of the americans with disabilities act and the challenges that remain for disabled americans. washington journal starts right now. ♪ [washington journal theme plays] [upbeat orchestral music] host: good morning and welcome to washington journal. more americans are coming down with covid with predictions of as many as 300,000 new cases happening in the united states this month. experts are warning the delta variant of covid-19 may spread more quickly than the original version and that older guidelines like mask wearing may be necessary once again. the white house is moving quickly, considering vaccine and testing mandates for the federal workforce and encouraging

businesses, states, and schools to follow along. how confident are you in the biden administration's response to the new covid sir? we will open up our regular lines. republicans, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8001, democrats your number is (202) 748-8000: independents you can call (202) 748-8001 -- you can call (202) 748-8002 if you are an independent. you can also text us at (202) 748-8003. we are always on social media at facebook.com/c-span, on twitter @cspanwj and you can follow us on twitter @cspanwj -- instagram at @cspanwj. the white house is moving quickly to try to put up a barrier against the new surge of covid-19 with president biden ordering the federal workforce

to either get vaccinated or submit to a testing regimen. politico has a story this week that talks about what the administration is doing when it comes to the federal workforce. president biden issued a directive thursday that would require 2 million federal employees to disclose whether they have been vaccinated against covid-19 or submit to regular testing as the highly transmissible delta variant rises with new infections nationwide. federal workers and on-site contractors will have to attest to their vaccination status. those who don't must wear masks at work regardless of their geographic location and get tested once or twice a week from covid -- four covid-19. employees who don't disclose being fully vaccinated will be subject to travel restrictions and must remain physically distant from colleagues and visitors. this came as the president came out and talked about the latest

cdc guidelines on masks, including wearing masks indoors for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. here's what president biden had to say. pres. biden: i have said from the beginning that we will be guided by the science. here's what the science tells us. on tuesday the cdc announced its new mask recommendation in parts of the country where covid cases are substantially higher where people did not get vaccinated. which they define as 50 new cases for every 100,000 people in a week. the cdc recommends you wear a mask when you are in public and indoors like work or a grocery store. that is true for the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. even if you have been fully vaccinated and protected from

severe illness from covid-19, you could have the delta variant in your system and spread it to someone who is not vaccinated. we need to wear a mask to protect each other and stop the rapid spread of the virus as we work to get more people vaccinated. i hope all americans who live in areas with substantial or high case rates will follow the mass guidance being laid down by the cdc. i will and i have because this is one of those areas in washington. my decision, my direction all federal personnel and visitors to federal buildings will have to do the same thing. a mask is not a political statement, it's about protecting yourself and protecting others. masking is one defense against the spread of covid-19.

host: the administration is pushing forward with its own plans of having the federal workforce either masked or vaccinated, businesses are also moving forward with the same mask core vaccine mandates. here's a story from the washington post that talked about two of the largest companies in the u.s. to wear masks or be vaccinated. disney announced friday they are implementing coronavirus vaccine mandates for some employees as two of the largest u.s. companies become the latest giants to embrace vaccination in the face of renewed pandemic restrictions. disney says it is requiring all salaried and nonunion hourly employees in the country to be fully vaccinated to help fight the delta variant. the same mandate will apply to new hires who will be required to be fully vaccinated before

they can begin working at disney , the company says. walmart, the nation's largest private employer announced all of its corporate staff members and regional managers would need to be fully vaccinated by october 4. the mandate does not apply to staffers who make up the bulk of the company's workforce. walmart is offering a 150 dollars bonus for those unvaccinated employees to get inoculated. the company said it plans to implement a system to keep track of vaccinated employees. not only is the biden administration moving forward with its mask mandate, two of the nation's largest companies are also moving forward. we want to know whether you have confidence in what the biden administration is doing to fight the new covid surge. let's go to our phone lines and

start with sharon who calls from kingston, illinois on the democratic line. caller: hi. i think it is common knowledge they should handle the mandate like they do with flu shots every year, it is best to get one if you want but people need to make their own decisions. i think it confuses people about more people die every year from the flu. herd immunity is important and enough is not said about natural antibodies. my husband just passed from dementia and i see all the signs with president biden. i think most people have dementia and elderly people in their lives and it's really easy to see. i think there is a lawsuit for

elder abuse that none of the democrats are stopping him. host: what do you think about president biden's decision to make the federal workforce either vaccinate or get tested weekly for coronavirus? caller: testing weekly is very good. people that are afraid of shots, it's ok to mandate testing to protect people, but not mandate shots i think that's really bad especially for kids. thanks. host: let's go to paul who is calling from new bedford, massachusetts on the democratic lines. caller: good morning. i have confidence in biden, total confidence in him and his staff. they are smart and educated scientists and people of reasonable consideration.

what i don't understand is why ted cruz is lying, he absolutely knows that mask wearing and these efforts will help. this virus is a moving target, it's very mysterious, it is unlike the flu in that sense in that we don't know enough about it yet. the data and the science behind it is going to shift, it will be like shifting sands and i wish my republican friends out there understand that -- stop being an obstinate two-year-old. they are like defiant little three-year-olds who feel like it's about their freedom. it's not about your freedom, it's about being a grown-up citizen, put your mask on and be a grown-up. host: what you think about the biden administration decision to order the federal workforce to vaccinate or be masked and tested?

caller: it's a good idea mainly because obviously it's his jurisdiction, that's all he can do. he can't do it for the whole country or for states, jurisdictionally he can't do that. this would also show the data set coming from that he may be able to prove scientifically or help backup the science that watching these studies of groups that are vaccinated and mandated in this way will help show the evidence that it works for the virus host: republican senator to -- host: republican senator ted cruz of texas set at a hearing last week that he did not approve of the cdc decision to revise its mask guidance in order for vaccinated and unvaccinated people to wear masks indoors. here is what senator ted cruz had to say. sen. cruz: the decision yesterday by the cdc to reverse its guidance and mandate masks

for vaccinated people is the kind of decision that is infuriating people across this country. i believe the cdc decision yesterday was politics, it was not science. it was a decision that somehow pretends vaccines don't work. the cdc months ago rightly concluded that vaccinated people don't need to wear masks because the whole purpose of a vaccine is not to get the disease. that decision was right, the science has not changed, the only thing that has changed is the politics. a year and a half ago the cdc was one of if not the most respected scientific and medical organizations in the country. today the credibility of the cdc is in tatters because of me --

because the leadership at the cdc has and willing to allow science to become politicized. host: we want to know what you think. are you confidence in the biden administration's response to the new covid sir? let's talk to mark who is calling from chico, california on the independent line. good morning. caller: i am very confident about the biden administration. i can't understand why the republicans have to be such fools and not believe the science. i just think that it has become so politicized, i am just so sick of the republicans just taking their -- just wanting to take their wagon and go home.

i'm not going to play this time. people are dying out there. we have to do what we have to do and quit being children about it. host: are you personally still masking and have you been vaccinated? what have you been doing in the midst of this new covid sir? caller: i was vaccinated along time ago and i wear a mask every time i go out. i don't wear it at home, but me and my wife are fine and she wears a mask to. we don't want to get other people sick, and we don't know if it's getting passed on to other people. we wear masks. we are not going to get other people sick and we don't want to pass it on to other people.

host: let's go to steve who is calling from san jose, california on the republican line. steve, good morning. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. i have a question for all of your listeners throughout the united states. to answer your question, i have no confidence in biden's plan. here is why. if i had any confidence it would be in him sealing the border and he is not doing that. he is leading in an average of 180,000 people south of the border clear down from the border to south america and from countries around the world, they are not vaccinated, many of them have covid, and he is shipping

them all over the united states because votes are more important than people getting infected. host: what do you think about his decision to mandate that the federal government employees must either be vaccinated or be tested every week? caller: could you repeat your question? host: what do you think about the biden administration's decision to mandate that the federal workforce be vaccinated or get tested every week, may be multiple times for coronavirus? caller: that's his call, they are federal employees, they get their check from their employer which is the federal government. going back to your question, no i have no confidence in him because the borders are wide open and he is shipping these people all over the u.s. who are infected. he is a hypocrite. host: let's go to tyrone who is calling from new york, new york on the democratic line. tyrone, good morning.

caller: thank you, jessie, for taking my call and it's a pleasure talking to you. i think biden is doing the job he can best do. the previous caller was talking about the immigrants. he doesn't talk about the ones that are flying in here and coming in by boat and the ones that are staying here legally. that's a big problem also. people always talk about the border. my problem that biden has izzy dropped the mask mandate at one time. i don't think he should've ever done that because he is trying to please these entitled crybabies, entitled brats that wanted their way or no way at all. i think that if he continues to try to deal with adults like adults and tell us the truth and handle the situation the way that adults are supposed to handle it, not these crybabies that need alali pop when they get their shot or these $50 or

$100, do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. we will try to get out of this together. work with the science and try to make things move forward the best way you can. we cannot allow these entitled crybabies to run this country because just like a child you have to raise a child. some of these have not grown up yet. these people are adults, but they are not grown. they don't want to make hard decisions. part-time adults it's not a good idea, you need to be a full adult and make adult decisions and do what is right for not just yourself but people around you. host: jack is calling from kentucky on the independent line. jack, good morning. caller: good morning. i do not have any faith in the biden administration. the gentleman named steve is correct, if you want to prevent

covid you need to close the southern border. host: jack, what do you think about the biden administration decision to mandate vaccines for the federal workforce or for them to get tested multiple times a week? caller: that is his call as he is the commander-in-chief in the united states. however, i look at that particular order as harassment to the people who work for the federal government who do not want to get vaccinated. as i recall in the united states you cannot force people to take medicine. you can harass them into taking medicine, and that is what i consider them doing. i don't see any change in this, i don't particularly like his administration, and, well, here

we are. good luck. host: republican congressman chip roy of texas came out to the house floor to protest the decision by top leaders that house members should wear masks on the floor when conducting the congress business. here's what congressman chip roy had to say about the mask mandate for congress. rep. roy: we have a crisis at our border, and we are playing footsie with mask mandates and the people's house. it's absolutely absurd what this body is doing to people's health. it's an embarrassment, it's a mockery, and the american people are fed up. they want to go back to life, business, back to school without children being forced to wear masks and have mental health issues. the speaker comes down here at 10:00 in the morning saying we have to wear masks in the people's house? while we have thousands of

people pouring across our border and democrats don't do a thing about it, heavily infected with covid. the new york times today, what a mess. cdc about to reverse on indoor masking for the vaccinated. this is some serious nanny state stuff that will only breed resentment. no kidding. consider resentment being magnified right here on the floor of the house of representatives. host: let's see what our social media followers are saying about their confidence in the biden administration's response to the new covid surge. this tweet says i can't be confident in the administration's response to the surge since a third of americans refused to vaccinate and wear a mask area we have never been nation, an aggregate of communities that fall apart at the first time of shock. here is a text that says "i do not have confidence in president

biden to manage the covid-19 virus. since he took office the vaccines have been in place for a month but biden and harris have been telling the american citizens they should not trust the vaccines because president trump supported it and had distribution in place. biden took vaccine confidence away and america is paying the price. -- paying the price." another tweet says "don't try to blame the surge on the delta variant, this is sabotage from trump and trump supporters that have been in place since the first covid-19 protocols were established." facebook has more control over mandates than the president, biden is trying to emphasize the science but some governors are trying to keep the covid-19 virus as political in -- one last tweet that says "at least the biden administration is responding. the last guy did nothing but

spread chaos, misinformation, and confusion." -- and confusion." the covid-19 vaccines available are still under emergency use and there is a push for the fda to grant full approval to these vaccines, there is a story in the wall street journal i will read. the u.s. food and drug administration under pressure to grant full approval to covid-19 shots. as vaccine mandates take on urgency for schools, hospitals, and employers amid surging cases from the rapidly spreading delta variant. three vaccines were either -- pfizer, moderna, and johnson & johnson are authorized for emergency use in the u.s.. pfizer and modernity have filed paperwork for approval, but only pfizer has submitted the necessary information to the fda and analysts expect it will be

the first to get the green light. modernity says it is still completing submissions and johnson & johnson says it plans to file for full approval later the -- later this year. they are working on getting full approval for the covid-19 vaccines that are currently being used in the united states under emergency use only. back to our phone lines we will see what she has to say on the independent line. caller: good morning, can you hear me? i just wanted to say that i heard a few people before me talking a lot about what other people should do but no one is talking about science. i think people don't really understand science and that's the problem in the country. we focus on legalizing marijuana because we don't realize how to read data. there is a covid tracker on the

washington post or any covid tracker, it's very clear our deaths are plummeting. the delta variant right now they are not even talking about cases they are talking about percentages. because of how low we are. for instance in minnesota if we had to deaths one day and the next day is for deaths, and set of sing ford as they try to make it so dramatic, it's 100% increase and then when people look or listen to 100% they are going to start screaming. the reality is people are not ready to look at the data. just look at the data. go on to the covid tracker of the washington post, don't worry about what abc or msnbc tell you. you will find that these cases may be increased but every virologist i listen to has said that viruses mutate and the more vaccine you get the more you will get viruses mutating, but

everyone will tell you these viruses are more transmissible but less deadly. the covid tracker will tell you it is less deadly and that is why we have a very low number of deat in the united states and in my state of minnesota, but because there -- they are so low the government tries to politicize this and they are telling you percentages. they will tell you 200%, the hospitalizations have gone up 75%. if you look at the numbers that are hospitalized it is very minimal. caller: i -- host: i'm currently looking at the covid-19 tracker for johns hopkins university for the state of minnesota. you can see here where the numbers of covid-19 infections in the state seems to be going up again in july. there does seem to be a bit of

an increase going on in your state. obviously not as many as it was back on november 17 but you can see a train heading back up again. -- trend heading back up again. caller: look at the deaths, we are at nearly zero. they are not following what the virologists are saying and the virologists are making it clear that these viruses that come out that are mutating off of the vaccine, but they are doing is becoming more transmissible but they are more like a common cold.

something that is under emergency authorization. host: let's good array who is calling from pleasant view, tennessee on the republican line. -- let's go to ray who is calling from pleasant view, tennessee on the republican line. caller: i believe the biden harris administration from the beginning saying they didn't believe in the shot because it was done by trump. that right there turned a lot of people's minds off. this extra virus came from india. we need to do something about that and maybe stop people from coming over here. the biden administration has messed this country up big time. thank you. host: let's go to jc calling

from baton rouge, louisiana on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i thought the covid pandemic was over with. i didn't think there was any more covid. there is no sane leader of a country that would allow hundreds, thousands of people a week to cross the border into their country if they were not vaccinated, if they did not wear masks, which is trying to force his own countrymen to wear. these people have, many of them, a large percentage of them have the covid. no sane leader would do that, that might be the question,

sanity. we need to invoke the 25th amendment to get this clown out of office, back into a delaware nursing home. host: let's go delays who is calling from new jersey on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm calling, i have some faith in the biden administration and their ability to handle this pandemic and it is this pandemic . earlier callers trying to minimize what is happening with covid is wrong. they are better at saving people's lives to get covid thus far and the current strand is pushing up case numbers and if

you have been following the left the case numbers are the first thing that goes up in the hospitalizations go up, then finally the deaths go up. it's very predictable. not something we need to stress about. a lot of your republican callers, red herrings about wearing masks, not wearing masks , the fact that we have a constitutional right to infect other people by not getting themselves vaccinated -- i think they should sit down with their constitution and read it from one end to another because they obviously have not. host: there was a couple of questions earlier about the current data on death and infections in the united states. let's go to the new york times

tracker of covid cases in the u.s. to see what the trends are actually showing. according to the new york times date of the cases in the u.s., the average on july 31 with 78,400 33 with less than 148% change over the previous 14 days . there have been more than 45 million total cases reported in the u.s.. the average deaths from coronavirus were 308 on july 31, that is a 13% increase over the previous 14 days and a more than 612,000 -- have died from coronavirus according to the new york times covid-19 tracker. the trend of not only cases but hospitalizations and deaths in the united states are on their way up as the delta variant is spreading throughout the country.

a democratic congressman came to the floor of the house on wednesday to push back against gop opposition to the new house mask mandate. this clip has been viewed more than one million times, his response to republicans about their opposition to the mask mandate in the house. here is house congressman tim ryan. rep. ryan: it's fear, fear, fear. the attending physician of the united states capital, the top doctor for congress, asked us to put on masks when we come to a chamber with 435 people. i hate these things. it's terrible having to put this back on. and we do it because the top doctor for all of us asked us to.

i may not be from a hotspot, the speaker may not be from a hotspot. somebody in this chamber is coming from a hotspot, somebody represents the hotspot and we get in the plane and we get -- they fly here and we interact with all of this. we leave here and go home to our families. some take care of their sick parents, some take care of kids and have an autoimmune disorder. i find it immature and appalling to somehow diminish it to try to score cheap political points. host: let's see what our social media followers are saying about the biden administration's response to the new covid surge. one tweet says an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. we will suffer again whether we

wear masks or not, vaccinated or not it's easier to prevent the illness than it is to acquire the illness and try to recover from it. a text says "joe biden is doing all he can to stop the spread of covid-19. we would not have had this problem if trump had taken his job seriously, instead he said it was a hoax by democrats. please believe scientists instead of politicians. another text says i have confidence in the administration and would add that there is no evidence showing large numbers of immigrants with covid-19. on the contrary it is christian southerners spreading this delta variant. another text says "i would believe scientists over mccarthy or hannity. scientists are educated and the other two are just trying to win a popularity contest." one last tweet says the lead scientists advice, don't wear a

mask, where a mask, tele mall -- tele collie cloth masks don't work, mask up before social distancing. we want to know what you think about the biden administration's response to the new covid surge. dave is calling from brooksville, florida on the republican line. good morning. caller: this is just mother nature's way of cleansing our gene pool of stupid people. these are the kooks who walk around in those silly little red baseball caps and they don't give a dam about anything their cult of morand's lead by a 290 five pounds sack of hate fueled orange man flab that told more lies in five minutes than pinocchio did in his entire career. when this first broke out he declared it's a war and he is a wartime president. now there are over 625,000 dead

americans, and all these kooks can do is blame refugees from central america. the fact is the refugees are more likely to catch the virus from them. in many areas of florida and the southern u.s., the majority of the population is mentally handicapped literally whether it is congenital behavior or learned behavior it is irrelevant. the good news is those political leaders are so corrupt and stupid they are exterminating their own constituency. the anti-massacre pandemic deniers like desantis and the crew are proof of that. host: let's go to bonnie who is calling from alexandria, minnesota on the democratic line. caller: good morning. i like that last caller.

i have to disagree with the last call you had from minnesota. i have three members of my family that came down with covid in the last couple of weeks. i know it is spreading up here in alexandria, minnesota. i almost lost two of them. it was very serious with their symptoms. i am totally stressed to the max over that. we are a small tourist town, we don't have immigrants coming in and out of here, it is tourist. people have to be responsible. i don't think we are in a hotspot, but i will still wear my mask and whatever biden can do to help stop this, people have to do it. they just have to do it. host: let's go to ralph who is

calling from knoxville, tennessee on the independent line. caller: good morning. i like what joe biden is doing, he is trying to lead all the horses to the water, but if they won't drink it there is nothing he can do about it. what he is doing as far as the order goes, i would ask all the republicans, they haven't -- you sat at the house of the presidency why didn't you do something about the border then? that's a different subject for a different time. what they've got against the vaccine -- our situation is higher in tennessee than the rest of the country. he is trying to help them, he is not trying to hurt them. it would be different if they hooked him up to a battery and were shocking him, -- host: let's go to ellen who is calling from miami, florida on the democratic line. allen, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i get very distressed when i hear misinformation being spread. like i heard one woman, somebody say that president biden and vice president harris had denigrated the vaccine because trump has been instrumental in it, but that's not true. he came into office and pledged one million shots a day and he far exceeded that. he was pushing the vaccine, but he did not have to push it on me, i couldn't wait to get the vaccine. it was difficult to get an appointment at first. i had to drive all the way up to pompano beach from miami to get the vaccine twice, and i was happy to get it. you can observe what is happening, in the early days of old people were dying. i'm old, i'm 80 years old, so

that is why we are so eager to get the vaccine. now, old people are not getting sick and dying as they were in the early days. you can listen to the news a little bit, there was a camp in new york state where 31 kids under the age of 12 were sent home because of covid. none of the children over 12 got sick at least when i was reading it. i was insistent that my family all wanted to get the shot. i have five grandchildren and they've all been vaccinated, they are all over the age of 12. all my family is vaccinated. host: april is calling from rock, illinois on the republican line. caller: hello. i'm just wondering why i haven't heard anybody say anything about

operation warp speed. nobody's set it at all. host: go ahead. caller: we can hear you, go ahead. -- host: we can hear you, go ahead. caller: i was wondering why nobody said anything about operation warp speed. host: what would you like to say about it? caller: the vaccine that the last guy was talking about would not have happened if it wasn't for trump and operation warp speed and i haven't heard anybody talk about it for the last hour. host: ok. let's go to victoria who is calling from muskegon, michigan on the independent line. victoria, good morning. caller: there are a few things i would like to say and i would be so grateful if you would allow me to get them out.

are you there? host: go ahead. caller: ok. the first thing is if only we could leave -- close our eyes and forget about trump. this is not about politics, this is about our children, husbands, our wives, our sisters, our uncles,. let's forget about politics number one. the idea of your defense of -- i am not taking the vaccine because one minutes its masks and then it's no masks. it makes no sense to me. given the moment we do certain things and if the moment changes we change. if it rains we wear a raincoat, if it doesn't we do not wear one. things change and as it scenes

the proportion has to change as well. also, we see it, we know the reality of masks, no masks. we have lived it. there are no excuses, no more lying, no more pretending. we have seen it, we know the difference between not being vaccinated and vaccinated and what it has done. we know what it gives to not wear a mask and the result is to wear a mask. the idea that a government -- a governor like governor desantis can actually write something saying he will prevent people from having to wear masks is a shame at this point in the game where we are now, where we have gone through over a year of losing fathers, mothers, and children. it's because we are not

vaccinated and wearing masks and i say shame on us all. host: dr. fauci came on pbs last week to explain why the cdc revised its guidelines for masking for vaccinated people. your is what dr. fauci had to say. dr. fauci: the recommendations and the discussion that we were having months ago that the cdc was basing recommendations on, we were dealing with what was called the alpha variant which is considerably different than the delta variant area the delta variant has an unusual capability of spreading much more easily than the alpha does. the other data we are having now is that when people get breakthrough infections when they are vaccinated and get infected even when they have a situation where they don't have an advanced disease they clearly can transmit it to other people. this is not a common event.

i don't want people to think that all kinds of vaccinated people are transmitting. it's a very unusual and rare event but it occurs, when you have vaccinated people who might have a breakthrough infection and we know now as a fact, as a scientific fact that they can transmit the virus to an uninfected person -- person, it is that reason that the cdc made the change in recommendation and did as you stated, mainly that if you are vaccinated, if you are in an indoor setting you should still wear a mask. host: let's see what social media followers are saying about the bind administration response to the new covid search. this tweet says i would give them a b, two missteps, not mandating proof of vaccination for public places and travel, depending on a mask on her system. they know nothing of honor and

integrity and they proved it which is why where are at where we are at. another text says, what has the u.s. done to make china responsible for covid? nothing. so many politicians whose interests are there are giving china pass. china sees us fighting back and forth within and are happy as a lark. this tweet says a lot more confident, they have done a great job, i'm not confident in maggot to do the right thing. -- maga to do the right thing. you have a choice, where a mask or stay home, if you are a maga i prefer you stay home. the president has ordered the federal workforce to either get vaccinated or go through testing to ensure that they don't have covid-19. one of the unions for federal employees has responded to the president statement and released their own statement about what

is going on with the federal workforce. i bring you the statement from the american federation of government employees. this from their national president. we expect the particulars of any change to working conditions including those related to covid-19 vaccines and associated protocols be properly negotiated with our bargaining group prior to implementation. it is our understanding that the vast majority of federal employees would not have to be vaccinated as a condition of employment. but those that choose not to receive the vaccine may face certain restrictions. while we await specific proposals and anticipate the negotiating process we encourage all of our members who are able to take advantage of the opportunity to get vaccinated and help our nation put an end to this deadly pandemic. this is coming from the largest

federal government union, the american federation of government employees, that was their statement on the vaccine or testing mandate for the federal workforce coming from president biden. let's get to more phone calls and let's start with jim calling from missouri on the democratic line. good morning. jim, are you there? caller: yes, i'm here. that last statement that you read from the federation of government employees, the way he close that out, that was kind of the overall thing we should all be looking at. we await further guidance and that will encourage membership to do the right thing. this is a well thought out released by the leadership of that union.

i have overall confidence in what the president is trying to do. i see the frustration in the states. i'm from missouri, and i'm less than 100 miles from probably one of the hottest spots in the country and that is the lake of the ozarks region. our governor has failed us here and county officials in millard county and osage county and i think there is another county down there that encompasses that lake of the ozarks region. they are the guys that are dropping the ball. they are not trying to get the message out. it seems like they are probably selfish and as much as that is a huge terrorism draw down there you will not find anybody wearing any masks. the last thing i would like to see is, it seems obvious to me that a lot of calls are coming in pointing the finger at the immigration problem on the

southern border. it's obvious this is going to be a focus of the republicans moving forward and that is a nativist and populist message, contrary to our youth those as a country. that's it for me. host: let's go to ruthie who is calling from brown's borough, texas on the republican line. caller: good morning, how are you. host: go ahead. caller: i would like to tell america [indiscernible] let me tell you something when god makes you he made you black for a reason. he made you white for a reason. he made you read for a reason. you're taking money that don't along to you. you have to wake up because god is fixing [indiscernible] and it's not the blacks, the

whites, or the reds. god's in charge and this is god's people and god's land. y'all have made a mess of it and i'm disgraced [indiscernible] joe biden [indiscernible] [indiscernible] nothing but hypocrites and thieves covering their own asses. host: john is calling from bristol, connecticut on the independent line. john, good morning. caller: the republican party is a party of hitler's, roadblocks, and lies. the governor in florida, the war on trump, all of those republican leaders got their shots. i'm a smoker, i obey the rules not to smoke in restaurants. the republican supporters don't get it. now the hospitals are being filled up with republicans that are not getting their shots.

we could have our freedom, but his supporters are believing these republican leaders. if they got told to jump off a cliff they would jump off a cliff. i don't get these people anymore. host: let's go to mitchell who is calling from chattanooga, tennessee on the democratic line. caller: good morning. i wanted to say all these people calling in talking about science they don't another definition of science. let me tell you the definition of science it's kind of easy. the definition of science is results through observation. we are still in the midst of this thing here and still observing and it will take a while. don't come on tv and talk like you know what you're talking about. we have a long way to go. we still have a lot of observing to do before we can get this thing done. listen to the science, listen to the cdc, don't listen to ted

cruz and quit talking about, a mask is nothing to argue over. host: on friday the white house deputy press secretary said that during a white house briefing after a leaked cdc document showed the dangers and transmissibility of the new delta variant. here is what she had to say. host: our mess -- >> our message has always been clear, we need more people to get vaccinated to stop the spread of this variant. we have to continue to make that effort vaccinated and unvaccinated people infected with delta have higher viral load, meaning more virus in their body than with previous variance. the last two did not have that, this is what you are seeing in the delta, high viral loads mean you are more likely to spread it. in the rare occasions vaccinated people get delta and a breakthrough infection they may

be contagious and this is what we heard from the cdc. the most important take away and i want to be clear about this because it's critical, the take away is we should have from this guidance any follow-up reporting is pretty simple, we need more people to get vaccinated. we need more people to get vaccinated if we want to stop the spread of this variant and avoid mutation. we need to get more people vaccinated and the good news is that the vaccines work, pay have to get out there and make sure people get vaccinated. host: let's go to missouri on the republican line. good morning. caller: i'm calling from butler, missouri. anyway. joe biden, i don't trust the

administration. kamala harris said that if trump said get it she's not going to get it. she says it and biden says it, i'm not going to get it. i'm not going to wear a mask either and it's not because of trump or ted cruz or nobody. it's because of me. i don't trust it. there is too much misinformation. found she keeps flip-flopping 3 -- i don't trust the cdc and i don't think biden should mandate anyone to take the vaccine because first off it is not fda approved and nobody can say the vaccine is safe and effective. it's only been out for a little over a year and a half. they can't say that because it takes time.

already i think 10,000 people worldwide have died from the vaccines. i think one of the vaccines causes and an enlarged heart, and i think another attacks the nervous system. host: are you saying you don't plan to get the vaccine or wear a mask? am i hearing you correctly echo -- correctly? caller: i will wear a mask at the doctor's office and the hospital. host: and you don't plan to get the vaccine? caller: i will not get the vaccine until i know for a fact it is safe. host: how will you know when it is safe? caller: when it's been tested for a few years. then i will know. people that get the vaccine shouldn't worry about nobody else. they should be safe.

they are coming out with a booster. when will it end. you will have to have a booster because now it is mutated and it will mutate again and again. where i live at we had 26 cases in over 11,000 people and not one of them died. i'm not comfortable with that. host: let's go to susan who is going from maine on the democrat line. good morning. caller: i'm amazed that people are not taking the medical community's word about getting a vaccine. currently it is free. it doesn't cost you anything. i have had my vaccine, my whole family has the vaccine, and maine is starting search in

cases where we were down to 17 a day we are up to 131 a day now. it is increasing and the delta variant is taking hold. no matter what you say, the shots to protect you. if these delta variants take hold and because people aren't getting vaccinated they mutate into something else. host: let's go to lou who was calling from connecticut on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. the woman from missouri stole my thunder. the point is, who is going to be held responsible for the deaths? i think there have been 10,000

deaths across the globe from the vaccine, hundreds of thousands that have been sickened by the vaccines. with neurological disorders, the heart complications, who will be held responsible? who do you go after? your employer, the government, the medical industry? that is being resolved. host: coming up next we will continue to talk about the pandemic and a discussion on how the covid-19 pandemic compares to past pandemics with the author of "the great influenza." he will be here to compare that with our current pandemic. later on tom foley of the national american disability institute will join us for discussion on the anniversary of

the americans the disabilities act and challenges that continue to face disabled americans. stick with us, we will be right back. ♪ >> monday night on the communicators, technology reporters discuss the future of a tech industry and congress' tech agenda. >> you have seen the pandemic take -- take over early in the year. there are a lot of big topics that have historically attract interest. that includes the section 230 debate. data privacy is something that was hugely friends enter in the tech space. 2019 and 2020, initially. those things are off to the side right now. there are important people interested, but there is no proposal out there that will

move in imminent ways. ♪ >> washington journal continues. host: we have jack -- we are back.

the author of the great influenza, the story of the deadliest pandemic in history. he is here to discuss the current covid-19 pandemic and how it compares in the last few years. good morning. first, take us through your book, the great influenza. why was this pandemic so deadly? guest: so chiefly because it occurs when a new virus jumps from animals to humans. it has happened numerous times, historically. this virus in 1918 happened to be quite virulent. first in march, actually in the

u.s., it was first noticed, though there was a question about where it actually started. the first wave was very mild. you could read medical journal articles in which people were saying this looks like influenza and it smells like influenza, but it is not killing enough people, so it is not influenza. that is one statistic. it gives you a sense of how mild that first wave was. the fleet that had 313 sailors sick enough to miss duty, but only four of them died. however, that first wave of the virus was not particularly transmissible. it was contagious.

it was not very explosive. a direct quote from scientists back then. the virus adapted to humans and became better and better at transmitting itself. a variant emerged that caused an explosive second wave that killed tens of millions of people. incredibly short period of time. the best numbers in terms -- 50 to 100 million people. he not have great data back then. if you adjust the population, the world was a lot smaller back then. 50 to 100 million was equal to 225 million to 455 million people today.

imagine that today. as i said a minute ago, it killed people and an incredibly short period of time. worldwide, probably two thirds of the deaths occurred in about 14 to 15 weeks. any particular community, it moved faster than that. it would run through and about six weeks and two thirds of the deaths would occur in those few weeks. it continued to mutate. another variant emerged. it caused the third wave in the spring of march 1919. it was pretty lethal, but less lethal than the second wave. after that, the virus continued to mutate partly because

people's immune systems -- they were better able to respond. they continued to circulate. the influenza that we are familiar with today is hardly the 1918 virus. so, the virulence of that virus was extraordinary. it could kill people in less than 12 hours. that was unusual, but it happened -- most people died probably from a secondary bacterial infection. it is not clear, entirely how many died from a secondary infection and how many died initially from the virus.

there are a considerable number of parallels. for one thing, 1918 -- it affected and infected almost every organ in the body. another was that the neurological problems were very prompt -- very common. one very good observant noted that it is very similar to what is happening today. one of the biggest differences, one i already mentioned -- as violent as the attack was, it was over an incredibly short period of time. it is very different today.

even though 1918 was much more intense and much more tragic, in some ways, the stress on people was less because when it was over, it was over. another big difference is the target demographic who died, probably two thirds of the dead were aged 18 to 45 or 50. young people and infants. particularly the children under the age of five. it was very lethal. host: let me bring some statistics to our audience here. for the flu pandemic, there were more than 500 million people infected with the flu, which at that time was about one third of the world's population.

50 million deaths worldwide. right now, with covid, according to the john hopkins university covid tracker, there have been 197 one million cases. more than 4 million deaths. we have had more than 600,000 deaths in the u.s., from covid. those numbers are not exactly the same, but we are still talking in the hundreds of millions of infections worldwide with covid. when we talk about the flu pandemic, it is connected to that same pandemic that happened more than 100 years ago with the

flu pandemic. did i hear you say that correctly? guest: some of the genetic information, yes. host: does that signal that the virus we are dealing with now could still be around in some form or fashion 100 years from now? guest: personally, i think that this virus is never going away. in 1889, what everybody thought was an influenza pandemic, it was called the russian flu. it was a couple months ago, some scientists speculated that it was actually not in influenza, that it was caused by coronavirus. today it causes the common cold.

it is impossible to say whether or not they are correct, but it is an interesting hypothesis that the evidence was not compelling. it is interesting. we do not really know because one of the main things, it was pretty good evidence that they presented that it entered the human population at approximately the same time as the pandemic. that is the way they advance the argument. i would expect this virus to be around, essentially forever, but again, that does not mean that it will be dangerous forever. i think it is most likely that our immune systems and vaccines

will both be able to handle it eventually. host: we will open up regional lines. if you are in the eastern or central time zone, your number will be (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zone, your number will be (202) 748-8001. you can always text us at (202) 748-8003, and we are always reading on social media and on twitter. john, can you explain to us how the 1918 pandemic was actually ended? what did we do to stop it? was it vaccines? masks, social distancing? guest: it ended naturally.

our science is not advanced enough to develop a vaccine -- at the time we did not know what a virus was. scientists knew that there were small organisms that caused disease. they developed a vaccine against polio. they could not grow it. sorry. i lost my train of thought. there was a tremendous amount of research that came out in 1918. it did not come about until 1925. there were two lessons that came

out about the pandemic. number one, tell the truth. number two, when i refer to as nonpharmaceutical interventions. closing down, when necessary and things like that. those lessons are intertwined. you will not get people to cooperate in the nonpharmaceutical interventions, unless they believe what you are telling them. we have been divided on partisan lines. there is very little trust. in terms of how it actually ended, pretty much naturally.

it is likely that it continued to mutate in a direction, becoming more mild than that second wave. at the same time, people's immune systems had seen the virus once or twice. it came around again and again. they were much better able to handle it without deadly repercussions. it did continue to kill people, but not anything like the numbers during the pandemic. host: we have a question for you from one of our social media followers. the question is, do you think americans took the pandemic more seriously back then because it killed so many children early on? guest: they took it more

seriously because it killed everybody. people were lied to in 1918. there was a news because the government said, this is nothing to worry about. they actually said, this is ordinary influenza by another name, spanish flu. those lies did not have any impact because people could see their neighbor, their spouse getting deathly sick and dying, sometimes from horrific symptoms, scary symptoms. you could plead not only from your nose or mouth, but you could bleed from your eyes and your ears. people were turning so dark blue from lack of oxygen that one doctor wrote that he could not distinguish african-american soldiers from white soldiers. when you have things like that

happening, you take it very seriously. there was a tremendous amount of fear out there in 1918 -- 1918, much more than today. host: here is another question from a social media follower. early on, we heard a lot of people saying that covid-19 is nothing but the flu, all over again. one of our social media followers is wanting to know what is the difference between influenza and the current coronavirus? guest: they are different viruses with similar symptoms. they are spread the same way. i do not know how else to put it than that. influenza can -- as i said earlier, in 1918, that virus

affected every organ in the body. it is pretty unusual for seasonal influenza. the fact that all these different organs is -- are affected -- what is doing the damage is not necessarily the virus in those organs, but trying to fight back the disease , it is throwing every weapon that it has at the virus. this affects every -- other organs in the body that would be similar between the two pandemics, but that does not happen normally with seasonal influenza. normally, seasonal influenza, the virus can bind to receptors in your nose and mouth, also in the eyes as well. it normally does not bind to

cells in your lungs. you do not normally get pneumonia from influenza. you could do that in 1918. it does have the ability to bind to cells in your upper respiratory tract. if it happens, starting out, you have a bout of pneumonia and that is not a good place to be. host: many vaccine deniers are saying, look at how few flu cases we had over the last year. these things must have been the

same thing. they are classifying flu cases as covid cases. i'm sure you have heard that as well. guest: the reason we had so little influenza last year was because the two diseases are spread almost exactly the same way. all that effort to protect ourselves from covid actually stopped, not just influenza but pretty much every respiratory disease. people are keeping distances. they are staying home. they are not going to bars and concerts. there isn't much less opportunity for any respiratory virus to spread. that is why there was so little influenza last year. host: let's go to our phone lines and hear from earl on the republican line. good morning.

caller: good morning. i am a gulf war era veteran. 750,000 of us did not have a choice. i did get this covid vaccine but there are a lot of us working on this thing. as not a vaccine denier but as an experienced person, it is extremely affected by the vaccine. i see many friends who have had certain symptoms. i do not hold it against them because if i had to do it all

over again, i would have refused mandatory vaccine that the military was giving us, simply because i did not want -- i would not hold it against anybody. i think the quality of life issue is a personal decision, but i also think there are things that they do not tell us about. they do not tell us about all the things that can happen. that is my comment. i wondered if you could comment on those issues. guest: i appreciate what you did for the country and the world. i do not know anything specifically about the vaccine. there was concern that saddam hussein had biological weapons and chemical weapons, so that would have been an effort to

protect ourselves against those weapons. i know nothing specifically about the vaccine. the defense department was not very helpful, initially after vietnam. it was quite difficult for many veterans who suffered from that to get help, so that history is not so brave. in terms of this vaccine, it has been extremely well tested. right now, there are several billion people who have received the vaccine. the side effects are minor and temporary. i have heard numbers of how many people have been killed by the vaccine that are in the highest

number i ever heard from anybody , 31,000. there is no data supporting that. more importantly, there have been at least 4 million people who died from this. there are several billion people where shots have gone into people's arms. even if that is totally unsupported -- even if they are correct about the number of people who died from the vaccine -- if it is false and not correct, it is still 200-1. again, a full's figure on the vaccine. not true. even if you accept that, it is

still 200-1. you know, it just does not make sense in terms of not getting the vaccine to protect yourself and to protect other people. host: this caller and you have been talking about the military and the current coronavirus, but how did the military deal with the flu pandemic? what did they do? guest: again, some of the best science in the world is being done by the military because many, probably even most of the best doctors in the country were in the army at the time, even the scientists. probably the single most

important figure became a colonel. the dean of the university of michigan became a colonel. rockefeller university with the highest concentration by any institution in the world, that existed. the entire institute was in the military. one guy was canadian and they made him a corporal. he is the one that discovered that the genetic code is part of this research on the pandemic. they took this very seriously. even before the pandemic, they were very concerned about respiratory disease.

you have thousands of soldiers and military camps. they were very worried about spread of disease. they discovered that if you put a mask on somebody already sick, you protect the people around that person. they proved it scientifically. they could tell you about it. these were very good experiments. up until world war i, more soldiers died of disease than in combat. the army sergeant general really saw yellow fever and anyway, he

was determined that this war would be the first one were more people died in combat. that turned out not to be the case because the pandemic was special. for example, september 26, the disease had already surfaced. they canceled the draft. they did not want more people coming into the training camps because they already felt that they were overcrowded. pretty much the vast majority of the camps instituted quarantine and social distance measures, things like that. it was interesting, the study of that, after the pandemic. it demonstrated all of these

measures were in place. they were not strictly enforced, and many camps. they do not do any good whatsoever, those that did not strictly enforce those, the same social distancing, quarantine and so forth. they did work pretty well when they were strictly enforced. we have seen the same kinds of results across the world. host: let's talk to tony calling from alabama. tony, good morning. caller: yes. i was wondering about this so-called vaccine. the head of pfizer's research and dr. malone -- they both say stop it right now. it is not meant for humans.

they have not been allowed on television stations. most of their stuff has been banned on the internet. the only ones looking at studies are in government or colleges paid for by the government. why should anybody take this when they say it is a genocide on the people. they are multiplying and clogging up every major artery that there is. i keep hearing how great this thing is. us healthy people who have already had it, why would we take this thing? hundreds of thousands injured very badly. people losing their babies -- this is crazy. when will you start having ethics and start telling people what is going on? host: go ahead and respond. guest: i'm sure -- pretty much

not at -- pretty much nothing he said was true. it is simple. science changes. information changes. when the data changes, you change your position. i know that it seems that things have gone back and forth, and they have because the information they are basing their judgment on has changed. the idea that the head of pfizer says do not take the vaccine? that is nonsense. why does somebody believe what they get from the internet? it is just beyond me.

go to your own doctor. find somebody who knows what they are talking about, who you trust. i just cannot understand why somebody would believe nonsense and some video or a piece of social media that they read on the internet, and not believe people who spend their entire lives, trying to save lives. that is by people in the cdc do. they are doing it. that is what people in national institutes of health are doing. he much every scientist could make more money in the private industry. they are there because they want to help humanity what is in it

for the world health organization? we are in a situation where we have people -- again, the gentleman who just called, i am sure he believes what he is saying. he believes he is trying to help people, but what sort of information are you relying on? if you have cancer and you go to your doctor, are you going to do with that dr. advises? or are you going to take some nonsensical junk that comes off the internet? the overwhelming majority of viewers are going to do what their doctor tells them. they will pay very little attention to the internet. here we have a situation where far too many people are paying attention to nonsensical claims

and taking them seriously. i just do not get it. go to those who you trust. it should be your own doctor. host: here is a question from one of our social media followers. what was the political response to the 1918 pandemic? was it a partisan affair? if not, perhaps we are dumber than our ancestors. his partisanship making us more stupid in our ability to handle pandemics? guest: i think so, unfortunately. a national public health --

people were saying that this was ordinary influenza with another name. they did it, not for partisan reasons but because they were afraid that telling the truth would hurt the war effort. they had the entire country who spoke this time. not to advance their own personal agenda because there was no partisan divide, whatsoever there was some resistance to some of the orders in some cities, but that resistance came from people like saloon owners. it was not spread among the general population. some of the cities like new york city and tammany hall -- tammany had probably come back into

power. the most corrupt to shooting american politics. they replaced the heads of the department, of the city with a guy who was not even a doctor. this was before the pandemic. he would not even close the saloons because the saloon owners were huge backers of the tammany hall machine. you had that kind of politics. almost every city closed schools and closed saloons. incidentally, that is one of the big differences between influenza and covid-19 is the vulnerability of kid. -- the kids.

it made a lot of sense to close schools because children are super-spreader's and they are very vulnerable to the disease. neither of those things are true with covid, but a lot of places initially close schools because they did not know that kids were not super-spreader's. they did not know how vulnerable they may or may not have been. host: let us go back to our phone lines and talk to jerry from new smyrna beach, florida. caller: thank you for taking my call. my mom's family went through the epidemic and living in new york city at the time. i remember asking her about this when she was still alive. she said her grandfather came down with the.

they had a big family, like most people might have back then but nobody was affected in their family, at all. unfortunately, my grandfather and them came through that pandemic -- i do not think they believed at -- and doctors at the time, but does this imply a kind of immunity that might have existed back then? have there been any research on that type of field like who got it and who did not? guest: not everyone is going to get every disease. covid is much more -- particularly the cut -- delta can -- delta variant. even if you did nothing at all with influenza probably one

third of the population would get infected. at least get symptomatic. there are also people who get infected who did not show any symptoms. fear is the case with covid, but it does happen. there are also some asymptomatic spread. some are spread by those who do not show any symptoms, but not nearly as much as with covid. some of it is the lack of the draw. some people -- it is hard to say. some diseases are not always that easy to get as scary as ebola is, it is not easy to transmit ebola. sars, the first had a high fatality.

it is not easy to transmit. the middle east, respiratory syndrome, another coat -- another coronavirus that emerged over 10 years ago, about 10 years ago had a 35% case mortality rate. that disease was not easy to transmit. sars was contained and murmurs -- again, part of it is how communicable or contagious the virus is. part of it is luck of the draw. that is a long answer that is not really an answer. probably. host: you brought up some past pandemics that we faced in the country. i want you to address some of these.

we have been talking about the 1918 pandemic. talk about 1957. tell us about those pandemics. what were they and how did we come out of it? guest: again, a different influenza virus. it entered the human population in 1957 and 1968. it started in china. the 1957 virus was pretty nasty. nothing whatsoever like 1918 and nothing like covid. there was a vaccine developed, but not early enough to have much impact on the disease.

it was more severe than ordinary, seasonal influenza. there were not many measures taken. the association decided against actually taking extreme action. there were no doubt schools closed in places that were hard hit, but not really anything more than that. interestingly, as with the 1918 virus, 1989 as well. the first year of the 1989 pandemic, it was the mildest. almost exactly twice the number

as died the first year. this is after you already had exposure. you had a variant that became more virulent. again, it kept mutating. it kept getting better and better at infecting people and killed more as it moved on. immune systems adjusted and the virus changed again. it coned down. in 1957, the peak mortality of monthly mortality, the worst during the pandemic actually occurred in 1960, so that was after a couple years of the virus having circulated. again, after a vaccine was already developed and

administered. as with 1889 and 1918, 1957, clearly you had a variant emerging that got increasingly nasty in some cases. 1968 is a little more complicated. most of the deaths occurred in that first year. in europe, most deaths occurred in the second year. after there was already exposure and natural immunity develop and after a vaccine was already being distributed. the most likely explanation for that is that there was a variant that sprang through europe. even in 2009, the pandemic that did not happen, fewer people

were killed by the swine flu virus than is normally the case. that was a very interesting pandemic. the overwhelming majority of people had a really mild case, but for those people -- once again, 57, the virus actually continued to adapt and became more virulent, as time went on it has been noted in the scientific community. it was around 12,000.

in retrospect, that is an event that did not happen. host: let's get some more callers in. good morning. caller: i want to thank him for his book. i read it and it was fascinating . the thing that i took away the most was that during that research, i think it was through john hopkins, but they came up with cures for other diseases like the yellow fever, and i think malaria or something. i found that fascinating because i am double vaccinated. and since i have had vaccination

, i have not gotten the usual summer cold. there are other things this time of year that i usually get. back to what we were talking about before, i am also a federal employee and they took the federal mask restrictions out of the building and now they have put it back and everybody has been working from home but they are talking about us going back into the building, and i am very uncomfortable with that because i think sitting enclosed in a room with a bunch of people, a large room with no windows, with the bunch of people who have decided that they do not want to get vaccinated, i do not think it is fair to the rest of us who have taken the precautions, that will have to sit there for up to

eight hours or more with a mask on because of responsibility. host: go ahead and respond, john. guest: yellow fever and malaria -- your main point -- thank you for your comment on the book. the main point about other benefits is absolutely correct. there is a hearing that you might have heard, if you shoot an arrow into the air, wherever it lands, you make a target. this research on disease, they learned an awful lot about many things. i mentioned the two most important things already. they figured out what a virus was and eventually, how to grow it. the second one is probably more important. it helped to shape all of our lives.

that was the discovery that it carries the genetic code. it was research on the influenza pandemic. i mentioned it earlier. there is a tremendous amount of resources pouring into research and will continue to pour into medical research. i am absolutely certain we are going to get tremendous benefits out of that. it will not be directly related. host: did the government mandate vaccines? all the way back to 1905 the

jacobson versus massachusetts case, the supreme court ruled that the power of state included reasonable regulation established to protect public health and safety. it states that the state could mandate vaccines. in any of the pandemics we have talked about, did the government mandate that people get vaccinated? guest: no. in most cases, they did not have the vaccine. in all the cases, they did not have the vaccine. it was developed soon enough to be useful. the -- the so-called spinal fluid incident -- a soldier put

in the hospital. the scientific community was concerned that it jumped species and that it would spread worldwide. gerald ford was convinced. multiple nobel laureate sat down with him to launch this vaccine effort. that was correct. they had to begin preparation, but there should have been in offramp because it never spread beyond. in the meantime, millions of americans got vaccinated against a threat that did not really exist. since the disease that they were being protected against did not happen, the bad outcomes were

from the vaccine. there have been other occasions where a vaccine has caused problems. that is not the case this time around. they surfaced quite quickly and were identified pretty quickly in the polio incident and in 1976. we have gone much longer than that with this vaccine. instead of having given millions of doses, there are well over one billion doses of vaccine with minimal side effects. again, it makes no sense to me. one other comment that the

caller just made -- let me read you something that the french president said last week. actually, i thought it was going to be right here. i had it ready. i was prepared. host: if you can find it, we will come back to it. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i might have spoken to the doctor once before. he probably knows these people. an epidemiologist at harvard, professor gandhi has brought it up. one of the important discussions

surrounding the durability from a nature magazine article. 32 people to isolate the b cells. able to show the reactivity with more modern versions of the virus. that was interesting to me and it made me think of you. defending the vaccine against immediate requirements for boosters. they will probably be used soon like with what israel is doing now. one thing that has not been discussed very well -- dr. eric

has brought up the issues that we really need to get back to rapid testing as a major instrument, even though the biden administration has sent out massive amounts, it has not been converted. it still was not very cost-effective. what they would do is 150 million. give them to everyone so that they can test a way out of this until everyone is able to get vaccinated. host: john, would rapid testing help with this pandemic? guest: i think it would.

before it was clear that the vaccine would be available, that was one of the offramp's. if you could have a cheap, rapid test, they were talking about two dollars or five dollars a fish -- dollars a test. it would be very helpful. it would probably be true, in terms of distribution, usage and so forth. it would be pretty complicated, but it should be a tool. i think that the effectiveness of the vaccine took people's attention away from this

secondary means of controlling spread, which is more indirect than a vaccine, but i think it would be helpful. the investment should be made in that. host: let's see if we can get a quick question and answer. good morning. caller: thank you for your time and your wisdom. i want to get to this pfizer technology. frequently throughout the show, you mention about site some effects for vaccinations. there are others who fell along the wayside. i'm curious about annual flu shots.

is that something that could boggle our immune system enough? guest: no. the more exposed you are to different pathogens, the stronger your immune system is going to be. a vaccine is a signal. it is so that the immune system can recognize the signal and mount a defense that is specific to that attack that is all that it is, is a signal. if you never get infected, your immune system will not respond. if you do get infected, it has already seen that signal and it is much faster and more specific

and mounting a response. specificity is important. a lot of the deaths from covid -- it is when your immune system -- some of them are toxic. it is when your immune system has this massive response, instead of a narrow and specific response. it can kill you. when the immune system knows exactly what is targeted and mounts parts that work directly against that particular attack, your whole guest: must -- it is much more effective in fighting disease. host: we would like to thank john berry.

the author of the great influenza. the story of the deadliest pandemic in history. we would like to thank him for being here and talking us through the 1918 pandemic and our current coronavirus pandemic. thank you so much for being here with us this morning. i love c-span going back more than four years. coming up, you will talk with tom foley about guest: i love c-span going back more than four years. host: coming up, you will talk with tom foley. >> weekends, we bring you the best history and nonfiction books. author and new york times

columnist talks about politics and conservative it -- conservativism and america. he argues we are entering an era of social and economic stagnation. robin d'angelo talks about well-intentioned white people who can cause racial harm in her book nice racism. she is interviewed by author and princeton university professor of african-american studies. watch book tv every weekend. find a full schedule or walk -- or watch online. >> tonight on q and a. ginsburg, author of first friends. >> as i grew older, i started to

work on campaigns. i worked on the clinton ministration and i started to notice this dynamic between the leader's best friend and the leader himself and how the best friend could speak in a way that no aid or staffer could. with speak more bluntly or natural. i saw it with warren beatty and the gary hart campaign and speak to the candidate knowing that -- no one else around him at the time would. stop acting and talking like a politician. got quite aroused by that. he would change the way he spoke. i also saw how he was at night with late night conversations like that night dinners. i saw the same dynamic in the clinton campaign and how they were of equal stature and how that allowed clinton to get from jordan away that he could not

from anyone else. >> former clinton at mr. risch and aid and author of first friends, gary ginsberg talks about the political influence. tonight at 8:00 on q and a. you can also listen to q&a as a podcast wherever you get your podcast. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back with tom foley who is here with us to discuss the 31st anniversary of the americans with disabilities act and the challenges that still remain for disabled americans. tom, get morning. guest: good morning. great to be here. i appreciate the opportunity. host: can you tell us exactly what the national disabilities institute is? guest: absolutely.

national disability institute is the first stability nonprofit that works exclusively on issues of economic equality and economic empowerment for people with disabilities. the last 15 years, we have worked on policies, research to really increase opportunities for people with disabilities and their families. host: tell us a little bit about your journey as a disability rights advocate. how did you get into this? why is this important? guest: particularly around economic empowerment, i was fortunate enough to have financial education and i absolutely fell in love with it. as a person who is blind, i realized that my economic future was going to be determined based on decisions that i made and so for the last 30 years, i've been

fortunate enough to be able to work in and around employment and economic employment with folks with disabilities looking for those complex drivers of economic inequality and trying to address them through research, policy. host: how many people do you work with? are you a national organization? guest: we are based in washington dc. 15 of us are in the bc office and the rest of us are spread all over the country. from d.c. -- 15 of us are in the washington dc office and the rest of us are spread all over the country. host: this past -- this past week was the 31st anniversary of the national disabilities -- americans with disabilities act. what he said during the signing in july of 1990. >> our success proves that we

are keeping safe with the courageous spirit of our forefathers who wrote in the declaration of it -- who wrote in the declaration of independence that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights. as we have labored to form our more perfect union, but tragically for too many americans the blessings of liberty have been limited or even denied. the civil rights act of 1964 took a bold step cents -- took a bold step of writing that wrong. --righting that wrong. people with disabilities were still victims of dissemination and this was intolerable.

-- were still victims of discrimination and this is intolerable. this act is pop that is powerful in its simplest he. are given the basic guarantees of which they have worked. freedom of choice, control of their lives, the opportunity to blend fully and equally into the rich mosaic of the american mainstream. legally, it will provide our disabled committee with the powerful expansion of protections and basic civil rights. it will guarantee fair and just access to the fruits of american life which we all must be able to enjoy. host: what made the americans

with disabilities act so significant legally and socially russian mark guest: -- host: significant legally and socially? guest: thank you for that question. the president said from the start of society and having the same civil-rights and opportunities as everybody else. to be able to pursue independent living, live in the community, to be economically self-sufficient. not only words used, but promises made to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to be successful, to work and to build an economic future for themselves and their family. host: i want to remind our audience that i want them to take part in this conversation. we are going to open up special

lines. that means that for those of you out there, people with disabilities, people with disabilities. their families and their caretakers. we want to hear from you this morning. for people with disabilities we are going to open up a special line. that's going to be 202-748-8000. for people with disabilities and their families, we want to hear from you this morning at 202-748-8000. everyone else, we are going to open up line for you as well. deadline is going to be 202-748-8001. for everyone else, 202-748-8001. you can always text us at 202-748-8003. we are also reading on social media at http://twitter.com/cspanwj and facebook.com/cspan. tom, have there been

advancements with people disabilities since the law was passed? has technology been able to help in any way? guest: absolutely. i think there have been lots of advancements from the civil rights legislation, from this becoming a more prevalent issue that we've talked about in our communities. clearly technology has played a role in that. i was think about that this morning. i was able to join you today. particularly from the economic development standpoint. the phones that i use everyday allows me to do things around banking and investing and saving money that i couldn't even have imagined through -- 30 years ago when the ada was first signed into law. a lot of changed over the past 31 years, but still there are an

awful lot of economic barriers that we still need to continue to address. host: i want to refer to our that i want to read -- i want to read for our audience. the first part of it, the ada prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life including jobs, schools, transportation and all public and private places open to the general public. it also guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities and public accommodations of employment, transportation, state and local government services and telecommunications. you just brought this up so what barriers, given that the ada is in existence, what barriers remain for people with disabilities? guest: that's a great question.

we worked largely on issues of economic equality and economic inclusion. a couple of statistics. labor statistics in 2020, people with disabilities were employed at a rate of about 18% versus 61% for the rest of the population. when we look at percentage of people who live below the poverty line, 26% of people with disabilities were below the poverty line versus 11% on average in the united states. one more statistic that really catches it. for folks with disabilities across all groups, average network in the united states is $14,000. for people and families without disabilities, $84,000. even beyond that, if someone is african-american living with a disability they are not -- their

net worth is only 1221 dollars. we see differentiation -- $1221. even within disability, that intersection of race and disability is an economic outcome we need to address. host: i want to put those statistics that you just talked about up on screen so our audience can see it. you were just saying, and i want you to talk about this little bit more, that 26%, that's one fourth of people with a disability live below the poverty line. that compares with 11% of people , a little bit more than one in 10, people without a disability

live below the probably line. -- live below the poverty line. why russian mark guest: host: -- why? guest: someone is on federal benefits, ssi. there is a $2000 limit. what that means is if a person get the job and is trying to save money, the mutt -- the moment they save more than $2000, they can lose their ssi. they can lose their ssi medicaid. this is a huge disincentive. assets are disincentive to savings, to work, for hope. host: you also brought up a

second statistic. the average household wealth. for a working aged person with a disability, their average household wealth is $14,180. for that same word g -- working aged person, if they did not have a disability that wealth would be $83,985. whether you think the government should be doing to address this huge income and wealth gap? >> there's a number of policies that can be taken into consideration. one of which that we are very excited about is the beginning to address the asset limit i just talked about. 2014, we passed a law on achieving a better life experience. these are tax advantage savings for people with disabilities that don't affect one's federal

benefits. for example, you can say that she can save up to a hundred thousand dollars in an account and not lose your ssi. significantly more than that and not lose your medicaid. we have seen how these accounts can be transformational in the lives of people with disabilities. folks can buy a house, can start a small business. they have some savings set aside for any economic downturn. it helps them stay more financially resilient. even in a pandemic when employment for people with disabilities was hit harder than any other group, if you have a few thousand dollars in savings you are going to be able to go through those periods of economic unemployment, you know, downturns work comfortably. the disability onset has to be before age 26. if someone becomes disabled at

27 or later in an accident or illness or a veteran is injured, they are not eligible for those special savings accounts. host: let's let some of our colors --callers during this conversation. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for everything you've done, tom. i was wondering if you've ever thought of the thousands of disabled people who right now are sitting bedridden because they had their medication taken away. i think it's becoming quite a big problem in the united states. people who've been living numeral -- living normal lives with the help of pain medication suddenly are not getting

anything and are bedridden. some of them are committing suicide. host: go ahead and respond. guest: thanks for the question. one of the things you point out is so important. access to quality medical care. this goes back to what we were talking about with asset limits and linked medicaid. summoning people with disabilities becomes a medical situation. medicaid is literally a lifeline not only to surviving but provide care so that people can get up in the morning and go back to that job, begin to earn a living. making sure that people with disabilities maintain access to their health care, be it through

social security income or others. host: let's talk to sheila who was calling from connecticut. good morning. caller: i'm calling regarding, i have two autistic nephews and one of them is a little more high functioning, but the other one is nonverbal. every time they have problems with medical problems, meltdowns, those type of things, dental issues, they have to go to a hospital. no one is equipped to help these kids in the hospital. he ends up being strapped down

for hours. they end up taking him home. when i say hours, i say 40 hours. one time he had to wait, recently, and i think this had to do with his met that his meltdowns. he had a bad -- i think he it had to do with his meltdown. he had a bad tooth, but he didn't tell anyone. they had to wait to take the tooth out because he has to be put out any has to be put into the children's hospital. it's a nightmare. everything is a nightmare for him. he suffered for four months. they had to keep giving him antibiotics until he could get a room. it was delayed but more delayed because of the pandemic. it's not good, and our state does not even have an autistic ability to help kids in crisis.

my sister had to go from connecticut to rhode island just to get into a hospital deck and screen autistic children for help. host: go ahead and respond. guest: you point out an important issue and this is exactly one of the things we were talking about. a lot is changed since the passing of the ada, but there is still a long way to go. as you properly point out, services differ state to state, location to location. being able to access services can be difficult depending on where one lives. today is a perfect example. 31 years ago, there wasn't a tv

show talking about. while we have come along way, there is still a long way to go. i really appreciate the opportunity for people to be able to call in and highlight some of these issues so that more people can be informed and hopefully moving forward, we can do even a better job of protecting civil-rights. host: tom, how did the pandemic affect employment for people with disabilities? >> that's a great question. as i mentioned earlier, a lot of times. disabilities are the last hired and the first let go. we definitely saw that in the pandemic. of the people working -- of the

people with disabilities who were working, 20% of them lost their jobs. not only that, when we dug into the data we found that if you were african-american and had a disability while working, 44% of those folks lost their jobs. again, this underlines the importance of those able accounts earlier. imagine how much easier being laid off would be if you were able to have more than $2000. one of the pieces of legislation we are working on and really excited about is the able aged adjustment act. currently, disability onset before age 26. the able age adjustment act

which change that to age 46. if one became disabled later in life in 20's or 30's all the way up to age 46, you would qualify for an abled account. having a few extra thousand dollars in savings can be ransomed -- can be transformational. we estimate as many as 6000 -- 6 million new people would be eligible. one million of those would be veterans. everyone watching today, support the able aged support act. particularly as we continue to find are awake -- fight our way through this pandemic. host: we have a question from one of our social media

followers who wants to know what you think about president biden saying long-term covid patients may be able to use the ada as disabled people. host: guest:guest: -- i really appreciate many of the things that president biden has talked about. clearly, folks who are the long-term covid, we don't even know some of the issues they will be facing. from the long-term medical implications, we applaud that everything that president biden has been doing to recognize this. it's funny when he was talking about, he highlighted how the ada promised new opportunities for folks with disabilities. medical coverage or making able

accounts available to more people. we applaud much of the work that president biden has been doing. >> host: last when he came out to commemorate the 31st anniversary with remarks at the rose garden at the white house. here's a portion of what president biden said about the ada. >> 31 years ago, many americans have never lived in a world without the ada. generations have grown up not knowing a time before it existed. many of us can still recall when a person with disabilities was denied service and restaurants and groceries towards. -- grocery stores. a person using a wheelchair could not write a plane or train or bus -- could not ride a plane or train or bus. we passed the ada and made the commitment to build the nation

for all of us. we moved america closer to fulfilling that promise of liberty and justice and maybe most importantly, dignity and equality for all. perhaps most importantly, we did it together. this was a democratic bill signed by a republican president. passion and compassion, not partisanship. progress, not political, but personal many families. host: another thing president biden has talked about is if lawyers who pay those who are disabled less than -- employers who pay those who are disabled less than minimum wage. can you talk about what happened? guest: what you're referring to is known as certain employers to

pay people with disabilities below minimum wage. quite often, far below minimum wage. it's funny, given the clip you just played, this harkens back to a very different america where the economy was not built for all of us. equality was less important. we've been working on the 14 issues for a number of years trying to do away with this exemption. recognizing that people with disabilities are just like everybody else. people with disabilities want to work. they want to build an economic future for themselves and their family. they certainly cannot do that if they are not even making minimum wage. big fans of president biden's work around the 14 and

eliminating that. making sure that people with disabilities are paid daily -- a living wage when they go to work every day. we recognize that people don't need to be fixed. the policies and broken systems do. we work on policy and issues to change and improve economic outcomes with folks with disabilities. host: let's talk to anthony who was calling from new york. good morning. caller: good morning. i've had a sport -- spinal cord injury in 1973. back when nothing was accessible. hotels, buses, trains. it was an awakening to have to

readapt to life in a wheelchair. since then, the ada has transformed this country. to be very accommodating toward us and not have to deal with this type of barrier everywhere. one of the barriers i've been fighting to get resolved in the last four years is hotel furniture. it was not covered under ada. when you go to a hotel, that can be anywhere from 20 inches to 36 inches. the wii chip -- the wheelchair is 20 inches under and to get it into something that is 30 inches high with a 20 inch wheelchair is impossible. i've had to sleep in my wheelchair plenty of times. -- wheelchair plenty of times in a hotel. hotel furniture was not covered.

since then, i am of that i have invented a thing that is trying to get to that hotels to adapt. it's a portable wheelchair lift that can be brought up to a room if somebody needs it. it raises the height of the wheelchair to the height of the bed. i've been trying to get hotels to listen, but i get nothing but a deaf ear at this point. hot tubs are accessible, but hotel beds are not. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i love that topic and here's why. we were just talking about people with disabilities want to work. they want to build an economic future. you know what else they want to do? they want to start new businesses. they want to invent new technologies. people with disabilities see a

gap and our caller saw a gap, and wants to make an industry more accessible so it can serve more people. it's a cycle. i'm always super excited when i hear about people with disabilities with ideas and inventions of starting a new business. this is part of that energy, part of that economic opportunity that we really need to be able to leverage and encourage in the disability community. maybe in five years, that is a million-dollar business. i'm always super excited to talk to people, filling a gap in a creative way. host: let's talk to kelly who was calling from longview, texas. good morning. caller: good morning.

i have a few comments. i've been in a wheelchair about five years now and recently i got a prosthetic leg. i'm able to walk pretty good now. the comments i have are there is no enforcement for people who did not follow the ada or the texas accessibility standards. you can complain, file complaints by post office, federal. i filed a complaint. it took 18 months for them to change their parking striping to get the accessible parking near the front door. or along dr. for work -- if i'm

to go to a longer dr.lung --lung doctor. i say i don't see a ramp. i don't see parking near the front door. they say well, just come up here and call us when you get here and we will come outside and we will bring you in our back door where we have a little wooden ramp built. that's not acceptable and there's nothing a fellow can do. a 30-year-old law needs to be updated because everything has changed. people like myself, we have electric wheelchairs. we put them on a trailer or take him -- take them with us and there's no parking designated for that. we have to parkway off -- we have to park way off to get it

down and get it off and get into walmart. there are many items that need to be updated in the ada and the texas excel ability -- texas accessibility. i designed buildings for a living and i also inspect and review plans for accessibility. probably, one or 2% of all brand-new buildings built today comply fully. the other 95 to 98%, there are always issues. host: tom, how do you get ada enforced? guest: i think this goes back to where we started. so much has changed for so many people and yet there is a long way to go. some of that i think is around education.

some of that is around enforcement. i think a lot of that is around conversations like we are having today. we get to highlight these issues. there are more people advocating for change. sometimes it does come down to filing that complaint. or sending that letter. or highlighting that issue. as we move forward as a society, it takes a lot of work. it takes work from the media, individuals, all the disability organizations nationally and locally that do an amazing job. there's a lift in there. to everyone who is living this, to everyone who is working on it and everyone who was giving a

voice to the movement, thank you. this is how we get change. it's not always as fast as we want, but as martin luther king said, the universe is long but justice. host: let's talk to sarah who was calling from gent -- was calling from virginia. >> good morning. i am sitting here just tickled. i was listening this morning and just hearing your enthusiasm about not limiting the ability of people. my mother was a senior. i'm a senior caretaker. limiting a senior that is on social security to say well, yeah you can work but we don't want you to work but so much.

or you might lose some of your benefits. that is so counterintuitive to their mental state, their overall well-being. it's the limits that people put on people with disability or age or color or anything in this world. that limits our choices. host: go ahead and respond. guest: thank you for the kind words. as a society, we are grappling with lots of these issues right now. having all sorts of different limits. some are policy limits and some are societal expectations.

again, thank you for what you said. people with disabilities, they are like everybody else. we want to work, we want to build an economic future for ourselves and our family. we want to do something for a living that we love. let's make sure that working together that everyone including people with disabilities and including people with disabilities and color have as many opportunities as possible to build a future. host: we would like to thank tom foley for being with us this morning and taking us through the first 30 one years of the americans with disabilities act. guest: thank you so much for the opportunity. if people need more information,

nationaldisability.org. host: we are going to have our open forum. you see the numbers there on screen. we will take your calls and just a minute. we will be right back. >> bring you the best in american history and nonfiction books. parents, education -- educators and pundits have long discussed how american history should be taught in schools. a new initiative called educating for american democracy that was funded through grants i've private foundations and the private government and oral histories. iraq war veteran richard todd

talks about his service in the u.s. army national guard during operation iraqi freedom as well as his time in afghanistan. watch american history tv every weekend and find a full schedule on your program guide or visit c-span.org. >> c-spanshop.org. browse to see what's new. you still have time to order a congressional directory. go tocspan -- go to c-span.org. host: we are back and we are going to open up our phone lines for our open forms nation.

we want to know what topics you want to talk about and what topics are important to you today. i'm going to start with the story from the washington post this morning about the january 6 commission. we want to see what you want to talk about this morning. keep in mind, you can call us. republicans, your line is going to be 202-748-8000. democrats, your line is 202-748-8000. -- republicans, your line is 202-748-8001. democrats, your line is 202-748-8000. independent, your line is 202-748-8002. you can text us at 202-748-8003. the washington post has a story this morning about the january 6 commission. i will bring you that story. the leaders of the house investigating january 6 attack on the capital are promising a vigorous inquiry into -- vigorous inquiry. it could lead to unprecedented

legal and political showdown over how the force members of congress to take the witness stand. several congressional republicans have admitted to having some contact with president donald trump during the insurrection or in the days leading up to it making their testimony essentially key to the guide of being -- to the goal of being guided by the facts. says in an interview that there is no reluctance to subpoena any member whose testimony will germane and resist cooperating voluntarily. should they force their republican colleagues to testify? i want to know what's on your mind. let's start with deborah who was calling from arkansas on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning.

well, thank you for this opportunity. i live in arkansas. it is a beautiful state, but it is -- but it blows my mind that what i was standing in mind -- standing in line to vote 70% of the people around me were voting for trump after all the stuff we found out about him. and now coming up, and our governors race, we've got sarah sanders who is probably going to be our new governor and i love arkansas, but i just wanted to put that out there. we need a good democrat to run for governor against her. host: let's talk to ron who is calling from monroe township, new jersey on the independent line. caller: i would like to talk about the last gentleman that was there. i'm learning disabled and i

suffer from bipolar illness. i can say due to the fact that i had tremendous family support system and tremendous school system and everything else, i had a very good life. i did struggle along the way. i even made several attempts on my life, but i'm here 79 years old and had more lifetime experiences than most people will ever have. i think the heavens above and especially my family and friends and school system and everybody else. host: let's talk to eleanor who is calling from fayetteville, north carolina on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning.

the 9/11 commission doing good, but they should subpoena all that had any contact with donald trump during the insurrection because it's sad to say that these are our representatives and we've got to stand in line and deal with them and they can get away with out of this that they are doing. going outside the capital and now these people trying to keep their homes and their place of residency. that's what we're paying you to do instead of sitting here to try to take this man. let's go to a story host: --host: let's go to a story that's in today's the hill newspaper. the senate is poised to hold a rare sunday session as a

bipartisan group of lawmakers tried to finish up the text of their infrastructure bill. the bipartisan group had hoped to reveal legislation on saturday and the senate convened at 11 a.m. and sat on standby for more than 10 hours as behind-the-scenes negotiations continued. instead, senate majority leader charles schumer announced the bill would not be ready until sunday. the senate is set to reconvene at noon. the bipartisan group of senators still has not finalized the legislative text of their amendments. the staffs are still working and say they will have the final legislative text ready tomorrow. sunday is the latest delay for bipartisan with negotiators meeting around-the-clock trying to finalize their deal. in the capital, negotiators are still working on the bipartisan

infrastructure deal. hopes of being able to announce legislation today. let's go to our phone lines and let's talk to don on the independent line. caller: good morning. i just want to say the reconsolidation loan needs to be brought before the bipartisan. host: why do you say that? caller: because in order for it to pass, it needs to be voted on first before the bipartisan. host: all right. here's a story that is coming out of texas with the justice department moving to sue texas over restricting the transport of certain immigrants. this coming from politico.com.

to block an executive order, governor greg abbott restricting certain immigrants he contends pose a risk of spreading the coronavirus. the justice department filed the suit friday afternoon in federal court in el paso after attorney general merrick garland sent abbott a letter thursday warning that the order intrudes on the federal government's power over immigration enforcement. the order is contrary to federal law and cannot be enforced. accordingly, consistent with authorities under federal law, the united states will continue its transportation operations unabated. i urge you to immediately resend the order -- reasoned --rescind the order. along with the suit, the justice

department filed a request that a judge issue a temporary rate -- restraining order lifting abbott's order pending further court action. the case was assigned to u.s. district court judge -- court judge kathleen cardone. what do you want to talk about? let's talk to florida on the independent line. caller: good morning. inc. you for taking my call. -- thank you for taking my call. the fact that we have, know so little about how much property of our agricultural and farmland, ranchland that china owns right here in the united states and how we let that happen. host: ok.

there's a story in today's new york times talking about the vaccination rates for covid-19 in the united states and where they are rising and falling as we deal with these delta variants. this is what the new york times says. vaccinations are rising in the u.s. states where demand left entire regions vulnerable to delta driven surge. the shift offers a sign of hope even as the country's known cases surpassed 35 million on saturday. for the third consecutive week, states with the highest numbers of the coronavirus cases also had the highest vaccination rates. the deputy white house rest secretary said on second -- in mississippi, or 44% have been vaccinated, people receiving a first dose was 5203 on july 27.

that more than tripled the average from july 1 according to data from the cdc. the same pattern is in place for other less vaccinated states where infections are surging. from july 1 through july 28, louisiana almost quadrupled its seven-day average of first dose. the number of first dose is administered almost doubled over a month. these states vaccination rates remain low and their rates of hospitalizations and deaths are higher compared with states with more vaccinations. we want to know what's on your mind. let's go to wes who is calling from washington on the republican line. good morning.

caller: i would like to know if an american snake's into mexico, what did they get? -- i would like to know if an american sneaks into mexico, what do they get? host: let's go to sarah who was calling from rome, georgia. good morning. caller: i'm calling about the mask mandate. i apologize. school starts back this week and i have a 15-year-old child that has had injections, but the variant does not care. who do i talk to? the school said and state says it's up to the parents. while the child does not want to go to school if he is going to be ridiculed by those children if you understand what i'm talking about.

host: let's go to daddy he was calling from plano, texas -- let's go to patty who is calling from plano, texas. caller: i'm calling about the covert shots. i had it. -- about the covid shots and i had it. i have underlying medical conditions and no problem. my hairdresser did not get the shot, refused to get the shot, she got covid. she was in hospital overnight. come along just fine. many people get along if they have covid. no problems. they are out and going in a couple of weeks. so take the shot if you have underlying additions. it's not going to kill you that's for sure. just check with your doctor to make sure that everything you have medical problems with will

not cause you any problems. but get the shot for heavens sakes. if you've got the shots, can the mask. host: a caller asked earlier about the decisions from schools and universities about whether they are going to mandate max 8 -- masks and vaccines for the upcoming school years. i will read a couple of paragraphs. new federal guidelines prompted by a surge in coronavirus cases have left school leaders across the country embroiled in debates whether to require masks and schools. a long fault -- a long-sought return to normalcy for children. the wrangling over masks has turned deeply personal and political fueling vitriol and school board meetings that have left board meetings -- board

members fearing for their safety. several republican-led states have barred school districts from requiring masks, threatening to find school teachers. caught in a freight are school leaders who are forced again to navigate constantly shifting pandemic conditioning, -- conditions, conflicting guidance on how to manage them and political fights. because despite the divide over masks, there is argument that it is critical for children to get back to face-to-face learning. let's talk to kelly he was calling from alabama on the independent line. caller: good morning. i live in a state where the

vaccination rate is about 37%. we have one of the highest peak activity today. when you speak with some of these people that are hesitant or decided not to get the vaccine at all, you go into conspiracy theories. along with that, there is an assumption on their parent -- an assumption on their part that they have the inside scoop. if you went up to anyone of these guys and they would say they are mechanics or roofers and they have experience and are good at their job, and you said something that was just not true about framing or roofing, they would correct you quickly as if they were the final word. but despite that, they are the people that are not listening to

the true authorities. i just cannot wrap my head around it. host: let's go to bob who is calling from louisville, kentucky. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just want to change the subject a little bit. i want to find out with these new york trying to find out about his taxes, i don't understand. if the irs is satisfied with their taxes, shouldn't that be all that is necessary? new york should not have anything to do with it. host: who's taxes are we talking about? caller: trump's texas. host: we did not hear -- caller:trumps's taxes.

what i don't understand is if the irs is satisfied with his taxes, that all that should be necessary. new york should have anything to do with it. host: let's talk to cory who was calling in from illinois on the republican line. caller: my comment, and i think you guys should do a show on it, i watch every day and i hear all these democrats calling up wanting to bash republicans, but yet democrats keep wanting to move to red states. if you look at so many articles, you see all of these people from california who moved to texas. you see all these new yorkers moving to florida. ucl of these people in new york moving to indiana. you see all of these emma kratz who wants to bash -- you see these people in new york moving to indiana. you see all of these democrats

who want to bash republicans. we want to leave our red states and we are going to go live in lou states. republicans do not do that. so if host: we would like to thal of our colors and viewers. we will be back again tomorrow with another edition. have a great sunday, everyone. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government.