me. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> all q&a programs are available on our website or as a podcast at c-span.org. >> president biden's nominee for attorney general, judge merrick garland testifies before the senate judiciary committee today for his confirmation hearing. watch our live coverage at 9:30 a.m. eastern on c-span and c-span.org or listen live on the c-span radio app. coming up, wall street journal justice department reporter sadie german previews the

merrick garland confirmation hearing and later, the staff news writer talks about fda and cdc vaccine advisory boards and we take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" his next. ♪ host: good morning, everyone. it's monday, february 20 second. with the u.s. approaching 500,000 deaths due to covid-19, president biden tonight will mark the grim milestone -- milestone with a moment of silence and a candlelight ceremony tonight at the white house. look for coverage on c-span.org and you can listen along with the free c-span radio app. we will begin this morning with a conversation with all of you on where we are in this pandemic. if you live in the eastern central part of the country, dial-in

(202) 748-8000. mountain pacific, (202) 748-8001 . if you have lost a loved one to covid, dial in at (202) 748-8002 . you can text us at (202) 748-8003. or share your thoughts on twitter and facebook. the associated press headline this morning, u.s. coronavirus death toll week approaches the milestone of 500000 and from the reporting, they write this -- the running total of lives lost was 498 thousand, roughly the population of kansas city, missouri, just shy of the size of atlanta. the figure compiled by johns hopkins surpasses the number of people that died in 2019, chronic lower respiratory diseases

anthony found she was on "state of the union" yesterday and was asked about reaching this milestone. [video clip] >> it's terrible, really horrible. it's something that is historic and nothing like anything we have been through in the last 102 years since the 1918 influenza pandemic. people decades from now are

going to be talking about this is a terribly historic milestone in the history of this country, to have these many people to have died from a respiratory born infection, it really is a terrible situation that we have been through and that we are still going through and that is the reason we keep insisting on continuing with public health measures because we don't want this to get much worse than it already is. host: your thoughts as the u.s. approaches 500,000 deaths in this pandemic. robert, greenville. good morning, what are you thinking about this morning? caller: about how terrible this has been and how it should be a wake-up call that we need to get back to a very robust cdc and infectious disease control experts and let science do the predictions as they have done in previous years and prepare the

country. i think this is kind of a wake-up call and there will be plenty of these in the future. we are probably going to come out of this remarkably well. unfortunately 500 thousand, probably 600 and 50,000 by the time we get a control on it. this is going to be part of the future in this ever populated world we live in. host: when you say a very robust cdc, what do you mean? caller: i think we need to get the funding back up. so much of what's happened in the last year has basically involved not having the people in control making decisions and implement policy and basically have the strong leadership that can dictate out to the public that this is what we need to do and we need to do it now.

there has been a lot of politics and we really don't need politics. what we need is the scientists to tell us the approach to handling situations like this. host: who do you blame for not having a robust cdc? caller: if you go back and read about bob woodward and the former president's view that he didn't want to alarm the public, didn't want to shut down the economy, election year politics i guess, just pure politics. something like disease control and all, you don't want a doctor to treat you differently if you are a republican or democrat. you want science to dictate that this is something we all need to buckle down and get through together.

i tend to trust scientists in determining the right path. not politicians. host: alright, ralph in washington, d.c., good morning to you, your thoughts on this pandemic and where we are at this point. caller: well, i've been exposed, had no symptoms, have the antigens. my wife probably brought it home, she works at children's hospital. my daughter in new york came down with it and she lost her taste and felt bad for a few days and that was it. you know, this stuff is all over. i will say this and please cut me off -- don't coming off, my wife works at children's hospital in one thing they are doing for preventative is taking vitamin d. all the staff, the doctors, the workers are given vitamin d. there was a study that came out in indonesia that said 95% of the people that died in cook --

of covid were vitamin d deficient. a study from india, a study from spain, england, all the studies point to the same thing. it's not going to keep you from getting it, but it's going to kill the symptoms and for me i never even had symptoms and thank god my daughter was taking vitamin d. three weeks before she got it, her symptoms were mild. guest: what did the hospital said your wife about the need for taking vitamin d? were they siding these studies? caller: the doctors are aware of it. n/a get -- nih had a study where the vitamin d group got a

derivative where your body processes it and uses it seven days later. the first 40 got the vitamin d derivative. out of the first 40 that went into the hospital with covid, one went into intensive care. the second 25 group all had covid and went into the hospital. seven of those people went into intensive care and three never made it out. those numbers are staggering and it's not just one thing but for some reason the media is afraid to do anything to recommend any kind of, this is, i'm talking about cost-benefit analysis. $10 a vitamin d and there is no known overdose. you take two pills per day and if i'm wrong, all of these studies are only out $10 and if you are right you will never know whether or not you had it. i mean i'm 66 years old.

i've got high blood pressure. i had no symptoms whatsoever. but i do have the antigens. host: will you get vaccinated? caller: probably not. the purpose of the vaccine is to get the antigen. to get the body exposed to saying yes, indeed, this is a virus and i recognize i'm going to attack it. caller: ok, but are you continent the antigens will last -- confident the antigens will last? caller: i'm confident that the vitamin d will last. i'm confident that this thing is dying now. we are down 30% and what iam seeing in the public, i mean all right, you need to be cautious. host: i will leave it there so that i can get in some other voices. the number of cases is on the downtrend and the number of vaccinations is taking upward.

patsy, massachusetts, what do you think about where we are with combating this fit -- this pandemic as we approach 500,000 deaths in this country? caller: i have been a social activist, thank you for taking my call, since the 60's. people have to start to take responsibility first for themselves and then for the country. people should not have to be told over and over and over again to wear masks and wash her hands. the american people since 1970 have not been taught to take responsibility. i call it everybody gets a trophy syndrome. everybody has to be a winner. host: ok, patsy.

usa today headline, u.s. hits 500,000 deaths from coronavirus as many states announced plans to ease social restrictions. as we approach this milestone, congress returns to washington this week to work on president biden's $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief plan. look at the headlines in the paper today, politico with the headlines democrats prepare to give partyline house vote on the pandemic aid bill. you have "the hill" as well this morning, democrats facing unity test on the biden $1.9 trillion bill. they are also reporting this morning that the gop is not worried again -- worried about voting against popular relief bill. a picture thereof steve scalise,

in the minority in the house, he was also on the sunday shows. here he is on abc. [video clip] >> the first thing the president can do is give strong guidance and follow the science. there is so much science out there saying that this is hurting kids, millions of kids in america right now not getting in class real learning every day and again if you look at cdc guidance and the american academy of pediatrics, they lay out how you can safely reopen schools. 40% of children in america are in schools. you don't have to reopen -- reinvent the wheel. if you look at the priority, it should be the children and that isn't the case right now. you can see that as the unions have stepped up and said they don't want classroom learning, you can see in the white house the pressure to reverse guidance that was very clear. the money idea that you have to wait until the money comes out, john, that's not the case.

there is $60 billion still remaining in previous relief packages for reopening schools. the money there, this idea that you have to pass more money, the congressional budget office said that the money moving through congress this next week, the money will not even be able to be spent. 95% of it won't be able to be spent until 2022. do they really want to pass a bill that is going to delay reopening schools even more? our kids can't wait. they need to be in a classroom today. the science says so. the question is is the will therefore the washington -- is the will there in washington, who are bowing to the teachers union. there's devastating impact in the classroom. host: steve scalise on abc yesterday talking about schools opening and the covid-19 relief bill. president biden is pushing for $1.9 trillion.

democratic control of the house and the senate, as you know, politico with their headlines, democrats preparing for a partyline house vote on aid bill. it will be bulk -- be brought before the house budget committee today and on the floor later this week. one of the biggest outstanding questions is whether the biden push to raise the federal minimum wage for the first time since 2009, as championed by progressives, will survive the restriction. nancy pelosi host: included in that 1.9 trillion dollars is minimum

wage. we will get you -- your thoughts on that today. howard, georgia, go ahead. all right, howard, you have got to turn down the television. just talk and listen through your phone. alright, howard. moving on to carol in clarksville, tennessee. hi, carol. caller: good morning. how are you? i have six points to make. one, we are going down the path of wrong. two, the former president never had an order in place to collectively work. we had the states working against each other. if they had what we had now, with everybody having a centralized station like they do in the military, a centralized point that disseminates all the information, that never happened. that's why we are at this 5

million persons lost. with regards to the children going back to school and doing remote learning, we as adults are the ones who are failing them. did we not start saying this was going to be a lost generation? they are very adjustable. if you had said to them, something about those folks that did not have childcare and all those kinds of things, if we had done it a different way we would not be where we are today in scaring the children. as far as the money going to individuals, individuals who work jobs that do not qualify for unemployment, that $1400 is not going anywhere but for one month. they are left out in the cold again because they don't qualify for unemployment. all they need to do is buy groceries, pay their rent.

that $1400 is then gone. the last thing i would like to say is that with regards to the vaccine, we should be giving the vaccine on a 24 hour basis. if we want to get to herd immunity and can do it before the end of summer, we need to open up our clinics across the country and have them giving the vaccine 24 hours a day so that we can get to the immunity. we need to use the same strategies that they use whenever we took the vaccine for the chickenpox, for tv, -- tb, measles, mumps, rubella. measles, mumps, flu, i am sure that there are people that don't want to take the vaccine that have taken the flu shot. there is no difference. we've got to get to this point.

i'm sounding like the doomsday people again with regards to what i just referred to. we are not going to have a healthy america and if we don't have a healthy america, we cannot have a great education like we have always had and the economy is going to be greatly affected. i heard someone say, listening to the poor people's campaign, that we are a country that is truly backwards. we work on money and not on people. if we don't have people, there's no money. guest: all right, -- host: all right, carol in tennessee mentioning what's in the economic aid plan. the house is slated to take it up this week. a vote later this week accepted on friday, then going over to the senate. democrats are moving this book

-- this bill along by using the reconciliation process. meaning they don't need 60 votes in the senate by doing so. how the legislation looks in the end will largely depend on what happens in the senate as the parliamentarians get to rule whether or not amendments to it and provisions in the bill are allowed under the so-called heard rule --herd rule. usa today, their headline about this legislation, noting that the $1400 check for americans earning $70,000 per let that or less, plus $1300 for independence. funding for schools to reopen, restaurant relief, extension of a $400 per week loosed to federal unemployment benefits through the end of august and an expansion of the child tax credit, and a shift to that

being delivered as a monthly payment with expansion of the earned income tax credit and funding for vaccine distribution with expansion of subsidies under the affordable care act and expansion of health insurance law subsidies and an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025. berry, california, good morning to you. caller: good morning. i only have a few minutes, only because i am short of breath right now. six weeks ago i was diagnosed with covid-19. i'm 68 and i have been 10 years after my heart repair, five way bypass. this has been nothing but hell. i have run the gamut of about six different kinds of reactions to it, including symptoms and afterwards, where it just combined together to take all

the energy out of you. i'm up again tonight because i was afraid to get back in bed because i woke up because i wasn't breathing. this wasn't the first time. i finally got a hold of my doctor after seven attempts and i called him on the helpline at his office yesterday. he answered and it's the first time i talked to him. he said he would call it in right away, gary, and make sure that i would have the prescriptions and it was too late for me to go down there but that is ok because he hadn't really called in my prescription for any sort of the drugs i need and i have been running out of. the health care system is on a breakdown. people my age, people my income, very small, are really distressed to the point of i guess we just have to wait on that bill for this week because i have to eat something this week and that's what's going to happen to me for $1400.

i will be able to eat for about six weeks and we will go from there. caller: doug, fairfax, south dakota. your next. -- host: doug, fairfax, south dakota. you are next. caller: last year i called in when there were only two deaths from this at the time and i commented, they were talking about 1%, 2%, talking about 300000 and now we are up to 500,000 on the trump flu. told pedro it was coming to this town and it was already there by march 2. i get my first shot on march 2. kind of ironic, actually. anyway, on the wages deal, i have been on both sides of the totem pole on that. i think $15 would be too high to jump up right away.

people need raises. but the people working, too, you have to take them into consideration. the people at $15 per hour are going to need a raise or they will be awful mad. the democrats kind of want to go on this drop the schooling deal and i don't think that's right either. you accept a deal, if you buy something you should pay for it. and then get the people who have paid for people's schooling, take that into consideration, too. i'm really glad trump is out of there with his flu. tax the rich people. i hope the best for everybody. host: doug last called in march 2, 2020, and we are approaching one year later and 500,000 deaths in this country. the washington post puts it this way, that marker of 500,000 deaths is the equivalent of

carrying all 500,000 people in a caravan of 9804 buses that would stretch 94.7 miles. let's go to james, next, in san diego. high,. caller: good morning. i'm 79 years old and i'm not going to get the virus in injections and the reason why is because the experts, found she, cannot make up their minds what to tell us. one day found she says this, the next day found she says something else. -- found she -- dr. fauci says something else. people wearing masks are supposed to be immune to the disease as i understand it and the only problem is you can't get anybody to tell you that. they are all guinea pigs. the bill is full of pork. pork and pork. want to take and get down to the epidemic?

fine, but the money into that. at $15 per hour i'm going to raise the rent on my tenants by five dollars. think they will like that one? wait until you go to denny's and pay $25 for two eggs, two pieces of bacon, and hash brown potatoes. want to talk about teachers? teachers are online, our students need education. if we don't get a good education soon, we are going to miss out on the rest of the world. host: you mentioned dr. fauci and schools and he was asked about that yesterday and here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> the situation on the ground, the teachers in the schools are going to make their decisions. the cdc gives guidelines and if you follow them i think it will go a long way to be able to get

the children back to school in the safest way that you possibly can. one of the things that comes up that we will be doing more and more of, and i think that these are things that are important to put into the mix of the consideration, teachers clearly should be prioritized among those essential personnel to get vaccinated. i don't believe that it should be a scene where if they are not vaccinated they shouldn't go back. i believe that we should prioritize them and get as many vaccinated as we possibly can. the other thing that will relate very closely to what you said just a moment ago is that if you look at the number of infections in the community, they are coming down at a rapid, steep decline. which means quickly as we get into the next week or so, you will see more areas getting into the yellow and then the blue zone as the continuation goes

down, which i think will add to the solutions of the problem together with the cdc guidelines. host: the united states is seeing an uptick in vaccinations and at the same time they are reaching 500,000 deaths in covid-19, from covid-19. this morning we are getting your stories in your reaction, your thoughts on where we are in this pandemic. howard, atlanta, georgia, hello, howard. caller: can you hear me now? host: we can. caller: i called in a few months ago and was making a comment. i was making a comment on the virus and what they should do about it and what i was saying was that they should call it -- they were calling it a war and all this stuff. i said they shouldn't leave anything off the table.

they need to mobilize a lot of people. they are doing some of it now. they should have done that seriously and progressively and people should have had to quarantine a lot, like we see other countries doing where they aren't having a lot of trouble like we are. as far as them saying that black people get the disease 40, 50 times more, it seems we need to mobilize mobile units to those neighborhoods and get those people shot. the only way they can go to the hospital to get education or anything is to help those people and it's done through federal government and they need to get those people, nobody talks about them, we need to get those people shots where they can't go up and get in a car and wait eight hours and all of this. i don't hear any of that. moving forward i'm glad it's

coming down but people wearing masks and stuff like that. host: have you been paying attention to the biden covid-19 response team doing briefings three times per week, sometimes more, about the plan for vaccinations? have you seen any of their briefings? caller: i do watch them all the time. i don't see anything, he's running a much better line than the last president was, but i still don't think it's hard for them to use the term in a war. when you are in a war everything is on the table. i never heard a president say we are in a war and i'm taking this or that off the table. i think everybody from the federal government should have been mobilized. they should have been getting to the people. that's two or three weeks since the last time i called in. we wouldn't be as high as we are right now.

everyone wants to be all over the place. i appreciate your questions. host: howard and atlanta there. if you are interested in the briefings by the presidents covid-19 response team, you can find them on our website, c-span.org. "the wall street journal" editorial this morning saying that the spending plan from the president includes a "spending blowout." they write "129 billion dollars is for elementary and secondary schools, and note that since congress provided 100 and $14 billion for schools and most of the funds are not spent, it expects 95% of the new money will be spent from 2022 to 2028 and "the wall street journal" as that that is over, including 35 billion dollars in subsidies for obamacare premiums, $15 billion

for the medicaid match to the states expanding eligibility to adults and for public transit agencies, $19 billion in mortgage held, rental assistance , $10 billion in mortgage help, $4.5 billion for low income home energy assistance programs with food stamps looking at 3.5 billion. $1.5 billion for amtrak. $4 billion to pay off the loans of socially disadvantaged armors and ranchers and $1 billion in food assistance." "the wall street journal" calls this the non-covid spending blowout. brad, tell us your story. caller: i had a couple of older relatives pass away from, you know, the cause of death was listed as covid. but also i had some still living

relatives suffering significant loss. i'm very close with my sister and she's a teacher. she just recently a few months ago was at the point in her career where she said, she told me one morning that this was her halfway to retirement point. around the same time she told me she went the school -- went to school in the kids aren't there anymore, they have to do it online and stuff. she said one morning they sat in the parking she -- she sat in the parking lot and cried and it was the first time she had ever done that. it bothered me more than anything else i had heard to do with this. our teachers and our students, our students are killing themselves at a rate we don't know because we don't know who falls through the cracks because

it isn't a number that we will get calculated, if you see what i mean. they don't want to calculate that. you can't find that number but i would say it is probably average of one per county, student killed themselves. maybe we should have the teachers unions do these grades if they want to keep these schools closed -- dig these graves if they want to keep these schools closed. i don't understand why this is so damaging to the american little red schoolhouse. host: i'm so sorry for the loss that you have had in your family and when it comes to your sister , will she get vaccinated soon as a teacher? caller: will she get vaccinated soon? i don't know. she wants the kids back in her room. she wanted to teach and be with kids and help them and there's a

great gulf between them now. she's hurting and that hurts me. i know teachers across the country are hurting. host: brad there, kentucky. barry, louisiana, welcome to the conversation. good morning to you. caller: hey, how you doing? host: go ahead. caller: can you hear me? host: we are listening. caller: covid-19 is a big fat [laughter] host: ok, diane. how are you doing? caller: doing well. host: what are you thinking this morning? caller: i'm going to go friday and get that first shot. i am 71 years old and i'm doing this because i want my family to see that taking this vaccine is not going to kill them. i have so many in the family

that say they won't take it. that's where i am with that. i also wanted to speak a little bit on this $15 per hour minimum wage. it's my understanding that it won't be until 2025 when the minimum wage gets to $15 per hour. you had those of us were before the virus came along i was making nma -- i was making a salary were my job closed down, the small business closed down because they didn't need that many consultants no more and i'm now working two part-time jobs in the health care field. i'm making $11.50 per hour and on my other job, that's part-time as a pca and i make $13 per hour. there is no raise coming no time . this is what happens to those of us who happen to be out here and

i'm a front-line worker, but we are not making the money. we do need that rate. i work with people every day, some of them don't even have food to eat and i stand in line for them to pick up their groceries so they can have a meal. i just don't understand now. we don't care about us anymore. so that's where i am. i'm praying about all of this because i know that god is still here. host: as we said, the house and the senate are back in washington this week. lawmakers in the house, voting on the $1.9 trillion aid package , including a hike in the minimum wage. don, fremont, pennsylvania, good morning to you. caller: how you doing? my aunt died in a new york nursing home. is governor cuomo going to take any to that? -- take a knee to that?

seriously. host: what do you mean by that? caller: he put all the infected people in the nursing homes. when are you going to bring up cuomo? what are you going to cover him? host: tell us more about that story and from your personal perspective. caller: because you won't cover it. he put, last year he put all the infected people in the nursing homes. trump had the ships out there. he had everything else. after 50 years of watching you, i cannot watch you no more. no more. why don't you tell everybody about the $100 million they are doing for the train thing in new york with governor aggghh. what's his name out there. why are you lying to people? you have been lying to people for years? host: about what? caller: you have been lying to

people for years about trump. biden is a waste of space. host: all right, don, pennsylvania. political -- political reporting this morning that after the raging of the quote -- over the cuomo handling of the nursing home, the state senate is ready to pass a package of nursing home legislation today including a bill requiring the state house to record the deaths of nursing home revit -- residence as nursing home deaths and the technical matter is at the heart of mushrooming allegations where they spent months covering up thousands of fatalities. that is in the papers this morning. joe in biddeford, maine. hi, joe. caller: thank you for taking my call. my comment was just this, actually. everyone else wants to take it out on the teachers. i remember a year or so ago the

teachers don't get paid. they have to fight for their wages. they were going after the teachers union. these people, i wouldn't want to go sit for eight hours with a classroom full of young kids that, you know, through no fault of their omen have been exposed -- their own have been exposed and are taking these risks. i just, i'm here, here in maine four out of 10 children in elementary schools use the schools for food sources. i no one teacher that had to prepare three class loads. one for the kids at home, one for the kids who came in, and one for the kids who came for a few hours and there is a burden on these people. you know, they don't, they weren't getting paid two years ago and all of a sudden they are satan? they are the ones causing the problem with covid because they

don't want to go back to school, where a normal teacher doesn't control what the union tells them what to do. they want to be in school, but they want to be safe. i don't understand why people are attacking them. the last caller, my god. what are they drinking in the water in pennsylvania? wow. host: all right, joe in maine. president biden recently talked about the administration plans for vaccinations across the country. listen to what he had to say. [video clip] >> we also started shipping vaccines to thousands of pharmacies across the country so that eligible folks can get the shot like they would've flu shot. here in michigan that's already 200 and 20 pharmacies like rite aid and myers. and that's just the beginning. it's only been four weeks. for the folks who are not near a pharmacy or a mass vaccination

center, we are deploying mobile clinics. these are special vehicles and pop-up clinics that meet folks where they live. folks that don't have access to transportation to get the shot. we are also looking at vaccines for community health centers, federal community health centers to reach those who are hit the hardest. native americans in rural communities that have higher rates of covid infections and deaths than any other group. host: the president last week talking about the administration possible vaccination rollout. this morning we are talking about the country reaching that 500,000 deaths milestone. maryland in beaver falls -- marilynn in beaver falls, go ahead. caller: i never got my first shot yet. my daughters are trying to try it. host: we are listening.

your daughters have been trying and trying? caller: yeah and they didn't call her back and they said that i could go on wednesday. now they figure they are introducing a new bill where you can go to your doctors to make an appointment. they can make an appointment for us. host: ok. all right. vic, windermere, florida. caller: yes. coronavirus is unpredictable. you don't, it seems that these variants are coming along and it will be very difficult to control this virus. the other problem we have had is the government has been lying to us. trump told us that it was going to go away in three months. that it was temporary. that you could curate with things that you couldn't curate with. that's where it starts, it starts at the top. all of this misinformation from fox news, fox news carried all of this misinformation that it

was no worse than a cold and they supported everything trump said and now you have a lot of people who are misinformed. as far as kids going back to school, i have two granddaughters and i don't want them going back to school until they are vaccinated. the reason for it is this, they will recover from the corona or -- coronavirus quickly because they are young, but there are side effects and if you go to mayo clinic.com. a lot of these kids have recovered but they have problems with scarred lungs for life and affecting other organs. we have been misinformed by the government and everything. as far as andrew cuomo is concerned, i still don't understand why, he is an intelligent man, he's not a vicious man. why did he put the people who already had covid, why didn't he put them in the javits center to

segregate people from those who didn't have covid? and why didn't he use the boat that trump sent? those are the questions you need to ask cuomo. as far as this reporting, i think he was late on reporting. and it was hard to report because he was taking people out of the nursing homes and putting them in the hospitals and then he took them out of the hospitals because he said he needed the beds for other people who were sick. this thing has been botched by the media, botched by the federal government, and botched by the state government. but i would really like to see on television people from mayo clinic. they are a reliable bunch of people, before you start sending kids back to school and saying it safe. it's not safe, even if they get a mild case of it they can, they could have lifelong long-term effects. they explain it all on the mayo

clinic website. thank you. host: as we said, the president tonight will mark the grim milestone of 500,000 deaths in this country and he will be delivering remarks and holding a moment of silence and a candle lighting ceremony at the white house at sund down -- sundown. you can watch it on our website and you can also listen with our free c-span radio app. mark in saint peters, missouri. let's go to you next. caller: thank you for taking my call. a couple of points i would like to bring up. number one, coronavirus relief bill, it's just packed with all types of pork. things that have nothing to do with the coronavirus whatsoever. and that's, i just think that's absolutely ridiculous that they are going to try to ram that

through and stick the taxpayers with that will, with all these things that have nothing to do with it. you pointed out earlier where you showed a picture of a report about how many coronavirus deaths there were. how many buses they fill up and things like that. one thing that nobody is looking at is if you look at the amount of coronavirus, the amount of coronavirus that has been diagnosed, people that have had it, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 million? i think that's actually a low estimate because i think a lot of people might have had it and didn't get tested and therefore was never really, you know, marked as coronavirus. when you look at the deaths, the 500,000, that is on the face of it, it looks like an awful lot and it is, absolutely, but when you compare it and look at

percentages, 500,000 out of 40 million comes out to be about 1%. that means that 99% of the people that have had the coronavirus are going to survive it. and when i look at what they are saying, that we can't go back to normal until everybody has had these vaccines? i think that's absolutely ridiculous. we are shutting down the whole nation when you have a 99 percent chance of surviving the coronavirus? and that's what i have to say, thank you very much. host: mark started out talking about the aid package pushed by the biden administration. democrats, this morning in "the wall street journal," they called it a non-care blowout.

"distributed last year by state population, the 350 billion dollars included for states here , but much of the $220 billion for states in the new bill will be host: michael in aurora, colorado, good morning to you, michael.

caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. some people coming in are demonstrating total ignorance. the gentleman from missouri, 99% chance of survival? he can go expose himself to covid and let's see how he feels about that. the gentleman, another one calling from pennsylvania, you guys never lie. you ask that question, you put it out there. time for people to stop listening to social media, pick up a civics book and start learning about civics and stop volute -- believing every stupid thing that they hear because it is said over and over and over again. i appreciate the job c-span is doing. the attack on the capital, the insurrection, it's disgusting, outrageous, and i really hope that they prosecute to the fullest is extent of the perpetrators of this. this nonsense just has to stop. our country is too important.

we are holding firm on it but we have to be more aggressive about going after people that want to destroy the country, including the social media folks. host: a note on what happened at the capital, plea for backup, states face confusion as riots blow up, critical hours wasted, you can read it there on the front page. brian in kansas, good morning to you. caller: hello. i just wanted to, the guy before me stole my thunder. if you look at the cdc website it's 99.46 percent survival rate. i was also wondering why, why don't we reset the number? in december it was 300 and 28,000 and we reset that number

for the flu every year and why not for this? don't get me wrong, i don't want this at all. people getting really sick. at the same time it seems funny that we are adding on to this number. i think i no one, but nevertheless, in 2017 we lost almost a quarter of a million people to lower respiratory disease, pneumonia, flu. so, maybe some of the things we are doing are actually helping. i mean we have obviously lost a lot more by wearing masks and social distancing and stuff, but now that it's coming back down for the next couple of months, i hope that we can open everything back up and get back to normal. host: the world health organization did a report on the origins of the covid-19 disease. as you know the report out

recently, here's the headline, china hasn't given sufficient original data on the covid-19 origin according to the white house advisors. this is "the new york post" reporting. jake sullivan was on the sunday face the nation and he talked about the man's by the administration for china to be more transparent about the origins of the disease. [video clip] >> i think we need to take a variety of steps to make sure that this never happens again and i believe that we need a credible, open, transparent international organization led by the world health organization and they are about to come out with a report about the origins of the pandemic in china that we have questions about because we do not believe that china has made available sufficient original data into how the pandemic began to spread in china and around the world and

we believe that both the who and china should step up on this matter. host: scott gottlieb writing today in "the wall street journal," "the world says what"? "they visited china to investigate the origins of the virus and a member of the delegation said that it was possible that a frozen carcass shipped to china host: you can read more from him

in today's "wall street journal ." merrick garland, five years later after not getting a confirmation hearing for a supreme court seat will be sitting in the hot seat before the judiciary committee for a confirmation hearing to become the attorney general and you can watch that at 9:30 a.m. eastern time right here on c-span, on our website, or download the free c-span radio app. george, good morning to you. what are your thoughts as we reach the 500,000 milestone? caller: it's unfortunate, as they say. you just all my thunder as i think china is responsible for this epidemic worldwide. they are the ones who created,

for whatever reason, how could they let something like this escape. but it's here and we are just going to have to deal with it. i understand that. but what is china's liability in the situation? why aren't they paying for a lot of what has happened around the world? i just say that this is kind of an extreme thought, but the country of china is a little bigger than the united states and most of the billion people that live there are equivalent to the western -- sorry, the eastern side of the mississippi river. how many people can they sustain in that country? what is the reason that this was released and when are we going to deal with china as a whole? thank you for your report on china right before i called,

that related clear up a lot of my questions. by the way, anyone wanting to criticize c-span is wrong because they have been completely objective since ice first started listening to it with brian lamb and you people do a great job and that's all i can say. host: we appreciate that you watch and listen. mary elizabeth, new york, good morning to you. caller: good morning, good morning all. i want to comment on the misinformation regarding the nursing home situation and the blame game with the governor. the nursing, the people that lived in the nursing home, that was their home. when people are sent to the hospital and they recover, then they are sent back to their home, the nursing home. it is up to the nursing home, which is regulated by the federal government, to in their

nursing home, to separate well people or people who lived in the home versus the people returning back from the hospital . it's not the governor's fault. host: apologize, thought you were finished their. political news to share with you this morning. "usa today," former president breaking his silence and a major cpac address this week, marking his first major public appearance since he left the white house. the former vice president mike pence will not be speaking, as conformed -- confirmed by cnn. asa hutchinson was on the state of the union and here is what he had to say, he won't support donald trump if he runs into thousand 24. here he is. [video clip]

>> he only defines the party if we let him. that's one of the reasons my voice is important in this debate. i think it is fine for cpac to invite the former president to speak, but how about the other voices? cassidy from louisiana, those with different points of views, arch conservatives with a different voice for the future of the party. that's what we have got to embrace. he has a loud megaphone and we have to allow for many different voices and in my view we can't let him define us for the future because it would further divide the country and it would hurt our republican party. host: the former president teasing a run again in 2024. -- >> the former president teasing a run in 2024. would you support him? caller: no, i -- >> no, i wouldn't. i have worked with his family, they love america, but i would

not support him for reelection in 2024. he will have a voice as former president's do, but there are many voices in the party and again, he should not define our future. we have got to define it for ourselves and it has to be based on the principles they gave us strength in america. host: asa hutchinson yesterday on "state of the union." stephen, "the washington post" has that as we reach 500,000 deaths, it's the equivalent of numerous buses stretching nearly 95 miles long. a number that they say is almost too large to grasp. your thoughts? caller: hey, greta, thank you for taking my call. good morning to fellow c-span viewers. my thoughts on half a million corona deaths are federal numbers, that's a lot of people. compared to a place like

australia, which has a quarter of the population, 20% of the u.s. population, less than 1000 and to wonder what happened here with how our response differed from other places around the world to get to this point. with that, i will send it back to you and i hope everyone has a great week. thank you. host: we will return to this conversation later on, but coming up, merrick garland's confirmation hearing for attorney general kicks off in an hour and a half. our coverage right here on c-span. we are joined with a preview and then later, we take off a new segment taking a deep dive into different angles of the covid-19 response at 9:00 a.m. eastern time, taking a closer look at the fda and cdc advisory boards who are tasked with approving

covid vaccines. we will be right back. ♪ announcer: here is our live coverage tuesday on c-span. the senate confirmation hearing for herve or becerra -- javier becerra. the senate confirmation vote on tom vilsack, and debate on linda thomas-greenfelt's nomination. jerome powell, chair of the federal reserve, with a semiannual monetary policy report to congress. and on c-span.org at 9:30 a.m., confirmation hearing for deborah holly, interior secretary nominee. a joint oversight hearing to examine the security failures which led to the u.s. capitol breach on january 6. watch live coverage tuesday on

c-span, c-span2, c-span3, and c-span.org. or listen on the c-span radio app. tonight on the communicators, a discussion on court-cutting in the pandemic with michael mason -- nathonson. >> that continues at a constant rate, but the adoption of broadband and the need for more speed is really benefiting the cable industry broadly. the pandemic has really clarified that idea. the shift to treatment has benefited the economics of the cable industry. announcer: watched the

communicators on c-span 2. visit c-span's new online store to check out the new c-span products and with the 178 in session, we are taking preorders for the congressional directory. every purchase helps support nonprofit operations. shop today. >> listen to c-span's podcast. this week, an expert on infectious diseases and one of america's leading epidemiologists talked about the road ahead dealing with the coronavirus. >> we have a very long road ahead. i can say that without any doubt at this point, if we have this interview 10 weeks ago, we would not have been talking in the way that we are now. and yet, here we are today,

talking about the severe challenges. expect the unexpected, there is much we can do but at this point, this is not going to be over with anytime soon. announcer: find c-span's "the weekly" where you get your podcasts. washington journal continues. >> tuning out this morning's the justice department reporter with the wall street journal here to talk about merrick garland's confirmation hearing this morning that will get underway at 9:30 a.m. eastern time. the headline of your piece this morning, just as picks -- justice pick merrick garland promised to confront violence. guest: the fact that he is even getting a hearing today is pretty stunning and intriguing because five years ago when president obama nominated him to the supreme court, republicans did not even meet with him. now the pressure is really on

for bidens attorney general picked because of the heightened threat of domestic terrorism and extremism after the january 5 riot. republicans are also going to ask how he plans to address other forms of violence such as the kind we saw over the summer during the social justice protests in places like portland and seattle. he will also be hard-pressed to study the justice department after years of political turmoil. the pressure is really on, but this time around, he seems to have bipartisan support. host: what type of bipartisan support, or i should ask, how much? guest: republicans including some of the people who blocked his nomination back in 2016 are now calling him a sharp legal mind. they are seeing him as someone who will execute the law and not

as a political nominee. i think they still view him as somebody who will take an unbiased view of the law and uphold the law after years in which president trump and his justice department criticized for partisan interference. >> yesterday, the attorney general nominee released his opening statement. what did we learn? guest: what is particularly compelling is the emphasis that he puts on civil rights enforcement. this is something that some people on the left, particularly, had been skeptical that judge garland, they had pressed the biden administration to choose somebody who had a proven track record of civil rights enforcement and somebody who was a racially diverse candidate and they got merrick garland and so he kind of was

nodding to their concerns is his opening statement by talking about the need to restore the justice department to its roots to uphold the reconstruction era amendments that were designed to give equal protection to black people any point this out in his opening statement so he is coming to the table ready to address the concerns of democrats and some on the left who are increasingly pressing the justice department to make racial justice a focal point of this work after the summer protests put the issue back in the spotlight. merrick garland will be in the office building in room 216. there is on your screen. he will be sitting centerstage before the members of the house and senate judiciary committee, answering their questions about his priorities if you were to be confirmed as attorney general. you just ended on the violence that we saw over the summer, the

protesting. what type of questions do you think he will get on that, and who will be asking them? guest: some in particular have already signaled that they plan to ask him what the justice department under his leadership plans to do about left-wing extremism and what emphasis he will give not just a combating violence from right-wing groups that attacked the capital, but also how they would prevent, to make sure he is giving equal weight to leftist groups who republicans believe are partly responsible for some of the destruction over the summer. already we've seen a signal that they intend to press him about this, but he mentioned extremism across the political spectrum is going to be in the spotlight today. host: when he was nominated by president biden for the top post at the justice department had this to say. >> i have loved being a judge.

but to serve as attorney general at this critical time, to lead the more than 113,000 dedicated men and women working the department to ensure the rule of law is a calling i am honored and eager to answer. as everyone who watched yesterday's events in washington now understands, if they did not understand before, the rule of law is not just some lawyers turn of phrase. it is the ferry foundation of our democracy. -- very foundation of our democracy. the essence of the rule of law is that like cases are treated alike. that there not be one rule for democrats and another for republicans, one rule for friends and another for foes, one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless. one rule for the rich, and

another for the poor. or different rules, depending upon one's race or ethnicity. and the essence of its great corollary, equal justice under law, is that all citizens are protected and may exercise their civil rights. those ideals have animated the department of justice since the very moment of its conception. host: merrick garland on january 7 being nominated for the attorney general spot today on february 22 at 9:30 a.m. eastern time. our coverage on c-span and our website, c-span.org, he will be sitting to take questions in this room from senators on the judiciary committee about his policies and priorities for attorney general if he were to be confirmed by the senate.

the wall street journal justice department reporter is with us this morning to talk about this. the headline on your piece is about prosecuting extremist violence. 20 comes to the january 6 attack which merrick garland mentioned in his nomination speech, what does he plan to do, or what is the justice department doing right now? guest: the justice department right is leading a sprawling investigation into the attack with more than 250 people charged already. this is an area that judge garland has experience in. he was overseeing the prosecution in 1995, the oklahoma city bombing investigation which at the time was a massive counterterrorism investigation that required him to actually go to the scene and secure search warrants and track down records and imposed some of the same novel challenges that the january 6 attack on the capitol has.

he has pointed to that as evidence that he is uniquely equipped to handle the challenge and he also served in the justice department in previous roles during a time when violent extremism was in focus following clashes at ruby ridge and waco in those experiences are sort of transferable and relatable to the present day. host: we want our viewers to join us in this conversation with your thoughts, your priorities for this justice department under president biden. phone lines this morning, republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. text test with your first name, city, and state. we can read some of those comments as well as (202) 748-8003. independent, your question or comment. caller: good morning. how are you? host: morning.

caller: good morning. good morning. morning. how are you? guest: doing all right. caller: good morning. my question is just basically, um, i know that merrick, um, garland is a reputation. how can he restore the attorney general to prosecute people who are breaking laws, especially those rioters, and how can we make sure that it sticks? guest: i think that is a question that is at the top of mind of senators across party lines and it is something that they are going to want to extract from him. they are going to want to hear from him that he will hold these people accountable and the justice department, has already brought more than 250 charges against these rioters. as a massive case, it is

ongoing, we expect that number to grow and some senators who want to hear from judge garland that he will continue on that course and that he will not let up and i think that is something that people across the political spectrum want to see. host: are you there, do you have a follow-up? caller: yes, i do. i do, greta, because i think that joe biden is doing an excellent job and we need this coronavirus to stop because people are dying out there and the economy needs to be restored and everything else. i believe that we need action, especially from this administration and from merrick garland to be firm on crimes and so forth. host: will merrick garland be asked about prosecuting the former president? guest: that is a question that is almost certainly going to come up following the impeachment trial and judge

garland is still a sitting judge on the d.c. circuit judge and so i am a little bit and so i am a little bit skeptical that we will hear an answer from him on this question but is definitely something that is going to come up in the hearing. how he would view a criminal case against the former president, where he think there is enough evidence based on what he has seen, so that is definitely some think democrats are going to press him about. whether we actually hear an answer to that question is another matter. host: why wouldn't he answer it? guest: well, historically, not only for these type of legal provisions, they are hesitant to put a flag down and say what they are privately doing for any case or situation before they have actually come into the job and particularly because if he is not confirmed, he will have to go back to serving as a judge on the d.c. circuit judge and so he doesn't want to say something

that would then give the impression that he is biased in a particular direction. host: crystal in west palm beach, florida, democratic caller. caller: good morning. host: good morning, we are listening to you. caller: yes, i would like to see merrick garland talk about voter suppression and things that are used by different policies that might be unfair to keep people from voting. also, regarding the new york prosecution or investigation, i think that it's not really fair. they should look at all kinds of purses and power that promoted policies -- host: let's stick to the first part of her comments. guest: well, the fighting

administration has said that voting rights are a top priority and judge garland in his opening statements is pointing to the need to restore the justice department to strong civil rights enforcement across the board. he has said we don't have equal justice yet in our country, and that the justice department plays a critical role in ensuring that, and so voting rights i'm sure are something that is going to be getting attention today and something he is going to want to stake a commitment to. host: the confirmation hearing will get underway in a little more than one hour, 9:30 a.m. eastern time, right behind us on capitol hill. the judge will be sitting down before the senate judiciary committee to answer their questions. it is day one of two days. our live coverage right here on c-span, on our website, or you can download the free c-span radio app.

conway, mystery, you are next, good morning. caller: yes, i was watching cnn at 2:30 in the morning. they had an interview of a chinese lady from wuhan and she said she had just lost her 24-year-old daughter, a schoolteacher, and she said that they spread this disease all over the world so that before they ever announced it -- host: how does this relate to merrick garland's confirmation hearing? caller: it doesn't, but the only way -- host: i'm going to leave it there. when it comes to immigration, what do you expect the nominee to say today about policy under the trump administration and what is his reaction to what president biden has said about immigration? guest: we haven't heard much from judge garland on the issue of immigration, but it was just

recently released, a pretty scathing report about the trump administration's zero-tolerance policy that led to family separations at the border. the justice department has been under fire for that even though that policy has ended and the biden justice department has already taken that policy off the books. judge garland might be pressed to ask what type of the policy he would put in place of that, if anything, and i'm sure that is something that would be on the minds of senators today as well. host: there is also reporting that merrick garland with the ask about hunter biden today. -- would be asked about hunter biden today. guest: i suspect that would be one of the number one questions particularly from republicans about how he would approach that very sensitive investigation, obviously involving the president's son. as of now, the criminal tax investigation is taking place in delaware.

they are going to want to see some commitment that he will stay away from them. because he is not particularly close to the biden family as friends, he is pretty widely viewed as somebody who will take a hands-off approach to that case. host: this is a text from greg in lexington, kentucky, writing the republicans will regret not allowing merrick garland to sit on the supreme court when he starts rounding up the trump crime family and locking them up. will there be investigations into not only the former president, but his family? guest: that is something you certainly going to be asked about, at the top of minds of many people right now. again, i don't think that he is likely to actually give an answer to that question in part because he is not there, he has not seen what evidence exists, he does not really know. that is something that certainly they are going to want to grill

him on, see if you will make any sort of commitments on that. that is certainly something that is top of mind at this point. host: another text -- excuse me, and this is a tweet. merrick garland's first action should be to withdraw doj from any litigation defending trump. he says it was shameful i trump used the doj to fight off prosecutors, and sealed personal accusers at taxpayer expense. guest: i don't think that he will be inclined to say what position the justice department would take in those type of cases, but we have seen already the biden justice department changing positions in certain lawsuits that were viewed from a partisan lens, viewed as trump using the justice department for his personal interest, for example, the former aide to

melania trump. the justice department has immediately moved to drop that lawsuit. we could see more of that kind of action to, and that is something that will probably be asked of the nominee today. host: in addition to merrick garland's confirmation hearing today, this is day one of two days, there are also going to be hearing this week on capitol hill on the insurrection that happened on january 6. that, also happening this week in washington. we will go to bart in florida, democratic caller. we are talking about merrick garland today. your question or comment on that? caller: first, i'm going to say that i am a dyed in the wool democrat. i shook jfk's hand back in 1960 and i love the party. as far as merrick garland, his

candidacy to be attorney general, it is the old saying, turnabout is fair play. he was treated very, very badly by mitch mcconnell and the republicans, and they are treating him badly disrespectfully again. at this point in time, as he is coming up for these hearings. i don't know what planet the republicans are living on, but for the last five years, with the trump reality tv in the white house, we have bridges all turned upside down as far as politics is concerned, republicans and democrats are still reeling from five years of trump. that is all i have to say. i hope he gets approved, and i think he will make a very good attorney general. host: let me add to his comments

with this tweet from mark stone who says garland is a good pick. if he shows bias against republicans or conservatives, he will not get confirmed if a supreme court judge seat opens up, which he wants. is that still on the table? guest: you know, i have not heard if that is still on the table. he is 68 years old and i think the biden administration views this as an opportunity to put somebody younger and maybe somebody who is racially diverse on the board. i have not heard of that as a possibility, but his supporters are making comparisons to the great supreme court justice robert jackson, who was attorney general and then went on to serve on the supreme court and was a widely revered prosecutor at the nurnberg trials. if that comparison holds up, there might be a chance. i think that ship might have sailed. host: what about antitrust actions against social media companies?

has judge garland indicated one way or the other on that issue, how he would move forward? guest: he has not weighed in on that tickler issue, but he does have some antitrust experience in his background as well, so we do expect them to be pressed about that important topic today. guest: host: what is his background in the antitrust area? guest: i'm guessing that we might get some more information about that today and about how that will influence his views of big tech reviews and other matters taking place. host: you can listen to the questions and answers right here on c-span, we are going to end washington journal at 9:30 a.m. eastern time, perhaps a little bit before the room will fill up before the start time, and you will see members of the senate judiciary committee take their seats around that table, which

merrick garland is sitting in the center, in the hot seat this morning. you can see there's very few chairs behind him as we are still in the pandemic, and they are keeping the amount of people allowed into that room to a very small number. typically at a confirmation hearing like this, you would see a lot more chairs for the public. guest: that's right. i remember sitting about two years ago in attorney general bill barr's confirmation hearing and being crammed into little seats. a little bit fortunate to be able to be at my home and have access to back today. historically these confirmation hearings are big, big deals. people want to be there and unfortunately, that cannot be the case today. host: alabama, republican. caller: good morning.

katie mentioned president trump separating children at the border, and we know the pictures that were taken came from 2014, before president trump was president. i'm curious to know if she has ever interviewed any of the family is that were separated that have come in. if he knows how many coyotes are involved. guest: you know, i'm not sure where judge garland stands on that issue, is not something that i think he has commented on publicly in a while. i'm not sure if that will come up today. host: steve in oregon wants to know what would garland say about sanctuary cities? guest: well, we do expect him, he is a democrat, we do expect them to take a slightly more liberal approach to the justice department than the trump justice department certainly. i'm not sure in particular where he stands on sanctuary cities,

but will the biden initiation change in immigration policy? that is something that he could possibly have to implement some changes on for something that he will have to think about in the very near future. host: pennsylvania, democratic caller. caller: yes, good morning, ladies, thanks for taking my call, c-span. i just wanted to say that i believe merrick garland ought to be confirmed with no problems and i don't think he's going to be wanting to be on the witchhunt per se, as the republicans talk all the time. i wish him all the luck in the world and these 500,000 people that died from this covid-19, my thoughts go out to them. that's all i have to say. host: katie, what will you be wanting for today as this hearing gets underway? what are you expecting today and in the following days, the

second day of the confirmation hearing? guest: i will be personally interested as somebody who covers the justice department to see what he says about how he will stabilize that institution in what sort of policies he might put in place to reinforce that barrier between the justice department in the white house as something he alluded to in his opening. something that justice department employees and veterans have had eroded under the trump administration. they saw partisan influence from president trump's justice department, so i will be personally curious to see what message he sends to the career prosecutors of the career prosecutors of the justice department and how he plans to operate with them in mind. i think tomorrow, we will hear from some supporters of judge garland, more than 150 former justice department officials have come out to sign a letter in support of his confirmation

and a whole crop of other people, so that will potentially come into play during the hearing. host: what senators will you be wanting today? guest: i will be watching in addition to senator grassley, who was one of the main people who blocked the confirmation hearing in 2016, i'm also personally curious to see what happens when senator hawley, who was criticized as contribute into the actions of january 6, i'm curious what questions he has for judge garland and how judge garland will respond. i'm also curious to see how the new chairman of the senate judiciary committee responds, what type of questions he would raise. he is somebody who sought out that position and obviously has some pretty progressive ideas in mind so i will be watching all of these folks today. host: viewers can follow the reporting if you go to wsj.com. thank you very much, appreciate your time. guest: thank you.

host: we are going to return to our question from earlier this morning, our conversation with all of you as the u.s. approach is a grim milestone, 500,000 deaths due to covid-19. we will get to that conversation in a minute. later on at the top of the hour, we kick off a new segment to get a deep dive a new angle of the response, and we will take a closer look at the fda and cdc advisory boards who are tasked with approving these covid-19 vaccines. we will be right back. announcer: listen to "the weekly." this week, an expert on infectious diseases and one of america's leading epidemiologists talks about the road ahead in dealing with the coronavirus. >> we>> have a very long road ahead. i can say without any doubt at this point that we expect more

curveballs to be thrown at us. if we had this interview 10 weeks ago, we would have not been talking about variants the way that we are now. where we are at today talking about the severe challenges that are present, i would expect the unexpected. it is still out there. there is much we can do but at this point, this is not going to be over with anytime soon. announcer: find "the weekly" where you get your podcasts. you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979. today, we are brought to you by these television companies to provide c-span2 viewers as a public service. washington journal continues.

host: at sundown tonight, president biden along with the first lady and the vice president and her husband plan to mark the grim milestone, 500,000 deaths in this country due to covid-19. there will be a moment of silence along with a candle lighting ceremony. you can look for our coverage of this event on c-span.org, it is expected to take place around 6:15 p.m. eastern time. we want to leave your thoughts on reaching 500,000 deaths in this country. we've divided the lines. eastern and central part of the country, dial in at (202) 748-8000. mountain-pacific, (202) 748-8001 . and if you have lost a loved one to covid and you want to remember them and tell of their story, (202) 748-8002. you can also text us with your thoughts if you dial in. just include your first name, city and state. dr. anthony found he was on

state of the union yesterday, he was asked about reaching this milestone. >> is terrible. it is really horrible. it is something that is historic, nothing like we have ever been through in the last 102 years, since 1918. people decades from now are going to be talking about this as a terribly historic milestone in the history of this country, to have this many people to have died from a respiratory infection. it really is a terrible situation that we have been through and that we are still going through. that is the reason that we keep insisting to continue with the public health measures because we don't want this to get much worse than it already is. host: westfield, new york. what are you thinking this morning as you wake up to this number? caller: it is absolutely

devastating and i definitely send my condolences out to the families and friends of all these who we lost. the reason i called his you had a man on earlier he was talking about taking vitamin d and he has it wrong. vitamin d is a fat-soluble vitamin and it can be toxic and cause kidney damage, so i think people have got to stop listening to people on youtube and twitter and facebook and listen to medical people. instead of some random person who just called into washington journal, because it is rare, but there is toxicity, and macro take more val -- more than 4000 international units at the most. i'm just afraid some people would have listened to him and started taking tons of vitamin d and it can cause kidney damage. host: are you a nurse? caller: no, i studied nutrition

when i was younger. but i also just checked on it, it hasn't changed, it still can be toxic and it still can cause kidney damage. host: as a former nutritionist or someone who studied it, what do you think about how to -- he was talking about vitamin d helping to prevent and lessen the symptoms. caller: a lot of people do have a deficiency and it's probably not bad to take up to 4000 units at the most. most multivitamins have 1000 units in them. host: do you see any -- caller: i just don't want someone to the kidney damage because they listened to this guy. host: the you see any connections between nutrition in this country and the amount of cases? >> i'm not sure. i think there's a lot more

studying that needs to go on. they've done the nutrition, they've done blood types, there are so many studies going on right now. and i think they don't know everything about coronavirus at this point. also, the men who called, he mixed up antigens with antibodies. so that's another thing he did wrong. antigens just tell you that you have had it. antibodies tell you what protection you have against it and they don't last more than three or four months. but that is another study they need to keep doing. host: margo in minnesota sense of this text. she says i have lost friends to covid and they believed from statement that the china virus would magically disappear by easter, did not believe in masks or distancing or small get-togethers. sad. dave, what are your thoughts this morning? caller: good to speak with you.

my first question, early on, you were putting the numbers up and then you stopped doing it, i wonder why. host: the numbers related to covid-19? caller: yeah, they were shown on c-span daily and then they stopped. host: are you talking about the johns hopkins numbers? caller: yes. host: we show them this morning. caller: they were consistently shown and i haven't seen. that aside, we could put up our numbers in the united states versus the rest of the world, i would appreciate that. we are by far the highest numbers of any other country that is been exposed. that is an important imperative

to make. it will probably be a couple more months for the numbers in ohio and most other states. host: what have you been told by your state or local officials about how the vaccination rollout works? caller: well, i know kroger is doing it. maybe at the end of the day if they have leftovers. [indiscernible]

month or so. host: ok. usa today, their headline, this is our generations d-day. weary health care workers fight on amid the heartbreak. georgia, good morning. caller: i was just wondering have you heard anything about how long the vaccinations should last? i know there using them between first and second shots, i'm wondering if that is because of some new data. have you heard anything about how long you should have both shots? i am working on my second now. host: i don't have that

information at my fingertips. how old are you, and how was it that you were able to get the first round? caller: 25, law enforcement. host: ok, so they prioritized law enforcement in georgia. >> i'm having problems getting the second round. host: where did you fall in line in prioritization? >> we were in phase one, law enforcement, dispatchers, nurses, and the elderly. is that what you are asking? post: exactly. how is it that you are having trouble finding her second? what is going on? pollard: they are booked. they ran out. got to keep checking. guest: is up to you to find the second dosage? caller: in my case, it is.

never got an appointment after i got my first shot. i think now they are doing that, but i got mine january 14, and i didn't have a second appointment. i was given a date, when that date came around, there were no doses available for the second round. host: are previous caller mentioned those numbers and the tracking that johns hopkins university has been doing since the beginning of the pandemic. take a look at the global numbers, the global debts reaching 2.5 million. compare that with u.s. deaths approaching 500,000. president biden will mark this milestone again at sundown tonight at a candle lighting ceremony. he will be joined by the first

lady along with vice president kamala harris and her husband. let's go to keith in texas. caller: well, i'm calling from a hospital, i've been in about two times in the past two weeks. i've been tested for covid, and i guess it is negative. the bottom line, i had a cousin, a first cousin, he was 71, but a heavy smoker. again, i know that is probably a heavy contributor to what happened to him, i don't know much else about his situation. that is the only family close to me that has passed away. here, there is a church i attend that their goal is to help the homeless. so they have people from basically all over. one of the founders is in africa right now and they have other people that moved here from

africa, they've got people from all over the country. they've had several people that have died from covid. this is the first one that has happened to me. host: i'm sorry for your loss. what are your thoughts on losing someone close to you and how the pandemic has been handled by your state and federal government? caller: i'm extremely -- listen, we are living in the greatest country ever created by god, and we need to humble ourselves. i mean, plant-based materials, plant-based science is what we need to attack this thing. i mean, that is what the bible states. herbs are for the service of man. service of man means to make your body correct or to heal yourself. that is my philosophy. i don't believe in the

pharmaceutical industry, but that is me. host: as we mentioned earlier, the house and senate returned this week to washington and the house plans to push forward with president biden's $1.9 trillion economic aid package in response to the covid-19 pandemic. political reports this morning that democrats are preparing for a partyline houseboat on bidens pandemic a bill. house democrats are not expecting to get a single gop vote for the package which they are taking up as a procedural maneuver known as reconciliation. a vote is expected by the end of this week in the house, and the senate could take it up next week. the newspapers are reporting that republicans are not worried about voting against the popular relief bill, and the wall street journal editorial today lays out a breakdown of provisions in this package that are non-covid

and they call it a non-covid spending blowout. let's go to susan in jamestown, new york. good morning to you. caller: my concern is i think all these stores, they have it mandatory -- host: we are listening. caller: for people to wear the mask. but what about hands touching the products within the stores? nothing is being done about that. absolutely nothing. but that's not all. we know years ago to wash your fruit before you eat them. what about all the other products? it really bothers me that i don't think we are being told the truth about the whole thing anyhow. host: how do you go grocery shopping if you are concerned about this? how do you go about your grocery

shopping? caller: i go grocery shopping and my life is in the hands of the lord. that's all i can say. i'm not going to live in fear. i have said that from day one. host: you are not going to live in fear, listening. caller: i don't believe we are being told the whole truth, anyhow. i haven't from day one. i have concerns about going back a few years ago, a virus coming up in the united states. i can't wrap my mind around all of that. host: bill king sense of this tweet. we can win over this pandemic but only if the guidelines are followed. masks, washing hands, social distancing and getting vaccinated samantha, what are your thoughts? caller: thanks for taking my call. my concern is that people have gotten so confused in terms of their health, because of the

plan that 45 had to mislead and confuse the american public. none of the people who call up and have called over the months claiming this was a hoax or any of the really unscientific things that they have come up with could ever have gotten the care that 45 got when he showed up with an acute case of covid. and it bothers me that we as americans are not even thinking. we've got anti-science because of someone who has an agenda not only can mess up their minds, but has put the blood of over half a million people on the hands of the republican party. and folks need to wake up.

they want to call on god. well, god gave you the power to discern and as a result, our country is in trouble. it is in trouble not only when it comes to understanding the science, but also grieve when you look at what has happened to the people in the state of texas where the republican has been in control for 25 or more years. host: john, new jersey. john? caller: yes. am i on? host: you are on. caller: i want to respond to a comment from missouri a little while back in this segment. compare 500,000, half a million -- 1% of the population. does that mean that if this

virus continues to kill, and we reach one million new debts per year -- one year from now, it is a small number, it is 2% of the population? and that justifies this? host: justifies what? caller: justifies half a million deaths. to this pandemic it is thinking that has come from the pinocchio president. i'm sure the pinocchio president right now is saying january 6, only seven people died, not that big of a deal. this is the same thinking, that this fellow from missouri is: to express. it has minimized alive. trump lost the election because of his response or lack of response to covid.

that is a clear thing. that's why he lost. so his history is to create a light to offset a lie, so he created the big lie. covid was a little lie for him. january 6 was the gigantic live from the pinocchio president. and stop believing his lies. i'm from new jersey. host: we will leave it there. an update for you from the hill newspaper of where the president's cabinet stands. the president past his one month mark with less than half of his cabinet in place. as we told you, merrick garland will have his confirmation hearing this morning. our coverage on c-span at that time. also this morning, axios is

reporting that susan collins has said she is a no on the president's nominee for the omb. newspaper is reporting also that chuck schumer, the majority leader, says he is working to find votes to confirm the pick as some democrats including senator joe mansion have said that he would not vote for her. interestingly, a conservative right in washington post that republicans should forgive him. he writes the head of the liberal center for american progress is a lawyer, activist, former senior hillary clinton aid and ubiquitous presence on cable television and twitter. because he is smart, funny and quick, he is capable of leaving a mark. i know, i have more scars.

she has displayed the same cutting ruthlessness on twitter as she has unset which is to be expected. she is a serious liberal but not as far to the left is 20 sanders of vermont, but she has left her mark on team sanders as well. she could also be confirmed. all political people, especially senators, should live with the same rules for political debate of the rest of us. they should not use the confirmation powers to protect themselves from online criticism, however hurtful. everyone draw the line at threats. but she has clobbered people the good old-fashioned way, with words. belinda in georgia. morning to you. your thoughts on the pandemic? caller:: i took my mother-in-law

about two weeks ago to get her first covid-19 shot and she was talking to the nurse and i overheard her ask the nurse how long does this last? and the nurse tells or four months. she said we hope it is up to a year, but we know for sure is good for four months. and i feel like what is the point? if it's only good for four months, one of the point of getting the shot. i'm not trying to discourage anybody from getting the shot, i'm going to get a shot myself. but for months, that just really surprised me. >> city you think you will be able to get one in the next four months? where are you in line? collar: i'm 62, so i should be coming up next because it is 65 and up right now. so i should be coming up next. but we spent the last year in the house. i mean, i've only went out to

get groceries and of course, i always went wearing a mask and i just don't understand people that don't wear a mask to protect themselves and then i see people wearing a mask, but they wear them under their noses. it doesn't make sense to me. host: from the cdc website, they answer the question how long does the protection from covid-19 vaccination last? we don't know how long protection lasts for those who are vaccinated. what we do know is that covid-19 has caused very serious illness and death for a lot of people. if you get covid-19 you are at risk of giving it to loved ones whom might get very sick. getting the vaccine is the safer choice. experts are working to learn more about the natural immunity and vaccine-induced immunity. cdc will keep the public informed as new evidence becomes available. in other words, is a work in progress. erica, san diego. caller: can you hear me? host: we can. caller: i got both of my shots.

host: and how was it? what caller: was the process like? caller:it was easy. i make an appointment for people who were 65 and i got both of my shots. host: how do you feel after getting the vaccine? caller: i feel ok. the first was like nothing. the second, the next day i felt a little bit strange, but i'm fine. host: have you changed your lifestyle? caller: no, my lifestyle, no. host: are you going out more? caller: my life has not changed at all. i don't go out much anyway. i do everything i need to do and i go to the store. you can't go to the store here in san diego without having a mask on your face. no, my life is the same as it

was and i'm fine. host: erica in san diego. i had it, it is bad, glad i survived. there might even be more than half a million gone. that was the worst-managed crisis in human history i-45 and his crew. paul, fort wayne, indiana. paul, what are your thoughts? >> i watched my mother-in-law late last year we lost to this pandemic. we moved her into my sister-in-law's house, thinking that it was going to protect her, and come to find out my sister-in-law was exposed to covid-19 unbeknownst by her and wound up giving it to my mother-in-law. so my sister-in-law has this enormous amount of guilt because

she moved her in, thinking she was going to protect her, and wind up giving her the covid-19 infection. it is just horrible, horrible. and i'd like to have a comment about the person who said the 1%. you know, there's a lot of thinking surrounding that, especially like cars in seatbelt and something mike that. if you don't need it until you needed, and a lot of people just don't understand that it is all mitigation and it has to be done. thank you. host: paul in indiana, we are sorry for the loss of your mother-in-law. let's go to ana in ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. i'd like to tell the democrats every time you go in and get that needle in your arm, instead of condemning trump, you should thank him. nobody thanks him, it would not have been done as soon as it did unless he had been in there

pressing people. i have another comment. all these democrats that want all these immigrants to come over here and congress and everyone else, if you have the money, you go ahead and you take care of them. my son went to another country. in order for him to go, he had to get police coverage, he had to have fingerprints, he had to get the fbi involved. anyway, the fbi had to check his records. he had to prove that he could support his wife and himself while he was there, insurance and everything, because in these other countries, you get zero and that is the way it should be here. host: let me get tina in this conversation in pennsylvania. caller: thanks for taking my call this morning. i just want to bring something to your attention. in pennsylvania, over 200,000 doses were mismanaged.

so 201st shots that people could get. my family are a family of corrections officers and covid is rampant in the prisons. these correctional officers now cannot get vaccinated, especially in the rural parts of pennsylvania. -- i do not know if you guys can help us out. it is being horribly mismanaged in pennsylvania host:. my suggestion is to go to your senators, representatives, governor, contact your local officials. we are waiting on merrick garland to arrive on capitol hill. reports are that he could be in place any minute. he will make his way over to 216 hart to sit center stage before

the judiciary committee. it is day one of two days of confirmation hearings, nearly five years after he was blocked from getting confirmation hearing for a supreme court seat. our coverage begins in 30 minutes. up next, we will take a closer look at the fda and cdc advisory board with approving the covid-19 vaccines. we will be right back. >> here is our live coverage tuesday. at 10:00, the senate confirmation hearing for bobby or becerra, health and human -- javier besera. on c-span 2, confirmation hearing on tom vilsack. on c-span 3, at 10:00, jerome

powell with a semiannual monetary policy report to congress. on c-span.org at 9:30 a.m., the confirmation hearing for debra haaland. watch live coverage tuesday on c-span, c-span 2, c-span 3, c-span.org. or listen on the c-span radio app. >> monday night, a discussion on cord cutting the pandemic with a senior research analyst. >> cord cutting has not changed much them when we serviced -- them only first saw it a year ago pre-pandemic. that continues. the adoption of broadband and the need for more speed is

benefiting the cable industry broadly. that has been our thesis for a while. the pandemic has clarified that idea, right? the shift to streaming has benefited the economics of the cable industry. >> watch "the communicators" monday night. >> "washington journal" continues. host: each monday in the last hour, we will take a look at the government's response to the covid-19 pandemic. a deeper look into how they have gone about with vaccinations. today, we are talking about the fda and cdc advisory committees. helen branswell is a senior writer with stat news. let's begin with the fda. what is there advisory committee

-- what is their advisory committee? guest: the advisory committee helps them on issues is called the vaccine and related products advisory committee. host: they are set to meet this week. what are they expected to talk about? guest: last fall, when the fda was under a lot of political pressure to fast-track the vaccine and the commissioner was trying very hard to safeguard the process to approve vaccines to make sure they were based on science not on political expediency. he made a commitment that the vrpac would meet every time there was a new covid vaccine to

be considered for emergency use authorization. he has kept that promise. the fda has kept that promise. every time a new covid vaccine is ready to be studied by the fda, to consider whether or not to issue an emergency use authorization, they have convened a meeting. that is what has -- is happening this week to look at the johnson & johnson vaccine. host: we will have coverage of that meeting here on c-span. who sits on this advisory committee, and how do you get a post? guest: it is a variety of experts. there are 15 voting members and a few -- voting members, but the fda also has the right to add people to the committee on a

case-by-case basis if they feel there is a need for more expertise in a particular area than is currently sitting on the committee. people on the committee are often infectious disease experts, internal medicine experts, biostatisticians, people who have experience with the rollout of vaccines, people who have a fair amount of deep knowledge about vaccinations and how they work and how they are used. in terms of how you get on the committee, one can apply. you can apply to be considered or you can be nominated. sometimes, i think people are approached -- for instance, an expert at children's hospital of philadelphia.

i asked him how he got to be on the committee and he said he had no clue. host: are they all in the private sector? guest: there is one industry rep on the committee. the industry rep does not vote. there is one person who is designated as a representative of consumers. on the current committee, that person is a lawyer. somebody who is there to make sure the consumers' needs and views might be taken into consideration. host: there are 15 voting members, one nonvoting member, and they are four-year terms. two they get paid?

-- do they get paid? guest: no, they do not get paid. in normal times, if they have to go to washington, they would be compensated for the cost of travel. but they do not get paid. host: what is the incentive to serve on the advisory board? guest: these are interesting discussions. you have an opportunity to help influence policy. i think a lot of the people on the committee care deeply about the issues related to vaccine use and probably see this as giving back to the community. host: we are talking about the vaccination rollout, the role that the advisory committee for the fda and cdc play. here is how we are dividing the lines. eastern part of the country -- mountain pacific area --

if you have already been vaccinated, we want to hear from you. what are your questions, your thoughts about the role the fda and cdc is playing in the vaccination efforts by the biden administration? helen branswell, was this committee in place during the truck administration -- trump administration? guest: this committee has been in place for years. it predates the trump presidency. members have not been replaced. they serve for four-year terms. vrpac has stringent rules about conflict of interest. some of the people on it are not suited to discuss covid vaccines because they are perceived to

have a conflict. in the case of the chair, for instance, she was one of the investigators in one of the clinical trials, so she cannot sit on any of the meetings related to covid vaccines. i know of another person who was typically on the committee who cannot sit because her institution was doing a trial. she was not involved with it, but that is considered a conflict. host: helen branswell is our guest. she is a senior writer with stat news. the fda advisory committee -- what role specifically when it comes to vaccination did this advisory committee play? guest: the role of this committee is to advise the food and drug administration about whether or not to approve a

vaccine and who to approve it for in normal times. in the case of covid vaccines, the fda is not currently licensing vaccines. it is issuing emergency use authorizations. every time there is a manufacturer that has got to the point where they think they have enough evidence to apply for emergency use authorization, this committee will be called to look at the data, to see if there are any concerns, and generally, the fda will ask them a series of questions. it can be as simple as, should we issue an authorization? what ages? or could be more in-depth questions. should we take a position on using this vaccine in pregnant

people? that is a challenging one because so far, none of the vaccines -- none of the manufacturers have generated data to show whether or not the vaccines are safe and effective in pregnant women. typically, when that question gets raised, it is a discussion about whether or not to say no or to say we will leave it up to a woman and her physician. host: the fda advisory committee will be meeting on february 26 for one of those emergency use authorization requests. this is for the johnson & johnson vaccine. the lines are lighting up helen branswell. -- lighting up. helen branswell, what is the cdc advisory committee? guest: it is called acip. the advisory committee on immunization practices. experts are pediatricians,

family physicians, people who have done vaccination trials in the past. a consumer representative on that committee. there are 15 voting members. some represent federal agencies. there are about 29 nonvoting representatives who are each representing an authorization that has an interest in vaccination. the american academy of pediatrics or the american colleges of obstetricians and gynecologists. they all attend the meeting and can contribute to the discussion, but they do not vote . this committee deals with vaccines after they have been approved for use. what this committee does is look at who should be vaccinated.

in the case of the covid vaccine, they have been setting guidelines, federal guidelines, for who should come first in the program. health care workers should be first, followed by people 75 -- excuse me, health care workers and residents of nursing homes and people 75. those are the people who have been setting those kinds of priorities. host: robin in pennsylvania. caller: how are you? i was wondering, i do not want to get a shot because i am a nervous wreck. you ask the doctors and they say, yeah, get the shot. i have upper respiratory problems. i had about shoulder -- a bad

shoulder. i want to know who else i can call about my concerns before i get the shot. guest: i am not a physician so i have to be careful about how i answer a question like that. you know, i wonder about how nervous you would be walking around without protection against covid. this is a very serious disease. for somebody who has respiratory issues, it could be a serious disease. i think talking your doctor -- talking to your doctor is a way of making sense. talking to friends who have gotten the shots. see how they feel about it. those might be some approaches you might want to take. host: larry in laurel, maryland. you are vaccinated?

caller: yes, ma'am. i came down with covid in november. i work for the dod so i was able to get vaccinated. i got my second shot two weeks ago. no issues, glad i did it. i wish more americans would do it. i do believe the biden administration will utilize the full services of the dod to get americans vaccinated because obviously, most states, the governors, county executives, they have no clue what they are doing as far as organization. that's all. host: helen branswell, do you have thoughts on that? guest: that was not a question. that was a comment. i think it is fair to say that the early stage of the rollout was shaky. it is probably true that it was

always going to be shaky. we have never tried to vaccinate the entire population. i know -- in this case, we will try to vaccinate most of those people twice. it is a very difficult task to do. you are saying, we only want these people to come forward now. most of you need to wait for a while. that is a difficult job to do. things will get moving or swiftly now, but there is a problem in terms of the amount of vaccine that is available. i am not certain -- i am fairly sure that as many routes to getting vaccines into arms as can be used would be helpful, but the big issue at this point, i think, is how much vaccine is

available. host: pat in new york. go ahead. caller: thank you for having me. i want to make some statements and you can comment on them. we have a shortage of vaccines. yet, we are shipping vaccines to other nations. we are boasting -- they are boasting that they are providing vaccines for teenagers. the u.s. has the greatest problem right now with this infection. parts of the country, you have a greater problem in california, new york. i read an article, a few of them, in the past year that we are getting judged in this country because we are more concerned about economics than the health of the people. many countries have shut down.

boris johnson shut down the u.k. long island, this morning, they found the first case of the south care for can -- south african variant. canada has shut down all of these non-essential businesses. the bars and restaurants. and these people are getting checks monthly to keep them out of circulation. in these countries, it is more important to shut down. in china, they are celebrating chinese new year when a year ago, people were falling on the sidewalk and dying. because the government has taken the initiative to do what it has to do over the economic concerns, they were able to attack it a lot better. we have not. host: understood. helen branswell, your reaction? guest: some of this is out of my

range. i would have been curious to know which countries he thinks are vaccinating teenagers. the only vaccine that is approved for use under the age of 18 is the pfizer, and that is only 216. these vaccines -- is only to 16. these vaccines have not been tested in teenagers. given that the highest risk is for elderly people and people who have pre-existing health conditions, i don't think they would be vaccinating children or teens at this point. it is not the priority. host: stephen, bakersfield, california. caller: i would like to tell you

that before the coronavirus hit us, i started going to this church. i will not say who it is. anyway, i had cholesterol -- 250 -- and i had a heart murmur and i stopped eating meat and i started doing -- a university, these people live to be over 100. anyway, i went from 250 cholesterol down to 195 and it is probably lesser than that. my heart murmur went away. i lost 30 pounds.

it is like night and day. host: we are short on time. i will ask you about the cdc advisory committee could you mentioned -- committee. you decide who should be vaccinated. how do they come up with the priority list? guest: they have a workgroup that is comprised of staffers from cdc and acip and outside experts. they look at things like impact rate and who the disease is hitting the hardest. they do modeling to look at if we were to give it to this first -- group first and this group later, what might we expect to see in terms of overall loss-of-life and illness and hospitalization needs?

they look at it that way and i make some recommendations. at the end of the day, these are only recommendations and they go out to the states. there is a fair amount of leeway for governors to decide to use these recommendations or follow other recommendations. your viewers will know that each state is not vaccinating the same people in the same order. host: has this committee responded to decisions by those in the united kingdom to delay the second dose because they are saying 90% protection in the first dose? guest: that would not be acip's purview right away. that is more of an fda decision. under the emergency use

authorization that each of the vaccines have been issued, based on the data that happened generated, will say this is a two-dose vaccine and it should be given at certain intervals. the pfizer vaccine, it is a three week interval. with the moderna vaccine, it is a four-week interval. if anybody wanted to change the interval, they would have to go out to the fda and get them to change the emergency authorization -- emergency use authorization. host: we will go to hawaii next. caller: thank you for taking my call. thank you for letting me speak with helen. i have called you a few times on covid. i've been asking -- michael mina is a professor at harvard.

he actually brought up something on a recent lecture, a discussion he gave a few days ago regarding a thing called antigenic seniority. this is where the body specifically learns about the original exposure of immunity and therefore, when you give it boosters, the boosters do not work as well. maybe she can discuss that. host: i will leave it there. helen, can you jump in? guest: i have not heard that in terms of coronavirus. i will definitely look into it. that phenomenon is seen in influenza. we respond best to the first influenza infection.

if your first infection was an h 3n2, you will always have higher antibodies to that flu strain than any other flu strain you encounter in your life. the vaccine doses you get later will always boost your antibodies higher. that is a phenomenon with the flu. i do not know if that is true with coronavirus. i will have to look into that. host: thank you very much for your time this morning. you can follow reporting at statnews.com. we will bring you up to capitol hill where durbin is in the room. we are awaiting the confirmation hearing, the first day of the confirmation hearing for merrick garland to serve as attorney general in the biden

administration. your life, unfiltered, uninterrupted coverage right here on c-span. -- your live, unfiltered, uninterrupted coverage right here on c-span.