captioning sponsored by cbs >> brennan: i'm margaret brennan in washington. and this week on "face the nation," confusion plagues the covid booster rollout, and challenges continue to hobbel the biden presidency. there are border and immigration problems and unease about his handing of the economy are now taking their toll on america's views of president biden's effectiveness and competence. >> biden: part of it is dealing with the panoply of things were landed on my plate. it is just a reality. >> brennan: now at stake, the center piece of the biden presidency, an economic plan, including the trillion infrastructure bill, plus

his domestic extravaganza, 3.5 trillion in new spending, paid for by tax increases for corporations and the wealthiest americans. key votes are expected this week in congress. will the politics within the democratic party on top of that, inflation. millions of americans are still out of work and supply-chain delays due to covid are all slowing the economic recovery. >> biden: i think it is understandable, people being frustrated, frustrated by i thought this was going to be better. i thought everything was working out? >> brennan: and there is more muddled messaging to clear up when it comes to covid guidance. just hours after the c.d.c. offered pfizer boosters for a limited number of americans, the president gets behind it. >> we'll talk with the centers for disease

control, dr. rochelle walensky. then bipartisan asociations on a police reform bill in congress collapse. what went wrong. we'll ask senator tim scott. a leading house progressive washington represent pramila jayapal will also be here. can the president do a better job of handling crises that are avoidable? we'll get some analysis from john dicertional agenda, as the president promises a new era of relentless diplomacy, we'll talk with scott morrison and turkish prime minister ra recep tayyip erdogan. it's all ahead on "face the nation." ♪ >> brennan: good morning, and welcome to "face the nation." messy and confusing is how the "wall street journal"'s editorial board characterized the biden administration's booster vaccine plan late last

week. but they praised c.d.c. director rochelle walensky for the right outcome. this is a reference to her decision to include frontline workers with a high risk of exposure among those who are now eligible to receive pfizer booster shots. along with adults with underlying conditions and those who are 65 and over. we go now to the c.d.c. director, dr. rochelle walensky. she is in newton, massachusetts. good morning to you. >> good morning, margaret. thanks for having me. >> brennan: so can you explain what made you side with the f.d.a. in saying people at high risk of exposure should be eligible to get this third dose when you're own advisory committee did not come to that consensus? and exactly who is high risk? >> great. so, first let me start by saying we still have 70 million americans who are unvaccinated in this country. and these are people who are 10 times the risk of being hospitalized, and 11 times more likely to die.

so we have hard work in making sure we get those people vaccinated. but i'm here to talk about boosters, let's get to protecting people to otimize people who have already been vaccinated. there is a scientific process. we have an f.d.a. advisory board meeting, and they provide the regulatory authorization. and then it comes to a c.d.c. advisory meeting, and then i provide those recommendations. there is remarkable consensus in a lot of those discussions. people over the age of 65, people with high-risk conditions, and where there was some real scientific discussion and a scientific close call was for those people who are at high risk of living -- bf where they live or where they work. and because of that close call, and because of all of the evidence we reviewed at the f.d.a. and the c.d.c., i thought it was appropriate for those people to be eligible for boosters. who are those people? people who live and work in high-risk settings, and that includes people in

homeless shelters, people in group homes, people in prisons. but, also, importantly, are people who workh workers, our teachers, our groceries workers, our public transportation employees. >> brennan: so teachers, does that mean other people living with unvaccinated children gh risk?lso be c does that make parents left leg with unvaccinated kids high risk? >> the recommendations were not intended for that population. it is really for people who are working all of the time with many different people who might be unvaccinated, might be at high risk, and really the vulnerable occupations like our health care workers, our teachers, our public transportation workers. >> brennan: the category just seems very broad. so i want to get some real-world examples here. should a healthy 20-year-old male who waits tables at a restaurant, for example, go out and get a vaccine, a third dose? >> this is really where we

made it possible for people to be eligible, but they really have to identify their own individual risk and their own individual benefit. and i recognize that this is confusing, and we have a lot of resources available with your pharmacist, with your physicians, with your public health departments, and with the c.d.c. so, really, i would try and get a sense from that individual what kind of community, how much are people wearing masks, are there masks in the restaurant, are people generally vaccinated in that community to make a personal decision if that person needs to be vaccinated. >> brennan: a 40-year-old parent living with unvaccinated kids, not necessarily necessary for them to get booster? >> not yet. we will have more data forthcoming. and, of course, we will be looking at those data on an ongoing basis in realtime and updating those guidances. if that 40-year-old parent doesn't need eligibility for some other reason, i would say it is not time

for them to get vaccinated -- ii mean boosted. >> brennan: but when the president says we're probably going to open this in anyway, and you're saying wait and see, there is some confusion. are you going to recommend boosters for the general population? >> i recognize that confusion. right now our recommendation is for these limited people in the population over 65, high-risk workers, high-risk occupations, as well as high risk by co-morbidities. we are evaluating this science in realtime. we are meeting every several weeks now to evaluate the science. the science may very well show that the rest of the population needs to be boosted, and we will provide those guidances as soon as we have the science to inform them. >> brennan: so for those who didn't come to the consensus that the c.d.c -- to the view that

you did, what are the risks they're looking at? what is the risk for that 20-year-old going out and getting a third dose, that booster? >> so that's a great question. as we looked at the risk/benefit profiles of people who have gotten third doses, you have a lot of experience from other countries. israel has vaccinated millions of people now with third doses, and we've actually vaccinated here up to 2.5 million people with third doses. we just don't have as long as a duration of safety for those third doses. but what i can tell you is so far in the 20,000 people we've looked at, the safety signals are exactly the same as what we have seen for the second dose. and we've vaccinated over 160 million people with mrna vaccines in this country. we have an extraordinary amount of safety data. so some scientists may say we want to wait and see what more safety data come in, whether there is a

true benefit to be seen in trials and effectiveness, but there is extraordinary data to demonstrate the safety of these vaccines, and, in fact, that they work. if you're in a high-risk position, i would absolutely recommend you get the booster. >> brennan: when you're talking about the formulation of the vaccine, you're saying that the second and the third dose are the same thing. does that change as the virus continues to mutate? should we all be prepared that we all will need to go get boosters every single year? >> i want to emphasize that our goal right now is to stay ahead of the virus. we want to boost now so we don't end up in a vulnerable place. but your question is an important one, and it is one we don't necessarily have the answer for yet. we are working to stay ahead of the virus. we will see if we can get the amount of transmission down in this country, and truly around the world, which we are also working to do, and then we are anticipating and hoping we

will not have more mutations that will require more boosting in the future. >> brennan: i appreciate at the outset you laid out the bureaucratic process that happens within the government to say yes or no on these vaccines. but we're in the middle of a national health crisis, where trust has been diminished, where chart clarity and communication is so important. was this the right way to actually get this done? every day we had a different message on whether to take the booster or not? >> i want to actually articulate this. this is not the bureaucratic process. this is a scientific process. you have to scientific experts who are talking about -- talking at the f.d.a. advisory committee, and you have to people working their entire career in immunology and vaccinology. it is an important scientific process and dialogue. it has been scrutinized. it has been watched in

ways it has never been before, but this has been the process that has held us in goo s very transparent, and i think it is important for people to understand and watch the science so they have confidence. >> brennan: you said back in march you had a feeling of impending doom. you took a lot of flack for saying it in those terms. but we were in the middle of the delta surge. how do you feel now? >> look, you look at states around this country, and you see places that are using crisis standards of care. that is not -- and that means that we are talking about who is going to get a ventilator, who is going to get an i.c.u. bed. those are not easy discussions to have, and that is not a place we want our health care system to ever be. >> brennan: is that what you meant when you said

impending doom, what you're seeing now, crisis levels of care? >> in some states, yes, they are running out of beds. and when you see that, you worry that people may not be able to come in and get the proper care if they have a motor vehicle accident or if they're having a heart attack. and that is why we are working so hard in areas that have high levels of disease, where they can't -- where their health care systems are in dire straits, that working to get assistance to them, working to get those communities vaccinated, because as i noted, people who are not vaccinated are 10 times more likely to be in the hospital. our hospitals are filled with unvaccinated people. >> brennan: infections among children five to 11 are at the highest they've ever seen on a weekly basis, according to your agency's data. are schools vectors of transmission? is this where kids are getting sick? >> our science has

demonstrated that the disease generally comes in from the community, and when schools are mionrateit is t where the transmissis actually happeni. just this week we had two studies published. over 96% of the schools in this school year have been able to remain open. and we also published a study out of arizona, which demonstrated that places that had no masks in place were three times more likely to have outbreaks than those who did have masks. we know how to keep them safe. when we don't use the proper mitigation, they're more likely to have outbreaks. >> brennan: should kids go trick-or-treating on halloween? is it safe? >> oh, gosh, i certainly hope so. if you're able to be outdoors, absolutely. limit crowds. i wouldn't necessarily go to a crowded halloween party. i think we should be able to let our kids go

trick-or-treating in small ou, i h can do that this yea forefplase ou'rgifor a booster, go gr boost. >> brennan: doctor, thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you so much. >> brennan: we'll be back in a moment. stay with us. [slow electronic notes fade in] [fast upbeat music begins]

[music stops] and release. [deep exhale] [fast upbeat music resumes] [music stops] >> brennan: a top agenda item for president biden, the bipartisan push for police reform following the killing of george floyd collapsed last week when it ended talks with republicans. president biden laid the blame on republicans, saying they rejected enacting modest reforms, which even the previous president had supported. we spoke earlier with the top russian negotiator, south carolina senator tim scott. what happened? this country was supposed to be at a moment of reckoning at the relationship between police and the black community. why did you miss the moment? >> i'm not sure why they missed the moment.

i have been at this table they've walked away twice. they did it a year ago and -- >> brennan: you're blaming democrats for the failure of police reform? where should asks the , bluts pass policies to protect their most vulnerable communities. minneapolis, los angeles, cleveland, portland, seattle. this problem came to the federal government because of the failure of blue mayors and liberal city council members. so what we decided to do was to stay at the table and look for common ground. we found common ground. we found common grounds on military equipment, on chokeholds, on providing ptsd mental health. we found common ground on a number of areas. instead of moving forward on the areas where we were in agreement, they simply walked away. >> brennan: you just detailed all those points of agreement. >> yes. >> brennan: senator cory booker, who was your

partner in this -- this started under the trump administration and continued under the biden administration. with republicans it wentft the , let's be clear. we said, simply this: i am not going to participate in reducing funding for the police after we saw major city after major city defund the police. many provisions in this bill that he wanted me to agree to limited or reduced funding for the police. that is a lose/lose proposition. when you reduce funding for police, you actually lose lives in the community. our approach was a win/win approach. we want the best wearing the badge, and we want the vulnerable protected. so when you tie funding losses in this legislation, you should expect an allergic reaction from me. >> brennan: they would say that there wasn't a net loss of funding. in fact, there was funding being increased in terms of increased mental health funding, specifically.

that there were specific programs for recruitment and training funding increases, body-worn camera increase. so that is not cutting funding. it might be allocating it in different ways. >> here is what we we have about a billion dollars in grant money that goes to police. when you start saying in order to receive those dollars, you must do "a," "b," and "c," and if you don't do "a," bmpleghts, "b", ad "c," you literally lose money. when you tell local law enforcement agencies you're ineligible for money, that is defunding the police. there is no way to spin that. you can spin it by saying -- >> brennan: but the -- >> let me finish. the trump executive order i actually agreed to. what i do not agree to is the cuts that come from non-compliance. when you say in order for you to receive money, you must do the following, and if you don't do the following, you lose money.

that is more defunding the police. we saw that throughout the country. >> brennan: cutting funding for underperformance -- >> not at all. >> brennan: you want to increase to police departments that aren't doing their job? >> what the democrats asked for was a simple thing. they asked for more reporting on serious bodily injuries and death. i said that's a great idea. when they wanted to nationalize local police, i said that is a bad idea. when they say that every single traffic stop in this country must be reported to the federal government, whether it is a traffic ticket or stopping someone on the streets of new york or charleston, every time you have any interaction, for the federal government to be in charge of all of that information, i say let's do it, but let's do it voluntarily. >> brennan: people at home watching this say this was a moment that was missed. is jt loks likic--

>> i do think they're playing politics. >> brennan: what about the republicans -- >> they're at the table. >> brennan: it is a very affective political line -- >> margaret, if we're going to be fair to the american people to get the whole story, you must allow me to have a conversation about the issues i've been working on for the last two years. >> brennan: let me ask you a question -- pime going to give you the answer, defunding the police. >> of course not is the answer. why would i be at a table -- i'm the person who has lived in the communities that we're talking about. i'm the person whose experience and challenges we're trying to solve. i'm the person who understands and appreciates this issue intimately. if you want to keep our communities safe, you have to properly fund the ce.>> brenn: th issthorf this had to do with funding related to data collection about traffic stops --

>> no. you asked me for specificity. i gave you an example. there are eight or nine parts of the bill where the answer the democrats put on the table was reducing the funding to thepolice. when you have one issue, we can work that out. when you have eight different areas of the legislation that reduces funding, that's a different conversation. now you're talking about defunding the police. you may not like that as a statement, but it is actually what you can read in the language of the bill. >> brennan: senator booker has said -- >> all you have to do is read the areas of the bill that actually reduce the funding. that's available. >> brennan: so that's a big point of disagreement between the two of you -- >> only if you can't read. >> brennan: you are saying senator booker can't read? >> if you read the legislation, it is pretty simple. this is not something i'm making up and we can debate our facts. we can say in several different areas of the bill it reduces funding. >> brennan: i want to

also ask you about immigration. you didn't seem to have a problem when president trump adopted title 42, which allows for those migrants crossing the border to be compelled without first being guaranteed asylum hearings. it was justified under the pandemic. the biden administration kept those things in place. do you have a problem with what the biden administration is doing with the compulsion of migrants now? >> i was for a strong border under president trump, and i'm for a strong border right now under president biden. >> brennan: so when it comes to the question of the haitian migrants the white house has basically said it is embarrassed about what has happened in the past week and a half, do you think that it is justified and what you have seen on camera with some of these thousands of haitian migrants being forcibly expelled, some of them rounded up by men on horseback. is what you're seeing humane? >> i think president biden and his administration owns the crisis that

they've created at the border, and the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding before every eye in the american public. >> brennan: but it is the same policies under the trump administration. >> the treatment, obviously, is different. that's why his people have resigned from their posts. it's the possibility -- >> brennan: the envoy for haiti, you're talking about? >> thank you. it is the responsibility of the president to secure our borders. president biden has not done so. the crisis of his own making looks very similar to the one he made in afghanistan, the one we're experiencing with taxes and spending. yes, this president should do a much better job of avoiding crisis that are avoidable. >> brennan: the president has said, those people, the men on horseback, which at times looked like he was whipping some of the haitian migrants, he said, i promise you those people will pay, those agents. should those agents pay? >> i think he should hold

accountable his agency, absolutely. >> brennan: we have invited senator booker to appear next week to respond to senator scott. we'll be right back. check out dexcom.com/inrange. today, you have to deal with a lot of moving parts. you want everything to be on autopilot. and to be prepared if anything changes. with ibm, you can do both. your business can bring data together across your clouds, from suppliers to shippers, to the factory floor. so whatever comes your way, the wheels keep moving. seamlessly modernizing your operations, that's why so many businesses work with ibm. before treating your chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month each lasting 4 hours or more, you're not the only one with questions about botox®. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine

before they even start, with about 10 minutes of treatment once every 3 months. so, ask your doctor if botox® is right for you, and if a sample is available. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. in a survey, 92% of current users said they wish they'd talked to their doctor and started botox® sooner. plus, right now, you may pay zero dollars for botox®. ask your doctor about botox® today. before we talk about tax-smart investing, what's new? you may pay zero dollars -audrey's expecting... -twins! ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans.

at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. >> brennan: late yesterday afternoon an amtrak train carrying 157 people derailed neared joplin, montana, injuring at least 30. the train was traveling from seattle to chicago when it went off the tracks. the ntsb is preparing to send a team to montana to investigate. we'll be right back.

does your vitamin c last twenty-four hours? only nature's bounty does. immune twenty-four hour plus has longer lasting vitamin c. plus, herbal and other immune superstars. only from nature's bounty. ♪ we believe everyone deserves to live better. and just being sustainable isn't enough. our future depends on regeneration. that's why we're working to not only protect our planet, but restore, renew, and replenish it. so we can all live better tomorrow. ♪

>> brennan: we'll be right back with a lot more "face the nation." so stay with us. ♪ oáuuq

♪ ♪ >> week three i in the nfl. >> lamar jackson and the baltimore ravens. it's like watching a video game when you see him play. 193 yards rushi