captioning sponsored by cbs >> brennan: i'm margaret brennan in washington, and this week on "face the nation," president biden takes office and is immediately faced with overwhelming challenges. his first priority: covid-19. america came together last wednesday to honor its 46th president in somewhat subdued and heavily fortified inauguration festivities. the day marked the one-year anniversary of the first coronavirus diagnosis in the u.s. ♪ all the ramparts with watched ♪ >> brennan: there wersome bsts n the much smaller and mostly masked ceremony, and some old traditions were re-imagined due to

the pandemic. memorable moments have gone viral, but the sense of history in the making was powerful. president biden wasted no time addressing the herculean challenges ahead. >> 400,000 americans have died. more than all that have died in world war ii. this is a war-time undertaking. >> brennan: our last president also waged war on the coronavirus, but the new administration says its war effort will be different. there are new guidelines on mandatory mask-wearing, lower vaccination goals, and revamping a confusing vaccine rollout. we'll talk to the president's top medical advisor, dr. anthony fauci. plus we'll like at the dysfunctional handling in the trump administration, with a key expert,

dr. deborah birx. >> do you think the president appreciated the gravity of the health crisis? >> i thinksident appreciated the gravity in march. >> reporter: where was the vice president in this? >> the vice president knew what i was doing. >> he knew what i was doing. bredotors fauci and birx, they're just ahead on "face the nation." ♪ >> brennan: good morning, and welcome to "face the nation." the country has a new administration, but we're still facing a crisis of monumental proportions. nearly 25 million americans have been diagnoof new infections is starting to slow, but the death toll is not. last week an american died

of covid-19 every 30 seconds. and experts are now warning in addition to being more contagious, the new variants could also be more lethal. we begin with theefgoodng doctor. good to have you back. >> doctor: good morning, meghan, good to be with you. >> brennan: boris johnson said on friday the b111 strain may be associated with a higher degree of morality. the day prior, you said it did not. so which is it? is it more deadly? >> doctor: well, the data that came out was after they had been saying all along that it did not appear to be more deadly. so that's where we got that information.t whtishators e closely at t dat aertain gro they fou that it was one

to 1,000, we'll say, and then it went up to 1.3 per 1,000 in a certain group, so that's a significant increase. so the most recent data is iin accord with what the brits are saying. we want to look at the data ourselves, but we have every reason to believe them, they're a very competent group. so we need to assume now that what has been circulating dominately in the u.k. has a certain degree of increase in what we call varulance, meaning it could cause more damage, including death. >> brennan: you're organization, the n.i.h., has just started testing to see if the existing vaccines prevent infections from some of these variants. whe vac we know abo nst b17 or coming out of south africa? >> doctor: well, there are actually two different

ones. when you look at the effect of the change, this lineage that is the u.k. lineage, that is now in at least 20 states in the united states, the vaccine-induced antibodies, mainly the vaccines that some of us haveotteizaccinem to continue to be protective against the mutant strain. it is a very minor diminution, but the cushion that you have of efficacy is so large it is not going to negatively impact. a little more concerning with the south african isolate, namely the mutant that is now prevalent in south africa, particularly its negative impact on some of the monoclonal antibodies that have been given for treatment, and in some effects it knocksir eff. it looks like it diminishes more so the efficacy of the vaccine, but we're still within

that cushion of the vaccines being efficacious against the mutants. having said that, we're going to look at this and follow these very, very carefully because these things will evolve, and what we will do, and are doing already, is makin prions f pike, down the line, we may need to modify and upgrade the vaccines. we don't need to do that right now. the best way to prevent the further evolution of these mutants is to vaccinate as many people as possible with the vaccines that we have currently available to us. >> brennan: okay. >> doctor: that's the best protection against this evolution. >> brennan: i want to get to that in a second, but to cla biden administration says it wants to increase surveillance and sequencing of the virus. basically do more research of what is swirling around in the population. do we know for a fact that the south african strain, b1351, is not in the

united states right now? >> doctor: i can't say definitively, margaret, that we know as a fact. what has been looked at thus far, it has not come up on any of the surveillance. but we need to expand greatly our genomic surveillance. it had not been at the level we would have liked, but there is a lot of movement right now at at the c.d.c. level, and from other organizations, to dramatically increase what we call ge geoic surveillance. >> brennan: on the vaccines, you drove home the point how important it is to get that out here. i want to play some tape and want you to clarify when u.s. taxpayers can expect to get their vaccine? bier>> at least 100 million

shots in the arms of the americans in the first 100 days. >> doctor: you know the goal that has been set, which i believe is entirely achievable, tvainated t 100 days. >> reporter: both vaccines? >> doctor: primary and boost. >> reporter: in 100 days? >> doctor: yes. yes. >> brennan: in that exchange, you seem to be promising a bit more than the president is. can you bottom-line it? how many people will be fully vaccinated within 100 days? >> doctor: let me clarify that because there was a little bit of a misunderstanding. what we're talking about is 100 million shots in individuals. so a shot -- in other words, when you get town of the hundred days, at the end of the hundred days, you will have some people who have gotten both shots and some will be on their first shots. but the president is

saying 100 million shots in the arms of people within 100 days. >> brennan: so reportedly the transition team projections are that eopl is more like april, by the end of 100 days. is that an accurate number? >> doctor: right -- yeah -- welt done the math myself, but it sounds like the accurate number, where you're having people who will have gotten two doses, and some still on their first dose. when you add them all up and look at shots, it is 100 million shots in the arms of people within the first 100 days. >> brennan: okay. so the trump administration's health and human services secretary said on this program in december, just with pfizer and moder 10milli end of february. president biden's goal pushes that out to april. are you deliberately setting expectations low? >> doctor: no, no, that's not the case.

if you go back and look at the facts of actually what had been done in the first, like, 38 days, i believe, that in the former administration, i think maybe two out of those days had reached 100 million. and the average along that period of time was about 450,000 per day. this is hard. now, what we've got to realize is that although recently there have been a couple of days where you've had a million, that has been predominantly in areas that are relatively easy from the standpoint of getting it done. in a nursing home, or in a situation in a hospital setting. if you look forward, with the challenges that we'll be having, getting it out into the community that is not easily accessible, getting it to people who are not uniform in the sense of being health care providers or people in nursing homes, i still think that that challenge is really -- first of all,

it is going to be a floor, not a ceiling. it is not going to be easy to do that. i think there is this misperception out there, margaret, because we've hit one million a day for a couple of days, that when we get out into the community, it is going to be really easy to do that. that is not the case. it is going to be a challenge. i think it was a reasonable goal that was set. we always want to do better than the goal we've set. but it is really a floor and not a ceiling. the most important thing, the message that gets lost in this back and forth, margaret, is that we've got to vaccinate as many people as we possibly can as quickly as we possibly can. >> brennan: absolutely. >> doctor: that's what president biden made as a point. that was the major point he was making. >> brennan: understood, and we want to help clarify that. we spoke to your former colleague, dr. birx, on friday for this program. she laid out problems

that, yes, were attached to president trump, but go far beyond that. deep problems in the health care infrastructure of this country that will contribute to continued problems. do you think there needs to be a 9/11-type commission to look at what went wrong? >> doctor: well, i'm not -- mart up to me to say that. i think we really do -- welder you want to call it a 9/11 commission, but we really need to look into some of the deficiencies in our health care systems at the local level. one of the things that i believe i had mentioned to you on a previous appearance here, margaret, that i felt we should do much better is a greater collaboration and coordination between the federal government and thete. we've got to do that in a coordinated way, instead of just telling the states, you're on your own, do it on your own. that clearly does not work very well. >> brennan: dr. anthony fauci, thank you for joining us. up next, a candid

interview with former coordinator of president trump's coronavirus task forces.

>> brennan: dr. deborah birx, the former white house coronavirus advisor -- we sat down with her friday. she had wanted to wait until president biden had taken office to talk about her time in the trump administration. the biden coronavirus czar, for lack of a better term, told reporters when it comes to vaccines, what we're i inheriting is so much worse than we could have imagined. is that a political statement? is that accurate? i've been trying to, process all of the last 11 months because it is really important that we understand what worked and what didn't work. and i took extensive notes during the entire process because i didn't want to lose track of what we need to do to make our response better in the future. one of those critical

areas is this idea of federalism, on which the united states was built. but that can be taken to extremes. and so the man was federally supported and state-managed and locally executed. >> brennan: that was the trump plan? >> doctor: that was the mantra. but what does support mean, and what does federal support mean? i think really an understanding of what states need to translate guidancent implementation. what states need in interpreting data together. they only are seeing their data, but it is really important that they understand what is happening in their entire region because people have been mobile. >> brennan: do you think it is bad architecture being handed off to the biden administration. are they being set up for failure? >> doctor: i don't believe -- if i thought that was true, i wouldn't be sleeping right now. because what was very important to me is from even before the election,

to make sure that people had access to data, and the data that we were seeing. and i think the more people can understand where the virus is, where it is increasing, where it is decreasing, and react to even the slightest uptake, and that is place where we're still sw -- >> brennan: surveillance? >> doctor: we're still slow in reaction. you need to react when you see the tiniest little uptake in test positivity. that is the moment to tell that population, we need you to do these things. >> brennan: you were often at odds with the c.d.c., is what i'm told, is that true? >> doctor: i know the c.d.c. well. let me be clear, it was more difficult for them because i knew where the gaps were. so when i came in, i really asked for those gaps to be addressed. i was also very pushy. and the one thing that has been taken completely out of context, when i was talking about not trusting the c.d.c. data, it had to do with the ethnicity and

race of the fatalities early on because of the delay in that reporting. our delay for death certificates that have all of that information on them, can be up to 30 days. >> brennan: we're at the end of february, c.d.c. gives a briefing to reporting that tanks the markets when she says that within the community, there may be a virus spreading, and it could cause severe disruption to daily life. dr. fauci goes on television a few days later and says the risk to americans remains low. you're watching this, and what are you thinking? >> doctor: so i'm in south africa, and we're yelling at the cnn television saying, this is going to be a pandemic. because the chinese -- what i saw from china, when you overwhelm your hospitals, you have to know that you have broad-based community spread before that happens. yet they weren't seeing it. and that really worried me

because what we were looking for was people with symptoms. and so when people were coming into the country, we were looking for people with symptoms. >> brennan: but why wasn't it obvious to them? when you're watching this on tv and saying, this is clearly a pandemic that is coming to hit us hard? >> doctor: i've learned from the things we've missed, this is exactly how we missed the h.i.v. pandemic. if you're only looking for sick people, you miss a lot of what is really happening under the surface. and so i was always worried that there was a big iceberg under the surface, and we were just seeing the top of it. so when we were questioning people who came into this country about symptoms, rather than testing everybody who came into the country, that's when i started to get really worried. at the same time, there was a single individual in the white house that had been calling me since january -- >> brennan: matt

potenger? >> doctor: yes. i've known him and his wife for a very long time. we worked on pandemic together. both of us were in asia during sars. so we understood how serious this can go. >> brennan: matt asked you to come from the state department to the white house -- >> doctor: and i said no about 20 times. >> brennan: why? >> doctor: well, from the outside, everything looks very chaotic in the white house. i spent the first three years of this administration trying to stay out of the swirl, trying to protect the pet fire program. we had extraordinary cutsrs -- e president's emergency for aids, which changed the world, both for h.i.v. and aids. i'm not a political person. i'm a civil servant. it never occurred to me to go into the white house until i could see that we

were missing pieces that i thought were very important in the response. and so after many weeks of saying no, no, no, thepresidt aw task force with the vice president in the lead. they said this would be vey technical position. and because i thought that i could be helpful, which is the only reason i go and do anything -- if i think i have something to add, i feel like it is my obligation to the american public to go in and do that. that's what a civil servant is supposed to do. >> brennan: you were a colonel in the army? >> yes. >> brennan: you were appointed by barack obama, and yet your name, in the history books, is going to be associated with president donald trump. how does that sit with doctohis ishat worries me: if we start looking at technical civil servants as belonging to a

political party, we will lose the ability for highly qualified civil servants to come and help. if we start saying, if you come in and do this, you are then going to be part of the political apparatuha to be very darousor: l like your work is misunderstand as political? >> doctor: i think pandemic are always political. i've worked in 60 countries. every pandemic is political because you have to make policy changes to confront them, and policies are often political. >> brennan: you worked on aids, which is a highly politicized virus in subsaharan africa, but did any of that prepare you >> dtor: no.tics you inwhite ho? no. white houses function in a pretty bureaucratic way, and most of the agencies

function in a very predictable and bureaucratic way. but when you remove the infrastructure of the civil servants, then you end up with a lry r t left t, tur, lsprd ls le to manage that kind of response and change. and so that's why i kept extensive notes from every meeting, daily reflections, to really understand what i was seeing. i wrote a daily report, over 310 of them, that went to senior leaders. >> brennan: did president trump read them? >> doctor: i don't know. i don't know. i sent them up through to the vice president. >> brennan: but you did brief president trump -- >> doctor: i had very ttle expe presiden think presidt trump appreciated thgrvi the helth sis yo describing? president appreciated the gravity in march.

it took a while, after i house, to remove all of the ancillary data that was coming in. there was parallel data stream coming into the white house that were not transparently utilized. and i needed to stop that. >> brennan: you mean outside advisors? >> doctor: outside advisors coming to inside advisors. to the day i left, i'm convinced there were parallel data streams -- >> brennan: disinformation. >> doctor: i saw the president presenting graphs that i never made. so i know that someone outarall set of data and graphics that were shown to the president. i know what i sent up, and i know that what was in his hands was different from that. you can't do that. you have to use the entire -- >> brennan: who was during that? >> doctor: to this day, i don't know.

i know now, watching some of the tapes, that certainly scott atlas brought in parallel data streams. >> brennan: so the chief-of-staff is not saying, wait a minute, this is our official coordinator, listen to her and her only. listen to you. no one was saying that? >> doctor: no one said that to me. i don't know if they said that to the president. >> brennan: we've got a lot more of our interview coming, so don't go away. (judith) nope, we tailor portfolios to our client's needs. (money manager) but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right? (judith) we don't have those. (money manager) so what's in it for you? (judith) our fees are structured so we do better when our clients do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different. if you have risk factors like heart disease, diabetes and raised triglycerides,...

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♪ >> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation." we continue our conversation with dr. birx. do you think the president was just distracted by the political implications in the campaign? >> doctor: you know, i always wonder that. the worst possible time you can have a pandemic is in a presidential election year. i think the white house personnel were very focused on this pandemic in march and april. i think onc began to open and it was clear to me that they weren't going to follow restaurants, how -- >> doctor:of that together for

this criteria. so in calculating everything, with the slow reopening, i didn't think anyone could get to phase 3 until august. you can see in the stages that followed, either that criteria or a similar criteria, that's how long it took them. >> brennan: were there covid deniers in the white house? >> doctor: there are people in the white house, and i think people around this country, because i've had the ploich privilege to listen to them and hear them because i wanted to hear what people were saying -- there were people who definitely believed that this was a . >> doctor: i think because the information was confusing at the beginning. i think because we didn't talk about the spectrum of disease. because everyone interpreted on what they knew, and so they saw people get covid and be fine. >> brennan: so you don't blame the president's own language of calling some of this politically

motivated, a hoax is the phrase he used at one point -- >> doctor: when you have a pandemic when you're relying on every american to change their behavior, communication is absolutely key. and so every time a statement was made by a political leader that wasn't consistent with public health needs, that derailed our response. it is also why i went out on the road, because i wasn't censored on the road. >> brennan: you felt the white house was censoring you? >> doctor: if you noticed, i was not able to do national press. the other thing that was very important to me is that i was not going to go outside of the chain of command. and so if our white house coms group did not put me out, i did not ask to go out. because there was so much leaking and so many parallel stories being leaked to the press that did not have grounding in

truth, that i didn't want to ever be part of that slippery slope. i know people started it with good intentions of trying to inform the american people. but then it became a way that they could silence those who didn't agree with them. and so i knew that every time i had a significant disagreement in the white house, that within days a story would be planted. >> brennan: who was doing that? >> doctor: i think a lot of people were doing that. >> brennan: do you think the administration was suppressing vital information to win the election? >> doctor: i don't know what their motivation was. that they -- if i could not get a voice internally, that i could get a voice out at the state level. because i could see the

governors on the governors' call weekly, and i could see how deeply they were concerned about every one of their citizens. most of them were not in the middle of an election campaign. i want to make it clear, this was just not debbie birx. there was a coalition of four of us at the beginning, from steve hahn to bob redfield to missile to tony fauci. we would make sure we could get the information out to the public in one way or another. that's why i sent the information to all of them every morning because i never knew who would have the ability to do press. >> brennan: did you ever consider quitting? >>doctor: always. i mean, why would you want to put yourself through that every day. colleagues of mine, that i had known for decades -- decades -- in that one experience, because i was in the white house, decided that i had become this political person, even though they had known

me forever. moing: is themyself every meththhink this pandemic? and that's something i asked myself every night. when it became a point where i wasn't getting anywhere, and that was, like, right before the election, i wrote a very detailed communication plan, what needed to happen the day after the election, and how that needed to be executed. and there was a lot of promises that would happen. >> brennan: you knew at that point that the election was a factor in communication about the virus? >> doctor: yes. yes. >> brennan: did your withhold information yourself? >> doctor: no. >> brennan: some people felt you become an apologist for president trump -- >> president trump: i

see the disinfectant knocks it out in a one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside, or almost a cleaning -- >> brennan: you were sitting there and he looked at you and he asked about ultraviolet heat, and you start talking about fevers -- >> doctor: this is -- no. >> president trump: debra, have you ever heard of the heat and the light, relative to certain viruses -- >> doctor: that is a treatment. he was not speaking to me. he was speaking to the d.h.s. scientist that was two seats over from me, that entire time. when he finally turned to me and said, could this be a treatment, i said it's if you look at the transcripts, not a treatment. but that moment was completely lost. and then there are skits

on "saturday night live". >> we all mess up sometimes. you threw the ball wrong. i didn't say don't drink the bleach -- it happens. >> doctor: when you're a scientist who has grounded themselves in data and combating epidemics and working with communities and working with governments to change the future of people's lives for the better, and then you get -- this is when you talked about, was i prepared for that? no, i wasn't prepared for that. i didn't even know what to do in that moment. >> brennan: sometimes people say tony fauci, when that happened to him, he would gently come back up to the podium and set the record straight. >> doctor: well, he was given the opportunity to do that. >> brennan: and you don't feel that you were given the opportunity to -- >> doctor: not until he turned to me and said, could this be a treatment? and i said, not a treatment. and people want to define you at the moment.

i understand how perceptions go. i understood that to go into the white house and try to support a comprehensive coronavirus response by utilizing the strength of the federal government would be a terminal event for my federal career. which is part of the reason why i didn't want to do it. >> brennan: a terminal event? >> doctor: a terminal event. i know i wouldn't be allowed to continue successfully within the federal government. you can't go into something that is that polarized and not believe that you won't be tainted by that experience, or how people interpret you in that experience. so i knew that part of it. i didn't want that to happen. >> brennan: and this will be the end of your federal career? >> doctor: yeah. i will need to retire probably within the next four to six weeks from c.d.c. >> brennan: and how have you made peace with this, thats -- that leaving in the midst of it --

>> doctor: what was reassuring to me all along is that i knew this would be studied. i knew that the e-mails, the reports that i wrote, the requests to expand testing, the how to improve therapeutics, all of that -- all of that would eventually come to light. maybe not in my lifetime. >> brennan: you feel you'll be vindicated? >> doctor: i'm not looking to be vindicated. in that moment, i think my service was important. i think it was important to make progress in testing. i think it was important in making progress with some of the therapeutics. and i think it was important to really -- we had great innovation in vaccines. i was focused solely on the mission, and the mission was to try to save as many american lives during this pandemic as possible. and so i couldn't get distracted on vindicating

myself or getting the information or telling -- coming back to the press and saying, that's not what happened. that would waste my energy in that moment of staying focused completely on that data and ensuring that i was seeing everything that was going on. >> brennan: i read a "washington post" profile of you, and it said, "when she is working on a vital public health issues, birx will do whatever is necessary as long as she thinks she can make a difference." >> doctor: true. and it hurt my family. all of this -- i have two daughters in their 30s, who had to live through this and watchir mo he d skour, to bece a i mean, ie tw grandchildren, dte -- fel whole time tt ious to be taken

seriously. and i couldn't ever let emotion come into this. that no matter how frustrated i got, no matter how beaten down i got, i had to keep pushing as hard as i could. this tested my resilience. because it tested my family. and the things that were said that were so untrue, all of that about thanksgiving -- >> brennan: you were accused of gathering with people outside your household because you went to a beach house. >> doctor: there was no one outside of my household. i have one household. we live between two houses because i had to protect them from me when i was out on the road. when i came back, i quarantined. but if i had an emergency at that house, i wore a mask the whole time because i had to protect that household at all costs. i have 2-year-old mother and 96-year-old father, and a daughter

that is 38 weeks pregnant. so the implication i wouldn't follow c.d.c. guidance -- i followed c.d.c. guidance, and that's what protected me. i was on the road for six and a half months. i was in the white house during one of the hottest hotspots of viral transmission, and i remained negative because i followed the c.d.c. guidelines. that's how i know they very seriously. >> brennan: this summer you gave an interview... >> doctor: what we're seeing today is different from march and april. it is extraordinarily widespread. >> brennan: and then president trump tweeted, and he blasted you for saying that. did you ever speak to him after that? >> doctor: i hadn't seen him for months before that or months after that. but that was like -- that was an extraordinary moment because i also got yelled at by the speaker, who -- obviously, women

have gone through a lot to get in their positions. i have treespe respect -- >> brennan: speaker pelosi said she didn't have confidence in you because you were working for the president. >> anyone who says swallow lysol and that will -- >> doctor: that was very hard because i have tremendous respect for what she brought on early on. she is a political hero for what she has done in h.i.v., which i spent a lifetime on,. >> brennan: so that stung. >> doctor: oh, that was hard. she is not the only one. i think she gave voice to what a lot of people were thinking of how could you -- i think they looked at going into the white house as somehow supporting a political party or a political individual. there are technical people that are broad brought in for

their technical expertise. >> brennan: but you often were perceived as explaining some of the things president trump said, rather than correcting him. >> doctor: well, when people ask me a question, i feel like i have to respond to what my perception of that moment was. >> brennan: when we come back, dr. birx talks about masks, or the lack thereof, in the white house. only from nature's bounty. lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. so you can enjoy it even if you're sensitive. yet some say it isn't real milk. i guess those cowsmu yet some say it isn't real milk. i said sit! feeling sluggish or weighed down? it could be a sign that your digestive system isn't working at its best. taking metamucil everyday can help. metamucil psyllium fiber gels to trap and remove

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trying to get americans just to wear masks. and the president himself was undermining you. he wasn't wearing one. is there ever a way to make that scenario work? >> doctor: well, you have to because that's the president. so you have to figure out how to get that message out when you can't get it out from the head of the country. and that's our job. you don't give up. you can't ever, in any moment when american lives are at stake, say, well, this is just too hard. i'm giving up. >> brennan: where was the vice president in all of this? >> doctor: the vice president knew what i was doing. >> brennan: you mean he knew that you were telling the governors privately to do things that the president publicly was making light of, when he was saying you don't really need to wear a mask, or pushing to reopen the economy faster than your guidelines would alow, mike pence knew that? >> doctor: he knew what

i was doing it. >> brennan: and he supported it? >> doctor: i'm not a person who would go out on their own and not do, you know -- i wouldn't go -- >> brennan: why would you have to be sneaking around? you're the head of the covid task force and tens of thousands of americans are dying. why is it a covert operation? >> doctor: because if this isn't working and you're not going to get that to work, you have to find another solution. >> brennan: leaving it up to the states, is that the way it should be, is the fundamental question? >> doctor: yes. >> brennan: you're going out and telling the governors to wear and mask and to limit indoor dining. for some of the republican governors, that would mean going against the head of their party, to do what you're telling them to do? >> doctor: i don't know if that was that much of a dynamic than they were dealing with publican legislatures and legislators. you need every single

level of government to work together to ensure that -- again, we're talking about behavioral change of american citizens. >> brennan: how much responsibility lies on the shoulders of the governors running these states? >> doctor: a lot. a lot. we have to be consistent. sturgis was not okay. birthday parties was not okay. bringing together family members indoors, maskless -- none of it was okay. yes, we're going to make mistakes. we all make mistakes. if you made a mistake, if you had a gathering, at least get testing, and wearing a mask around those most vulnerable. assume you got infected and wear a mask. >> brennan: how did the task force allow the president, who calls himself a germaphob, to get infected. how did that happen? >> doctor: there were only two people who regularly wore a mask in

the white house, myself and the support person i had. >> brennan: so staff around the president were not wearing a mask? he is the commander in chief. this is a national security ris is that possible? >> doctor: i think people believed, wrongly, that testing would be adequate. >> brennan: how is that possible? >> doctor: i think they believe that testing is a surrogate for a public health intervention. >> brennan: the president of the united states need to wear a mask. did you press mike pence on that, did you press mark meadows as chief-of-staff? >> doctor: there were multiple communications about masking. remember when i was talking about the stream of date that that was coming in? they wermi mixing datas -- >> brennan: but did you ever say, you are misunderstanding this, you need to wear a mask.

this is close quarters and you're way too close tpresidente united states. you're nodding yes, you had that argument? >> doctor: yes -- not with the president. i didn't have that kind of access. but certainly to people around the president, yes. >> brennan: and they didn't take it seriously? >> doctor: i want to make it clear, people were concerned about the president and wanted to protect the president. they believed that testing would be a reasonable substitution for people masking. >> brennan: how sick did the president actually get? >> doctor: i don't know. i don't know. >> brennan: did anyone ever say this is a national security risk, and we need to nail down who brought this in and who infected the commander in chief? >> doctor: i never heard >> brennan: there was no serious contact tracing that happened after the fact? >> doctor: i don't know if there was contact tracing or not. >>brennan: what was your biggest mistake?

>> doctor: i always feel like i could have done more, been more outspoken, maybe been more outspoken publicly. i didn't know all of the consequences of all of these issues. when you're put into a new situation and you only know one person in the white house, and you don't understand the culture of the white house, it is very difficult to get your footing. i'm not making excuses. i'm just saying i didn't know how far i could push the envelope. >> brennan: you wish you pushed harder? >> doctor: yes. >> brennan: we spent nearly 90 minutes talking to dr. birx, we werest i a welld facility. we have more in award."

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>> brennan: we want to check in with senior correspondent liz palmer in london.>>ter: good morning. here is a sobering statistic: although the number of infections is at least coming down here, england now has the worst per capita coronavirus death rate in the worgrgth

ndhad at wkk, making mo room. hospitals are full of h newdoes kill more people. stark public warnings like this one reinforce the national lockdown. >> look them in the eyes and tell them you're doing all you can to stop the spread of covid-19. >> reporter: but there is good news here, too. britain's vaccine rollout is the third fastest in the world, about to hit the 6 million mark. europe, by contrast is having a rough time. vaccinations there got off to a slow start, and supplies are running low thanks to manufacturing problems. d few r trlands has second world war, though dog walkers are exempt. the fastest vaccine rollout is in israel. it started with the

elderly, but now even teenagers are getting their covid shots. and, finally, there was huge international relief this week when the u.s. rejoined the world health organization, where it will add real muscle to the efforts to get vaccine to the developing world. margaret? >> brennan: we'll be right back. and healthy nails. and try advanced, now with two times more biotin. feeling sluggish or weighed down? it could be a sign that your digestive system isn't working at its best. taking metamucil everyday can help. metamucil psyllium fiber gels to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down. it also helps lower cholesterol and slow sugar absorption to promote healthy blood sugar levels. so you can feel lighter and more energetic. tahe metamuc week blood sugar challenge

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>> brennan: we'll be talking to dr. scott gottlieb later today. you can see it on or website orlition or listen to ur "facing forward" podcast. for "face the nation" i'm margaret brennan. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh

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