listening different follows on twitter at barron's online. that's all for us, see you next week on barron's roundtable. [♪] gregg: good evening, i'm gregg jarrett sitting in for the vacationing lou dobbs. monday lou declared the coronavirus a pandemic. now it has spread to at least 56 countries. despite the threat, the world health organization refuses to call it a pandemic but opting to increase their risk assessment globally to very high. the spread of the virus, the dow dropped 12%.

the s & p down 11.5%. the nasdaq declined.5% as all -- declined 11.5% as well. on his way to south carolina president trump weighed in on the markets saying he does not believe the drop is solely due to coronavirus fears. president trump: it's the unknown. they look at it and say how long will this last? i think they are not happy with the democrat candidates. i think that has an impact. and we think we are going to win. we think we'll win easily. but you never know. but i think basically it's the unknown a little bit. but i feel confident. gregg: we have more from the new

york stock exchange. reporter: the coronavirus rattling the markets that left all three indices in correction. it was the worst week on wall street since the financial crisis. the dow closed down 373. investors rushed out of equities and found safety in u.s. treasury notes. the yield on the one-year note 1.13%. back and forth before clawing its way to a less painful close. the federal reserve weighed in. with no trait cuts expected before the coronavirus. jerome powell said the

fundamentals of the economy remain strong, but the coronavirus poses an evolving risk to economic activity. powell said the fed will use its tools and act as appropriate to protect the economy. gregg: members of president trump's task force and talks about the white house emergency request for $2.5 billion are accelerating. they hope for congress to pass that request early next week. the money will be used for research and medical equipment such pass fac facemasks. reporter: the white house considering using a 7 odd-year-old law to -- a -- a 70-year-old law to require companies to make the masks as well as other protective gear.

alex azar said the coronavirus test kits are being sent to states. private labs will also help. >> we also will very soon through the fda be rolling out streamlined guidance that will allow private labs to create their own tests based on the recipe the cdc has used. reporter: there was a statement by federal reserve chairman jerome powell saying the fund amountals of the economy remain strong. he may extends the travel restrictions as a precaution. president trump: we are looking at a few countries with a disproportionately high number. reporter: we'll have to see if

the members of the federal open market committee agreen to a rate cut. gregg: a former reagan economic advisor, art laffer and heather zumarraga. one of the nation's leading infectious disease experts dr. anthony fauci will be with us. the president and his team are hard at work on the coronavirus. the federal court of appeals ruling that house democrats like jerry nadler do not have the right to force testimony from former white house counsel don mcghan. reporter: this is a decision

both house democrats and those close to the president have been waiting to learn for months. many months of federal appeal courts in a 2-1 ruling saying don mcghan does not have to testify before the house judiciary committee. the mueller investigation is history and don mcghan hasn't been white house counsel since 208. the court is sending the case back to a lower court with instructions to dismiss it. judge griffith wrote article 3 of the constitution forbids federal courts from resolving this interbranch dispute. we agree and dismiss this case. this means a federal appeals

court ruled that the constitution bars the court from getting involved in the certain issues of impeachment. this allows the white house to claim victory. house democrats have until march to request a hearing. it's possible this could end up at the supreme court. gregg: president trump is nominating john ratcliffe to be the director of national intelligence. the president tweeting he would have completed the process earlier but ratcliffe wanted to wait until after the inspector general report was finished and published. his whole a opposite would be congressman jerry nadler hop has moved on to his next witch hunt, attacking the department of justice. he wants more than a dozen people to testify, including the

40s cry baby attorneys who gave roger stone an unfair sentencing recommendation that was resides by bill barr. and u.s. attorney john durham is investigating the corruption behind the russia hoax. the president tweeting, the democrats request is another attempt to distract from the job they failed to do and the abuse that has plagued our nation the last three years. they only care about taking down president trump. the fda says they are starting to see a shortage of at least one drug. we'll take it up with dr. anthony fauci.

two of the nation's leading economists will be joining us as we take up the worst week on wall street since the 2008 financial crisis. and my lack of impulse control,, is about to become your problem. ahh no, come on. i saw you eating poop earlier. hey! my focus is on the road, and that's saving me cash with drivewise. who's the dummy now? whoof! whoof! so get allstate where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. sorry! he's a baby! now you can, with shipsticks.com! no more lugging your clubs through the airport or risk having your clubs lost or damaged by the airlines. sending your own clubs ahead with shipsticks.com makes it fast & easy to get to your golf destination.

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greg: national economic councilmember larry kudlow said the stock sell-off won't affect the economy long term. >> i was a reagan cub ask scout way back when. i remember the 1987 market crash. and i remember reagan saying the economy is strong. i remember president trump saying it a few nights ago in this room. i don't think the short-term stock market plunge will have a longstanding effect. gregg: what about that, art laffer and bill lee from the milken institute. clearly the markets are reacting negatively to deep worries and

some level of and next markets. markets hate uncertainty. they loathe it. they want to know everything before it's going to happen. but setting all of that aside, isn't it true that our economy is sounds and healthy? >> i don't think there is any real problems in the economy. i don't understand this coronavirus, by the way. but i think larry kudlow is correct. there is nothing i can see in the horizon that would indicate a slowdown in the market and the economy. gregg: bill, is it your view there is an overreaction that may be unwarranted? >> let me he you why i believe that. a lot of my former colleagues on wall street are engaged in what if trading.

one trader tries to one-up the other trader. what set it off was the vote of no confidence when the virus spread to the european continent. the european health system is not one the traders trust. the lack of information promotes the what if the worst case scenario. people are realizing it's not the what if scenarios that matter, it's the what will be that makes money. it would be very helpful if larry and others in the administration cop out and say here is a daily briefing of what we know about the virus and how it spread and how contagious it is. gregg: we rely on china for electronics and toys and

clothes. hundreds of products as well as -- this is the important part, components of products that go into the american goods we create. since china has most of the coronavirus cases, they are halting some of the transportation and shutting down some factories. so that's going to interrupt not only distribution, but supply as well as production. that impacts american companies? >> yes, it does. that's why i think the market has dropped as much as it has. because of the interdiction of these supply chains. the real worry you have in something like this is the government trying to react by doing something stupid. then the consequences of those actions will be much, much worse than the problem itself. i don't think there is any chance this administration doing anything like that. that's what the obama and w

administration did and they caused a recession. if you look at the democratic proposallals for if they won the election, they are all really awful and would be bad for the economy. maybe a little of that is seeping into the system if there is a slight chance they might win. bad government policy action which almost always happens, then the bad elections. i don't think those will occur, but it may be enough to pull the market down. gregg: it sees like the president is taking a measured approach. apple and microsoft announced their target is off and amazon and facebook are canceling some

major events. >> the economic costs are the fear of catching this virus and not knowing the consequences. it's causing people to essentially lock up the production supply chain. if we even gang in a policy that promotes a lock-up, it will be costly. microsoft and apple are telling us it looks like the corner has been turned in china and they are reopening manufacturing and stores. and american companies will be able to get parts again. president trump's discussion of the trade treaties has made people more aware of the vulnerabilities. every ceo will ask can we have backups. gregg: politicians will never

resist exploiting a tragedy for political advantage. chuck schumer is accusing the president of a towering incompetence. dick blumenthal called the white house response disastrous. don't we need a united front by our elected officials in washington to confront this challenge? >> i believe in the wonder world of fantasy and love. but politics is politics. that's what these people do. they do it on he issue and it doesn't stop. i can remember when the republicans can do that as well. i wish they wouldn't, especially with a disease like coronavirus. they do it on everything, greg. they don't miss any topic. he wore the wrong shoes. he walked into the room and an quake started happening in peru.

there is nothing the president can do that won't incur their hostility and anger. gregg: we saw this with sars and mers, and ebola. that's the word of the super bugs. they routinely appear and mass hysteria ensues. but we'll survive this like the others, won't we? >> the best vaccine is information. we need to make sure people have correct information and don't have to depends on twitter and the media for scare mongering. gregg: share your comments and follow lou on twitter and like him on facebook and follow him on instagram @loudobbstonight.

lou will be back monday. the acting i.c.e. director will be here. and taupe fit on will be lou's guest. health officials announcing a new case of the coronavirus in california. dr. anthony fauci is on the president's coronavirus task force. he will be joining us in a few moments with the latest on what's being done to stop the spread. stay with us. ♪ ♪wild thing, you make my heart sing.♪ ♪you make everything... groovy...♪ done yet? yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry. you sure? hmm.mmm. ♪come on, come on, wild thing. if you ride, you get it. geico motorcycle. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

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gregg: welcome back. i'm gregg jarett sitting in for the vacationing lou dobbs. a second california resident has contracted the coronavirus with its source unknown.

that brings the u.s. cases to 61. most of the people from the cruise ship will be released from quarantine monday. more than 84,000 are infected worldwide. but 94% of all these cases are from china. 37,000 have already recovered. it has spread to 5 countries including the first case in mexico. the fda reporting the first drug shortage tide to the virus. they declined to identify the manufacturer or the product. we have been reporting on this program that china produces 80% of the active ingredients used in a drug in at -- in the united

states and 97% of all antibiotics. joining me is dr. anthony fauci of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. before we get into the nuts and bolts of it. the new york sometimes report says the trump administration has barred you from speaking public without approval. is that true? >> no. that was rather dramatically misconstrued. when the vice president came in to take over this whole effort, what we -- what we did was put a pause on things and recleared everything. i have never been prevented from going on any show. up here with you. so the idea i'm muzzled is

incorrect. it was misconstrued. gregg: alex azar who is the health and human services secretary said the following. we don't want people to hyperventilate for every american nothing in their lives has changed because the risk is low. do you agree with that? >> yes. what secretary azar was saying, if you look currently at what's going on, the cases we have have been identified, isolated. and even with a new case which is something you want to have a little concern over. you have got to get the contacts of that person and trace them. we have done quite well thus far. one of the reasons why is what we did early on was that travel restriction from china preventing a lot of people

infected, particularly from wuhan, from coming into the country which made the total number of cases starting off quite low. having said that. one of the things we have got to realize. when you look at the considerable number of infections, even though the overwhelming majority is in china. we have seen community spread in places like italy, south korea, and iran. when that happens, the danger of influx coming inthe to the country is there. and that's going to be our challenge. even though thus far we have done well. we have a alcohol king ahead of us because as this virus spreads globally it becomes more challenging for to us prevent cases from coming here, and also to prevent the kind of spread you may not notice because you don't identify a case.

we have work to do. gregg: super bugs don't care what party you belong to. but that hasn't stopped the president's critics and media, criticizing the president's response. are you satisfied with the president's response so far and what we are doing? >> we brief the president and vice president, now with the vice president being in charge of the overall effort. the amount of effort we are doing and the interest he's taking is interesting. we do a lot of that. at least every day the task force meets and we brief the president intermittently. he's very well briefed on what's going on. greg: are there enough