this sunday, covid fallout. vaccination frustration. >> refresh. go back through the form again and again. >> those new variants. >> the continues spread of variants more transmissible. >> getting kids back to school. >> to say you are not going to open up schools until ever teacher gets vaccinated. i don't think we can do there. >> my guest this morning, dr. anthony fauci and teacher's union president. >> and the trouble in texas.

>> we need our power here. >> it is freezing. blackout. no electricity. >> freezing and blackout and the hot debate over how everything went so wrong. >> the republican civil war. days after mitch mcconnell blindsided. >> mr. trump is morally responsible for the events of the day. >> the strike back. >> i'll talk to former texas congressman will the rift in his party and the catastrophe in texas. >> susan page, washington bureau

chief of u.s. a today. welcome to sunday, it is "meet the press" a good sunday morning. we are covering three big stories today. the deep freeze in texas where millions are still in a boil water situation and the fallout over how what could appear to be a preventable catastrophe. >> the growing feud between former president trump and representative mitch mcconnell. >> sometime likely today, the u.s. death toll will hit 500,000. reminds us of just how heavy a toll the virus has taken.

the brutal winter weather has delayed the delivery of some 6 million vaccine doses. go news is confirmed cases continue to fall. that is the increasing pressure to now reopen schools and get kids back into the classroom. all of those issues on the table. joining me now, dr. anthony fauci. welcome back. before i get into some specifics. i want to give you a chance to take a step back. health toll of half a million. we are basically at the one-year mark. you think about it and compared to what this nation faced in 1918 and we had modern medicine today. just how deadly in the big picture has this pandemic been in this country? >> it is stunning, chuck.

horrible. if you look at what has gone on now and we are still not out of it. half a million deaths. it is just terrible. it is historic. we haven't seen anything close to this well over a hundred years since the 1918 pandemic. it is stunning when you look at the numbers. this is a devastating pandemic and historic. people will be talking about this decades from now. >> no doubt about that. let me get into some nitty gritty. how much of a set back did we take with the winter weather and vaccine distribution and how long will it take for us to catch up? >> first of all, obviously, it is a set back. because you'd like to see the steady flow of vaccine getting out there to get into people's

arms. we can play pretty good catch up. we are already down now. we have gotten 2 million out. 6 million doses got delayed. 2 million out. we project by the middle of the week, we will have caught up. it was unfortunate. it was a set back. a temporary set back. when you put your foot to the accelerator, we'll push to get it up to where we need to be by the middle of the week. >> you and i had conversations about the first dose versus the second dose. particularly for folks that have had covid. any of these new studies giving you any sense of where we would change the vaccine distribution schedule. make it 12 weeks or 6 weeks for everybody.

any of these giving you any sense of if we should change these protocol? >> people need to change their point of view. they are very different scenario. if you've been infected and you get vaccinated after that, what about one dose. the other is if you had not been infected. can you get away with one dose and prolong the second dose. i will still maintain that there are enough unknowns. particularly the durability that lead up to the impressive results with 99.5 efficacy with both. when you give a dose, you boost or increase by at least 10 fold. you are talking a very, very

increase. we don't know the second dose. risky to engender some variants with regard to following. the data looks impressive if you've been infected and then you get a single dose. the boost you get is really enormous. so we are looking very carefully about that. that is one thing you might want to consider but we want to look carefully at the data first. those are two different scenarios. >> let's say you see the science and you feel good about this. if you've had covid, one dose may be enough. i'm curious, logistically, what would that mean? somebody who have to come in and show proof that they had covid or they would be tested there for antibodies? i feel like that's the one gap here this would complicate it

logistically? >> right. that's the reason why i held back in saying, yes, let's recommend that. you really have to look at the science and the data and figure out what is the best way. the obvious one, if you do an antibody test and it is clear this person has been infected. it is reasonable you are dealing with someone that is post infection. i would reserve any decisions until we carefully look at the data. it is quite suggestive. the data were really impressive. >> this is something you think could be something in four, six, eight weeks, we could change protocol? >> you know, again, i don't want to get ahead of the decision making process on tv. i think it is quite reasonable from the data that you take a good look at it because it is impressive. >> i want to ask you about pregnant women.

there is some confusion. we know pfizer is studying it. i've talked to others who said, hey, pregnant women should get vaccinated. what say you? >> the issue is that pregnant women have not been formally tested in a trial for safety and efficacy. that is being done now. we will get an answer for it. following the eua from both moderna and pfizer, thousands have elected to get vaccinated despite the fact that they are pregnant. many of them were health care providers that felt the risk of covid on their pregnancy was far greater than the risk than the vaccine. right now, we don't see any red flag signals among those 6,000

people who have gotten vaccinated while pregnant. >> let me move to schools. what level of risk is an unvaccinated teacher taking right now by going and reopening school? >> you know, chuck, you cannot give a number figure to that and say what is the risk. give me a number. obviously being in school is very similar to being in the community, so the risk of a teacher getting infected in the school is very likely similar to what you would see in the community. we don't know that yet, you see. we haven't done those kind of studies where you could quantity tate and make a decision based on this number here versus that number there. the numbers get fuzzy compared to what happens in the school and not in the school. >> you understand, it has caused

this consternation. the scientists are saying, it is relatively safe and the teacher says, yeah, i'm still taking a risk. would you feel comfortable going into a classroom and teaching? >> would i feel comfortable? it is tough because i've not been in that situation. i can tell you i have a daughter who i adore who is doing just that right now outside of washington, d.c. when you ask a specific question, it is approach and understandable but there are so many complicated issues. how the teacher's feel, how the parents feel about the possibility of bringing infection back home.

there are so many things we need to consider. i've been saying months and month oz. the default position is that we should try to do everything we can to get the children back to school. safely for the children and safely for the teachers and the personnel. the cdc guidelines try to delineate the steps where you can do just that. how do we get them back to school in the safe way giving them guidelines of how you can do that. it is not an easy issue. anybody who says it an easy decision, they are not looking at the complexity of it. >> i want to leave on an up beat note here. we've had cases come down dramatically after what some feared might be a holiday spike or a super bowl spike.

one johns hopkins scientists argued this means herd immunity is coming faster than we had thought. what say you to that? >> i'm not so sure this is herd immunity we are talking about. we had a big peak and it is starting to come down. some contributions from vaccine. i don't think we've vaccinated enough to get the herd immunity yet. one comment i want to make about that, chuck, for the viewers and listeners, the slope coming down is really terrific. we are still at a level that is really high. what i don't ant a lot of my colleagues will see, looking at that slope to come down and say, wow, we are out of the woods now and we are not. the baseline of infections are

still very high. it is not the 300,000 to 400,000 we had. but we want to get that baseline really low before we start thinking we are out of the woods. >> so keep wearing your masks, everybody. >> i'm glad you said it. >> well scream it as much as we can. thank you for coming on and sharing your expertise. >> thank you for having me, chuck. joining me now, the president of the american federation of teachers. welcome back to "meet the press." >> talking about this argument. this is from the nation.

the coronavirus will be with us in one form or another. zero tolerance cannot be a viable long-term strategy when it comes to reopening schools and other vital institutions. let me also have you listen to governor newsom kind of making the same point. >> you find whatever you look for. we want to find reasons not to open, we'll find the reasons. if we want to find ways to strategize we'll get to that as well. i think in both instances, the question is this, what is reasonable risk? >> thank you for letting me be on today, chuck. i want to debunk this myth that teacher unions, at least our union, doesn't want to reopen

schools. teachers know that in-person education is really important. we would have said that prepandemic. we knew remote education is not a good substitute. there is a road map now. you can follow that in terms of defining the risk. in terms of the cdc guidance and resources that president biden is trying to get in the $1.9 trillion package. we have that highway or road map that allows us to do this. it comes down to layered mitigation, the testing so you can actually see asymptomatic spread and vaccine prioritization. not that every teacher has to be vaccinated before reopening

schools but you should align that vaccination with the reopening. >> is there a model district right now you feel as if, you could say, hey, see, this is the way it could be done and everybody will be reasonable happy? >> yes. i mean, there is no perfect solution but frankly, i think new york city has done a pretty good job in terms of showing the way. big school district. lots of issues in terms of old buildings. we learned a lot of what new york city did in september and october. 85% said they would be comfortable being in school if they had the kind of testing, layered mitigation and vaccine

prioritization. that's what new york city is doing. i want to lift up people like washington, d.c. the mayor actually made sure that every teacher and school employee that wanted the vaccine got vaccinated in the last few weeks. same in terms of oregon, west virginia and ohio. when i hear politicians, governor newsom saying you are always going to find a way out. why is he not prioritizing the teachers in l.a. where they've been in purple zone. not in red zone. i think the issue is, if the nfl could figure out how to do this in terms of testing and protocols. if schools are that important, let's do it. my members want it. they just want to be safe. >> you have outlined and said, everybody doesn't have to be

vaccinated and there are mitigation strategies. many local unions have made demands more stringent. do you support them. fairfax county is saying they wouldn't recommend until all kids are vaccinated. some look at that and say, hey, they are moving the goal posts. >> look. first off, let me say again, teacher unions are not monolithic. we have two great unions. the nea is a fabulous union with a fabulous new president. what you are hearing is that people are scared. i think what we need to do is we have to meet fear with facts. we've had dr. fauci on two town halls. we've had a vaccine town hall with experts about that.

just like we are meeting vaccine hez den si with facts and the evidence and the data. we need to do the same in terms of educators. what we've learned in our polling is that when people are actually in school with the protocol in place. they trust it more. you just have to educate people in this way. 71% of our members are fearful they'll bring covid home. look, we've had 500,000 deaths. we've had such grim realities here. the teachers of the country understand in person education is really important. let's do the kind of strategies we need.

they are obvious what they are now. >> is this school year probably not going to have full school openings? >> well. i'm glad you asked that question, chuck. if you do fix feet, you will have 50% to 60% of people in there. not 100%. the issue is, do we have 30% more space, 30% more teachers? we need to try to get as much in person right now. have a real great summer semester to get kids mojo back in a voluntary way and really be planning for next year. randi, thank you for coming on

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crippling it on many fronts. 14 million in texas cannot trust their water supply because of lines and pipes that froze and burst. a few days ago, it hit negative 2 in dallas. people lining up for hours trying to get a little water and food to make it over the next few days. texas governor is calling for an investigation into ercot, the agency that governs the state power grid. he's described them as anything but reliable. also a lawsuit from a family of a 10-year-old boy who died from hypo thermia near houston. those sky high power bills for those signed up for variable rate plans having bills up to

$10,000. the governor calling for an emergency meeting so that they'll hopefully find a solution sooner than later. >> i have a feeling that is something people will be chirping about even more as these bills roll in. morgan on the ground in texas. thank you. >> the mess in texas caused by a lax government oversight. the gop has lost the house, senate and the white house. the split between the trump and establishment link is growing. calling mcconnell a sour republican ability. censuring 10 senate and house members. all said, worth remembering the republican party has survived. joining me now from san antonio, former republican congressman

from that area, will herd. how are you and your loved ones doing? do you have water and power? >> i do. i am one of those millions having to boil my water. it is wild today coming to the show. i didn't have to wear a jacket but even though the temperatures are getting warmer, a lot in texas will still be impacted over the next weeks and months. the broken water lines is really significant causing low water pressure. this may not get resolved for months. anybody watching and you are a plummer with extra crews, send them towards texas. i'm being serious. this is going to be a large impact. i know people who have been

without water four or five days. you have cities and counties already dealing with trying to do covid and now they have to deal with this. this is significant problem. it is getting warmer, these problems won't go away. >> fair to say this was a preventable catastrophe? >> 100% this was preventable. this was a problem of lack of leadership and lack of long-term planning. in 2011, there were hearings in the state house talking about ensuring reliability. ercot and state leaders at the time said that the energy companies could self-regulate and make sure that happens. we can have cheap prices and reliable energy at the same time. we talk about this was a black swan event that doesn't happen

often. the only thing i've learned is that the only thing about black swans is that they actually happen and we need to be prepared. one of the things about the ninth largest economy being brought to its knees is our enemies are looking at this. the grid had the potential to fail. they could use this and use it as a cyber attack. that's the kind of information that should be happening once we get out of this to make sure our power is reliable and that every american has access to reliable and cheap energy. >> is this a black eye on the republican administration? >> this was not planning for this eventual at. this has been going on for years. the deregulation in texas

happened almost 20 years ago. people have talked about this particular situation and that we should have been prepared for it. this is not about, do we need to go the exact opposite way. the conversations against one another. we should be talking about the serious issues of reliability and the texas grid increases the connections with the other grid around us. how do you make sure that ercot has the tools and power. these high energy bills. you don't take the steps to provide reliable power and then give somebody a bill in the 10s of thousands of dollars. that is absolutely outrageous. i know the state house will be looking into this when they come into session. i don't think anybody is going to allow something that crazy

and outrageous to stand. >> when you think about this issue and the place you want to have in the future of the republican party, it does seem as if -- do you think the messaging of constantly berating government, saying government is the problem, government doesn't work. does it become self-fulfilling in a state like texas? >> i don't disagree with your premise. the reality is, the republican party should be based on our core values. if we are going to be a party representing nuts and conspiracy theorists, we are going to have a problem. it is not about no government but reasonable and sensible government. if we can reduce the size and scope of government and still provide great digital services, we should be able to do that.

so, yes, there is a role for government to play in all of these issues but let's figure out and the conversation should be what is that role. it could be based on allowing most persons to have as much freedom as they can. when you have freedom, that allows opportunity and that leads to growth and growth leads to progress. >> what role should former president trump have in the future of the republican party or should he have a role? >> i think little or none at all. this is a president that lost the house and senate and white house in the last four years. i think the last person to do that was herbert hoover. the number of republicans that were successful significantly outperformed president trump. we should be talking to

disaffected democrats. the fact that speaker pelosi didn't pick up any seats shows the democratic party has some is problems. you know history tells us we'll take back the house. how we do that and we should do it based on our principals and talking to those folks that didn't believe in defunding the police and open borders. we have an opportunity but we can't do that if we are talking about the lies of an election that went wrong or conspiracy theories. >> by the way, you left congress on your own volition. thank you for coming on with us this morning. if you want to help the folks in texas, here are some of the organizations. you heard will hurd ask for

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welcome back. nbc news chief correspondent. democratic reporter and susan page, former republican governor. >> you came with some show and tell. among trump supporters, i want to throw up a couple. what happened on january 6 among trump supporters, a large majority believe it was an

antifa-inspired attack. not trump supporters. then asked if donald trump formed a third party. 46% would support. a quarter would support the gop and a quarter undecided. >> that says donald trump has a pretty iron grip on that party right now and will hurd of course, probably to the chagrin. >> to be clear, there is no evidence antifa was behind the attack on the capitol. even president trump backs that. there is no need for donald trump to do that because he already owns this party. we've seen even though it was donald trump as will hurd said

presided over the loss of the white house, house and the senate, it is the republicans who have won their elections in the greater peril. we found very little patience for republican officials who want to challenge trump in any way. 8 of 10 republicans said they are less likely to soet for a republican candidate if he or she voted impeachment. and doubted they were voting their con she is when voting to convict him. they said they were dealing with their political vote of conscious instead. >> i want to play with you what the republican chair of washington said about pat toomey's vote in particular to convict. >> we did not send him there to vote his conscience or do the right thing. we sent him there to represent

us. >> you've been an elected official, did you feel as if voters sent you to only represent what they think or to do your best judgement? >> i believe we are a republic form of government. we are going through a grieving process right now just like the democrats had to go through four years ago. we are in anger and denial and in the blame game. remember clinton and others going through that blame game. we are in that blame game right now. we are going to heal around issues that biden, harris and pelosi and schumer are implementing. we are putting teachers ahead of our children and science right now. we are getting rid of natural gas in the future. there are issues that are going to unite us two years and four

years from now. issues trump everything. >> is that a fair assessment. interesting take there by pat. do you accept that this is a part of the process the gop is going through and don't assume in six more months they won't be united again? >> i wish the governor was right but there is a lot of evidence that issues don't indeed determine everything. this is very much like what democrats have gone through. i like bill clinton very much. i was in love with barack obama. but none of us would go out and start a third party. what you are seeing around trump is dramatically different. those numbers in the usa today poll are startling because to

me, when you have that many americans not wanting to accept the truth and the first casualty of war is truth. i think our democracy is in great peril. what you you are seeing around donald trump is very different. civil war within the republican party. the civil war is over. donald trump won it. mainstream conservative is on its death bed killed by donald trump and his tribalism. >> what do you expect from former president trump next week when he does his first speech. is he going to try to project himself as not just the leader of the republican party and say why he thinks the republicans should be in charge or settling scores? >> i think a little of both. we are expecting the former president to address the impeachment. that might be the settling scores piece but he's also going

to talk about the future of the republican party and how he sees it. how he sees the future of the conservative movement. just going back, i am told he's going to try to make the case now is the time to start laying out the divides with president biden. he'll focus on immigration. president biden is moving to reverse all of the trump immigration policies. he's going to try to focus around those issues. we know former president trump is eyeing what he is going to be doing in 2022, the candidates he's planning to back and a return to social media. what will that look like? ize been banned from a number of platforms but looking to get engaged again. >> you heard will hurd there say he shouldn't be a part of future

administrations? >> i'm not a big fan of incumbents that didn't win walk off into the sun set. i think president trump should stay relevant but i also think other leaders will emerge. the issues will win out because the democrats will overplay their hand. we are opening boarders and closing schools. it makes no sense. i think we'll win and president trump should be allowed to participate and will participate in those arguments. >> all right. i'll pause there. i'll pause there. when we come back, mornings were made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz... a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can help relieve joint pain and swelling, stiffness, and helps stop

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changes and who their voters are. we see this in the kinds of jobs held by self-described democrats and republicans. here is what we found. in the last decade, the percentage of blue collar voters who call themselves republicans has grown by 12 points. the number identified by democrats declined 8 points. among white color voters, republicans seeing a tiny drop and democrats seeing an increase. some prove that they are renting the suburbs right now. take a look at the percentage of white blue collar republicans that represented the democrats. in the last four years, jumped 10 more points. we know whites represent the largest part of the republican

party voters but we are seeing the party make gain of others. hispanic blue collar workers, gop is up 13 points among that group. something similar is happening among black blue collar voters. they've moved republican by seven points. numbers are still small overall but considering the struggles republicans have had wooing black voters. any positive movement is welcome for them. what we are seeing is this, two parties are trading places. democrats make gains in suburbs and republicans picking up blue collar. the republican party is looking more and more like the democratic party of the mid-20s century. think 50s and 60s. think 50s and 60s. the (man) i'm a verizon engineer,

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welcome back. what some might say was a revive al of some normalcy. joe biden visited with bob dole. we learned bob dole has stage four lung cancer. in some ways that mr. republican visiting with mr. democrat. the big news from the week on the biden administration side is a reminder of how important joe manchin is. he announces he can't support because of her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic

impact and i cannot support her nomination. how upset is the white house here and did they not see this coming? >> i think they thought it was a real possibility. they are trying to express confidence, chuck. i spoke to a number of officials who say, look, there is still a chance to peel off one or two moderate republicans. who are those republicans, that remains unknown. they are not giving up on this nomination just yet. i think you do speak to the broader point. the biden agenda comes with the push of senator bernie sanders wants that to be in the covid

relief. manchin and sinema oppose. all of these packages will be challenged. >> i'll bring up another issue. the cancellation of student debt. we heard president biden ask that canceling at a level of $50,000. the biden plan was $10,000. asked if he was going to revice that. he said no. that got some push back from elizabeth warren. chuck schumer signed on with it. at the end of the day, this is joe biden being squeezed on one hand by joe manchin and the other hand with elizabeth warren. >> not a bad things.

you are supposed to be competing interests here. look, democrats may have different ways of getting to those goals. that's where the fighting is. but there is no disagreement on the overall goals. look at where the democrats are divided on student loans. we all want to get to a better place on student loans. even on health care. there is no fighting about the overall goal as democrats want to get to more universal coverage. that fighting talks about how you get there. >> the dra makt difference, no one is organizing an effort to block joe manchin from being in leadership. he won't be censured because of this. it is a big party and i think that's a good thing politically.

>> is it a healthy divide for the democrats? >> yes. what is remarkable about the democrats so far is the way they've hung together. the house is poised to pass with just democratic votes, if necessary, the first legislation, the covid relief bill. they'll need to hold manchin and sanders. the big test will come later with the second big legislative vehicle, the recovery act over climate change and taxes and that will be maybe the last big train out of town for the first phase of the biden administration. >> is there a penalty for a republican who wants to vote for this covid relief. maybe they are like i like 70% of it, i'm voting for it?

>> i think the penalty are from the blue collar worker. the democratic party has been influenced heavily now by the university elite and some what the corporate elite. even $10,000 to payoff. the blue collar worker is saying, why should i pay taxes for a kid to get bailed out of college. and opening the boarder. it is the blue collar worker saying, they are going to take our jobs. >> i think joe biden is sensitive to that feeling that we shouldn't have to pay for a private school education. we'll be back next week because if it is sunday, it is "meet the press."

♪ we kick off a new week with more details on just what happened to a united airlines 777 in mid-flight and what's next for the aircraft. most of texas has regained power as millions must now deal with major damage from broken pipes and still unsafe drinking water. sunday after the u.s. passed a grim milestone over 500,000 deaths from coronavirus as flight of vaccine get back on track after weather delays.