organization's response to the global coronavirus pandemic. ofn, the founder and ceo regeneron pharmaceuticals discusses his company's work with the federal government to develop drug therapies to treat covid-19 patients. trust for america's health's president will be with us to talk about the u.s. government's response to the pandemic. eastern sunday morning. join the discussion. a reporter who is working in louisiana right now to see if we can find out more about what is going on on the ground. adelson, who jeff is a reporter in new orleans. good morning. guest: good morning. thanks for having me. host: what is going on on the

ground in new orleans right now? guest: as the governor said in the clip that you played, we are factg a pretty heavy the -- heavy effects from coronavirus here. rateve the highest death by far on a per capita basis. are pretty intense down here. much fully inetty lockdown. they have shut down the bars and restaurants. everyone is just trying to figure out how we are going to handle this. host: what is different about new orleans and louisiana?

quickly? spreading so guest: that is a very good question. i don't think anybody has a solid answer to that. there have been a lot of theories about some underlying conditions within our population that make people eventually more susceptible to having extreme illness when they get the virus. thatinly there is the fact any federal were warnings, we had mardi gras. that is something some experts think might have helped the virus spread more widely. what has been the response from local officials in new orleans and the governor for

people who have been told to stay at home, possibly losing their job, and the people who may be possibly exposed to ?oronavirus guest: that is a good question. a lot of the help so far has been through nonprofits and community groups. a lot of restaurants are on ading meals for people nonprofit basis. meals fore providing students that are no longer attending schools. uncertaintyot of about what the effects of this are going to be because so much of the economy is based on tourism. all of those businesses have been shut down. ande is a lot of question

uncertainty about what is going to happen to all of the workers and businesses that rely on those industries. what is the mayor of new orleans doing to help slow the spread? doings governor edwards as well the state level? both the mayor and the governor have been very proactive about this ever since the first case was i don't ride. all of the schools statewide are shut down. all of the bars across the state are shut down. restaurants are only allowed to do takeout. both the state and the city have issued orders requiring that only essential businesses be opened. nonessential businesses scaled back to work from home or the

absolute minimum that they can. we are under orders to be at home as much as possible as well. you drive around the city, and it is empty. people seem to be largely abiding by the rules to stay at home as much as possible to avoid spreading the virus further. you can go through the french quarter even at night when it is usually packed with people, and it is completely empty streets. it is kind of a little eerie. host: do the medical professionals in louisiana feel like they have what they need? what are you hearing from people in the medical industry?

guest: that is the biggest concern right now. concerns about protective equipment, which a lot of hospitals say they are really concerned about running out of. frightening,more the state models predict that we could run out of ventilators sometime in the next week just with so many patients needing them. key to keeping people alive when you have serious cases of coronavirus. the governor has said that we need thousands and thousands more ventilators then we currently have on hand in louisiana.

ordersbeen putting in and requesting ventilators from the federal government. in the meantime, they are in the process of converting the convention center, which is a huge building down by the new orleans riverfront. right now, they are going to be putting about 500 beds in the convention center. the idea is that they can scale that up to about 3000, which would almost double the hospital capacity in the new orleans area. host: there has been a lot of conversation about whether marty brought should have been held in new orleans this year. there are a lot of people who are second-guessing the fact that the parade went on as normal, and now louisiana is seeing all of these cases. what is the conversation going on in louisiana about what state

and local leaders to with keeping mardi gras up and going? of that ist hindsight being 2020. at the time mardi gras happened, there were virtually no cases of coronavirus in the u.s. all of the cases that have been identified were directly related to travel -- that had been identified were directly related to travel. other cities were still holding major events. stuff like sxsw was not canceled until weeks after mardi gras. nott of local leaders would have held mardi gras knowing what they know now, but at the time there was not enough information before hand to act that becausebout

nobody in the federal government was saying this is actually a if you go ahead with mardi gras, it is going to cause a problem. thankwe would like to jeff adelson for being with us. stay safe. --i am wondering if i should carryout orders we have at work and stay safe and be home. >> do you believe a left-wing national healthcare system like they have been united kingdom and cuba, for example, could

have helped get everybody on the same page? thatuld you actually get from money, being the money goes through so many hands? >> share your experiences dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and ask experts your questions. everyur conversation morning on "washington journal," which starts at 7:00 a.m. easternand at 8:00 p.m. for "washington journal primetime." >> television has changed since c-span began 41 years ago, but our mission continues to provide an unfiltered view of government. already this year, we brought you primary election coverage, the presidential impeachment process, and now, the federal response to the coronavirus. you can watch c-span programming on television, online, or listen

on our free radio app and be part of the national conversation through c-span's daily "washington journal" program or through our social media feed. >> former senator tom coburn of oklahoma died last night, his family reported. he'd been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2013. the oklahoma republican was a physician and first elected to the house, then later to the senate in 2004 and served until 2015. he was 72. and this afternoon senate majority leader mitch mcconnell's office put out a statement which reads, in part, "i'm so sad that we've lost our friend and former colleague, senator tom coburn. 72 years was far too few for someone this brilliant, this tireless and as dedicated to serving others. the senate mourns our friend."