the 7pm news, weeknights on kpix 5. captioning sponsored by cbs >> brennan: i'm margaret brennan in washington. the month of march brings new hope, but also new warnings not to go too far too fast when it comes to lifting health restrictions. as america closes in on the one-year answer of the covid-19 pandemic, president biden's push for nearly $2 trillion is close to becoming a reality. despite new supplies of covid vaccines, the logistical challenges of getting shots in the arms of americans remains a big obstacle to getting back to normal. another challenge: more,

more, and more states are easing covid restrictions, including mask mandates. >> biden: the last thing we need is neanderthal thinking many. >> brennan: well talk to former f.d.a. commissioner dr. scott gottlieb, and we'll check in with jim justice and new jersey democratic phil murphy. and we'll talk with civil rights attorney benjamin crump. finally, what's on the minds of americans a year into the covid-19 pandemic? >> i think the virus is pretty much done. >> my sister and i both got our vaccines and everything, and we're going to put our masks on and we're going to go to vegas and have a good time. >> brennan: it is all just ahead on "face the nation."

>> brennan: good morning, and welcome to "face the nation." if all goes as expected early this week, many americans will soon receive a third installment of economic aid from the federal government. this latest bill brings the total to nearly $6 trillion that has been spent in the past year to combat the pandemic and shore up the economy. president biden outlined what is in the package after the senate passed it yesterday. >> biden: over 85% of american households will get direct payments of $1400 a person. unemployment benefits will be extended for 11 million americans who have lost their jobs. schools are going to have the resources they will need to open safely. and one more thing: this plan is historic. taken all together, this plan is going to make it possible to cut child poverty in half. >> brennan: we begin with senior national

correspondent mark strassmann in atlanta. >> reporter: covid america has an ideal: everyone deserves a shot. but with lagging distribution of the three approved vaccines, so far less than 10% of americans have been fully vaccinated. >> it may seem tempting to try to rush back to normalcy as if the virus is in the rear-view mirror. it is not. >> reporter: here is progress: the tra ject tary of new daily cases, down nearly 75% since the first of the year. although the number of new cases seems to have leveled off, scientists see twin threats: covid variants and covid complacency. >> now is a great time for texas to open up. >> reporter: texas will lift its masking mandate, the 16th state without one. california is getting ready to ease restrictions that were once among

america's toughest. the state will allow a limited number of fans next month. at the university of colorado, students partied as though the covid threat was a class in ancient history. immunologists agree this crisis is far from over, and getting shots in arms means everything. polls say about one in five americans don't want the vaccine. for the rest, the high demand is obvious at mass vaccination sites. this california roller rink, the minnesota's practice facility. and fema is opening two mass vaccination sites, one here in mercedes benz stadium here in atlanta. the goal is to give 6,000 shots a day and target people living in lower income neighborhoods near the stadium. margaret? >> brennan: we go to the president's chief medical advisor, dr. anthony

fauci. good morning to you, doctor. >> doctor: good morning. >> brennan: you recently warned that the country could be at risk for another infection spike. are you worried about a fourth wave of this epidemic? >> doctor: well, my concern, margaret, is based on the fact that although the cases are coming down very nicely, you have a very sharp diminution, but over the past week in and a half or so, we've seen that decline has now done this, essentially starting to plato, and historically, if you look back at the different surges we've had, when they come down and then start to plateau at a very high level, plateauing at a level of 60,000 to 70,000 new cases a day is not an acceptable level. that is really very high. if you look at what happened in europe a few weeks ago, they're usually a couple of weeks ahead of us in these patterns, and they were coming down, too, and then they plateaued. and over the last week or

so, they've had about a 9% increase in cases. the message we're saying is that we do want to come back carefully and slowly about pulling back on mitigation methods. but don't turn the switch on and off because it really would be risky to have yet again another surge, which we do not want to happen because we're plateauing at quite a high level. 60,000 to 70,000 new infections per day is quite high. >> brennan: i know you've been watching carefully this new new york strain that has shown some resistance to antibody treatments and vaccine. how widespread is it? >> doctor: well, it is not widespread yet, but it seems to be spreading pretty efficiently through the new york city metropolitan area and beyond. one of the things you have to be careful is that when you get a variant that has the capability of being rather vigorous in its capability of spreading, and the fact is that it

eludes a bit, not as much as the south african isolate, but eludes a bit some of the protection from monoclonal antibodies, as well as the vaccine, the one thing you want to do is to make sure you do not allow that to continue to spread. two ways to do that: get people vaccinated as quickly and as exped additionily,and maintain the puc efforts, the masking and physical distancing, and the avoiding of gatherings, particularly indoors. that is what you can do to prevent the spread of a worrisome variant. >> brennan: doctor, as you know, people are exhausted, and so much of this game seems to be about human psychology. the states are moving faster than the federal guidelines are allowing for here. when will the biden administration put out some clear benchmarks for people at home to make the

judgment about how they can return to normal? >> doctor: well, when you are talking about benchmarks of people who are vaccinated and how a vaccinated person can interact with another vaccinated person or with unvaccinated people, those guidelines are coming out from the c.d.c. really pimminently, margaret. i would imagine within the next couple of days, for sure. one of the things that i think we should point out: every day that goes back that we keep the lid on things, we'll get better and better. because we're putting now at least two million vaccinations into the arms of individuals each day. and as the days and weeks go by, you have more and more protection, not only of individuals, but of the community. so we're going in the right direction. we just need to hang in there a bit longer. we will be pulling back on these mitigation methods. it's not going to be this way indefinitely, for sure. we want to get the levels

of virus very, very low and then we will have much, much easier times to safely pull back and get the economy and all of the other things that we want to be normal. >> brennan: but what will drive that? we're going into warmer weather, is it going to feel safer and then in the autumn we have to pull back again? >> doctor: i don't think so, margaret. because we've been through this movie before, where we thought we would get some relief in the summer. and if you go back and look at the pattern, we had surges in the middle of the summer. generally respiratory virus do better for the community in the summer, but we can't rely on that now. what we need to rely on is getting people vaccinated and continuing the public health measures with the gradual pulling back -- we want to make sure people understand this is not going to be indefinite. we need to gradually pull back as we get more people vaccinated. and that is happening

every single day. and particularly as we get more doses, which are going to be dramatically increased as we get into april and may. and as the president has said, we will have, by the end of may, enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone. we'll have to put a big push to get it into people's arms, but by that time we're going to be doing much, much better. we'll have community vaccine centers, vaccine in pharmacies -- sorry. >> brennan: what about high school students, should they be vaccinated before the fall? >> doctor: actually, that is a very good question. right now the tests are being done to determine both safety and immm immunogisitt. and we expect they will be able to be vaccinated in the early part of the fall for that fall educational term. elementary school kids, we're doing what is called

age deescalation studies to make sure it is safe, and they likely will be able to get vaccinated by the very first quarter of 2022. >> brennan: thank you very much, dr. fauci. new jersey has been one of the hardest-hit states with the highest per capita covid death rate in the nation. governor phil murphy joins us from middletown. good morning to you, governor. as we just laid out, it has been rough in your state. you have had two real waves. the first was this time around last year, and again in the fall. why did you get hit so hard twice? >> governor: good to be with you, margaret. and tony fauci has been an extraordinary advisor to us and to me personally. we got hit as part of the metro new york city reality last winter and spring, without question. we're the densest state in america. that is usually a good

thing as we build out our economy and take advantage of our location, but with the pandemic, it has been, as my late mother would say, a big cross to bear. that is a contributing factor as to why we also got hit hard with the second wave. we assume, by the way, that the new york city variant that you and dr. fauci were talking about, is in new jersey. that's another example, we're in not just the densest state, but region in the country, with lots of commuting back and forth, lots of common behavior, whether it is work or otherwise, and that's just the reality. we'll do everything we can to push back at that. >> brennan: we'll be watching for that. i want to ask you about your record. it was last march that your administration ordered long-term care facilities to start accepting infected residents. new york has gotten a lot of scrutiny for a similar decision. are you confident that new jersey did not undercount

or, deliberately or otherwise, nursing home deaths. >> governor: i don't have any insight in new york, but i have a clear answer as to what we did in new jersey. our health department and commissioner was complicit, black and white, if you readmit a covid positive resident, they need to be separated into either their own floor, their own wing, their own building, and staff as well. and, secondly, i think we started reporting probable deaths from covid as early as june. thirdly, we hired a firm that came in independently and held up a mirror to our practices and gave us a pretty brutal assessment and road path forward. and, lastly, we said to long-term care facilities, by the way, if you can't separate, come to us and we will find another alternative, and many did. >> brennan: so your confident in the numbers? >> i'm confident in the

numbers, yes. sadly -- i mean, it is tragic. we were clobbered, and we mourn the loss of each and every one of those lives. >> brennan: do you regret that decision to put sick people into nursing homes, even in the conditions you laid out? >> governor: margaret, if the operators followed -- and we believe that most, thank god, did, the pattern of the instructions that i just laid out, that was the right course to take. this is their home. so to say to folks we're not only going to separate patients but separate staff -- remember, a lot of these folks got infected unwittingly because staff members were walking in and out of these fass asymptomatic but covid positive. so it was not just enough to separate the residents, but to separate the staff. did some operators not take our advice? it is possible. and if they did not, they deserve to pay a price for that. >> brennan: that's at the state level.

the justice department, we know, has been looking at a number of different states, new jersey included, in regards to nursing home deaths. do you know the status of that probe? >> governor: i do not. and, again, we have been transparent from day one. this is not to make light of any single loss of life. we got clobbered in long-term care, america got clobbered, but we have been transparent and explicit from day one. >> brennan: i want to ask you about your neighboring state governor and the allegations against andrew cuomo. you've called them deeply troubling. since you made those remarks, even more allegations have come to light. five women now are accusing him of inappropriate comments or unwanted physical contact. at what point does this become disqualifying for him? >> governor: listen, margaret, i'm going to stay where i've been on this, which is, this is deeply troubling. more data points make it

even more troubling. an independent investigation, which all parties appear to have come to the conclusion was the right road forward, i would agree with that. let's see where that comes out. i would just say every person, regardless of who they are, who has a concern, has a right to be heard, and that concern has a right to be investigated. and, god willing, that's what will happen here. >> brennan: two male staffers have described verbal abuse, and one alleged the governor was grooming her to sleep with her. should he resign? >> governor: listen, margaret, as i say, this is deeply troubling, deeply concerning. let's let this independent investigation play out, hopefully on an exp expedited basis and see where that comes out and see where we go from there. >> brennan: all right. gorn murphy, thank you for

your time. and good luck with the new york variant. >> governor: thanks for having me, margaret. > brennan:n: "face thehe nationon" will be back in a minute withth another govevernor, jijim justice. stay with us. isis now a gooood time for a flarare-up? enouough, crohn'n's! for adadults with h moderate toto severe crcrohn's or ulcererative colilitis... ststelara® c can providede rf and isis the only y approved memedication to rededuce inflamammation n and d below the e surface of the i intestine i in uc. you,u, getting o on that flil? back o off, uc! ststelara® m may increasae yoyour risk ofof infectiono, some sererious, and d cance. before trereatment, get tetested for t tb. tell your r doctor if you h have an infnfection. flu-lilike symptomoms, sosores, new s skin growtht, have had c cancer, or if yoyou need a v vaccin. pres, , a rare, popotentialy fatal l brain condndition, may bebe possible.e. some serioious alallergic reaeactions anand lung infnflammationn can n occur. lasting g remissionn can n start withth stelara®.

if you'v've been fininancialy impactcted by covivid-19, janssen mamay be able e to he. >> brennan: we turn now to west virginia, one of the states lifting restrictions and opening businesses at full capacity. governor jim justice joins us. >> governor: good morning, margaret. how are you doing? >> brennan: i'm doing well. you were one of the few republicans who supported this $2 trillion relief package that the senate just signed off on. how do you justify to your fellow republicans and the rest of the country why this is worth $2 trillion of tear money? >> governor: from the standpoint of signing on to payoff big pension debts and everything, i've never been in favor of that at all. i have not seen all of the particulars about the bill. what i'm signing on is just one thing: you've

still got a lot of people in america that are really, really hurting. a lot of people are struggling trying to pay their rent. and a lot of states and counties that are hurting as well. in that, when we tighten down -- and i'm a business guy, i'm not a politician. when you tighten down things and you try to skinny it down and just do "x" number of dollars, we have proven that we have missed the boat. what we need to do is we need to go big or don't go in my opinion. so i'm pleased with the fact that we're going big and we're going to absolutely try to really right ourselves and get our economy back and going. >> brennan: you mentioned pension funds, which is one of the criticism from republicans, that these funds are used in ways they're not intended to be by democratic governors. but you've been criticized yourself, by your home state senator, joe manchin, for sitting on past federal covid relief funds and using it for

unrelated projects like potholes. joe manchin said is i don't know of a pothole that has had the covid virus. how do you respond to that? >> listen, joe manchin is a professional politician. i'm not going to get into a food fight with joe manchin. i mean, absolutely, margaret, we have handled the cares dollars here perfectly. and absolutely this state is being managed very well. now, along the way, you know, if joe wants to continue with all of his political rhetoric and everything, i can't do anything about that. like i said, i'm not a politician. i think his statements are ridiculous. >> brennan: so you would stand by the $100 million on roads? >> we spent $50 million of the cares $1.25 billion on medical access roads to be able to help people in west virginia to be able to get to a medical facility. our roads have gotten in

such terrible state, and part of it on joe manchin's watch. and we spent $50 million on the road repairs, yes, we did. >> brennan: i want to ask you about your state and its response to covid. as we introduced you, you have loosened business restrictions, but you have kept in place a mask mandate. and you said the lifting it was kind of a macho thing. how do you respond to your party who say masks violate their rights? >> i think that is ridiculous. i don't like the masks either. but when it really, really boils down to it -- margaret, i have a saying: "one robin didn't make spring." when the first robin comes back and you run out and say it is spring it is spring,spring you're about to gt hit by winter.

nobody likes a mask, but for crying out loud, if we could be a little more prudent for 30 more days or 45 more days or whatever it took to get on rock-solid ground, that's the approach that west virginia is going to take. >> brennan: you have been lauded for success in getting vaccination out to your people, about 18% of the state, i believe, has been vaccinated. i want to ask you how you're doing that. because what we see in polling, particularly from the kaiser foundation, they say nearly four in 10 republicans, three in 10 rural residents are vaccine hesitant. this sounds like a lot of people who would live in west virginia. how do you convince them to take the vaccine? >> margaret, you've got to be truthful and you've got to be transparent. and you've got to earn their trust and keep them with you. every single day, or every other day, i'm talking to

them. i tell them everything. the right and the left hand in my administration knows what each other is doing. all of our health experts are unbelievable, the great clay marsh or dr. onjod or general hoyer and all of the people that are my medical experts, they're doing an amazing job. and when we tell our people over and over and over -- i tell them this almost every day, for crying out loud, do you really think you're going to take the vaccine and grow antlers? i mean, come on. look at all of the medical knowledge that is around you. you've got to be taking the vaccines and they are. >> brennan: before i let you go, the same question i put to governor murphy: should the governor of new york resign in the wake of the slew of allegations against him? >> i don't know every single thing, but i know this: the states, whether it be new jersey or new

york, they've got it all wrong. we got it right in west virginia. little, old west virginia -- >> brennan: these allegations on personal behavior, though. >> i think it is terrible. and i truly believe, you know, he has a dog's mess on his hands. with all of this, where it stands, it is not going to do anything but get worse. i would say he needs to resign. >> brennan: governrnor juststice, thanknk you for your timime. more "facece the natioion" in a momoment. blocking t the pd-l1 p protei. pd-l-l1 saved mymy life. saved d my life. saved my l life. what we e do here atat dana-fab chananges livess everywhehere. everywywhere. evererywhere. everywhehere. everywherere. ♪ for every idea out there, that gets the love it should ♪ ♪ there are 5 more that don't succeed ♪

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[captioning funded by cbs sports division] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for i its cacaption conontent and a accur vivisit ncicapap.org] >> our cbs triple header tips off with an electric matchup in the american conference. kelvin sampson and ninth ranked houston battle penny hardaway and the memphis tigers.