members of the space station crew take a spacewalk. they will be going outside the preparingdo some work for the arrival of a new russian research module. the spacewalk is expected to start at 8:30 a.m. central time. thank you and have a great night. >> today, twitter ceo jack dorsey and facebook ceo mark zuckerberg trust -- testify about allegations that companies censored and suppressed the news leading up to the election. live coverage begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three. live and on-demand on c-span.org or listen live on the c-span radio app. journal" continues. host: caller: we are back --

host: we are back with marcus. what does your organization do? guest: we are a professional organization who represents the anderships of state territorial public health departments across the state. -- united states. guest: in every state the public of department has a commissioner health official and they are main constituents. ,hey have leadership teams running things on a day-to-day basis. >> what would be your role or what has been your role during this pandemic? guest: states have been very involved in this pandemic. they have been the frontline and so the organization of been working for has been working closely with them while researching issues for them and

also one communicating -- also on communicating with others. what are your thoughts on recent headlines about the spike in covid cases? the wall street journal described it as everywhere. guest: it is very concerning. it's something we knew that the likelihood could happen. knows we are seeing levels of infection we have not seen before in this country. particularly when you look at what happened on the east coast back in the spring and how close where we situations will almost went over the capacity we had. for that reason we can't let ourselves get to a point where we have the ability to take care of people who get sick and require more hospitalization for

advanced care. host: we are getting reports about vaccines getting to successful levels, of the hill newspaper as this headlines. saying the coronavirus vaccine is 94.5% effective. and then matthew dalton, who writes for the wall street journal tweets out not only does moderna's vaccine work, it's also stable and normal fridge temperature for 30 days compared to previous estimates of seven days. that would be a big advantage over the pfizer vaccine which has to be stored at -70 celsius. what do you think about this news? guest: this is really good news. we want to make sure -- i thing we are still following this. we need an effective vaccine. vaccines with effectiveness in the 90th percentile is very good. that's the kind of thing that would encourage more people to get the vaccine as well.

something that works really well, people are more likely to participate in. see the data, there's more to come on this. this good information upfront. host: what role which are organization play in the distribution of any vaccine, how does it work? distribution will be by each state and public health department. vaccineal providing the in different settings will be done through the cdc. it has a contractor who will deliver that where you go. in a position to provide. figuring out who is can he the vaccine, how many doses.

the vaccine will be provided directly. my role is to just help with that with technical assistance. researching and helping troubleshoot problems. is done by each of the states. host: do you need a federal position to oversee all of this? something like you've seen people put in that role to respond to hurricanes in certain areas. that that would be more efficient? guest: yes. that is useful as far as trying to make sure the response is across the nation. the centers for disease control generally plays that role and certainly that's their expertise. that's what we hoping to see more of. to oversee chance

what's going on. all the states just submitted vaccine plans of how they are intending to build this. within itself will help consistency issues. the: pro public a rights problem with waiting for details on the vaccine to be revealed is that mass immunization is a multilayered process involving public munication campaigns, ordering of equipment, hiring of staff. and the added complexity in this pandemic of making sure all vaccine sites are safe and will contribute to the spread. operation warp speed has said its goal is to begin shipping the day vaccine is given the green light by the fda. states need to be ready at any moment. are they? guest: i think states are in a very good place. the first part of that statement

is correct. the more we know about the vaccine the better. there are some things we won't know about. if vaccine is effective in people over the age of 65 and people under. that makes a difference in how we prioritize who get the vaccine next. states know that they're preparing for that rollout. withwould be ready then whatever the next priority is. every state i talked to says they plan, they will be making changes. you have to realize this the first time in the pandemic we have the chance to get out in front of something and get ready for it. host: your group wrote a letter to congress saying states would need more than $8 billion in

-- in funding. why? guest: this is huge scale. ask knitting hundreds of millions of people, the scope of that is enormous. also being able to do this quickly and as soon as the vaccine is ready. we need to get it out and administer it to people. we don't have the capacity to do that. we don't have people sitting around with nothing to do. they need to bring more people in, have people work overtime. all of that is going to cost money. we need to upgrade our system to make sure we are tracking carefully. communications campaigns. vaccine that further make some of the disparities we've seen worse. we need to find ways to reach

that -- reach out and build trust. especially populations that have been resistant to taking vaccines. host: what will cost $8 billion? guest: a range of things. a lot of the cost is having the personnel and capacity to administer the vaccine to people. systems, we are in the process of developing those. those are the biggest ticket items in that $8 billion budget. i want toant -- host: run this by you who tweets out this is getting worse. dr. fauci just set on nbc this morning that he is worried the stalled transition could mess up the prospects for a quick vaccine distribution. your thoughts?

i think we are in a very good place. states have laid out plans. you're talking about the presidential transition. think it's good to be challenging in the midst of rolling out a vaccine at this scale and this speed. the people in the administration who are ultimately the ones with the expertise and ability to do this. a lot of them will stay on through the transition. their civil servants who move through. even some of the people higher up in the leadership. they are very committed to making sure this is done and done right. there will be some challenges with this. most of them will be communication challenges. we are anticipating that. into the states who are taking the lead on getting

the vaccine out. thatll be much more and will get beyond some of the transition issues. it --like to know where what it is like where you live. and also vaccine distribution. we divide the lines recently. if you live in the eastern or central part of the country, 202-748-8000. mountain pacific area, your number is 202-748-8001. medical professionals, we want to get your thoughts as well. 202-748-8002. gloria is in maryland. good morning. caller: good morning and god bless america, god bless c-span. first of all, everyone has serious concerns about allowing a president who has lost an an entireo hold nation in danger. pastor, ily ordained

walked with the lord for 72 years. i'm not a young lady but i'm pretty familiar with the bible thei abhor everything about murder of our pre-born. we know it as an abortion. host: let's stick to the topic. michael. caller: you asked in our regions down here in florida, our unfortunately in full denial along with the president. so when we consider things like vaccines, other serious concern. concern is serious because heard immunity is basically genocide and they are both promoting that. , he -- hisically outfit does research on support and i wonder because it's been a

history at the cdc. there's questionable history there. tracing,inimized masks, distancing, testing and i'm concerned they are minimizing air filtering because the cdc has come out and said it safe to travel in airlines, which is a confined environment for a couple of hours which is very similar to classrooms. they say it's only safe if you do roughly 20 to 30 times air filtering in the cabin. that's probably you can do in a classroom or a home, but you could if we weren't keeping things on the download like we did with the masks. solutions appear. to takehose would be the air filters, you make them into a box and put them on one

end or the other with a fan and you can get really high airflows through those filters. kids could build them. so there are solutions. the time of maximum effect. we focus solo -- solely on vaccines, people downplay other solutions and if you've got ,olutions that address that together you almost have an ideal 100%. if we were trying to implement tracing, masks and distancing in addition to the wonderful thing which is almost a panacea of having the vaccines. that the time of maximum effect. particularly important if there's a slow rollout. host: let's let the doctor jump

in. guest: i could not agree more with what michael was saying particularly towards the end. cannot see the vaccine as a cure all and the soul way out of this pandemic. we will have to use the vaccine together with many of these other interventions michael went through. it's very important people continue to wear masks until we get to a place where we have widespread immunity. it's important people continue to be careful. it's very important we have more testing capacity. important that we continue to test out some of these other things like air filtrations. we are still learning about that. and if in you -- an official answer on that.

we want definitive answers on what to do and sometimes we have been slow and say masks worth -- work. to makey on we need sure that's true. things that are going back and forth. until you come out with a more firm recommendation. i think it's been very challenging given the scale. herenk the important thing , it's very encouraging. we've got to make sure we use everything we've got to help us get through the pandemic.

>> cnn is reporting on this moderna vaccine. 94% effective. theye testing they did, gave 15,000 people in the test the vaccine, only five got sick. what do you make of that? think the more people that have been infected with covid during the trial, the better. most of the to see people getting affected, people who didn't get the vaccine versus did. , five thatyou right got sick overall. or the five who got sick who receive the vaccine. host: the five who received the vaccine. guest: i was more familiar with the five -- pfizer trial that came out a week ago.

almost 100 people got sick, very few of those who got sick were the ones who got the vaccine. that's why it's looking about 90% effective. in case we find there are glitches. again i would caution everybody these are media releases. over time we start to see the real data coming out. we will be diving in closer. they are not still looking at some of the safety here. this is a very -- vaccines that will be effective is really encouraging. will go to luis in fredericksburg. caller: from what i can

boxrstand, pfizer has a that could store this at the right temperature to ship it to the drugstores in the doctor's office just like they do a normal pneumonia shot. that thei understand asective rate doesn't mean dr. fauci said or jake tapper yesterday -- on jake tapper yesterday, that means five out of 100. would get it. but that's not what this means. this means that everybody who gets the vaccine is 95% effective in each person. that's how that works. from what i can understand, the distribution problem is already fixed, they are going to the drugstores and to the doctors offices, they are going to

prioritize the vulnerable first and then it will be given to us, we go to our local drugstore, go in and get a shot. and if it's two shots, i get two shots. so i don't know what all the fuss is. host: what do you think of what she outlined? optimismappreciate her . there's reason to be optimistic. hereffectiveness, i think explanation of that is accurate. we need to see some of this data before we totally get behind it. for the vast majority of people who get this vaccine, they will be protected from covid. need a second to dose to get full effectiveness.

there been concerns about the logistics of leaving it around. the pfizer vaccine has to be cap doubled 100 degrees below zero. your average freezer is not to do the trick. but the vaccine is actually shipped in a box where it's shipped in dry ice. the box will keep it at that temperature for days. we will be able to make this work. we may not be able to get the pfizer vaccine out into really rural remote areas as easily as we get the moderna vaccine that doesn't have quite -- there will be some challenges around the temperature. there will be other challenges we don't know about. that's the nature of doing something to scale. up with aizer came

very ingenious solution to that. i think there is a lot of reason for optimism. , we are in right now a bad time with rates getting very high and in some communities we are getting to that place where hospital beds are getting tight and we don't want to get to a place where if you are sick and you need care, there's nowhere to go. to takebe necessary stricter mitigations. host: would you like to see a national mask mandate or a lockdown for six weeks? guest: i don't know if it's possible to have a national mask mandate. theyack and forth whether have the ability to do that. i'd like to see more and more

things really move towards mandated mask use. i think it helps people see this is serious and something they have to commit to. states where the rates are going up. it's the first step, it makes the most sense. i know it become controversial. it doesn't effect the economy the way some of the other things too. the thing we can do to help each other get through this. i wish there was more cooperation around that. mandate drivesa home this is serious. i don't think we will have -- i hope we will not have two go through these kinds of shutdowns like we had in the spring for six weeks. states want to see is begin to do some of the measures . limit the size of gatherings. 75 people coming

together for gatherings. in some of these places we need to drive home to people getting together for a large thanksgiving is not something you want to do. thinkt thanksgiving, i will be in a different place. it's those kinds of things. and they may be some instances with the risk of having people come in. restaurants and bars have been harmed by this. these may be some places where we have to make interventions. hopefully by making those interventions we can stem the more severe like we had in the spring. it doesn't have to be all or nothing. we can start doing some of the things we know are most

effective and really see some of these things begin to get things back under control. host: what is your reaction to some governors saying when it comes to your thanksgiving gathering, no more than three different households getting together? guest: i would urge the public to be careful around thanksgiving. thanksgiving is the time traditionally when families come together and that means you have multigenerational families coming together which means you've probably got some people who are older in the age range over 60. covid, it could be very serious and severe. know,you often do not people may have underlying medical conditions. publicreally urging the to do a more quiet stay kind of thanksgiving.

it's very disappointing. i love thanksgiving with my family. i'm sorry to not be able to do that. but we are going to limit that. looking forward by next thanksgiving we will be in a different place. we can get back to the way we want to live our lives. right now, it makes sense to be cautious. make these changes because we are looking out for each other. we are looking out for family members. host: richard in massachusetts. caller: good morning. vaccinete the throughout the country. likeave people to apply it they did in the army when i went in. people righte the through. host: i think he's asking about

the role of the military. guest: i think he's asking about being efficient. he had fact -- the vaccine administration and they had a lot of people up and could very quickly administrate it. doing things as efficiently as possible. so far, i think we have a system using health departments. shoteople get their flu every year through a doctor's office. maybe 20% go to pharmacies. we have a good system out there that people are used to. i don't think we need to have the army come in and administer the vaccine. the army is very efficient at doing things. but some people might be frightened by that as well. i think we can do a very efficient job of vaccination.

throughwe can do that medical care providers were very skilled at giving immunizations and it's also familiar to people where they are used to going for other vaccinations. >> let's go up to new york. good morning. caller: good morning. if i could ask two questions. the manufacturing -- the manufacturers of pharmaceuticals i understand mostly are out of our country, they are not here in america. i know president trump was going to try and get them back so we can manufacture drugs there. i know for example most medications, china holds 97% of the ingredients and india may have all the raw material. how are we set up?

i understand there's three places pfizer has in our country, how are we set up here? before i forget, they say to give it to the people at risk first, but my doctor was telling me that people with heart disease should wait until they see how it goes and then administered to them. i will take a shot at each of those. this issue, i think it's a good question. we were frustrated early on with the fact we couldn't get test because so many of them were made elsewhere and the reagents. the same with personal protective equipment'. much of that is made abroad. i think the advantages with the companies toave manufacture for us.

they know what they are working towards. they have a significant investment to begin not just experimenting with the vaccine, but producing it. they are ready to start scaling up. they are already trying to scale up. they hit the ground running the minute they get the green light. they probably already have some of the vaccine they've made. i think it will be a different kind of situation. it is important the rest of the world get relief from the pandemic as well. if we don't improve the situation everywhere, things like travel will be impossible. international travel. that's the first part of the question. the second thing about who should get it. think we will have more information in the coming days

as we start to see some very specific data in those phase 3 trials. be confident to that this vaccine is safe before they get it. we don't want people doing things they are anxious about. the benefit of getting the vaccine early if you are higher risk is those are the people who when they get covid, they get severely ill. vaccine,testing the not just on the general population, they are testing it with people who have underlying conditions. and assumes the data shows us it's equally safe. that should be reassuring for people. the cautious approach is what your doctor is articulating.

i wonder if your doctor may end infeeling more confident recommending that you get the vaccine early if you have an underlying condition. we still have to see how that pans out. host: pat in clayton, north carolina. caller: good morning. opinion, wait -- the way things are going right now, i do take in the can to proactive from my health. i've done my flu shot, my manoa -- my pneumonia shot, and i'm on a vitamin regimen. i have not been sick for the last three years since i've been doing this. covid,like that if i get so be it, it's the lord's will. thank you for your time. host: darlene in las vegas.

you are next. caller: good morning. good morning. quicklyrried about how they are pushing these drug trials. there is a reason drug trials take so long. how many drugs have come out that the fda has approved and then turn around and yelled bad drug, recall? there is a reason they take so long to get a drug to market. it is because of safety issues. who gotof those people an injection and my doctor told me it was perfectly safe only to have a whole bunch of bone in my jaw die and have to be surgically removed. again, the fda telling me it safe doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy. think this is an issue.

it is true, people are anxious about the vaccine moving so fast. it does usually take longer. i understand that. that may bethings will be reassuring to you. these are big -- these phase 3 trials which is the last big trial where we are testing things out. we have tens of thousands of people participating in this. pfizer has 40,000 people in this. that's a lot of people to test things out. we have a lot of vaccines. we've done vaccines for a long time. generally, if it's good to be a problem, we know quickly. impossible,ng it's but most vaccine side effects turn up pretty quickly.

so we can see them in those trials as those trials go forward. taking so long to get a vaccine out, the process of developing a vaccine is very lengthy the way we used to do it. these are using different methods, methods the deal with the genetics of the virus. medical advances has allowed us -- have allowed us to move faster. there are a couple of vaccines that have been developed using these that appear to be very safe. -- of these methods that appear to be very safe. i understand the apprehension. i do think that there is a good strong process. we will monitor the vaccine from the moment they start giving it they connect

quickly. host: your question or comment. caller: i have a comment. for the last month i've been mye in temple, texas because brother has contracted the virus. these people in texas are going on like there's nothing wrong. they just opened up a huge resort. last weekend, it was packed. you go to the stores, people don't have masks. you go to the restaurants, people are not doing what they are supposed to. you can have all the vaccines in the world. but if the people in the place don't believe there's nothing wrong, they are not going to take the vaccine. host: let's take that point. guest: i'm sorry about your brother, i hope he is doing ok. it is very challenging in this

pandemic. say i think we just have to be patient with each other. it takes time for people to make changes. most people wear a seatbelt now. there are many things that require change that takes time to get people to come around to that. i think we really need to spend a little bit more time trying to communicate why these are important. we need to get to the point where we are all chipping in together. you wear a mask yourself and to protect other people. that's the part that makes us a strong society. we need to keep working at people. most people have it in them to do the right thing. i think wearing a mask right now is the right thing to do. host: on distribution, how are states determining which

populations get this vaccine first? group calledis a the advisory council on immunization practices that's made up of top scientists and public health professionals, experts in vaccine use who, cgether and provide -- who ome together. group that will put out recommendations for who should be prioritized when the vaccine is rolling out. traditionally, the advisory council, that's where i go to for information -- for everything. i think we will see most providers follow that. most states will follow that as well.

they are also autonomous. these are scientists who generally work in hospitals or in research or academic settings. that's where we will get the recommendations from. we will have more data from the trials before they begin. acip. advisory council on immunization practices. host: and they have a website. for viewers who want to learn more. >> c-span's washington journal. every day we are taking your calls on the air and discussing policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, biotechnology innovation chairman jeremy levin discusses how the biotechnology industry is helping in the fight against coronavirus.

then the fulcrum editor-in-chief talks about how the results of the november election will shape the next congress watch "washington journal" live at 7:00 this morning and be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. next we hear from democratic representative phil han omar -- ilhan omar. the discussion was hosted by the washington post. the neck good morning, an opinion writer for the "washington post". welcome too "washington post" live. it is also a live recording of my podcast. my guest today just reelected to her second term in the u.s. house speaker of representatives she is congresswoman bill han omarf