Name: Full interview: VA secretary discusses vaccinations, impact of pandemic
Uploaded: 2021-03-03T14:19:55-0500
Duration: 411864
Description: Denis McDonough, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, discusses the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on VA hospitals and clinics and hesitancy among veterans to get vaccinated.

We’re also following the flight delays and tomorrow’s impacts after a plane crash at RDU. Plus, Only on WRAL, why a high school student is not allowed to participate in one of the most important events of his life.. and how he and his family are fighting for him to graduate. Watch WRAL-TV at 11 p.m., and search for these and other stories on WRAL.com.

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Denis McDonough, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, discusses the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on VA hospitals and clinics and hesitancy among veterans to get vaccinated.

We're joined now by Veterans Administration Secretary Denis McDonough, the secretary. Thanks for your time. Thank you for having me. It's really glad to be with, you know, the Durham Via is so very important to our viewing area. And this morning we were able to get those great pictures of Johnson and Johnson vaccine rolling into the V A. I've got a question for you, sir. Uh, the military is so strong to volunteer to enlist, too, to do anything to protect their fellow Americans. Have you sensed that some of the veterans have aged? There's been any vaccine hesitant. Yeah, That's a great question, David. In fact, what has been surprising on the upside to date is that uptake and enthusiasm for the vaccine is higher than we feared it might otherwise be. And so what we've seen is really strong uptake across all of our veterans who have been offered the vaccine so far. But we also know that it could be that we confront hesitancy questions along the way, which is why it's so important for people to understand that the more than 1,330,000 vets who have already been vaccinated with at least one shot. We've seen very little adverse reaction. We've seen very positive outcomes. And this obviously comes on top of extensive and very, um, rigorous testing today. So we feel good about where it is, where I was wide open about the fact that we might encounter some hesitancy. So we want to continue to tell that positive story veterans are also very interested in what Congress is looking at with the Covid relief package. Now, I know you haven't been on the job all that long, but I do know you land in that job on your feet and you have to absorb so much so very quickly. What are you hearing from veterans associations regarding what they want the president and Congress to do? That's a great question. You know, in the package. There's $17 billion expressly for this department. And let me give you a reason why that's a couple of reasons why that's important. $13.5 billion will go to our health care provision at places like the Durham via Center, and that's that's so important because since the start of the pandemic last year, 19 million appointments in fact more than that have been delayed or postponed or changed. So that means that care has also been delayed or deferred. And so we anticipate seeing additional costs associated with that deferred care. That's the first thing. Second thing those appointments that weren't canceled were handled by telehealth over the computer. So, for example, a year ago March 2020 there was about 2500 telehealth appointments every day last month, 45,000 appointments every day. So that means we have to make sure that the support we're giving to veterans to include technology support, ipads tablets and then connectivity to the Internet continues. So this bill currently in the Senate will allow us to do that. And it's really important for our vets right now. When you talk with the president, are you confident we're going to have this package approved? I'm confident we're going to do everything we can, and he's already doing everything you can to get it approved. You saw him doing meetings with senators all day yesterday, and we're going to continue working it. By the way, we're also talking to local community leaders about why it's so important and we're hearing from them about the kinds of investments that they need. So I feel confident we're going to get there. But we're not leaving this the chance. We're going to make sure that we worked really hard to get it done. Because we need these resources. Mr. Secretary, you know this viewing area where we are here at W. R. L. We have such a military presence with Fort Bragg in Camp Lejeune. Not too far away. Also, uh, with the Air Force with the association with hope. And then with that incredible number of veterans who have retired and chosen to live in this area, they pay very close attention to the good and sometimes the problems with the V A. In the short time you've been there, what do you see as the biggest challenge beyond the pandemic that the V A has to deal with right now, like the biggest challenge is making sure that we stay responsive to the concerns and the needs of our vets that we don't get tangled up in red tape and regulation and how we do business when we get to focused on that, we forget what we're in this for, and That's to fulfill the sacred obligation to our vets to ensure they have the care and the access to benefits that they've earned. And so my job is to make sure that we keep focused on that I e. On outcomes and that we don't let ourselves get tangled up in how we do it. The red tape, the bureaucracy. And you know what? When we see that happening in places like the Med Center in Durham, the results are really positive. When we get to kind of wrapped around our own Axel s, sometimes you do, for example, on the provision of benefits. Uh, that's just not living up to our obligation. Um, and I intend to make sure that we do when something gets wrapped around the axle that grinds to a halt, doesn't it? Sure does. And the thing is, it's not just that it grinds to a halt. Its that every one of those cases represents a veteran or his family and the needs that they confront, especially at this critical time in this economy. And we have to remember that that's who we're working for, and that's what the president's pressing us to do and That's what I'll continue to press us to do here. Mr. Secretary, we know you have a very busy day. We appreciate your time, Denis McDonough. All the best to you. Call on us anytime. Here you are welcomed to these media platforms here at Capitol Broadcasting whenever you need us. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. David. Good day.

David Crabtree

Matthew Burns

Full interview: VA secretary discusses vaccinations, impact of pandemic

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I'm meteorologist K Campbell in the wr a severe weather center. It's been a warm spring so far. In fact, when you look at the spring to date numbers, it's actually the second warmest on record at RDU running about 4.5 degrees above normal and for rainfall about an inch and a half below normal. And we really need some rain. You know, it's been a pretty dry April so far we've seen less than an inch inch of rain this month tomorrow. It's a nice dry day for us, but I, you know, at least it's gonna be a nice day, right? 72 in the Triangle, as well as Siler City in Wilson. 70 in Rocky Mount. 67 though in Roxboro and 67 for Roanoke Rapids, a little cooler to the north. 76 degrees in Fayetteville, 73 Goldsboro in Smithfield and 75 in Southern Pines. It is going to be a little bit cooler in the morning because cold front moved through 50 degrees for the low in the triangle, right around 7 a.m. by 10 a.m. We're in the upper fifties, lunchtime, mid sixties and then in the lower seventies during the afternoon, dinner time, temperatures dip back into the upper sixties. A cold front passed earlier this evening and behind it, we are going to be drying out but cooling down briefly. It's not a huge drop in temperatures, but we will see this dip in the jet stream delivering some cooler air. We start to see a reversal of the jet stream flow and that changes really on Sunday with a warming southwest wind at the surface and at the jet stream level, that's going to drive temperatures up to 80 beginning on Sunday and the eighties will last into next week with a strengthening ridge of high pressure. So we expect a big climb in temperatures just throughout the course of the weekend, 48 degrees Friday morning, but back up to 80 by Sunday afternoon and then much warmer weather is on the way for next week. We're looking at seventies for the next few days with mostly cloudy skies for the weekend days. The sun's back out though next Monday and with a warming wind, we're back in the upper eighties three days in a row all the way up to 89 on Tuesday. Tuesday might be the 1st 90 degree day of the year for parts of North Carolina.

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Brian Shrader flies over the site of a plane crash at Raleigh-Durham International Airport approximately three hours after the accident.

Seen some activity just in the past 10 minutes or so. I want to take you outside Sky five right now for a live look at the scene. We saw a van being escorted to the runway there and someone got out and now there appears to be a really careful inspection of the debris going on. So we're working to confirm if that may be the NTSB investigation team arriving at the scene. Let's zoom out and give you some about where this is. There are two main runways at RDU International and this is in the grassy field next to the runway that mostly serves terminal one on the east side of the airport, that runway remains closed while this investigation continues at the top of your screen. That is the other main runway that serves terminal two, mostly that runway is open. So we have two things going on here that could affect your flights for the rest of the day and maybe even into tomorrow, the airport takeoff and landing capacity is roughly reduced by half because they are only working with one runway. And if you have a flight coming out of terminal one, maybe Southwest, you're going to have to take that crossover all the way out to that other runway. It's going to add a lot of extra time.

Sky 5 flies over RDU plane crash 3 hours later 

A UNC Health physician and pilot were taken to the hospital Wednesday after a small plane crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU).


Sky 5 flies over plane crash at RDU

RDU Airport Authority gives an update on a plane crash that sent a physician and pilot to the hospital. The crash occurred Wednesday morning on a flight that took off from Wilmington.

<p>Landguth first, I want to extend my thoughts to those affected by this morning's aircraft accident and thank our first responders for their quick action to respond. The airport authority and its mutual aid partners responded to an aircraft accident at RDU involving a general aviation aircraft. The accident occurred at approximately 10:10 a.m. in the grass next to runway five, right 23 left. The flight was arriving from Wilmington, North Carolina. The A the aircraft is owned by medical Air Inc and operated by UN C air operations. The aircraft had two people on board, one pilot and one passenger. Both were transported to area hospitals. The federal A Bush administration issued a ground stop that was lifted at approximately 1130 this morning. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have both been notified. The National Transportation Safety Board is en route and expected to arrive within the next hour at which time we will conduct an accident investigation. Rdu's runway five left 23 right reopened to departing and arriving aircraft around 11:30 a.m. this morning. Are you experiencing approximately 70 delays and several arriving flights were diverted to other airports? Until ground stock was lifted, travelers should contact their airline for the latest updates regarding the flight status. And of course questions about the identity and condition of the pilot and passenger should be directed to UN C health. And at this time I'll try to answer any questions. You may have, uh, the one, any other accidents in, in the past. I'm not familiar with any other accidents have occurred with that operation. I don't know, uh, that's the role of the National Transportation Safety Board. They'll actually come in and do the investigation. Uh, and at some point in the future, they write up a report and determine what the cause of the accident was. You know, that there was no notification to the airport authority or to the FAA uh about any type of emergency on board. Do we have a guy? We don't, all we know that we've got them out of the airplane and we've got them transported to local hospitals. We know situations like this and delays have a ripple effect on, you know, flights. Do you have any idea what type of impact we'll see here in our view and for not sure, but what we're going to encourage everybody to do is reach out to your airlines. We'll be able to give you real time information about the impact of your particular flight. Ok. I believe some of them went to Greensboro and I think a couple went to Charlotte as well. What, what to be impacted due to the NTSD. Say that one more time at this point in time, what we call the west side of our airport is now open the investigation they'll conduct will all be on the east side. So at this point, we are anticipating normal operations returning to normal operations from this point forward. I don't think that anything that they're doing regarding the investigation or where they would have to investigate would have any impact to the west side of the airport. No, the aircraft is still on the airfield itself. It's on the east side of the field. So terminal one that runways the east side of the field, that's where the debris field actually sits, the west side of the field is open and operational and safe to operate. Not that I'm aware of in operations for you throughout this event today. What was your main concern concerning the passengers that were in the internals? Right. I think our primary focus when, when that accident occurred were the two people sitting in that aircraft? Our primary mission is to make sure we can get to them and try to rescue them and try to make sure that we can get them in a safe condition as fast as we possibly can. Uh secondarily is trying to figure out then how we recover and get our operations back up and running. Mhm. How does that affect? What goes on term? Yeah, so great. Question. So the team has figured out a way to get all the aircraft they're gonna operate at terminal one. Your Southwest develops. Uh We've got a crossover taxi way that we can actually get them through our general aviation aircraft. We've got a crossover taxiway, we can get them to. But the rest of the uh accident scene is actually kind of isolated and closed and locked off. Yeah, you're terminal one at this point in time. Once they can get back on their schedule, it's going to be a normal operations. All right. Thank you guys. All right. Thank you. Grab your phone, right.</p>

Full interview: VA secretary discusses vaccinations, impact of pandemic

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