skills overseas in the military that applicable to disaster zones. we quickly discerned that none of the humanitarian agencies were recruiting those men and women, at least not a large-scale. we just thought that was a really, really a waste of incredible human capital. >> sunday night at 8 p.m. on c-span's q&a. >> we're going to keep going. nationalalk about the covid vaccination plans efforts. we will talk about this with jim blumenstock, the pandemic response and recovery senior vice president for the association of state and territorial health officials. good morning. guest: good morning. understand. let's

your title is senior vice president for pandemic response and recovery for the association of state and territorial health officials. tell us exactly what all of that means. guest: i would be pleased to. by its very nature, it is a new job, a new position with the association because of the covid-19 pandemic. with the association for 15 years, responsible for all of the health security activities. but recognizing how significant the pandemic is, not only for our immediate response, but obviously in the recovery to come, our association felt it would be most appropriate to have a senior executive exclusively dedicated to that effort. we are a national association that has members who are the chief health executive, public health executives of the 50 states, district of columbia,

caribbeanpacific and territories. themle is to support individually and with all of the assets the association has to help them with developing and executing sound leadership thetegies, providing necessary technical assistance support they may need, and of course having a strong advocacy program so federal policies, procedures, funding decisions are made in the best interest of the state and territorial public health agencies and the people they serve. host: tell us what that agency, that association's role is when it comes to the coronavirus vaccine distribution in the united states. guest: sure. there are so many areas we are currently working on and i would like to give you a few examples. first, we find one of our greatest strengths is to be a

convene or and coordinator. we have a very elaborate process of convening our members across the country. i believe they reside in 10 different time zones. multiple times a week. this gives them the opportunity to talk amongst themselves with the technical program staff of our association and invited guests, such as leadership and subject matter experts. there are federal agencies such as the cdc and assistant secretary for preparedness response. for us it is a fairly simple process to convene our members twice a week, but the value is it provides them a safe space to have peer-to-peer conversations where they can strategize, share examples, and sometimes even fightresources and try to the good fight of protecting the public against all sorts of threats, including covid-19.

we provide also an extensive portfolio of technical , resources, and documents. i would encourage everyone to -- itour website, www. of whatgood sampling we create for a strategy and to be aware of an execute on a day-to-day basis. another example, and we will spend a few moments talking about this more specifically is leadership council that we started to convene and cohost with the american pharmacists association. spend a fewto moments giving more detail on that, i would be glad to or we could hold off until later in the program. host: i was literally going to

ask you about that next. you're cochair of the newly formed national association covid leadership council. tell us what that is and what organizations are a part of it. this is a self-created self-organized body of 23 national associations that represent a fairly wide spectrum of public health, pharmacy, and pharmacists and supply chain associations. ofy are in that common space trying to support our respective members in the state, having them execute the responsibility and activities in covid response efforts. on theoup is focused national vaccination campaign. we did this 11 years ago. we had1 years ago when

the h1n1 influenza pandemic. the national associations realized while the federal government does a good job organizing themselves in this campaign, having those connections and touch points with the various state partners, but we were missing were the opportunities for the national associations who represent all of the players and active individuals in the jurisdiction who also get together to compare notes, problem solve on areas of mutual interest. sohave that go to resource if there is a question or issue coming from one of our members and we don't have an answer to it, we now know what other component or sector is responsible for that and would have better resources or information. we have those relationships put in place. we did this 11 years ago, recognizing that the pharmacists

and pharmacies across the country were extremely valuable resources to the public health community in administering not only the h1n1 vaccine, but engaging in distributing a lot suchdical countermeasures, as antivirals. that was a successful effort and lesson learned for us as a successful best practice going forward.over the last 10 years we kept those relationships together. to develop and improve our collective performance activities based on the experiences and observations during the h1n1 pandemic. when covid-19 hit and really started to explode, quite frankly, we said it is time to reconvene this group. level have had a very low level of contact the last 10 years, we never maintained any routine program, contact.

we didn't really correspond. we resurrected the group and expanded it. in the 23 organizations, which i will mention in a few moments, clearly addresses the largest players in the public health community, but again the pharmacy/pharmacist community and other health care and supply to really provide this solid format and foundation where the 23 organizations can meet, help each other process some of the challenges and difficulties, exchange information in a very positive, nonthreatening, noncompetitive environment where it is healthy and a good way to support not only our member base but help advance the mission of operation warp speed. the administration and federal agencies who are working on this particular crisis. to give you a sense of the

national associations, for example, i mentioned this group was coke convened and cohosted by astho and the american pharmacist association who have been strong and durable partners . other groups who are part of healthclude america's insurance plan, the american association of colleges and pharmacy, the american immunization registry association, the american medical association, the american society for consultant pharmacists, the american society for health system pharmacists, the association of immunization managers, big-city health coalitions, the health industry distributors association, the health care distribution lines, health care ready, the immunization action coalition, the national alliance of state pharmacy associations, the national association of boards of pharmacy, the national

association chain drugstores, the national association of community health centers, the national association of city and county health officials, the national pharmacists association, the national governors association, the national indian health board, and the national food association. hopefully you can see that the 23 represent a very broad spectrum of national association with the primary focus and mission of making sure our national vaccination campaign is as effective, efficient, safe, and equitable less possible. that is how we view our contribution to the all of government all of nation effort. host: let me remind our viewers they can take part in this conversation. we are going to open up regional lines for this conversation about the national covid vaccine plan effort. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, eastern or

central time zones, you can call in at (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or atific time zones, call in (202) 748-8001. if you are in a medical professional, we will open a special line for medical professionals. we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8002. keep in mind that you can always text at (202) 748-8003. we will always be on social media at twitter and facebook. expertise,ll of that that brings the next logical question. the covid vaccine started this week. we saw the trucks leave on saturday. they went to nursing homes and cvs is around the nation.

how is that process going? man's this is one opinion. from the obviously tracking the media reports and conversations with our members across the , intry since monday morning general i think it is going extremely well. there was a lot of careful, thoughtful planning. it was executed sort of a slow and steady start as far as first week with a limited number of facilities designated in every first launchof the of vaccines going out. overall, we are getting reports that this week is going basically as planned. a few logistical glitches that may have been encountered seem to have been readily fixed or addressed. i am honored to really follow the piece that you did at the theof the hour with

country's leadership getting the vaccine. this is a monumental task that is critically important. week one seems to be very successful and put us in really good position for the weeks and months ahead. host: how are they deciding who gets the first shipment of the vaccine? or example, we are understanding that frontline workers, frontline medical workers, and senior citizens in nursing homes were the first in line this week. who is making the decision of who comes next? guest: sure. there are 300 million americans and not enough vaccine or manpower to vaccinate everyone at once. a prioritization scheme had to using some really

solid and appropriate criteria. the public health agencies basically do matching and allocation, knowing how much material, how much vaccine, they will get on a week to week basis. they have gone through with advice from the cdc's advisory panel on immunization practices to really set a listing of all of the different priority categories so that as the vaccine comes in you systematically process through the schemes. category 1a was identified as health care workers, principally those on the frontlines, as well as of skillednd staff nursing facilities and other types of nursing facilities if they are at highest risk. with that in mind with that being the target audience or

populations to receive it, the states have identified facilities and mechanisms that would be best suited to administer the vaccine to those groups of individuals. over time the population that comprises 1a will be fully addressed, and then the 1crisdictions will go to 1b, and subsequent phases going forward. it is a challenge, it is hard to do it right. that is why with a lot of advice from our federal partners and the expertise and experience the health departments have had doing this, they are really looking at an area that is logistically sound, methods that are logistically sound that can be efficient and effective. we also have to make sure it is fair and equitable in making those decisions and allocations.

as you saw from a lot of the media clips, principally large hospitals, health care systems that have been chosen for the first week, first or second week , vaccinate administration for a couple of reasons. number one, they have the infrastructure and cold storage facilities that can accept the pfizer vaccine. they clearly have a workforce available to set up the vaccination clinics and skillfully administer the vaccine. also, it is where the workforce is. the frontline workers are in those facilities, hospitals and nursing homes. it makes sense bringing the vaccine clinics to them at their place of employment and having that confident -- that confidence that that would be a great set of venues to have week one, to make sure that if there are any rough spots in the process they can be identified and worked out.

in the meanwhile, it is the best place to start this critically important campaign. as time goes on, that net will be broadened. there will be other types of facilities, places of employment, essential workers, other individuals who are considered higher risk, such as otherwise healthy older americans, for example, and over time we will get to the general population where the net will be fully opened that everyone basically would be eligible. hopefully we will all see many facilities across the country, whether it be neighborhood pharmacies, physicians offices, care clinics -- emergency care clinics where you can go in and get a vaccine like you would today for a flu shot. we are a couple of months away from that scenario. host: let's let some of our viewers take part in the

conversation. york.ockaway new muriel, good morning. caller: yes, last night on rachel maddow i heard that several governors who are expecting to get the vaccine in certain amounts next week are told by the government they won't be getting them. the governors are saying they don't know what to do. pfizer is saying they have millions of vaccines on the shelves just sitting there and they don't know where to send the vaccines. i need you to find out, if you can come if there will be a shortage of vaccines next week, and who is holding up the vaccines? the government is saying everything is fine. it is something with pfizer. pfizer is saying they have millions of vaccines on a shelf waiting to find out where they are going.

one more thing. here in this country, how are you going to give them the vaccine? a lot of them have been here for years and years working here, but they are undocumented. how are you going to get them to get the vaccine without them being in fear of being deported? host: go ahead and answer. guest: two great questions. don't knowone, i what else to say other than i had the same reaction you have regarding the confusion or mixed messages. we spend a -- we spent a good part of yesterday and will continue today to try to get a better understanding of what may be happening, and it could be something as simple as a miscommunication to something beyond that. that this isand

not associated with a manufacturing or production ,roblem on the part of pfizer but may be attributed to a process where operation warp speed provided some early on planning target numbers for states to use in anticipating how much vaccine they are going to get. numbers mayplanning have been different from the real world actual numbers being shared today. that is one possible explanation we are trying to get a better idea about and try to help influence a remedy. thestate health officials, governors, clearly my phone and email were quite busy over the last 24 hours trying to get a better answer to explain that. is the allssue too

need to be patient. this is a huge undertaking with so much at stake. just like everything else in life when you do something new, you do something big, and everyone is under a lot of pressure, there may be th these bees of pick -- there may these types of pickups in the process. thatnk everyone is in mindset now, and i apologize that that is not a clear, direct answer to your question, but i was just trying to explain the status of the situation and trying to get a better answer. hopefully we will have one as the day goes on. to your second wait of all individuals -- to your second point of all individuals and their ability to receive the vaccine, from a public health community. we acknowledge that individuals' immigration status

may be a barrier for individuals vaccines. the state health departments and their local partners are doing everything within their power to ensure that individuals are confident and comfortable in whether they are going to their private physicians, going to public health clinics, or even mass vaccination clinics set up across the country in due time. that they should not be fearful of any type of legal enforcement situation. the public is not going to be by preventing or discouraging everyone from getting this lifesaving vaccine. the issue raised is recognized, and for the greater public good and individual health, the state public health department is going to do its best to ensure that it is comfortable and safe

so no one should feel nervous, anxious, or fearful of pursuing a vaccine. thank you for that question. --t: christine from illinois christina from illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a comment. using the word "warp speed," which from what i understand was to be on the release of the medication, i think it might have a few people kind of frightened thinking that the drug was developed too quickly. that it is of the corona family along with sars and mers. it is like just tweaking those two medications. using the word warp speed talking about the vaccine, not just the distribution, i think might be frightening people to think that this has been made

too quick. i don't know if you guys want to try to figure out something about that or if that makes any sense. guest: it makes a lot of sense. believe me, you are not the first person who has raised that as it being possibly misleading or turning off the general name. because of the i can't speak for the federal government, the president, or the military experts that are running operation warp speed. all i can say is i am confident it is not meant to indicate it is going to be speed at the expense of safety and carefulness. their objective is to do both. do things as expeditiously as possible, sort of breaking through some of the bureaucratic

processes that serve its purpose during nonemergency periods, but in times of crisis we need to do things differently and out-of-the-box, but not at the sense of sacrifice of safety and public protection. usedf the examples that is is when you talk about the , inine being developed every case when a vaccine goes through a review and approval process ise approval done before the vaccine is produced. what operation warp speed did to save time is to make this financial commitment or take the financial risk of producing the vaccine at the same time it was going to go through the review .nd approval process

that would have saved a large amount of precious time doing them in parallel as opposed to one after the other. this is explained as the u.s. government took a financial risk , because if the vaccine turned out to not be safe and effective the worst that would happen as they would throw it out and it was money invested, but that is just the cost of doing business. the fact is that now, at least with the pfizer vaccine and hopefully soon to be the moderna vaccine, we see the authorization. we already have stockpiles of that vaccine and those two companies are in production mode. that is an example of warp speed. it is being done quicker and more efficiently than traditional practices. again, safety, transparency, and the public health has not been compromised during the process. we certainly understand naming this operation that could lead

people to feel or think that way, but that really isn't true. but thank you for raising the question. host: here's a question for you. we know the pfizer vaccine went out this week. the moderna vaccine has now been approved. how are they going to decide where the pfizer vaccine goes and where the moderna vaccine goes? we know that these are two different vaccines who have to be kept in two different ways and went through two different processes. they are not the same thing. how will they decide who gets what? guest: great question. let's assume by sunday we have two vaccines that have gone through the full fda and cdc process and are good to go. when the states order their vaccines they will have an opportunity to order both based on the allocation numbers they receive from operation warp

speed. the public health department are seriously considering some of the differences between the two vaccines. they have a great deal of similarity, but they have several differences that could impact some of the logistical issues as well as some of the administration's issues. the pfizer vaccine requires -80 degreesorage, celsius. very few facilities have freezers that are that cold. certainly when you have situations in the remote parts andhe country, the rural frontier areas, that logistical challenge of transporting and storing the vaccine could be challenging. especially in the pacific islands, for example. that is one criteria where the jurisdictions are saying if it

is hard or difficult to get the pfizer vaccine to those parts of the country or their jurisdiction, let's send the therna vaccine to handle largest part of their population . another example is one vaccine is approved down to 16 years of age, one is 18 years of age. depending on the priority groups we are focusing on, the type of facilities that may be enrolled to administer vaccines, that may be one factor also that would influence which jurisdiction gets which type of vaccine. by and large, they both have a a very use profile and similar safety and efficacy profile. i guess the message here to the general public overall is there isn't any significant or

substantial differences, one better or more appropriate over the other, with very few exceptions as well as some of the logistical and scheduling challenges i talked about where one vaccine may just be easier to handle than the other. from tallahassee, florida. marlon works in medicine. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span, for taking my call. , ier the guise -- tell me was wondering at what point with and prisonorcement population, where they have the majority of black and latino people, be distributed the vaccine? second, if we can do the warp speed so fast and black lives really matter, why haven't we

put a warp speed on reparation? guest: on the latter point really it is beyond my area of expertise. i can't quite comment on that, but to your first point, congregate care settings, including correctional care facilities, is being seriously considered in the next couple of priority groups for all of the reasons you have identified going forward. my general sense is they will receive higher priority than the general population groups, and they are being assessed along with some of the other essential services personnel and other circumstances or environments that put them at greater risk. by greater risk is not only the individuals who are residents,

thealso the staff who have responsibility of providing to them the necessary custodial care. correctional facilities and similar entities are being seriously considered for the next one or two priority groups. hopefully those decisions will emerge if not within a >> c-span's "washington journal." every day we discussed policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday, heather taylor discusses hunger and food insecurity in the u.s. amid the covid-19 pandemic. nd real clear educations -- talks about the college free speech -- 's washington

journal saturday morning. be sure to watch all next week on "washington journal" beginning on sunday, featuring books from lance morrow, a cnn political analyst, sharyl attkisson, and a princeton university professor. the hill's opinion editor daniel alex. very trump organization executive and a former george w. bush my gonzalez. the house and senate have passed a short-term government spending bill designed to give lawmakers time to resolve the remaining sticking points on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package. both chambers passed it by wide margins. the president needs to sign the measure before midnight to avoid a government shutdown. the senate has announced it is coming in at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow

and the house will meet next on sunday at noon for possible votes. ♪ announcer: stay with c-span for our continuing coverage of the transition of power, as joe biden moves closer to the presidency. with the electoral college votes cast from skates across the 6untry, join us on january at 1:00 p.m. eastern to count the votes and eclair the winner for president and vice president. funnily at noon, the inauguration -- finally at known, the inauguration of the president of the united states. our coverage begins at 7:00 a.m. eastern. c-span, all live on on the go at to spend.org, or listen using the free c-span radio app. ♪ vice president, mike pence, and his wife received the coronavirus vaccine, along with

surgeon general, jerome adams. given by a medical team from walter reed national military medical center. doctors advised the pences and surgeon general they must return in 21 days for the second dose of the vaccine. >> we have confirmed that you are not feeling any symptoms of covid-19 this morning and read all education materials pertaining to this vaccine. >> we have confirmed that you are not feeling any symptoms of covid19 this morning and read all education materials pertaining to this vaccine. before, i have a couple questions for you. had a serious reaction to any previous vaccines? and are you taking any blood thinners or have any blood disorders? vice president pence: no. >> are you pregnant or breastfeeding? vice president pence: no. [laughter] >> are you immunocompromise or suppressant?

vice president pence: no. >> all right. good to go.

>> great job. great job. >> before you leave today, you will be getting a shot record proving you received the