pandemic, keeping people healthy and on track, all the way through disease management, for people who have been diagnosed with serious medical conditions all the way to rehabilitation, fast tracking back to normal life, mental health and covid management. covid management is what helps us see what works and doesn't work on the ground, compare in between countries, analyze data and try and advise people to get better at managing the pandemic, whether it is a government or hospital or just people out there who struggle and fight through this difficult time. host: from what you are seeing in other countries, in the rule -- role of managing the response, what would you say work and does not work? -- what would you say works and does not work question mark guest: i will take you straight --does not work?

guest: i will take you straight to the facts. what works are the vaccines. and it is not enough to be vaccinated once or twice. if you are not boosted, if you did not get your booster, this will be a hard winter. so it is crucial to see countries -- we have seen countries fully vaccinated, with high rates of boosted people, i call them boosted people, they will actually cope and they are coping better. take israel, who has a digital health care system, very accessible, vaccination databases are running digitally at a national level. boosters are high. the daily number of cases, even with omicron, is stillk are getting only a mild disease. so the first thing we see is the booster countries are dealing under. -- dealing better. countries with a national health id, where the vaccination information is securely stored, are managing better. it can access data better and make better decisions. the other issue is, again,

wearing masks, social distancing, keeping informed, governments being transparent and being able to take action. these are all important issues that need to be managed very tightly. host: when you talk about data, being collected, being centralized, i suppose at that -- i suppose that would cause concern in countries about what is done with the data and of the privacy of that data. how would you respond to that? guest: i have been asked many times, specifically coming out of america, questions, we cannot have a national database. my response is we in america trust and believe that americans are strong enough to actually keep the data secure, to keep it secure and use it only for the purpose of better managing the pandemic, making the right decisions, keeping it safe, and it can be constructed and created at a national level, but managed at the state level.

that is very important. aggregate data, anonymous data, can then be shared at the national level so the government can make better decisions. right now in america, we see differences in vaccination rates between the states. it's not great. it is important to have a national health id for vaccinations in order to better assess, understand and act upon what we see from the data. it is crucial and we see it working in other countries. to your point, i will go back to your question, you asked about freedom, about security of information, right? it's so important, pedro, to balance. it is not even balancing, it is juggling better between freedom and public national health. it is important within freedom

we protect our people, we manage to find ways that it can -- that they can choose what to do, choose whether to get vaccinated or not, yes. yes, we have to store their data, share the data, and they have to trust the government that they will do only right with their data. i think i can trust america and i think we all should. host: as far as other countries you work with, what kind of data is collected? is it specific to names? what other information is associated? particularly with covid, start with that. guest: the database i am speaking about is covid driven, it is covid relevant. let me give you a few examples. if you take germany, france, the nhs, so the u.k. and israel, significant countries with fully digital database, who has been vaccinated, what date and where.

you cannot move from one county to another, one state to another or even share a paper from your first vaccine, not say that you have been vaccinated for the second one, and actually get your third one if you are not eligible. that was months ago in america. this is not possible because the information is centralized, completely digital, and anywhere you go, they know by name on what date you have been vaccinated, your age, id number and how many vaccines you have. also, in certain countries, that makes it more interesting and more insightful for governments to make decisions. a country like israel has an app. you get vaccinated, first of all, they call or invite you, digitally, or they send you a text message, do you want to get vaccinated? here are your dates and options. you go to your appointment and within 20 minutes after being vaccinated, you get a text message, a caring one, asking --

how do you feel? do you have side effects? the same after 24 hours and a week. here you go, the whole country gets vaccinated, and the country gets data about how people feel, what are the side effects. it's not just clinical research on a limited number of people, it is a country database that's sharing how they felt and did they have any side effects? the next step is they invite you for the second and third one. if you do get sick and you have a covid-19 test, it would be shared on your database as well, so they can follow -- what is the example -- what is for example the time-lapse between being vaccinated, the first, second or third vaccine, to when you got actually sick. we know now that with omicron, people might get sick, but only mildly, even if they have been boosted.

so getting that information, the statistics of when a person was vaccinated and if, how many, how did they get sick is so crucial to understand how the pandemic works. we do not need to wake up in the morning to an omicron rushing through the country and getting so many people sick, and we do not know how fast, how much -- we really need data. and this is our social responsibility, in my personal opinion, for people to share that information. they would actually want to share that information. to help themselves, to help other people and their communities. host: sigal atzmon is with us. we invite you to ask her questions at 202-748-8000 in the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001 in the mountain and pacific time zones.

caller: the question i have with people like your guests is they don't talk about using vitamins to help your body absorb d-3. vitamin a and c and then when you start feeling symptoms, double up on zinc. this is a proven antidote to koh viruses which -- co-viruses which coronavirus is. guest: you're really right and i want to acknowledge you what

just said. it's very useful for people to take when they get sick, even the preventive measure, slightly reduce doses of vitamin c, vitamin d, vitamin d. in certain countries it is recommended to take zinc upon contracting covid-19. that there many health care workers that share the information. sadly you had not heard that, but you are socially responsible and you shared at that today. host: he used the word anecdote, would you agree with that? guest: i think it is useful to have vitamin c during the winter anyway, especially during a pandemic, and has been proven to work and help prevent, but it will not fully protect or prevent. but it is useful before, with a

normal dosage, and if you contract covid-19, covid-19 -- the best thing you should do is ask your doctor how much, when, and how you should take your vitamin. host: this is frank in west virginia. good morning. caller: covid-19, the shots in the boosters and stuff, how come the government never bothered to tell the people about the side effects. i was reading up on it, you get hardening of the heart, all kinds of different symptoms and the doctors never told anybody about the symptoms. guest: i heard him a little bit strangely. i think the sound wasn't very good, can you summarize this question for me? host: that as far as attentional symptoms that there are side effects and his claim that the

government wasn't saying what the side effects were. guest: ok, so it's very important for everyone to keep informed. the government has tried to be very transparent and share a lot of information. unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation out there and you should really be careful where you read and you should go and read mainly online in those official government related websites. more importantly, yes, there are mild or side effects to vaccination. but they don't endanger anyone, they don't put you in danger, and they can be a pain in your arm, fatigue, or even a bit of fever and chills. they have been reported in the medical literature and shared by doctors and by the government. unfortunately, a lot of misinformation is out there and not everyone goes and reads in the right places. i encourage everyone of you to

keep very informed, go to those official health websites, covid, cdc, you will find a lot of information. it's crucial to know that there are side effects and most of them are very, very mild and would absolutely not put anyone in danger. otherwise those vaccines would not have been approved. host: we have a viewer off of twitter talking about data collection but then talking about the collection of data incorrectly, some counting second and first shots as -- second and third is first shots and the larger issue of the accuracy of data collected, what are other countries doing? host: this is a wonder -- guest: this is a wonderful question. if the data would be stored in a unified database, not being

guided on how to securely store it on one system, we get these inaccuracies. countries who have digitalized one system for covid night -- covid vaccination, you cannot go around and get vaccinated in one state and then in another one in this data would not be shared between the systems. it's crucial to have one system, usually in what we see in other countries, data is stored accurately and most importantly you don't have those little papers. right? i just came back from washington, new york, i've been in other states around america and i still saw people running around with their vaccination little cards. this should not be. we are at an age and time where digitalization has to be the norm and there needs to be a secure one stop shop database

for vaccinations. then we would avoid the things that you bring up in your question. so, one, a national database. two, it needs to be secure. three, accuracy depends on how it is constructed, who puts it in. only health-care workers put it in and it has to be one unified database for the whole country. host: a for instance, say there was information on someone who didn't get a vaccine. for the holders of information be putting undue pressure on that person because they haven't? host: i -- guest: i wouldn't want any pressure on anyone get vaccinated not get vaccinated, if about sharing the nation. -- it's about sharing information. i don't think that there is anything negative about saying would you like to have more information.

that's not pressure, that's sharing information to empower that person. as medics we respect people's choices. i think america has to give people the choice and the option to choose whether to get vaccinated or not. however, these people should share whether they have been vaccinated or not. they have to stand up for their choices after having received the information that is needed to make the right decision no matter what it is and i respect any decision. host: lauren, greensburg, pennsylvania, high, good morning. guest: i was wondering -- caller: i was wondering if the guest could explain in more detail what seems to be right from the beginning of this, the covid, is that how certain regions are more affected by covid, for instance, central

africa, the middle east, eastern europe, don't seem to have as much trouble with this as we do in the western european nations, america, or south africa. are they using something different to combat the virus? or does she have an explanation? thank you. guest: thank you for that great question, laura. interesting and urgent. first of all, i don't think different regions really cope differently. i think we have a lack of information or lesser information collected and shared from certain countries. we do see a greater collaboration between countries and a greater level of data sharing that has been very useful and important and actually saves lives because south africa has had the

capability to actually find out this new variant, analyze it and share the information with the world on time so that we can take action. so, there is data. not every country has the capabilities of others to actually collect all the data and share that data. certain less developed countries are struggling with data collection, but not struggling with the covid. everyone is currently struggling and unfortunately, not unfortunately, i would hope that more countries would reach vaccination equity and that more countries would have access. not just western countries, but weaker or less-developed countries, to vaccination and treatment and then we would see better results. i don't think that certain areas cope better. i think certain information might be shared and we are all

in the same place. sorry, peter. host: no, my apologies. just reminding people, there is news as of this morning that israel says it is expanding as of today it's travel ban to 10 new countries, including the u.s., canada, germany. others are taking steps like banning going to bars and restaurants. what do you think of this global outreach like you are seeing and do you see it happening again in the united states? guest: i absolutely predict different measures in different countries. i can already share that in the eu, different countries have put different travel restrictions in place. the netherlands has gone into complete lockdown. germany and france are banning entry from and restricting entry from certain countries.

for example, from the u.k., where the omicron case numbers are quite high, in the u.k. we are reaching on average 100,000 cases a day, which is significantly high. the u.k. is a big concern. austria for example only allows fully vaccinated people to enter the country and has even restricted on christmas eve to invite only up to four people to the dinner table. this is again going to be a challenging christmas for a lot of people. more and more countries trying to understand how to cope with this omicron new variant, who is may war -- way more contagious countries are still trying to figure it out. i expect the u.s. to also take certain measures with israel being extra careful.

what we see in israel is not so many new cases, a few omicron, but it is still under control because a lot of people have been boosted. a majority of the population around the same time have received their booster vaccine. it's very important to have the same pace around getting vaccinated and that is where it is going to be quite difficult for america because different states have been vaccinating at front rates and different pace. hence i expect america to undertake certain measures to restrict travel and to manage may be quarantine for other restrictions. host: our guest joining us from tel aviv this morning. karen, virginia. hello. caller: good morning, thank you so much for what you do. i 100% claim the unvaccinated

for this third time around variant coming to the united states. there is not enough attention to this being an airborne virus. people are fighting masks, fighting kids in schools, this is ridiculous. we can't even agree on a mask mandate. it's not even a problem of misinformation. no one should be two years into this and telling them what vitamins they need to take, where to get a booster or a shot . it's all over the place and it is rampant. the problem is too many people consider this political and the problem is that it is killing all of us. i don't understand why there isn't enough attention on the fact that this is an airborne virus and we will never return to immunity until we get past this. i'm over and exhausted trying to help people get their.

it's very sad. when you see other countries making these strict policies and don't want to do it because we want to go to the nightclub on the weekends, it's ridiculous with people dying off and getting sick. i don't know what else to do. i protect myself, become very selfish and i no longer care about who makes it out and in because it's ridiculous that we are still in this place three years later until the next variant comes around because we don't want to get out of our own way. guest: first of all, i understand your feelings. these are challenging and difficult times. we are all coping and sometimes each one of us gets angry, frustrated, tired. here i would like to share some maybe positive perspective about all this. first of all, we cannot blame america, the variant didn't come out of america. it's a global issue. not just america.

it's about us as a world working together to collaborate and make it through these difficult times. the great news, though, one, we have vaccines. this is great. we have more and more treatment. let me tell you, pfizer and merck have developed and the fda has approved two new drugs that are on the way within a certain framework of time to patients who have been sick with covid-19. they will be able to treat and have these people get better. less people will die from covid. we have other treatments, treatments like regeneron, remdesivir, we have treatments already in place. that is great news or something if you take 100 years back, no one would survive or so many even more people would die. within the hardship, there is

good news. and yet we have to respect people who do not want to get vaccinated and we have to find ways, like green passports. green passports are a great tool to support people who want to get vaccinated and keep safe, go out and have a normal life, go to the nightclubs and it's ok to want to go to the nightclubs, the movies, the theater, and the museum. but for that you need to get vaccinated and have a green passport or entry. if you don't want to get vaccinated, we are going to respect that because we respect freedom of choice, right, however, if you are not vaccinated, hence you do not want to endanger yourself or put others at risk and put your community at risk, you stay at home. you protect yourself and you respect other people's wishes to stay safe and go outside. it's about respect and making

informed choices and unfortunately, still, certain people, laura, are not informed enough. it's everyone's responsibility, yours and ours to try not to be too angry and share information and respect people's choices. host: tuesday president biden is expected to make a speech, according to the reporting leading up to it, that he's going to, the administration says they will announce new steps for communities that need assistance while issuing a stark warning for what the winter will look like for americans that choose to remain unvaccinated. what should be the message that the president delivers to the united states based on what you have learned and seen from other countries? guest: get vaccinated, get your boosters on time. wear your mask. keep social distancing when you can. travel only when necessary.

protect your family, keep informed. these are very important steps that each and every one of us have to undertake. that will be the message. also, get tested. get tested. it's important to know. we will have to cope with the normal flu, covid, and other conditions. how do we make what is what? the only option is getting vaccinated, tested if you feel unwell and keep social distancing if you can. read and keep informed. don't worry, just be socially responsible and we will all pull through the hard winter. host: all due respect, sounds similar to what we heard at the beginning when dealing with covid cases after we got vaccines. guest: true, however the good news is, with omicron, if we manage it in the rice way, less

people will be likely to die, hospital beds will be available in it will be manageable. if we keep it right, this can become a kind of flu. between the vaccinations and the treatments, everything is going to somehow better settle down. but we have to unite. we have to really get together and put the politics aside. it's not about republicans and democrats, blue or red. it's about getting together around being socially responsible in doing more of the same, true, but with better tools. we have boosters, treatments, we know how to cope with it. so, we are getting to a better place and i'm hopeful. although the winter is not going to be easy, i'm hopeful we can pull through. we just need to care about each other a bit more and not the angry. put the frustration aside, focus on being socially responsible. we have the tools, we have the

medical breakthroughs. we just need to keep on doing better than we have done in the last two years. host: let's bring marsha into the conversation from north carolina. caller: does anyone know of other countries that have closed their borders, they are the ones who are highly vaccinated but sweden never did ask up -- mask up or take any shots and they are fine. the ones that are in the hospitals right now, coming up with the virus, the delta, are the ones that are vaccinated. guest: ok, so, let me take you back to the facts and put them a bit in perspective. the ones who are currently in the hospital or dying from covid are people who get covid and are not vaccinated.

this is not me sharing, this is medical science sharing. these are the reports from the leading hospitals from the who, the cdc, from all the countries who report in an organized manner. and the new england journal of medicine, all of these big publications analyze and share data. the boosters and the vaccinations work. people who get vaccinated get some degree, a certain percentage of those people are going to get covid but milder. people who are dying and the lives that we are losing, unfortunately, are people who have not been vaccinated. if everyone would get vaccinated, we would lose much, much less people. to the other countries, in every single country people have died, unfortunately and given lives to

covid. there is not one country, not sweden, not denmark, no other country in any other place where people have not died. certain countries have been more strict in lockdowns. longer, bigger mandates or different mandates, more mask wearing, less mask wearing, different numbers but everywhere, people got sick and died and right now it is clear that people who have been vaccinated do not die from covid and that is great news and that is where we need to focus on. host: euclid, ohio, go ahead. caller: good morning to you. guest: good morning to you, too. caller: i just wanted to know about the virus. i read in this magazine aarp where it says the, i just have

to read this to you. the vaccinate is not can death the mnr in -- mrna vaccine does not contain the virus. guest: i'm sorry, you mean the mrna vaccine? caller: yes, the vaccine, yes. guest: the mrna vaccine does not contain the live virus. this is what i can share with you. host: do you have a follow-up? caller: yes, i wanted to know, when they give you these shots, it doesn't just contain what they say about the code. what do they mean by the code from the virus when they give you the vaccine shot? and another thing i wanted to ask the other caller was asking

about the questions, when you get the side effects from the vaccine, they also, there was something i read about it hardening the heart valve. could you explain that to me also? how this vaccine just working on your heart? host: ok, go ahead. guest: sure, my first question to you, if i may, if you want to share, don't want to share, feel free. host: i should highlight the fact the caller is no longer with us. guest: so let me answer this important question. first of all, there are mild side effects for certain people, it depends on your health and your age. a lot of criteria might change or kick in depending on who you are. the vaccine is a safe vaccine. the mrna does not have a live

virus that is injected into your body. to your question with regards to heart pain or diarrhea, different people have different side effects. mild diarrhea is not a common one, however it can happen. also, you might have a diarrhea unrelated to the fact that you just got vaccinated. people tend to think i just got this, so it's related to my vaccine. but we all tend to forget that people get sick, we get a flu or an your infection, diarrhea, stomach pain and it's ok. the vaccine has been proven to be safe and side effects are mild. the pfizer vaccine, the one that is predominately provided in america, has not shown to make any complications of disease or sickness in the heart. we have had other vaccines in other countries that a certain

very low number percentage of people,'s pacifically the younger ones, had mild heart conditions that were easily managed, but that is not with the vaccines provided in america. rest assured, vaccines in america are safe. host: stan, odessa, texas. joran, go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call. two calls before this, that lady who was talking about the information and the unvaccinated, she kind of got off what i was going to say. you are, you are right about this. it's not complicated to see what the cdc is putting out there.

not complicated to interpret what they are saying. these people keep calling up here with misinformation. it's hard. it's hard. i'm understanding what you are saying about information. one databank all over. all that's good. but this is the problem we are having. people are just not taking it for political reasons and i just don't understand that. i'm 72 years old. i may never get to see the end of this stuff here. i don't have heart issues for me , but i mean they just don't want to listen. guest: i actually feel that more and more people are starting to listen. more and more people are getting informed. the voices that don't want to listen or who are very stubborn, you know, they stay with the misinformation that they have,

the numbers are getting really smaller. so, i'm hopeful that we are improving and that together we are driving awareness and i'm very happy to hear your feedback that you fear -- feel there is information out there, that you read it and have been convinced of what is right and i'm actually hopeful that more and more americans will, people around the world will get more socially responsible in that we are all going in the right direction. we are actually more and more of us getting vaccinated, boosted, wearing our masks, understanding that we need to be socially responsible and being protective of our own, our families and communities. i think we are on the right way and i would encourage you to stay hopeful, believe in people, believe that they want to do good and going the right direction. we are getting there. host: on politico this morning they are saying that even the cdc itself is having trouble keeping and collecting data,

they say that continuing gaps in the data collection program, two years into the pandemic still relies on state health departments who use a mix of incompatible outdated state systems impedes the understanding of where and how fast the virus is spreading according to dozens of state and federal officials involved in tracking the cases. guest: this is fantastic, you are supporting what i'm sharing with you today. host: i'm just saying that as far as the way that we data collect in the deficiencies there, which you are talking about. guest: let's all agree. america has data. could america do better with their data? absolutely. based on their decisions today a few things, their own data that they managed to collect and the data from other countries and i'm saying that america should do better and own its own digital health id in their own

data across all of their populations. so that they can own it, analyze it, understand it better and drive better decisions. the cdc is doing a fantastic job in these challenging times. could they do a better one? absolutely. politicians and government have to come together to allow for a digital health id with a vaccination database to finally be created in america and then you will not wake up in the morning and read those articles in politico. host: let's hear from one more caller, kirby and maryland. good morning. caller: yes, my question is, what kind of information do you have about their a few dix worldwide as far as different countries, like the use of ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and others?

what kind of success other countries have had, do you have that information? also, the mrna, it tells your body to make the protein spike from the virus itself. is that safe also? i will listen off-line. guest: thank you. great question. so, i would like to focus on the available treatments in the ones that are going to be soon available and the ones that have been proven to be effective in useful and have been approved by the fda, which is very important, clearly, having an impact around the world and are helpful. this does not mean that every person that contracts covid has to get these treatments. you have very peculiar and strict criteria for when you

should have and receive in hospital or by your doctors those different treatments. so i will show them again. at this point in time we have at least three clearly efficient treatments. one, regeneron is a treatment for mild covid. then we have a camera, inpatient treatment for severe covid. then we have remdesivir, given for mild medium conditions and it doesn't actually improve mortality rates, but it shortens inpatient stays and gets better -- people better faster if they have medium covid. we also know that we have two new treatments coming straight out from merck and pfizer. they have been approved by the fda but have not been delivered to the market yet and provided to patients in regular health

care settings due to certain delivery production supply chain issues that i believe will be solved very, very soon. between the vaccine and, to your question, i will share it again and really underscore this, the mrna vaccine is a safe vaccine. millions and millions of people around the world, globally, have received the vaccine and are doing great. without the vaccines people would be dying everywhere, every day in the streets. god bless we have those vaccines and they are safe. they have been scientifically proven to be safe. they have been researched and in the last years we know how safe they are. on the others, we have treatments. so, we are really improving how we are coping with this pandemic . however, data is still crucial. we need better data, more data,

national data to be analyzed in america and shared with the world. we don't want just the world to share data with america. we want better data in america to be shared with the world. host: sigal atzmon, we thank you for your time today. happy holidays to you. guest: happy holidays, pedro. it's been a pleasure, thank you so much for having me today. host: and in this and part of our program we will engage in a session of open forum. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. we will take those calls when we continue. ♪ >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, we are

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>> a new mobile video app from c-span, c-span now. download today. "washington journal continues -- journal" continues. host: if you want to text us, you can do so at (202) 748-8003, post on facebook and twitter as well. alexandria ocasio-cortez on msnbc this morning talking about the joe manchin decision not to back the build back better plan or act and the write up in axios, she said it was democratic leadership including presidential leadership to blame for the death of the act, citing the decision by joe manchin. here's a portion of her comments from this morning. >> even joe manchin's compromise or the fact that he was making statements this past week that he was just having conversations with parliamentarians about

voting rights that was illuminating, how has this not happened all year long? what we really need to do is crackdown on the senate that operates like an old boys club with a couple of gals in it that have managed to break through and we need to actually implement some institutional discipline. if people want to threaten to block ambassadorships, they need to show up and do it. a talking filibuster? by the way, that is the compromise, there shouldn't even be a filibuster in the first place. they need to make sure that we are calling people to the threats. the idea that we can just go on fox news and legislate through television and say that we are going to threaten to block ambassadorships or threaten the filibuster, threaten to vote no, have that result in actual

institutional inaction is unacceptable. host: from this morning, representative pramila jayapal, she said that he has betrayed his commitment to the president and democrats in congress but most importantly to the american people. he routinely says he's a man of his work but he cannot longer say that. west virginians and the country know clearly who he is. you can read comments about other things in the world of politics and public policy, social media, text us as well. democrats, leavenworth, margaret, your first thought? caller: high, good morning. --hi, good morning. i wanted to say merry christmas to everybody coming up and i hope we get some peace. can you hear me? host: yep, you are on. caller: hello?

host: you are on, go ahead. caller: well, my heart is kind of broken. i think i've got one of those omicron's or something. who knows how long we are all going to live. i was very, very disappointed in mansion, not only that, the whole year where he puts his big fat face and i wanted to drill a hole in his yacht. other than that, people don't care about each other. i cannot believe the people that won't get vaccinated and that our believing ignorance over science. we are not the same country and so you just have to do some act of kindness around yourself. just an act of kindness to somebody. keep them warm, give them some food. love them a bit. except for joe manchin. host: let's hear from betty in

chico, california, republican line. caller: yes, if you want to see personal testimonies of people who have had extremely hard side effects from the vaccine, you can see the videos on odyssey and on rumble and also i would like to issue a complaint about c-span having a person from a medics corporation that is a stock, you can buy their stocks for $14 and it seems like you are just promoting a company there. it's like a 30 minute commercial for the people to invest in this company, medics. i don't think that that is what c-span is meant for. host: she didn't do that during the course of her time. she mainly answered the questions that were brought to her. that said, the the sites that you listed before as far as side

effects, why do you trust them? caller: because they are personal testimonies and they have the people there that actually experience the side effects. there are many, many people who have, and they are not recording these people at the government level. they are just ignoring it totally and there is going to be rampant deaths and heart disease of young people in their teens that is caused by the covid vaccine. host: ok, that's betty in california. sam, washington, d.c., independent line. host: happy holidays to have -- caller: happy holidays to everybody. i have a problem with mr. manchin who said all humanely possible. he uses fox news as a platform. what they need to do is unmask mr. manchin as and put all of

his loyalty to his daughter, the kickbacks he gets from the corporations. he's a lackey of the corporations. west virginia is last in health care. the last in childcare. this guy does not care for west virginia. does not care for america. he's a lackey. he's taken hostage our president. he's taken hostage the whole process. this guy needs to go. host: in the house, announcement of her retirement, a democrat in new jersey got -- joining a host of house democrats who have not decided to run for reelection. he represented new jersey state congressional districts since 2006 and he will leave the house after next year's election. robert menendez, son of bob menendez reportedly leading the

pack of contenders to succeed him. he replaced the elder menendez in the house after the latter was appointed to serve in the u.s. senate. let's hear from ron in pennsylvania. democratic line. caller: in that segment on the jfk, i have a copy of the dallas morning news when they found the gun in the book depository building. they called a german mauser. of course that didn't fit with the italian description from what oswald owned. i guess they had to change the story. on the other thing, too, on the warren commission, one of the investigators at the time said that she quit because the warren commission would deviate from the loan assassination. and said that is no way to do an

investigation. i thought i would bring that up, i was going to call earlier with the gentleman that was on before. host: ok. that is ron there. if you want to see that segment by the way, you can go to your computer, c-span.org, but on the phone you can download the c-span now app and that segment will be there for a little while so that you can see it or if you want to see it on the go. in fact a lot of archived material on either of those fronts. medford, new mexico, republican line. minnesota, i'm sorry. caller: good morning, pedro. i meant to call on the democratic line. host: wait, are you are republican or a democrat? caller: i called on the democratic line, pedro? host: i'm going to ask you to

call back if you are a democrat, collect on the democratic line, the number there. we try to keep the lines parsed out into the political positions they hold. give us a call there. sylvia, missouri, independent line, hello. caller: the problem with covid is that requires long hospitalization. even if it didn't kill anybody, many would die if they didn't have urgent care the hospital because it is packed with unvaccinated people. hospitals give for unvaccinated people, like a 10% of the hospitals, 30% or 50% to vaccinated people who have covid breakouts, the cases and the

rest of the hospital for people with the drugs and of the ordinances. hospitals without the pandemic are usually packed. that's when you go to the er, sometimes you have to wait hours before getting there because the hospitals provide so many services. what they have to tell to people is not that they have to be afraid of diving -- dying of covid, is that if they get covid there is a chance that they end up in the hospitals for months. host: taking a look at what hospitals were facing before the spread of omicron, nationwide 92 cities had hospitals with average intensive care occupancies at 100% or more according to the most recent data from the university of minnesota covid-19 hospital tracking project with 310 cities

last week that had icus approaching full capacity with average occupancy of 90% to 99% earlier this month according to the analysis of data from the federal government. yesterday talking about things related to omicron and other related topics, typically what it means as we head into christmas week. [video clip] >> the information we are getting from our south african colleagues still suggests that when you look at it totally, the hospitalization to case ratio is less than with delta. there seems to be less durability of symptomatology. less need for oxygen. but you got to be careful, that might be due to the fact that their population has so much experience with prior infections, it might be underlying immunity making it look like it is less severe and is a virus, it inherently may

not be less severe. no matter how you look at it, chuck, with so many more infections, even if it is less severe, that overcomes this slight to moderate diminution in severity. our hospitals, if things look like they are looking now and the next week or two, are going to be very stressed with people. because again, we have so many in this country eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet and vaccinated and that is going to be real problem for stress on the hospital system. >> do we have the right protocols in place? the amount of travel taking place in the next two weeks, do you believe it's reasonable considering the situation we are in? or should folks be making or rethinking their travel plans? >> i think that people just need to be prudent.

clearly when you travel there's a risk of infection, that goes for all respiratory illnesses. if people need or want to travel this holiday season, if you are vaccinated and boosted and take care when going into congregate settings like airports to make sure you continually wear your mask, you should be ok. host: on the line for republicans, south bend, indiana, hello, deborah. caller: how are you this morning? host: fine, but do me a favor and turned on the television. caller: sure, let me just quickly turn it off. ok, just give me a second. host: callers at home, just on case, if you are on hold and have a television on in the background, don't mind turning it down. caller: ok, it's off.

this is open forums, right? host: yes. caller: ok, now my open forum is i'm not interested in talking about, ok, political issues, religious issues, we always going to have them. what i want to talk about is i want to talk about what's going on in my world. turn it off. with my generation. my generation. i'm 74, i'm a great-grandmother. i've been a part of raising, shaping, and molding spiritual generations. now i am not happy about me

raising them and telling them the difference between a truth and ally. now, when truth comes from the top, we are supposed to trust that and honor it. but when the light comes from the top, in my world you want to take that lie and make my world think it's the truth? how do you expect me to talk to my younger

generation, the doctors, the lawyers, the politicians, whatever they decide to be, how do you want to help me shape their minds? you have got to do better than this, now. host: let's hear from robert in new jersey, democrats line. caller: i hear joe manchin talking about how we are not a left country, a center country, if anything we are a century -- center-right country. before the reagan era, our country embraced these growth developing new deals and social programs, right? i think you can be a center country and embrace those sort of programs. the reagan era drove us to the right.

joe manchin, i heard him speak. i don't think he's a stupid person. he knows that, right? i don't understand what he's doing what he's doing. you could make the argument that he's representing the second most conservative state in the union. i guess he wants to be safe in front of conservative constituents but there is another argument to be made that there's no way he's going to win reelection anyway no matter what he does because he has a d next to his name, so i don't know what he's doing. i'm at a loss and that's what i wanted to say. host: axios reporting this morning that in reaction to the joe manchin decision many democrats told axios that they don't believe that bill back better is truly dead in that it is a matter of figuring out what can actually pass in 2022 in that lawmakers, leadership aides told correspondence that it's a

path represented by the one put out by suzanne del benny, proposing regrouping around a refined proposal with fewer programs that last a longer duration of time with representative josh gottheimer saying that he would do his part to help bring everyone back to the table. spanberger in virginia said that it was unacceptable for joe manchin to abandon productive talks and nancy pelosi wrote sunday night that while it was disappointing that we may not have a law by the end of the year, we are hopeful we will sue -- soon reach agreement so that the legislation can pass as soon as possible and the new year. smits creek, michigan. michael joins us from there. michael, good morning, go ahead. caller: this is actually mark from milford, new hampshire. i want to make a quick point.

i have deep found respect for u.s. senator joe manchin because it looks to me that he's not letting joe biden and the democrats get away with high spending that we can't afford at this time. real quick, to give you a real quick fact to all the democrats out there that don't like he's not falling in line with the party, when bush and cheney were leaving office, the first 43 presidents over 400 years, they left the white house with $10 trillion in debt. when we had obama and biden from 2009 to 2017 they doubled the debt in eight years to $20 trillion and i think that senator joe manchin is looking out for the people of west virginia and his fellow americans, like you are supposed to do. standing up to reason and saying i'm not going to let you guys get away with excessive spending. host: all right, we will hear

from anthony and washington, d.c., democrats line. caller: a couple of points. the first one is, what has republicans done for the country? nothing. democrats started the social security program. do you know any republican willing to give up the social security? no. democrats started medicaid and medicare. you know any republicans linked to give it up? no. a lot of republicans in kentucky , also in west virginia on public assistance. they helped allies. that is why the streets of kentucky and west virginia will always remain poor. they don't think critically in those states. why do you think you have all

the ivy league colleges in blue states? blue states, if they removed themselves from this country, the united states would go down. the red states send very little money to the federal government. connecticut, a blue state, sends more money then west virginia and kentucky put together. host: ok, ok. michael, smits creek. republican line. caller: why don't we stop the testing like obama did from sars? then you wouldn't have all these infections. is there solid data on this vaccine for this virus? if you don't, i don't want the shot. host: joseph, also on the republican line, good view, virginia. caller: sir, how are you today question mark host: fine, go ahead. caller: i support joe manchin

100%. one question, during that kennedy interview, the building in the background, what was it? host: go back to the first one and find out the second one, why do you support senator manchin? caller: he's 100% right. host: why so? caller: because i agree with what he says. host: ok. that's joseph they are in good view, virginia. ray sean, kentucky, independent line. caller: i'm going to say a two for comment real quick. the first one regards the coat -- coronavirus and covid-19 pandemic. suggestion, maybe to convince a lot of people not taking it based on naturalistic grounds, there should be like a psa for

these people. for example, philosophical, i took the covid vaccine, maybe the rest of you who are philosophical should take the covid-19 vaccine. hopefully that would probably work to reassure those particular poor people who are refusing taking the covid-19 vaccine. host: one more call from chip, florida, republican line. caller: you've got all these crazies talking about putting down joe manchin. he's helping the country. we should have left donald trump alone. the country was going great. now these democrats are ruining the whole country. unbelievable. host: thank you all for watching today. don't