state of maryland. examine racial disparities in covid-19 cases with meharry medical college president dr. james hildreth. >> maryland becomes the latest state to loosen some coronavirus restrictions. while covid-19 cases slow in some parts of the u.s. they are on the rise in other places. good morning, it is thursday, may 7 and this is washington journal. is your state ready to loosen restrictions or has it already? for the eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8000. region, and pacific (202) 748-8001. if you are a medical professional, (202) 748-8002.

we welcome your comments by text , (202) 748-8003. tell us your name and where you are from. wj.twitter we are @cspan maryland was one of the first states to impose tight restrictions. the latest from the washington times, saying they will ease restrictions and prepare to reopen maryland. the governor eased coronavirus restrictions wednesday to allow residents to participate in some outdoor act to videos and resume elective medical procedures. they closed public schools for the rest of the academic year. residents may participate in golfing, fishing, boating, tennis, camping, and other outdoor activities. he added that local governments can exercise flexibility in reopening playgrounds and parks. that is from the washington times. an washington post published

op-ed, an opinion piece by five republican governors who kept their states open. five republican governors, our states stayed open during the coronavirus, here is why our approach worked. that is the headline of the piece. the governors, mark gordon the governor of wyoming, pete ricketts the governor of nebraska, the governor of arkansas, kim reynolds of iowa, and the governor of missouri. they wrote in the piece that the diversity of the 50 states is what makes the nation's economy great and each state cost response to the novel coronavirus is as diverse as the impact on each of us. in the heartland decisions have been based on sound social and medical science positioning our states to thrive individually as our economies reopen. they write well our approaches made differ we have kept our states open for business and delivered food and other goods.

they write that just as our --te we applied the same will to overcome the threat of the coronavirus. we knew it was critical that our state economy kept moving. agriculture, energy, -- our oil, ethanol, coal, and wind fueled the country's businesses. we had to close pieces of our economy temporarily to meet the challenges. our states moved quickly to cut red tape and allow private employers to pivot to do new business models. the relationships our community bankers have built with businesses helped our region lead the nation for the amount of eligible payroll funding in the payroll protection program. all of this to help mitigate job losses that are drowning on

lloyd -- unemployment benefit systems nationwide. some parts reopening of the state beginning right about now according to the article in the washington times this morning. , aresentative andy harris republican, of maryland had been critical of governor hogan. he was at a hearing with a former cdc director and they had back and forth over the reopening rules of the state. here is some of that. since i come from one of the stay-at-home states and represent a rural district, a lot of what i am going to talk about is why we should treat -- rural areas have a disease burden that is less and the strain on hospitals is less. -- you said shelter-in-place is blunt but effective.

we don't have scientific data on that for coronavirus? if you plot what the states have done versus the severity of the measures states have done versus their case counts you actually lessthat the states with restrictions in place sometimes have lowercase counts, like florida. we have no specific objective data about that, do we? for covid-19. look atovid-19 if we information from around the world it is very clear that when people stay home, it reduces the spread. it is also clear that there are countries, including singapore and south korea that have been able to limit the amount of physical restriction and physical distancing and still control the virus. there are differences in different environments. put harris: florida did not

stay-at-home but their case rate is lower than maryland. dr. frieden: there are many factors that go into the case rate. rep. harris: my point is that shelter-in-place might work, but it might just be the social distancing that shelter-in-place implies. host: all of that hearing from yesterday available on our website. asking you this first hour of washington journal, is your state ready to loosen restrictions and/or has it already? organizations tracking the closure across the 50 states is the new york times. their tracker lets you see which states are reopening and which are shuts down. -- are shut down. light blue is reopening soon, yellow is a shut down. a partial reopening in the state of maryland. (202) 748-8000 for the eastern and central time zones.

mountain and pacific (202) 748-8001. let's hear from cindy in connecticut. caller: good morning. i hope everyone is doing well. had,w that connecticut especially in fairfield county, we did have a lot of coronavirus because we are close to new york. i think it is time to reopen. there is a new study coming out saying that a lot of the new cases are people that have sheltered in place and have not gone anywhere. like a cliff you just had on, there is not any scientific evidence. because we did not know a lot thet coronavirus in beginning maybe it was necessary. this is going on too long. i fear for people's livelihood. i think there is a tremendous damage being done there.

governor's heart is in the right place but i do feel some are getting off on controlling the population. i am not saying governor lamont is, but i think that we are ready. we are not five-year-olds. we can be responsible and no matter where you are you will have people that are not doing the right thing. we cannot stay in place forever because maybe 10% of us will do stupid things. -- the arc ofyour cases in connecticut. a stay-at-home order in effect since march 3. you can see the rise of cases and the slow decline on may 6, updated late yesterday. the stay-at-home order set to expire in connecticut on may 20. to gary we go in new york. caller: yes sir, good morning.

governor cuomo is keeping the state buttoned down, and even though there is a substantial difference between metropolitan new york and upstate new york -- the governor, even though he is keeping the state buttoned down he is whining about sales and income tax revenue tanking. my main point to you on c-span is, i think it would be enlightening if you would ask your callers on this subject how they feel if they are currently receiving a salary check every week or month versus those who are facing poverty and despair. i think if you ask them first what their position is on that, i think it may be enlightening to see what the response would

continuing butr pretty much closing down -- michael is next from buzzards bay, massachusetts. caller: thank you for taking my call. there was a game changing stat yesterday that addresses this, especially tom friedman's opinion, he does not have data. that is when governor cuomo rolls out a statistical report saying 66% of the people in hospitals in new york were stay-at-home people. this is a game changer and people have to wake up. he admitted that he was wrong, the news media is refusing to pick this up. he even went on to say that 90% of the people in hospitals told the researchers -- they went to

every hospital in new york the last three days and they said they never went outside of their yard. people have to wake up. the stay-at-home order is not working. host: ok, michael. our viewers, we did cover governor cuomo's briefing. all of our briefings are on our website. even the ones that may not air live and we air them later, you can find them there. the second news conference from the white house press secretary, photo in the washington post. trump reverses and says task force is set to continue indefinitely. an indication midweek that the task force may be wrapping up. here is what the president had to say in the oval office yesterday. i had no idea how untilr the task force is

yesterday when i started talking about winding it down i got quotes from very respected people saying i think it would be better to keep it going it has done such a good job. it is a respected task force. i knew it myself. i didn't know whether it was appreciated by the public that it is appreciated by the public. you look at the job we have done. the gowns, gloves, masks. you saw yesterday the masks. we were at a factory yesterday for a great company, honeywell. -- aur days they took a little under two weeks. and they a big plant converted it into masks. it is actually a complicated process. they have unbelievable equipment and they are doing millions of masks out of this factory. that took place quickly. that was because of the task

force. this happened because of people working within this administration. host: on twitter we are @cspanwj . >> -- what was the goal of the lockdown, to keep emergency rooms from overflowing -- we have never pursued the latter but it seems like we have moved to the goalposts. start opening, wear masks, keep your distance. if you decide to leave your home and interact with productive human beings -- only with strict social distancing, mandatory masks, gloves, and testing. new jersey is a deadly place and should not be reopening but there are states that are ready to reopen and they are doing so. oryour state ready to reopen loosen restrictions and has it done so already, to what level? eastern and central (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific (202)

748-8001. two bath, new york and mary. our state should stay closed and we should listen to cuomo. it is wise to watch the states that have opened and see what they are doing and how their outcome is very they said they after they -- i would rather keep us all safe and take less chances than risks. this is a biblical thing, this is a plague. usfloyd is next, calling from white cliff, ohio. go ahead. caller: good morning. i know we are in a pandemic. i am in ohio so i am not a republican but mike dewine is doing a great job. i have a problem with us being in a pandemic and they are trying to give us help with the stimulus checks, i am on disability --

child-support taste -- i am wondering why would they do that in a pandemic. it is not only men, but they are doing it to women two. women pay child support also. it is not just men. allowes the government this to happen when we are in the middle of this and some people can't work? when you can't work you can't pay child support. me being on disability and not being able to work, at least i have some income coming in. what about the people waiting to feed their kids but they can't get it because of child support taking their stimulus check? i don't know about opening up the states but i don't know what else to say. what do you do in a situation like that? some guys are waiting to see their kids -- the stimulus check goes to

government, that is not fair. host: have you heard stories like that in the last couple of weeks? caller: i am a living story. i am not telling you something i have heard. they are not getting it, it goes to child-support. you are on disability, have they maintained disability payments for you? caller: yes they have maintained disability but i didn't get a stimulus check. i/o back child support. i got custody of my kids and had to go to court. during that time i had my kids for seven years. seven years later i had to go and find out i had to file child-support -- they had child-support on me for seven years of back pay when i

had my children. floyd in ohio mentioned the governor there mike dewine. , headline from the hill republicans in ohio passed a bill wednesday that would curtail the powers of the state health director in what was largely seen as a broadside against republican governor mike dewine's response to the coronavirus pandemic. in fall river, massachusetts. this is andrew. caller: good morning. , my mind isonavirus on the last bell of the fight. everything else. -- she is in a coma on the breather and stuff. see theseke to so-called christians like mike pence and trump work in the food

and workompanies amongst the poor and the nurses -- we shouldals have opened the military supply this away to get thing cut down as quick as possible. this is our country. we are fighting over and our lives. if we don't put everything into the fight we will lose and our country will disappear. they have to do the christian thing and give it their all we are all americans. host: andrew, sorry to hear about your wife.

when did she first report symptoms and fall sick? lastr: she started thursday. and then what happened, her diabetes -- it ended up turning her diabetes haywire. they had to put a catheter in her neck to straighten out her kidneys, then she went into a coma. they had to turn her up on her stomach and put her up on a ventilator. they did that plasma infusion to see if that worked. it hasn't been good. very sorry to hear about that. (202) 748-8000 for eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 mountain and pacific.

in alexandria, minnesota, good morning. caller: i don't think our state is ready to reopen. i think our state is one of the states where the cases are getting higher and higher. i am 67 and i have been going out and doing my own shopping and running around here and there. yesterday i was out and horrified of all the people running around and not wearing masks and not staying six feet apart. from 20's toeople 40's, probably 50's and a few elderly people running around not wearing masks. it should be mandatory for people to wear a damn mask. we have opened up resorts and fishing, tourists are here. as a terrorist hub.

this is a tourist hub. our town is small. get coronavirus here they cannot treat us here. i don't know if we would go to st. cloud. .t can't be done p-ed off at that, whether they are opening up more things that is all right. if people would just take responsibility and put a mask on at least if they want to be running around. like that guy that just called, i have a nice that works for the nursing home and she has diabetes. i worry about her constantly. even in our town, our cases have gone up to a dozen in the last couple of weeks.

i don't know if nursing homes tell you where it is coming from . i wish people would be careful. to alaska, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you. host: fine thank you. how are things there? caller: where i am we are off the grid already and when they enforced the mandatory quarantine we had zero cases of covid in my town until 10 days ago. as of today we have two cases in my town of a population of 9000 harde so it has been trying to live with the virus where we have not been affected while watching everyone else be affected and impacted in such a large-scale manner. mandatory 14 day quarantine before you are allowed to come into the state,

but so many people have been impacted by secondary illnesses who have not been able to get any services either like down in the state people waking -- waiting for organ transplants or cancer treatment. all kinds of things simply because i don't think the government is on track with proper testing procedures for people out there who have not been tested or have been told they are asymptomatic. i think they should round up lab tests and send people door-to-door and have them tested to give people peace of mind instead of blaming people orthe medical profession stockpiling medical equipment. you mentioned a 14 day quarantine for people coming into the state. how does that work with tourist season coming up with wilderness adventures and people who come out and take cruises? what are the plans for that? cruise seasonly,

happens for 32 weeks out of the the where i live and it is backbone of terrorism throughout the whole state. when the mandatory enforcement went out for quarantine they canceled terrorism throughout the whole state, all the cruise lines decided they would be shut othernd i believe in the days paper they were saying that holland america pulled officially their cruise lines out of the state for the remainder of the year. host: thank you for checking in. they wereshe said pretty much off the grid, even further off the grid in the u.s. is the territory of american samoa. american samoa opting to slam shut its doors, they write the coronavirus death toll is climbing passed 70,000 with thousands of new cases every day but there is still one part of the country without a

single confirmed case, much less a fatality. the american samoa has sealed itself off for nearly two months from the outside world. theirother islands lost battle to keep the infection out, the american samoa's success has been no accident. to territory moved swiftly halt nearly all incoming flights, rapidly boosting testing capabilities, and taking advantage of social distancing stata g's that had been adopted in response to a measles outbreak. the 1918 influenza pandemic which left american samoa relatively unscathed but wiped out a fifth of the population of neighboring independent samoa has also influenced aggressive anti-contagion moves in each stage of the crisis. new york times.com is where you read that. to cooper , texas. margaret, good morning.

caller: i have been watching and i have been so frustrated with people calling in. we obviously have no leadership on this whole situation, we are on our own. we need to be smarter. people are calling in saying that people have been home for two weeks, they are coming out and testing positive. trouble,hy we are in we don't know who has it. it fromto stop spreading to each other so it does not add to the problem. i don't know why people don't get that. .e have no leadership we know who we have at the helm. we have to think for ourselves and have common sense. it is so frustrating. i moved to texas from a blue state, it's like i lost my parents all over again. it's crazy, nobody thinks for themselves.

it is groupthink and that's it. we are either going to get it or not, all we can do is prepare for this thing. i am glad i retired, i try to look out for my family and my kids. that's all i can do. thank you for verse. host: margaret in texas. the tracker for the new york times in texas. and aave reopened stay-at-home order began april 2. cases in texas flattening out and then rising as of yesterday may 6. ,here is the reopening date parks and outdoor recreation opened up, food and drink, and entertainment laces also opening up in texas. john is in manchester, connecticut. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i would like to make three points. americat one is that has really been open -- most of

us. something like 80% of people are still working. the second point i would like to make is, these people who are so gung ho on staying home and not leaving the house, i wonder if they would feel the same way if the workers in the food supply and energy supply just stayed home. how would they feel if they could not go out and find food to feed themselves? the third point, people keep saying we are on our own and it is all the government's fault. the solution to this -- if the solution to this is to stay home, what else do they want the government to do? unless and until we find a vaccine this will not go away. there is nothing politicians can do about it. it is the scientist to have to come up with some sort of a vaccine. host: marlene from west haven, connecticut. caller: hello, good morning.

i am thankful to be able to call thatday and confirmed americans are not taking this seriously enough. thankfully i live in a state where there is leadership who considers science and dr.'s opinions to base their decisions on. , where is theis collective humanity in america? of the greatest generation where people so bribe the great depression. those people collectively pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made things happen for the good of the country. i can't believe i see people out protesting against the to keepnt for rules them safe while they say blue lives matter a few months ago. now those same people are out screaming in the faces of

policemen, nurses, and doctors. and for themselves last the greater good of humanity they did their best to do their job that they are paid for, to have to face people like that, what is wrong in our country? her dad,lene mentioned part of the greatest generation. we wanted to remind you that tomorrow is ve day, 75th anniversary. acceptedn the allies's nazi germany's surrender bringing the end to hostilities in world war ii in the korean theater. known as victory in europe day. tomorrow american history tv will be marking the anniversary with a look at the lead up to the surrender on victory in europe and the meeting for europe and the rest of the world. our guest will be a pulitzer prize winner, author of the

liberation trilogy. he will be with us tomorrow morning here on washington journal. that gets underway tomorrow morning at 9:00 eastern live on c-span. we go next to johnny in tennessee. good morning. >> tennessee is doing a phased reopening, 50% capacity in restaurants and retail stores. i am pleased we are trying to reopen. we have to get this economy reopen. almost all the people that are demanding that we stay closed are people that are still drawing their salaries in getting their pensions. in a lot of countries around the world when the economy has gotten so bad the government tensions have -- pensions have had to be cut. if we have to do that in this country you will hear people howling. i am pleased president trump is doing what he is doing. he is trying to be optimistic

and hope. i think any president would be saying the same things and trying to encourage people and get the economy started back. i think we should reopen as much as possible and hopefully fully very soon. host: you can send us your thoughts by text, (202) 748-8003 . donnie in louisville says day cares and schools should open on time. doctors on tv say covid-19 does not affect kids and young teenagers like it does the older generation. -- older daycare age u.s. governors are legally responsible for the consequences of declaring all clear while people continue to get infected and die afterwards? if you are the head honcho you get the arrows, if you get it all horribly wrong. joe in rural minnesota, i agree fivethe government --

governors who stayed open do well and should be open, but most people have obeyed the rules and most of us sheltered in place and did not wear masks. we have a problem in packing plants and nursing homes. our cdc lead effort worldwide to cricketsa -- we hear from the cdc, cdc where are you. there is a story about the cdc this morning and the -- in the associated press area cdc guide to reopening the country. documentsetailed created by top disease investigators, meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders deciding when and how to reopen public places during this pandemic has been shelved by the trump administration. the17 page report by centers for disease control and prevention team titled guidance

for implementing the opening up of america was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, ajit eaters, state officials, and local officials as they begin to reopen. connecticut senator chris murphy spoke on the senate floor yesterday about what he's thought the administration could have done to ease the covid-19 pandemic. sen. murphy: members of congress told the administration we needed to appropriate dollars to make sure we had things like masks, gowns, and ventilators. they could have created a national effort to ramp up domestic production of personal protective equipment. they did not do that. the administration could have come up with a national testing plan. they could have done an early assessment of how many tests were going to be needed, taking control of the supply chain necessary to make those diagnostic machines, the cartridges that go inside of them. they did not do that.

they could have begun the work of building a national public health workforce. every expert told the administration it was not just the -- we need public health experts to trace the disease and support the quarantine. they could have put together a plan to build that workforce at the national lever or -- national level or help states build that workforce. they did not do that. they could have worked with states to create uniform standards for school and business closure, it did not have to be left to states and municipalities in individual superintendents. the end of -- the administration could have chosen to lead on the question of how and when we chose to close our economy and our school system down, but they did not do that. chico,e go to california. this is betty. i was watching laura

ingraham last night and there was a thing you should play and theis french study good outcomes in 973 patients in a peer-reviewed study. the good outcome was 91.7% cured. there is a doctor, a french doctor. and almostewed study 92% cure rate on laura ingraham last night. host: thanks for the suggestion. our line for medical professionals is (202) 748-8002. sandra from florida. caller: hi, how are you going. i have worked in plenty of hospitals, i am in florida and

there are a lot of hippies in florida. is the medical things and terminology that i will not get that serious this morning. i just need a handful of groups to leave that ash to use their common sense. helpe hospitals that i in that do not have masks and some that do have masks. we have to make judgment calls. orical professionals individuals, make a judgment call on your life. our leaders are trying to figure it out, in the meantime make your own judgment calls and take care of yourself. whether you go left or right is your choice. the your judgment call in medical field and in the streets. today, line in usa reopening despite dire models. a projection warns 466,000 deaths possible. they write that millions of italians were allowed to return to work this week after merely

two months in lockdown because of the coronavirus, children are free to play outside in spain today after the pandemic kept them indoors for six weeks. havethe states in the usa taken similar steps to loosen social distancing measures imposed to keep the virus from spreading. those hard-hit european country second and third behind the u.s. in case totals have considerably slowed the rate of infection and started to bend their respect of curves, the trajectory of u.s. cases is straight like an arrow shot into the sky. more from this usa today piece. except for notable outliers such as new york, a state that has shown a dramatic decrease in daily cases, the country in general aims to have plateaued. aly 10 states showing sustained case reduction, although some have had dwindled followed by a rise.

15 states have experienced sustained increases. to william in north carolina. caller: hello, how are you? host: good. caller: i am glad . quickly -- your leaders, your rulers, you worship death. you honor death. receive theu shall work that shall have put forth -- --ptian spirits perversion like sodom and gomorrah. we will go to willie in greenville, mississippi. caller: hello, how are you

doing? host: fine, how are you. caller: i just have a couple of things to say. is time to open the united states up just yet. if you open it up, we have another wave that is still coming. they are saying sometime in july maybe, they don't need to open it up because more people are going to die if they do. another thing -- on the stimulus, people are waiting on this money. i am looking for the people to help these people. they need this help. that's all i have to say. host: looking at mississippi on , shelter-in-place began on april 3 and expired on april 27.

governor tate reeves, a republican are loud the stay-at-home order to expire and lifted restrictions on retail stores which could reopen in limited capacity. he said the changes were not a return to normal and other businesses remained closed. here we are with a look at the cases on the rise in mississippi. mark in st. peter's, missouri. caller: thank you for taking my call. to starthat we need opening up in missouri. i think by taking precautions that we can definitely open up with minimal problems of people who are wearing masks and doing the social distancing and things like that. we cannot continue to shut down our economy. like trump said, the cure is going to be worse than the actual problem.

would like tog i point out that nobody seems to be talking about is that, if you look at the number of cases, the number of deaths that we have, i believe we have 75,000 deaths so million casesne that have been diagnosed. ton you look at it compared the total number of the population in our country, 300 million people which i believe is a low estimate. like 330e have more million or 340 million. the amount of people that have is a fraction of 1%. that means that 99% of the people in the united states are not really affected by this. to shut down our whole economy for anths and months

fraction of 1% of the population i think is absolutely crazy. >> here are those numbers worldwide from johns hopkins university. three point 7 million cases and 264,000 deaths. in the united states, one point 2 million cases and 73,431 deaths as of this morning. site alsohopkins reports on testing and recoveries. that is what the johns hopkins dashboard says. next up is patrick in louisville, kentucky. caller: good morning, sir. trying to make something positive out of this whole situation, something good out of it. when people have board dental poor dental health

they have decay in their gums and disease in their sinuses and their eustachian tubes, down in their throat and their stomach and lungs. when you get a bad cold like enhancess it probably the mortality rate. peopledental health would start treating people with -- dental health, it may be it wouldn't be so bad. when a person gets the virus they might have the constitution in their body to fight the virus. i think there should be a study when people get the virus to see if they have poor dental health. just to maybe point to the fact

that what i'm saying may or may not be true. of course in kentucky they are not going to open up kentucky. they are going to still want you to do the masks and the six feet , being six feet away. they should do something about the economy. of course the health is more important. host: following on those comments about dental health, a related story in the wall street journal of business. cvs reports a non-virus health crisis. they report a pending surge in medical problems unrelated to the coronavirus. americans suggests are delaying routine health care during the pandemic. cvs which owns insurance giant aetna said they received you were prescriptions as many have started fewer new treatments and doctors less frequently, a

concern for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease that can lead to costly hospitalizations when not treated consistently. meantime, store and prescription sales following a pandemic driven surge in business earlier in the year. we will hear from richard in massachusetts, welcome. i think governor baker should loosen up the restrictions. [indiscernible] go into a store or some public place. i saw thing on the tv last night. she was the head of the -- 25 to 30% of the people have built up

immune systems since they -- loosened up the restrictions -- [indiscernible] just getting too much now. my governor says you have to wear a mask now. it is getting ridiculous. [indiscernible] a lot of these are corona deaths, don't tell me they are. my friend died in a nursing home three weeks ago and they say he died from corona, he didn't. i found out he died from pneumonia. a lot of these cases, everyone at the nursing home they say it's corona if they have a heart attack -- host: richard, you said your friend died?

caller: he was 74 in a nursing home. the: pneumonia is one of symptoms of covid-19. caller: yeah. they said it was because of that. pneumonia, i have had pneumonia. my mother died from pneumonia. virusends off you get pneumonia or bacteria. host: it has been a historic week in washington for reasons other than the hand deming, the supreme court for the first time providing oral arguments live to media outlets and the public. we streamed the first four cases this week. yesterday, back to back cases. reporting on one of those cases this morning in the washington post. the high court ways birth control access. the supreme court struggled with

how to ensure access to birth control at no cost for women while respecting the religious beliefs of employers who say providing contraceptive coverage violates their faith. overis the latest dispute the expansion of health care benefits for women under the audible care act and pits religious liberty against a women's right for health care. this argument marked the third time the court considered the contraceptive coverage requirement, the first time since conservative justices neil gorsuch and brett kavanaugh joined the bench. the cases that we covered this week, the live oral arguments are available on our website. you can go right to the homepage and it will take you to our supreme court page with six additional cases set to be teleconference. we will carry all of those live and have discussion afterwards with our partners at the national constitution center.

we return to your calls. we go to sharon. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. the comment i wanted to make, my state, oregon, she closed down the schools really quickly. if you look at our numbers, ours our fairly low ash hours are fairly low. -- fairly ferry low. that was very effective because our numbers are very low. the thing that concerns me is they are starting to talk about opening up, which i understand and can agree with. eventually we have to open up. at the same time the federal government, especially under the leadership of our president is saying we need to open up but at the same time they are saying not to wear masks. that is one of the major steps that would allow places to open

up, is if we use safe haven year. if we get this dichotomy of we have to open up, but we want to the open up like it was if virus disappeared, but it has not disappeared, it is there. i think this is a very dangerous message we are getting from the him touringseeing plants without a mask. that's what i'm seeing in the stores. two weeks ago when i went for groceries, or a week ago, masks everywhere. i went out this week and i am seeing a lot more people not wearing them. i truly think people do look to the top and they emulate that behavior. quite frankly, if you want to open up than they should be stressing everybody wearing masks. there is a safe way to

open, but i think they are also ignoring the cdc. the cdc put out a 17 page report last week and the government did not like the recommendation, the president did not. so he said to can it, hide it. the first time the cdc has put out a report on a major pandemic or situation and it has been totally ignored. we don't want it out there or in the news. the cdc are the people who are the experts, the scientists. they know the methodology that will allow us to open up and open up safely. this is concerning to me. the last thing i want to say, my dad fought in world war ii. dad talked about rations and how they had to pull together. saytimes when i hear people

it is just like the stock market , i wonder if we had faced hitler's with this generation if we would have pulled together the way my parents did or would we would have said our creature comforts are so much more important than our fellow man. we went from 60,000 deaths last weekend we are at 75,000. that is 15,000 americans that we know of that are dead in one week. those are human beings. pam ine go to burlington, north carolina. caller: namaste to the lady that just called. she is great. i think north carolina could open. we are starting to a little bit. said, i went she out yesterday to pick up a few things and less people are wearing masks.

said her view was it comes from the top. caller: i totally agree. angered this whole time. remember joe biden coming out and warning us in january. yet, not the president, but i think that the way it has 45 that peopleby are not taking as seriously as they would if he had. and if he would. he is so concerned about the way he looks for his poll numbers or -- iconomy that he is not

don't think he has a handle on reality. minutes,ut five more asking you if your state is ready to loosen restrictions or has it loosened restrictions? no, west virginia is not ready but that is not stopping the governor from moving ahead even though up to last week he was doing a commendable job. as of yesterday cases and deaths are on the rise. haveutheast texas, they been masks, social distancing and cities, small towns are not doing this, they are defiant. states should reopen at their own peril against the advice of the most credible old doctors and scientists. -- i hope and pray this would not be too late for america. that is misty in ohio. this one from sean in the bronx. a spike in new york, but going

down overall, we should stay quarantined. major reason, most people at home are reported to have cases because it is so hard to get tested. that is sean in the bronx. andrew cuomo told reporters he was surprised by some of the data coming out. the people came from nursing homes and less than 1% came from jail or prison. from other congregant facilities. 66% of the people were at home which is shocking to us. disproportionately older, but by the way older starts at 51 years old. i am a little sensitive on this point. ,f older starts at 51 years old that is a large number of us old state in this country.

that whole vulnerable population being old, old is now 51 and up. think about that. , 20% 70 to 8019%. 51 years old is old. then i am very old. transportation method to, we thought maybe they were taking public transportation. we have taken special precautions on public transportation. but actually no, these people were literally at home. 2% are car services, 9% were driving their own vehicle. only 4% taking public transportation. host: looking at the shut down in new york and the coronavirus numbers, stay-at-home went into effect march 22 set to expire may 16. the governor has become a national player in the handling of the out rake.

the upstate reopening as soon as mid-may. he did not speculate about when restrictions would be eased in new york city and surrounding suburbs which would be hardest hit by the virus. lewis is next in salisbury, north carolina. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. my understanding is that the government passed out money for employers to pay or keep employees on payroll, that means for them to stay closed and they pay their workers. what happened to that money if the employees have to go back to work, in a condition that we know is working, but i guess we know it is the greed of america that they feel as though they have to have the economy running. the economy can't run when people are dying constantly. peoples have -- places have to

close back down. i want to let african americans, people of color and even some european americans, continue to wear your masks and do your six feet, where your gloves. they are telling us now that this government is trying to stop some of the scientists from even testifying in congress. if this thing is about to explode, he is trying to keep the information from the american people. this president dropped the ball and is mad at america. amenda tried to impeach at the same time when all this is going on while he was getting impeached, he knew this was coming down the pipeline. he was mad at america's people. you can open up all the businesses that you want, you will still not get my dollar and less you are online. the nihe follow-up to

director testifying this morning before the senate health committee live on c-span. caller: hello, yeah. we are getting ready to open parts of the state but colorado is kind of special. i am curious about a couple of things. or, we really need reporters on theeckers to come on coverage being bear. that is not truth, that is a lie. he said multiple times a day. protesters all trump supporters? gentleman in colorado protesting a trump supporter and --y found three pipe bombs he was going to the state capital to protest. that is five blocks from my house.

host: more of your comments ahead. up next, we will be joined by richard hunt was president of the consumer bankers association. we will be talking about consumer and small business loans during the pandemic. later on, we take a look at the racial disparities of the pandemic with dr. james hildreth, president and ceo of meharry medical college. first up, health care access came up during the senate hearing. justice walker is seeking a lifetime appointment. here is a portion of that. [video clip] >> the problem we have is that we expect of our judges honesty, humility, and impartiality. you have not been the least bit impartial when it comes to the affordable care act. legal or constitutional contempt is obvious.

upholding the affordable care act is indefensible, your own words. you mocked it. you mocked the moment justice kennedy was told the rationale for the case. now we are in the midst of a pandemic where the question is being asked by everyone, can i protect myself? can i protect my family if i have to face this virus? faceis a question people many times each day and here you come before us asking for a lifetime appointment to the second highest court in the land having mocked the law that basically provides an attempt to extend health insurance to more americans. do you understand the angst? do you understand the concern we have to put you in that position at this moment in history? >> senator, if i could speak personally for a moment.

i know your time is limited. old my momtwo years had breast cancer. she is a breast cancer survivor. she has survived heart surgery, neurosurgery, i thank god every day she was able to get the medical care she needed and i very much hope every american is able to get the medical care they need. as a judge, it is not my job to define policy. it is my job to go where the law leads. with regard to what you said about integrity, independence, and judicial temperament, i think that question goes to why the american bar association said they were giving me their highest rating yesterday. >> i have got a way to resolve this problem. let me ask if you will consider doing this and put our minds at

rest. in light of your public comments about the affordable care act, would you commit to recuse involvingrom any case the affordable care act? >> section 28 outlines when a judge should or should not recuse from a case and i pledge to you today to follow that statute to the letter. i would also consult with my colleagues on the d.c. circuit judge and the ao. there is a long tradition of judicial nominees not making a promise on whether to recuse. a judge has to take every case with an open mind and a decision to recuse a case is a decision about the case. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: we welcome richard hunt who is president and ceo of the

consumer bankers association. journal." "washington ofst: i have been a fan the show for many years. host: tell us who you represent. guest: we have been in existence for 100 years. we work with the leading retail banks to finance the consumer and small business persons. we started this 100 years ago. arthur j morris was the first banker in the country who provided credit to small businesses and individuals. before that, individuals could not get credit from a bank. are a bank above $10 billion. we represent 70 of those in the

vast majority are over $10 billion. webster bank to iberian bank all the way to the bank of hawaii and we represent the fourth-largest retail bank in the country, bank of america, citi, chase, and wells fargo. host: you have been the head of the cba since the 2008 financial crisis. shape,is started to take did you have a flashback of how things went in 2008? yeah, i was in the financial services industry in 2001 during 9/11. our banking industry is a night and day difference than it was in 2008. it is our duty to lead small

business and individuals out of this crisis. we are much more better capitalized for liquidity, we are ready to serve the consumers to the extent we can. i have been very proud of this industry over the last month and a half. 24/7ng around the clock, to process over 3.5 million loans to small businesses in need. though small businesses are our customers, our friends, they are the backbone of america and we are here for them. host: i understand you were in a meeting with president trump early on in march along with other executives and it was a wake-up call for you in terms of what might be ahead. briefly tell us about the meeting and what you heard from the president that raised concerns. guest: you all remember the significant points of your life. i remember where i was in 2008

when i realized the crisis was real. 11 being in the white house with the ceos and other dignitaries. i remember the president walking into the cabinet room, sitting down and saying, some people believe the situation is more serious than they first thought and that is where i was first introduced to dr. birx and dr. fauci as well. they gave a rundown of what was transpiring in the country. i remember coming back to headquarters and thinking, ok, the world is changing once again. we are going to start working from home friday. i think we were one of the first to do such and we have been working from home since then. we knew the entire landscape of the country, at least temporarily, would be much different than it is today. i think banking will be much different when we get to the other side of the virus. host: tell us about your role in

helping congress craftily for small businesses via the financial industry. what was your role? how much has congress provided in terms of loans for small businesses and consumers? guest: when we started during the crisis with the cares act we provided instrumental feedback to the programs they were thinking about instituting through marco rubio. what could work and what would not work. the number one criteria was to get money into the hands of small businesses asap and we knew there could be mistakes being made but we wanted to limit the number of mistakes that would have to to happen. $510 billion has been earmarked for small businesses through the administration and

to put this into perspective, ordinarily this program would take a year to implement. we did not have a year, we had days and weeks. cba would fund $20 billion of loans over an entire year. tove gone from $20 billion $510 billion in a short time. loans to over 3.5 million loans in about four weeks. our banks have been working around the clock. this has been a great effort by everyone in the banking industry from small community banks, to regional banks, to large banks, in partnership with sba and small businesses. this is america at its best coming together in a time of crisis. host: give us a definition --

your definition -- of a small business in the range of loans we are typically seeing under the program. guest: under this program you have to have 500 or fewer employees. there are other exemptions congress allows like larger restaurants and hotels that have been in the news but it is typically businesses under 500 employees. most of our loans have been two people with 10 or fewer employees. there were 30 million small businesses in operation today, most have a mom-and-pop shop of three or less. my two sisters down-home in louisiana have been in business for over 30 years each. they have fewer than five full-time employees and both are in a quagmire with the oil and gas industry and the coronavirus. they desperately needed help. through the payroll protection

program, the ppp, we are able to help about 30 million jobs. host: richard hunt is our guest. president and ceo of the consumer bankers association talking about the ppp, small businesses, how you have been affected by the pandemic and those business loans which will talk more about. for eastern and central, (202-748-8001) mountain and pacific, and if you are a small business owner would like to hear from you. if you have been able to get a loan through the program, (202-748-8002). were you concerned the small business administration, the government side, would not be able to handle the vast amount of requests for funding? guest: absolutely and we have seen that come through. a veryhis has been knew we program, we

were not sure they had the capability, the infrastructure, the manpower to handle this type of program. they were assisted by the treasury as well but there has been work. there have been false starts. i have been disappointed during the process as well getting the rules sometimes after the start of the process. night as we roll into the fourth week but it has been a terrific effort by everyone. ll the agencies i would pick, sba would not have been front and center but they are doing a terrific job trying the best they can to get the systems out. it is totally different than it was with the stimulus package where the checks went from the government into the accounts of individuals through direct deposit or checks. they placed banks as the

middleman. the consumer had to go to the bank and get the application sba,ved, submitted to the they faxed it to the bank, and the bank back to the small business person. host: there were problems with the system, the ppp system crashed. how was that resolved and did you expect the initial wave to be so great? guest: yes, we did expect the was $350ocation -- it billion and we knew there were many small businesses hurting. loans. out 1.6 million effort to aculean program. congress was going to have to appropriate more money for the second round. the second round has not finished yet. there are some $100 billion

still left in the ppp account. if you are watching this morning and you are are a small business who has been affected, please 5300ct one of the vendors listed on the website. let us help you get your feet back up and running, your business up and running. we are here to serve. we can help one million more small businesses throughout this country. host: before the second round, cba releasing information on the total dollars. 100 sunday $5 million and a million of figure and the lenders with less than $10 billion in assets, they have provided 32%.

those are your regional, community banks providing the loans correct? of the funding came from banks over $10 billion. that is because we are handling thousands and thousands of or 100.ot just 10 the community banks have done a terrific job in this process. it is easier to process 10 loans then 200,000 loans such as the larger banks are doing. again, full credit to all banks across the country but i am very 69%d of the cba providing of all funding. host: our line for those of you who are owners, whether or not you have applied for a loan, is (202-748-8002). eastern and central (202-748-8000), mountain and

pacific (202-748-8001). there was a piece in the wall street journal that said states with big cities now getting bigger share of small business aid. the new data shows states with larger urban centers, including california and new jersey, received a larger portion of the small business relief fund last week reversing an initial trend that saw midwestern states like nebraska getting a disproportionate share. why do you think that is? guest: when the first round started, people throughout the rural areas went to community banks first and foremost a nd received a large portion. the larger banks were getting up and going. again, this would normally take one year to implement but we did this overnight. in the second round that is why you see california, new york, new jersey getting some more loans.

i think this has been good. i think you have to look at the totality but the bottom line is we want to make sure every single small business person who has been affected by the virus, who is eligible and qualified, can receive assistance through the paycheck protection program. it is incumbent upon the banks to do a patriotic duty. it is incumbent upon the federal government to make sure the program is funded and incumbent upon small business persons to make sure they fill out the application correctly with proper documentation. this should be a win-win for all parties. availablesba people to walk business owners through the process? guest: yes. andgo to the bank's website download the application. you could submit that via online to the bank. the bank would do some type of underwriting.

if a customer is already a member, it will be less of a time turnaround to provide the underwriting. itself should not take very long. it should take 20 minutes and make sure you have documentation to verify your payroll and submit that to the bank if they need it. it is one of the easiest processes i have seen for a small business person to get a loan. usually it takes anywhere from one month to two months to get a loan. in this instance, the application is very simple to fill out. just make sure you have verification as much as possible so the bank can quickly underwrite it and submit it. host: the program is meant for small businesses with fewer than 500 employees and lends up to two months. they are fully forgiven if they are used for 75% of payroll

cost, interest on mortgages, rent, utilities, and self-employed and contract workers are eligible. over $2.2 million in loans approved. on the contract workers and self-employed, do you know what percentage of those loans make up the total? host: my estimate is probably around 10%. the vast majority are banks providing loans to small businesses of 10 or fewer individuals. independent contractors were not allowed to participate in the program until the second round. to vast majority went regular small businesses under 10 employees. host: let's go to the small business owners line. timothy in pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a self-employed contractor and do not have employees, just

my wife and i, and we went on website and apply for assistance right away. sayingnt us in email they would get to it in 10 days and gives $10,000 to get us through. i did not get that. the money ran out so i got an email later on saying they were going to work on it again. i still have not heard any. customers whove want me to get to work on their projects. i guess governor wolf said it is ok if we go back to work as private contractors at this point. will they still look at my application? should i expect to maybe get some money to help me through? guest: we hope you get back to work very soon. we need all of america to get back to work at the appropriate

time but i would say please contact your bank once again. there is surely enough money in the paycheck protection program to fund small businesses and proprietors like yourself. i was sick about your bank, see where the application is, and i hope you can get funded soon. host: georgia is next in new jersey. caller: good morning, great show. going to the small businesses than the employees right? guest: if a small business owner wants the loan forgiven, 75% must go to payroll expenses. then the owner will reapply for forgiveness. we are hoping small business owners across the country will spend the money as intended, to protect the paycheck. that is why it was deemed the

paycheck protection program and that loan can be forgiven. employees,sed to pay it will be forgiven. caller: i have one more question. host: go ahead. caller: the people that save the money at the bank's are bailing out the banks -- the big banks -- they got theirs long ago. the banks were meant to hold our money and give us money are now getting the lion share from play monopoly and losing it continuously. we bail them out continuously. is anybody going to wake up and realize we are being robbed hand over fist by banks we are supposed to be just holding money for us? can we wake up to the fact that model has to go? we cannot keep bailing out banks for trillions of dollars. host: any response? guest: thank you for the question. we are the middleman in the

paycheck protection program. our only goal for the last four weeks has been getting money into the hands of the small business person who is trying to keep their employee. that is all there is to it. we are getting no government assistance from the federal government. our number one goal is to get money into the hands of small businesses. i understand your question. ystem is a night and day difference from 2008. we will take responsibility for that. we are trying to lead the way back to a better economy. we want to do nothing more than help every single small business who has been affected by this virus. i appreciate your question. host: richard, the program lends two months of program cost. when does that kick in? once the loan is approved, once money arrives to the business? guest: as soon as the money arrives into your account you

have eight weeks to spend the money, rehiring people, retaining personnel. it is a full two months of wages for you. we understand some people are not back up and running but you can still have an employee on your books even though your restaurant or local business barbershop is not up and running. host: sheila in florence, mississippi. go ahead. i am really frustrated right now because i have a small business. i applied for the loan myself being the own employee that received 1099. i was tracked down by my bank frustrated -- i own a salon also. i applied for that through the

sba and i received an id number. i have not received anything. my business has remained closed callwo months and when i most of the people i do business with at the bank, most of them cannot tell me what i need to do to proceed. nows very frustrating right and to see all of these trillions of dollars go out -- you know, i am not getting the help. host: i just want to be clear, you have applied for the loan and were turned down. caller: i was turned down. they said i had a lawson business. host: i'm going to let you go and hear from our guest. guest: i am very sorry to hear what you're going through. i know these are tough times. my suggestion is to go back to

your bank, make sure you have the proper documentation to verify payroll wages and keep trying. over $100 billion left in the ppp program for people like sheila to be helped. please go back to the bank, reapply, and trying get that loan. host: have the banks been hampered by the fact some of their employees cannot show up and are working remotely or elsewhere? guest: we have got hundreds of thousands of employees dislocated because of the virus. many of them are working from home doing underwriting. we transferred people from other divisions of the bank to the small business division just for the reason to underwrite loans. many of our branches are closed because of the virus, drive-through windows are mostly open but sure, the virus has

affected the banking industry just like every industry. heights,rry in chicago illinois. loanr: i did receive a ppp but it does not cover my 1099 employees which i have seven. i was wondering if there is a loan for that? to get thetried disaster loan which is not done through the banks but the sba directly. they were out of money. are they going to have legislation for more money through the economic/injury disaster loan? i know you talked to a gentleman earlier and it sounded like he was confused between the two programs. maybe you want to explain that. host: thanks. guest: the sba has several programs.

has not beenloan refunded yet. agro only open to businesses right now. loan.apply for the ppp you cannot use both in the next four weeks without having an offset. but there are different programs that will be available in addition to the ppp loan. unemployment insurance is available for many who cannot get the programs. ee encourage everyone to us the loans. 1099 employees are not part of the program. this is for people who have general employees, not independent contractors. host: those employees can be full-time or part-time correct?

guest: that is correct. arry a smalls b business owner from buffalo grove, illinois. caller: i am a self-employed individual but never officially opened a bank account. i just use my savings and checking. i was turned down because the only proof i have -- since that is mostly cash or check i received from my customers -- i have been turned down. is there anyway i can get through this phase? guest: 1099 employees are eligible for the paycheck protection program they cannot just apply three small business. you have to apply on your own to a bank. we have 5300 lenders and i would go back to a bank or even a credit union and reapply. disasterharmed by the

so i think you have a pretty good opportunity to fix that. some banks mask for more background material and you should be prepared with receipts from customers. but that is the intent of the ppe program. we help all small businesses whether they are small contractors, small businesses, or independent. please go back to those lenders and trying get your loan. asks,a text from kathy please advise what u.s. banks receive a fee for providing loans but european banks have lower fee for doing this and think. who came up with these? guest: congress did. 1%, 3%, summerat at 5% to reimburse the banks for processing.

i really believe at the end of the day the banks who make very little or nothing at all. several have already made the decision to take the proceeds, if any, and donate them to charity. many of them to their own foundations. by the time we add up all the new processes having to pay vendors, overtime work, or bankers to work through the night, i do not see banks making very much money. that's fine, that's ok. that is not what we are intending to do. the number one priority is to help small businesses get back on their feet. this is not a money making effort from the banks. this is something congress set up. in north's go to kathy carolina. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am a small business owner and have a commercial cleaning service. i specialize in cleaning

restaurants. i was very blessed. i was working out of new york, came home and my husband got sick. where do i go to reactivate my business and now the restaurants are closed so i cannot put my kids back to work. i have about five employees. i was going to 1099. i just started my business last inr -- actually, 2018 december -- so i have not had an opportunity to file and this came up. where do i go to help my staff? what do i do? guest: i hope your family is safe and healthy. our prayers are with you. i think you said you are from new york state. host: north carolina. guest: north carolina, i'm sorry. your sbao back to regional office and go back to

the state office to reinstate your small business operation. i hope you can get back on your feet. host: now we go to new york. rosemary, welcome. are you there? we lost her. is all hear from tanya who small business owner in hamlet, north carolina. make sure you meet your audio. husband owns a barbershop and we applied for gottenl loan and had not or heard anything. he does not have any employees in his barbershop. two answers to that. make sure you look at your application and submitted it before funding ran out.

two, i would look into the paycheck protection program. that is also for people who are self employed. we have more than enough money to handle one million more loans. sba and you can get the ppp. host: let me get a response to a piece. small business is counting on loan forgiveness could be stuck with debt. with thousands of businesses preparing to ask for loans to be forgiven, thanks some borrowers are beginning to realize how complicated the program may turn out to be. they are pushing the treasury department which is overseeing the fund to make forgiveness requirements easier to use. can you tell us more? guest: that would be terrific. anything we can get from sba to make it clearer, simpler for the borrower would be terrific.

we help every loan is forgiven. we hope everyone will use 75% of the proceeds to pay employees. that would be helpful if we could get progress from sba. we want to make sure the borrower has clear rules of the road and make sure they can get full forgiveness. i am hoping 100% of all loans become forgivable at the end of the day. host: a quick look at economic news. the labor department has 3.2 unemployment claims pushing past the total estimated number of jobs lost. florida with val. caller: good morning. we went to our bank and try to apply for a ppp loan and they rejected us. they say they do not handle

that. we do not know what bank would offer that? the larger bank says no. where do we go to find banks that do not give us the loan? where do we go? guest: thank you for the question. sba.gov, sba website, and you will see a list of vendors who are participating in the program. i am pretty sure there are several institutions, many with in a two mile radius of your residence or small business, that would be glad to help you with the application. host: richard hunt is president and ceo of the consumer bankers association. we really appreciate you joining us. guest: thank you very much. i need to give a shout out to my mother in louisiana who turns 86 today. she was the first responder i have ever met. she was a nurse for over 35 years, an emergency room nurse.

we give about 15,000 hugs a day. my mom has not received a hug in six weeks so mom, happy birthday, i love you, a big hug. host: thank you so much and happy birthday to your mom. more calls ahead on "washington journal" asking if your state is ready to reopen. we will also be joined in a little bit by dr. james hildreth from the meharry medical college in nashville. we are taking a little bit closer look at disparities, racial disparities, of the pandemic. more from the committee hearing on the covid-19 response. here is an exchange. [video clip] it was dr. fauci who said, how many deaths and how much

suffering are we willing to accept if you want to get back to some sense of normalcy? sense of what is acceptable in terms of deaths or suffering to be able to get back to normalcy? >> i think we need to continue to prioritize public health. we have seen several other countries have regained control of the uprights. south korea, singapore, australia and we can do that too. it is going to be difficult and take a lot of investment but that option remains open. ensure we protect our health care workers and other essential workers. they are not making a choice. they are doing their duty in protecting and providing essential services and we have to do everything possible to keep them safe. we have to pay particular attention to the most vulnerable

like nursing homes, large facilities, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, large factories were many are working together where we could see explosive spread that could not only because a lot of suffering and death but seed infection elsewhere. is, is that the criteria? how much death are we willing to accept? >> i think this is a balance. we need to reopen so we can restart important medical care. we need to reopen for our economy but we need to do that anyway that is careful and does not risk an explosion of cases that sends back into our homes. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: with 20 more minutes of phone calls. whether your state is ready to , forn, has it reopened east and central time zones (202-748-8000), mountain and

pacific (202-748-8001). a profound danger, experts warn against reopening amid covid-19 pandemic. more than 40 states will have reopened the economies in some capacity by the weekend. backed by president trump's urging to become warriors and fight covid-19 not by sheltering but by leaving their homes. as images circulate of sunbathers returning to beaches, revelers enjoying cinco de mayo, and armed protesters demand to open businesses, health experts presented lawmakers with their own picture of what the immediate future should look like. "it is clear to me we are at a critical moment of this fight." that is what caitlin rivers told the preparation committee. we covered that and go to mark next in new jersey. good morning.

caller: good morning. i totally support governor murphy's move to keep the shut down in new jersey because of the spread of the virus is terrible. peopleot support the moving around the state and affecting the smoke amenities. the small communities are very vulnerable. we cannot be exposed to this virus. it is terrible. i support governor murphy and i wait for an answer. thank you. host: also in new jersey is jerry. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling because new jersey

is still closed. my daughter-in-law is a bartender and a cosmetologist. seven weeks unemployed and still no money, no money, known employment, no $600 check. i understand new jersey is supposed to be backlogged and have no money. how do these people get unemployment? by the way, she paid into it so i am not understanding the delay. she has tried everything. phone calls, websites, you name it she has gone on it and no help at all. i can't imagine and then i heard a man who was been out of work several weeks has a children and a wife. what do these people do? can somebody help them? i just heard the previous caller, people are dying being locked into nursing homes! nursing homes, hospitals,

rehabs, people are dying. closing the country is not helping nothing. open your eyes! it is not because the countries closed. the people are dying anyway. host: here's what the new york times reports on new jersey and what this day at home order is. state parks and golf courses have been reopened but not much else in the arc of the trapping of coronavirus cases. the state is still under a shutdown. mike is in north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. --hink -- personal opinion north carolina is ready to get back to work. unfortunately, we have a democrat governor who disagrees with that. enter whatdy to

would be considered stage one or stage two this coming friday. the governor came out wednesday and arbitrarily extended it for two weeks. north carolina has 11 million people. we have had 400 deaths. they are all tragic, let's be clear, but 400 deaths in a state of 11 million. we are naturally spread out down here. we do not live like new yorkers and that is not a slam in new york, it is what it is. but since the media machine at this country is based in new york, i cannot help but thinking -- they areal bias left-leaning to begin with -- and the fact they see such tragedy unfolding around them, it taints their view of the rest of the country. it is tragic what is going on

but a lot is self-inflicted. they live stacked on top of one another, they ride public transportation that is not as clean as it should be, it is a sanctuary city and state. i have not heard one time being mentioned the fact there are thousands -- and this has gone on for decades -- it is not a slam. they made these choices. there are thousands of illegal chinese nationals working in sweatshops all over that city. host: we will continue with your phone calls momentarily on c-span. as we have been doing over the course of the pandemic, we check in with members of congress. we are joined by maryland senator chris van hollen. welcome. guest: good to be with you. host: we have been talking about states reopening and started off that the state of maryland

loosening some of restrictions. what is your observation of how things have gone in your state so far? i think things are proceeding as they should. we are still a hotspot. when i say proceeding as we should, i mean in terms of governor's actions. we have not entered phase one. we have not seen enough of a consistent decline in cases but the governor did open up some of the area. fishing, some tennis, sports where people are spread out. i thought that was an appropriate move. some elected surgeries resumed but in maryland the problem remains as it doesn't so many other states -- we do not have adequate testing to safely reopen in the next phases.

abilitylly requires an to test rapidly on a wide scale system so you can quickly detect an outbreak. you want to make sure you want to find a flareup, isolated, trace it. otherwise, your campfire becomes a bonfire. you want to make sure it does not make that leap. testing is essential for that. i wrote to the president with other senators yesterday urging him to make better use of title iii of the defense production act. he has the authority to do it. thesed to be producing elements for the testing at home right now. host: why do you suppose there has been reluctance to use the defense production act? guest: well, it is a mystery to me. tool andery important

especially the provision within the dpa we referenced. this is a provision that allows the government to fully companies any directed to produce needed supplies. there may have been some who to tell a private company we need to have you produce this for national purpose but if you deploy title iii, you can provide loan guarantees, guaranteed purchase agreements. i could understand if a company is concerned if it is asked to abs, it might have a surplus with nothing to do. the government can enter a contract saying we guarantee we purchase those. we ask you to make them, we guarantee will not take a loss. that is what we need right now. we need the president to put the

pedal to the metal on everybody who wants to reopen. that is the way to do it. host: i want to ask you about the next potential round of federal aid. the president calling for payroll tax cuts. republicans seek tax cuts in next coronavirus bill. what you think of that? what do democrats want to see in that legislation and how soon do you think that legislation will be developed and debated? guest: first of all, we need to make sure the states are getting all the money out that we have already provided in the federal agencies are getting all the money out we have already provided. i heard the caller before i got on talking about unemployment insurance. we are having that same problem here in maryland. lastomputer system failed friday. it is still getting up and running.

one of the biggest pieces of the cares act was making sure people who are unemployed get that additional $600 per week and people who are not normally eligible are now qualifying. once they get through the system they will get that $600 going back to the time they became eligible but in the meantime, we need to get those resources out. even on top of everything we have done i think some of the major issues that need to be are emergency responders because we are hearing from state and local governments that budgets are drying up. the last thing we need is for state and local governments to have to cut back on essential services. that needs to be a big piece of this. we can look at other pieces. i don't think -- republicans always tend to want to do tax

cuts for big corporations and wealthy people. that does not seem to me the direction we are going to go with the payroll tax cut. there has been bipartisan concern about that issue at this particular point in time. i think we all need to, as quickly as possible, come together. we need to get those additional funds out to help first responders and make sure they can be paid. hollenenator chris van joining us this morning. thank you for being here and good luck. guest: good to be with you. thanks. host: back to your calls and comments of until 9:00. is your state ready to reopen? has a reopened? we go to harris in michigan. thank you for waiting. caller: good morning. i hope everybody is staying safe

and thank youme to our people on the front line. i am a democrat but i think we have to get the country back open up. even though our government has extended until the end of the doing a think she's good job and explain it. we slowly have to get the country back to work and i hate to say it but the strong survive. until we get a cure for this -- host: moses is next in new jersey. caller: this is moses from new jersey. host: yes, sir. caller: they should be opening businesses up. you can look over at new york

and some stores are open. subways, home depot, other businesses are closed. you should be able to get your car washed but the governor should open the city. we are ready to open. ready.ld be host: moses, what line of work are you in? caller: i am retired now. they still have the shutdown in new jersey. host: we hear from connie in brooklyn, wisconsin. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: this is a tough situation for everybody. i cannot express enough of what is going on. i am in my 70's and am doing everything i can to prevent from getting the virus. i think the gentleman you had on a couple before talked about if -- they only 500

had 400 sick. i think you have to look at the whole picture. in other words, what is stopping it from getting bad in some states is people are working hard at staying home, trying to avoid getting the virus. that is a good thing. the sad thing is the fact that a lot of places have closed, a lot of people are hurting for money, they are hurting for food, and you can see the pressure these different governors have to make. the decision they have to make and i sympathize. i feel so bad watching this i am a world war ii baby and we had to go without a lot up doess but this far anything we have had to do in the past. closing down, people losing

businesses, i feel for all of them. i understand what they are going through and this is a tough decision. what to open? who should open? but they are also worried about the death rate. host: thank you for calling in. mike pompeo had a briefing yesterday. as exploitss role failure. the secretary of state vowed to use every tool available to secure the release of to a two military veteran . denies that washington supported the plans. the questions about the incident only deepened wednesday as state television in venezuela broadcasted a video of one of the captives, identified as a special forces fighter, saying he was part of a mission organized by florida private security firm to remove

socialist president. addressingry also his comments about the origin of the virus. here's what he had to say. [video clip] >> we don't have certainty and there is significant evidence this came from a laboratory. though statement could be true. i have made them both. they are all truth. focus on the most important piece. the most important piece is that the american people remain at risk. the american people remain at risk because we do not know -- to your point, we do not have certainty whether it began in the lab or someplace else. there is an easy way to find out the answer -- trans princi. parency. when people really want to participate in the things that keep human being safe. we will continue to work on that.

we will continue to get more certainty and i hope we get an answer were patient zero began. i hope we get even more evidence about where it came from and when we do, we will make that clear as well. host: we hear next from sharon in florida. caller: hello. my name is sharon and i'm giving to suggestions i think could be very helpful and applies to human nature. rebels and doare not follow the rules. 75% of people do but we all compose that 100%. i would like the government to hand out hand sanitizers to everyone so that come as you go through your day and touch something, you use the hand sanitizer. cvs and walgreens have run out so if it is applied by the government, we would all be required to do this. the second idea is similar to masks.

the deal is if you fail to wear your mask, you are fined and the penalty for not wearing it the second time if you lose your unemployment. there is a heavy stick. that is what is missing. thank you. host: gulf shores, alabama this is amy. caller: good morning. -- restrictions. they have done a very good job. they have opened the beaches and the social was amazing. the restaurant i still do not think need to be open but they are doing curb service. we have not had our two weeks of reduction in cases and they are doing a great job waiting for that. i am very pleased. the retail stores, i could not even get into one. she came outside and said,

ma'am, we have a limit on people inside. i did window shopping. host: are they limiting people in those stores? caller: absolutely. 25% of their normal capacity and someone is at the door checking. host: great to hear from you. more ahead on washington journal. we will take a closer look at the racial disparities in the coronavirus pandemic with the president and ceo of meharry medical college in nashville, tennessee. first up, the commerce committee yesterday held a hearing on how the pandemic is affecting the airline, the aviation industry. here is part of that. [video clip] >> thus far, has the assistance provided by the cares act achieved its objective in preventing the mass layoffs of hundreds of thousands of workers? are you able to quantify how

many airline workers have had their jobs preserved by the cares act? mr. chairman, the cares act is working. the jobs have been preserved. they are preserved through september 30 of this year. as i sit in my comments, the cares act provided a bridge and gave us breathing room and provided much-needed liquidity. it had a very good side effect in that it opened up the private tokets for some carriers pump up their liquidity. all of it is intended to try to keep employees. i referenced how many new employers we hide in the last years. we invested that money. we have good relationships with our employees. every day is not perfect but we value our employees because they are the backbone of our industry. the last thing i want to do is lose them. we are in a difficult situation.

we are fighting for survival. we need our employees. as we all know, in the airline industry there are certifications involved so keeping employees on will speed any ramp up we have later on. >> ok. the payroll support program. let's talk about that. andas oversubscribed opposed the treasury to support a haircut. wee you surprised by this? fundingncerns that the might not be sufficient for mass layoffs after september and until the industry generally recovers. congress included $29 billion in economic stabilization. you mentioned that private sources of liquidity had come

available and i am glad that whatever we did might have helped. do you leave that a combination assistance together with loans and private sources will be enough to sustain employment after the end of this fiscal year? >> our members are doing everything we can to ensure the greatest level of employment possible. we were dismayed by the haircut. one thing that needs to be pointed out his we took the position that we would keep everyone until september 30. that is where our members will cover what they got in the loan grant portion of the cares act. fromsp will cover anywhere 50% to 80% of their actual expenses. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us from nashville, tennessee is dr. james hildreth who is the president and ceo of

meharry medical college in that city. good morning, welcome to washington journal. guest: good morning. thank you for having me. host: you're not only the president and ceo, you are also an active covid-19 investigator. what are you looking into? takingwe are looking at drugs we were developing for the treatment of hiv and we are changing the structure of those compounds slightly to make them target covid-19. these are therapeutic drugs that would limit the ability of the virus to spread in the body. it would essentially block replication of the virus. one of our surgeons is developing a ventilator to help deal with the shortage in this country. that is the work we are doing right now. looking for therapeutics and other ways to help with the

problem generally. host: in terms of your work in the therapeutics, how far along are you and what do you think about the other work that is going on and the promise of therapeutics like remdesivir? guest: i'm excited that the global scientific community has focused on this problem in a tremendous way. the global collaboration is exciting. there are at least 60 candidates, probably more by now that have been identified that have therapeutic potential with covid-19. one of the most exciting things is that the use of supercomputers to literally re-create the virus in cyberspace, do the same thing with existing drugs and ask whether or not those drugs can bind to and inhibit the virus. there are a lot of exciting steps being taken. in the coming months, there will be a therapeutic found that

works. i'm less convinced that we will have a vaccine just because having studied viruses for 40 years, i know not to expect that to happen but it is a possibility that is not very likely that we will have a vaccine in a year. host: in addition to hearing about your work this morning, having you on this morning to talk about the racial disparities widely reported on and known in the cases. weekly sums it up best, black people are dying of coronavirus in an alarming rate that is 2.5 to three times higher than other groups. i want to ask you and show our viewers a look at a time lapse --the 119th covid-19 cases casesovid-19 disproportionately affecting black communities.

what do you think the reasons behind that are? guest: i think it falls into two categories. there is a biological basis for this. there is also a sociological one as well. when we get infected by viruses, our immune system is responsible for getting rid of the virus for us. any condition that suppresses the immune system will mean that we will have a more severe outcome. the other thing is that the virus attacks the lungs. if you have a condition that compromises your lung function, then you will not do as well with the virus either. we knew from the experience in china where it is homogeneous. but even in china in december and january, they observed that if you smoke and have a disease you're more likely to get sick and to die. it is protectable that here in the u.s., we would see the same thing among african-americans

because unfortunately african americans and other minority groups have a much higher rate of those things including obesity. diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, all of those things predispose people to a much more severe disease. let me add that that has nothing to do with being black. it happens to be the fact that if you are black, you are more likely to have this. if you are white and have underlying conditions, you are also more likely to get severe disease and to die. the sociological layer of this is african-americans tend to work in jobs where they get exposed more frequently to people and work in crowded conditions, factories, public capitation. they live in multigenerational households. all of those things contribute to a higher rate of infection. you layer on top of that a higher propensity to severe disease. that is why it is more

devastating. host: were you anticipating arising some of the early reports coming out of china and on the spread of this virus, were you anticipating this sort of impact on the black community? guest: absolutely. people should know there is another pandemic going on that we have not solved. that is hiv. in this country african-americans are 13% of the population. they are 43% of hiv cases. in fact, if you are a young african american or hispanic male who happened to has sex with other men, your lifetime risk of getting infected is one in two. 50%. it is an unheard of risk. but it is happening right here in the united states. host: over 19 affecting african americans at high rates. ,ur guest is dr. james hildreth the president and ceo of meharry

medical college in nashville. we welcome your calls and comments at (202) 748-8000 if you are in the eastern and central time zones. for the mountain and pacific regions. address the sociological reasons you talked about in terms of jobs in the use of public hesitation by african-americans. in the short term, those , can theyal factors be mitigated? guest: i think it will require long-term effort to get rid of the health inequities in this country because they are elated to a lot of things. people do not have access to healthy foods, that is a challenge. often times people have to walk to the nearest convenience store to purchase their food. these stores have a high caloric

content. all of those things will require longer and broader effort to change structural impediments to being healthy. in the short term, there is only one thing we can do to save lives and keep the virus from devastating african-american communities. we have to keep people from getting infected in the first place. the only way to do that is to make this invisible enemy visible and we do that by testing. not just testing, it is contact tracing to identify the persons that have been in contact with the person who tests positive. then we have to do self-isolation and we have to make sure people can get treated when they need to. my biggest concern is that some of the things that some people can do in response to being infected, african-americans can fairly do, for example if you live in a multigenerational household and you test positive,

the best solution to keep them protected and the family protected is to have that person isolated from them for about two weeks. situations,living that is not possible. we need to make provisions for those persons to live elsewhere for a couple of weeks and so maybe we can use some of the empty hotels and dorm rooms to do that. things and all the needed to do contact tracing to make sure we limit the outbreak for those cases in african american communities. that is what we need to do right now because without a vaccine, it is the only option to keep people from getting infected in the first place. host: you kind of touched on the vaccine and moment ago but i wanted to ask you about an earlier comment. the wall street journal asked you how optimistic you were for a coronavirus vaccine. he said, you would think after 39 years of being aware that we would have a vaccine, but we don't. that is why i'm very cautious in

telling people we will have a vaccine for covid-19. it may not happen as quickly as people think. all of the other major vaccines we have for measles, ebola, have taken a minim of seven years. the focus on seen developing a vaccine such as there is with coronavirus? guest: there has never been anything quite like this. the global sponsor among the scientific unity which i'm proud to be a member of his pretty unprecedented. -- is pretty unprecedented. , the genomes of the virus, they posted it on the internet so that any scientist could work on it. in three weeks from the time the ,entleman was posted, -- genom . at least three companies had

a vaccine. the technology that we have to bring to bear on the vaccine is not like anything we have had before. any -- even if you years ago, it ago,ot -- even a few years that was not the case. we have to be reasonable and understated that developing a vaccine -- understand that developing a vaccine is not a simple matter. sometimes we have to use trial to error to find out what use to elicit immune responses. i think there will be a vaccine. i'm just not as confident as some others might be that we can do that and less than a year. less than a year seems made -- seems really ambitious, but we will see. host: go to our callers. if you want to text us a question, that is (202) 748-8003 . and for medical professionals, (202) 748-8002.

david in atlanta, you are on. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have been eliciting -- listening. it is kind of disappointing because it is taking out another population of american society that is also going through this. these are the people in the appalachians. all of the rural areas where a lot of white americans are that black americans live, but a lot of white americans and they suffer disproportionately to the same things that the doctor is saying that african-americans are suffering in their community. the one thing that no one is talking about in those areas is the propensity for the opioid addiction and also for meth

addiction and that also breaks down the community. they are suffering, but nobody is really talking about that and i don't think that is fair. the other comment i would like to make is for secretary ben carson. we are talking about african-american communities and white american communities in public housing and these areas have multigenerational families living in the same place. can set up aud thing these people can be tested because they have housing authority and they know all of the residents. theess you might say housing projects are set up in a way where they are contained and they can be checked before the virus and everything. nothing was ever said about that. dr. carson was on one of the panels with the president. he never mentioned anything about what his agency is doing

or is going to do because a very large part of the population that we talk about is being black and being poor and so type ofe in these projects, no disrespect to these people. host: we've got two good points there. thank you. guest: what i pointed out not ar, the virus is respecter of race or gender. if it has the opportunity to infect you, it will do that. i also pointed out that it does not matter who you are, if you have underlying conditions, heart disease, hypertension, asthma, if you smoke, you will have a more challenging time with the virus. it just happens that african-americans as a population have a higher burden of these diseases. conditions,ve those poor and rich, if you get the

virus, you will have a harder time. your point is well taken. it does not matter what color you are. it just matters whether you have these underlying conditions. there will be a time to try to assign blame for what is happening. i think the focus needs to be let's protect people and keep them safe and alive. what that means from my perspective is we have to start screening on a massive scale because we are fighting an invisible enemy and we need to make the invisible visible to do testing. and once you do the testing, have to do the other things. i think the focus should be individually and collectively as a nation, but still all that we can to keep each other protected and that will result in a better outcome. host: can you give us an idea of the testing going on where you are in nashville? guest: i think nashville is

fortunate that we have no problems with testing and supplies. meharry set up an assessment center way back in early march. we could not launch at first because we could not get supplies. that was a national challenge at the time. our assessment center is part of the three centers for the city of nashville and anyone who wants to be tested can get tested. governor needsr to be congratulated because he has made it possible for anyone in the state who needs to be tested to be tested. that needs to be a national strategy. there are some states where the virus does not seem to be prevalent, but that is because they are not doing enough testing to determine what the actual prevalence is. here in nashville we are fortunate that we do not have issues with testing. i think that our percent positive rate is stable, it is

not going down. it is creeping down slightly. i think nashville is doing a good job in terms of covid-19 testing. host: let's hear from judith in michigan. welcome. i have been reading statistics from other countries such as sweden and england where people of african descent have also experienced high rates of covid death. these blacks have immigrated from other countries. it seems like they are also dying at higher rates and they have not experienced what african-americans over here have experienced in terms of the racial disparities and poverty. lifestyles ast the blacks over here. how do you account for blacks in

other countries because i read over there in sweden where the flags over there, their rate is high as well -- the blacks. guest: actually, it is not true that immigrants are not experiencing racism and so on. some of those individuals have them tot predispose getting infected. down closely on what is happening, it comes down to common jobs. for example, in the u.k., it turns out that healthcare providers who were african-american or of african descent were getting infected at a high rate. if you look at the data and where they worked, it was because they tend to be on the were lines and therefore more likely to get infected. across it is consistent

europe, china, and everywhere else that underlying conditions, irrespective of race or where you live and even how old you are would predispose you to poor outcomes. it certainly is true that immigrants are suffering some of the same kind of bias and discrimination that they do over here. there is a lot about this virus we don't know yet. there is a lot that we do know, but there is certainly a lot that we don't know. as the scientific investigations continue, our knowledge of what it does to the body is constantly improving. for exam, you may have read that now we know that the virus can cause blood clots and those can cause strokes in people in their 40's and 50's, something we did not know until recently. learn more andll more in our knowledge will get better and better. host: are you surprised at the

evolving nature of the virus in terms of the alleged symptoms that people report, the change in guidances on symptoms? guest: not really because viruses infect our bodies by certain proteins on the surface of cells. has a receptor for the virus, then the virus can infect those cells. it turns out that hiv only infect cells in our immune system because only immune systems have the right receptors for the virus. the actual name of the virus, covid, the receptor is all over the body. it is in the brain, lungs, kidneys, and intestine. it is in so many places that it is not surprising that there is such a broad spectrum of disease that we see. again, it is very likely in my

thaton that the death rate has been published for covid-19 is an underestimate. it is very likely that people died of this disease before we knew what to call it. that was the case for hiv. in the early days of hiv, in africa and other places, people were dying of another disease. if you go back and do analysis, it turns out to be people who have died of hiv. it is not a surprise that the spectrum of disease and symptoms is so broad because the receptors are so broad. that is why we leave that the death rate that has been published is an underestimate because people were probably dying of this before we knew what to call it even here in the united states, that is probably the case. host: we will go next to louisiana and hear from beverly. caller: thank you for taking my call.

dr., the concern that i have as it relates to african-americans is a long time ago i heard of a scenario where it says faulty premise, faulty conclusion. what my concern is is that every time i listen to people talk about why the death rate of african-americans is much higher than everyone else's, all of the medical communities and others seem to already have the answer rather than do the research. they are saying it is because of medical reasons, it is because socioeconomic, because they are on the front line. of course all of that is true. but what my concern is is that because we so quickly run to answers while the we have three times the death rate in the african american community, i don't think that is being brought up.

the concern is if you already know the answer, then you are not going to look for anything else that could be causing it. what i suspect is because you cannot change the color of your skin, when you go into the medical community, there may also be a scenario where people are being turned away. i have been noticing that a number of times as i watch the news where one lady, she went four times indicating her condition and she was turned away until she died. i would like to know if anyone is studying how quickly african-americans are being put on ventilators rather than just lying in the emergency room or in a hallway. that is my concern about faulty premise, faulty conclusion. no research actually being done on this issue because everyone thinks they know it is about multi-housing and frontline and all of the things that everyone

is mentioning every time we talk about it. host: we appreciate your call. in this case, it is not a faulty premise. i think the biological basis for the disparity of disease is quite clear and as i said before, china is where this all started. china is a homogeneous nation when it comes to race. even in china, if you have any of those conditions, you are more likely to die and more likely to get severely ill. one of the most refined -- profound date of was smoking. if you smoke, your chances of dying are high. it turns out that men were dying at a higher rate than women and it turns out that half the men in china smoke and only 3% of women. i think the scientific underpinnings of the biological basis of this is really sound. as one of the other callers pointed out, you could be living in appalachia or any place else,

if you have those conditions, you have a bigger challenge with the virus. there is no denying that there is bias in the american healthcare system. number of studies have confirmed this. if you have two patients who go to see the doctor, they have the same job, the same income, they might even live in the same zip code, the same neighborhood. if they go to see a doctor, the white patient is much more fact, muchs is a more likely to get the most up-to-date and aggressive treatment plan versus the african-american. there is no evidence in the case of covid-19, at least in the hospital systems that i am around, that there is any bias in terms of assigning people to ventilators. there is also a need for dialysis machines because the virus is shutting down the kidneys especially in

african-americans. i am not disputing that there is bias in the healthcare system. there even appears to be bias in the training of healthcare providers. i will give you an example, when i was in medical school, i started in 1982 and there were 550 black males who started that year. fast forward to 2015. that number dropped to 512. every other demographic group in the country had gone up. but the black males have gone down. one other statistic that makes the point, there are 65 schools of dentistry in the united states. one of those schools is responsible for 42% of all of the black dentists in the country and that is harry medical college. why is it -- meharry. why is it that one school is responsible? i'm just asking.

what are the other schools doing? not pointing fingers, just letting the facts out there. i agree with the caller that there is bias in the system and i think there are earnest efforts underway to address the bias including how we train medical students who are going to become future physicians and most medical schools, there is actually implicit bias training being given to the students. host: we will point out that our guest was the first african-american in the 125 year history of johns hopkins medicine to earn a full professorship with tenure in the basic sciences. we go next to our medical professional line. lulu in fort washington. go ahead. caller: good morning. i have two questions. one is about starting back up in the dental office. we were told we could start working today. last week i had a glitch in my

vertigo,ere i had some i thought it was a sinus condition, i'm wondering if it is my blood pressure. i am 64. i'm thinking a lot of people have symptoms that may be the virus, may not be. should professionals be taking a test before they go back into the dental office or medical office if they have been off for a couple of months and not sure if they had contracted the virus? host: are you on your way to work today? caller: i was not prepared for it yet. i have to get some things in plays like every other business. i also want to ask about the plasma test. i see they are taking plasma and they are saying some people may oncey not be susceptible they've had the virus already. host: we will hear from dr. james hildreth. go ahead. guest: i would strongly advise

if you will be in a dental office doing dental procedures that you get a test. do know that what dentists by definition creates aerosols and since we know that is one of the ways the virus is transmitted, i would advise that if you are going to do dental work as a patient or as a dentist, stephanie to be taken -- steps need to be taken to limit the possibility of transmission. are older than 60 like i am, i would strongly advise you to get a test. i would advise that you take steps as much as possible to limit the possibility that you acquire the virus from one of your patients. dentistry is one of those where you have to be especially careful because of the intrinsic nature of what you do. are a hugey tests

problem. there are over 100 anybody tests -- antibody tests on the market and some of them are not good because they are not very specific. tests comerds, these .ut if someone has had a recent, cold caused by coronavirus, there is a possibility that the antibody test being used would not be picking up the covid-19 virus, but one of those other viruses in the same family. they are close cousins and share similarities and sometimes antibodies cannot distinguish them. the other thing to know about the antibody test, we are not sure yet whether or not having antibodies is consistent with being immune to the virus. we cannot conclude that just because you have antibodies, you are immune. we will know that fairly shortly as we experiment and research

continues. for the time being, it would be really dangerous to assume that if i have antibodies, i am immune to the virus. we just do not know that yet. there is a lot of research happening, we have to wait for the research to conclude before we can start making that. host: our guest is the president and ceo of meharry medical college in nashville talking about the racial disparities of covid-19 and how it has affected the african-american community. (202) 748-8000 for the eastern and central time zones. island pacific. and medical professionals (202) 748-8002. some figures, african americans make up 14.4% of the u.s. population. they are 58% of the deaths among

counties with high black populations and 97% of the counties with a black population that saw at least one case in that county. let's go back to calls and hear from shelby in tallahassee, florida. caller: good morning and thank you very much. timely and iy appreciate your service in academia as i am a partner as well. recently on with the primary health care access. i wanted to talk about the pipeline. createuld have used to an understanding of how the pipeline contributes to the , to give where we have the examples of york sister ago where years

basicallygraduated publicber of 57 in health and preventive medicine. 41 surgery grads. internal medicine was the total number if we have to go forward with 300. out as well as those of us in our 60's to 70, came out of this structure where we had the numbers of 500 and now we are still at 500. if you could talk about how the pipeline disparity where we need to where we have meharry, howard, xavier, the pharmacy create, iere we could believe, a pipeline with the partnership with a scholarship and development of the residency

program that comes out of medicaid payment that has not increased in terms of those numbers. we have an immigrant population being shown on television that is holding up this frontline workforce with regard to what we see, what i think the people are seeing in this respect. dr. black in albany on the front line who has been shown forward to show that we have this pipeline. i would like for you to comment on how it is that the pipeline hbcu institutions who are producing for this nation and many of our immigrant population graduatesehouse 2017 that come through. host: we will let you go and hear from dr. james hildreth. thanks for the question.

i think the pipeline issue is an important one. from my perspective we have to start with children. we have to engage them early on to get them excited about science, to get them excited about the possibility of being in healthcare. the model we use at meharry is we have adopted two middle schools. my purpose in doing that was to have my students who are in medical school and dental school and doing phd's in biomedical science, i wanted my students to be present with those for the graders and eighth graders and those students who are mostly seek and hispanic to students in those professional schools who look like them and believe that they themselves can achieve that. i think they have to be able to see some monday identify with close in age to them, much

closer than me, who have done them -- done this so they can believe that they can do it. the other thing we can do is make sure that the pipeline of medical students, dental students, and biomedical research students from hbcu schools, that the pipeline stays robust. several years ago the number of active americans who entered medical school who graduated was 25%.'s now the number has dropped. if we could get the percent of students matriculating back to the robots number it used to be, that would be very helpful. i totally agree that the pipeline is an issue. from my perspective, we have to --rt engaging students with to get them excited about it. you cannot go to medical school

unless you graduate from college. you cannot go to college unless you graduate from high school. and you cannot go to high school unless you finish middle school. my point is we have to start early on, get them excited about research and therefore get them engaged. i think that would have a profound impact on how many students of color from minority backgrounds go to medical school in dental school. your point is well taken and it certainly is a pipeline issue, for sure. host: we will hear next from california. good morning. caller: is the doctor there? host: he is here. go ahead with your comment. i'm healthy. i want to congratulate you on becoming a doctor. i am not a youngster. fact, all of the the things that you brought up,

all of the statistics is true of where this country really stands and how they feel about the african-american citizens. a citizen hard to be in this country and show some allegiance when they have somebody like we have in office now. thatere any possibility you with your standing could seek out former president obama to run a concurrent government, a shadow government to solve some of these problems? to save the country before and i'm sure he can save it again. this guy has shot himself in the foot so many times. it is no wonder we are going down the tube. 33 million people out of work? what chance do we have of coming back if we keep this guy in office? host: we appreciate you.

any response? to geti don't ever want into the politics of this. i do believe at some point there will be a time to look back and say we should have done this or that. for me as a healthcare professional and leader of a school that trained healthcare professionals, my focus is finding solutions for the here and now. i do think that unfortunately the pandemic has shined a bright light for the whole world to see on some of the shortcomings we have as a nation. for example, we spend $3.5 trillion per year on healthcare. if you set that apart, that would be the fifth or sixth largest economy on the planet. let that sink in. behind germany, i think. yet, we are not in the top 10 when it comes to health. if we just took 10% of that

billion, we could train every medical and dental student in the country for free. that is how much money that is. talk about a pipeline, growing a pipeline. the other thing is our healthcare system is not a healthcare system. it is a sick-care system. it is a system designed to take your people when they are sick. it is not designed to keep people healthy. aat would require preventative and public health approach. i'm hoping that what would come out in the pandemic, and we will get through this, no doubt about it. nation, we re-examine our priorities and put emphasis on making people healthy rather than treating them when they are sick and that would lower the cost on our system. it would make for a much better lifestyle than what we are seeing. is to takeght now all of that experience and try to find some answers to this

terrible problem, and we will find answers. there might be a time and there will be a time to look back and say we should have done this or that. for me, i'm trying to find solutions right now. host: in addition to those answers, you are writing in support of legislation seeking numbers as an opinion piece supporting legislation introduced by several members of the house senator elizabeth warren. the headline on your opinion collecting and reporting ethnicity stats matters for the health of equitable data collection and disclosure on covid-19." why are you in favor of it? guest: we cannot make the best decisions about using limited resources. resources are limited in this case. without the data to know where things are happening and to who they are happening, we cannot deploy resources to save as many

lives. for me, it all comes down to what can we do to save lives in the context of a pandemic caused by a virus for which we have no vaccine or drug. if we are going to save lives, we have to know where the virus is and who it is impacting. without that data, we have no way of knowing that. why does the cdc collect data on hiv? it has been reporting racial ethnicity with hiv for a really long time. that allows us to understand where resources to be -- should be directed to have the best outcome for hiv. in my opinion, having data is about making the best decision about deploying the resources. also giving us an understanding about infection patterns. we might learn something about how the virus is transmitted and where it is transmitted and who

it is transmitted to. it is about new knowledge and saving lives. that is the bottom line, save as many lives as possible. host: we will go to joanne in new york. caller: good afternoon. can you hear me? host: yes. caller: my question is regard to the testing. are they looking into any genetic testing as well to see whether or not anyone is immune to this disease? they are doing testing for antibodies but are they doing anything genetically included in the testing? there are a bunch of people walking around that are asymptomatic. are they running any other tests to determine if there is a group genetically there is something they may have that are preventing them from contracting it or transmitting it? guest: the answer is yes.

some of those people who are asymptomatic are actually pre-symptomatic. they don't have symptoms now. they will have symptoms somewhere between three and 10 days later. this are some, we know from korea and other places, who get infected, who do not manifest any symptoms that we know of, and they clear the virus and go on with their lives. the question is what is it about those individuals that has allowed them to be infected by the virus and do so well having been infected. one area of research is on something called compatibility antigens. these are the proteins on our cells that are unique to us. when a transmit surgeon is transmitting -- transplanting an

organ, he or she has to make sure that those matters those of the recipient -- those match. match, then it will reject that. i am telling you that because those antigens seem to be related to how well we do with some infectious agents, viruses, and other things. it may well be that there are individuals that fight the virus off better and that research is underway. i think those individuals need to be the focus of a lot of attention because if we can identify why they were able to deal with the virus so well, that might teach us what the vaccine should look like. beene hiv world, that has going on for a long time. these individuals are called long-term nonprogressive. they are hiv positive and even without treatment, some of these

individuals will keep the virus suppressed for long periods of time. they have been the focus of interest to understand how their immune systems do that. your point is well taken. research is underway to determine whether or not why some people get really sick and some people do not get sick at all. that research is happening as we speak. host: this is a pandemic affecting millions of people across the world. millions here in the u.s.. for you as the head of a medical college or as a researcher, this must be not only challenging and exciting to come to work that you are on the front lines of this in terms of research. guest: actually, you are right. i was just telling my senior am antsyp team that i to get back to the laboratory. i have a large responsibility to the staff who are doing a

fantastic job. my students are volunteering on the front lines. many of them have made national news. we had a doctor in miami who was handcuffed for trying to do covid-19 testing on the homeless. he was a meharry alum. linesing mom on the front of code 19 is also a meharry alum. i am proud that they are stepping up and doing what they do. as part of our legacy, meharry has been around for years. it was founded as a place where afghan americans could learn medicine in the south -- african-americans. it was 10 years after the civil war. there was no place for black people to go to learn medicine. it is part of our history and heritage and mission. thatxcited because knowing this virus is devastating people of color, i think meharry has a

special role to play given the legacy we have as a place that was created to deal with those kind of issues. host: this go to the medical professional line. tallulah in maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you. i have a question. , there has been a lot focusing on investing. is there a way we can focus on making immune boosters for the people who have the virus? we know the immune system fights the virus. if this is making the immune system weekend. . is there a way to give immune boosters so we don't lose the many people? that is all i have. thank you. guest: it is possible that somebody who has cleared the virus and has antibodies that

you could give them a booster shot and increase their immunity to the virus. the way this works is when we first encounter the virus or fact area for the first time, we make a primary sponsor. it is -- primary response.lities -- the next time you see the same virus, you make a secondary response. the first involves generating memory sales as they are on your body and are programmed to make a response the neck time you see the virus. the next time you see the virus, because you have these memory cells, it could be as much as 1000 fold times higher than the primary response. since no one on the planet has seen this before, everyone who is getting infected has seen it

for the first time and is probably making a primary response which is what we would like to see. vaccine, you get a primary response, but for most vaccines, you have to come back and get a booster shot. that is because what we really want is to get that secondary response going that is 1000 times more primary -- powerful than the primary response. it is the case that if someone has been exposed, we can take steps to boost the immune response by giving them a user shot. the question is what booster shot we are going to give them. one of my concerns with the current vaccine efforts is that the total focus seems to be on generating antibodies. we know that for a lot of usually a virus will elicit antibody responses. host: let's hear from rick from

idaho. hello. caller: good morning. this is a question for dr. james hildreth. i appreciate all you are doing. research, and yours in the medical field, i think callers have touched up on this one subject and this is a question that is a language barrier question. could we do a page to page analysis and compare respiratory problems to coronavirus problems and if there are similarities, match them up, could we use a --portion of the age vaccine h vaccine to suppress the problems within coronavirus victims? it is a novice question.

there are some language barriers . i appreciate all that you are doing and god bless president trump and the public and party -- republican party. host: thanks, rick. i believe in your comment, there is no current vaccine, correct? guest: that is correct. there is no vaccine for hiv despite early nine years of being aware of the virus and dealing with the virus and brilliant scientists working on this. there is no vaccine. hiv, somethat components of the virus might be used as a carrier for a vaccine for coronavirus. we could actually use the amazing ability of hiv to get into cells and replicate as a way to deliver a back and for the run a virus.

for example -- for the coronavirus. vaccines used as a backbone for a virus but has been genetically modified to display protein for other viruses. it may be that our knowledge of other viruses and using parts of other viruses may be part of the final solution for coronavirus. the kind of analysis testing described by the caller is happening. acute respiratory distress syndrome is caused by a lot of things including coronaviruses. covid-19 for treating is based on our knowledge of how we are treating those other things that cause the same symptoms in people. all of the knowledge that we have from other areas of medicine, other viruses are being brought to bear. the callers need to know that the amount of scientific effort

and research on this problem is unprecedented and i am excited about the global collaboration among scientists. my prayer is that our leaders around the globe could have that same. .f global cooperation -- spirit what we need as a planet is a surveillance system so that the next time a potential virus gets into the population, we can recognize it quickly and shut it down before it spreads across the globe. that is what happened with covid-19. it spread around the globe so we are so small now. we need a global surveillance system so that any virus with pandemic potential arises, we can keep it contained to protect the rest of the population. that will only happen if global leaders have the same spirit of collaboration. i am praying that that will

happen. host: let's hear from lamont in maryland. caller: good morning, c-span. host: good morning. james, when 69 paget obama left a playbook of what to do with different viruses. the second one is where we .hould start getting things i want to say the doctors and nurses are doing a great job. as far as this pandemic is concerned, until the last person stops dying in the united states, the stimulus money should be constantly put out there. host: thanks for your call. one more question for you dr.. you touched on this earlier. is there any reason to believe that in the u.s. hundreds of

thousands, if not, millions will not die in this pandemic? guest: if we do not take steps to stop it, because this virus is new to the human species, it will keep infecting people until it has no one else left to infect. that is why mitigation steps we are taking, stay at home, social distancing, where face coverings, all of those things are absolutely necessary because if we don't do those things, until 60% of us have immunity, the virus will march through the population. if we don't do those things, the models range in numbers. about 200 million people could be infected. in florida, 12 million people could die. this is real. this is not a bad science-fiction movie. this is a real pandemic. if we do not keep doing the things we are doing, many people will be infected and many people

are going to die. host: we really appreciate you joining us this morning. dr. james hildreth is the president and ceo of meharry medical college in nashville, tennessee. we appreciate your time. washington journal prime time -- wet in a five eastern invite you to join us for our guest. 8:00 eastern is when it gets underway. coming up on tonight's program, we will hear from an emergency medicine physician in boston. death rates show leaders it is safe to begin relaxing coronavirus restrictions. simon, the director of infectious disease department at george washington university hospital. tomorrowe back here morning for "washington journal," we hope you are as well. next we take you to capitol hill

for a senate hearing where they will be hearing from the director of the national institutes of health, dr. francis collins, and others will testify as well on new technologies to produce coronavirus tests. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020]

senator: don't believe this. >> now it's on. senator: is it? ok. the hearing of the health, labor, and pensions committee will please come to order. as we begin our hearing i would like to explain the changes we have made to address the health and safety recommendations made by the attending physician and sergeant at arms after they consulted with the department of health and human services at the centers for disease control and prevention.