pediatrics president will talk about how the covid-19 pandemic impacts children. be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. "washington journal" is next. host: presidential --president joe biden and first lady jill biden taking part in a dignified transfer of remains ceremony yesterday for those killed in a terrorist attack last week at kabul airport as a u.s. military was screening afghan evacuees. the declared deadline to end the u.s. withdrawal is tomorrow.

good morning. it is monday, august 30, 20 21 "washington journal." . welcome to "washington journal." with that deadline less than 20 four hours away, we open up our phones and hear from you, your thoughts. do you still support the u.s. leaving afghanistan? how could the withdrawal have been handled better? implications or concerns of the u.s. leaving afghanistan, and more. here are the numbers. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents and others, (202) 748-8002. for an afghan war vet, the line is (202) 748-8003. we welcome your input. that is the same line anyone can use to send us a text, tell us your name and where you're from. on facebook, facebook.com/c-span we welcome your posts on twitter or instagram, and that is

@cspanwj. we also heard from biden officials and others on the sunday shows yesterday. this is some background on the attack last week in kabul. this is just published this morning at politico.com. pentagon prepares for mass casualty attack at kabul airport hours before the explosion. 24 hours before a suicide bomber detonated an explosive outside hamid karzai international airport, senior military leaders gathered for the morning update on the deteriorating situation in afghanistan. speaking from a secure video conference room on the third floor at the pentagon 8:00 a.m. wednesday, 4:30 p.m. kabul, the defense secretary instructed more than a dozen of the top leaders around the world to make preparations from eminent "mass casualty event," according to classified detailed notes of the

gathering, shared with politico. you can read more about that at politico.com. on the deadline coming up tomorrow. this is the reporting of the hill this morning, biden enters perilous final hours of afghanistan mission, writing the remaining u.s. forces in afghanistan are said to leave the country on tuesday, marking an end to a nearly 20-year military engagement. but it will not be a clean break for the advice didn't administration, which must still grapple on whether to continue evacuations for americans and afghans left behind, as well as the follow-up from a deadly isis attack last killed more than a dozen u.s. service members. you can read that at thehill.com. we will get to your cause shortly as the deadline approaching and afghanistan. joining us next is a white house reporter. daniel lippmann is here with a look ahead to the white house agenda for the coming week.

daniel lippmann, good morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: let me ask about the response the white house has given so far and is expected to give on calls for a continued u.s. presence after tomorrow in afghanistan. guest: it is more likely that there will be some u.s. engagement if there is a taliban government they can work with that respect human rights, and we would be talking about humanitarians. the treasury department has already indicated two humanitarian organizations that they would be prosecuted if they provided to afghanistan going forward. that is an important signal that they could continue to help the afghan people which are going through an economy that is now falling apart.

in terms of diplomatic presence, this seems pretty unlikely. host: we showed the president and first lady yesterday in dover at the transfer of remains ceremony, and the president spoke to the nation last week about the attack in kabul. it is the president expected to have more comments in the coming days about that attack and about those 13 dead service members? guest: there are no plans as of now. i think if the situation develops or if there is another attack, god forbid, or if he just wants to recognize the location of america's withdrawal from afghanistan on tuesday night or wednesday after all the troops have left, then that might be a good opportunity. i would not be surprised if he did speak again about the successful completion of that mission, although we should remember that as of now, they have not evacuated every american. as of yesterday, there were 250

people still left and tens of thousands of afghan allies who were deserving. and if we would have stayed longer, they could have gotten out, and now they will have to go over land or some will face attacks, even killings. hopefully the airport will reopen soon to commercial flights and the taliban will let people get to their countries or to the u.s. when they have proper papers. host: among the presidents meetings this week is a welcoming of the ukrainian president to the white house. a headline from the " washington times," the biden-zelensky meeting revives issues. what should we know about this meeting between president joe biden and the president of ukraine? guest: it has been years in the making. remember, former president trump had tried to withhold aid to ukraine or he did actually.

and in exchange for zelensky to lunch an investigation into joe biden a few years ago to try to urge him to investigate biden and his son's behavior in ukraine, and in exchange, they were kind of holding this meeting hostage. in terms of the current issues, we're talking about the u.s. relationship with russia. obviously, that is a huge concern in the ukraine, that they want the u.s. to basically tell vladimir putin to back off, and they are worried about a gas pipeline from russia to europe that rylee j. mccollum has rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum been championed by germany rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum that can make it much harder for the ukrainian economy eventually to actually continue to be strong. and ukraine always wants more

weapons and more foreign aid to help stave off russian aggression rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum. rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylee j. mccollum mccollum rylee j. mccollum rylem rylee j. mccollum ryle j. mccollum

would continue to disrupt and prevent terrorist attacks in kabul and afghanistan and elsewhere. here is what he said. guest: no one here trusts the taliban or accounts on any words the taliban offers, but we are focused on action. the answer is emphatically yes, we do believe that the united states of america possesses substantial leverage to ensure american citizens and others get safe passage out of that country, and that if they do

not, we can bring to bear enormous pressure on the taliban with a swift and forceful response to their blocking any american citizen, whether before august 31 or after august 31. that is not about trust. that is about the capabilities we have to hold the taliban to the commitments they have voiced directly in the commitments they have made publicly, and we are working in an ash a united way with dozens other countries in the international community to ensure that is the case. host: there has been an additional attack overnight. reuters says that ruckus target u.s. troops as the afghanistan withdrawal interest final stage, saying that overnight, u.s. antimissile defenses intercepted as many as five rockets that were fired at kabul airport early on monday. the u.s. official said that as the u.s. rushed to complete the withdrawal from afghanistan to end its longest war. having evacuated about one hundred 14,000 people, including

foreign nationals and afghans deemed at risk, in an effort that began the day before kabul fell to the taliban on august 15, u.s. and allied forces were sent to complete their own withdrawal by tuesday deadline agreed with the islamist militants. katie is in fort lauderdale, florida, democrat. caller: good morning. i just want to say that i am really said for the world. but trump had the nerve to say biden should resign. trump did so many terrible things. that is on his plan. [indiscernible] i am sure trump would not handle it like biden is handling. i back biden 1000%. host: karl in arlington,

virginia, republican caller. caller: the harsh reality is what was done to those 13 servicemen is what they over there are trying to do to the taliban, only taliban beat them to the punch. american has no right to go over there and tell them how they should treat their citizens. obviously, taliban has a consensus to rule. so what the americans are doing is spreading global white supremacy. so what happened to them is what happens when you stick your nose in other people's business. host: we remind you and others to call on the line that best reflect your political point of view. montgomery, alabama, john on the independent line, go ahead. caller: yeah, i have to say, i think biden is doing the best he can. heart goes out to the u.s. service members and afghan citizens that died most recently. but it has been tragic from the beginning. we should have never went over there trying to change their

culture, go against what they wanted to really, honestly, just make money for more u.s. citizens. dick cheney and donald rumsfeld, the two people who kicked this whole thing off, they made money off this war. i think it was something like 70% of the $2.5 trillion was spent on this war went back into the pockets of u.s. military and politician warmongers. so it is time to get out, and it is unfortunate it transpired in this way. host: do you think the mission has been achieved over there, the expressed mission of preventing or stopping terrorists over there, preventing attacks over here? do you think that mission has been achieved? caller: i think, initially, i will not say mission accomplished to the extent that the idea was to break up al qaeda, the taliban, initially, and that was done.

but then the mission changed and suddenly became about nationbuilding. i think we undermined that initial success and created more terrorists, and now at this point, we gave the country back to the people that we were supposedly fighting against. and that was all done last year. host: thank you for your input. melbourne, arkansas, republican line. caller: good morning, and thank you, c-span. i really enjoy what y'all do. i feel like america, at this point, we are having to withdraw , but america has strengths. we can not only put drones around there to protect our withdrawal, but we have a fleet of these gunships that, you know, could be circling the airport, just daring them to show their heads with cannons on

them and guns. i mean, they could just circle and circle around until everybody is gone. and you know, america at this time has to show strength. that is all i have to say. i do not know why our generals do not use, you know, the threat that we have. we are a mighty awesome country. and i appreciate our soldiers and all that they are doing. god bless them. thank you. host: south carolina senator lindsey graham, republican from south carolina, was on " face the nation" yesterday and face great concern over potential terrorist attacks after the evacuation from afghanistan. [video clip] >> number one, i would not have withdrawn. i would have kept the forces on the ground. when we have people on the ground working with indigenous forces, that is the best insurance policy against another

9/11. i would have held the taliban at the conditions set out in the agreement with trump. this is a --it is just a bit beyond my ability to describe it. it has been an emotional day for all of us. it is about to unfold. we are leaving thousands of afghan allies behind who fought bravely with us. we're going to leave hundreds of american citizens behind. the chance of another 9/11 just went through the roof. these drone attacks will not degrade isis. the number of isis fighters have doubled. we turned our back on our allies who would help us in the future. and we set the conditions for another 9/11. i have never been more worried about an attack on our homeland than now. and we did not end this war. president biden said he wanted to take afghanistan out the plate for future presidents. for the next 20 years, american

presidents will be dealing with this catastrophe in afghanistan. this war has not ended. we have entered into a new chapter. terrorists are now in charge in afghanistan. host: asking about tuesday's withdrawal deadline about --from afghanistan. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. afghan vets, (202) 748-8003. to california next, we hear from joseph. good morning. caller: good morning, america. as i have been watching this thing go down, we simply know there was one simple event that happened that when trump negotiated with the taliban out of radical islam, they went and told the afghan national army that the united states is now negotiating with us and made the

afghan army null and void. everybody sees this. trump goes around negotiating with radical islam --this is what caused the problem. that is negotiating with radical islam, america. the taliban was radical islam that supported al qaeda. host: should joe biden have declared that deal null and void and started over with his own policy? caller: his policy was already set by the presidency. when the president signs these documents, unfortunately, you have to honor some of the administration's positions. trump knew what they were doing when they negotiated that deal with the taliban. they knew this was going to happen. trump is not stupid. he is a very intelligent man and knew what he was doing when he signed the deal with the taliban, radical islam. go back to him first coding

--going to saudi arabia and putting his hand on the globe, a symbol of world domination, which taliban and saudi arabia and radical islam supports. trump was showing that support to radical islam, when joe biden went to europe on his first trip , that was his declaring that he was not following trump, the previous administration's policy. host: lawrence, kansas, patrick is next, democrats line. caller: thank you. my question is, i want to hear from our military, political, or diplomatic leadership -- who has been supplying the taliban with uniforms, medical care, trucks, freshwater, fuel, equipment, ammunition, training when they have no manufacturing base, no industrial --

military-industrial complex, who is paying for this? why hasn't the lines of communication been destroyed or disrupted? host: to greg, mechanicsburg, pennsylvania, republican line. caller: yes, good morning. i think it was a good response you had a couple callers ago, because apparently you concluded that the caller was not a republican but was calling on a line he could get in on. secondly, i see you have a yellow pad in front of you. i hope you are making notes about rotating so that you do not get one voice, one opinion expressed on every issue. i have a couple comments. first, i think c-span should have a topic sometime about whether the public, and do it republican, democrat, independent, on whether the mainstream media has covered biden differently than it has

covered --then it did cover donald trump, and why. i also think an important issue, a caller said something about 70 percent of the money spent over there went to the american military-industrial complex. interesting question, i have heard that before. i personally do not think it is right, but if it is right, the american public should know what is going on. as to the withdrawal, my opinion is anybody, anybody, would have done this better than he did. so who is in control at the white house? who is in control? that is the ultimate question. we are paying a huge price for this. host: with your opinion, how closely do you think a democratic-one house of representatives and senate will hold the administration to account on both the withdrawal and the aftermath in

afghanistan? caller: i do not think they will. they will divert. they will go to ida, go to haiti come ago to climate change. they will do whatever it takes. they will cast like this issue, because it has not been a good thing for them. and they are worried that in 15 months, they are going to pay the price. so they are doing with their politicians tell them to do. divert the public's attention and manipulate them again, just like they did in 2020. if everybody in the mainstream media says donald trump was worse than hitler and all the voters were huge majority of them are on their machines checking their twitter accounts and all that all day and all they read is trump is hitler, they are going to vote for anybody other -- host: i will let you go. greg did bring up biden --this

is not diverting, the hurricane has not been delegated to category one, so plenty of damage. associated press with the headline, ida weakens. it became a tropical storm is it slowed over mississippi on monday, while across southeast louisiana, residents waited for daylight to be rescued from floodwaters and see the damage from one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the u.s. mainland. all of norma's lost power around sunset on sunday, and there was pouring rain and howling winds. yesterday afternoon, the governor, john bel edwards, updated louisiana and others on the process -- progress of the storm. here is he had to say. [video clip] >> based on the hurricane track and the wind, rain, and surge forecast for the remainder of the hurricane, the cpra is anticipating some overtopping of the southeast portions of the levee system, nonfederal back

levies in alliance and plaquemines parish, and nonfederal levees in lower st. bernard parish, as well. overtopping is concerning, but i want to make sure that everybody understands, overtopping and levee failure are not the same thing. a levee failure can be much more catastrophic. and so they are not the same thing. obviously, we're going to continue to monitor this protection system. i can tell you right now, we do not anticipate any overtopping of the mississippi river levees or the levees in the hurricane risk prevention system around the greater new orleans area. host: the headline this morning in the times nola, all of new orleans without power after hurricane ida leaves catastrophic transmission damage. and to let you know, we expect

further briefings from governor edwards and perhaps other officials as they are available. we will keep you posted about our live coverage plans either here on c-span or streaming on c-span.org. back to calls on afghanistan. west virginia, spence, good morning. democrat line. caller: i think it is time for united, we stand. i appreciate the gentleman who fought worse in vietnam and everything, and they call in and seem to think they know what is better. we do not know what is going on on the ground. the military men are taking the situation and doing the best that they can. i am proud of our president that we have moved out of the situation. they are getting ready to have internal arguments. it is not going to be a good thing for our country. we need to be united. these republicans that get on here, i cannot believe they have the guts to say anything after the last presidency that we went through. he said this deal up, just like

other callers said. they called himself patriots. patriots have come back with names of heroes, doing things we should be proud of. listen, this is no time for any said to be running their mouth when we have men at war. the republicans need to start being american again. host: here is the headline in the " washington post," president goes to deal --delaware to meet with military families. they write, if biden sought to provide solace as he took off from washington on sunday, including hurricane ida, a powerful storm hitting louisiana. in afghanistan, u.s. officials are checking the extent of the damage in a drone attack. defense officials speaking at her of anonymity said the strike was carried out with a hellfire missile a little more than a mile from the airport, which is

a densely packed urban area. secondary explosion damaged a building, raising the possibility of civilian casualties. an afghan war vet is calling us from philadelphia. good morning, jay. oh, we lost jay. sorry about that. we will go to susan in california. hi there. caller: yes, the agreement trump had with -- anyways, the agreement trump had had conditions on it that had to be met before we left. also, biden snuck out in the middle of the night -- he did not tell our allies or nato. he left the citizens there to fend for themselves. we would not even be having this

problem if he had handled it right. he is a coward, and he is the worst president we have ever had. host: let's go to gainesville, virginia. i apologize, do not want to butcher your name. caller: that is all right. good morning to you. before i touch onto the withdrawal, i want to refer to lindsey graham being on "face the nation." i do not think lindsey graham has any credibility. this guy does all kinds of things based on political whims. he said trump was a nasty man, and then he came back to support trump. he was against the supreme court justices being appointed during obama's time in election year, and he changed his mind when trump was in power.

nobody cares about what lindsey graham says anymore. secondly, i think biden is doing the damn right thing with withdrawing these troops. he had the backbone to make a decision and stand by it. $2 trillion, soldiers killed, innocent people killed. $2 trillion, imagine what we could have done in this country with a broken health care system, middle-class struggling to survive, and broken infrastructure. two trillion dollars. how many more trillions are we going to spend, and how many precious american lives are we going to lose? i -- america has never gone to war in the muslim world and had success. you cannot do the impossible. you cannot introduce nationbuilding and democracy to these nations for the next 1000 years. so biden did the right thing, and it is going to be catastrophic sometimes, but we have to live with it.

next year will be a better year, and we will all be happy that our trips are out of there. host: what do you think the future holds for u.s. diplomatic efforts and other efforts in that part of the muslim world, pakistan-afghanistan region? caller: these countries are highly unreliable. the u.s. pumped so much money into pakistan, but if you listen to what imuran concept recently, he said --[indiscernible] host: he is the prime minister, correct? caller: yeah, and he was criticizing america three weeks ago, while he was receiving billion's of dollars from america just to be our ally. there is no real ally in this. these nations would not be our friends without the money. host: now that we are withdrawing troops, do you think

we should withdraw money not only from afghanistan but also pakistan? caller: yes, these things need to be done at the highest level. i think america has enough problems back home to deal with. there is so much to do in this country without resting money on wars like this that we can never win. the only people who made money on these worse is the military establish and that make -- establishment that make millions. we don't know how much money. kudos to biden for withdrawing the troops. host: thanks for your call. hickory, north carolina, donald on the republican line. caller: morning, america. good morning, c-span. host: good morning, sir. caller: i have gone to the point that i am leaving the republican

party. i don't want to be a democrat. i want to be an independent, because i am sick of the lying from both parties. they are corrupt. they all take money from essential interests. that suits running our country, not the politicians. and you have a great day, steve. host: thanks for your call this morning. a headline from today's wall street journal. trapped in afghanistan, rescued by volunteers, how a handful of americans rescued 5000 afghans. a private equity investor from naples, florida, asked to host thousands of afghan refugees. i was called out of the blue by a washington representative, and two days later, the acting

foreign minister signed an accord with charity, agreeing to temporarily house as many as 10,000 afghan evacuees in a port on the gulf of aden. it was part of an on-the-fly effort, helping about five thousand afghans escape their country in the past two weeks. one of the most successful nonprivate efforts to extract afghans. from a conference room at hotel in washington, mr. van meter and a collection of war veterans, afghan double mats, donors, defense contractors, nonprofit workers, and off-duty u.s. officials conducted a global military-style rescue operation. you can read that online at wall street journal. a formal national security advisor in the trump administration was on "meet the press" yesterday. we all share responsibility in the fate and future of afghanistan. [video clip] >> well, think we all share

responsibility. it is not a 20-year war, it is a one-year war fought 20 times over. the basis for the problems we have encountered in afghanistan is certainly the enemies we have been fighting there, as you can see today, enemies have a say in the future course of events, and there are consequences when you surrender to a terrorist organization. but it has not been a 20-year war, it has been a one-year war fought 20 times over with ineffective strategies based on flawed assumptions about the nature of the enemy, about what was necessary to achieve a sustainable outcome there. what is that about it is this were ended in self defeat. i mean, we had a sustainable effort in place several years ago. if we had sustained it, we could have prevented what is happening now. instead, we surrendered to a jihadist organization and assumed there would be no consequences. host: back to calls on

afghanistan. david in madison heights, michigan, democrat. caller: thank you very much for taking my call. i am so happy with the success of president biden. trump made his deal with terrorists. he should not have done that. but you did not do any segment was 500 -- over 500 americans killed when putin put bounties on our military in afghanistan. you did not do a segment over that, when 500, over five hundred americans got killed in afghanistan under trump. you did not do a segment on that. why don't we move on and quit this afghanistan to try to make a successful president, which is president biden, the success of america --why don't you do some segments other than afghanistan?

we have a lot of problems that president is fixing right now in america. -- that president biden is fixing right now in america. thank you. host: eric in manchester, new hampshire, republican. go ahead. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. to that last guy, real quick, our intelligence agencies totally discounted that bounty. that is a lie. i am sorry, this is really pissing me off. look, the -- the only people who think biden did a good job on this withdrawal are democrats. no one in the world, no one in this country -- the last guy talking about the dead soldiers, well, those soldiers are dead because of biden.

everyone knows trump would not have accepted the deal biden did. biden is weak and has been caught in after lie. he is a disgrace to this country, and if you support him, you are supporting our demise. that is all i have to say. host: mitchell and chattanooga, tennessee, democrat. caller: good morning, c-span. before you get underway, make sure you mood your volume. caller: ok. i just got a couple questions here. i want to know, the amount of people that we have already took out of afghanistan, you want to tell me that many people was actually helping the united states? that many people was actually involved? i think not. another thing, who wants to take a job in a war zone? you talking about our commander-in-chief. he is the commander-in-chief of

the military, not of civilians over there working for -- host: ok, we got your point. some of those evacuees are coming through dulles airport in the nation's capital. this is the washington times mass vaccination site set up for afghans. u.s. government has open ms covid-19 vaccination site for arriving afghans near the airport, were some of the dozens fling the taliban are now arriving daily. the press secretary confirming friday that the site set up by the federal emergency management agency has begun administrating vaccinations of afghan evacuees. in pennsylvania, good morning to john on the republican line. caller: thanks for having me this morning. yeah, he is doing a great job. he has got people wading in sewage, being shot like fish in a barrel.

these marines are over there changing diapers and everything. he is doing a great job, i think. i don't understand why nobody is talking about impeachment. if this is donald trump in my office, we would already have impeachment proceedings, nancy pelosi waving her hands around and everything. i was watching yesterday, bringing the caskets over --like this one gentleman was saying about the soldiers, yeah, i notice they cannot even stand there. one of them passed out and got sick because he cannot even stand the sight of their own work. and i also noticed there was no blacks in these caskets and the pallbearers were not black either. that is my point. host: a call on the independent line for maryland. caller: i hear a lot of callers calling about the prior administration's agreement. it is time the current administration takes responsibility.

they are in charge of the country. this is just an extension of the obama administration's foreign policy, failed foreign policy. we saw the same thing happen in libya with the fall of gadhafi, in syria with isis, benghazi. we cannot continue going around the country creating power vacuums. it will be filled with undesirable leadership, which is what you will find here. the thing is, we have spent trillions of dollars, 20 years and four presidents, to replace the taliban with the taliban. it is crazy. this president, we have the cartels with open borders, china , and taliban getting our weapons, taxpayers' weapons. the american people get

lockdowns, businesses destroyed, and expensive gas. it is a disaster. hopefully everybody thinks about this. host: on abc's "this week" yesterday, antony blinken said the u.s. still had significant leverage over the taliban. [video clip] >> just about 20 four hours ago, a very senior taliban leader spoke on television and on radio about afghanistan and repeatedly assured the afghan people that they would be --after august 31. >> i know you say you do not trust the taliban, but now you're telling me we should trust what the taliban says. >> i am not saying that. i am not saying we should trust the taliban, i am sibley reporting what one of their senior leaders said to the afghan people. he cited those who worked for americans and any other afghan, for whatever reason. that is point one. >> i want to go back to that. you are trying to reassure our

afghan allies. they are not reassured. those interpreters who are not getting out, they are not reassured by statements like that. what more can you tell them on how to get out? quick certainly. and that was just point one. point two is this, 114 countries have made very clear that it is their expectation that the taliban will permit freedom of travel going past august 31. so that is a clear expectation across the entire world, across the entire international community. third, we have very significant leverage to work with, over the weeks and months ahead, to incentivize the taliban to make good on its commitments. host: the political effect of the withdrawal from afghanistan, reporting from politico, as biden winds down afghanistan, a refugee backlash looms at home. president joe biden has faced criticism for abandoning afghan

partners. the country fell to the taliban. now there is a looming political controversy over the thousands of afghans biden will resettle over here. a vocal group of republicans, led by donald trump, made immigration restrictions a hallmark of his presidency, post-resettlement of afghan refugees in the u.s., claiming it could be dangerous or will change the makeup of the country. they planned to make it an issue in tears midterm elections, along with broader attacks about biden's messy withdrawal from afghanistan. comments on twitter. dave says this, the president is sending a message that it is time for afghanistan to fight for itself. the u.s. has given 20 years of training and free military equipment to the african army. it has spent over $1 trillion and has lost countless american lives. staying on topic, this is a strictly nonpartisan opinion, there should be no dated

deadline. the only deadline should be in every american has been extracted. russ from texas census this, biden's talking heads keep saying we have all this leverage on the taliban. what is this leverage? i see only one, money. and from middletown, connecticut, the response on the attacks on americans is lacking the intensity, need a bigger response, get all-americans out now. over the horizon is not good policy for real intelligence gathering. back to calls, keith in georgia, democrat. caller: yeah, republicans do not seem to be able to grasp the concept that the president does not plan the evacuation. harrison ford is not president, folks. this is real life. it is dangerous and bloody. and lindsay, he is just a little

nervous now, isn't he? it is a shame he's not concerned about mass shootings in america. thank you. host: louisville, south carolina, next up is sylvia. caller: yes, i am concerned about the media wants to put everything out there about what is going on. you can't tell everything that is going on in the united states. they got spies over here. there is people everywhere, and those people have ways of knowing what is going on in the united states. why tell them anything? i was brought up, when you have something, you keep it close to your chest. i think biden is doing a very good job with what he had to come into. and i think everybody should look at that. we do not have everything we have, but we try to offer other people --try to get them in here and everything, but there is still people with that group

that is not what they proclaim to be. host: to conrad, republican line, philadelphia. caller: yes, i hear people calling in and suggesting that republicans and democrats, they should not be talking to the down mill been dashed to the taliban. but if the united states was not talking to the taliban, we would have more than 13 deaths. we would be fighting from the time they said withdrawal talks to the 31st. one thing for sure, it would have been way worse than what it is now. we had more deaths over the 20-year period, but these last few weeks, i think the president is doing a great job. without that taliban support at the airport, we would have more killings and killings here they would be fighting all the way up to august 31. republican, democrat,

bottom-line, this was for the corporate world come of the guys that make bullets, the guys that make armored trucks. anybody in their right mind will not going that country and try and help them because they have to help themselves first. that is what you tell us. but now we decide everybody upon twist problem, tell them what to do. but we cannot tell our people what to do here in the united states. host: we played you the comments of secretary of state anthony blinken. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell yesterday on fox news sunday contested that view, that the u.s. has leverage over the taliban. [video clip] >> you just heard jake sullivan say we have a lot of leverage, and he talked about international pressure, diplomatic pressure, and especially financial pressure, because we and some of our western allies had frozen billions of dollars in assets that the taliban is very much going to need to continue to do business. do you not see that as enormous

leverage? >> they have other sources of revenue, as you know. the groups engage in organized crime, basically. they have sources of revenue. of course, they are not particularly concerned about international pressure. these are barbarians who certainly are not motivated by revenue and what others may think of them. and they have neighboring countries that have actually been sympathetic to them. the paxton government is sympathetic to them. so they have got kind of a friendly neighbor, as well. host: we touched on this overnight news. an update from usa today, rocket strikes in a neighborhood near kabul airport. a rocket struck a neighborhood near the couple international airport today, part of ongoing violence in afghanistan where

the taliban has taken control following the departure of u.s. forces. the rocket strikes were followed by gunfire, according to the associated press. that attack followed a u.s. drone strikes under the targeted and imminent isis-k threat to the airport in kabul, where officials have warned of additional attacks following a suicide bombing last week. here is a call from florida, democrat. welcome. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i just want to say that democrats can be proud of our president biden. he is doing a fantastic job. since he came in office, he has been doing programs to help, and he is now doing the very best he can to get people from over there in afghanistan. if trump was so concerned about

these people coming from over there, why didn't he have --she had a lot more time to do that then president biden had, and he did not have any paperwork ready to go or anything like that. so i do not want to hear anything that the republicans are saying about what our president is doing, because they never opened their mouth when trump did all kinds of things, everything he wanted to do, regardless of what. the republican senators behind him never said a word about it. and what i will say is our democrats had better get behind our president, joe biden, or somebody is going to be primary out of there. they better not be supporting nonsense about impeachment and stuff that these republicans have on their mind. and that is all i have to say. host: to the independent line,

donald is in alexandria, virginia. caller: thanks for c-span. president trump set up an advanced date of at least six months with the purpose of getting out and getting our people and the necessary people out of that country. so i would like to see a congressional committee set up to determine what kind of a plan he handed over to the biden administration when the transition occurred. secondly, i would like to see the commission look into what secretary of state blinken did to notify our allies and to notify the department of defense with a list of the people who helped us while we were over there so they could be contacted on their cell phones. a lot of them have those. notifying them that they need to start getting themselves ready to get out of the country before

the deadline. i would also like to investigate whether samantha summers, the head of the usaid, what she did in order to contact the ngo's, which i suspect they were the financers of our contractors over there, to see if they contacted their contractors to let them know that they needed to be getting out of there before the date in may and then later in august. host: sounds like you have some familiarity with the contractor world, the ngo world. is that so? caller: yes, i worked for the federal government and did a lot of work with contractors. this all could have been done. also, the daily briefing written for the president on national security issues, it should present a plan showing status on evacuations underway during this whole period so the president could see what was going on. host: typically, in a situation

where there may be a problem in a country, let's say another country where there is plenty of u.s. staff, state department, foreign service, usaid, lots of contractors, if there is important information to share, is that information have to be shared equally and at the same time with contractors to the government in those countries? caller: in this instance, i would say yes, because they needed to be getting out of there. they needed to know that this was a hard deadline and to be preparing and started to head over to the airport, not right away but in an orderly manner. schedule over a six-month period for getting those people out. but what did they do? i would also like to add that since biden has been in, he has had two other major foreign-policy failures.

one of them is the one that brought the individuals to the southern border, and the other one is the failure to come to an agreement on this jcpoa, which he stated he wanted to return to it. host: appreciate your input. we will let you go there. see if i can move on to doug in newport news on our afghan vets line. caller: i went in 1969 and came out in 2000. this is the biggest debacle. not blame it on democrats and republicans, just blame it on the damn people not listening to the military. same with vietnam. you should have never closed the embassy and till everyone was out of the country. there is a protocol to leaving the country.

this is going to be a disaster. we're going to get hit on 9/11. and there is no doubt in my mind , people are crossing our southern borders from there. host: thanks for your input. new york times on covid, when the new covid search street, mississippi was uniquely unprepared. their story reads, on the ground floor of the parking garage at the university of mississippi medical center, there are coronavirus patients where the cars should be. about 20 of them on any given day laid up in the air conditioned tents and cared for by a team of medical personnel from a christian charity group. another garage nearby has been transformed into a staging area for an antibody clinic for covid-19 patients. they say these scenes are enfolding in the heart of mississippi's capital city, a clear indication that the health care system in the nation's poorest state is close to buckling under the latest avalanche of cases triggered by the highly contagious l to variant of the virus.

-- delta variant of the virus. nytimes.com for more. in minnesota, republican line. caller: well, it is true that we needed to leave afghanistan. however, the exit was disorganized. he was in a rush, which should have kept the military there until they had all-americans out, the afghans to help the americans outcome and all the supplies out, like the guns and the helicopters. however, they decided to go back and forth and back and forth, which eventually led to the deaths of the servicemen. host: to tom, democratic caller, baltimore, maryland. you are on the air. sorry about that. tom is here, apologize, punched the wrong button.

caller: thank you, sir. a quick comment, i personally do not believe you can lay this at the feet of the previous administration or the current administration. you can be could tickle of both, whether it is the agreement or the withdrawal. but i personally cannot wrap my head around the president of that country leaving, even before the taliban had even taken over the city. and i cannot believe that there was not one senior military afghan leader that was willing to stand up and continue to fight. and for all the people who say that we should -- who criticized the agreement or the withdrawal, let's just remember, this was their country. if the afghan men loved their daughters, their wives, their sisters as much as they say, and

the democratic system that they had over the last 20 years may not have been perfect, but it was freedom. and if they were not willing to fight for it, to die for it, than i personally think that is where the bulk of the responsibility lies. host: a comment from tony in connecticut, we need to extend the timeline, saying people that oversaw the iraq in florida james good morning. republican line. caller: good morning. my comment is if people is asking who is advising joe biden who is controlling him? i believe chuck schumer and pansy ploseie told him to get this wrapped up so when they

can come back they can get on to their $23.5 trillion deal. i think that's a great part not the casualties and all that. but i just think that's what's going on. host: more "washington journal" ahead coming up. we will take a two-part look into the topic of children and covid-19. first up we're going to talk with health care reporter cohen from roll call she'll join us first and later we'll talk to the academy of american pediatrics president. >> the population of china in 1949 when the communists took control was 540 million people. during the 72 years the prc has had five principle leaders. mow day tongue, dung show ping,

since 2012 the current head of state. george washington university professor has written close to 30 books devoted to the subject of asia. we talked with the professor about his newest book titled china's leaders. >> listen to book notes plus. weekend on c-span 2 are an intellectual feast. every saturday you'll find events and people that explore our nation's past on american history tv. on sunday book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. it's television for serious readers.

learn, discover, explore. weekend on c-span 2. >> this year marks the 20th anniversary of the september 11th attacks. join us for live coverage from new york, the pentagon, and pennsylvania starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern saturday september 11th on c-span. watch online at c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: schools have opened across the country, this last monday in alling. we're joined next by health

care reporter for roll call here to talk with us this morning about the effect of covid-19 and schools reopening. welcome to "washington journal." guest: thank you for having me. host: safe to say that schools across the country most school systems are having in-person classes for the most part as the delta variant takes hold and sprends. are we seeing school systems reconsider that? how are they confronting the this? guest: obviously this isn't the back to school season that students, parents, teachers, america sort of expected, the timing with the delta variant is not great but there is a commitment to having students back in school after a year -and-a-half away. so we are seeing big outbreaks of the start of the school season and have to flip to virtual learning. host: what some of the systems? guest: some of the southern schools that went back to early

with low vaccination rates such as mississippi, arizona, florida, have been some of the first to see big outbreaks among students and teachers who have had to flip to virtual learning for a period of time. host: taking a range of approaches on how they're going to make students and teachers safe. tell us about some of those measures. guest: the normal mitigation standards that we've seen throughout are important like distancing, masks. but some school systems are trying a weekly testing system. here in the district of columbia they just instituted a system where they're going to test ten to 20% of the students every week symptomatic or not just to see where the spread is. host: one of those also doing that is los angeles. guest: yes. host: los angeles the price for admission at the nation's second largest school district is a negative covid test every single week. guest: and that's for every student.

host: where are the school systems getting money to pay for this? is this from the money from covid? guest: state and federal funds but this is very expensive. it's a burden on some of these school systems. host: is there any evidence so far the kids that are able to get vaccinated so far droun to age 12. so basically down to middle schoolers. what do we know the percentage of kids between 12-16 or 18, high schoolers that have been vaccinated so far? guest: it's not as many as adults. i believe last i checked something like 8 million, 10-17-year-olds were vaccinated and that's maybe less than half. so at this point it is a public health officials are trying to get kids vaccinated after the start of the school year hoping

to use this opportunity of kids returning to school, kids returning to their social activities to have clinics and get those shots in arms. host: talking about the return to school and the president's and the rise of covid-19 among students and teachers. the lines to call. the numbers are on your screen. you wrote a piece about teachers, teachers unions in particular as schools reopened state laws and unions resist vaccine mandates. what have the major school teacher unions said to their members oobd vaccine mandates? guest: the two major school unions both seem to encourage covid-19 vaccines but they won't outright support a mandate because these unions they say have to bargain with

individual employers and you can't presume to know why every individual teachers does or does not want a shot. but something according to the white house something like 90% are vaccinated which is much higher than the general population but there is a concern that nonvaccinated teacher can be a source of spread. >> host: is there toveed support that yet? guest: there is. the centers for disease control and prevention came out with a report last week they did contact tracing in california and unvaccinated teacher who did not know they had covid-19 just took off their mask to read to their students and something like i believe it was all the students in the front row of the classroom contacted covid after that ins didn't and about half the classroom came away with covid-19 after that interaction. so that just really proves that a nonvaccinated teacher could be carrying the virus. and for these children under

the age of 12 and not yet eligible for the vaccine that leaves them very vulnerable. host: months ago the c.d.c. agreed that the primary healthiest thing for kids to do is to be back in classrooms. what's their major guidance in terms of the return to classroom across the country? guest: the c.d.c. as you said really encouraging to get kids back after a year-and-a-half and they would like to see those mitigation measures we know about masking, distancing, keeping a good air flow in the classroom, and anyone who can be vaccinated they recommend should be. and that includes teachers and students ages 12-up. host: we have a teacher on the line our first caller matt in slea. good morning. caller: good morning. i would say for me as a teacher we have most kids following mitigation strategies successfully, we've been in class for a week already, and i

would say masking is good. i think for me personally i would like a booster shot so i would hope that they would push that faster for teachers, as i got mine more than eight months ago now, and then i think the other thing is i worry for our k-of students we aren't doing that weekly testing like other places and i have seen delta kind of like wipe through those communities. i know it's less dangerous for kids but still don't want my kids to get sick. host: with a grade do you teach? caller: k-6. guest: thank you for that. students under the age of 12 like those you teach pfizer is the furtherest along in vack tin trials for students and the pfizer board member and former commissioner said yesterday

that he anticipates that pfizer will have their clinical trial data by the end of september for that age group and hopefully submit an application for emergency use in early october. so if it follows that timeline we could potentially see a vaccine for kids that dage by the end of this year. host: as you pointed out, on face the nation he made that news. let's show our viewers that. >> dr. fauci was on tv this morning talking about the potential for an authorization this fall. pfizer is going to be in a position to file data with the f.d.a. at some point in september and then file the application potentially as early as october. so that will put us on a timeframe where the vaccine could be available at some point late fall more likely early winter depending on how long they take to review the application. historically four to six weeks.

as well as how much long-term follow up data they require on the kids. if they require a longer term on the kids enrolled in the trial it could take long tore get to an authorization. but the agency will be in a position to make an authorization i believe at some point late fall probably early winter and probably they're going to base their decision on what the circumstances around the country to get to a vaccine for kids. host: it sounds like they're going to use sort of the same timeline they used for the vaccine previous. they're not going to rush this necessarily. guest: we don't really know at this point. it seems like he was just surmising here what the f.d.a. will do because the doge for children may be different than the doge for adults. it could follow the same timeline, it could take longer if there is sort of this feeling that they need to go faster that could happen.

it's really up to the food and drug administration. host: let's hear from carl in hawaii. good morning. caller: i'm in hawaii and i have a few questions so if you can be tolerant of me. i wanted -- and thank you for taking my call. i just saw a few days ago a posting that kim whose a physician and congresswoman has written a letter to hmp hs, -- hhs, c.d.c. for their plans about 50 billion and 16 billion for the testing for the rapid tests. and i wrote to the local senator here in hawaii for him to support her and by also writing a letter and getting the doctor to go in front of congress to teach hhs how to scale up the production of these tests the to make them cost less than a dollar apiece. the vendors would like to get

instructions from the federal government so we can bring the cost down so that we could be using them in an abundant scale. i was curious if you could bring that up in discussion. thank you. guest: sure. so testing is one way that school districts can really get a handle on who has covid-19, who does not. as you mentioned a letter from kim. congress will return next week so i assume we'll see a lot more activity especially as kids return to school. host: let's hear on our teacher's line. billy, go ahead. caller: i was about to say that listening to c-span "washington journal" every morning there's a lot of antivacks out there it's distressing. i got my vaccination, i don't want to die, i don't have a death wish but is there any political party in the world that literally outlaws

rudimentary basic safety precautions like mask mandates? people say if you don't get the vaccination you're going to get covid. one of the siment thomas is side effects of erec tile dysfunction. the tell the that to the macho antivacks out there. do we know anything about the simenttoms of covid in children? guest: so children are who do contract covid are much less likely to die compared to adults but one thing that is a major concern among pediatricians as you mentioned is the symptoms of long covid which are still being studied and obviously are constantly evolving. while it is rare in children there are concerns about heart disease, about long-term reps pra tray problems, brage fog, fatigue, something i've heard. this is something that is definitely a concern that

pediatricians have. host: and is it true that kids are more susceptible to this variant the delta variant than they have been in previous versions of covid? guest: that's what i am hearing from the pediatrician that is i talk to. but of course the delta variant covid-19 is going to target the unvaccinated. and who is unvaccinated right now in large part is children. and that's part of the reason they're much more vulnerable. host: jennifer has a different point of view. she text that is 99.94 survival rate in healthy children end of story unmask our kids. masking in children can cause more harm than good in every way mentally physically and emotionally. we hear from shawn in maryland. caller: good morning. we started off and you had asked about the areas that had infections. and you briefly just said some states.

i would like for c-span to get people on here to give some facts and answers. tell us what state county how many people were infected don't just say florida, the southern states, and when you get to the infection portion, who did the study? we don't want to know who you heard and scare people. who told you how many people got infected? i don't want to hear i thought or some other way that them words you say all the time. give us some facts. because right now people are getting ticked. i have teachers coming in talking about they're quiting. report about that not about what you heard or you think. what's facts? because right now i'm tired of this. we need people who can be held accountable. host: we'll let our guest respond to you. guest: so thank you. as you know these numbers are evolving constantly. the center for disease control

and prevention and hhs as well as local school districts are counting these rates. and of course they're evolving constantly. the american academy of pediatrics last week said that as of last week that 180,000 children had contracted covid-19 during that week. so that is a number from the american academy of pediatrics. host: and we'll be talking to the president of association that academy in our next segment. we hear from lauren in sparta, wisconsin. independent line. teachers line, rather. go ahead. caller: my question is this. are the scientists the doctors the members of the f.d.a. are they political appointees like the c.d.c. is or are they independent political bias? thounching. guest: so we do not have a permanent f.d.a. commissioner at this time.

janet was appointed by president biden so these are appointed by the administration. but we do not have a permanent commissioner at this time. host: from minnesota, good morning. caller: i just really believe that we need to support getting our teachers vaccinated because right now it doesn't seem safe we're not allowing the children to get vaccinated and so i think what this is a step that we need to take. and i don't understand the teacher who wouldn't want to do this and if they have some sort of valid exemption then i think that makes sense that we would consider those things because we have to. but i think not doing this i don't understand the teacher who would want to teach under those circumstances. and i worry for the children. but i think we shouldn't rush

to vaccinating the children until we know it's safe. so i think right now i don't know i guess i would be worried about anybody whose not terribly concerned for the kids and wanting to protect them. and if you're a teacher and don't want to do that i guess that's strange to me. maybe the choices that you need to consider resigning. but certainly under any exemption program there would be some protocol through some absolute reason you can't be vaccinated but you wouldn't do it. but that would do so much to protect our children. i think we should really consider that. host: ok. guest: so here in the district of columbia and sursurrounding suburbs they're asking teachers to get vaccinated. if they do not they have to undergo a weekly testing which is sort of a fail safe -- a fallback for teachers who are unvaccinated. i know that many other school

districts around the country are following similar protocols. host: in west virginia, this is john. caller: i just have a question. as far as the mask goes i don't understand people's problems with wear the masks. it's obviously they help you've been told since you were a kid to cover your mouth when you cough so that deflects your -- you don't spread your germs to everyone. so until the this vaccine gets approved for children i don't understand the problem of wearing masks. and is there any other thing we can do to maybe help speed up the process as parents for getting this thing approved? host: does the americans the disabilities act or disabilities education act play into any of the decision making that school systems are making on masks? guest: yes, that is a great point. the americans with disabilities act as well as others say that

all children must have equal access to education. for example, in the state of florida where the governor put a ban on mask mandates in scoolts, a group of parents did take challenge this in court and say that under the americans with disabilities act there are children who have high risk conditions were being discriminated against because they couldn't feel safe in school and a court actually said that the ban on the mask mandate could not be enforced. host: the director in a briefing late last week talked about their call for a layered approach for schools to use in terms of protecting kids. here is her briefing. >> evidence has repeatedly demonstrated that multilayer prevention strategies such as vaccination for all children and adults who are eligible,

ventilation, physical distancing and screening testing work to prevent the spread of covid in schools. schools should implement as many of these prevention layers as possible simele tainsly and this serves to protect our children even as there are inevitable preaches in any single protection layer. adding to this poddy of evidence two studies will be covered today to demonstrate the importance of consistent and correct use of mitigation strategies especially vaccination and universal masking. in the first report looking at covid cases in los angeles, we saw the power of layered intervention. school associated cases remained lower than cases in the community because of prevention efforts. in schools with safety protocols case rates in children and adolescents were about three-and-a-half times lower during the winter peak

compared to the community. even when communities were experiencing high levels of covid transmission in the l.a. county study of layered prevention measures provide add shield of protection hoped to keep covid out of school and reduce the spread when cases occur. in a separate report that closely studied an outbreak in a school in norp california we saw the multilayered prevention can result in spread of covid in the classroom and beyond. the introduction of the virus into the classroom by a teacher who worked in school while she was both symptomatic and unvaccinated and who was unmasked when reading aloud to the class resulted in cases both in the classroom -- across the school and amongst families of students and staff in the community. host: she talked about layered prevention.

first she brought up the incident you talked about earlier in our segment about the teacher reading aloud. but she talks about this layered approach. part of that is this physical distancing. it would seem that schools want everybody back, they want all their kids back in school. that's going to be hard to enforce a physical distancing a social distancing in many schools. guest: it is difficult. why masking is so important. air flow keeping windows open. and the weekly testing give an idea of community spread and where the virus is. a lot of school districts are also when there's a known case of covid that student is supposed to quarantine for a period of time and people who have had close contwacts that student as well which is something that we're seeing

across the country right now thousands of children are already quarantining. host: it is back to school time we're talking about covid-19 and kids and students, the numbers are on your screen. in new mexico, good morning. caller: thank you c-span. as a retired teacher i want to bring up the issues of my own school district in pennsylvania. they recently had a school board meeting and the people there, the parents and the doctor even testified in the public comment were outraged at

the mandatory character of the masking. i think people aren't addressing people with valid concerns and valid opposition. and are throwing not information but their own presumptions in opposition to it. i know as a special ed teacher i see very little real concern for special ed students, their placements are not being defined by their handicap and their education during this time is getting worse and worse. if you had separate day schools and you had separate class teachers would be empowered and

the environment would be distinctly healthier for given the situation with the virus. so all i would like to say is that we respect each other and that's not something that i'm not seeing out there. host: ok. response. guest: thank you for that. as you mentioned that children with special education plans and special needs may have a more difficult time wearing a mask in the classroom. but for -- and that's something that needs to be addressed. but for the majority of students wearing a mask in a classroom is an extremely effective mitigation measure and can prevent students from missing school through quarantine. host: the president of the american academy of pediatricians, on a recent piece writing about masks.

she says masks are not breeding grounds for bacteria, reuseable mask ks be washed as children can start each day with a clean mask. in boston, rick go ahead. caller: good morning. i want to make a comment about mask wearing it started with donald trump.

he didn't want to wear a mask he got people talking about. now if everybody is supposed to be ruled by what the president says and does but he knows he has no medical degree and half the people in the senate running their mouth, people running their mouth, shouldn't be talking about wearing masks. as far as the kids, one minute they can wear masks and then they can't. host: the heat of discussion continuing at the local level the headline from the associated press. hosstile school board meetings have members calling it quits. guest: so it's the debate over masks has raised a lot of tensions but some school districts we saw miami have gone against their governor's orders saying you can't have a mask mandate because they're saying this is important to the health of the children. we saw that first in miami dade

county which is the largest school district in the state of florida defy the governor's ban on mask mandates before the courts stepped in. other school districts in arizona have followed suit. so there is a lot of political tensions and back and forth but some school districts have stepped in and said no this is what we need to do to prevent spread. and the districts that are saying masks are optional that's where you're seeing higher incidents of covid in the classroom which is going to lead to more quarantines and disrupt the school year. host: let's hear from john in connecticut. caller: good morning. i just -- the folks against masks and the vaccine, i just want to say to everybody be part of the solution, not part of the problem. all this nickle and dime about what are the facts? what is that?

no, the vaccine's work, masks work, the folks in japan have been wearing masks for years when they were sick. they're a very healthy society. folks, this is a national emergency, get with it, be adults. i trust the vaccine and masks more than i trust the virus. host: we'll go to our teachers line. new jersey, liz you're on. guest: i'm a retired teacher. i think that a lot of these local boards where a minority of parents have shown up and are so vocal against masks and also the vaccine, they're putting politics ahead of their own children's health and the health of other children in the classroom that they share with other children.

i thought regular ed and special ed students throughout the 40 years and in both classes we have significant numbers of young children under 12 who have health issues. some of them have a 504, some of them have special ed plans that addresses those needs. the point is many of thement have things like asthma which interferes with one's breathing and the fact is that they had a problem before covid arrived. they had severe problem if they get covid. so i think the teachers should be vaccinated, the children should be masked, and i think that the parents of special needs students with health risks they need to be heard

from. thank you. host: ok. guest: these mitigation strategies like wear a mask that you mentioned are exceptionally important in states that during the 2012r state legislative season passed laws preventing employees from having vaccine mandates. we've seen that in states such as utah, tennessee, montana, and several others where state employees which include public school teachers you can't have a mandate on covid-19 vaccines. host: from twitter. guest: i do not have the exact numbers on normal flu but we know that covid-19 is not very deadly in children. something like less than 2% of children who are hospitalized with covid-19 actually suck m to the virus which is very encouraging but the concern is the long term health effects

and the disruptions to everyday life in the school year. host: from bloomington, yin. go ahead. caller: my depranddaurt goes to franklin elementary school. she's like seven. and they've been just going the governor gave the teacher boards the power to make the decision on masks, and they're just letting them not wear a mask or wear a mask. and i don't know if the teachers are getting vaccinated either because i live in indiana and things seem not right here. i wish people would wake up and listen to the health experts

and do what needs to be done. host: all right. we'll let you go there. we'll go to jerry in virginia. good morning. wiveragetsdzwiveragetsdz i just want to know. why don't they make the covid-19 vaccines mandatory for 12 and above? i don't get it. because you need every other shot to go to school. my kid had to have 3030-something shots to go to school. what's going on? guest: as you mentioned several vaccines are mandatory for children to go to school. and just this past weekend national institute of allergy and infectious diseases director said he does anticipate the covid-19 vaccine will become one of those routine vaccines for children. but at this point the vaccine

isn't even available to children under the age of 12. just recently the pfizer vaccine became fully approved for adults. so it's still under emergency use tor school aged children who are able to have access the vaccine those ages 12-17. so this is more of a process. host: typically with the other childhood vaccines who makes that call for whether it's required in the schools? is it the local school district, is it the state of the federal government? guest: that is at the state level. host: to ohio, laura on with us next. good morning. caller: good morning. i've got two comments then a question. in our school system children are not alloud, neither any employee, into the school system without shoes on,

they're not allowed without clothing. and for the common citizen you can't walk outside your door without clothes on without getting arrested. what is the difference between clothing and the masks? clothing doesn't stop you from getting sick. you're not wearing clothing doesn't cause anyone else to get sick. do you understand what i'm saying? host: what's your question? did you have a question? guest: yes i would like to know why they don't bring that up more that it's just like wearing clothes? it's on the same line. forget the issue of the vaccine. it's just another part of the uniform. host: she brings up uniform. is it texas where some of the school districts are now making the mask as part of the mandatory uniform? guest: that is correct. some school districts are making a mask mandatory as part

of what a kid wears to school. and you see that often in private workplaces as well as we have to wear a mask on public transportation or airplanes. so it's individual schools and work places are putting these mask mandates in place. but that's not something the federal government can do saying every time you leave your house you have to. host: let's hear from victor. caller: can you hear me? host: yes, we can. caller: i've got a question for the young lady. if it's mandated across the board, we've had the shot if it's mandated then that doesn't leave people a choice.

because what person would like to send their child to school and catch it from a teacher? it doesn't make any sense. guest: vaccines are not yet mandatory for adults. some school systems are requiring them for teachers or weekly testing in their place. to prevent that sort of spread that you mentioned so a student doesn't get covid-19 in a classroom where they go for learning and is important. host: do you know if the new school systems have brought up the issue of potential legal liability over teachers not being vaccinated? guest: well, school systems where the vaccine is mandatory such as in the state of california, i know the american federation of teachers is working with employers in chicago and philadelphia on these vaccine mandates, and of

course if they are mandatory they are tied to employment which would lead to legal concerns. host: call next from brooklyn in new york. caller: host: short port charlotte, florida then. caller: good morning i'm glad to get through. a couple of issues. it's optional where i live in florida which is a good thing. i've got a couple of smaller kids and they don't deserve wearing masks and it really is -- they have their hands all over it anyway for one issue. and it just doesn't make any sense. no sense whatsoever. i thought europe they have no masks and they have no issues for one.

and what kind of studies douff that tell me that wearing masks actually stops the spread? douff any scientific evidence? that backs up what you're saying? host: we'll get a response. guest: so the centers for disease control and prevention have done countless studies that show in conggat settings in the classroom wearing a mask can significantly reduce the spread among children especially if there's an adult in that classroom who has covid-19 and it's a layer of protection for children that is relatively simple and well-tolerated that can prevent a whole classroom from becoming infected with the virus, which is of course the worst-case scenario. host: on our teacher's line we'll hear from steven next. caller: thanks for taking my call my wife has a phd in

immunology she worked on covid and sars about 20 years ago and she's been teaching and we've discussed this. one of the things we had a major concern about was she knows about drugs. she was right on the money when she said the original virus was not natural it had to be man-made because of her experience with sars. she as die-hard democrat i'm a republican. we've had discussions for months, and she's shocked when she watches programs like msnbc talking about how dangerous it is yet it would have been something she recommended and she's a world leader. maybe you could explain why the news says one thing the public is hearing another and i'm hearing from professionals. it's hard to believe that wearing a mask is that effective maybe it helps but it's certainly i don't believe should be mandatory. host: all right.

we've heard about masks. but what about where does high drosmy stand? guest: right now not recommended as a treatment for covid. there are several other therapeutics on the market that have been extremely effective in treating the disease. and of course right now there is the controversy the c.d.c. put out, a paper that many -- or enough doctors were prescribing this horse dewormer to treat covid which is something that people should not be doing, that's not a good medication for humans. host: good advice to end on. read her reporting at roll call.com. thanks so much. more ahead here on "washington journal" we'll continue on the topic of children and covid. join next by the association the american academy of

pediatrics president to talk about her group's recommendations when it comes to returning to school.

>> "washington journal" continues. host: our next guest is dr. lee sabio president of american academy of pediatrics. welcome to "washington journal." guest: thank you for having us here. host: how many pediatricians to

you represent, your organization, and what is its mission? guest: the american academy of pediatrics represents over 67,000 pediatricians and our mission is to support the health and well being of all children. host: you're joining us this morning after news yesterday some positive news on the vaccine front for kids at least from former f.d.a. director scott got leeb saying pfizer may be on a faster path for finishing their work on vaccine for kids ages 5-11 and even the 2-5 age group. guest: absolutely. and that is certainly our hope. we know that covid while it's g pacting children perhaps less than older adults from an infectious disease risk could be very serious in kids. it's important for us to have all the tools to make sure we protect our children. we know kids less than 12 don't have access to a vaccine and

the sooner we can have that the better. host: in the absence of vaccines for many kids your organization has come forth with the guidance for schools tor having kids back in schools that calls for all eligible people to be vaccinated to get the covid-19 vaccine. all students 2 and older and school staff should wear face masks at school and all policy conversations should start with the goal of keeping students safe and physically present in school. as the year gets under way, what are your hopes about most school districts being able to follow those guidelines? guest: i certainly hope and i'm glad that you pointed out that last statement because i really think that it's the key to our guidance is that all of our policy conversations all of our guidance really should center around making sure that we can get kids back safely to in-person learning because we know it's so important to them and we also know based on our experience over the past year that we can actually do it

safely. so i think we certainly are just entering into the school year this year my kids actually just headed off for their first day of school which was exciting and we were really happy to see it but we know schools just really starting to open now across the country and what we know from last year is that when schools put good precautions in place the things we talked about in our guidance these layered precautions, we know that kids can get back to school safely and it's incredpli important for kids so we want to make sure we're working together to make that happen. host: we read part of an opinion piece you had on cnn in particular a segment about masks. is there any problem or issue with kids wearing masks, any physical problem emotional problem that could come from a child wearing a mask throughout the day in school? guest: masks really are quite safe and effective ways to decrease the spread so it's one

of the reasons why we recommend it for children age 2-up universally in school. we know nothing in life is a hundred percent but masks are really effective to decrease the spread of covid. we have seen from our experience over the past year but also our experience over years and years with children and adults wearing masks in different settings so we've seen that it's safe and i think we've also seen that support from parents and when parents are positive and supportive it can wear mask and get back to school. one of the things to me that is so important here is that using masks as one of these layered precautions means we can get all of our kids back to school safely and they can stay there as covid is less likely to spread so kids are less likely to be exposed and have to combaurn tin. and it's just a really important tool in our tool box and safe and effective. host: what do you hear from

your member pediatricians? wiveragetsdz honestly when you talk to pediatricians really across the country they say the same thing, which is that when we approach it in a straightforward and positive way kids are able to wear masks. we certainly have some younger kids, children may have special needs or more challenges and almost always with a little bit of coaching those kids can wear masks too. so i think what our pediatricians across the country are seeing is that when kids struggle it's often because there's been sort of a struggle and battle about masks in the communities. so they're picking up on that from adults. but when we make this a positive thing it's really the safe and easy again i can speak from my own personal experience i've got two teenagers they've been wearing masks all along they wear them during sports

games, they've worn my son was able to go back to in-person learning he wore them every day there. so i think it's our experience is that this is something that kids can do. it doesn't interfere with our development and in fact it probably supports their development by allowing them to get back to school in person with their peers sooner and to be able to stay there. host: our lines for parents, our line is on the screen. dr. beers should a teacher who is not vaccinated be in a classroom? guest: you know, we talk about this in our guidance that we really do recommend for kids to be back in school safely we know it takes six layers of precaution and vaccination for everyone 12 and up who is eligible is one of those most important layers so we strongly encourage every adolescent every adult in the school building to be vaccinated so that's the best way that we're

going to help prevent spread within the school building and also the best way that we're going to protect our little ones who aren't yet eligible. host: let me ask you about the childhood vaccines. what is the history and track record of the safety of childhood vaccines indicate to us what might be the safety of the upcoming covid vaccine for kids? guest: this is actually a great point that i always really appreciate the opportunity to make is that when we look back on vaccine development over the years you know we really essentially never had a vaccine that had significant side effects that happened more than two months after a vaccine was given. so i think that should give us a lot of reassurance about vaccines in general from the beginning but also when we realize that we've been giving the covid vaccine for over a year now, millions and millions and millions of doses and we

have great information about the effects of the vaccine including the potential side effects so i think our experience both with the current covid vaccine but also with our all of our other vaccines our routine childhood vaccines should give a lot of comfort and reassurance around the safety of the covid-19 vaccine. host: will your organization with the academy go through a process of reviewing the vaccine when it comes out and before you recommend to your pediatricians that the guidance to administer it? guest: we fwol this very, very carefully and we -- this is what we've done with every other step along the way we've certainly followed the data that was publicly available and then when the vaccine was authorized our experts took a second look to make sure that we also felt comfortable with it. every single case we have and i anticipate it will be no different when the vaccine is

authorized for children under 12. host: let's go to our callers we go to parents line first and hear from david in maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to say thank you for support to dr. beers and her colleagues and scientists who are front-line fighters in this war against covid infection. i have a question for you. since f.d.a. approved the vaccine for right now the age is only 12. i have two kids who are nine and five. none of them qualify. i want to know when f.d.a. would approval the vaccine for ages such as 5 or even 3. and also, thank you for your hard work and be safe out there . host: thanks. guest: thank you so much and thank you as a parent. i often every day think reflect

on what a hard job parents have right now and especially for parents of our younger kids. so thank you. you know it's a good question as to when the vaccine will be available. we have access really to the same publicly available data that every one has but i think what we're hearing is that at least one of our's will have data hopefully within a couple of weeks for the f.d.a. and then of course they will need to review that data and make a determination as to whether or not the vaccine will be authorized. i think one of the things that we have really emphasized is that we need to move with a lot of urgency and make sure we move through that process as quickly as possible. all we've heard we've heard estimates that the vaccine could be as early as halloween, as to as late as early 2022.

our hope is that it will be in the earlier side host: typically the childhood vaccine, get my tetanus shot reboosted is my doge going to be less than say a five-year-old will get or mine would be more? guest: correct. it depends on the vaccine. this is one of the important things we've been looking at through the trial is what is the right dose for different age children? it can vary depending on their size and children are not little adults. and so that's one of the really important things we're look at. we're hearing it will be to be a lower dose for our younger kids and that's what that trial data will help us to know once it's submitted and they have a chance to look. so it is likely to be a lower dose. host: raymond, massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm calling to suggest that the

video we see on tv should be shut down. this is pandemic pictures that show a three inch needle going in the arm and emptying out the plunger. i was in the navy and we used to get our shots and occasionally in line one of us would faint. and some of them would be turning their heads whe they got their shots. transfer this to 12 and 13-year-old girls and boice who have been watch -- boys who have been watching this video for over a year. it's time to take this out because the kids are getting scared. host: dr. beers has that been the case? have the kids eligible 12-18 have they been deterred from getting the vaccine because of that video or any other reason? guest: well, first thank you.

i used to be in the navy as well so i always like talking to fellow navy veterans. we do agree about some of the imagery actually we have alternate imagery available with the needings that we actually use. what we're seeing in kids again when the adultsdz are working together with them and talking to them about why they're getting their vaccines really certainly all kids can be afraid of shots sometimes but i think it's something we can work through when you talk to your kids why it's so important to get the vaccine both to protect you but also those around you. i think the media does has its pluses and minuses and it can heighten fears but it can also host: this is chris on our parents line from florida.

caller: i have a question, and i guess i will add a little bit, but i have a couple of concerns. i want to understand why -- i have done a lot of my own research, as a lot of people have, and i don't understand why the injuries and the side effects are not being acknowledged for any medical professional to get on tv all day every day as in dr. fauci and continually say this is safe and effective for everyone, that is a lie. i think that is why so many people have lost so much trust in what is being done during this pandemic. and i have natural immunity. i had covid over a year ago, and i have had my antibodies tested and over a year later i still have antibodies.

let people who need the vaccine get the vaccine, acknowledge natural antibodies. we know that is a thing, even someone like myself who is not a medical person knows that come in say that. nobody will say that, they will not acknowledge natural immunity come and they will not acknowledge that there is no one-size-fits-all medicine, and we know that. you just say this is safe, i know a 23-year-old that died that was going into the military right after getting the vaccine. guest: that is an issue, and a couple of points, actually having these conversations with your regular doctor and talking to questions that you may have is just so important, just talk a little bit about the fears, and this is one of those real strikes of our system is that we have a way for people if they have any question or a

possibility there may be -- they can enter into this way to information and every case that could potentially be associated, to look into it. this is really a science, and we have so much information that continues to give us confidence that this is safe and effective. there are very rare side effects come and the benefits of the vaccine from all of the information really outweighs the risks. i think the question about natural immunity comes up a lot, and that is understandable. what we are seeing is the natural immunity, first of all, from early findings the best combination is one we do not recommend, to get covid, but the

finding seem to be a lot more inconsistent. some people may really have very little, and so it is not clear how long this lasts there's a lot of suggestions that it doesn't last as long and we are seeing many more breakthrough cases from people who were previously infected with covid than people who have been vaccinated. these are all really good questions, and we always encourage people to talk to physicians and pediatricians about these questions if there is a lot of information out there and it can be overwhelming to filter through all of it. it is good to be able to talk about it with your doctor. host: you were quoted over the weekend, pediatrician besieged by parents seeking coronavirus shots for kids under 12. how much is this happening and what is your guidance? guest: just to kind of tell you

a little bit with the approval of the covid vaccine for kids 16 and up, the question has become can use it off label for kids younger than 12? it is hard to know how much this is happening, but we are seeing there are a lot of calls from parents who are worried about their kids and are anxious to get them vaccinated because they want them to be safe. it is 100% understandable, but we don't recommend using the vaccine off label. the dose for younger kids could be different, so it is important for us, we have to rely on the systems to look at the data and make sure that our vaccines are safe and effective so we can have confidence in them. but at a statement -- we put out a statement to make sure members

knew where we stood on this, and i think there has been universal agreement that it will be important to wait until the vaccine is fully authorized in younger kids. host: this is michael from miami, florida. caller: hello. i want you to have the same information that our teachers and school boards here in florida have when they make their decisions. i am not sure you do. all 67 of our school district's here, and i know this because of the communication, but it is not communicated to them because of the is this advertising that funds the newsrooms. i am talking about the fact that it is legacy over lives. the doctor under -- came down here and spoke with the governor and it is on tape promoting natural immunity amongst

students and banning masks and vaccine mandates and having them go back to school specifically with the intent, which you normally do not have, but you increase the disease in people. you do not need to be a doctor to know how to think about this, if you have a dictionary and look up natural immunity, it is letting things run, so the reason the natural immunity increases is because you cull t he herd. that is the definition of eugenic genocide, so when our districts are weighing what to do about our governor, that is very much an important idea because they know what is going on. my concern is we have a mass bullying effect, where we are distracted by the masks but we

should be closing the schools. we are four times and five times what the school districts said they would close at previously already, and but they are not closing and we are being bullied. with adverse childhood expenses, the brain changes and we see things more black-and-white and we are more reactive, and that also applies when you are successful so it goes both ways. we are suffering that here, and it is not just the fact that kids are dying, you mentioned that, but the fact that kids infect the rest of the community. host: any thoughts? guest: you mentioned the mission of the american academy of pediatricians to promote the wellness of all children, so that really is what our school recommendations are grounded in, we want children to be safe and healthy.

i just think reemphasizing, we really believe that can happen by putting in good precautions in the schools, masking, symptoms screening and quarantining when you need to, good ventilation, all of those things can really help keep the students staying in school because ultimately any severe illness or death in a child that is preventable or any illness, especially if it is preventable, i agree. i think it is incumbent on all of us to work together to make that happen, and it is tragic we see times when that is not happening. host: you wrote an opinion piece about six month ago, and the headline was the pandemic is taking alarming tolls on children, and are you more optimistic six months since then and has your view changed any?

guest: i am very worried about kids. i'm worried about the coronavirus, and i am always -- also worried about their well-being in other ways with their social and emotional health, their educational achievement. i think our kids have had a hard year over the past year and have come and the longer it goes on, the more impact it has. we had one person talking about the trauma on the developing brain and that is true. some of our kids have expanse that because they have been isolated and they have had a lack of support or services come and some of them have experienced that because they had a tremendous amount of loss in the family, there are thousands of children in the u.s. who have lost parents or caregivers to covid. many have seen the devastation within their community, so we do

need to take care of our kids right now. it worries me, but i am optimistic that we are talking about it, and i think it is long past time for us to come together as a nation and be putting things in place to prioritize the needs of kids as we move forward. host: next, barbara on her parent's line from massachusetts. caller: good morning. i am a grandparent of four kids that got to go back to school, two are 12 and about to get vaccinated, and then the other ones are younger. i am calling to suggest something about the subgroup of an vaccinated people who speak about having phobia about needles. one way we might be able to do with that is for the doctors offices and maybe the pharmacies to offer these people a jab with

a brand-new needle with nothing in it, see you would unwrap it out of the wrapper and let this people just get a jab with an empty syringe, just like the one that is used for the vaccine. it might even just help them overcome the phobia about needles, just for life purposes going forward and deal with that excuse. the other thing i am calling about, i live in martha's vineyard and we have a book fair here, and walter x and send was here to talk about his book. he was interviewed named dr. holden thorp, and he is the editor of science magazine, which is the premier magazine. here's what is missing, animations. we do not see any animation of how the vaccine tax the spike protein. i would like to see a video game

created where you would see the vaccine coming out of the needle and attacking the spike protein. it is so simple. we have visual learners. i am the queen of visual learners. show us the animation. and the doctor told me they do exist. get him on to bring us and show us these animations. thank you so much. host: thank you for the suggestion. guest: i love that, and i promise this was not a plan because i love that idea and we will be coming out with something very similar to that videos, and this is showing how vaccines work. i love the idea and and i think this emphasizes the importance that importance of the

individual relationship that families have with pediatricians. i have a friend and her teenage son is very nervous about the needle, and the first two not go as well, but the second, they went into the office to work with their pediatrician at the staff, and it went so smoothly. i think it emphasizes the importance, you're pretty attrition -- your pediatrician knows you and can work with you to make sure that you are able to have a good experience. host: now to jeff from missouri. caller: i would like to thank c-span and for mrs. beers being here this morning. i have four kids and all of my

kids have been vaccinated. in my on studies i looked into smallpox and the things that we have to be vaccinated for before they went to school. the smallpox has a 30% death rate and covid has a recovery rate of 97% up to 97.5%. they have approved vaccine, but the pfizer vaccine that was approved wasn't the actual vaccine that was approved. the actual vaccine was from biotech, that will not come out until 2023, and that means they will keep pushing the ones that are already made, but i say the vaccine that was approved has not actually -- is not actually coming out until 2023. guest: the vaccine that was

approved actually is the same vaccine, so i think just some reassurance, and i think one of the things that we think about for all of the vaccines is what is the risk of the vaccine versus the risk of the illness? we think about this for all of the medications, not just vaccines. in the case of the covid vaccine but also in the case of all of our childhood vaccines, the risk of the onus far outweighs -- illness far outweighs the risk of the vaccine. any preventable illness in a child or adult is really a tragedy. when we have the tools to help prevent them, it is -- i am excited and i feel inspired that we have these things that we are able to use. host: is that the bar sort of for the academy, that the risk

of not getting the vaccine is greater -- how do you determine which should be the childhood vaccines? guest: that is exactly right. you look at what are the illnesses that really cause really a significant burden in kids either from risk of death or long-term illness, like with covid, we are seeing kids with long covid it we look at is there a vaccine available, do we have the ability to develop a vaccine fort? and then what are the risks of the vaccine versus the risk of illness, and we have a really high bar. it always gives me confidence that when we are recommending vaccines, it is because the risk of the onus far outweighs the risk of the vaccine. host: maybe i just read this recently, the tetanus shot, the

vaccine was created to prevent a disease we never hear about witches lockjaw. -- which is lockjaw. guest: yes, that is something that actually prevents you -- you can inhibit your breathing and swallowing. in my career i have seen unvaccinated children who suffer from it. this is one of the testaments to the success of vaccines, that we ask you don't see a lot of vaccine preventable illness anymore because they were so well -- i was talking to a more senior pediatrician not long ago, and he said i remember being a kid when the polio vaccine came out and we were all lining up because we had just seen the horrible impacts that it had on our friends, and we saw that. maybe we are a victim of our own success, that these vaccines

have been so successful. the average person doesn't see this, but we do see some cases of measles and pertussis, and it can be very serious. it keeps us focused on the importance of vaccines. host: our guest earned her degree from emory university school of medicine and also serve time at the naval medical center in virginia. this is lorraine from chambersburg, pennsylvania, on the parents line. caller: dr., i have a concern and a question. i am a grandparent raising my nine-year-old grandson, and i took him out a public school and placed him in private school because it would be less students, less contamination. what i notice is that a lot of

the staff members do not wear a mask even though they know how or in children are not being vaccinated right now. i am wondering, should i be concerned about this? one of the staff even told my grandson that he did not have to wear his mask. i told him to where it at all times. my question is, should i be concerned? guest: we do recommend in schools right now, given where we are with the pandemic, that ever in one needs to wear a mask, so i recommend that. i would talk to the school. on our website we have the recommendations that are publicly available, and you can point them to that. masks are a safe and effective way to disgrace the spread of

transmission as well as a number of other things, as we have mentioned, making sure the adolescents and the school are vaccinated, improved ventilation , making sure you're not sending your school sick, so good system screening. i would talk to them about it. host: how do you think the pandemic will change the way pediatric students are taught in medical school? guest: that is a trick question. i think one of the things that shake terrific question. i think one of the things they may emphasize more on public health communications, and we have had -- we are doctors and we go to school and we learn to treat illness and he won't illnesses -- well visits, and communication is always a part of the education.

i think the pandemic has emphasized how important our role is as health professionals. i think that maybe one piece, and probably a bigger aphesis on public health intervals in general. we cannot skip that as a physician or anyone right now. host: now to jamal from charlotte, north carolina. caller: good morning. i have an interesting theory. i am an african-american man, and i have observed this and i know this might sound a little strange, but i think based on social economic lines, i think a lot of white people have an issue putting a mask on because it affects their american calling card of being white.

when you are covering your face like that, the mindset is not the same because you are walking around with a mask on and you don't have that white calling card and i'm talking about people who are at a lower economic level. of course doctors do not have a problem. the president does not have a problem with the mask because he is what he is. people that are of a certain economic level, the lower economic white people have an issue putting a mask on because that skin color is what gives them power. host: that is your view. you do not have any evidence to back that up? caller: this is as i have lived in this country for 47 years in black skin, and i went to school with white people all of my life. host: now we go to butler,

indiana, and we hear from walter and the parents line. caller: this is the greatest show in the world. the tears are pouring out of my eyes. i don't know how you doctors get out of bed in the morning, how you possibly get up in the morning and have the risk of taking a shower or to drive a car. i bet you will not state right now on national television, dr. beers, tell me that this -- statistical death rate of a child 12 years old or under. host: we will remind you, 30 days in between calls here on "washington journal." guest: it is a common misconception that covid does not affect children under 12 years.

but they can still get very ill and we are certainly seeing this, particularly in some of the areas of the country where we are getting kids who are very ill. and this is the same thing we think about vaccines, eight we can prevent an illness or death with something that is safe and effective, absolutely, we wear our seatbelts in the car and we recommend bike helmets, all things that are simple safe ways to prevent potential illness. it is all of us working together to make sure our children stay safe and healthy. host: the headline from usa today, covid-19 surging among american youth and doctors were children of color face the greatest risk. this is paula from orlando, florida. caller: here's another fear of needle question because i have a

death fear of needles in my arm, but i have been getting shots for 40 years, but i have been to publix and walgreens and they were fears -- refused to do them in the leg, but the moderna and covid websites -- i'm sorry, attorney -- modernity -- moderna and pfizer are allowed in the legs. it does say on both sites that a 5/8 since -- inch needle can be used, and the pharmacies are doing the shots and not doing those needles. it does say the pfizer and moderna website, if it hits the bone, it will not be absorbed

into the bloodstream correctly and there may not be the response. host: a couple of specific questions about the vaccine. guest: again, it really emphasizes this point, the websites are great and they really increase -- especially if you are someone with special considerations, but if you do, then absolutely get in contact with the regular pediatrician or your regular physician. but getting in touch with them, we have also saw earlier that a lot of the doctors offices were able to get the access to the vaccine, but more of them have it as time goes on. actually in my practice here at children's national, not only

are we offering it to adolescents, but also now just starting to offer it to parents because they know they trust us. so talk to your doctor to talk to some of these things, if there are modifications that can be made so you can get the vaccine safely and effectively. even if they did not have it before, it is worth checking again. host: how common is the fear of needles? guest: that is funny, i don't know that we have exact data on that. i can speak from my experience in pediatrics, and we have a handful of kids who are just really nervous about needles. you have to work with them to make sure they stay calm and work with parents. we have some kids and certainly adults that have develop mental this abilities or other concerns that might make it harder, more

fearful of a needle. the important thing is that these are all things we can work through, all things that we can work together with you on. pediatricians and doctors, we want our patients to be healthy, so we are willing to work with you. host: this is ray from taylor, michigan. caller: this is concerning china getting more people taking the shot, and people doesn't trust the government. you can't trust people, secant get people to take the shot because there is no trust. they are people coming over from afghanistan during the middle of a pandemic. how do you trust people that are

not protecting the people here in the united states? guest: we talked about this earlier, there are times when people do not talk -- trust the health system, and that is true. just like any of our systems, we have been asking that question a lot, and most people actually do trust their doctor, and so these are all questions, talk to your doctor about these things, ask your specific question, dive into those details about questions that you may have because i think that is how we build trust, being able to sit down and have a conversation about what questions are, why we are making the recommendations, but the data is, so all these things are important to building trust.

i think it is important to ask your doctor about it. host: one more from the parents line, linda from orange, connecticut. caller: first of all, you have to trust the government every time you get on an airplane or drive over a highway bridge, so you might want to get over that. my call is very specific, i was at a family gathering yesterday for the first time in two years. my son's wife's grandparents were there. they are finding that they have to take their two and half-year-old son to what they are calling covid therapy classes, he is an only child and he does not know how to -- he speaks and late only three word sentences, and it is because he

literally has not been around other children. they are finding that this is more of a common problem that they thought, and they found this little group and they are calling it covid therapy, for little three-year-old and under in the same situation and kind of making a safe place. our failure to vaccinate is really causing some long-term effects on our little ones, and this could help -- it could hurt him even when he starts school and he is post to start school in two and half years and he is not even ready for nursery school. host: we appreciate your call. any final thoughts? guest: it is incredibly important to remind people that

this has had an effect on so many different levels, this pandemic has been very difficult on families. i think going back to our guidance around a safe return to school, that is part of why we are emphasizing that we need to do the things that we can do to help kids get back to that in person learning because it is important for the health and development. we can do as -- we can do things as adults to make that happen, we can make sure we are vaccinated and keep wearing masks in a high-risk situations, the things we need to do to help support the kids. host: dr. lee savio beers is a. -- pediatrician, and she has the american academy of pediatrics. thank you for being with us this morning.

more of the program had up until 10:00 eastern, your thoughts as the u.s. gets close to the deadline of tomorrow, august 31, for that withdrawal of troops from afghanistan. we went to open up the lines. for republicans, (202)748-8001, democrats, (202)748-8000, independent and others, (202)748-8002, and afghan war veterans, (202)748-8003. we had start dialing. -- go ahead and start dialing. >> we are at a tipping point in this nation, what we do matters, and i believe the 1776 project, that this project is an important historical moment. we need people to get behind us and make sure that our message reaches everyone. air america -- america is a

great country. >> sunday carol plane is our guest on in depth, she has a recent book "black eye for america" so join the conversation, life sunday at noon eastern on in depth on book tv. c-span shop.org is the online score -- store, browse to see what is new. your purchase will support our operations and he still had time to order the congressional directory, with contact administration -- information for the administration. >> "washington journal"

continues. host: we are talking about the u.s. rubbing up troop withdrawal from afghanistan, so here of the lines, republicans, (202)748-8001, democrats (202)748-8000, independent (202)748-8002, and afghan war veterans, (202)748-8003. we will look at a couple of stories as well and the latest reporting from afghanistan from the washington post, 10 civilians including children reported killed in a drone strike, records fired at kabul airport. a u.s. drone strike targeting the islamic state killed 10 civilians including several small children and family members told the post the dead were all from a single extended family, and they were getting out of a car when the strike hit a nearby vehicle. the central command said the strike destroyed an islamic

state car bomb that posed a threat to the airport. the man said in a statement that he was aware of reports of civilian casualties and said we would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life. this was the second drone strike in response to a suicide bombing outside the airport thursday. it killed 13 u.s. troops and over 170 civilians trying to leave the country. hurricane ida downgraded to a hurricane category one, but not before causing serious damage. new orleans is out of power, from power outage u.s. come and the total state outages in louisiana, almost 1.1 million this morning. that was updated just a few minutes ago. we will keep you posted. now let's hear from you and your thoughts on afghanistan.

this is scott from texas. caller: i really pray to god that these people would be taken care of, and that they will be taken care of by the president. about the war, i just wish that the president would do more for the people that are trying to get out. thank you. host: now this is from the republican line, cynthia from texas. caller: i disagree with the way the evacuation has progressed and proceeded and even the beginning of it. i think it was leaving americans

behind, absolutely unconscionable and the incompetence of all of the echelons of government and the military, to have proceeded with a no plan to rescue the americans. i feel like i was very discouraged with the president in one of his first conferences after the evacuation really got in. , to bring up his son who died of cancer, which had nothing to do with the military. host: you thought that was inappropriate for him to bring that up? caller: absolutely. many of us have lost children, and it had nothing to do with the evacuation of afghanistan. i don't understand his cognitive reasoning. i don't understand why he can't put together a long train of

thought and address the american people by answering the press and the questions. host: the united nations security council is set to meet on afghanistan come in this is the reporting, france on the u.k. to propose the airport safe sound and they say france in the united kingdom put forward an emergency resolution on a safe zone to allow people to continue to leave afghanistan, and this proposal aims to define a safe zone under u.n. control that would allow humanitarian operations to continue, according to the french president. wisconsin rapids is next, roseann on the democrat line. caller: i just want to praise the president for the able to carry this out. we are politicizing this again

like we always do. he is relying on the military to carry out what he wants to do, and because this has become so political, and the fact that the military just can't seem to get it together no matter what, we should've never went in there in the first place. but kudos to president biden for getting out of this 20 year war that is not winnable, and the fact that these people don't want to stand up for themselves. when we stopped paying them to do it, then the putdown their guns and ran away. thank you for taking my call. host: this is emmy from lewistown, pennsylvania. caller: i would like to ask why the people of the united states have to be treated differently. this whole situation is such a mess.

we were created from god and we are all equal, do not treat the people from afghanistan differently. they love just like we do, treat them the same. get them home or wherever they need to be, but get them out safe. we do not need another war. host: this is the headline from the hill this morning, biden enters perilous final hours of afghanistan mission, and the remaining u.s. forces in afghanistan are to leave the country on tuesday, marking the end to a nearly 20 year military engagement but the accident will not be a clean break. the biden administration must grapple with 22 can been -- continue evacuation missions for those left behind as well as the follow-up from a deadly isis attack last week that killed more than a dozen service

members. biden is facing false -- calls to extend that mission. some gop members have sought to drum up fears about who is being allowed into the u.s. and say lawmakers in both parties went biden to ensure all americans are out of afghanistan. now we would go to michigan, the republican line, sharon. caller: good morning. i am concerned about our americans, to get them out, but another thing that worries me is leaving behind that materials that could blow up any other part of the world and it doesn't seem there is any plan to retrieve that and get that away from the taliban. host: why do you think they left all of that mayor terrio --

material behind? caller: i can't think of any reason why, as it is potential for damage to the people that are left. unbelievable. it was like a gift to the taliban and it makes no sense. this is another example of poor planning by a president with dementia. host: doug from florida on the democrat line. caller: i have several comments. i do not know of any war since world war i that when we got done, we did not leave crab there because it is cheaper to get new stuff then haul it back to the united states. number two, if it would've been such an easy job to get all them people out, trump would've done it, and i have not heard anybody

tell us how we could've done it any better. i don't think we should of been there in the first place. i would've made that whole damn country glow in the dark. have a good. host: deborah from michigan, on the independent line. caller: i wanted to respond to the woman that said what the president mentioned, that his son had nothing to do with the war, and in fact, his cancer is related to his service in iraq because of toxic exposure illness from the burn pits, and they were in iraq and afghanistan and we have number of servicemen and women who are developing these cancers from the service inside the country. the other thing i wanted to mention was the reason they left the material behind was because we assumed that the afghan army

would remain a force and that material was left them. it wasn't just left. it was left for them, and obviously not knowing that they were going to basically abandon the army. host: thank you for your incident -- insight. this is from roll call, humanitarian aid groups are pleading with the biden administration to provide legal cover to engage with the taliban without fear of's penalties -- and the organizations want the administration to grant special licenses allowing routine humanitarian programs to embattled country relies. this includes transferring funds and paying import duties and fees in perilous efforts to evacuate americans and vulnerable allies from the airport before the month is over.

this as monopolized much of the attention two weeks ago, and humanity and aid workers one that an even more catastrophic situation is on the verge of erupting and they say u.s. government action is needed now to medicate the deadly fallout on millions of innocent afghans. we go to john on the independent line from connecticut. caller: i am just curious, i am wondering what people on sites from either angle -- it was going to be chaotic no matter who did it, in a country that has no democratic institutions, and your time to push them onto them and it has been demonstrated for at least 10 years, obama knew and trump new and bite new that the military

in afghanistan did not want to fight if they were not propped up by american contractors. what exactly did people think was going to happen? that is it. host: now to virginia, sylvia on the republican line. caller: i think we need to pray for them because their day and night comes earlier than ours and i am glad this work is almost over, and i think we need to try to support and aid to the people that are here that have come pouring in and i am hoping to be able to sponsor an afghan family. host: how do that? caller: i don't know. i think i could just go to the social services or the churches and see if i can. i am sure that they're going to have it on the local news

because our local news, even though it is 45 miles away, it is in charlottesville, so i'm sure i can find a way. host: we appreciate that. other news, this is from the wall street journal, a reactor is restarted, when korea appears to return -- resume operations of this reactor a move that could enable the country to expand nuclear weapons, and the development disclosed the agencies and general -- annual report on the activities in a new challenge to the president's agenda alongside the dangerous u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan, the talks on restoring the deal of the nuclear program. since early july there have been indications including the discharge of cooling water consistent with the operation of the reactor, said the report,

and the reactor appear to have been an active from december 2018 until the beginning of july 2021. the report added that signs that the reactor is being operated coincide with the indications that north korea is also using a laboratory to separate plutonium from spent fuel previously removed from the reacted -- reactor. this is wendell from louisiana. caller: i want to say about getting out of iraq, that was a lousy job. we never had a president that did that come and lindsey graham is the republican that is criticizing our president right now, which he is everybody's president, but the republicans have no right to criticize him. if they impeach him, that will

put the vice president in office, so any republicans that try to impeach the president should be out of office. host: we hear from w.d. from stuart, florida, on the independent line. caller: this is about the afghan refugees. i hate that i missed dr. beers, but i was wondering whether she knows at the refugee will be getting the vaccine and also i wanted to ask if she is still there if she knows what the side effects of the vaccine are. host: she is no longer our guest at this point, but on your first question, we did read a story earlier that at least here in

the washington area, the refugees will be vaccinated. fema is setting up a center outside dulles airport. caller: if you can, find out about the side effects, and that may be the reason people are not getting vaccinated now. host: thank you for your call. this is mike in louisville, ohio. caller: here is my opinion on why we left military equipment behind. i think it was a trade-off by the biden administration to the taliban, that if we give you our equipment, you could help us get out of their and get on those planes. that is my opinion. about those 13 servicemembers that were lost, one for each strike on the plague, which

represents 13 stripes on the flag, now what is it going to take, 50 servicemembers for each star on the flag? to get the attention of the american people, wake up, america. host: we have a couple of updates for concerning the situation in afghanistan. first a briefing from john kirby, the pentagon press secretary, we will have live coverage of that, and later today the secretary of state anthony blinken will speak with reporters and that is set for 130 time eastern, live coverage here on c-span and on c-span.org -- biden receives remains of

servicemembers after terrorist attack and they write a c-17 plane landed in delaware after 8:00 a.m. sunday with the remains of 11 marines and a navy medic and a sergeant who could be the last americans to die in the war in afghanistan. a second plane parked next to the transport and it carried the president who gave the orders to end the war after nearly 20 years prompting the evacuation efforts that those servers members were carrying out when a bomber detonated his charges at the airport last week. the president's first trip to witness the transfer of remains is a reminder of the length of the war and of his unique attachment to it as a legislature and now commander in chief. they write he made an unannounced flight or rear presidential appearance at the

transfer of remains service for the members killed overseas. they were on their way to final rest in committees across the nation that have supplied the sons and daughters that fought in two decades of what was once called the war on term or. -- on terror. this is darrell on the democrat line from pasadena, california. caller: i just wanted to voice my discussed with biden and his whole administrative crew for pulling out of afghanistan. i have been a registered democrat all my life and i am an army veteran. they should get rid of all of the military advisors come and if we could, impeach biden. host: this is carol on the republican line -- this is jerry on the republican line from ohio. caller: i watch your show every

morning. it is so addicting. i just wonder how the president and the top brass can do what they did to get out of afghanistan and nothing is being done about their mistakes. i hear so much hatred towards republicans and democrats, like this, on your show, and it is all right to hear this because you want to know this. i just wonder when the civil war is going to start in this country, because this country is so divided on some of the stupidest things i have ever seen in my life. it is sad to see our country like this. host: do you think it is more

divided than what you have witnessed in your life? if you don't mind my asking, how old are you? caller: 63. i vote all the time. i used to be a democrat, but i would never vote them a credit again as long as light -- democrat again as long as i live. host: you are on the republican line, what changed your views? caller: obama, because him and joe biden, i think they tried to destroy this country. they tried their best. host: this is melissa from wingfield, she can -- i'm sorry, wingfield, iowa -- bloomfield. caller: i just want to say we

will meet again, and this is all the blood on biden's hands. this is another saigon and vietnam, and most people do not realize that. host: an update from the times picayune, the power situation in new orleans and the surrounding communities, how long will power be out, and the company says it will assess the damage today and likely take days to determine the extent of the damage to the power grid in metro new orleans and far longer to restore transmission to the region. executives said this morning that four parishes in southeast louisiana and two more had their main source of power cut when eight transmission lines failed including a tower that fell into

the mississippi river. next up, this is lisa from texas on the independent line. caller: good morning. i feel this is a sad situation and i pray for all of the loved ones that lost family members. what i don't understand is trump was actually going to do the exact same thing as far as pulling these servicemen out of the country. if there was an easier way, why is it not been done in the last 20 years? there was a plan for it, but he never done it. as far as that color from texas, that broke my heart speaking about our president, his son, i'm just floored about the hate towards the president, and

people talking about impeaching him, they can impeach him. do they want kamala harris? host: this is frank from the republican line. caller: i have never voted in my entire life and i am 60. i grew up in the bronx and i watched all of the races stuff start and it did not come back until obama became president. back when obama said we are going to leave iraq, he did the same thing that biden did, and instead of doing at the proper way, he left all of the equipment and took everyone out, and we got isis. isis took the equipment and marched right to iraq and killed everyone. how many american lives were killed under obama? and that was a democrat. and now trump, he had a way of

getting us out of afghanistan if biden would've listened. biden is a bubbling idiot, but he did not listen to how to bring the people out. we should've kept the airbase -- host: now our next caller on the democrat line. caller: this is about the suicide bombing at the airport, couple days ago i heard an afghan doctor saying many of the afghans killed were actually not killed by the suicide bombing but by being shot by the americans garden -- guarding the place. yesterday i think on face the nation it was said that the pentagon had acknowledged that "some of the afghans had been shot by friendly fire."

i had not believed him at first, but he said only about 20 of the afghans were killed by the bomb and the rest were killed by bullets. host: from americans? caller: from americans coming in the direction of where the americans were positioned. it seems like some sort of panic, if that is what happened. i hope this will come out. you say there will be a pentagon briefing shortly. i hope someone will ask that question. host: it is about half an hour away. that will do it for our program this morning. we do have those briefings coming up. we will tell you about that momentarily. we are back with "washington journal" tuesday morning at 7:00 eastern. we hope you are, too. have a great day.