the centuries past, once ponce de leon would seek the fountain of eternal youth. announcer 2: and sunday we visit africa town, the national historic landmark neighborhood in mobile, alabama. get backaid we want to home. we need you to go and negotiate with timothy mayor whatever it takes to get us out of here. they went to work for him. when it came time to get paid, the money went for food, clothing and shelter. they never had discretionary money. they said they would have to stay in this community. they did not understand the language or customs but made a way out of nowhere. they brought customs and culture to this immunity and said this is our africa town. announcer 2: memorial day weekend on "american history tv"

on c-span3. >> seniors only this morning, how are you corresponding to the coronavirus pandemic? the select committee on aging held a hearing on the impact of the pandemic on seniors. here is republican from south carolina talking about the impact this is having on seniors in his state. >> one third of all covid-19 south carolina happened in a nursing home or other senior care facility. this is an important issue and timely hearing. in other states the numbers are even worse than in south carolina. that is the difference between encouraging numbers recently and our governor of south carolina and governors around the nation,

in florida as well, who decided to focus the attention on the nursing homes, it is exactly where we should start this challenge, how we should face this challenge, focusing on the most vulnerable populations. i have fought about how -- thought about how nursing homes are the epicenter of activity. also the folks who take care of the patientsare mostly -- mostlys are african-americans. in louisiana 70% of the deaths are african-americans, only 33% of the population. 27% of thetate, population. you have one vulnerable community being served by another vulnerable community and

that only highlights the importance of testing, testing, testing in nursing home facilities. >> tim scott, republican senator. if you missed any of it, we will show you as we have a conversation with seniors only. you can find it on our website. let's go to george ian hyland, ,ichigan -- in highland michigan. how old are you and how are you responding to the pandemic? caller: how old? i am 67 but look like i am 22. [laughter] caller: [indiscernible] highland michigan. you were off on wednesday. i assume you had a sickness or emergency. handkerchief, so i hope

things are better than wednesday for you. i am doing well. i don't have to go out. social security, i just go out [indiscernible] groceries. last night $210 at kroger. that will last me for about two or three weeks. host: do you go during special hours? what precautions do you take? caller: [indiscernible] 5:00 or 6:00. everybody stares at me and looks

at me but i joke about it with everybody. we get a big laugh about it. [indiscernible] a masked except the young kids k except the young kids. when you are young, you think you are too strong. couple high school girls walking by on their phone, no mask. caller: what goes your mind when you see that? host: the question the people that you areem is protecting your self you are protecting me.

that is just -- we are all stupid when we are younger. [laughter] host: all right, george. 78 looking 22. , in raleigh north carolina. , how is it going for you? caller: hi, greta. i am in a retirement home right now. it is kind of lonely. i miss seeing my grandkids. we liked to go fishing every weekend, but you know, but everyone is wearing their mask, feels so and it just surreal. when you go to grocery stores and you see all this glass on the counters. i was on the tv, you see the case numbers, and i was watching fox news the other numbers, and

i had a moment there. this entire country is uncircumcised. host: essie in tyler, texas. essie, good morning to you. caller: good morning. i am 67 years old and an african-american female. whenever i go out, i wear my mask when i go in public, because i have a husband who is a disabled vet. we both have underlying issues. i go out to protect myself as well as my husband who is home, he is sick in the bed. i wear my mask, i stay six feet from people. i -- the stores in my hometown have a station where we can you know sanitize before we go in, sanitize when we come out. cautio -- to be for precautious of what i am doing

and cautious about where i am and who is around me. like the caller was saying, most folks not still wearing masks are the younger people. i have grandchildren like in their 20's and early 30's. you know they do not want to , mask up. like i tell people, this covid-19 doesn't care about race, gender, any kind of equality. what kind of money you got, it doesn't care. so we all have to be cautious of one another and protect one another in bus covid-19 era. , how are you staying in contact with people? caller: by telephone. i don't have many visitors coming up because like i said my , husband is a disabled vet. the only people that come over are the providers, and they wear masks at the house. autions for them to do when they come in. we just try to protect one

another. that's the thing, everyone should try to protect each other out here, because this virus is not going anywhere soon. host: essie, when things have started to open up in texas, have you even considered going to a restaurant? will you consider going out to eat? caller: no. no. i will not do that. host: when would you you feel safe to do so? caller: remember -- in my hometown -- because texas is a big state -- i go by what is going in my county. and cases are still rising. deaths are still rising. not high, high, in this county, about 100,000, we only had about five deaths, but the cases are almost at 200. i try to be precautious. it is not essential for me to go out to eat. i can cook at home. host: is your community an elderly community? most of your population older? host: i will say, yeah, quite a

few. they are all people that have moved into the city. we are like 100 miles east of dallas. a lot of people have moved into the city have retired. that is because we got a big lake here, so they come here to retire. retirees. so the older population -- it is quite a few of us around. host: ok. caller: i see my age range, going up into the 70's and 80's. i just feel for people who are in nursing homes. i feel for them. host: yeah, and essie, that is the story of the front page of the new york times this morning, an in-depth look done by the new york times into our nation's nursing homes. a racial divide of nursing home outbreaks, and this is what they report. that the coronavirus pandemic has devastated the nation's sickening staff members, impacting 20% of the nation's covid-19 death toll. the impact has been felt in large facilities and small, in

poorly rated homes and in those with stellar marks. the story goes on to say, but covid-19 has been particularly virulent to african-americans and hispanics. nursing homes where those makeup a significant portion of the residents, no matter their location, no matter their size or government rating, are twice as likely to get hit versus those nursing homes where the majority of inmates are white. -- that is double the rate of homes where black and latino people make up less than 5% of the population. this was brought up at yesterday's committee hearing on aging. here is susan collins of maine talking about that issue. [video clip] >> one issue that we have is that people who are older are

being increasingly isolated, and that too can have a very detrimental impact on their underlying health and thus makes them more vulnerable to the coronavirus. if -- could you comment on how home health visits can help keep a senior more connected and less isolated? chairman collins, absolutely. home health is a way to show known andt they are worth something, that they are about you. it is an act of humility, really, and in this crisis it has been even more important. sometimes our nurses are the only people that are even checking in on a frail elder, tell have heard them

stories of having to go out and make sure the person had a food supply, undergarments or other things that are essential, so the isolation is critical. the focus on telehealth also adds -- although it is not perfect -- making sure the people that are homebound that need home health also have access in between the visit to some interaction via telehealth, but also improve the amount of attention that our older patients are getting. inis a real crisis loneliness and isolation, so we are trying to do all we can. agingfrom yesterday's committee, the hearing on the impact of this coronavirus pandemic on seniors. we're talking with seniors only this morning. they are talking about seniors that are at home. we will show you what they had to say about seniors in nursing homes, coming up, but let's talk

to another caller in washington, d.c. good morning. go ahead. i am 76 years old. i own a small business, a barbershop and -- in d.c. i live in maryland. i ate take the bus -- i take the bus back and forth. i'm not scared. i am ready to go to work. i have ordered face shields and masks, and we have bar beside ide spray.arbic we are going to get rid of the waiting chairs. it is not going to be people waiting in chairs. we are going to take a customer every hour at the beginning so we are given enough time to sterilize the place after every checker, going to

the temperature of the people who come into the shop, and i something wish that like that will help us with equipment, because that is going to cost a lot of money. i'm ready. i don't have grandchildren. my grandchildren are my customers. not a lot-- there are of barbers that are still working. we are out of business. it is an artistic and we fully love what we do. that are american females are still working, cutting hair, and we're not going to stop. [inaudible] and grandchildren who come to the shop, please don't come to any barbershop without a mask.

protect yourself and protect your barber, please. host: james in hinesville, maryland. you're next. caller: good morning, c-span. i'm a male, recently retired from government, 66 years old. i've been doing a lot of shopping online. i've been avoiding crowds. i think my government officials have been doing a good job. i formerly worked for the d.c. government, and i like the leadership of governor hogan in maryland. [inaudible] the most infected zip code in the state of maryland. theuse a lot of implications in this pandemic

have been technological, we have a digital divide and we need to expand broadband and things like that. my main problem during this epidemic has been the behavior of the president. [inaudible] at the ford plant in miss again yesterday -- michigan yesterday without marrying a -- thisut wearing a mask, infantile attitude and his refusal to wear a mask. i'm really troubled by that. i think it eggs on these protesters. you feeles, when will comfortable going to a restaurant, going out into gatherings? the last've been -- time i really did business with the restaurant was carry out, and that was probably sometime late in march.

i'm retired, so i am at home but i the day anyway, have been doing my grocery shopping online and having it delivered to my home. as long as people are kind of backing off, wearing a mask, iking proper precautions, fear that americans have a very short memory. i do not see anytime in the near future me going out to any public event. in hinesville, maryland. bob in beatrice, nebraska. how old are you and what is it like where you live? caller: hi, greta. and i am ars old retired civil engineer. i look alone. . am a bachelor -- live alone

i am a bachelor. it is not bad here, a small town of about 13,000. the first i heard, there is a nursing home east of here, about hadiles away where they six or seven deaths, and that was about a month ago. we do not have that many here. of going out, although i don't go out anymore than i have to, because that's what we are supposed to do and that is what i normally do anyway. i do go to the grocery store once a week and go to walmart and i alwayseeks, wear a mask when, and i tried to to do thecing -- try spacing. it has not affected me from a personal standpoint other than, it would be nice, if i needed something, i could go down and

get it when i wanted to. but i am doing fine. host: what about socializing with your peers? haver: i really did not that many friends. i did have my brother, i have a brother that lives here in this small town, and i did see him yesterday. but his family -- because i am a family, we used to get together, and my sister lives in another town not too far, we would get together every few months, but we have not been doing that. but like you that, said, living alone anyway, it really has not been affecting me that much. i would say that i think it is prolonged because people are just not following

the rules. they want to get together in groups of more than 10 and so forth, and i am afraid it is going to keep carrying on because people are not -- if they would just listen to what, you know, the experts say to do and do it, i think it would eventually go away. i did get a haircut the other day finally, and i had to wear a mask and the barbers wore a as for the grocery store, i go a week at a time without talking to anybody. living alone. host: bob, i am glad you called in and talks to us to -- talked to us today. thank you for the call. mentioned nursing homes where he lived and the rate of death in nursing homes across the united states is high.

look at this headline from the canadian newspaper, the star. 82% of canada's covid-19 deaths have been in long-term care, according to new data. yesterday, the select committee ion, theydiscuss spoke about nursing homes. here is part of that discussion. [video clip] >> we are learning a lot as we go about how best to fight this virus in nursing homes. ondon't have great data yet exactly what testing strategies have been used and how successful they have been. on isof what we are going anecdotal evidence. but what i can see is that there have been a few key lessons learned. one is that it is very important to test all residents and not wait until residents are asymptomatic -- excuse me, until residents are symptomatic, because then it is too late. there is a symptomatic spread

and the fact that staff go to day,ent to resident every until people get symptomatic, the virus can spread throughout the facility. we have learned that lesson, that all residents really should be tested and not only tested, but tested regularly. what i have heard from geriatricians is that weekly would be good, at least biweekly so that residents can then be transmission can be stopped. it will be very hard, especially relax some of the restrictions on visitors, which is essential to prevent the sense of social isolation among our seniors. as we lessen those restrictions, it will be very hard to prevent all cases in the nursing homes. the key is a rapid response to prevent transmission to the rest of residents and staff. host: yesterday's aging hearing

up on capitol hill talking about nursing homes. the new york times front page this morning delving into the deaths that nursing homes and the racial divide that they are across thetatistics country. they note that 1.3 million people live in the nation's nursing homes and about 80% of those residents are identified as white by nursing home administrators. but as we noted earlier, more than 60% of nursing homes were a quarter of the residents are black or latino have reported more cases, and those populations are getting hit the hardest in nursing homes. they also note in this story that nationally, at least 106,000 people have been sickened by the virus and more than 4000 skilled nursing facilities, which do not include stand-alone assisted living centers. you can go to the website, newyorktimes.com and see this

interactive map they put together on nursing home deaths across the country. let's hear from dave in fairfax, virginia. how are you doing? greta, andd morning, thank you having me on this morning. i'm doing fairly well this morning. i live in my own home and fortunately i have a son that is living with me. he is considered an essential worker and has been working through the entire coronavirus outbreak. does he do andt how do you take precautions, since he is coming in and out of your home? caller: two great questions. number one, he is an electrician, and he has been exposed to three times. what we do is practice social distancing as best we can within the home, so we are trying to keep a six-foot parameter, however we don't wear masks inside the house. he washes up as soon as he walks in the door, and we have tons of

hand sanitizer around. fortunately for me, he does my grocery shopping and any other items i might need to pick up the i can't get online, but point that i wanted to make this morning, greta, is that because tohas been exposed, he went get tested. he asked if he could be tested, and he was asymptomatic and could not get a test. because i am not symptomatic, therefore i cannot get a test. think that the key, or one of the keys to overcoming this problem is that we need to do frequent testing, and i don't think that the testing is available -- you know, we've heard the line that if you want a test, you can get a test. i don't think in my particular case that is the case. host: how did your son know he had been exposed?

did officials call him to say, you have been in contact with something tested positive? how did he know? caller: they reported it to their supervisor, and the supervisor disseminated that information to the crews. host: i see. dave, thank you for calling in this morning. we will go to ed in raleigh, north carolina. your next. go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call. i recently relocated to raleigh, north carolina. i'm 69 years old. i'm essentially doing everything they say to do. i don't wear a mask, i bought face shields so i can cover my es,ire face, eyes ever everything.

-- face, eyes, everything. i go out to the grocery store. i try to do everything i do normally, but i avoid crowds. i won't eight in any restaurant in anye now -- won't eat restaurant anywhere now where i can't see what is being prepared and who is preparing it. i went to a couple of drive-through's to observe the mask pulled down around their chin, no gloves on, decided food, and i that even though we are being told, this is what we need to do to protect each other, not all people are following that. i think that if you are going to open a business that serves the theic, you better make sure people you are employing are following the standards that are set, and not pulling their masked down like our president -- mask down like our president because they are afraid it does

not make them look good. he is afraid the media might see him covering his face. i do what i can to stay safe. i missed the heck out of my grandchildren. heck out of my grandchildren. i see them now through various ways of communicating, with skype and things like that. but for the most part, just take it easy. out: and ed, will you go when and if there is a vaccine? caller: oh, well yeah. if there is a vaccine. i am not holding my breath for this year. i am probably thinking sometime in 2022 is when we will see vaccines that will be available for the public. of course, the vaccines when they first come out are going to go to the front-line workers, the nurses, doctors, people who are fighting the war against covid-19. i hope the president of the united states is the last person

to get the vaccine, because his behavior says he thinks he's safe. he doesn't need to do anything that anybody else has to do. so he should not need a vaccine. host: ok. and ed, you mentioned economies opening up. writing today in the washington post, we have to reopen for our health, he writes. the economic rice is brought on by the virus is a silent killer. in thecentage increase unpleasant rate leads to a 1% cide deaths and a more than 3% increase in opiod debts, which means this virus will likely cause tens of thousands of excess deaths. one study of the 1982 recession

found that americans who face higher unemployment suffered approximately 40,000 excess deaths. he goes on to write that the covid-19 has also restricted to health care data. hospitals are seeing as much as 60% revenue decline from the vencellation of electi procedures. hospitals in rural america operate on a 2% to 3% profit margin, and urban hospitals have about a 5% to 6% margin. this may permanently close some institutions. the health secretary is arguing that the administration has a strategy on how to move forward, and he says this -- a combination of surveillance, widespread and easily available contesting, containment of isolated outbreaks and rapid development of vaccines and therapeutics means we will continue making progress against the virus in the months to come. george, pittsburgh,

pennsylvania. seniors only this morning. hi, george. caller: how are you doing this morning. host: i'm doing fine. how are you and how are you coping? kind ofit has been hard. let me give you a little background. i am a dialysis patient, and when all of this started, my pcp , so me it doesn't cover it don't be playing around with it. i live in a town where 50% of andle are african-american, last time i looked, 40% of the people are dying over this. so i'm having a whole lot of anxiety. they areed to go out, trying to open up the thing, and undere've got a president pressure about getting everybody

back to work. it's insane. , give me sometor drugs. [inaudible] everybody else gets drugs. give me some. [inaudible] maybe talk to a psychologist and sociologist about what is happening to me, no doubt. my governor seems to be doing a good job on opening up the state very slowly, and i commend him for that. .overnor wolf because right now my population is dying. friendsersonal who are not around anymore because of this stuff.

social distancing seems to be right on point for me. i don't even know how to handle this. why are you standing around in the coronary? -- in the corner? what am i supposed to do? [inaudible]reciate if it wasn't for all of that, we would be in the grave. we would be walking single file. host: ok, george. you mentioned the demographics, the breakdown of the statistics of the pandemic. if you are curious about that, if you go to johns hopkins' website, you can see how this is impacting different populations in our country. specifically, your county in sotsburgh is on our screen, you can do it by county as well

on the johns hopkins website. brenda and los angeles. hi, brenda. caller: good morning. i am the am a senior citizen. i'm 71. my life -- i am a senior citizen. i'm 71. my life has changed in that i am not going to doctors appointments, i am not going crazy going there, i go grocery shopping by bus once a month. i get meals on wheels delivered beena week, which i have doing for years. i'm in my room, and i am frustrated when i go out and do the young people not wearing masks, not staying six feet away, and i will speak up. some people call me paranoid. that's fine. you can have your opinion but don't buy the rules -- go by the rules. i'm frustrated that people do not go by the rules whether they believe it or not, but as far as these people speaking up,

surprised that people are dying in these homes, it is obvious they have never visited one on a normal day, because then it would be very obvious them -- to them why. they are horrible places. the ones -- i have been in three since 2014, only for two weeks for physical therapy. the last one was horrible, and i went online, giving my opinion of it, and i have written to my mayor announcer 1: we take you live to kevin are -- governor gavin newsom in california. conflict and in words, not just those that lose their lives in the battlefield, it is those that lose their lives coming home and never left the battlefield.