around the time of the impeachment hearings, so i was watching tv, you know, that was last thing when you're delirious you want to watch. but it was miserable. nobody wants it. host: sorry, greg, i want to clarify, you were actually diagnosed with coronavirus, or you just think you had coronavirus? caller: no, we just took an antibody test. and i had to pay $30 to take an antibody test near huntsville. that was the only time, we were so sick, and we did not have it. we did not test positive for the flu. in all of our symptoms, they were dead on line. so we're sure that's when we had it, and we tracked some other things back where we had exposure from someone from another country that could have been a carrier. they were tested before they

got on the plane. and we had went to an event at the university of alabama. but, pedro, we look at this, university of alabama, 32,000 kids going back to campus without a vaccine. that's just not going to happen. schools aren't going to go back in, 100,000 people aren't going a stadium. we can talk about it all we want to, it's not happening. we're going to have to get a vaccine. host: that's greg in alabama. let's hear from will in california. caller: hello. thank you for c-span. host: you're on. go ahead. caller: ok, yeah, i've in northern california right now, but i'm originally from bel air. i saw a wal-mart, it's open, a bunch of people packed in it. and they're not buying the food resources. i was just thinking why aren't these stores being specifically for food, and why are they still selling stores that maybe a best buy can't have their stores open? host: ok, success nil florida, hello. -- cecil in florida, hello.

caller: yes, i know they're talking about opening jobs up and stuff. this one from michigan, you know, she wants planned parent hood to go. hospitals can't operate, but she wants that. she wants to open up beauty salons, hairdressers. she wants to open up that you will stuff. they're all touching each other. they're right close together. why not open up road construction, buildings, carpenter work, those people are all apart, truck drivers are driving their trucks. they have a lot of people there, guys holding the stop sign, he's by himself. there's not two of them there. electricians, they work by themself. they're alone. they're three to four to six feet apart. they're not talking about opening up those. and those are the ones that will get the economy going again, not your beauty salons or planned parenthood or any place like that. host: that's cecil in florida.

one of the things associated with social distancing and practices put in by governors across the united states was the closing of some businesses. overall concerns about the economy from that. two perspectives were played out on the sunday shows yesterday. we'll let you listen to them. first up is the treasury secretary. he's steven mnuchin. he was on fox news, talked about how soon he thought a recovery for the economy could take place. >> i think as we begin to reopen the economy in may and june, you're going see the economy really bounce back in july, august, september. and we are putting in an unprecedented amount of fiscal relief into the economy. you're seeing trillions of dollars that's making its way into the economy, and i think this is going to have a significant impact. host: that was on fox news yesterday. also appearing on the sunday shows to talk about issues of the economy was the white house senior advisor. he was on abc, talked about the impact of coronavirus, his thoughts on when there could be a recovery.

>> make no mistake, it's a really grave situation. this is the biggest negative shock to our economy. we're going to be looking at unemployment rate that approaches rates that we saw during the great depression. during the great recession, remember, that was a financial crisis around 2008, we lost 8.7 million jobs in the whole thing. right now we're losing that many jobs every 10 days. the economic list for policy makers is an extraordinary one. host: those are the two perspectives. "the washington times" this morning looks at new predictions from the congressional budget office. the headline from that, projected falling $1.5 trillion. while the economy will pick up later this yeerk the jobs picture will grow worse, hitting 16% unemployment, according to the projection. unemployment will still be 10% at the end of 2021, 20 months from now. that would be a massive turnaround from before the virus when unemployment rate

was 4%. sandra from statin island, good morning. -- statin island, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. yes, i live in new york city. it's rampant here. i take social distancing very seriously. i do believe that once the good weather starts getting here and once they have permission to go outside and enjoy themselves, social distancing is going to go out the window. please believe what dr. fauci has said. it will be here this summer. it will be here in the fall. it will be here for the winter. without a vaccine, we are not safe. i was lucky enough to get a test. i live in new york city. there are several testing sites here. and i've tested negative. why? social distancing. i wear masks. i wear gloves. i have disinfectant. please, people, this is important. i know we want to go back to

work. i know we want to go see our parents. i can't even see my mom. i can't go anywhere because i feel that we have to be safe, not only for ourselves, for other people. it's important. please, people, please. i know we want to get back to business. you think we're going to open up everything? no. you know why? because fine it's open, no one's going to go there. this is important. please, people, social distancing is important. wear your mask outside. wash your hands. it is important. i live here, like i said, new york city, we have thousands of people dying. and yet we want to go to the beach. we want to go to the park. we want to play basketball. with each other. we can't. you know, not only are you coughing and sneezing on everybody, just by talking, please believe me, i know we

have a lot of nonbelievers, it is true. thank you for taking my calls. host: thank you. to a related story about new york, fox news reporting this morning that the naval ship, the u.s.s. comfort, just started transferring its remaining coronavirus patients before leaving the harbor of new york city. the comfort and the sister ship, the mercy, were deployed in late march to new york and california to support efforts to combat the pandemic. the comfort with 1,000 beds and about 1,000 medical personnel docked in new york on march 30 as coronavirus cases were surging, but wound up being sparsed used. neither ship wanted to accept coronavirus patients, however, a serious of complications forced the comfort to alter its mission. you can read more at the fox news website if you want. mary ann next in massachusetts. good morning, you're next up. caller: ok. host: you're on, go ahead. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. i'm a massage therapist from

cape cod, massachusetts. and i don't know when i'll be going back to work. social distancing is not llowed in my profession. host: do you think the industry as a whole is going to suffer because of that? caller: i think my industry will. there's no way that i can practice my massage therapy without being six feet closer to a person. i see myself in the state of massachusetts wearing a mask and gloves for a very long time. host: that's mary ann's perspective there in massachusetts. we'll go to fort washington, maryland, hear the perspective of mary. caller: good morning. be safe, please. my family, we're retired. so we're not having money problems. my husband's retired. i'm a retired hair dresser. i do not see how they're opening hair salons, just a petri dish. for me, i agree with the other

caller. i wish the media would start calling it physical distancing, because i'm still social until touch with family through facebook or phone. i do have a regular phone. it works. i have land line and cell phone. i use both of them. we are partying online. we're doing everything online right now with the family. but like i said, not going anywhere. i'm not going to go in the store, and thank god that larry hogan is a sensible governor. i feel sorry for the people in georgia, florida. they're going to have a surge again. that's just a fact. host: so there have been photos of people in the hair dressing industry that you probably have seen as well wearing masks, wearing gloves, still maintaining what they're doing. you're saying that's not enough. caller: it's not enough. it's ridiculous. host: why is it not enough? caller: you cannot -- they haven't had enough tests. are people being test when had they walk in there? they may be carriers. i think if you're going to open up a business, you should say

that i am totally tested, here are my results, and anybody that walks in the store needs to make sure that they either have been tested or there's nothing else you can do. i think if you don't do the testing, these red states are going to have another surge, because for them it's all about trying to protect the senate and number 45's re-election, which is never going to happen right now. he's just so bad that tiny tim could win the election. he's so bad. but like i said, my family, i'm staying home. one person goes out, and my husband gets the products that we might need. we stock up for two or three weeks, and we don't want to go out. it's that simple. host: layer friday pennsylvania up next. hi, larry. caller: how you doing? host: i'm well, thanks. go ahead. caller: it's where we get our information from. that morning show, fox and fools, i think once they get back on the curvy couch, that would be a good indication. it's very simple.

we need testing. everyone should stay home. everybody should only do what they have to do. yes, we go out and get our groceries, but we're staying home. you know, people should be adult about this. 50,000 people have died. so i can go play volleyball? i mean, it's insanity. it's insanity. we got that fool in there for president, and there's no other way to say it. host: what's the risk of people playing vail ball affecting your daily life? what's the connection between the two, as far as what people can do or can't do under social distancing? i mean, you're practicing it, but why not let other people do what they want to do as far as that is concerned? caller: well, i tell you what, i'll drive the speed limit. let everyone else drive any way they want to. how about that? host: ok.

anita is next from missouri. hi, anita. caller: hi. i wanted to make some comments about the fact that physical distancing, and i'm going to use the terminology that i've been watching a lot of tv, fox, tv for or c-span, which is my main one, and every other channel that there is. and i've been watching our president during these pandemic task force reports. and watching how he says our country has done more testing than anybody else. and realizing that that's another one of his 32 on average lies or misleading things per day. i've got to do a little math.

if there's a country that is an isolated little island that has exactly 10 people and they give 10 tests, that means that 100% of that 100% of those people have been tested. over 332untry, we have million people, and we have done -- and he first started talking about this -- 3.1 million tests. take 3.1 the math, million, divide it by 332 million, you find that that is right at .5%. in other words, if we were talking 100% is like a dollar, that is like a half a penny. host: you are also assuming that everybody in the united states needs to get tested. we do if we and

want to know what is going on until we get a vaccine. which we don't have. for some way of combating this. it is very, very serious that we take it seriously. and i am really, really tired of these people who call in and say that those of us who question what trump says or does our haters. no, we are exercising our constitutional rights just like everybody else to question things. marilyn.t is anita and sorry about that, we are just about out of time for this segment. i want to add that if you are staying home these days and are interested in presidential politics and history, we invite you to check out the new paperback version of a book where publishing called "the president's." presidents."

if you are interested in that kind of thing and you are at home and you want to check that out for yourself, either by goering a copy or an e-book, to c-span.org and you can check it out there as well. we will continue our topic, taking a look at coronavirus, particularly along how it will change the future of health care in the united states. isning us for the discussion the bipartisan policy center's marilyn weber serafini. later in the program, the university of washington's ali mokdad, talking about the projected impact of the pandemic, what the models are saying now. those conversations are coming up on "washington journal." announcer: tonight on "the communicators," mark randolph,

cofounder of netflix and author of the book "that will never work" shares his experiences starting the online streaming service. 1990 eight, our ceo hit a few keys and we were live. it did not take long until we got the first ding and we cheered and open bottles of champagne. two or three minutes later, three more orders. we were so excited. then two more orders, and in all the excitement we lost track of things until someone noticed it has been a while since the bell has rung. are we unplugged? is there a problem? it turned out in the first 15 minutes of being online, we crash all of our servers. announcer: mark randolph tonight on "theeastern communicators," on c-span2. "washington journal primetime,"

a special evening edition of "washington journal," on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. our guest, dr. david weiner from the wistar institute in philadelphia. he talks about ongoing efforts for a vaccine that protects against coronavirus. and greg for aurora number president and ceo of the national roasters association on how food retailers are coping with a surge in demand, and increasingly strict social distancing regulations. join the conversation tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. announcer: c-span has round-the-clock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, and it is 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. "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from kensington, maryland, marilyn weber serafini, the health project director at the bipartisan policy center, here to talk about the coronavirus impact on health policy. good morning to you. guest: good morning. host: a little bit first of all about the health project there. how are you looking at coronavirus from your perspective? 2 so at -- guest: so at the bipartisan policy center, we look at a lot of health care issues, so we are looking at the lens of coronavirus. we have been doing quite a little bit of work on rural health care. we are kicking up a project on haverhill health care. -- on behavioral

health care, meaning both substance abuse and disorders. we do work with chronic illness and we are focusing on preparedness and public health as well. we run the gamut of what we are looking at in terms of health care and everything now of course, we are looking at through the lens of covid-19. host: beef because you followed elka for a long time -- because you followed health care for a long time, what do you think about the pandemic and the exposure of the current health care system? guest: there are a lot of challenges we have known about in the health care system, and this has really brought some of them to light. i will tell you about two things in particular. since we just released a report about will health care, it first of all has highlighted the problem of rural health care because everything has been made worse. everything we are talking about telehealthn terms of and people cannot go to their doctors physically, so

washington, congress, the department of health and human action tos taking make it easier for people to see their doctors. these are challenges that people in rural america face every day. if we look at what the recent polls are telling us, it is very interesting. health care was at the top of the priority list for voters before covid-19 really struck with force. but what we were talking about mostly was the design of our health care system. the we going to repeal the affordable care act, or were we going to significantly change it in some way, as bernie sanders had wanted to do, through a single-payer, medicare for all type system? were we going to do something like joe biden wanted to do and,

you know, build on the current system with potentially looking at a public option for people or could not get health care a buy-in for medicare, per se. since covid-19 has become a pandemic, we have stopped really focusing as the public on how should the system be designed, and we have come back to our basic concerns. the cost of health care, and can i get health care coverage? a lot of people are losing their jobs or being furloughed, and therefore a lot of people are losing insurance. so what does that mean? that means that people do not have coverage, and they cannot afford health care. are able to get

cobra health care coverage or they are able to buy into the marketplace plans that were created by the affordable care act, things change. there is a big question of affordability, and this is what people really are caring about now. when we are talking about health care. but in addition, all of a sudden the economy is also at the forefront. so we are talking about the basics -- economy, jobs, affordability. host: so, marilyn weber serafini, you are seeing in congress, fending, funding -- spending, funding. specificallyding for health care purposes, does that change the larger discussion of the state of health? guest: well, yes. we are talking right now about doing all those things to make it easier for people to access their health care.

we are talking about -- well first of all, we are talking about enormous chunks of money that are going into the health care system. a lot of that money is going to hospitals. hospitals across the country have stopped their elective procedures, and this is really where they make their money. i'm not talking about cosmetic surgery or things that are on people's wish lists. i am talking about things like hip replacements and knee replacements and surgeries that can wait. my own month, she has had to postpone her hipper placements for a couple months, and she is sitting at home and at her hip replacements for a couple months, and she is sitting at home in pain. so hospitals are losing money because they cannot do these services, and they are having added expenses because of covid-19, especially those in the urban centers, like new york city and in new orleans, and some of the other big sectors where we have seen a big crush

of coronavirus cases. they need to spend the extra money to get the equipment that they need. so a lot of this money is going to hospitals just to keep them going. for the rural hospitals, it is ton a more -- i'm not going say more difficult situation, but financially speaking, these rural hospitals, more than 100 of them have closed since 2010. nearly 600 of them are at risk of closure right now. so what does that mean for all of those people in rural areas who already have trouble driving long distances to get to their medical services? a lot of those hospitals that are at risk of closing, some of them have already gone out of business. some of them have cut as many as half of their employees, with either layoffs or furloughs. this is a big deal.

their cannot get to physicians. a lot of people are delaying their care. they say i can wait on this or i should wait on this or i do not want to go in to a doctor or the hospital because i am afraid that i am going to catch covid-19. and so for a lot of people, it is actually problematic. serafiniilyn weber joining us until 9:00. if you want to ask her about health policy, the coronavirus pandemic, you can do so. the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001 in the mountain and pacific time zones. if you want to text us, it is 202-748-8002. you can submit your questions or comments via tweet. you can that you have talked about what we have learned or what we are experiencing. the editors of the washington

journal talked about the rise of telemedicine. talk about the future now. what could it lead to once we are over this come as far as the future of this type of medicine? 2 there is no -- guest: there is no way to put this genie back in the bottle. lots of people, especially in rural areas, and parts of our recommendations -- telehealth has been part of as a rural thing. people have to drive long distances to their doctors and hospitals, so therefore people in rural areas need telehealth. course, the problem there has always been -- one of the problems has been access to broadband. only about a quarter of people in rural areas have had access to broadband, so this makes it very difficult for people to get telehealth. other barriers have been licensure.

if you are a physician and you are licensed in the state of california, for example, you -- and you wanted to provide and you have a big telehealth program at your facility to , telehealthhealth and telemedicine to people in kentucky, you have to get licensed in kentucky. for florida, you have to get licensed in florida. so there are barriers to getting licensed in every state, and there are restrictions. whether you have -- whether it ormedicare, medicaid, commercial insurance, there have been all kinds of restrictions as to what is covered. for example, a lot of what has been covered his face to face, so even if you are not sitting in the same room, you have to be able to see each other. well, that is not really possible in these areas of the country, especially in areas where you do not have broadband.

so you move that forward, and today we say, ok, with covid-19, with this pandemic, people cannot or do not want to, for very good reasons, go in, see their doctor, and perhaps get exposed, or to go into the hospital if they are having a problem. so what do you do? action, has taken some and the department of health and human services has built upon these actions to make it easier getpeople everywhere to different kinds of services, to allow you to get them from your have beenh is, they some restrictions in those areas. and to make the payment better. more like what the payments would be if you were actually seeing your physician or clinician in person. so now that we are there, there doubt thatery little

we have let the genie out of the bottle, and we are seeing that this works. it is effective, and in many cases, people like this. are we going to go back to having to go in to see your doctor? well, if these temporary measures that pay better and take away some of these restrictions are made permanent, , in when it makes sense believe that going forward, telehealth and telemedicine, all these different forms, are going to be a part of our future. guest served as a journalist for kaiser health. she also was the president and ceo of the alliance for health policy, and the executive director of heart valve voice u.s. eduardo is in bronx, new york. you're on with our guest. go ahead with your question or

comment. caller: hello. good morning. can you hear me? host: yes, you are on. caller: i want to ask you first one question. like if we don't get tested right now, when we could get tested, then we will have to pay for the test? did you mean that? so that was not something that i talked about, but what i can say is that it is not clear. nott now, the testing is for everybody. and the provisions in place right now for testing are during the pandemic, so a lot depends on when you get tested, if you need to get tested, and how long these provisions that congress has passed continue.

diane in kansas, good morning. caller: i would like to talk about something real simple, the future with regard to cleanliness, both personal cleanliness and cleanliness in public areas. i want to give you is this is sick i read this morning. i live in johnson county, which is a pretty typical suburban county outside kansas city. they have been publishing a lot of data lately, and our county has about 600,000 people. we have had 430 cases of coronavirus with 38 deaths and 70% of those were in nursing homes. which when i looked at that, i looked at that as what i call good/bad news. one death is too many, but when you drill that down, our issue is primarily in nursing homes. if you look at the country as a

whole, if you can contain any within a facility, you are going to be miles ahead. but i am thinking about is the future of technology. things like automatic ,isinfection of subway systems things that will hopefully in the future reduce risk all over the place, and also the impact -- i think we have all learned a lot about how important disinfection and cleanliness is. have there been any thoughts with regard to that? guest: i think it is a little too early to be thinking about what kinds of changes we are going to be making in the future. that said, i think that we all now,the cleanliness bug and i think everybody is washing their hands for 20 seconds now.

so i do think we are going to be thinking about all kinds of things in the future. i don't think anything is off the table. i think that we will have a lot of innovation around this. host: marilyn serafini, you can relate this to your research on rural areas, but we have a viewer, stella come who asked the question, if covid-19 is overloading hospitals, why are hospitals closing? in rural this would be -- there is a big difference between what is happening in the urban centers or suburban areas and in rural areas. in the rural areas, they were already having trouble selling their hospital beds. typically -- filling their hospital beds. typically, we visited the hospitals around the country and they were having difficulty filling beds. what we hear from the ceo is, the first thing with they would ask when they came in in the morning, how many of our hospital beds are filled? this is not because all they

care about is money. but they do need money to run their hospitals. and the profit margin at rural tighter, generally are much tighter than they are in urban areas. in rural areas, where the pandemic was a bit delayed, you have most of your effect early on in big urban centers such as new york city. but in rural areas, it took a longer time for the pandemic to get there. it is really ramping up in rural areas, but nevertheless, the rural areas, their hospitals did what they are supposed to do. theirut back and stopped elective procedures, which were their moneymakers. because if they did not do that, they needed to reserve their supplies, their respirators, their masks, their gowns.

everything that you need to be able to deal with the pandemic when it came. so they stopped those procedures, which is what they were supposed to do. and therefore they stopped getting a lot of their revenue. so they did not see the revenue from the covid cases coming in, but they did see the loss of revenue from their other procedures. claudia in minneapolis, minnesota morning to you. go ahead. caller: i had two quick questions. the first thing she talked about was about a covid health plan. i'm not sure what that means, if she could elaborate. the second thing, if you are a non-essential business, as your governor wanted to designate, and you lose your job and small businessman do not get the if you dont, so

decide on going to medical systems for that short period because you have no way to pay say insurance because you we cannot remove your premium for this month, you still have to pay it, for all the times you have been to the doctor this month. if you do that to get a job back and your income goes back up and you go back up to the marketplace, with all the deductibles that you pay, does that get canceled? if i could get those two questions answered, thank you. guest: what i can say is that people who lose their jobs and therefore your income goes down, many of those people may qualify for medicaid. now, once you get another job or up,aps your job starts back you may be able to then keep

your medicaid throughout the year and start again fresh the next year. host: to the larger issue of medicaid, marilyn weber onafini, what is the impact covid-19, and do these states have the funds to manage this? guest: we see this in every recession. it was a big deal in the great recession in 2008. it is a little bit -- medicaid enrollment lags a little bit when we see the start of a recession, but indeed, the medicaid rolls sore. we get a lot more people on medicaid as they are losing -- so we can expect to see a much greater burden on medicaid. that is just the way it goes during any recession.

host: ridge, new york city, hello. you are on, go ahead. we didn't hear you. guest: have you -- caller: have you heard of the server in mine the spacecraft? host: ok. jack in maryland. energy ok the bipartisan center -- it seemed like everybody was skirting around the elephant in the room -- single-payer health care, medicare for all, and the problems that were being caused by lack of medicine in rural places. i am just wondering, if she has ,ooked into the canadian system single-payer system, and if they

are having the same problems with rural health. privateso observed that -- onee in rural places of the reasons is the overabundance of paperwork that has to be done with private insurance companies, medicare, medicaid, and it could all be a costine that could reduce and help the system in rural areas. host: thanks, caller. courseso, yes, of everybody who is looking at health care is studying all the different kinds of design options, including single-payer and medicare for all type systems. lookingnot what we are at right now. we as a bipartisan politics

at -- wee not looking believe we had a task force, a group that was working on the future of health care and came out with recommendations not too long ago. that did not look at either repealing the affordable care act or adding the single-payer system, but look at how to improve the current system. the reason we looked at that is because both of the other options are really political extremes. we don't believe that either is going to happen. from a political perspective. now, therethat right is -- there has been, again, less attention paid to the design of the health-care care system moving forward. we are no longer having these intense debates between these different design options. but there is -- there has still

for atrong support medicare buy-in for some people, or a public option for some people. other options do not work for. that really tells us that people are kind of thinking more about how they can get access to health care and the affordability of health care, and where the gaps are at this point. host: are there any lessons learned at this point when it comes to universal or national healthcare, for those european countries that have it and how they have dealt with coronavirus in the treatment. anything we have learned from their system as far as if they are -- there is less to apply to our system if we were to adopt such a system? guest: it is interesting, and it is hard to go to that place

because i don't think we are going to that system. we have been talking about it for many years, and i just don't think we are going there. and so -- and let me add that most countries that we think of as national healthcare, they also have private components, so every system is different, and it is very difficult to take lessons from their systems when they have unique systems, and they are so different from ours, and what the public and the politicians and congress and the administration and everybody tells us. they are not going there. so if that is the case and our system is being most -- the most unique system of every -- of any in the world because our strong mix of public health care and private health care, it is a difficult exercise to start taking lessons from other countries when their systems are

so different from ours. i don't expect us to go there. host: this is marilyn weber bipartisanrom the policy center, their health third director -- their health care director. if you live in the eastern and central time zones, 202-748-8001 for the mountain and pacific time zones. in the research you did on rural health care, particularly on coronavirus, and the world of politics, what do people have to say about whether they would choose a leader or not depending on than that leader's on rural health care? we conducted a national poll before we got into this project, about a year ago. granted, it was before coronavirus hit, but i don't expect that much has changed. we conducted the poll, and we of rural areas

in particular to see what their thoughts were. what we discovered is that three in five people said they would be more likely to choose a candidate who was focusing on the issues surrounding rural health care. a lot of people live in these areas, a lot of the fees people are voting. the situation -- a lot of these people are voting. the situation is getting worse and worse. people in rural areas are older, sicker, more likely to lack knowh coverage, and we that their maternal care is lacking. we know that half of counties enroll areas do not have hospital based maternal health care services, which leads to all kinds of problems, include people having their babies outside hospitals or having them in hospitals where they don't b unit.

even if the hospital is not closing, we know that people are not -- we know that the hospitals, many of them, are closing their ob units, and this is problematic. we also know they have less of a workforce. primary care clinicians, far fewer specialists. so this is a big deal. many people live in rural areas. but even people not in rural areas were saying that they would be more likely to vote for a candidate if they were addressing rural health care. and every single candidate, even when we had a large stage of democratic candidates, all of them had rural health care plans. host: from jessica in sparks, nevada, good morning to you. caller: good evening and thank you so very much. i do have a question for you, a couple.

basically, they are intertwined. thatare the design options might be out there for opening permanent hospitals operated by the federal government, virussly for the pandemic and/or other environmentally contaminant crisis situations? and also inily concert with that, would we be using concrete shelters like we had the nuclear fallout shelters in the 1960's? what are the possibilities of those shelters if we did have federal hospital shelters of some sort? what are the possibilities of those shelters being public safety buildings, like concrete domes or some such?

most of theems that discussion going forward, and even beyond covid-19, is going to focus on how to make sure hospitals areing able to meet the demand of surges. how can we make sure -- we already have the ability -- hospitals already set up temps. they have all kinds of hospitals set up temps when they want to separate the population, they're effective -- their infected populations from their noninfected populations come or shipley because they have more people coming in that or simply because they have more people coming in. their do they increase number of beds when we are facing a pandemic like this? how do they move into other facilities, emergency facilities? and also, how do they make sure that the stockpile -- there is a federal stockpile that includes

-- we don't have an antiviral for covid-19 yet. also vaccines for emergencies and also again, we don't have a vaccine for covid-19 yet. but oftentimes we are thinking of other things like flu outbreak thatan we think we know what we might need. so how'd you we increase our surveillance capabilities? how do we increase the stockpile? how do we make sure that hospitals can turn on a dime and increase their capacity? that is where more of the discussion is then perhaps the federal hospitals. we do have some hospitals across the country that are safety net hospitals. but that is really not what we are talking about here. it is very difficult to have

facilities or to create capacity to deal with emergencies that are financially stable when there is not an emergency. for example, we are talking about now ramping up to manufacture a vaccine once we have -- once the scientists do what they need to do and we say we have tested it here is the work,e that is going to or here are two or three that are going to work. capacity, tohe having the capacity, to then manufacture enough for the entire u.s. population. that is an issue. who is going to do that? is it going to be the vaccine manufacturers that are currently producing the flu vaccine? are they going to stop what they are doing? or childhood vaccines, are they going to stop what they are doing, or are we going to ramp

up brand-new facilities, which take some time to do? host: one of the stories we are reading this morning is from "the hill." officials calling for about $50 billion for the expansion of contact tracing and isolation. what are the issues there? everyone who is talking about this tends to be in agreement that contact tracing is necessary. iat we mean by that is if have tested positive for covid-19, then are we than getting in touch with all of the people who i have been in contact with recently and having them isolate? this is not a new idea. this is something that the scientists and experts have always thought, is the way to , you know, a difficult

infection such as covid-19. this is not something that we did a whole lot of at the beginning. likely because we really did not have the testing capabilities. so we had a lot of people who were asymptomatic, and we did not really know who was contaminated, who was contagious already. so it was very difficult to do that. now that we are into this and we have a full-blown pandemic, does it still makes sense to do this? absolutely. there civil rights issues associated with this type of testing? there are civil rights issues with every pandemic in our history that have led to isolation and enforced isolation and quarantines. you know, i remember hearing stories from the reading about

,he 1918 spanish influenza where this existed as well. and everything from, you know, polio, people -- there are people that do not want to take a vaccine. there are people that do not want -- they believe their -- their rights are being infringed if they have to be isolated and they cannot go out, they cannot go to their job or wherever it is they feel they need to go. so this is not a new issue. and it is one that could become an issue, and so far it has not been too much of an issue beyond protests, but the government does have the ability to tell people that they must be isolated and to quarantine them, and even we do have historical precedent for telling people that they must take a vaccine.

in muncie,bob pennsylvania, good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to ask marilyn -- first of all, i would like to say to "the washington journal," commend them highly. my question is, is there any state and federal money for the families that have loved ones that passed away in that regard? is there any relief for them, or is it just however that they have plans to do funerals with their loved ones if and when they can. is, thed question senior citizens that are on disability, social security, are they available for the $1200 stimulus package fund? because they do not pay federal , because social

security is not taxable. so therefore, they would not have the 2018-2019 taxes. host: we will leave it there and let our guest answer. esco i hate to say this, but i don't know the answer to either of your questions. i apologize. host: paul is in new york and fort edward. hi, paul. caller: hi, pedro, how are you. this in, pedro, i love c-span, but please don't cut me off. i am wondering about your guest's organization. is any insurance money funding it? health insurance? guest: i don't believe so, but i cannot promise that. within our organization, most of our money comes from foundations . but we do also take corporate money. when we do take corporate money, it is not to do something specific. they donate the money to us, and

it is what we call unrestricted money, meaning that they are giving it to us because they like the work we are doing, and it does not in any way -- we do or decideecisions what kind of work we are going to do based on those donations. from minnesota, john in henan, hello. caller: for the covert costs in the hospital and outpatients -- what will be the impact on medicare and medicaid? so, to take your first question, the federal government is sending a lot of money to hospitals to help to cover their costs for covid-19. but there are -- there is money that is going to help with the

costs for individuals. so -- with their covid-19 costs. i'm sorry, remind me of your second question? up, apologies for that. he talked about the impact on those with covid. guest: he was asking about the future of medicare and medicaid. he was asking about the future of medicare and medicaid. it is a very interesting question and a very good question. , you know, there is cost toabout the entitlement programs. as i mentioned before, when we hit a recession, the cost of medicaid goes way up, and that is a cost to states and to the federal government to pay for those costs. medicaid is an entitlement program, which means we as a country, we are going to cover

anybody who shows that they are eligible for that program. for medicare, you know, there is tanksarly talk from think and other experts that this is going to -- that covid-19 is going to put some pressure on the federal government. the way that medicare works, if you have fewer people working, those are fewer people that are paying medicare taxes. so their money goes into to pay for the people who are on medicare today. so that means that medicare will have less money, less cash to pay for those who are on medicare today. that be a problem for medicare? we are not sure yet how big of a problem this is going to be. some of it could depend on how

long the recession lasts, and how long -- so therefore how long before the employment numbers go back up. host: to the person who asked, if you go to the aarp website, there is an article there where you might want to read about those recipients, making payments without filing tax returns. may, in woodbridge, virginia. caller: the question that i have for her is, it seems like the people, you should get your emphasis on the people and nothing big insurance companies. the big umbrella, just like the v.a., insurance companies, take them out of the way because that is where your money is going. you have to pay for the hospital rooms, the doctors, all these things. why don't you take a look at that and see if that will help in the rural areas and everyone else. host: why do you think it would help? caller: because it would not

come out of your park it paying on a cart note for your insurance. like you did a long time ago with doctors, you did not have to -- one big umbrella, one company, and let that one company take care of the whole deal. and you would not have people trying to get rich. guest: what you're talking about and single payer system, what is important to remember is that even after a system like that, people are going to pay for it one way or another. they are going to pay for it through text dollars or insurance premiums. there can certainly be arguments as to whether insurance companies are taking more than their fair share as profits, or whether they are simply passing the money along. there are laws to prohibit insurance companies from taking

too much in profits already. marilyn weber serafini, from twitter -- did hospital chinas in states from days?r supplies in talk about that issue. guest: supply chain is a big question. as we talk about how to make sure we are prepared for pandemics, and health care emergencies, this is something that we have been talking about, and will continue to talk about. you know, in my history of doing this, we have been talking about doing this for a long time. there are many of our medications that are made in other countries. many of our medical devices made in other countries. even if they are u.s. companies. we have a global economy.

there is no two ways about that. we have a global economy. is madewhat we need here, and some of what we need is not made here. this is what we are hearing. andre getting masks respirators and other kinds of emergency equipment from here in the u.s. and from other countries. and part of this, when we are talking about a just-in-time delivery system, that always is a problem. it makes financial sense, and it helps our industry to do what ,hey need to do and to stay from a financial perspective. but in times of an emergency, that is why we have a stockpile, and that is what the stockpile is intended to address, whether it was enough or not enough, we are hearing about hospitals that, you know, that don't have

swabs. this is one of the biggest shortages that they are having right now, is the actual swab to do the test. i heard from one hospital, that they are creating swabs from 3d printers. so, yes, this is an issue and will continue to be an issue. every time we hit an emergency like this, we start to talk about bringing work or capacity and our capabilities back to the u.s. a generalhere protocol as far as how soon a stockpile has to be replenished? guest: well, the way the stockpile works is that there are medications in there, there are supplies in there that do expire, and there is a whole we are that, -- that rotating what is in the stockpile. that still doesn't mean we will have the right things in the stockpile or whether there is

going to be enough of what we need in the stockpile. now people cannot even get toilet paper, so getting things like swabs and respirators and things like that, we have got new companies out there that have never made hand sanitizer making hand sanitizer. so, you know, these companies are doing their best to fill in supply that we never dreamed we would need. joe, in ash, north carolina, for our guest, marilyn weber serafini, of the bipartisan policy center. caller: i would like to ask you this. you talk about medicaid and medicare. go back to when johnson was the president, and during the vietnam war, he put all that money into the general fund, and all the bureaucrats stuck their fingers in it. why not do an audit on that and put it back in? because the united states cannot go ahead and make money, it can print money. another question -- what about

all the poor women who are going into hospitals, having babies, and some of them are coming out stillborn, above what is normally done that have the virus. nobody talks about that. i will take your comment when i hang up, thank you. regarding --, again, we are talking about medicare and medicaid, and of course, president johnson, under his administration, created both of those programs. the way that they were created, then, even now, it is supposed about medicare. medicaid is funded by states, and the federal government matches that funding at a certain level dependent on which and awe are talking about lot of variables. it is verye,

interesting the way medicare funding works. as i was talking about before, this is one of the problems we are going to be faced with in an economic downturn, the current fundinge is actually the current medicare beneficiaries. we have a trust fund, but it is really a trust fund in name. the money flows from the trust sittingit is actually for medicare in the general treasury, so the treasury and the government comes in and funds what is not covered by the current workforce. from lisa, joining us temple, texas. caller: hello, thank you for taking my call. i am a physician, and i was wondering, since there has been such a difference of experience across the nation, places like new york city that unfortunately was so devastated by this

epidemic, is it possible to do a swedish approach, where they , sinceo to herd immunity their endemic population has a relatively high amount of people who have already been exposed and have already contracted the coronavirus? and like sweden, they are going immunitying a herd projected to end in may. it would be a cheaper situation than doing contact tracing where it is not needed. guest: i have not really heard anyone talking about doing that. in this country, i believe, i am not the expert on this, so forgive me if i am misstating, but i have not heard any of that discussion. i believe we are still focusing on the contact tracing and isolation, and to wait until a time when we have a treatment or

a vaccine relevant -- readily available. dee from silver spring, maryland. caller: you sound pretty adamant that we will not have national healthcare. we spend the most money and get the worst outcome, so i think most of the people want it. what makes you so sure? i am hoping i am not misunderstanding you that it will happen. thank you. well, actually, people who support single-payer health care in congress have been proposing this for decades now. have along as we congress that is split, even if we had a democratic congress, democratic senate, and a democrat in the white house, there is still a very good reason to believe that we still would not go to a single-payer health care system because the

democratic party is split on this. party hase democratic re-embraced going to a system like this, and part of it does not support this. in addition, we conducted a poll which is consistent with other that most it shows democrats do not support a single-payer health care system in this country. the top response from democrats was that they wanted to build on the current system. the same held true for independents. even republicans, who the top response was still to repeal the affordable care act -- even a third of those republicans said that they wanted to build on the current system. in our nation, most people are currently happy with their health care. and the polls show that over and

over again. these are mostly the people -- most people get health through their employer. that coverage is stable, it is fairly generous, and most people like that health care. thehat is -- that is reality at the moment. host: so how do you think the moment then will be shaped? how do you think the campaign will be influenced by the coronavirus pandemic and the response by the administration? guest: i don't think we are going to be seeing as much -- we are already not seeing as much about, again, the design of the health-care system, what we want the design to look like, like single-payer or the affordable care act. where we very quickly moved away from that. people are more concerned about the cost of their health care, which has always been an underlying concern for people in our nation. cost oficularly the prescription drugs right now. so we are seeing more of an

emphasis on that, and i think we will continue to see that. i think we will also see -- we are starting to see emphasis on how people in emergency situations get their health care. people whoumber of have become uninsured, and some of our states -- many of our states have expanded medicaid under the affordable care act to include more people. some states have not, and in those states, some of these people who are becoming uninsured are finding it will not -- well, they be able to get on medicaid if they have a certain income level. or they are in a certain category. host: let's go to one more call, from william in minneapolis. caller: thanks for taking my call. i will be quick. you just touched on what i was going to -- i actually have two questions. the majority of people -- and i want to -- the majority of

people that are coming into the hospitals, and i am made a nurse at a major regional hospital -- i was concerned that the majority of people coming into the hospitals, do you think that these patients, because pretty much the hospitals have reduced all their intake down to just covid-19 patients. insurance or, you know, how people are paying for this care, i would venture to say that the majority of people that are coming in with covid-19 are uninsured, which is reducing the hospital bottom line. now, my question is, and you can touch on that if you want because i am just wondering how these people are paying for health care. if they are coming into the hospitals. and like i said, i think the

majority of them are probably uninsured. host: we will leave it there, caller. thanks. that i agreet sure that the majority of people coming in with covid-19 are uninsured. i think that this is hitting people everywhere, and regardless of their insurance status. i think a lot of people are coming in, but you make an excellent point that this is going to be a very hard hit for people to pay their portions of the cost and for hospitals to bear this. hard -- so it is a hard financial hit all around. is why we see the federal government appropriating unprecedented amounts of money to help relieve the pressure on people and hospitals alike. serafiniilyn weber joining us with the bipartisan policy center, serving as the health care director.

go to the website if you want to check out the work of the organization and their project. as always, we thank you for your time. coming up on washington journal, we will talk with the university of mokdad about the role that pandemic modeling plays in protecting the impact of a pandemic. but first it was new york governor andrew cuomo at his daily press briefing sunday talking about reopening and what that would look like. ande talk about opening reimagining. the federal guidance from the cdc is that before you start reopening the state and regional hospitalization rate must be in decline for 14 days. that's the cdc's guidance. the federal government leaves it up to the states. they also give guidance. in this case i think the cdc

guidance is right. we are monitoring the hospitalization rate. upstage regions are like states in the midwest and we have very different hospitalization rates so we look at rates all across the state. we are going to reopen in phases. original analysis on what we call -- a regional analysis on what we call our regions and they have been working together on economic policy. regions which are theting coalitions, look at regional analysis. make the determination and then monitor whatever you do. phase one of the opening will construction and manufacturing activities and

with any construction and manufacturing those businesses that have a low risk. there's a range of construction activities. those businesses that pose a low risk within them. phase two would be more a business by business analysis using the matrix that we discussed. how essential a service does not does this provide and how risky is that is nice. how much risk are you possibly incurring and how important is it that that business real. that matrix will be guiding us through phase two. needwe get there we dismisses to do that analysis. they have to think about how they are going to reopen with this new normal.

what precautions are they going to take in the workplace. it's very much going to be up to businesses. and we are going to leave two weeks between phases so we can monitor the effect of what we just did. take action, monitor. two weeks according to the experts is the incubation. -- incubation period of the virus. you can see if you increase the rate of infection which you would see in hospitalizations and testing. so everyone understands the overall risk you start to increase activity, the infection rate goes up. two weeks to do the monitoring. that's the broad outlines of the reopening plan. >> washington journal continues. host: our next guest is ali

mokdad of the university of washington. healthofessor of global at the institute for health metrics and evaluation here to talk about the topic of modeling. good morning to you. guest: good morning. host: could you talk about the university's role in modeling? tost: we have been asked model the needs for our hospital here at the university and for our county and then we started doing this for every state and we had a different approach and that backward calculation. how did your modeling compared to other modeling when it comes to death tolls from the coronavirus? guest: our models have performed much better than any other model so far there were models ranging

from 2 million deaths. our model the highest mortality was 93,000. choose theid you approach that you did in your modeling compared to what others are doing? we look at susceptible, exposed, infected and recovered. early on we don't have enough testing and we don't know how many people are infected so we took a different approach and modeled mortality because we had a good reason and we did the calculation backward from mortality. others took the usual approach which we knew at that time would not be the great approach. a factor didh of social distancing play and how the models resulted?

>> that's a very good question. we use social distancing in our models so we assume people are doing something else to fight it. we use social distancing measures. once something is implemented that's the effect we have seen in other countries. has an informed by data from the united states. we have seen a different effect on projected deaths. they are working and they do work. host: does the white house is modeling go into pandemic calculations of how you respond? >> yes. we do the same with other government, canada. people are using our data and we are always happy to help and explain what we are doing.

host: how often are you in communication with the task force? basis. regular host: our guest will join us to talk about the role of modeling. if you have questions for him and want to ask about the work they do, here's how you can reach us. (202) 748-8000 eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 mountain and pacific time zones. (202) 748-8002 medical professionals. daycan tweet us at c-span w -- c-span wj. all we ask is that you include your name, city and state. at the initial onset we heard about tremendous numbers of deaths based on modeling. do you think that was overblown?

some models missed estimates by far. we didn't know at that time how many will be infected from this virus. plus the social distancing measures once they were implemented, many people stayed at home. when it comes to the data that you collect and how you proceed with the modeling, talk about the quality of the data. involved inple are your monitoring process and how do you keep each other in check as you make these models? has been a bit of a challenge for us. we have data on the daily basis of mortality we have seen a zigzag in mortality.

you see one day 100, the next day 50. they come back on tuesday higher mortality rate to eat so that's the data problem. we have seen that up and down in the data. as far as we are concerned, we have about 100 working on this. to do futureused health scenarios for all diseases. we have the capacity and the know-how to do it. we have about 100 people who bring data or do communication and we meet on a regular basis to or three times a day. touch. in depending onare information from other countries, how do you judge the quality of that information? >> there are different ways to check the data.

right now we are in the middle of a pandemic so we know sometimes there is underreporting of that and many countries and states are adding presumptive deaths. these are people who died without tested. can come back and look at mortality in april, and then we march could tell if that data has a problem. right now in the middle of it we are relying on getting the data daycare andls and different health departments. now we are using the johns hopkins data. we have a network of collaborators and these people can be in academia. we have over 5000 collaborators

and this has been very valuable for us to be able to get the data from people and work with them to make sure the source is reliable in that country. death init's based on part, is it easy to characterize if someone dies exactly from covid-19 or issues related to covid-19? on what we had in the united states were people who died after being tested for covid-19 or in a nursing home. sometimes we have deaths that are coming to us that aren't labeled, presumptive deaths from covid-19. with all other epidemics that we have, we had to go later on and revise our estimates up or down. i have no doubt in my mind that early on in the pandemic, we had underestimated mortality. since we are adding presumptive

deaths, we may overestimate mortality. time will tell later on when we look at mortality and see if there's a variation in what we have seen in previous eras. us fromi mokdad joining the university of washington. here to talk about covid-19 modeling and related issues. from plano,ller is texas. go ahead with your question or comment. caller: thank you and good morning. i was watching 60 minutes last night. they had a segment, i think it was called bluedot. i think it's a company in canada. they traced through their program that there was something going on in china that was killing people and i believe in

december they picked it up. type ofndering if this program or whatever you want to call it is compatible with what it stop ang and can epidemic in its tracks? because apparently this could have. host: ok. did you want to tackle any of that? wasarly on, nobody knew it a covid-19. there were deaths coming to people of pneumonia. later on when the virus was isolated they said it was covid-19. right now in california for example they are able to find out that two cases died before covid-19.

so we didn't know covid-19 until they started testing for. the second part of your question, is there a way for all of us to know there is something going on. that's typically what we do. we noticed higher mortality and started investigating for something going on. question, china revised its estimate for covid-19 upward. host: in south carolina from greer, cayman is next. hello. caller: hello. i have a question about modeling and contact tracing. work if this is prolonged and we are going back to work and some of the states around me. and we haven't had a lot of testing. asiae look at models in

where they have been successful? the second part of the question is if we're going to go state-by-state, every state is going to be different and contact tracing, i believe he said he accumulated data from different sources. is he looking how to add that into his model? >> very good question. americans have sacrificed a lot. and we will go back to work and it's coming soon because the distance has worked. backwardo to work becomes very important as early detection of the virus. people identifying themselves when they feel something is wrong and we test them and identify a case, it becomes very

important for us to do early detection. contact tracing becomes very important. so who that person came in contact with, asking everybody to stay-at-home in isolation. comfortable with modeling to provide a day one go from a response phase two a containment phase. and that's very important for us. our ability to test and trace. that's when public health becomes very important and our ability to do surveillance and tracing. host: ali mokdad, there's a story in the new york times about antibody testing. how does that fit into coming up with calculations that you make and what are the concerns about antibody tracing itself?

>> antibodies we didn't know as much about and we still don't. right now new york state for example did some quick -- did some testing. have 28% in new york city antibodies for covid-19. we don't know how long they will last. know if there is reinfection for that person. we are still monitoring this information. our models right now we switched to susceptible exposed and infect it. -- infected. i would like to remind everybody that for us to reach a level of 21% positive on antibodies in new york city, new york city paid a heavy price. that was a lot of deaths. almost 40% of the deaths in the united states are in new york. for us to reach that level of

antibodies is going to be a heavy price unfortunately and we should be very careful so we can go back earlier. host: part of the research you do is put out map of individual states. we see some states already deciding to do that anyway. what do you think of governors who make the decision to loosen stay-at-home orders? >> i understand we need to go back to work and i understand the difference between staying at home and shooting down the economy. some of these states are doing something prematurely. , you wante right now the medical system to accept patients like elective surgeries. forwant the woman to come

prenatal care. you want people to come for a screening. be foodnd for me would security. premature, but i understand the balance. price to be a heavy where we are right now. think there will be a resurgence come the fall. >> definitely. this is a virus. like any other virus that they have a seasonal impact. we have seen from this virus, very contagious and it spreads so fast. it's very likely and most of us are sure that we will have a second grave -- second wave in the fall. host: from colorado, here is celeste. caller: i'm calling in regards

to a thing i saw on 60 minutes last night. it was in regards to what they had on jeopardy. i think it was great. host: ok. philip in new jersey. good morning. caller: in new jersey here, we have had a consistent number between 2500 and 3500 positive cases every day for over three weeks now. we've been doing social distancing very good in new jersey, some of the top in the nation. in the seeing a break positive cases and it's got me very concerned. i mean, lord. wondering what you might think would be the cause

breaks, not being able to the positive caseload. thanks for taking my call. >> thank you. that's a very good question. what we are seeing right now is a peak. it's not coming as fast. likealler is correct, it's plateauing and then we see it coming down. it's staying at the peak for a while and then coming down. that's a function of what happened in the past. remember that what we are seeing right now in terms of infection is based on two weeks in the past and what we are seeing right now in mortality it may be three weeks in the past. when weto be patient implemented some of the social distancing measures early on, they will pay back to you later on.

so we would expect in that phase that there will be a leveling and it will come down. so your attack level where you are plateauing but you will come down soon because of social distancing. host: a viewer from twitter asks, if you can talk about comorbidities and the unknown number of deaths at home can affect numbers. aboutve been concerned underlying factors and chronic conditions. people with diabetes, people who are smokers. how much they would be impacted by covid-19 and we are concerned that there are debts that we don't know our covid-19. that's why we are adding presumptive mortality so people who die with the symptoms are exhibiting that.

over, we are going to look at mortalities and compare it to what we have seen in previous years. we know there is a high spike in deaths that we can attribute to covid-19. you can see what the covid-19 has contributed to mortality overall. host:ould greenwood -- greenwood, indiana. doler: i think we should what germany did. isolate alltest, those that have the virus and then trace. you do those three things and it will basically go away. you've got to do everyone. host: is that a feasible prospect? >> not yet.

the capacity of testing just 200,000 in the united states. we have 330 million. if you look at the workforce, we have about 26 million applying for unemployment. if you want to bring them back to work, you need to test 26 million. i am aware that we are increasing all our capacity. there but get unfortunately we are not able right now to test everyone. but he is right. is to movego forward into containment where we do early detection and isolation in order to control the virus. host: there have been criticisms of the way the administration handled the testing. would it change anything if we started testing earlier? >> it would have changed a lot

if we had tested earlier. we could have found out what's happening in new york much earlier. unfortunately, this is a new virus. we've never known about it and for the first time we were able to isolate it. tests.we had more could we have done it anyway better? i don't know. it's very difficult to judge. up ourble to ramp testing capacity. host: daniel is next. caller: i would like to address the world health organization. it seems as though it's framed when anybody is discussing it as though we are actually not part of the world.

that the world health organization is separate from us. and we have employees that actually work there. plus the world health doesn't have an intelligence organization. we do and apparently it reported in the new york times that they were warning about the virus in november. plus our people working at the were health organization giving information on this virus in real time. so how they are getting blamed for something, it's just mind-boggling. thank you. >> thank you for bringing the who. we work closely with them. when i was at centers for disease control i had one of my staff assigned to who.

very good job. it does not have a mandate to enforce anything. it doesn't have any intelligence to find out what's happening. we need at this time coordinating agency that can reach out and help us spreading our message. i am very supportive of who and cdc and other agencies. host: ron is next. a tuna beach, florida. caller: hello. -- daytona beach, florida. caller: hello. i was looking at the united have twoavel and they issues. we talk about cdc for health

recommendation. the other part is no vaccination requirements for u.s. visitors and they travel abroad don't need any to enter the united states. the other part is if you are a foreign traveler they say check with your country, not with hours what you need. comingou think anybody here should have certain ?accinations the obi has a high risk infectious disease rating, yet i would imagine the way this is written that anybody from ethiopia could come across here and whether they have vaccinations or not they could enter here and maybe go to mickey mouse world or whatever.

--n you have companies countries similar to china and africa and other countries in the world that have very little health regulations apparently, don't you think those countries should be closed to tourists for coming in here? needse business traveler to have his shots and whatever. i had a friend who flew out of houston and went all the way to singapore. apparently didn't have to get any shots or whatever because he was just traveling. >> thank you. how is daytona beach? i have a house in daytona beach and i still keep it. advisory for vaccines you need. you should check the cdc web

page for vaccination requirement for you travel. u.s. citizent a ,nd you are applying for a visa cdc doesn't have to tell you that that you need to vaccinate come to the u.s. because the embassy is applying what cdc tells and then the person is asked to provide this medical checkup before coming here. there are many conditions where you would be required to get a physical exam and documentation. from ali mokdad joining us the university of washington. to ask him questions (202) 748-8000 eastern and central time zone. (202) 748-8001 mountain and pacific. (202) 748-8002 medical professionals. is there a point according to

current modeling we stop seeing deaths from covid-19? >> yes. we have it by state. towardstes will seep mid-may, end of may and early june. if social distancing is still being maintained. probably heard criticism of those figures. how do you respond to those? >> a model is a model. our model has been doing extremely well in terms of matching the data. here, i'm aue professor. i will tell you my model is that her than any other model. but all models that have been out there are telling us exactly the same. this is a dangerous virus. our only way to reduce infection is to stay-at-home and practice safe social distancing.

host: here is a medical professional joining us from new york. caller: good morning. i have a question of contact tracing. if 80% of the people who have the virus are not presenting to a health care professional or hospital, and we are not , how can contact ?racing be effective also with contact tracing if someone goes to get a covid test it takes two to four days to get results. and then trying to get people can take days so i'm wondering the effectiveness of contact tracing. thank you very much. >> that's a very good question. don't think it's 80% who are asymptomatic. to in new york were found

have antibodies. bethe maximum that could asymptomatic is 21%. it's much lower rate than what you are saying 80%. you are right because some people are asymptomatic and they will not come to a health clinic to be tested because they don't have any symptoms. flu and whene allergy season is out there. what it means is for us to be able to track cases when they show up and do the tracing for these cases. for each case we are assuming 10 people who are in contact so we will be able to trace all of them. as more people are becoming asymptomatic and don't show up we will not be able to test them.

host: ned is in huntsville. caller: good morning. i was looking at the world map --infections and i noticed countries have more infections than less industrialized countries. each and about 10 of divided the infections by the population to get to normalize the numbers. that thend out industrialized countries have the more infections than third world countries. the industrialized countries and action rate per million is in the thousands. 3000, 6000 in italy with the highest. other countries, the infection is a handful.on

do you have an opinion about that? >> that's very good question. i will give you an example. i'm originally from lebanon. thaton right now after duration from the first case is able to test up to 1000 a day. it's the capacity of testing universityb or contest about 10,000 a day. so the testing model finds more cases. that's what's happening right now. casesed to test how many are positive and how many are negative. any cases don't have the testing capacity and then we are concerned because it's a

reporting issue and testing issue. plus we are on 54,000 deaths. what's the projection that the university is establishing? >> 70,000 deaths by august 4. host: we have heard people talk about comparing death rates from this virus to the flu and other viruses. what goes through your mind when you hear those comparisons? >> we don't know. right now as one of the callers said, we have a lot of asymptomatic cases so we don't know how many we have out there. wee we have a better handle can say what the fatality rate of covid-19 is. will killing more people than the flu. about 35,000 deaths from

flu every year. already passed that with covid-19 and unfortunately we will have a second wave. people are dying in hospitals. host: in canoga park. go ahead. caller: what i'm calling about is the contaminations. we leave in an apartment building of 27 units. fourve one family that has one of them as a father and he has a daughter that's probably a little over a year old and he takes her to his girlfriends house which is the mother to baby sit guess and we don't know where she's been and when he brings her back she was very sick. the people are in the apartment now have said they have only the

flu. i'm concerned because a lot of us that live here are 73, 74. i don't want to be a snitch, but where do i go to? they are not wearing masks. they are not taking proper precautions. getting in the apartment with many people. it's very nerve-racking. ?ho do i speak to who do i go to? what do i do? >> we are seeing right now that keeping a distance of six feet you are safe and we are telling everybody when you go out, and thatu are infected you have the disease. you, butant to alarm

if you have any symptoms you need to check with your dog there. if you are away from any of the people more than six feet and you are practicing proper youene, washing your hands should be safe and you shouldn't be worried. as far as for that family, we have to be very compassionate and understanding of others and hopefully they are safe and they have flu and not covid-19. host: stephen from bellevue, illinois. you are on. go ahead. caller: i have a question. the corona shot for animals, especially for dogs has been around for many years. can't the medical professionals and scientists learn something from the corona shot that's

given to animals that it might help human beings? also they criticize the obama administration and the democrats obama but when president was president, he stopped the here byrus coming sending scientists and doctors over there to stop it. done with that the way we got things going on today. thousands of americans are dying. many are running around that don't have tests. it makes you wonder what's really going on. caller: coronavirus is a name, spanish word for crown. it's the weight is shaped. this one is different. although we call it corona because of the shape of the virus, it's a novel virus.

whenever we have for coronavirus in the past will not work here and of course scientists are looking at the similarities in order to try to find the vaccine. it's totally different than what you are saying. as far as helping other countries early on, cdc still does that. the u.s. government sent me to places where i did emergency health. that's a very valid point and we will continue that i hope, supporting other countries and the who doing early disease detection and preventing it from coming to our country. host: our guest was previously at the cdc.

he served as the chief of the behavioral surveillance branch. topic of behavioral surveillance, do you think people are maintaining social distancing practices as rigorously as when we first started? >> we are using data on mobility. and we data on mobility can see that mobility really was startedwhen we implementing social distancing even in places where the governor has not implemented them. it's working. job people have to get out from their homes to buy food or do other things. all that we are asking is please stay at home unless you really really have to go out and if you have to go out, cut their --

cover your mouth and nose. hosted, -- host: do you think as far as contact is concerned something can tell us how humans behave after this as far as how long they won't shake hands, that kind of thing? >> we have about 54 thousand deaths. we are projecting about 74,000. normal will change of course. we will not be shaking hands. we will not be hugging for a while until we find a vaccine for this disease and make sure it's not spreading anymore. burke.ly agree with dr. we have to keep social distancing all summer and we will have to change some of our behaviors. host: there's debates on hydrochloric when.

what about drugs that can alleviate the symptoms? manyght now there are so clinical trials for all these , until then we shouldn't throw names of any medication that could work against covid-19 because if there is one it would have been out by now. i'm aware of a lot of clinical trials on drugs and none of them has come out and said this is a drug that will work. very careful and consult the doctor. from mark in hear huntsville, alabama. caller: i have a question about tracking. i've been fine.

i'm ok and everything and i go once every two weeks or whatever to walmart and do some grocery shopping and that. i'm passing people, walking up and down the aisles. passing, a hundred people, 30, 50 people. sick andon is if i get i get tested and it turns out i virus, as farhis as trace tracking goes, if they ask me who i've been in contact with in the last two weeks, i have no idea who any of these people were. i'm walking up and down the aisles in walmart. how am i supposed to track these people that i have no idea who they are? that's my question. >> good morning. thank you for the question.

there are several issues. americans are doing exactly what it takes to control this virus. all of us want to go back to normal and our economy is suffering. we are hoping if someone is sick they don't go out. shopping in these ,ommonplaces like supermarket there is one lane on each child. you assume nobody sick is going out and infecting other people and if you are wearing a mask and covering your nose and mouth. if we come in contact with somebody in a place that i don't know them, all we do from a tracing perspective is you tell me where you have been. walmart,ay i was at this is the place to be checked. this is the worst case scenario. -- other countries

right now are using cell phone tracing. we have that capacity in the united states but we have not used it and we have decided not to use it so far. there are apps that people may sign in and say i'm willing to do it if there is an app like if i came in contact with somebody else i'm happy to be informed about the possibility. there are ways to do it. in the united states we have the capacity to do it. the old-fashioned way is once we know where you have been, if you have been in that place please come and we will check you. it has worked in the past and people right now are alert for this information. host: nicole in kensington, maryland. caller: hello. i'm calling because i was

listening and there has been lots of discussion about how developing countries and less-developed countries have different transmission rates. my question is more towards developed countries. at what point do countries or governments suspend civil liberties in order to protect a large population. can you go over some of the points or obstacles that need to be hit in order for that lockdown to become effective? >> remember, developing countries are not testing as much. the fact they are not reporting cases doesn't mean they don't have them. this virus has spread all over the world. in terms of when can we relax our measures, we are proposing

when we go to a level of the case, one case per million, we can detect it. as a balance between our ability to go out and social distancing. we have to look at history. we don't have anything about this virus. if you look at history, when the spanish flu came in, cities that closed down faster headless mortality and they were able to go back to business factor -- faster than the other ones. epidemic and we shut down, it was the right decision and we came out of it much faster than if we didn't shut down. covid-19 if you look at what's happening in many places in this country, this is a very deadly virus. staying at home has been very effective.

bringuld keep it until we the situation to a lower level catching the early disease and the investigation. i understand the balance between the economies. the other scenario would be if we go back to normal, we have a second wave and our economy would be hit much harder. we paid a heavy price to be where we are right now. let's maintain it. it will help us come back out of it much faster and recover our economy at a much faster rate. bump up we see another this fall into winter, would you then advised governors to take the same steps they are doing now as far as stay-at-home orders? >> yes. we have to go back to social

isolation. hoping by doing the right , americans can be commended for what they have done right now. i am surprised how much americans have adhered to a public message and stayed home. i assumed that the virus will go down and we will be able to stop early cases much faster. we will have more testing by then of course. host: jane in illinois. in the late 1960's, i had something called hong kong flu. i'm wondering if this could be related to that because i was isolated at that time. her hard to find. if i hang mine in the sunshine will that sterilize it?

mask, i know it protects the other people but is it protecting me? >> very good question. we've had lots of epidemics. flu. had the we have experienced like this when people are isolated in order to come out it was because we didn't have a vaccine or medication. you we have seen this in history before but not this much of a scale. wearing a mask will protect others from you but will not protect you from others. very careful, practicing social distancing. washing your hands and clothes when you come back. especially your shoes. we have to be very careful these days unfortunately but we can do it. just be away from people and assume everything you touch is infected and you have to wash

your hands before you touch your face or eyes. host: is there any evidence to suggest it could be transmitted airborne? >> yes. .arly on we felt its droplets now we know it is airborne. go.re learning as we we have to be extra careful. int: we will hear from jay maryland. caller: you mentioned earlier there were no clinical trials or effective treatment. clinicalare ongoing trials but there is no effective treatment right now.

we have ongoing clinical trials. caller: there is a drug that was developed in cuba. called interferon alpha two b. the italian government in dire straits called on a group of doctors to be sent there. deaths have slowed. if you are not aware of it, you need to look into it. countries,ribbean countries in africa are using it. it has been curing people in china and countries all through europe. i don't know why nobody's talking about it. host: thank you. did you want to respond to that? >> i haven't heard about this

but i'm sure if the gentleman is thee of a drug, it's one of drugs being tested in clinical trial right now. we can't take a drug from another disease and start giving it to people without a proper clinical trial. what doses, who will get what. some of the medication we get now is based on our weight and age. there are sothat .any clinical trials going on this is ali mokdad from the university of washington talking about the topic of models. thank you for your time today. during the last couple of weeks we have talked to legislators about coronavirus and relief efforts. joining us on the phone is senator pat roberts.

he serves on the agricultural committee. he serves as the chair. good morning. talk about the condition of kansas in coronavirus. sector the hardest hit being done right now? would say the beef industry followed closely by dairy. much all of the grow crops. this is pretty much across the board. right now the biggest problem we you it's awill tell problem more severe than i have seen in my 40 years of public service and that's the livestock industry. our cowboys are hurting. what specifically is happening in that industry? caller: we have five packing

plants and the governor has made a good decision i think. safety first, health first. some of these plants like every , everywhere else where we've had the virus. make the plants safe and our emergency management team is doing a great job. making sure the plants are safe. on the other hand there's a lot of people very worried about that. yetaven't closed any down and it is backed up. the whole food value chain. where in situation terms of livestock i'm not sure i've seen anything like this. i wasn't around during the great depression of course. it's pretty rough.

congresshave seen passing bills specifically to help out various sectors. does the agriculture industry get direct relief from that? >> yes they will. i want to thank the administration. i'm on that recovery team the president has announced but since i'm chairman of agriculture we have the bag posse. it is bipartisan. we work very hard. we had the cares act to that included 9.5 billion. this year altogether is 19 billion. the previous years was 28 billion. i want to emphasize farmers do not want to aid. they would much prefer trade. we simply have to have assistance to stay in business. it will probably be a direct payment.

we are working very closely with secretary perdue to make sure that happens. i think we are going to do direct payments. without question that is the easiest way to alleviate this. our community bankers are working hard to keep these people afloat. in the have is a backup food value chain and that affects everybody. in minnesota, iowa, arkansas. pigs.re euthanizing the pork industry is going through a very difficult time as well. as of yet we have not had to do that in the cattle industry. i don't expect we will. a current debate on another >> i think the argument on one's side, you have state who have not really been cost-conscious

to the effect that they have a lot of debt, and that is just in case that that's usually a state with a large population. are suffering for sure, but i think we are in much better state. people think why should some people from kansas, where i am from, pay more taxes to, quote, bailout for new york or los angeles, so on and so forth. we will have that debate in congress pretty quick. i just do not know the outcome. i will have to learn a lot more about how the states are operating. that is senator pat roberts talking about coronavirus and how it affects the states. we want to say thank you for

your time. for our program today. another edition of "washington journal" comes your way tomorrow. ♪ >> today phil murphy will reap reporters on his next state steps and strategies to reopen the garden state, scheduled for noon eastern and we will take you there live in it starts. the georgia governor brian kemp has scheduled a briefing