COVID-19 Conversation with WHO Advisor Jamie Metzl; Democratic Debate Review

Published: March 16, 2020, 6:52 p.m.

The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His new show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET.

Brad is first joined by Advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO), and technology futurist, Jamie Metzl.  Jaime is also author of the highly acclaimed book "Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the future of Humanity" (releasing in paperback on April 7th, 2020). His Twitter handle is @JamieMetzl.

Jamie explains that while efforts to contain this outbreak must proceed, the contagion has already or will soon reach community spread levels where a containment strategy will no longer be viable.  He also outlines that while efforts in China and South Korea have shown that extreme measures can at least temporarily slow the spread of this virus, we are likely to see very rapid increases in contagion levels around the world.

During the second half of the show, Brad leads a political round-table with Nick Guthman and Mark Grimaldi.  The roundtable discuss the youth vote in the 2020 Democratic primary and general elections, as well as the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on the race for the White House.

Nick is Co-Founder of 'Blue Future,' a national organizing program run out of the Youth Progressive Action Catalyst, a youth-led political action committee (PAC), focused on organizing young people around progressive electoral campaigns. His Twitter handle is @NickGuthman. The website for 'Blue Future' is www.OurBlueFuture.us.

Mark Grimaldi, or 'Marky Mark' as Leslie Marshall calls him, is the Executive Producer of this show.  In addition to being the Executive Producer for the Leslie Marshall show for 14 years, for the past 12 years Mark has been a progressive political activist and campaign volunteer of President Obama's (2008 and 2012), Senator Bernie Sanders' (2016), and Secretary Hillary Clinton's (2016).  Mark is also involved in campaign finance reform efforts around the country, and philanthropic efforts for Cancer research.  His Twitter handle is @MarkJGrimaldi.

Brad writes a column every Sunday on the 2020 Presidential race for 'The Hill.'  He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles.
You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon. His Twitter handle is @BradBannon.