Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 03302020 20240713

Then, taxpayers for common sense president steve ellis talks about what is in the to trillion dollar coronavirus aid bill recently passed by congress. Washington journal is next. Host with the United States death toll from coronavirus approaching 2500, the president made the announcement he is extending social distancing guidelines until at least april 30. Big news coming out of that briefing with reporters last night. We want to get your reaction this monday morning, march 30, to the president s news extending the social distancing guidelines to april 30. If you live in the eastern or central time zones, call 202 7488000. The mountain1 four and pacific time zones. If you are a medical professional, we have a number for you 202 7488002. A couple of other ways to take part in the conversation this morning. Send us a text at 202 7488003. Please leave your name and the city you are calling from. You can also send a tweet. cspanwj is our twitter handle. You can also post a comment on facebook, facebook. Com cspan. We look forward to hearing from you. In the meantime, the front page of the Washington Times trump extends deadlines to april 30. Restart ofjune 1 the american economy. Modeling suggests that the u. S. Coronavirus death toll could tens of thousands and peak two weeks from now. He said the white house will release a new strategy for states tomorrow and hopes to have the economy on its way to recovery by june 1. Here is a little bit of what the president had to say yesterday. [video clip] the modeling estimates that the peak and death rate is likely to hit in two weeks. So i will say it again. The peak, the highest point of death rates remember this is likely to hit in two weeks. Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won. That would be the rate is loss of all. ,herefore, the next two weeks and during this period, it is important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines. Have to follow the guidelines that our great Vice President holds up a lot. He believes in it so strongly. The better you do, the faster this whole nightmare will end. Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to april 30 to slow the spread. On tuesday, we will present our findings and strategy to the American People. We will have a lot of meetings in between, but we will have a very important statement made tuesday, probably tuesday evening, on all of the findings, all of the data. Are doingasons we things the way we are doing them. We can expect that, by june 1, we will be well on our way to recovery. A lot of great things will be happening. Host that was the president in the white house rose garden last evening, talking with reporters. You can follow that watch the entire conference on cspan. Org. The Washington Times said it is a sudden and somber shift from the president , saying he wanted the American People to stay at home through march 31st. Now faced with the highest case count in the world with more than 130 7000 infections and over 2400 deaths, he said that the threat is not expected until april and so extended his Mitigation Strategy through the end of the coming month. A similar headline in many other publications. The New York Times after a grim forecast, trump extends limits. There front page of the Washington Post trump extends distancing guidelines, directions to last through april. Virus could kill 100,000 or more, says dr. Anthony fauci. Lets get to your calls. Alan from brooklyn. What do you make of the president s announcement . Caller i think he is just stating the obvious. It was reckless of him to have stated a false impression this could be done earlier. Also wrong of him to deny the need to start action back in january. As soon as mr. Burr, the senator, knew that there were reasons to make a stock trade that would save him money or earn him profits i am sure the president had the same information or more. He should have acted to begin measures against this. I also have a comment about the fact that we have this immense cut in consumption and use of energy and resources needed to shelterinplace to prevent the spread of the disease points to something we need to do when the emergency is over. We have 1 20 of the worlds population but 1 5 of the Climate Change emissions. We need ways to change our economy in good time so we can consume something closer to what we are doing now, if not this low, to protect the longterm health of the present planet. This threat is immediate, threatening death in the next few days or weeks, but the threat of Climate Change is just as real. It is just spread out. Host thanks for calling. Howard is on the line, carmel, indiana. Caller good morning. I agree with the last caller in that the action to extend the the had to take place under circumstance, i am just surprised how long, an additional two weeks this whole episode should make clear that we have an incompetent and incapable person at the helm, and that is donald trump. He should not be in that role. Because of him, several americans are going to die, because he waited too long to get started. Diseaseowed this whole to spill over into the main population, whereas it could have been contained, had started earlier, with testing much earlier, as opposed to him calling it fake news and calling it a hoax and all of these things. This will be a horrible episode in american history, where we have a commanderinchief who has behaved the way this commanderinchief has behaved, and that will result in the deaths of thousands of americans. Host larry from richmond has a different prospect of. He writes this text as he said he would, the president extended the directive on the virus based on his task force advice, which is what a leader does. From houston, texas here as well. Welcome. Caller good morning. I agree with the first two callers and everything they said. But the reason i called is a guy who called the last two days and claims the virus is being brought here by products we import from china. Thank you had an epidemiologist yesterday, who said that was completely false. It was brought to this coast Everybody Knows that it was brought by the one attorney coming back from europe. If because again today, you need to just cut him off immediately. Host let me jump in and get back to the reaction that question at hand, your reaction to the president s guidelines. Do you think the extension is enough . Caller i think most of the country will be back to work gradually, little by little. He is probably right. Host ok. Thanks for calling. More of the numbers, these rim numbers put out. Grim numbers put out. Usa today the cdc projects a worstcase scenario of 160 million to 200 million cases by december. Under that forecast, 21 Million People would need hospitalization. 200,000 to 1. 7 million could die by the end of the year. Could0 to 1. 7 million die. Health officials cautioned that the models of infection rates vary widely. Members of the trump adminiralk shows. The New York Times has this small blurb about the relationship between the president and his health care, his medical advisors. Leadingi, the nations Infectious Disease expert, says he and other Public Health officials had urged the president not to relax the guidelines too soon. Dr. Fauci had offered the estimate of 200,000 dead earlier that mr. Trumpd was affected by those predictions. Here is dr. Anthony fauci. [video clip] the number i gave out is based on modeling. I think it is entirely conceivable that, if we do not mitigate to the extent that we are trying to do, that you could reach that number. It is possible. You could make a big soundbite about it, but the fact is, it is possible. What we are trying to do is not let that happen. Instead of concentrating on the upper and lower, we are saying we are trying to push it all the way down. The second part of your question is yes, we feel that the mitigation we are doing right now has an effect. It is difficult to quantify it, because you have the virus going up and the mitigation trying to push it down, two dynamic things. To extend this mitigation process until the end of april was a wise and prudent decision. Dr. Birx and i spent a considerable amount of time going over all the data, while we thought this was the best choice, and the president accepted it. So in direct answer to your question, the idea that we may have this many cases played a role in our decision in trying to make sure that we do not do something prematurely and pull back when we should be pushing. Host back to your calls this monday morning. The president extending the coronavirus guidelines to april 30. Marjorie calling from queens, new york. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing well here how are you . Caller doing good. I want to make a, regarding the structures they are putting up all over the place. If you recall, a few years back, they closed down numerous hospitals. They question is why cant opened them up again . Anybodyve you talked to in an official capacity about this, local elected officials, your member of congress . Going to try to, but ive been dying to get on here and i have not been able to it is my first time calling, and i am a little nervous. But that is my biggest ponder. Host thanks for calling. The front page of the wall street journal. In central park, a hospital built for virus patients. An emergency Field Hospital built near mount sinai hospital, which it said would be used to care for coronavirus patients. Unitbed respiratory care is expecto picture in the wall street journal on the front page. A couple of other stories from new york city, the hardest hit city in the u. S. To this point. Another headline in the post. 98 people in new york city died from the coronavirus in less than seven hours. We will read a bit of that story here as we see an emergency medical worker at the Brooklyn Hospital center. They write that nearly 100 more example residents died from the coronavirus and sunday morning. From 9 30 in the morning yesterday until 4 15 in the afternoon, the city tallied 98 more deaths and 1166 more cases of coronavirus, meaning 33400 plus people have now been infected. Cleans remains the hardest eight borough with queens remains the hardest hit borough. We will go around the country and see what other cities are doing now and what is happening to those cities. Mary is calling from South Carolina in the meantime. Good morning. Caller i am calling because i am upset with my governor, because he will not close my beach up. Mayor, passed our a law to close it is still ofstol beach until the end april. Then the governor and the attorney general says you cannot do that. I guess somebody threatened to sue them. But we fought all we could, finally got it closed. Why cant we just be left alone for one month to try to save our life . Wasink the whole shebang brought from china to kill us. Many americans, older citizens, as i can that vote republican. I will see about getting an absentee ballot out right now. Host thank you. Mary speaking about the governor in South Carolina. One other viewer sent by text, terry from mount lebanon, it is up to mayors and governors to control access in their regions. Local regulation in this regard is flexible and smart. The website of the philadelphia inquirer. Governor tom wolf is asking for declarationsaster for pennsylvania. State workers are laid off as Coronavirus Crisis worsens. This is a story that came out of yesterdays news. The governors wants a to help battle the economic devastation of the coronavirus. Now, sean inork the borough of the bronx. Good morning. Caller good morning. First and foremost, thank you very much to cspan. Ive been watching you guys since i was in high school during the clinton years, so it is an honor and a privilege to finally be able to have my first call. Host glad to have you. Caller so with regards to trumps extending the social isolation orders through april 30, i am actually glad he is doing it. It is a smart move. Personally, i think he should do it for a little bit longer, but that is another story. He has done this poorly, and to with their previous persons text, this is after something the federal of anment should take more handson approach about. Because we have the governors of every state you know, my particular state, new york, cuomo has said he is competing with other governors. This should not be a competition. They should not have to basically say, hey, i will bid this amount of money for this applies where and other state has to do similar. This is something that the federal government should actually help. Authorize too long to i forget the actual bill from the 1960s to force manufacturing. But this is something that the president and the federal government should have more of a handson approach about. Yes, the governors know their states more, but they should not have to feel the need to outbid each other. And the government the president should not give favoritism to certain governors who just say nice things about him. This is a pandemic and a state of emergency for the whole country. Everybody needs help in every state. If one state has not gotten as bad, it does not mean it is not going to happen. That is all i have to say about this at this moment. I amother thing hoping this is actually a lesson and futuresident people of economics to invest more in manufacturing. Because we have actually offshore to a lot of manufacturing to other countries. This is an important reason why more manufacturing should be increased and should be done inhouse. Thank you. Host thank you for calling. New york times first of 22 airlift of medical supplies from china has landed in new york. A commercial aircraft carrying 80 tons of gloves, masks, gowns, and other supplies touched down sunday, the first of 22 scheduled flights. The white house says it will funnel muchneeded goods to the u. S. By early april as it battles the Worlds Largest coronavirus outbreak. This plane delivered 130,000 n95 masks, one point 3 million facemasks and downs, 10 million gloves, and thousands of thermometers for distribution to new york, new jersey, and connecticut, said a spokesperson for fema. She said a flight will be landing in chicago today and in ohio tuesday. It goes on to say that while the goods will be welcomed by hospitals and Health Care Workers, some of whom resorted to rationing protective gear or using homemade supplies, they represent just a tiny proportion of what american hospitals need. Hhs estimates that 3. 5 billion masks will be needed if the pandemic last a year. Charles from cumberland, maryland now. Good morning. What you make of the president s announcement last night . Caller thank you and thank you for the opportunity to be on air. I think the whole thing is preposterous. E never seen a more there was no reason to say, on easter, we will open up the churches, and we will all go to church and love the lord and sing praises and die. Just continue to move that virus through our population. It is common sense if we have not even gotten the aid package on this thing yet, we do not even know how much this will climb, how many people are affected and how many people are affected and not even showing symptoms. Why, in the middle of the war, say we will all sit down and have a pick in the middle of a war . That is asinine. It just shows this president any other president would have the United States in the front of this thing did we would be helping the world right now, not looking to the world to help us. People, no reason for frontline doctors and nurses, dying from this disease. When this countrys industrial might could provide this material for the world, not just the United States. And for people to continue to come in on these shows and state things about china, who were victimized themselves this is biology. Google it. 1919, over one Million People died on the planet. I heard that american troops were the ones who spread the influenza to europe and they spread it throughout the world. Use common sense. Host thanks for calling. Maxine from New Baltimore, michigan. What part of the states New Baltimore in and what is the situation now . We heard it is pretty bad. Caller it is mostly on the west side of the state, from what i understand. I am in the northeast area. I would like to say good morning to all cspan watchers. And i have a news bulletin for each and every one of you. We are at war. Our president is doing the best he can. He is not god. He is the president. He is our president. He is a president in time of war. In all of this rock for hours throwing and saying rock throwers throwing and saying what he should have done just stop it. Support your country. He and andrew cuomo i am so impressed with andrew cuomo, i cannot stand it. New yorkers are so fortunate to have him as a governor. He is doing the best he can. The president is doing the best he can. He did not ask for this war. It came upon him like it did the rest of the world. So just stop it. Stop being so pessimistic. It is not your job. You are not the president. So cut it out. It is very distressing to people who want to get through this as best we can. And i hope all of you stay well and healthy. Host thank you for calling. Up to rochester, new york in the upstate region. Nick is calling. Hey, nick. Nick, you with us . One last chance nick from rochester, new york. Caller hello host the bun was not punching, but we have you on the air now. Caller i am from new york now. I go to university. We got closed down a couple weeks ago. The political and economic climate now i of my friends are out of jobs. Unemployment people are not in school. I am back with my mom now. It is like the rise of anarchy video games, where everybody is trying to get their own things. It is just anarchy. That is the climate up here now. Host let me ask you, what college were you going to . Caller the university of north carolina. Host did they just did unc shutdown completely or are you finishing up online . Caller they are trying to get classes now, and the classes are trying to go online, and they are not really communicating well with us. Because no one has been like this ever before. Host do you have Student Loans as part of your education . Caller i do have Student Loans. I am paying back for classes i am not taking. Host let me ask you because part of the bill that came out last week from congress that the president signed here is a wall street journal story. Student borrowers can halt payments. The package offers relief for most americans. Storynot know from this if this directory applies to you, but what is your reaction to that . Caller yeah, that host we will get john on the line now, wisconsin. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am a retired volunteer firefighter and on the city council. Jailer at our local jail. I have a son that is a daughter justd a finishing her nursing degree and working at the nursing home. Host so a family of frontline people, you would say. Caller very much so. I am glad it was extended. I am recovering from a knee surgery. Ivenew to cspan never watched tv this much. [laughter] it is interesting hearing these comments are the short time ive been in local governments, i understand the decisionmaking to get people to know what is going on, whether it is economic development, infrastructure. I am not an expert in any one of those areas, but we always try to find the people that are. For me, that is who i listen to to help make my decisions. Necessarily, who is in the white house as the president. I do, but i dont. Because i look for the people under that person to help make decisions, and when i listen, i listen to those experts, those doctors, the military, the finance people. Those are the ones that i generate my hope from. Host back to what you said initially, host and actions to the firefighting field, paramedics, Nursing Homes what have the conversations been like in your family about all of this . Caller so it is getting a little more real as our little part of the world start seeing these cases. We just picked up a couple of them a couple weeks ago, and that is the first two in our county. So my wife does not do much for ppe in the jail at this point it concerns me. My son and daughter are young and they have this cando whateverand will do they can to help people. I like that cando attitude, but at the same time, i would like them wrapped in plastic every day. Host thanks for calling. We appreciate your contributions. We are getting your reactions to the president s announcement that he is extending coronavirus guidelines to april 30. This is social distancing, this is keeping most businesses closed or operated in minimal ways, which have a lot of economic implications which we have been hearing about. April 30 is the new date. The metro section of the Washington Post 16 fatalities, marched single deadliest day in the washington, d. C. Region. Outbreaks at senior facilities fuel the rise. D. C. Is eligible to receive federal emergency funding. The Washington Times focusing on Maryland Governor larry hogan redicting new yorklike he said the marylandd. C. Virginia area will look more like new york. He was on fox news sunday, saying we do not see any way we will open up again in a few weeks. The caseload in the d. C. Area has quadrupled and we continue to think that will grow exponentially. Around easter, we will be looking a lot more like new york, says governor hogan. Walshyor of boston, marty , announced new park rules after reports of people playing sports and not social distancing. You can see a group of young men playing soccer in one of the parks with the city backdrop there. They write that the mayor says most people are doing a good job , but the social distancing rules, and that slowing the spread of coronavirus, but not everyone. After numerous recent reports or people ignoring the rules in city parks, walsh announced new measures sunday and at discouraging Group Activities in the green spaces. We go to san antonio now for donald. Hello. Caller good morning. You. , i will not lie to i get angry at you sometimes because you let certain people through, and i know you cannot tell people how to think and what they have to say. So i stopped that. But i was listening this morning i woke up with optimism, thinking everything will be all right if we come as citizens, do what these people ask us to do. We cannot stop it. I listened to that one lady call in and made the statement she is mad at her governor for not shutting the beaches down. Then, she turned around and said she is mad at china for bringing give it to the republicans because they voted for donald trump . I lost all kind of hope when i heard that. Man, what is wrong with these people . Do as we ask you to do. Upe us time to try to come with solutions. And they are calling in with this crazy stuff. Why is everyone making this political . This is a disease. It does not care if you are black or white or what your political affiliations are. And these people are calling in with this stupid crap. Where are they getting this stuff from . Look i told people, these people in the United States ought to be glad to not be in china or other countries. In makinghooping you sure that you are taking the tests and staying in your house. They ought to be glad they live in the United States. Host lets hear from michael, in maine. Caller how are you doing . Host doing fine. What is your reaction to the president s announcement last evening . Caller it is sensible, what he is doing. He is listening to his advisors. He also sent us all i received a postcard in the mail. Sident trumps coronavirus guidelines for america. It is common sense. Good hygiene. Keep your distance. Sure, we all have to sacrifice a little bit, but he is doing the best he can. I agree with him in a lot of respects. Running thepence team there. People just do not want to abide by it. Ones spreading this. I am sure there are other people like myself that are doing what we are supposed to do. I do not have all the answers. I can only speak for myself. But i am doing the best i can. Thank you. Host thank you. One more call vince from north charleston, South Carolina. Caller good morning. Host tell us about the situation in the charleston area. Date inwe have got 9 the state dead in the state. Excuse me, i think it is the county. I just wanted to state that i am not surprised that the president changed his mind and listened to his advisors. I would also like to make mention of one thing that kind of amuses me. It seems like the United States have 2 million or 3 million president s. Everybody always knows what to do. And he is still getting the job done. Host thanks for calling. Here is the statistics put out by Johns Hopkins university. This a lot. Ed at it is familiar to our viewers. We have been showing them almost every day. Total confirmed cases of 0 plusvirus, 732,00 worldwide. 732,000 cases worldwide. We know in the u. S. , the total number of cases is a version 140,000. 2500. Are approaching the front page of usa today another shot of new york city. New york city hit hard. Next up, every city in america. Everybodysmall city, is at risk. They write that new york is rapidly becoming the epicenter. The dense population made it uniquely vulnerable to the rapid spread of covid19. Regionsses and rural could see a similarly deadly situation unfold in the near future if swift action is not taken. Here is dr. Birx, part of that Coronavirus Task force at the white house on meet the press yesterday. [video clip] this is the way pandemics work. This is why we have been raising the alert and all metro areas and in all states. No state, no metro area will be spared. The sooner we react and the sooner states in the metro areas and the metro areas react and put in all mitigation, at the same time understanding exactly what their hospitals need, then we will be able to move Forward Together and protect the most americans. ,here is a new website up coming from chris murray and mhehington state on the i website. It predicts an look at this as a death Infectious Disease model. Host urban Centers Across the nation raise for devastating outbreaks this is one of the stories that broke over the weekend. Hesshington post published yesterday. They take us across the country and say that, in chicago, the army corps of engineers is preparing to erect patient quarters through the cavernous halls at mccormick place, the Largest Convention center in north america. In detroit, a Major Hospital system is writing a letter for patients and families, outlining how it scares ventilators will be allocated, saying those with the best chance of survival will get priority. And in georgia, a hospital was straining to send patients to other hospitals as the number of deaths doubled in a matter of days. They write that, while it ravages new york and much of the northeast, the coronavirus is also quickly bearing down on new hotspots, sending doctors and First Responders scrambling to prepare for the onslaught. Still unable to conduct widespread testing and fearful as the federal government fails to marshal critical supplies come officials in boston, detroit, chicago, atlanta, milwaukee, and los angeles are watching caseloads climb and taking extraordinary measures to prepare, all while hoping aggressive social distancing measures may ward off the most dismal projections. Back to the phones. Carol is calling from new jersey. Good morning. Caller good morning. My comment is along with a young man that called in from new york. He had a lot of excellent points. There are two things i do not understand. Understand if the president enacted the war act for manufacturing, why are the governors competing against the government . Is that the way it works in normal war times . I would like someone to answer that. Also, i would like to make the comment that the virus does not know who we are, what race we are, or what political affiliations we have. So i would like to say i agree with the extension, and i hope everyone is being safe. Host thanks for calling. Linda is on the line now, calling from pennsylvania. What part of the estate are you at . Warners bill, pennsylvania warnersville, pennsylvania, about 10 miles out of redding. My suggestion is that, for years, when i go to the Doctors Office, my Doctors Office has around 20 magazines to 30 magazines in a rack that you can pick up and read while you are waiting. Dentist offices have the same thing. I think they should do away with that completely, because you go in the office, maybe he did not have anything, but you are liable to leave with something just because you picked up a magazine or newspaper. Then they have childrens toys there to play with. If a child is sick, they could be passing that on. Theyere you have patients, should not have that type of material for you to pick up and read. A tv in the room will take peoples mind off of reading something. They can watch it even if they do not like it, they will watch it. Ive seen that at my eye doc tors office. I think the president is doing a fantastic job. I admire him for what he is doing. He loves this country so much. I cannot get out of my mind a picture of him hugging that flag. Me. Ust meant so much to wonderful president , trying to do everything he possibly can to get us through this. We started with a small amount of supplies for this pandemic. We do not expect this to happen. People are starting to make these masks so they can get them out. The factories are starting to switch over like the guy who makes the pillows. He used to live on the street. Now he turned one of his factories over to make these masks. Manufacturers, they have been making these ventilators that is a fantastic thing to come from them. I saw Something Else this morning. I saw they were recalling 3006 hundred masks that had come into the United States from china. And yet we are supposed to be expecting a big shipment from china. I do not think i would want to wear something that came from china right now. I do not trust them, because they did not give us the information as soon they should have. President stopped people from coming into the country thank god he did. I am so thankful to god that he is our president right now, because i do not think anybody else that was running would have been able to handle this situation as well as he does. And he is a businessman, so he knows about working with people not in the same sense as somebody else i used to think, when i saw obama the first time, i thought he is. President ial after he got into office, he talked a pretty picture. But he did not do anything for this country compared the trump. Please, anybody who prints a newspaper or rights and article, please do not keep trying to take him down. He is fabulous in comparison to some of the president s we have. He tells you the truth. He is trying so hard to help this country. I am so grateful. I do not know where we would be right now if someone else was in office host thank you for calling. We want to get in other callers before we bring in our first guest. Several state governor briefings we are tracking today in michigan, new jersey, louisiana watch them live or taped throughout the day and the evening. We already waiting for word of another Daily White House briefing. They have tended to have most of these in the late afternoon, so when we get something posted, we will let you know your that will be live on cspan. The house and senate are out of session now for at least three weeks, around the 20th of april after passing that to trillion dollar plus bill. We are seeing news at thehill. Com that a Capitol Police officer now tested and has for coronavirus been selfquarantined since march 18. The uscp contacted employees in order to add an why individuals who may have been in close contact the employee, they write. The department will continue to take steps to make any effect did facilities will be properly cleaned, according to a spokesperson for the u. S. Capitol police. We have john on the line from quincy, illinois. Caller good morning. I am hearing a lot of bashing of the president. There is reason behind it. But a lot of these stations, 24 hours a day, bash. But i never heard one of these stations utter one word, for the last 45 years, as all of our industries shipped to china, even the critical things. Now they cannot get masks and stuff. But they never said a word when they were shipping the mask business to china. Another thing with this virus , inness i read they are 2015, coronavirus was transferred from a weapons laboratory, a biological weapons factory from the United States to china. It was a big dispute at a time. It got over to wuhan, they say. I do not know. But a lot of this is our own trouble come a problem. And this is the first president came along and could see that shipping all of this industry to china was hollowing out the United States. He put his foot down on it as best he could. And night. Ashed day it would probably be better if biden and pelosi were running that thing, because they let it all continue, because all they. Hink is about is racism but they are hollowing out the United States. All these president ial president s the last 25 years have not done a damn thing about it. Headline me show you a from the Chicago Tribune i know you are quite a bit down, to the west and south, but they say that covid19 has mostly spared smalltown illinois. That could change soon. What is the situation in quincy . Working here,ies but in certain factories, men are separated quite a bit apart. I just read that here, in town. But i suppose the disease will creep up slowly and they will have to close them. I do not know. But a lot of this is our own fault. And all of these president ial president s just let it happen. They were fuzzy president s that people just loved. They are not looking far ahead. There is another thing happening here. I forget right offhand. Host tell you what. We will move onto other calls, but thanks for your time this morning and for your contributions. Back to that tribune story. They talk about smalltown illinois, writing that in buckley, illinois, a church volunteered its gym as a makeshift hospital. Police have, stopped accompanying paramedics unless it is a matter of life or death. Distancingocial Scavenger Hunt has been created for children in watseka. More than 90 of the states confirmed cases and deaths have come from the city of chicago counties, but this story says it is ramping up a little more outside chicago, and officials recognize all of this could change in a big way. Around springfield, where the Southern Illinois University Medical school is located, two Major Hospitals and local Health Departments are pulling resources to prep for an increasing amount of cases over a wide geographic area. Lets get back to calls. Charles coming calling from davis, california. Caller hello. I just want to say that it is really good that you have such a show that people can Say Something about what is happening. Toybe it will be good call social distancing as physical distancing, that it is more literal, so people will not think of social distancing as if you are really trying to stop calling people on the phone even. Secondly, kudos for the president. I do not think there is any president that is perfect. Is doing, mr. Trump his best. We need to stop pointing out shortcomings or late reactions. Power to your show. Host thanks for your thoughts. Lets hear from butch now in florida. Caller how are you doing . Host doing well. How are you . Caller good. I witness something yesterday that got to the bone of this problem. My buddy and i were going fishing. We got to the marina and got in the boat. Nobody was around. We come back in, a big boat is in, and we see people loading onto it. And they are all drunk or they have about 15 little kids, 10 or 12 adults on there. They are all partying. The little kids are moving back and forth. We are listening to them while we are cleaning the boat up after a day of fishing. These people come from arkansas. And they are not even listening to anything going on. I saw that happen yesterday. Then, last night, i came home, and somebody is having a 21st Birthday Party for their kids. There are adults and kids and everything running all over the place. They do not get it. It is our own fault that this is happening. Host what role, in a case like that we just heard a story from boston in the parks where people were playing basketball and soccer in that area just about every day. What role do local officials, whether police or elected officials, have in a case like that . Caller the distancing stayathome if you can. Get out in the fresh air but stay away from people. That is what they are promoting here. Then you look at these beaches and stuff there are groups, but if a frisbee goes into this group, they throw it back. Right there, there is a point of contamination. I went into a mcdonalds and this got to meet, too. I walked in just to see how many people they are keeping their distance away from each other, but i am watching the person in the back doing the food. She has gloves on. Her phone rings, she picks up talks, puts the phone back. The phone rings again, and she picked it up and is texting someone. While she is making sandwiches. I call the manager over. The manager says, well, shes wearing gloves. I said look at what she is doing. Do not blame it on government. It is not the government. Look at yourself. Look into you. Look at the things you do every day. The president is doing the best he can. He got dealt this. Inverted everybody in the world got dealt this. Do not blame it on them. Blame it on yourself. From lets hear from david north carolina. What are your thoughts on the president s extension of the coronavirus guidelines until the end of april . Caller he is doing his job. States and 50 other president s, is what i am hearing. My problem is he issued these stayathome orders where i am at, the parks are open. I consider that a loophole. At the lake yesterday, there was nowhere to park to get to a boat ramp. They were full of people. 10 to 20 people on boats. There is no enforcement at all, because they are more worried about taking care of business. Are going to be penned another 30 days and they cannot stop it. When the military it shows up, what are they going to start doing that . Our president has done everything he could in this country and this country has just shot him down for three years. Our governor here, he is a democratic governor, but he acts like he is the president of north carolina. He does not do anything that trump gives him or says. I cannot figure it out. Our government is so broken. , andhis virus creeps in they do not know what to do. There are too many loopholes in the system. When they say stayathome, but you can go to the park that makes no sense. Exercise in your home, if you need that. Host are you still there . Caller can i say it one more thing . Host if you can, make it brief. Caller these people that live in these homes are quarantined now, they need to check their air filters paid i work in heating and air, and these paper filters, when you are in a home for that long a time for that many people, you open yourself to worst off than corona. They need to change air filters out. Host thanks for calling. More headlines from around the world. The miami herald has this story. Crews are stuck on miami cruise ships with covid19 spreading, they say. Some are not being paid. L. A. Times, five more coronavirus deaths in l. A. County. Coronavirus case is now top 2100 three this story in the l. A. Times as well, at los angeles spreading. S fear is thisseattle times morning, potential treatments being fasttrack for covid19 at unprecedented speeds. Researchers are repurposing old drugs, designing new ones. Anderson,he line from another call from South Carolina. Caller hi. First, i want to say that the distance extension should be put in place. We have to be ready for this virus to go away, to lay low and mutate and come back later in the fall or winter. Melso want to say it makes so mad to hear people talking about this is a trump virus. For years, thousands of years back, there have been pandemics, lucky ifand you were you are able to stand in a suit some soup line and get soup or a piece of bread. I commend the government for and theo stimulate, troublemakers like aoc, they should be ashamed of themselves. Of southpeople carolina are trying to live by the rules and help each other and protect each other from this horrible virus. Host thanks for calling. One more prison related story in the Washington Post from louisiana. An explosion of cases at a louisiana prison and the first inmate death. The admission of a guard into a hospital intensive care unit and positive test results for another 30 inmates and staff. Patrick jones, 49yearold, was the first inmate diagnosed with a novel coronavirus, covid19, and the first to die, they write. The last call is from louisiana lastreveport, lisa call for this segment, i should say. Go ahead, lisa. Caller trump is doing a wonderful job. If you want to know more andrmation, go to google find out everything you need to know. Donald trump is doing a wonderful job. And Hillary Clinton will be arrested. Host that was lisa from shreveport. Thank you for your calls. This is monday, march 30. You are watching washington journal. When we come back, we will talk with dr. Jan andrus jon andus, an epidemiologist specialist in immunization at the George Washington university. And a little later in the program, steve ellis, president of the group called taxpayers for common sense, will be here to talk about the 2 trillion coronavirus aid package recently passed by congress and signed by the president friday. In the meantime, we will hear a bit from new yorks governor, andrew cuomo, giving an update on the latest coronavirus cases in new york city and his estate. His state. [video clip] if you look early on, the hospitalization rate was doubling every two days. Then it doubled every three days, then every four days. Now it is doubling every six days. So you have almost a dichotomy the doubling rate is slowing. That is good news. But the number of cases are still going up. So you are still going up towards an apex, but the rate of , whichbling is slowing is good news. Changing daily icu admissions you see a tick up in icu admissions, but you look at the trend line among those columns more than the individual columns. Change in daily intimations. We do not normally run this chart, but these are the people most seriously affected. Inin, you see a trend line that. You see aberrationsbut you see. And the trendline is what we are watching. You also see a trendline in people being discharged. This is a dramatic trendline. So people came in. They started to get treated. Only march 18. We are only talking about 10 days. They started to get treated. A few of them got out early. A few more, a few more. And now you are seeing the discharge number trend way up. Because thats whats going to happen. Hospital,into the they get treated, they leave. Acutely ill get put on a ventilator. And then its the inverse dynamic. The longer they are on the into bader the longer they are intubated, the longer they are on the ventilator, the higher the mortality rate. Washington journal continues. Host joining us now is dr. Jon andrus who is an adjunct professor of Global Health at George Washington university. Your take on the president s announcement yesterday after the grim forecast, president is extending the social distancing limits until the end of april. What do you make of that move . I think thats excellent. I think the evidence has to be in the drivers seat and i have to commend him for taking that action. Host let me show you the Johns Hopkins statistics that are out there. Total confirmed cases around the world approaching 750,000. Total deaths approaching 35,000. We have been reviewing the u. S. Numbers this morning. The numberssee in and recent trends and other news from recent days. Put this in perspective for us. When i personally try to put this in perspective i think about my 35 years working in Global Health and there are two events that i think i use personally as touchstones in dealing with this current crisis. One is india. I worked in the 1990s in india and saw firsthand in 1994 how the plague crisis brought the country to its knees. It was mismanaged. There was miscommunication. Fear was created. A reactive mode that started. And so the country shut down. It lost millions if not billions of dollars in tourist revenue. But the Indian Government learned from it. An infectioused Disease Surveillance Program best publicy is the health Infectious Disease Surveillance Program in the world. Its an amazing story. The other event is haiti. I was Deputy Director of the Panamerican Health organization which is the Regional Office for the world Health Organization and the americas. 2010, january 13, the earthquake struck. Imagine the Nations Capital portauprince being brought to rubble. Imagine a fourstory Building Full of Health Workers working on important initiatives to keep the nations population healthy. Gone in a matter of minutes. You may recall the newsreels of people trying to, humanitarian efforts trying to save people. Taking them out of the rubble days after that crisis. 10 months later, cholera struck resulting in thousands of deaths. What happened was a collective Global Partnership and powering the government of haiti to do the right thing. They empowered the communities to monitor their water sources. To test the water and course correct whenever the water source was contaminated. Later zero cholera cases in haiti. Anybody that has worked in Public Health and knows anything about cholera, they know once cholera establishes a foothold in a country how difficult it is to eliminate it. Dayink of that story every to help me put this all in perspective. Because collective action with global coordination will help. Tot leads me to four points start this conversation that i think are very important. Allow the evidence to be in the drivers seat. Rely on the evidence to make informed decisions that are equitable and serve everybody. The other is to fill the knowledge gaps that we have whether it is vaccine therapeutics, the current practices for protective equipment. Are there innovative approaches. You name it. Cpap ventilators. Weple are working 24 7 so need to continue supporting that effort. Means central coordination and leadership and i think what President Trump has just done is great to read we need more of that. Great. We need more of that. This is not a time to make decisions based on politics. We are all americans and we have to be in this together. My final point is a very important point. That is recognizing the global interrelatedness of these Infectious Diseases. Infectious disease anywhere is a disease everywhere. It, we have about new agent emerging every year. Thats an incredible acceleration of frequency that weve never seen before on this planet. Itss not a matter of if, when the next outbreak occurs. And we have to be better prepared. Forurrently are not fit purpose in my mind. We are doing the best we can but we waited too long to take the corrective action and even those actions we are taking need to be improved. So quality is a key issue here. If you are talking about changing behavior to protect those most vulnerable, we need to do a better job at that at all levels and at each level ask ourselves what else can we be doing. Of georgejon andrus Washington University will be with us for about 50 more minutes. We will put the phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for our guest. We will separate things regionally. For eastern and central time zones. And 7488001 mountain pacific time zones. 202 7488002 for medical professionals. Before we get to calls, take us more inside this country. The experiences of india and haiti. You mentioned some of what you are seeing in this country. Flecked more deeply on the u. S. Response so far. What has worked best and what are the big missing elements in your view . I think what has worked best is where those cities that took urgent steps right from the beginning. They did not wait. On the social distancing thats needed to flatten the curves. So the sooner we do that better. Some have mentioned we have a week. If we go beyond the week its going to be very difficult. Needs to be on the front of our brains everywhere. Wherewill be communities we dont have it yet, we should be ok. Run,n that case you can but you cant hide. This is a smart virus. Its going to find vulnerable population. In epidemiology we use this term susceptibles and by that weaning individuals who have not been exposed to the virus, do not have an immune response to it. And that virus is going to find you. So be prepared. Practice the social distancing. Shelterinplace. Even though your community may not seem at risk, it will be. Attitude andrt of again, its quality. Where you see the epicenter in new york city people are out in the parks playing basketball and so on. Thats not right. We have to do a better job at that. This, there are a lot of lessons out there not just in our own country but across the world. Those countries that experienced sars seem to be doing better. They have been there, done that. They didnt get off the boat yesterday. They were devastated by sars. Youre talking about south korea, hong kong, singapore. Hong kong and singapore are small countries but they took corrective action very soon and used testing to help make their decisions. We are seeing that in germany now. The German Government has done quite well at tackling the problem. It hasnt been perfect. Eventsssed two important where young people congregated. So theres been in interaction of the virus into younger populations. But those younger populations are probably responding better than what we are doing here in the United States. They are sheltering at home. They are practicing social distancing. In germany they dont allow gatherings more than two people. So thats very aggressive and they are using the testing to identify the cases, workup the contacts. We have not had that to that extent here. We are doing the best we can with what we have now. But what i want to keep coming back to his we need to learn from this. It cant be just episodic cyclic attention to a crisis like ebola or west nile in the past. Gue that happened in houston and miami. We need to be prepared to tackle the next event. Its this global interrelatedness of Infectious Diseases tackling it from every angle. Host lets go to the phones for our guest, dr. Jon andrus, adjunct professor of Global Health at George Washington university. Epidemiology,t on vaccines, immunizations and response to emerging Infectious Disease threats. Was Deputy Director of the Panamerican Health organization at one time. Among other assignments in his career. Dennis is calling from texas. You are on the air with dr. Jon andrus. Good morning. Caller good morning gentlemen. People living in new york and new orleans, i think a lot of them are leaving. Theyre just taking their family and moving on. If anybody has ever driven by 10 across the middle of texas, i live in a town of 23,000 that has no cases yet but we are right off the freeway. We are 75 miles from san antonio and 150 miles from anything. So people that need gas, a bathroom, food traveling east west across america. Our four or five gas stations are just packed. Louisiana, florida, illinois. California license plates. They are going in, standing in line, getting gas, using the restroom. I think this is something that needs to stop because i think these are serious places where this disease is traveling. People are getting it and they are traveling somewhere else and i would appreciate any response that you would have to that question. Host thanks for calling. We have seen the same concerns about people in places like the florida keys and the area leading up to new england. People traveling and concerns about spreading the disease further. What is your take . Thats a great comment. It really is. It has historic precedent. Actually in the dark ages when plague occurred or cholera in london, many people left the urban centers to go to rural places. The queen of england had several sites in the country where she would go hoping to escape the ravages of whatever epidemic was going on. Historically its happened through time. And i hope that weve learned from it. But in the case of haiti, one of the challenges was the migration that took place after the earthquake. To thegration led cholera spread. So we will see the devastating consequences of such movement. We need to take until there is a mandate, we need to reflect on our own personal actions and responsibilities. There is an axiom in medicine and Public Health, do no harm. I think that applies in our own family lives, the way we live our life. Do no harm. If getting in the car would potentially put another community at risk, please dont do that. Stay in place. Abouttioned a great point calledoints, they are accelerating points. Transmission is accelerating points. So the button on an elevator. The doorknob. The gas tank handle. The gas pump handle. The bathroom doorknob. Where theall points virus can land and spread to anybody that touches that surface who then itches their eye, puts their finger in their mouth, is not doing the necessary personal hygiene. This all points to practice those personal hygienic measures that weve all talked about. Washing your hands frequently, disinfecting those countertops. If the migration cannot be slowed down or stopped, those businesses, it moves them to behooves them to be very vigilant about keeping those points of contact frequently disinfected. I had to go in and get my medications the other day and one medication was missing so i had to go back a couple of days later and i was standing at the cash register. There was only a couple people. The pharmacies are set up in the back. And then in the front you can buy whatever you need for the household. I needed toothpaste. So im buying the toothpaste and i asked the clerk, when was the last time he sanitized the credit card inserter and he said im doing it frequently. He said im doing it frequently. 20 minutes ago. How many customers have you had . Probably 10. Probably 10. Those are 10 risk occurrences where transmission could potentially happen. So its looking at the weak link in all this. We could be doing great with a lot of efforts that if we forget to do one effort in wiping the gas tank, the pump holder for example, then we put ourselves at risk. I think the bottom line and what you mentioned is that you do not need to travel. There is no emergency. Stay at home. Thats the right thing to do. Its what we should all be thinking about and asking ourselves and telling ourselves. Do no harm. Host ron is calling from novelty, ohio. Thank you for waiting. Go ahead. Much andhank you very kudos. What he is saying is right on the mark. I have two comments. Actually three. Im in the department of anesthesiology and our machines clevelandconverted in , ohio to basically vence. They are vence after all. Vents. They are vents after all. The president has very little to do with whats right in this country. The people behind him, found she and all the other scientists and physicians who really know whats going on in the country should be given the kudos and the good common sense that is basically controlled by their understanding of the real world. Theyre the ones really making the decisions and recommending. And he just gets up there and reads the thing like a little robot. I think dr. Fauci and persons like dr. Jon andrus should be given the credit for helping us get through this. Maybe the last thing i have to say is ive heard from two sources now. Is over the television and other resources we have. The fact is a pandemic playbook and in factked out a simulation in training physicians for crisis management. Had in 2017, 2018, there was in fact a playbook for pandemic management. And i understand that they did some simulation and were going to go forward with that but it was shut off for some reason that perhaps had they looked at that and try to do again, we might have been able to get a little bit ahead of this perhaps dr. Jon andrus could talk about that if he knows about this playbook. Host i wanted to play since the caller mentioned dr. Fauci, a brief bit of sound. Listen to dr. Fauci. The number they gave out is based on modeling. I think its entirely conceivable that if we do not mitigate to the extent that we are trying to do that you could reach that number. Its possible. You could make a big soundbite about it at the fact is its possible. What we are trying to do is not let that happen so instead of concentrating on the upper and the lower we are saying we are trying to push it all the way down. The second part of the question was we feel that mitigation we are doing right now is having an effect. Its very difficult to quantitate. You have the virus going up and you have the mitigation trying to push it down. But the decision to prolong, to extend this mitigation process until the end of april i think was a wise and prudent decision. Dr. Birx and i spent a considerable amount of time going over the data. Why we felt this was a best choice of us and the president accepted it. So in direct answer to your , the idea that we had this many cases played a role in our decision in trying to make sure we dont do something prematurely and pull back when we should be pushing. Andrus, your take on the performance of the leadership of the u. S. Health core in this dynamic. Get yourlly wanted to take on the special challenges they face in interacting with the elected officials to get the right conversations going and ultimately make the right decisions. What can you say about that . Questionsre all great and there are several. I will try to answer the gentlemans first. First off, hats off to the anesthesiologist in cleveland. Youre the treasure of the American Health system. Those frontline workers putting your lives at risk. I have a brother in southern california. A family physician working in an urgent care center. His seeing 70s and and treating patients. I have a sister in sacramento cap california who works in a rehab hospital. Hats off to all of you. You are putting your lives on the line. With regards to the plan, im familiar with the planning process and those blueprints we all have. Theres been a recent very rigorous evaluation of Emergency Preparedness in more than 110 countries around the world. Producing whatrk we know about their preparedness and there are several knowledge gaps and implementation capacity gaps that need to be corrected. The u. S. Scored very high. Whats on a plan into a reallife situation is sometimes fraught with challenges. The issue of practicing i think helps. The experiences between the outbreaks, between the crisis i think helps. Because we have this cyclic attention that has to be changed. We need to sustain efforts and be better prepared for the next pandemic. I totally agree with dr. Faucis anybody that if theres i would like in charge when we have such a crisis would be him. Another one would be tom friedman. We need to be sure that the evidence is again in the driver seat with the people responsible for generating that evidence and communicating it and leading it to did i think those are all important points. We should try to avoid politicizing this. Its in the best interest of the American Public not to politicize it but to think in terms of guiding principles. Our values as americans. Why have we gotten through pearl harbor . Why have we gotten through the 1918 pandemic . I had a grandfather and his twin brother fight in world war ii. I cant imagine them going over on a troopship when that pandemic was happening killing the majority of troops on board survivedhit france and charging machine guns. This daymagine that in and age. The point is lets take a step back and learn from those countries that have and through sars and keep the momentum going in the right direction. Invasion being developed in a world where we dont have the therapeutics or enough of ventilators come the innovation being developed with cpap. To nurture those publicprivate partnerships. I hope i answered most of those questions. Host lets go to jerry from somerset, kentucky. What would you like to say . Would i was thinking now be a good time to start a history of all the people it looks like they are going to have immunity to it they could be recruited to the front lines. So i think right now would be a good time to start working on getting them. Secondly it looks like all the towns and cities that had a airports. Er had large probably that was one of the reasons it got started so quick. Thank you for my time at hope everybody has a great day. Askingo the first point you as an epidemiologist, the caller mentioned some type of registry. What can you say about tracking that means tohat the overall process . I think there is value at the local level to keep track in an industry where you need Health Care Workers and pharmacists. Where you need to keep the stores open. Some sense of who has been infected, who might be able to return to work. But there are also other mitigating measures to prevent infection in the first place. Staffr the hours, rotate in very strategic places. To maintain that six feet distancing and so on. But his point is well taken and i think there are some lessons to be learned from that. We need to learn more about the immunity. How long it lasts. Whether you can get the infection again. This is part of the knowledge gap that i referred to. We just dont know at this point in time. If we look at coronavirus is in general, there are seven. Four of which cause the common cold. We get the common cold over again. Dangerous,wo are more dangerous than the current virus. But they are not as infectious. So we are left with this current dont covid19, and we know how long we will have an immune response because people are recovering but we dont know the memory aspect of that immune response how long it will last. These are valid points. Host are you concerned about whats being called a second wave perhaps leader this year and how does this country prepare for Something Like that . I am concerned. We are seeing a little bit of it although variation of it in china where they have been successful in flattening the curve. Someing very strategically segments of the population to return to their work based on the evidence. More casesw have coming from the outside into china. So its a little bit of a variation. The question i think that you is more related to the 1918 influenza pandemic where there was definitely two or three waves, perhaps three waves of the outbreak where we thought things were Getting Better at that time, where the we was those people at that time thought things were Getting Better and then a second wave would come. Viruses are smart. Viruses like certain conditions better than other conditions. So the measles virus for example tends to circulate in the winter months. We dont know what this virus likes. We are learning about it. And so it could be conceivable ofn given the seasonality many Infectious Diseases around the world that this one may have a seasonality component that will come back and we will see a spike. It all speaks to the importance of not dropping our guard. The importance of sustaining our efforts. Not only for what conceivably in this case be a second wave, but i think im more concerned about the next epidemic, the next viral agent that emerges that andally is more severe perhaps even more infectious. So we are dealing with the crisis as we can given the characteristics of this virus knowing there are a lot of unanswered questions. But thats an interesting one about whether or not we feel there will be a second wave. We just dont know. The bottom line is lets be prepared. Lets not drop our guard and continue doing use the evidence. This the evidence to drive plane that we are flying that has yet to be completely built. Guest. His medical degree at the university of california at davis. Dr. Jon andrus is an adjunct professor of Global Health. Actually joining us from burlington, vermont. What are you doing in vermont this morning . Trying to think in terms of my shelterinplace to be in control of all the factors i can be in control of. Im here because it was my birthday early in march and then when things happened i decided i should stay here and shelterinplace and not get on the road has the gentleman from texas mentioned observing how many people are migrating. I decided i need to stay here. I have some chronic disease issues. So my personal health, this is a time for me to reflect mi on top of every factor that i can control . Whether its exercise, diet, attitude. Maintaining stress. There is good stress. So starting about this outbreak, being involved in it, doing everything i can. But there is bad stress that leads to lack of sleep. Its not good to your heart. Even dental hygiene. There is data to show that if you dont prevent the gum disease, that may be a risk factor for heart disease. Thats what im doing personally. Im sharing this because i think perhaps to a greater extent everybody has this opportunity to reflect what are you doing with your own personal health during these moments of home sheltering. There are so many exercise programs on the internet. For the free. I can help you if you are overweight. Lose weight. If you have a bad back. Strengthen your back. If you need cardiovascular training. In the living room of your apartment. Isolated, but im actually keeping in better contact with my family and my friends. Friends that ive known for years. I told you about my indian experience. An old colleague and dear friend , im in communication with him. Or colleagues from haiti. Time to be able to have this opportunity to reach out, maintain a positive attitude. We will get through this. Thats the human spirit. This time and again as american citizens. So controlling those factors i think are important. It will keep your mind off it and you will be better for it. One final point on that. Having been a parent. Still a parent. I have two beautiful daughters. They are in their late 20s. Parenting is the toughest job on this planet. To be a good parent. People,tories of young you are in your apartment and your home. Everybody is being homeschooled now. Its really an opportunity to set the example. You can be the role model in this time of dire straits. How youshow your kids have adapted to stress. How you are adjusting your habits to be healthier. A better human being. More sensitive. And just being a better parent. Its an opportunity rather than a constraint or problem. Its an opportunity. I would leave you with that message. Host ingrid is calling from here in washington, d. C. For dr. Jon andrus. Good morning. For taking myyou call. Good morning. I just have three questions. Aboutor tweeted sterilizing masks. He gave a couple methods. Are we codifying a procedure to reuse pp . Ppe . And on the speculation on the virus not liking the summer, that doesnt seem to jive with how it drives in the hot and humid human body. Aboutnally, you talked the people that are susceptible in the virus seeking us out. My husband and i are fairly old. We are staying at home. Are we just postponing the inevitable and so really the only thing we can do is try as you suggested to keep ourselves positive and eat well and try to be ready for when it finally finds us . Host three different points. The first point is something the president mentioned last night, the sterilization of masks. Think he mentioned an ohio company that was specializing in that. Is that something you could speak to . It speaks to the broader issue of medical supplies in this country right now. There is a lot of work being masksn the use of these that are in very very short supply and whether or not there are techniques that would allow you to reuse them in a safe and efficient manner. And whatever mechanism that you use i would hope we could evaluate that mechanism to be sure that it works. That its not just a false sense of security. I teach a course on global vaccine knology. Weektaught online and last in the class about half my students across the country are medical practitioners. Physicians, nurses working at the point of service and sharing their stories. Even though the course is on vaccine knology, i use the 15 minutes as an icebreaker to talk about this outbreak. They are all bubbling with experiences to share both good and bad. One nurse in particular i remember her saying that she issued she was issued one n95 mask. They fit better than the surgical masks you can buy overthecounter. They are meant for Health Care Workers. Shes being issued in her institution one mask per week. The standard of care that we live by is that you use one mask per patient. And then all of a sudden because of this crisis and the lack of supplies, they are being told to use it one per week. So what theyve done is they put readilyal cheaper more acceptable mask over that and they change that more frequently over the course of the week. I think that should be studied. I think it probably does diminish the risk. Does it completely eliminate the risk . We need to know that. Their innovative measures being done. Home a clip where women at were working on use of home plastic materials to try to build face shields that could be sanitized or disinfected between seeing patients. So that work needs to be continued. Filter thata protects the provider. About theres an effort where you would use the runofthemill household vacuum cleaner also has a filter. If you stand behind the vacuum, you can feel that air. Filteredhas been inside the vacuum. Will that filter help protect the Health Care Provider . That. Efforts working on with regards to the virus and the potential seasonality, thats only a hypothesis. Thats only a hypothesis. We dont know about this virus. I dont want to be in the mode of speculating, trying to forecast the future. That was not my intent. I was using the analogy of other like seasonal influenza. It likes certain seasons. Coronavirus like the cold. They are also seasonal. By no means do we apply that directly to this virus until the evidence shows that. Was just onker that the line, i want to commend you for doing what you are doing. I use the phrase we can run but we cannot hide. I just want to over emphasize. Clear to make it very this virus is smart. And its likely to find you. Hopefully it will be during the time when we have ventilators available. If we allow this virus and dont do anything and we are on a very steep academic curve and ventilators are consumed and theres not one for you, you know the implications. But in the meantime, we know that exercise boosts the immune system. So personally im doing two workouts a day. Its something i can do. I can guard that time when i wake up. Before this interview i did my workout. This evening before i go to bed i will do my workout. And i sleep at her. Sleep is so important for your health as is exercise. In the diet side of things. Be sure you get enough vitamin d. You are inside now. We are not being exposed to the sunlight. Get enough vitamin d. Eat those foods that are cardioprotective in ways. The data shows the mediterranean diet is beneficial. So do what you can to lose weight. All those other things as well. That way when it happens to are better prepared. Your risk of survival goes dramatically up. And the exercise part of this, being a family physician as well as an epidemiologist, i maintain my board certification. Im currently taking a course on exercise and sports medicine. Needhe data show that you both muscle strengthening and cardiovascular. The diabetics out there, muscle strengthening is better. For a lowers your a1c longer period of time. You need both. Pit one against the other. Do both. Youll find when you couple that with muscle strengthening. If you dont have weights at home, you can lift milk cartons or books. Other things in your household to strengthen your muscles. Read about it online. Exercise regimens that will keep you better prepared when you are exposed. So madame, maintain that positive attitude that you have and be prepared. Host about 15 minutes left with dr. Jon andrus. Ken is calling from here in washington, d. C. , good morning. Caller good morning to both of you. I have a question and statement. I know you mentioned haiti a few times and during my travels on active duty i was often in haiti. Stands out isthat the destitute and impoverished nation of the country which has been around since the colonial times. That if you are already at risk, that is an at risk population as well. That my curiosity for you is we have over half a Million People in this country who are considered in poverty or homeless. Homelessth a lot of individuals in the district of columbia. I dont know if people are for thatncerned population of people. Those that do not have certainly have less. I know you made a statement about the politics of the issue. Just leaving names out of this, would you not at least agree that the previous administrations task force that was already set up to deal with ebola or other pandemic issues should at least stay in place to better mitigate situations that we will eventually deal with . Host thank you. Those are great points. When we talk about vulnerable populations, we often say older people because we know biologically their t cell , the component of cells in the immune response of the human being loses its ability to fight viral infections. As part of the aging process. Reasonshy among many why we are seeing a hired death rate and those older folks with chronic diseases are even more at risk. Anybody of any age with a chronic disease is at risk. If you are in your 40s, obese and have adult onset diabetes, i hope that you listen very carefully on those individual actions that you could be taking. Broaderards to the Bigger Picture of vulnerability, i think that is an excellent point. The vulnerability of for ished, crowded poor. The vulnerability as a couple of people have reflected the migration comment in a rural town of 20,000 which is by no means, thats a significant number of individuals. But they dont have the capacity in my mind to deal with Something Like this. And multiplehat populations of vulnerability whether geographically, economically. And then we do things behaviorally that makes people vulnerable. I have heard stories about ostracized because of this outbreak. Call it the chinese virus as the person commented. I wouldnt call it the trump virus. But i certainly wouldnt call it the chinese virus because it stimulates too many negative thoughts. But your point about vulnerability is absolutely critical. About not point allowing race, color, creed, economic status to drive priorities. The vulnerable population when , like i said, disease anywhere is disease everywhere. If you have a poor segment of town thats in your town, thats your town. You as a more affluent person would be put at risk. So thats a Public Health axiom. Sure youreaking covering all risk groups. I really appreciate that comment and your work in haiti and what youre doing with vulnerable populations. I want to thank you personally. Keep up the good work. The task force. Yes. I jotted it down. I oftentimes forget questions. You know, these kind of to move beyond changes in political leadership. They have to be woven into the fabric of our society. Recognized99, it was that the United States was losing its lead in its research of the biomedical area. We were being outrun by other countries where traditionally we had been the leaders. So what happened, it was a great action. The nih budget i believe was doubled. And thats great. And that is why we are in a better position for a vaccine to be produced all based on nihs great research. Tony found cheese team developing messenger rna. One clinicalhase trial. Outstanding. That improvens upon our capacity to respond have to be sustained. It saddens me. At some point i remember hearing that the cdc budget was cut by 80 million. This is not the time to cut the cdcs budget by any means. Again, its the worlds most eminent Public Health agency in the world. It keeps us on the Playing Field in the global efforts. Toare better positioned tackle these emerging infections that occur every year at the source for it comes across to our citizens. So this is not the time to cut back on our relationship with Regional Office the Panamerican Health organization for the americas. Because these entities are working with governments to do the necessary actions but at the end of the day will minimize the risk to our own communities. Its the voice of reason that we must sustain these efforts. Portland,ie is in oregon. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have two thoughts i would like your opinion on. One is is there any plans for andribution of a vaccine second is who is going to pay for the bills of all the people that have had to be hospitalized . Right questions. With regards to the first question theres been a lot of discussion and meetings of experts. I think the one clear message is you have to prioritize. Vaccine will not become available all at once. It will come out in batches. Thats just the nature of vaccine production until we can get a stock pile where we have significant supply to take universal action at one time. The message is its going to come out in bunches, in lots. And so we have to prioritize. If you think of the fabric of our society, one of the gems as our Health Care Workers. We have to protect them. They would be probably the first to receive the vaccination. And there are other components of the society. The Food Industry by Grocery Stores or the police force that maintains security or the workers that maintain the power supply that keeps us warm and our lights lit. The list goes on and on and there are ways to prioritize the access to vaccines as they become available. That wont happen for at least another one to two years and even if we can get a vaccine in two years, thats going to wire herculean efforts and that is assuming we have no major setbacks in the research. So a lot of assumptions, but we are hopeful because we have learned so much from sars that the technology is being applied. The research being done for vaccines has the example that i is also including multinational manufacturers. There is only a handful of them but they have the capacity. A Smaller Company may not have the capacity to go to scale very rapidly. So you need the multinationals involved because they have large factories, large campuses where they make these products in a safe fashion with good manufacturing practices. I have just learned that one of partneringticular with the u. S. Government is working on what we call a subunit vaccine. Its a recombinant vaccine that has some promise. Are also working with european colleagues to develop the messenger rna type that could be beneficial. They havent put all their eggs in one button bucket. That work is happening and hats off to those people working 24 7 on vaccines, on therapeutics to make them available as quickly as possible. One point that i would like to note you with so we are provided a false sense of security. We cannot overlook the issue of safety. Be these whether they vaccines or therapeutics have to undergo all the necessary safety performance to ensure that they do not cause harm. One of the axioms in medicine and Public Health, do no harm. That will be important. Now paying the bills. Thats an enormous challenge for everyone and im hoping and that some more areally minded companies delaying bill payments and so we need to loosen up some of the requirements that will allow people to get through this crisis in every form and fashion that we can. Theres an economic component to that, the Public Health evidence should be driving this, not dollars and cents. Be the Public Health evidence and certainly there are more cost efficient ways of doing things and we need to understand it from that perspective. I hope i answered your questions. Host david is calling from new mexico. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. Host what would you like to ask the doctor . Aboutas calling to ask the use of personal masks. I used to be in emt and i was taught ppe was for my protection. There are a lot of people out here not listening to the stayathome orders. Stores are packed and no one is wearing a mask. Weve learned that this virus wants to live in our lungs. So why do we all have the door open to allow the virus in . We are not learning. The chinese when it got to italy, first thing they said to them was why arent you Wearing Masks . I have to ask you being an epidemiologist . Would you teach your students not to wear a mask . Would that be your First Response or would you say, weve got to wear a mask. Thank you for the question. Its an excellent question. There is no right or wrong answer to that question. Its not like in white in a world of unlimited supply and there is some reduction in risk, yes. Wear a mask. But we are not in that world. We do not have an unlimited supply of masks. So first and foremost, we must protect those heroes working on the front lines. Run on masksas a and then the Health Care Worker that is trying to save your ,others life is not protected then i think we got it wrong. We have to be able to prioritize. Unfortunately we dont live in a world of unlimited resources. Masks on every counter of every drugstore. And weve all been in the Grocery Stores, drug stores. Youngs are empty. Things are empty. Weve had this run on toilet paper, which is mindboggling. Be that as it may, there have been these runs and there could ,e a minimal reduction in risk then why not. But as an emt, when you are integrating somebody into ting into baiting somebody, you know more than anybody that that patient can gag and aerosolized the secretions that are in the lungs and the pulmonary passage right into your face. Recommend face goggles and other protective equipment. Unless you d gown properly, you take the mask off properly, you use the mask correctly, you can expose yourself. We found that out with ebola. That despite having all this equipment ready, when people did not adhere to the strict policy recommendations on decounting, they did expose himself to risk. I could see that happening here. His sauce aou false sense of security, youre not very careful and so on. Question but the there is no blackandwhite answer to that one. We are out of time. Thank you for your time and your expertise and insight. An adjunct professor of Global Health at George Washington university, appreciate your time this morning dr. Bring here is a story in the New York Times if your further interested in medical supplies. Of 22 airlift of medical supplies from china has landed in new york. Carryingial aircraft gloves, masks and clown counts touched down in new york on sunday. The will funnel muchneeded goods to the u. S. By early april. This plane delivered 130,000 facemasks, 10lion million gloves and 10,000 for monitors thermometers. She said flights would be arriving in chicago today and in ohio tomorrow and supplies would be sent from their using private sector distribution networks. Sundaye goes on to say will be welcomed by hospitals and Health Care Workers. Gearrationing protective using homemade supplies. They were absent a tiny portion. The department of hhs estimated the u. S. Or require 3. 5 billion masks if the pandemic lasts a year. Just one of the many news stories out there weve been sharing with you. When we come back we will talk talksteve ellis, he will to us about the 2 trillion coronavirus aid package signed into law by the president. Speaking butirx the social distancing guidelines. Youve seen the models from imperial come from columbia. And then we went back to the drawing board over the last week or two and work from the ground up heard utilizing actual reporting cases, its the way we built the hiv model. When we finished, which we didnt know about, chris murray ended up at the same numbers. So you go on his website, you can see the concern we had with the growing number of potential fatalities. All of the flu models predicted anywhere between 1. 6 and 2. 2 million fatalities. If we did not mitigate. I think you will new those numbers. Some predicted half the United States would get infected and have the level of mortality. To see theard different mitigations around the world and use that Evidence Base to really bring that data and evidence to the present to consider extending which is not a simple situation when you ask people to stay home. They have to know we really built this on scientific andence and the potential we know thats a huge sacrifice for everyone. We know its a sacrifice for every mother and child. Thats also selfisolating. There are that have to go to work and we know the compromises they are making. The Health Care Providers that are on the front lines and youve seen how difficult this has been. Will be a comprehensive peace presented there really talks about not only diagnosing individuals, but also increasing surveillance now that we have test kits so that we couldnt really stop and contain new infections the same time we are really dedicating test kits to the critical diagnoses so people can get the treatment they want. And we can ensure when people go to the hospital that the nurses and doctors and equipment they need will be there to serve them. Together as americans we will bring down the number of infections so we dont have 2. 2 Million Deaths or 1. 6 Million Deaths. We will work hard to keep this at its lowest numbers we can. Washington journal continues. Host before we get to her next guest, we thought we would take a few more phone calls on the u. S. Response to the coronavirus pandemic. Michael hanging on in petersburg, virginia. What would like to say . Doctors come on tv on your shows, they lied to people because theyre afraid to tell the truth. Guest what did you hear that you think is a lie on tv . Donald trump said theyll be safe in the doctors come on and let donald trump get away with. You let this morning the republicans come on tv and say this and let them talk washington journal used to be a good show. It seems like you are afraid. I dont know why. His ignorant and you let him speak and talk. Host thank you for calling. City, oklahoma you are on the air. Caller i feel the way he does. I see all this stupidity, all these lies being told every time this idiot gets up there hes like obama and biden and hillary , i have to hear about them for 30 minutes and how wonderful he more about we get coronavirus. We do need 24 7 on coronavirus. All hes doing is stealing money. This woman called and even this inning and then she starts on hillary, shes going to jail. And you dont stop any of that. Host thank you for calling. We will get to more of your calls in a couple minutes. ,tephen ellis joins us now president of the organization on taxpayers for common sense. What taxpayers for common sense is, whats its mission and how are you funded. Guest thanks for having me this morning. I hope everyone is doing well. Sense we for common are national nonpartisan budget watchdog. We turn 25 this year and what we do is we scrutinize the bills. It doesnt matter whether it was president clinton, president bush, president obama, President Trump, we will look at whats being wasted to seal we can effectively spend our taxpayer dollars and work in a wide range of areas whether its National Security spending or agriculture spending, infrastructure. In this case, disaster and emergency spending and so we are funded by individuals, we are a nonprofit, we are funded by charitable foundations. Dont seek money from corporations or trade associations or unions or from government. And so we are trying to be an advocate for the taxpayers to try and make a more responsible government. On towe ask you to come talk about the 2 trillion spending bill, this emergency spending bill signed into law by the president on friday. What is your general take on this legislation in terms of the price tag. Will it make an impact here . Its a staggering price tag. 2. 2 trillion, its not clear how much it will be, it depends on how many people are eligible for the checks that are being sent to people. Scope. Taggering in gdp, it is10 of the almost half of the government normally spends annually. Amount ofis a huge cash thats going out in addition to a we normally spend on the government. Something theyre trying to keep the economy moving as we go through the pandemic, its not a stimulus really in that respect, this can be more legislation and spending to come. Situationain in a what many essays running a significant debt and deficit, how does a 2 trillion bill like this get paid for. Guest we borrow. We are already supposed to run a trillion dollar deficit a year which would be in the of seen since right after the 2008 debt is at a are level percentage of gdp that we havent seen since right after world war ii. Certainly thats one of the things weve been very critical of, the fact we did a deficit finance tax cut in 2017, we shouldve had deficit neutral tax reform, we had increased spending in the last several caps andsus the budget so we put ourselves in a red zone and now we are having to. Eal with a very real crisis we cant just ignore the pandemic, we cant just say there wont be painandsuffering, their airlines that arent flying, their companies that cant have employees come into work. So there has to be a response. Its unfortunate we are in this very difficult fiscal situation to deal with it. Host phone numbers on the bottom of the screen. We have two separate lines for callers geographically. 2027488000 in the eastern and central part of the country. Out in the West Mountain and pacific time zones, 2027488001. We will get to your calls on this bill in a moment. Of this to details trillion dollar aid package, there is something called a 500 billion Major Corporate liquidity allotment. 360 7 billion in Small Business loans. 130 billion in hospitals. 150 billion in state and local government. Attention toe most you out of those price tags for those programs . Guest clearly the business and municipal loans category, that is a quarter of the bill and thats the one thats gotten a lot of attention for a couple reasons. Loans, 4 billion in billion in loans and 17 billion dollars set aside for businesses essential to National Security and a lot of people have intimated that was put in there for boeing for Defense Aerospace company out of Washington State that that was really for them. Theyve disagreed and secretary mnuchin said it may not necessarily be for them. This is under largely discretionary, the treasury secretary working with the fed throughout many sectors of the economy. Fund wets the slush are concerned see how its implemented, the actually created some oversight mechanisms that we can get into. They created a special Inspector General which is similar to the financial crisis when they created tarp. They are overseeing how these funds are being meted out. Direct cashees, or injections where we take a share of the company. Mostto me is one of the interesting, concerning but also has is to give get about potential in the overall program. Billion going25 to the Passenger Airlines this is separate provision that is for providing another 25 billion airline to keep employees employed and another 4 billion for the cargo airlines. About actuallys giving Companies Money that they can continue to pay their employees. And are on a plum entry doesnt go through the roof. Back to that last slide. 200 billion with the bill is calling to vested priorities with childcare assistance. What your take on that amount. These are all big eyepopping numbers. This is a big eyepopping problem. It is so unique that this country it on the seams way to put it when you think about how the point is its national in scale, it affects all sectors of the economy. A National Disaster located in one part of the nation or another. Crisis whichcial was in the lending situation. Make an and to pandemic and pan economic crisis of it is because people are having to deal with either they cant get to work or their work cant have employment and so we are providing assistance to families and as individuals. Because one thing that we know about pandemics is there is a time where we dont know when we wont be in this crisis situation and you want to have an economy still there to actually operate, this is not can be making people whole, this is not going to actually be a stimulus are making people better, its basically a bridge to get to a time or we can rebuild the economy. Host more details and figures in this bill congress has approved and the president has signed. We have 45 more minutes with our guest and will take the first call in hialeah, florida. Caller good morning. When the gentleman talked but his primary concern with the Small Business loan. As soon as i heard the word free money, i never heard that the ad states before. Thever heard the mood word free money. We have defined what happens to the money, who is going to dictate to Small Business owners if his truck breaks down in the truck he uses for his family and he takes it to the mechanic in the mechanic charges and 3000, now he uses the money that the government gave him to fix that has a, now his family good truck to ride around in but the guy across the street, all justts is 1200 and thats enough to eat and maybe pay the rent. How does he get to drive around his family . Thats not fair. Host jamie, thank you for calling. Your reaction that callers comment. I dont thinkst i said free money. None of this is free. As a matter of fact we are all going to be on the hook for this money and we are adding to our National Debt and that we are paying interest on that is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. I dont think that is free money. Businessjust the small , its also big business and thats where i was more concerned. But even in the Small Business administration, one of these being about loans and loan guarantees. So essentially you are expected to pay it back at may be a lowinterest or no interest but the money is supposed to be paid back. And on these loan specified in the law they are not to be forgiven. So you cant just at some later point decide in future leadership we are to forgive these loans. Thats mostly in the larger business once but i have to look it over. Secondly the idea the person across the street from the Small Business owner, they are employed somewhere hopefully as well and by helping those business whether its large or small that these people are going to stay employed. But as i said before, there is going to be pain. Its not that much money when you think about the context of a 20 some odd trillion dollar gdp. Thats going to be a real issue. , bute are going to suffer thats the reality of the situation. This is basically a bridge in the economy, not a lifesaver. Host another slide on the bottom of the screen. 35 billion in emergency transit funding. 30 billion in Emergency Education funding. What do those have to do specifically with this pandemic we are facing right now . On the on the guest education side theres a lot of teachers that are out of work also to all the schoolrooms and classrooms have to be cleaned and taking care of before students can go back to school. Most of them wont go back until the fall. Or any of them will go back. And then on transit, anybody who is watched the news or has looked at the newspaper has seen scenes of completely empty metro buses and subways and thats a real impact because they are losing their revenue. Some of that is going to support municipalities and keep those people employed because a lot of this is not about the business is about the employees and the people working for the transit really, weso it is are in a brave new world. We are in a situation we have not found ourselves in before. Typically im very critical of deficit spending unless its an emergency and then it becomes about accountability and transparency and thats very important as far as tracking where the money is going pretty is important. Time we brought an extreme of money even with the tax breaks so not sure they , im not sureem i assume you keep things running and everything but why do we need another one already on top of this. It takes care of the businesses already, this backup plan with another 4 trillion to help out on this. Why dont we keep the government from just wanting to go ahead and greet another package for every thing else. Why do we need one so immediately . Can they not wait a little while and see if we need to do something and where we actually need it . Host three packages so far in increasing to 3 trillion plus. The perspective you have to that callers question. The first point, a 1. 5 trillion deficit finance tax cut and we were originally promised deficit neutral tax form which we still need to do tax reform. Its something where you cant have it both ways. Congress cant say we should cut spending in the not cot spending and then still do something. We are all about trying to balance and have a smaller deficit as a percentage of gdp. To the comment bernie made about why do we need a third package. Ernie made about why been the third package. Even when this was passing the crisis in new york city was not as dire as it is right now. And its going to get worse before it gets better there and other places. We will have to see. One thing he shouldnt worry as much about his congress has to be here to do this and they are , theyre going to have to figure out a legislative package to actually do this and needs to be targeted and smart. Weve always argued there should be triggers to these packages. We should be able to meet out the money over time so that you hit a trigger and will allocate more money. This program is working the way we intended, we will shift it to another way and thats what we need to be moving towards. One other item in the package one the callers brought up is the 1200 onetime check. Its a higher amount for a married couple an additional 500 for child. You mentioned this type of thing is not necessarily meant to make people, wanted to ask about the payroll tax because that was something that was talked about byly on in this third bill limiting the payroll tax, why did that not make it part of this bill and is that something you are looking at in the future. Guest there are two ways of looking at payroll tax and that is its a slow burn. It is relief to businesses or individuals after payroll tax paid for by the businesses and the other have paid for by the individual and this goes into Social Security and medicare. And so you get a small amount in each paycheck that would be allocated over time. So its kind of slow, there is no shock and all about it. You have to have a job to be able to get the benefit or have an employee to get this benefit and third is that it actually is taking revenue away from Social Security and medicare which are programs that are also in trouble. Would happened after the 2009 stimulus, we replenish the trust insidee pumped more cash of it. If youre going to do that anyway, this other ways to meet out the funding in a more equitable and targeted manner. That 1200 going to people making 75,000 and it ratchets out until basically is zeros out at 90,000 and again, twice as much if you are married. If youre trying to target at lower people. Host darrell is calling from albuquerque, new mexico. Im really interested in endsing some the package of this porkbarrel spending added into this bill. Could you expand on a few of them. I really liked when people would name the politicians names for the garbage theyve added into this bill and i would like to know a place where we could look and see which congressman or senator adds these things on for how much and for what it was going to. Politicians are slobbering now spending money on things. Host what else might be in this bill . Guest thank you for the call and whats shocking is even those 800 pages long, there isnt a lot of detail. There isnt a lot of specificity about where its going. That wes one provision saw that connor i and that was sunscreen. A far as we know thats not treatment for covid19. That got stuffed in there. It was but overthecounter drugs and the way the fda approves those drugs. It may be perfectly good legislation that passed the Senate Last Year 912, clearly not controversial but by the same token it didnt belong in this package and we will find other things along those lines as we go forward. Was really shocking is to some extent is the lack of specificity about where the money is going. This plan this out treasury secretary and the fed is going to implement, it really is largely at the discretion of secretary mnuchin and so we want to see more accountability and transparency. Special Inspector General to look at this. They did a very good job. And then also its going to be a question of how big a risk are they. Separately there is also a Congressional Oversight Commission that will be appointed by basically the big four. And then the chairperson will be chosen jointly by the majority leader of the house. To lookisan commission at these. And then separately congress created a pandemic accountability response , but either way, that is supposed to be consists of all the inspectors general that are effective at the various agencies and they will actually appoint an executive director so that people can see where the money is being allocated, its something we saw after the and theyin 2009 created recovery. Gov. So people can speak see where their money is being allocated. All that being said, a story in the Washington Post that started developing late friday night or saturday. Trump tries to rein in this oversight immediately after signing this bill, the present such curb oversight provisions by asserting president ial authority. A major could present battle between the white house and capitol hill is the Trump Administration moves to implement. In this signing Statement Released friday, the president questioned the constitutionality of the laws requirement that a new special Inspector General Pandemic Recovery notify congress immediately if the administration unreasonably withheld information requested by investigators. You can see a political fight brewing. Guest absolutely. Although the special inspector one theythat was basically recreated from back in 2008. Based on the existing expected general law that they know of anything being able to do that so to some extent this is this tugofwar this been going on through successive administrations where the executive branch does these socalled signing statements where they sign a bill into law and then issue a statement saying this is how we are interpreting the law and how we will implement it. At the end of the day its a sign of how the executives going to treat it but it has no real place in the constitution or law. President trump is in the first one. President obama said as a candidate he was not going to do any signing statements and did plenty while in office. So a lot of it will come down to personality. S and not soood ig good igs. How does the congress oversee them. The other thing is how quickly as this person could be nominated and how quickly will they be approved by the senate and so that Something Else that will be a real question paid question. Host good morning, mary. I was my question is , sitting in the other room so dont get distracted. , was thinking i wanted to know jeff bezos is an american, correct . Yet he never pays taxes, and he of dollars. Llions is there any way they can get some taxes from him and the 1 so that we dont have so much to pay back . Because it always falls on the shoulders of the people. By the time the people get the 1200 checks, they are in the hole for a lot more than 1200. And one other question and im itry i was impressed by you mightve been this channel. What about the president , i cant think of civil come children. How do they get paid and how much do they make . Host you can take either or both of those questions. Jeff basis isst the richest men in the world, worth 100 billion. I cant tell you what tax here any other individual pays or does not pay, but amazon certainly like other businesses have been created, avoiding taxes and thats something we are certainly advocating for clamping down on and making sure everybody pay their fair share. Think this also brings to a question these numbers get huge and some thing to keep in mind. 1 trillion is 1000 billions. Its hard to get that scale into your mind, but one way is if you made a dollar a second, you 65,000 king about it would take you 30,000 years to make it to trillion dollars. Leaving that aside, the second point, the president s children to my knowledge, especially ivanka who works in the administration is not being paid, but separately they all work for the Trump Organization and are getting paid out of that entity. Again i cant tell you how much taxes or payments for any individual, thats the word on that. Host luanne in annapolis, maryland. Caller thank you for cspan. Moneyhe relief package going to individuals or married couples be taxable or is it true lee free . Truly free . I would have to look at the legislation to see if there is some way its being held harmless from tax. Certainly that would be somewhat counterintuitive if you are giving that money and then taxing it, although the flipside is is that its your marginal rate so it would be added so if you are making 75,000 it would be in that last, your highest income bracket. Youll have to get back to at certainly follow us taxpayer. Net to get more information there. Host here is a text from mickey in milwaukee. I understand the care act was for proximally 2 trillion. I hear the president and secretary mnuchin saying its for 6 trillion. Do you understand what the differences are between those figures . Guest what he is referring to or talking about is the actions the Federal Reserve is taking and some of the actions to , to increaseity the stakes in the financial market, some of the black magic is how i would term it that the Federal Reserve does with their activities. The 500 billion treasury, thats good to be in concert with the Federal Reserve making it easier for lending out to theirs companies and theashing some powers Federal Reserve have before the bailout. Its basically how does effectively deal in the economy not just the 2 trillion in spending that were in the cares act. Student borrowers can hold payments as part of this bill, 43 million americans, the law allows most borrowers to stop making Monthly Payments through september 30 with no financial penalty. Th stephen ellis, want to point out another figure. 17 billion for their calling distressed companies. How is the definition of a Distressed Company going to be made and who controls that decision . Guest the federal government will be making these decisions as to what is distressed were not or not. As far as the student loan borrowers, again this is something where it makes sense in that you are letting people keep a bit of their money but they will still owe that eventually. Its really about the time value of money, not actually the cash itself. Thats why some much of this aid in the package we want to make sure his basically the government says hey banks you can loan them their money, they are good for it. Thats the proper way to structure it. I would have to look more into it. The one thing about that number that makes me think, the 17 billion and the treasury package that is for businesses essential to National Security and so that was the one that people thought was going to boeing. Host from cnn. Com in case youre wondering whats in this bill or maybe whats not to point out the trump businesses cannot get any money as part of this bill, no money. Airlines and airports get what they wanted, hospitals get billions, contractors. Can you tell us about contractors and gate workers and how they might be benefiting from this . Basically its again this larger aid package going to businesses trying to keep their employees on the payroll. Even if they are not working. This incredible situation people are able to work, but businesses are saying you need to stay home because were social distancing and we are not trying to just we are trying to slow the spread of the virus. And businesses are turning away customers. Shopant come in and because we cant be open. Because were doing the right thing for the Civil Society a closing up. There try to provide aid in that respect. One thing that is concerning to thes there is a plea by industry that they wanted to be cleared essential. Certainly there are parts that are essential, they are providing services to the military that are critical, but there are plenty of other people who are working on the line who are in other parts of the country that are in fort worth assembling f35s, the jet for the army for the air force and the navy and marine corps. They dont need to be at work right now. We have f35s. We dont need more of them immediately and they should be staying home but instead theyre being told to come into work and thats just not fair to the employee, it is selfish by the company and its going to hurt Civil Society and they are not doing their fair share. Some of it is about figuring out who is essential, in this crisis. And then having those people go to work. People who are normally essential in other smart situations actually stay home. Host lets hear from terry in illinois. Good morning. Im going to see if youre good to be clearly honest. I have a comment and then a question. On the comment on President Trump, his daughter and soninlaw in the secretary of education, they donate their salary back. My question is on this aid theage, can you talk about stream money and other things that have nothing to do with the package and how unfair that was to the public. Have a nice day. I mentioned about the sunscreen, it was a separate piece of legislation that got snuck in there thats going to benefit some of these companies that are creating overthecounter drugs. We will have to pull the string on that to see what that was about or why it got snuck in there and who it got snuck in thereby. It was something that caught our eye as looking at the bill and you sort of wonder what that is doing in their brain there are going to be revisions in here that are oriented toward special interest and we are trying to route that out. That said, its more the lack of specificity in the bill and its going to be the implementation that we will have to watch to make sure that the money is being steered sword and that its actually being meted out fairly and appropriately. Americans, thef bill provides that for the state department for evacuation expenses below that, the peace corps gets 88 million for volunteers abroad, they are pulling back a lot of peace corps folks these days. 25 million for the Kennedy Center here in washington dc would he get it why we get money in a bill like this . Caller theres also further guest there is also money for the smithsonian in there. I think that argue either way about that, they do have employees and support their, its going to be significant cleaning of that facility as well. You can look at and question to some extent, certainly evacuating the state department and peace corps volunteers mover sees back in the United States is something that is critical. I think you have to look at it is what was the intent of what we were trying to accomplish the funding for the Kennedy Center, but then separately it does make a lot of sense if you think about the amount of cost in real estate they have or Square Footage they have to clean and maintain. How about a little perspective take a step back at past federal government fiscal interventions. , another 10rline billion in loan guarantees, that 08, 700 billion and never the09 is we are stimulus package following that recession. 831 million. 831 billion. Caller if you look at the air guest if you look at the airline packet post 9 11, it is somewhat close to the inflation and where we were as an economy , butpercentage of gdp certainly its a package that was huge and in 2009. Its more than double that size. Billions of dollars the first couple packages before this. Scope butecedented in its also the crisis in my mind is unprecedented as well where youve got people who want to work who cant go to work, you have businesses turning away, closing voluntarily because of health directions. We are in a unique place where we have to bridge the gap. The financial crisis who knew where that was going to end. We do know at some point the covid19 will either be defeated or we will get past it, that the history of pandemics going through civilizations paid the question of what are we gonna be to spacer economy, what can be there on the other side. Host mike is in crescent city, florida. Forer i just want to know the last two and a half years of and watching the stock market, all these businessmen making record profits, the airlines have been bragging about how much money they made and here we are a month into this and the other thing is on this Oversight Committee, as soon as trump signed that bill he immediately wants to got the Oversight Committee and Inspector General. How is he going to be held accountable for this . You are absolutely right, businesses took the money they got out of the tax cut and they basically did share buybacks and so its responsible and the case were one of the cases of the provision is to prevent stock buybacks, prevent golden parachutes for ceos. It limping limits compensation and weve certainly been very strongly saying if you are taking aid from the government, should be strings attached. If you dont want those attached, dont take the aide. Boeing has basically said that, we dont want them taking a share of our business, we could be investing in her business and we have opportunities. Great, do it. I would be happy you dont take money from the government and that goes for the airlines as well. And then secondly. President and Congress Accountable and the executive accountable for how this money is being allocated. The president tried to kneecap the special Inspector General who oversees the treasury fund, but as a also be doing that. From the Pandemic Response account Ability Commission that also is independent and so its not something we are good we try to watch where the money is going. Notably though and i think its oversight by the drafters, the Pandemic Response account Ability Commission, oversight of all funds it doesnt specify loan guarantees and so that portion may not be available for oversight for the Pandemic Response commission. Host scott from annapolis, maryland. Nice nice caller fresh air today. From a taxpayer project prospective if you could address like last year i think in 2018 we had 11 million it sees me 111 million and 12 may 12 million taxpayers who pay the taxes for the government. Wrong but forim every trillion its essentially 100,000 per taxpayer, is that correct . And the reason i ask that is its nice to know from the taxpayer perspective essentially what we are on the hook for. It is a very legitimate point. Isntxes we are paying set up to cover the total cost of government and so this year it was going to be a trillion dollar deficit even before any of this Pandemic Response came out. We are paying hundreds of billions of dollars and that is again before all of this response. We were supposed to be paying about 700 billion per year in Interest Payments on our National Debt. Simply that the amount of money you are paying interest you continue to borrow against the treasury. Where we haveg got to as we come out of this the more fiscally responsible. We cant forgive the loans, we need to make sure we get that money back and that did happen after tarp. Much of that money was recovered either through the stakes of the government took in companies or in the fact the banks repay the recoupnd we were able to that money to the treasury. It doesnt mean there wasnt a moral hazard created were now people think we are going to bail them out but we have to deal with the crisis and that right now is to make sure our economy doesnt go into a total freefall and is to estimate a by the time this is over. Here is a wall street journal story in washington, the headline says to trillion dollars in aid was just the start. End of certainly not the our work here in congress, rather the end of the beginning. Talking about other ideas to be talked about may in late april. Might be to make the benefits last longer. Cited by the president and Democratic Leaders as they decide state budgets collapsing under revenue. From economist and legislators across the spectrum, the latest measure was about keeping commerce on life support while is indoors a medically induced coma that is paying businesses wages through the shutdown. The next says it would likely pivot from stabilization to stimulus providing a patient a regiment of physical therapy in an attempt to get the economy back to full health. What else are you thinking about question mark thinking about . Guest i think these are very good about the medically induced coma for the economy and getting it back to robust health. Certainly part of trying to keep the economy going is to make roadit doesnt completely erode. One of the things the states are dealing with is that a lot of states have balanced budget amendments, how are they going to with the expenses that are increasing responded to the pandemic and the reduced pet taxpayer taxpayer getting. You dont have people going in buying things. Property values are going down, home sales knocking property tax that those are real issues these states and counties will have to face. Tohink the idea of this was it was a bridge to see what new was needed to be done in the future when they come back together and do this in a smart and targeted way. That moneyant to see isnt just huge pots of cash, its things that are meted out over time and we can make course corrections. We can say new york state need this much and other states need a different amount. We can make sure our resources are going where they need to be at any given time. Listening to congress, it is unlikely to be our last word but they have to come together to legislate tax to actually make Something Else happen and that will be not in a very future bread you are getting to when the president has said we kenexa social distancing. And we can deal with the company issues. Host daniel on the line in odessa, florida. The first is a question as far as im a Small Business taxpaying american and my question is is there can be a pause on paying mortgage . And then my comment, i also wanted to say i think people need to just relax and be very appreciative of you guys, the washington journal, the gentleman that is on. And also being proud of a great president whos doing a great job that has taken so much negativity and think about how good we already have it in this world and this country. Host thanks for calling. I think we heard the governor of new jersey mention some relief or mortgage payers, can you tell us anything about that . Guest fats going to be something that comes down the road. Some of it is going to be banks nicking smart decisions. You foreclose on somebody, this is also probably not the best time to be putting a foreclosed home on the market. To some extent there will be at leastrts at relief suspension of payment, but it will be something that happens that can be figured out and maybe something the Federal Reserve engaged in as well. Mae freddie mac and fannie still a federal oversight and they back many of these mortgages. Think the caller is right that we need to stay calm and resolve in how we are dealing with things. As far as the president , im get a be critical of president s after President Trump and from before President Trump. Wehink there are some things have to challenge the president , challenge the executive and challenge congress. We are about accountability. Host headline about the governor of new jersey asking landlords to show compassion in this Coronavirus Crisis. He said to landlords we expect you will in turn provide similar relief to your tenants. Lets get one last call for our guest, from seattle. Caller is it possible to do a low bit of conversation with your guest . Host ask a question or two if you could. I assume, weler sell Treasury Bonds to keep ourselves accountable to printing money is my understanding of it. You mentioned something called triggers, having a trigger protectable amount we will generate. Happened i crisis had this harebrained idea and if it was you stick population growth and take our current Unemployment Rate minus ideal unemployment, if you take that number and multiply it by median income, you would have a predictable amount to print and i wonder if there was ever a thought of a different way of letting the world know we are accountable to the amount of money we print, its going to be predictable but we dont necessarily have to go into debt selling Treasury Bonds to justify printing it. Is there another way to have a protectable amount of money available the doesnt necessarily translate to debt but still hold ourselves accountable . Guest i will have to chew over that hill little to chew over that little bit. It is a lot to throw at me right off the bat. We sell treasury bills to finance government. It is about our National Debt, less about printing money. The more you print, you have a bigger chance of a crisis. The dollar is the reserve currency of choice, people park their money in the dollar in Treasury Bonds, is because there is a confidence that we will pay off our debt. It actually benefits the country that the world sees it as a safe harbor. If we do something that is risklly irresponsible, the and the accountability of our debt, all of a sudden it will cost that much more to borrow that money that we need for our operations. That is one real risk that exists. It also speaks to the u. S. Needs to be a leader in the world and how we operate because it is a worldwide economy, whether you like it or not. Lastly, i would just say if you want to see more about our texting of the dollars to me can see that at taxpayer. Net. We included things we will be looking out for. Industries have asked for specific bailouts. We will keep our eyes out to see if the candy makers or other companies for instance that have agriculture asked for a bailout and got money in this package. Thanks aphen ellis, lot for joining us for this halfhour with your insight on this big bill congress has passed. Thank you. Guest thank you. Always good to be here. Host same from us to you. Thanks for coming on again. Thank you for calling in this morning. We will have another full day of briefings from the governors. Statement and perhaps a News Conference from the white house later. Primetime,journal another edition tonight, 8 00 eastern. More insight into the response to the coronavirus and your calls. Enjoy your monday. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] if you miss any of our live coverage of the governments response to the coronavirus outbreak, watch it anytime at cspan. Org coronavirus. From daily briefings from the president and White House Task force to updates from the governors, it is all there. Use the charts and maps to chart the viruss global spread and confirm cases in the u. S. County by county. Our coronavirus webpage is a fast and easy way for you to watch cspans unfiltered coverage of the pandemic. We have a number of coronavirus briefings today to tell you about. Coming up in about 15 minutes, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer will give her response. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards will talk about the increase in coronavirus cases in new orleans and throughout the state. That will be live at 4 00 p. M. Eastern. Later today, the White House Task force will hold a News Conference. That is set for 5 00 p. M. Eastern and will be live on cspan. You can follow our coverage online at cspan. Org