pandemic in the u.s. right now? influenza the biggest concern for a pandemic in the u.s. right now? ed: yes. pandemics take us by surprise. r beforeever heard of sa it went sweeping around the worlds. influenza is what is keeping people up at night because it can spread so quickly and eve all -- and evolve so quickly. make new vaccines, we have surveillance networks, we can see new strains around the world, but even in 2009, all that infrastructure was unable to prevent a pandemic. even this year, the regular non-pandemic seasonal flu stretched the american health care system very, very thin. and i think that is a disturbing harbinger of what could happen in the event of a full-blown epidemic of the kind we saw in 1918. host: carol from elgin, texas. carol, what is your question? i haven't been on with you before and thank you for having me on, and thank you for c-span, and thanks for this program. my question is, how far along is the zika virus in its progression in the united states? how soon do you think it will be here? we are already receiving warnings from public health here in texas. you stole

pandemic. which can be catastrophic. here's the thing that's unpredictable. there's no cycle to pandemic flu. it occurs at various times. the difference is that regard to pandemic flu, there's litting, not zero, but little residual immunity because the virus is essentially very different. so you don't have that kind of protective effect that you have with a seasonal flu. and that's the reason why pandemics can be catastrophic. is you may not see because it's a small screen there, but we have been having pandemics since recorded history. we did not know it was influenza because it was only identified in 1933. as the years went we had things historically that looked very much like pandemics. there are pandemics that we do know and have been recorded. one was just mentioned this morning, the influenza pandemic of 1918, 1919 in which up to 30% of the world's population was infected and 50 million deaths at a minimum in 1918 with a population of the world that was e-third the size it is now would be quite catastrophic in today's world. now, this is a graph of the infectious diseases deaths in the united states from 1900 to 1996. take the look at the spike in 1918. t

pandemic will happen in the u.s.? butt: it is cliche to say, the only thing we can predict is its unpredictability. the 1980 pandemic was one of the greatest disasters in history. something like that could turn up again. flu pandemics have happened. 2009 was mild. much milder than 1918. thename kind of deadliness -- if the same kind of deadliness then or to turn up in the modern era, it would be a big problem. bill gates takes this seriously. epidemic of that nature could kill -- a pandemic of that nature could kill 1300 people. that is not taking account of the economic harms. it will be a problem. it is a question of when. wherewe covered a hearing disease experts came and and were asked about what they saw as the biggest threat. there are so many threats emerging and i wish i could take some off the table but they keep coming at us. they can change the biological threats we know today and something different we may not be prepared for. our greatest threat is our response capabilities and being able to respond to anything that comes our way. is there one biological threat that gives you the greatest concern? >> i think influenza is to be at the top of my list. it can affect everyone rapidly and is constantly chan

with pandemic's, -- with pandemics all the population of the world is susceptible. the rest of -- the threat of pandemic is at the top of the list. >> my number 1 and maybe number 2 and number 3 is influenza also. i agree for the reasons that she mentioned. when you have a respiratory virus that can be threadlike -- spread by droplets and aerosol and have a situation with a degree of morbidity, you can have a catastrophe. we have experienced in the real world those types of things. we always talk about 1918 pandemic that killed 50 and 100 million people. it's likely that it would be an influence of. but it is not an influenza-like respiratory virus. we had a scare with sars and they were able to contain it. but something like influenza is what keeps me up at night. >> i would say the threat that would keep me up at night would be unknown. if we don't know what that threat may be we have to be able to anticipate. >> for each witness, what area of bio preparedness is at the highest rarity? >> -- priority? >> the ability to rapidly detect something that has entered our community. the only way we can detect

pandemic will happen in the u.s.? butt: it is cliche to say, the only thing we can predict is its unpredictability. the 1980 pandemic was one of the greatest disasters in history. something like that could turn up again. flu pandemicsppened. 2009 was mild. much milder than 1918. thename kind of deadliness -- if the same kind of deadliness then or to turn up in the modern era, it would be a big problem. bill gates takes this seriously. epidemic of that nature could kill -- a pandemic of that nature could kill 1300 people. that is not taking account of the economic harms. it will be a problem. it is a question of when. wherewe covered a hearing disease experts came and and were asked about what they saw as the biggest threat. there are so many threats emerging and i wish i could take some off the table but they keep coming at us. they can change the biological threats we know today and something different we may not be prepared for. our greatest threat is our response capabilities and being able to respond to anything that comes our way. is there one biological threat that gives you the greatest concern? >> i think influenza is to be at the top of my list. it can affect everyone rapidly and is constantly changing. al

pandemic at that time. mr. trump is probably aware of that because his grandfather died during the flu pandemic of 1918. a full rounded view of how history affects the presented you can get into very bad decision making. we need to understand what slavery meant in this country for 400 years. we need to understand what the marshall plan meant to the united states and its alliance with europe after world war ii. these things aren't just dusty facts for jeopardy, as i mentioned, but things that still effect policy today. >> very quickly. is there any pattern that you see to what the president gets right and wrong? >> there seems to be grasping and pulling things out of thin air. sometimes we have heard something and we just repeat what we have heard. the cherry tree is something we tell children. it is absolutely false but gets into the consciousness of the country. but that's a bad way to make policy. we need sound, practical history knowledge to make sound, practical decisions. >> kenneth davis on the dangers of one might call fake history. thanks for being with us. i'm a big fan of your work. thank you.

pandemics all of the preparation of the world can be susceptible. the threat of a pandemic is at the top of the list because it can happen fast. >> doctor. >> my number one and maybe number two and three is influenza also. i agree for the reasons that the doctor mentioned. when you have a respiratory virus that can be spread by droplets in aerosol and then you have a situation if there is a degree or morbidity then you can have a catastrophe and we have experienced in real-world those types of things and the one that we always talk about is the 1918 pandemic which killed between 50 and hundred million people and it is likely that would be an influenza but it is not influenza or influenza -like virus. we had a scare with czars and fortunately public health measures were able to contain it but influenza first or something like influenza is the one that keeps me up and i. >> admiral. >> thank you for the question. i would say that the threat that would keep me up at night was the unknown. if we don't know what that threat maybe we may have to anticipate so with the emergency it would be the unknown that would keep you up and i. >> thank you. for each witness what area of bio preparedness is of the highest priority to you and why? doctor bright. >> the highest priority would be the ability to rapidly detect something that is entered our committee are used as weapon. the sooner we detect something the sooner we can begin making vaccines. >> doctor. >> i would say our global health security would be at the top of my list because as you know a t

pandemics all of the population of the world can be susceptible. so the threat of a pandemic has to be at the top of the list because it can all happen fast. >> dr. fauci? >> my number one and maybe number two, number three is influenza, also. i agree for the reasons that dr. schuchat has mentioned. when you have a respiratory virus that can be spread by droplets and aerosol, and then you have the situation if there's a degree of morbidity associated with that, you're going to have a catastrophe. we've experienced in real world those types of things, the one that we always talk about 1918 pandemic that killed between 50 and 100 million people and it's likely that it would be an influenza, but if not influenza, an influenza-like virus. we had a scare with sars. fortunately public health measures were able to contain it, but influenza or something like influenza keeps me up at night. >> admiral hinton. >> thank you for the question, i would say the threat that would keep me up at night would be the unknown. if we don't know what that threat may be, we have to be able to anticipate. so, with the emergent spectrum of diseases that would keep me up at night. thank you. for each witness, what area of bio-preparedness is for you and why. >> the bio-preparedness highest priority would be the ability to rapidly detect something in our community or used as a weapon. the sooner we detect something the sooner we can turn on the machinery and capability to begin making vaccines and drugs. >> dr. schuchat? >> our global security, any threat anywhere is a threat everywhere, our greatest threa

is to respond to a biological attack, pandemics pandemics and infection disease outbreaks. >> saturday morning, the president of public acarolina, christopher young, discusses trade and u.s.-canada relations then marvin of world magazine talks bout his allergy on puerto rico and the potential for bailout of the island. and legislative efforts to help curb the open -- opioid crisis. join the discussion. >> this weekend, on c-span, sad at 10:00 a.m. a discussion on foreign interference in u.s. elections, sunday, high light from he u.s. north korea commits between president trump and north korean leader kim jong-un. on book tv, c-span 2, saturday at 9:00 p.m. eastern, newt gingrich talks bows his book "trumpsmer. the truth but the nation's great comeback" 7 p.m. on sunday, francesca ramsey shares her experience in becoming a social justice active gist in her book "well that escalated quickly" on american history tv, c-span3, saturday as 89 p.m. eastern, on lectures and history. duke university professor laura edwards on public lands and the law. ing and westward expansion and the law's ro