Facebook. Com cspan. 202 7488001, and if youre a medical professional, 202 7488002. We begin with the numbers courtesy of johns Johns Hopkins university. 1. 6 million confirmed cases and around the world, more than 100,000 deaths, of those, more than 18,000 in the u. S. Our countries dealing with 490,000 cases of covid19 across all 50 states, washington dc and the territories. Six members of congress have been battling covid19, including senator rand paul, representative joe cunningham, representative neal dunn and congressman mike kelly of pennsylvania and ben mcadams of utah. Fromsixth member joins us his home in miami, representative Mario Diazbalart from florida. How are you feeling tonight . . Epresentative diazbalart i am welcome i feel recovered, i am still weak but other than that i feel pretty well. Aeve this unfolded about month ago. Explain what happened, and when you knew you had coronavirus. Representative diazbalart a month ago it was a different world, congress was open to visitors, tourists, foreign dignitaries. We had regular meetings and hearings, and the last vote of that week was friday evening. Is totally healthy but has preexisting conditions and respiratory issues. So talking to our Family Doctor i said, i have been dealing with a lot of people, what do you think, as a precaution should i stay in d. C. . And he said stay there, because of her high risk. Saturday morning i got groceries because i was going to stay as a precautionary thing. All of a sudden, saturday evening, it was like a brick wall fell on me. I had an intense headache, huge headache, fever, and i dont know how high it was because i couldnt find the thermometer. I had chills, everything hurt, i was shivering, headache and an intense cough. That started saturday and lasted for quite a bit. Steve one of the symptoms for the illness is the loss of taste. Did that happen to you . Representative diazbalart i wish i would have lost taste. Yes, but in my case everything just tasted horrible. I had to forcefeed myself. Even drinking water, the only thing i hadnt the apartment was water, and that was hard to drink because it tasted foul. That was clearly taking place in my case. Steve you have any since i you contracted this . Represented ds block i have i have no idea. Withweek, i must have met 1500 people. I went to a number of large events at the capital, meetings, hearings, so i have no idea how. Was it an elevator, personal contact . Who, or when, with what, i have no idea. Steve how is your wife doing . Representative diazbalart we are very fortunate. This wouldve been much different if i had come home. I had a flight scheduled saturday morning. I canceled it, because when i spoke to the Family Doctor he said dont risk it i would have been here and potentially gotten her sick. Tia andand my son, christian, are healthy. They are at home like the rest of the country, are healthy and are doing well. Steve we have all had the flu. In terms of recovering from the flu and this, what are the biggest differences . Representative diazbalart this has taken me a lot longer to recover. When you get the flu, you have sinus issues, stuffy nose, i didnt have any of that. I had the symptoms i told you. I was exceedingly lucky i did not have difficulty breathing, but the fever lasted about two fors, very intense fever four or five days and nights. It went away, i thought it was getting better, it came back and lasted for another weekend a half, a lowgreat fever. Then that went away, the cough started getting better, that is when i do i was over this. The weakness, the fact i am weaker than it should be this than theis different flu. The flu is top you get over it, what i feel is weaker than i would after the flu. And i know i am one of the very lucky, blessed individuals who has gotten through this. That is something i am grateful for. Steve have you spoken to your colleagues . Representative diazbalart yes, mostly through texts. The last thing when i was going through, the last thing i wanted to do was speak a lot. A lot of it has been texts with ben mcadams, neal dunn, spoke to him today it was please to hear how he sounded. Steve your day job is being a member of congress. How are you doing that with the house and senate not in session, no schedule for return . Representative diazbalart i have been very busy and fortunate that i have been able to stay involved at work. When i was quarantined in d. C. And was sick, i spoke to three or four members of the president s cabinet. The president call that wished me well. I also spoke to folks from florida, the governors office, state officials, local officials, and a lot of my colleagues. The work has not slowed down. Today i got a nice call from majority leader steny hoyer, im irepublican, hes a democrat, was very appreciative, my hat off to him. He called to see how i was doing and that was very, very nice. Is nextongressman, what in terms of your recover . What is your recovery . Diazbalart i am supposed to take it easy. Todays not one of the days when i was able to do that. I have applied to donate my plasma, my blood. And i am encouraging others who have been like me, fortunate and lucky, to do the same. But that could hopefully save a life or help others. Now, they cant take my blood yet. They will let me know when it is timely so that they can take my blood, hopefully process it and hopefully help others going through difficult times. Ofve you are in miami, one the new hotspots. What are you seeing across your Congressional District and in that part of the state . Representative diazbalart the city of miami is one of the big hotspots. Very seriousy, issue. I have been telling people to please listen to federal authorities, state and local authorities, the health experts, and just stay away from people. And theis as a war, United States is at war with this virus. We all have to do our part, and right now our part is listening to folks who know what they are talking about and heating their advice, staying away from others. That means not visiting people, not going to see neighbors or family members, staying home until the telus it is safe to not do so. Safe to not dos so. That is what it is going to take to beat this. This countrys going to do well. But we all have to do our part. Steve congressman Mario Diazbalart represents floridas 25th Congressional District. Stay healthy. Thanks for being with us. Representative diazbalart thank you, and my prayers are with those who are struggling or have lost loved ones. A moment, the president of the American Medical Association will join us. But first, jerome adams, Surgeon General, on why we are seeing a disparity in increases in covid deaths and illnesses among minority populations, especially the hispanic and africanamerican communities. Teleworking is critical and you have heard about how they prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Yet only one in five africanamericans and one in six hispanics has a job that lets them work home. Packedver li bin more areas which creates a higher risk for the spread of a contagious disease. A study showed 30 of homes in the Navajo Nation dont have running water. How are they going to wash their hands . Experienceolor both most likely exposure more likely exposure to covid19 and more complications. We dont think people of color are more genetically disposed to get covid19, but they are socially predisposed to exposure and to have a higher incidence of the diseases that put you at risk of complications from coronavirus. But this history, i want you to hear me say this, does not have to be our nations future. We are taking steps now to reach, protect and strengthen all communities impacted by the disease, especially communities of color. More details will be forthcoming. On datactively working collection, targeted outreach to communities of color, increasing employment, education, Housing Support so everyone has a chance to be healthy. While your state and local Health Departments and those of help stop the to spread of covid19 and protect you regardless of your color, creed or geography, you are not helpless. It is even more important that in communities of color we adhere to task force lines to slow the spread. Stay home if possible. If you must go out, maintain six feet of distance and wear a mask if you are within six feet of others. Wash your hands more often than ever dreamed possible. Avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs, call your friends and family, checking on your mother. She wants to hear from you right now. Steve that is the Surgeon General earlier today. These briefings are available at cspan. Org. Joining us from atlanta is dr. Patrice harris, president of the American Medical Association. Thank you for being with us. Dr. Harris thank you for having me. Steve testing seems to be a key component in terms of trying to open the economy. Ama, fromd of the your standpoint where are we . Dr. Harris we as a nation have been behind from the very beginning intestine capacity in Testing Capacity. Thats one of the reasons why during an early meeting with the president and his task force, we requested he was all the levers of the federal government and defense production act to make sure Health Care Professionals on the front line had access to ppe, adequate Testing Capacity and ventilators. But we have ad, long way to go before we are at the appropriate Testing Capacity, and not just thenostic testing, but rapid testing, which is a diagnostic test, but that would be great for quick results, also the antibody test. That will tell us who has already been infected and has recovered. All hands ond an deck approach to increase Testing Capacity. Steve whether it is a Natural Disaster like Hurricane Katrina or this pandemic, the Minority Community is that . Dr. Harris certainly these early numbers we have seen are probably. I just read something earlier about st. Louis, and if the reporting is correct, it said are of the deaths thus far africanamericans. Clearly this is an issue. We can look at this from three large buckets. The first, we have known since the early days of this pandemic that if you have underlying hypertension or diabetes, you are at increased risk of more severe consequences of covid19, and death. But the Africanamerican Community was already disproportionately impacted by those very disorders. So that is a piece of it, the precovid19 Health Inequities. Misinformation is a critical part. I have said in other venues that i spent the first couple of weeks of this pandemic actually not in my role as ama president , but as a friend and family member, dispelling myths that africanamericans couldnt come infected. The other issue is jobs. We know that those from communities of color make up a large percentage of essential those who areers, cooking and cleaning for us, so because they are still having to go to work and dont have the privilege of working from home, they are exposed more. We can look at this in three areas. That is why the ama sent a letter to hhs calling for nationwide collection of data regarding reset regarding race and ethnicity. Steve that is available on your website. Joan is in hagan heights, new jersey. Good evening. Caller i just dont agree with trump. Because i dont think anything should be open right now. It is very serious. People are in pain, are very sick and are dying. He is not a doctor. The doctors dont know how long this is going to be. It is up to the doctors. It is not up to him. Steve patrice harris, you are one of those doctors. What is your recommendation based on what joan in new jersey was saying . Dr. Harris this past thursday i gave a public address on behalf callingma, and we are on everyone to make sure science and evidence rules the day. All of us want our economy to get started again, but we will need the science and the data to drive decisions about folks going back to work. That is why testing is critical. If we have more widespread testing, we can not only know who is currently infected, but who has already recovered. That will go a long way toward making those decisions, but any decisions should be based on science and evidence. And in that address, i also cautioned on behalf of the ama allto prematurely get us back to work and lift those stayathome and shelterinplace orders. Steve if you had a patient, would you recommend hydroxyl clerk point hydroxychloroquine for that patient . Dr. Harris here is where we are on hydroxychloroquine. Random trials are occurring. That is what we always want to do when we look at recommendations for any treatment alternative, getting back to my point about science and evidence. We need weight on the evidence. At this point we dont have the scientific evidence. We know these trials are going approvedhe fda has this medicine for compassionate use or emergency use. But listen, what a physician makes any recommendation, from a baby aspirin to a medicine for bipolar disorder to whether a patient should have open heart surgery, we are obligated to talk to our patients about all the side effects, whether they are minor and common or uncommon and more serious. That is what should continue as we work through this pandemic. Steve our guest is a West Virginia native and graduate of West Virginia university and the school of medicine erie diane is next for missouri. Good evening. Caller good evening. Steve you are on the air. Caller i am calling from st. Louis. I am very concerned. I heard your guest talk about in st. T most deaths louis, or all of them pretty much, have been africanamerican. I want to bring about the point that we need in st. Louis more testing in the Africanamerican Community. And we need adequate treatment. On one program they were talking about systematic racism, whereby sometimes we dont get the treatment others would get. I wish somebody would bring that up i know people want to avoid but topic, africanamericans are dying all over the country at an alarming rate. But in st. Louis, just about everybody that has died is africanamerican. I wish they would look at that and treat us fair. Let us have. A chance to live. Steve thank you, diane let us have a chance to live. Steve thank you, diane. Dr. Harris . Dr. Harris these numbers are troubling and we certainly need the data. That is what we called on hhs to collect the data by race and at the city and disseminate that localand as folks on the level, Public Health, local physicians, scientists, they can then use that data to target to know which communities to target, so i absolutely agree with the testing. We want to make sure testing is and that available, gets to communities to where you see highest rates of this and icu admissions and doubts. But lets not forget rural areas. Equityn i mean available, i mean we have to make sure testing sites are out in the community. Some folks may use public transportation, so we want to make sure they have access to that. To largerller alluded issues, social determinants of health. Transportation is one i mentioned. If you live in a food desert, not so much related to covid19, but we are asking and getting that everyone try to eat more fruits and vegetables, and want to make sure they are equitably available. I will say one more thing about the ama commitment to Health Equity. We just established a center for Health Equity and hired our first chief Health Equity officer, dr. Aletha maybank, so we continue to lead the conversation about Health Inequities, and not just for communities of color, but women, members of the lgbtq community, native americanalaska native population. So we really plan to focus on Health Inequities and lead that conversation. Steve richard is next from lynchburg, virginia. Good evening. Caller how are you today . Steve we are good, thank you. Caller can you hear me . Steve we can. You are on the air. Caller i have a suggestion for the mask. It is an oldschool thing to do, but just tie a clothesline up and wipe it down with clorox after you do that, or lysol. And then hang your mask up with line,pins on the close the line you have running, and spray them with lysol that evening, the front and the back. And then leave and come back, and the next day, i wonder if they would be sterile enough to use . They would have to test and see if there was anything on that but ifat was sprayed, that works it would be a simple way of doing it, and if it works, it works, if it doesnt, if it doesnt. Steve thanks. Any ama recommendation . A lot of Home Remedies coming up to deal with this. Dr. Harris a couple of things. We want to make sure everyone is following the science and the evidence in getting information from credible sources. Let me separate the mask into two things, because just like we always do, people in this country rally around times of crisis. And we know many folks are making masks. By a fabric store on my way to the Grocery Store in so i knownd ica line, folks are probably making masks i knowi see a line, so folks are probably making masks. The cdc recommended cloth masks, not medicalgreat masks. I have seen videos on youtube on how to make a mask from a bandana, and i have done that. Thoseou get home, toss masks in the washer and dryer, make sure those are clean for homemade masks. For the rest of us, the medical staff, those on the front line, we call on everyone to make sure that we reserve those masks, and the n95 masks for health care workers. There was a company, i believe in new york, that is looking at medicalgreat sterilization, and we will let those companies do that for hospitals and physicians, so they need to take that course of a more higher, medicalgrade of sterilization. The fda is involved in that and improving whether those techniques are safe steve are safe. Steve we welcome listeners on cspan radio. Dr. Patrice harris i