on c-span3. fauci talks about a coronavirus vaccine into the importance of following public health measures to slow the spread of the virus. -- - aul: lucy --. paul: lucy >> happy birthday! >> that was a state secret until now.

how are you doing? i wanted to ask you -- >> ok. >> i wanted to ask you about that. i want to get to justice ginsburg and the pandemic and everything but give us just a little more of this flavor of the resolution. you agreed to a lot of money to the farmers. is that correct? is something -- the definition of a clean vr on the republican side is we get what we want and do nothing we don't. i am pleased we were able to accomplish the things we did with the leverage they gave us. the fact is that we were able to get almost a billion dollars in

pandemic emergency food for children in schools and childcare centers. we were able to get meals for children in school. sometimes they are not even attending. , what we wereased , we saved for seniors .hem from themselves mike four dollars or five dollars a month. there are different pieces of the bill. >> we will not let them know. [laughter] >> we won't tell anyone. this is just kind of a kick the can kind of bill, right?

it is just on: till december 11. until december 11. we have passed all our bills and the house on this, except for maybe one. the senate has not passed any. we will proceed with what we have accomplished on the floor of the house. they will post what their bills may be. we will go to conference. we have a commitment from the appropriators on both sides of the capital that they will work hard to have an omnibus ready to be finished. by december 11. let me jump to justice ginsburg -- speaker pelosi: you are ok.

jeff: let me jump to justice ginsburg. let's talk about justice ginsburg the person. you knew her well. can you share with our audience just and a kind of reflection you have about her life and work and your friendship? speaker pelosi: i am heartbroken she left. she had been almost bionic and how she had staved off different diagnoses. compliments iest ever received was from her when be said to me -- it had to about a dozen years ago. she said "since you are my friend, i want you to know that i have been diagnosed with cancer and i am going to make a public announcement, but since you are my friend, i wanted you to know so you did not read it

in the paper." i am upset, but she said " going to be all right." butas a serious diagnosis, i am glad she prefaced both sentences with "because you are my friend." and asetting on a plane it turns out, we were sitting right across from each other on the plane. she was deeply engrossed in what she was doing. nothing.xpecting -- she was focused. then she was finished. " i'm out working on my book, i want you to read it." she was like a new person. she was focused into then she

was friendly. andid -- she was focused then she was friendly. it, i, " no, i won't read will buy it." she's focused. no one has done more for women in our country than ruth bader ginsburg. hugeas petite in stature, in impact, powerful, brilliant mind in the court and even in powerful. in the ledbetter case, when the court ruled against women, she wrote the dissent. that became the lilly ledbetter law. it is now the law of the land,

giving protection for women in the workplace. jeff: right. about ask you about, year ago you were at the atlantic festival. if you you on the stage are going to move to impeachment and you said "it is a little too that," thenk about you went up to capitol hill and announced impeachment. you announced in your quiver of to stop donald trump from nominating someone to the supreme court to replace ruth bader ginsburg, that the word impeachment has been floated. is it possible to use impeachment to slow down or stop this coming nomination? speaker pelosi: i don't remember saying that impeachment -- of

anrse, impeachment is always arrow in the quiver. i did not reference it in relationship to this. the most important thing we can do in this regard, and i am sad that we have to be talking about great ruthhe theburg is laid to rest -- fact is why the president is in such a rush is he is in a hurry to overturn the affordable care act. oral arguments start november 10 and he wants to get a justice in there in time for that so they can hear the arguments and devote on it. on it.vote people need to know what this means to them. republicans are hypocritical -- who cares?

what they care about is what it means for them and what it means in150 million families america is they will have no protection for pre-existing conditions. what it means for families with children, older children on their policies, especially now with the pandemic and kids not having jobs or insurance, what it means to women, no longer being a woman is a pre-existing medical condition and what it means in terms of medicaid and the rest of that. people needs to know what it -- people need to know what it means in their lives. people need to vote their health and forget about all the machinations of washington dc from the standpoint of the house. this is a senate matter, but our effort will be about protecting

the global care act. -- islet me ask you this there anything the democrats can do at this point to stop this nomination and devote from happening or is it a lost cause for the democrats? speaker pelosi: you would have to ask the senators about that because i normally do not go onto to their terrain, but what i do know is what abraham and can set -- public -- abraham lincoln said. public opinion is everything. makeis important to do is sure people have a concern for pre-existing conditions or a child on their policy and the rest, that they have to make sure that there senators are aware of the fact that they are aware of the fact that they are

out to get them and get their health. vote health. it 20 states are voting today. -- 20 states today. everyone, get out there and vote is 42 days until the election. it is 43 days until the next election. senators would do well to heed the voices of many of their , which are more diverse in some of the states coming up now. jeff: let me go at this question one more time -- you have talked about having a quiver full of arrows. do you have anything left to stop this or are you assuming

this is going to happen? speaker pelosi: my battlefield now is the court of public opinion. it the court of public opinion -- in the court of public opinion, people care about the affordable care act. it has never before enjoyed the popularity it does now. going to people kitchen tables where they have to worry about not only their health but their financial health as it is affected by medical bills. very's health issues, important for the importer book care act-- affordable as well. my arena is the court of public opinion. far be it for me to interfere in the actions of the united states thinks battle, but i do there is a price to pay for

ignoring the needs of the american people. jeff: say that again? republicanssi: the let the cr go to a vote, if so do you want to call for a vote? -- floor manager the: if you have to run house of representatives from this interview, that is fine. just answered: i their question, it's fine. whilei will just sit here you run the house, it is fine. said milestone this week -- sad milestone this week,

200,000 dead from the coronavirus. how did this happen? speaker pelosi: it did not have to happen to that is one of the tragedies of it all. i would rather look forward to how it -- how we can prevent it from happening. it the strategic plan for how to spread the -- to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but the early distortion and a delay caused to death and that is a tragic thing. the scientists were telling us do, wear your mask, -- testing,to treatment, all of that could this.urtailed all of

we do have a responsibility after seeing what happened, the has ay, the president responsibility to join with the scientists and say "this is how we are going to proceed." it could have been prevented. asked about ruth bader ginsburg you askedinning -- about ruth bader ginsburg at the 200,000 people have died, parents have lost their loved ones, their child to this. -- firstes have lost responders, health care providers. 20,000 flags, each representing 10 people who died.

the answer is science, science, science. if you are antiscience and anti- government, you don't want to pay attention to science and you govern accordingly. the trumpe failure of administration let us hope they can see the light and obey science as we go forward. do you hold president trump directly responsible for at least part of these deaths? absolutely.si: it is no question. the president of the united failure donald trump's to heed what science was telling appear --st wanted to but it did. to use the excuse, "i did not want to cause a panic" --you do

not cause a panic by telling people what the solution will be. i would rather look forward. what can we do to prevent more deaths from happening. we have it in the heroes act. good advice in terms of mask wearing, benefits, sanitation, and the rest. it takes money. hit has disproportionately communities of color. black families and hispanic families are four or five times more likely to go to the hospital with the coronavirus then white families. what can we do to prevent more deaths from happening? i am excited about the prospect for vaccine. -- i hoped that the

that the president would not have interventions into clinical trials. answerand pray that the to our prayers is the vaccine. we wanted to be safe and efficacious and we want it not one day sooner or later than it is. we want the american people to trust it. in order to trust it, the political tension at the white house has to stay out of the process. there are important scientists at the food and drug administration should have the best minds working -- even in the pharmaceutical company ceos say they would not support a vaccine that has not gone through the appropriate clinical trials and approvals. the white house

overturned the guidance by the cdc. it is most unfortunate, but again, hopefully looking forward they can keep their hands off the science so that the competence -- confidence is there that the vaccine will work if people will take it. we want them to have the trust in the scientists, even if they doubt the president. jeff: madam speaker, we are going to have to leave it there, but we hope to see you next year in better circumstances at the actual live atlantic festival. a lot of people are watching this, so that is one exciting aspect of this digital presentation, but we hope to see you again. we want to thank you for joining us.

elosi: i love the atlantic festival because it is an exchange of ideas where we can be as candid as possible. i wish you a happy birthday. thank you. welcome, cofounder of the covid tracking project at the atlantic and atlantic staff writer alexis madrigal. ♪ hello, everyone. i am pleased to introduce dr. anthony fauci. dr. fauci, welcome to the atlantic festival. dr. fauci: thank you. are more thanere who -- 200,000 americans have died from they coronavirus, i want to bring you back to march. you said that the

middle-of-the-road -- your middle-of-the-road estimate was that 100,000 americans would die from covid-19. now that we are past the higher end of your predictions -- dr. fauci: the numbers speak for themselves. there have been some situations where things have worked well and other situations where they have not. we got hit badly particularly in the early part when the north eastern part of the country was ofounting for almost half all the infections, hospitalizations, and it deaths and then when they turned back around and came back down, they came back down to a baseline that was low and stayed low. they suffered terribly but now they are in a good place. at the situation we then went into is one that is troublesome. when we tried to reopen the

economy a can, which i think we needed -- economy again, which i think we needed to do, what happened as we tried to reopen the country again, the states in their response to that were variable. some did not adhere strictly to the guidelines we put forth. starting off where you have a certain checkpoint in the beginning then you go to phase ii and phase 3 some try to but the people in the state and cities did not listen and congregated at bars. you saw the baseline, which was about 20,000 cases per day, which is unacceptably high, it 30,000,gradually 40,000, 50,000. one.i went up to 70,000 -- 70,000it went up to

cases a day. 30,000 town to 40,000. that is not good, no matter how you slice it. there are parts of the country doing very well. when you look at a map of the country, we are a big country had a rog in a geographically -- geographically. there are others you are starting to see an uptick in test positivity. we know from historical observation retrospectively that when that happens you are going to have a surge. as i have said so many times, the fact is if you do this simple public health measures, universal wearing of masks, physical distancing, avoiding

hands, and washing your that sounds simplistic but we know when we do that consistently we prevent surges and we turn them around. the concern i have now -- i am giving more of an answer then you want -- we are entering the fall and winter, which means there will be more indoor things than outdoor things. going into that situation i would have liked to see the baseline of where we are come way down and do be stuck at 40,000 per day, which is where it is now. alexis: looking into the winter, there are two stories you could tell -- a one is that baseline is too high. the onset of flu season. the other is " we have a lot more testing, possibly

vaccines." there is a hopeful story you could tell about the winter as well. where are we? the beginning of the end or the beginning of a new wave? dr. fauci: we continue to talk about that new wave. i keep telling people that is based on the model of the 1918 pandemic, which had cases in the spring of 1918, then it essentially this appeared in the summer, then when the fall came we did have a second wave in 1918 because you went from --entially nothing to down wave.enormous that is not comparable now. we need to get out of the situation we are in right now. you do not talk about first wave, second wave -- we are looking at 30,000 new cases per

day. that is unacceptable. we have to get that down before we go into the winter. the point you made about vaccines is critical. that is a good news story so far. i am cautiously optimistic about that because we have three vaccine candidates in phase three trial already. shortly gowill very into phase three trial. they are involving anywhere from 30,000, some trials are 44,000, another is 60,000. we hope by the time we get to november and december, we will know whether it vaccine is safe and effective. there is no guarantee you will get a safe and effective vaccine but i am cautiously optimistic king at the initial data from the phase one trials that we i am cautiously

optimistic that the initial data from the phase one trials -- testingwe are doing the investment to an make doses of the vaccine so they are ready when the decision is made whether a vaccine is safe and effective so you do not have to wait months. november,an answer december, then we can start vaccinating people starting with the vulnerable's and health care workers. potentially.news alexis: i listen to dozen of interviews -- listened to dozens of interviews with you and you

morebecome progressively optimistic about vaccines. operation warp speed is a bright spot in the american response. how much has that program sped up actsing development and eventually distribution? dr. fauci: let me correct you on something. i have not become progressively more optimistic. in january of this year when i was asked when we might have a vaccine, and go back to my now.s about a year from about a year from january 2020 is december. i have not changed anything. let's keep that for the record. the other thing is this issue of operation warp speed, i think what we need to clarify and i would appreciate the opportunity to do this -- warp speed makes

it look like you are rushing things recklessly. it is not. we have done things in a very fast pace based on two things -- taking advantage of scientific advances and technological advances inccine -- vaccine platform technology where you can go from the sequence of a virus to going into a phase one trial within a couple of months. that is not sacrificing safety nor scientific integrity. seven months later we are in a phase three trial. the fact we are in a phase three trial now is not a testament to cutting corners but utilizing the technological advances we have had. that is why i sound optimistic, because the things i said in

january, which would depend on us getting a year later to get vaccines fortunately have worked out. the phase one trials looked good , they induced a response in individuals that would be comparable from -- to what you would get from infection. that is always a good prognostic sign for whether the vaccine will work or not. it will not tell you how effective it is but it strongly hints that it will be effective. that is why i might sound more up about it because the results we have are quite good. thiss: i want to ask you directly so you have a chance to answer. you have said the approval into distribution of the vaccines will be -- and distribution of -- do you think

vaccines will come on the political timeline? dr. fauci: no. the data will determine the announcement. dataof these trials has a and safety monitoring board, which is a group of people who are qualified scientists, qualified ethicists, qualified statisticians who will look at the data at intermittent times and determine one of the things -- they will look and say "you do not have enough data, " theue the study," or way this is distributed, you will never get an answer. it is a futile study." or, we are seeing more

infections in the vexing group than the placebo group so we need to stop because this is a vaccine thanal -- the placebo group so we need to stop because this is a dangerous trial. beholden to no one -- not to the fda, not to the president, not to me. if they look at the data and it looks good, then they tell the company. -- the company makes the decision " do i go to the fda?" the fda examines that then looks at it with am advisory board. nwith a ta become --

advisory board. any decision about whether or not you are going to approve a vaccine will be transparent. if someone tries to make an end run, that will be clearly obvious. alexis: the reason i ask these things, there have been a series of confusing stories on changing -- guidance, even direct pub political guiding of the morbidity report. people trust you. you are the most trusted person on coronavirus, but where else can people go for information they can trust? dr. fauci: it has been unfortunate what happened with the try and to manipulate of the cdc. there is an individual in the

department who is no longer there. at the person who is trying to influence the cdc is gone. i never listened to the person. it -- that is the way it was. i think we can put that behind us right now. i would trust the cdc and the fda. the fda commissioner has made it clear he will make sure that the in the trenches scientists who look at these type of things all the time, they will be the ones making the recommendations. hiv-aids first emerged, there was a lot of fear mongering and misinformation. this time around there is an ecosystem on the far right that has downplayed the pandemic, tried to cast out. affect do you

think those forces have had on the course of the pandemic in this country? dr. fauci: it has been detrimental because what the general public needs is a message that is consistent and that they can believe. it has happened unfortunately -- you need to be asleep not to inlize this -- we are living a divisive society right now. that is not my opinion, that is obvious of what we see. it is politically charged also. what has happened is public health issues and public health recommendations have taken on a we versus them approach. getting back to the point, getting people to wear masks, it was like a statement not to wear a mask. it is public knowledge now, people have been threatening me as a public health person,

literally threatening me and my family because i am saying we should be doing public health things like mask as if i am doing something that is harmful to them. publicterpreted as the health measure is hurting them. no, the virus is hurting us, not the public health measures. the public health measures should be looked upon as a vehicle or pathway to reopen the economy and get the country back and get employment back. it should not be looked upon as an obstacle. what i'm talking about is not shutting down. put shutting down away. we know the detrimental effect that has on people. i am talking about trying to open the economy but doing it in a measured way according to the guidelines we put forth. if we did that, i am almost

certain we would not have seen those surges in cases that brought us up to 70,000 a day 30,002e now plateaued to 40,000 a 30,000 to day. there are portions of the country doing really well. we need to make those be the models. alexis: thank you. we will have to leave it there. inc. you for joining us today and for your service to the country. dr. fauci: thank you for having me. >> here is a look at what is live on the c-span networks. in c-span the houses back at 9:00 a.m. followed by legislative business at 11:00. numbers considers several veteran related bills and

consider legislation promoting clean energynt of technology. considers, the senate nominations and on c-span3, robert redfield joins other public health officials for a senate hearing on the federal response to the coronavirus. in the afternoon, the head of aboutdget office talks economic projections before the budget committee. the supreme court holds a memorial service for the late justice ruth bader ginsburg at 9:30 am. following the ceremony, her casket will lay in repose for the public to pay their respects. up on "washington journal," we have a look at today's