we any now to former f.d.a. commissioner dr. scott gottlieb, who is also on the board of pfizer. good morning to you. >> knrm. >> brennan: so, doctor, would you say a partially vaccinated child across the table from their grandparents at thanksgiving dinner? is that safe now? >> i think it's safe now. look, we have the tools right now to protect that environment. and i don't think there's any reason why people can't get together for the holidays. we need to look at what the local prevalence is, what the risk is in their community. they need to look at the risk in the setting in which they're gathering. if you have older individuals vulnerable to the virus despite vaccination or people who don't

respond well to the vaccine because they're immunocompromised and have other medical conditions, you need to protect that environment. certainly, children who are partially vaccinated have some immunity. but i think using testing smartly in those settings can help protect that setting. >> brennan: so there is no vaccine mandate for these elementary school children who just became eligible and are getting shots in the arm right now. at what point can schools start to lift some of the regulations, things like qawrntding after exposure? when do we begin peeling some of that back? >> i think after we get through this delta wave, on the back end of this delta wave you will see prevalence very low in the country. you look at whose happening in the south, seven, eight cases after the delta variant swept through that part of the country. they paid a very high price for it in terms of infection, but i think after the delta virus moves through different parts of the country-- and it's moving through the country right now--

in another month, two months, we will be on the back end and prevalence will be very low and local communities will lift the restriction positive someplace are already lifting them, but i think schools will be the last places we lift some of those estrictions. the uptake on the 5-11 vaccine is very brisk, and i suspect uptick will be better than 12 to 17. right now, cvs is scheduled to deliver more than one million vaccines to kids ages 5-11 today. so i think you're going to see broad immunity get put into the childhood population. now, there won't be mandates on vaccines for kids for a very long time. i don't see that happening for years, but i do think a lot of parents are going to vaccinate their children and that will improve the situation of safety in schools. >> brennan: you vaccinated your children, i understand. how do you assess the white house rollout? >> i think the white house rollout has been outstanding on the 5-11. look how broadly available it is. within a two-week period, anyone who wants to vaccinate their childs will be able to do it,

ages 5-11. some parents are going to have to wait a week to get an appointment. the appointments got filled up right away. but everyone is going to be able to vaccinate their kids within 7-10 days of the availability of this vaccine, and that owes to the work pfizer did, the company i'm on the board of, but also the administration making sure this was available in the community and different sites. it's in pediatrician offices. communities are holding mass vaccinate clinics around schools, it's available in the pharmacies. that's a very difficult logistical feat, and i think the administration learned from some of the past challenges we had rolling out the vaccine and corrected for a lot of problems we had in the past. >> brennan: you said the other day that this is the end of the pandemic as we know it. what did you mean by that? >> look, i think that that's right. i think that we're close to the end of the pandemic phase of this virus, and we're going to enter a more endemic phase. as things improves, things might pick up. that's what happened in the u.k. it's pretty much back to normal,

at pre-pandemic levels will in the u.k., and kapses are declining. as things improve in the u.s., people are going to go out more. cases may pick up, but that doesn't mean we're entering another waste of infection. the delta variant is the last major away. we said the two of the events that would mark the end of the pandemic, was being able to vaccinate our children, and also having a wildly available, orally accessible drug that could treat coronavirus at home to prevent people from hospitalized or dying, and we now have two of those potential pills, one from pfizer and one from merck and there will be more behind that. >> brennan: parents of small children like me still waiting here. for the first time in 18 months, vaccinated travelers who are adults and their unvaccinated children will be able to enter the united states. travel is picking up. will this feed into the delta wave that you're talking about? >> yeah, i don't think the travel coming in from outside the u.s. is going to feed additional infections or a lot

of additional infections. it's really going to change the equation. a lot of people coming into the u.s. have to show they are vaccinated. they are not going to want to get caught in a foreign country with the infection, so i suspect a lot of people will be cautious coming into the u.s. with the infection. what's going to happen is the delta virus will play out through the country. there's not much we're going to be able to do at this point to interrupt it. we have seen the south be engulfed with the infection and it recovered. the virus spread to the midwest and mountain states and we see leveling coming down. and now it's starting to spread into the great lakes region and nationally. you have seen a stall in the declining cases. that's not because we're seeing a pickuppings inly across the country. the delta infection is moving from less-populated areas where it engulfed those regions with infection, to more populated areas like michigan and wisconsin, so it's showing an overall in decline nationally inspect has to play out. the reality is the delta infection will capture most

people who remain unvaccinated at this point. we have done a phenomenal job of vaccinating the adult population. but for those who aren't getting vaccinated they're going to get infected with this delta variant, and that is ultimately going to be the end game. >> brennan: the biden administration just pushed their deadline to january 4 for this test-or-vaccinate man daylight for private businesses. we have already seen 27 different states file lawsuitses in protest of this. you have been warning that there would be political backlash, and it would have pentagon implications. and is this the scenario you envisioned? >> well, the public health implications i worry about is the opposition that's forming to those covid mandates is going to bleed into opposition to other kinds of vaccine mandates, and things that we've long come to accept, like mandates on childhood immunization for school, even mandates on healthcare workers. people are going to to oppose. they're not going to parse

opposition to man dates on this covid vaccine to other kinds of vaccines agoio see vaccine uptake generally start to decline. that's what i worry about. i think from a public policy standpoint we need to ask ourselves, what is our goal. we have vaccinated 81% of adults over 18. what price are we willing to pay in terms of cultural divide, acrimony, challenges, and the creation of things like exemptions. a lot of businesses are creating exempt yons as out of these mandates, and that creates problems for the future as well. >> brennan: dr. gottlieb, always good to get your insight. we'll be right back with fred smith. ♪ my work has gone platinum. ♪ my work gives people hope. ♪ i work at fedex. ♪ take your career to the next level

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janssen can help you explore cost support options. that's the thing about claims, you see. they don't happen on your schedule. i mean, take a chestnut, it doesn't just say “oh, beg pardon, sir, but is now a good time for a jolly bit of window cracking?” i mean, if they did, you wouldn't need a geico claims team that's available 24/7. but, near as i can tell, chestnuts don't talk. or maybe they're just really quiet. geico. your claims team is here for you, 24/7. well, got things to do mr. chestnut, so... >> brennan: the stront employment report this week showed companies are creating jobs, but many employers are complaining they cannot find workers to hire. that is just one of the factors being blamed for some of the supply chain blockage. we go now to fedex c.e.o. fred smith who joins us from memphis,

tennessee. good morning to you. >> good morning to you. >> brennan:iment to get to all that in a moment but i want to ask you first about this infrastructure bill headed to the pre's desk, $110 billion for highways, investments and rail. you touch a large amount of transportation in this country. what does this bill do for you? >> well, it's a step in the right direction. i haven't seen the details of the bill. but one of the three reasons that we're having this supply chain problems that we're having is the lack of investment in infrastructure and other policy changes that could have made our logistic system more flexible and nimble. so we applaud the congress and the president for getting this bill passed. any improvement in the logisst l te benefit e american people. >> brennan: well, last sunday, we had the commerce secretary these delays in the supply chain

blockage. she said "call fedex if you want to know if your christmas presents are going to arrive on time." what's the answer to the question, will they? >> yes, i think we're ready for this. this year, we're forecasting we will deliver 100 million more shipments in this holiday season than we did in 2019. that's a result of our leaning into e-commerce some years ago, making billions of dollars in investments, including modernizing our airplane fleet to use less energy and emit less co2. so the secretary made a wise recommendation there. we're ready, assuming that we can get the employees. the lack of employees, particularly since last spring and into the summer-- partially because of the delta variant, and partially because of the

stimulus, which hit right before the delta variant took hold of a lot of the country-- created att us the c.f.o. of amazon talked about this in depth on the 28th of october in their analyst calls. to put this in perspective, the week of may the 8, we were processing about 50,000 applications a day. this past week, beginning november the 1, we're processing 90,000 employment plxes and hiring many, many thnldz of people to operate in our 60-plus global hubs that allow us to pick up and transport, deliver between any two points on the globe. so this very is very encouraging. and it's why i believe the delivery part of the supply chain, which is very, very

important to the e-commerce recipients, the at-home recipients, will work well this peak season. >> brennan: so you at fedex don't have your own mandate for employees to go out and get the covid vaccine. but now, as you know, the administration's rolling one out. do you expect a large number of workers to walk out of the job in january, or is that, you know, a misplaced fear? >> well, it's not a misplaced fear, but let me commend the administration for moving the federal contractor mandate from december the 8, which could have put some of the deliveries in peril, to january the 4, and even more importantly, to give us the flexibility to try to get all of our people vaccinated. we strongly support it. i'm vaccinated. we've made every effort. we've paid bonuses to people to get vaccinated.

but the people that operate the pickup and delivery systems, the warehouses, and the fulfillment and sortation centers that make this country's logistics system go, there's a fair number of them, a large percentage, that simply do not want to be vaccinated. that's not just hearsay. i was in a couple of our facilities just two days ago, and had that confirmed by a number of our frontline managers, and it's what we're hearing throughout our system. so this was a wise decision to move the mandate. >> brennan: so then what are you going to do when the man dapt does take effect? are you just going to have to pay fines? or is this manageable? >> well, that's where i noted the federal government is giving usthe flexibility to do that. we'll try any and everything-- incentives and, you know, encouragement, what have you. we think we'll be able to work through it. >> brennan: in terms of rising

prices, jet fuel prices are up, like, 70% in the past year. crude oil spiking. you look aptthe co year. for people looking around and saying my cost of living is going up, do you see any relief on the horizon? >> well, we do. inflation in the last quarter was about 5.4%. demand is about 15% higher for goods today than it was in february 2020. and there are supply c supply constraints, and in the case of energy, the demand is coming back much more rapidly than people thought it would, has raised the prices of energy. we believe inflation will, in the middle of '22, begin to drift down a bit.

but the main thing is to unclog want supply chains, which are having problems because of lebu whip effect it's lack of employment and our inability to improve our infrastructure over the last 20 years. all three of those have had a big effect on the availability of moving goods through our system. >> brennan: all right, fred smith, thank you for answering the question, and we'll look out for those christmas presents, as you say, should be arriving on time. we'll be back in a moment with some political analysis. stay with us.

. >> brennan: joining us now for some analysis is the publisher and editor in chief of the cook political report, amy walter, and the one and ondedickerso wh.

good to have you here in person. >> so exciting. i love this. >> brennan: i love to have the "what does it all mean" conversation. and you heard cedric richmond. you heard senator kaine, their version of events. amy, are democrats just totally over-reacting here, or is there a real reason to be panicked? >> there's definitely a reason to be panicked. and some of it is historical. i think it was mark twain who says history doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes. and this pattern we saw in virginia and new jersey feels very familiar because we've lived through it. we saw it in 2006. we saw it in 2010. we saw it in 2018. te party in power, especially the party in power that has both bodies of congress, goes into a midterm election or an off-off-year election like we saw in virginia and new jersey, the president is unpopular. the other side is fired up. and the party in power is not quite as inner gilesed and

engaged. and you fut those three things together and you get what we have in '06, which is a blow-out election for the other party, the party not in the white house. >> another historical thing we see is after a loss like this, the losing party engags massive effort of diagnosis. to solve a problem you have to diagnosis. then you have to fix it. but everything is giving a different diagnosis, and there's a huge fight over the diagnose i guess. they can't even get to executing the solution because they're still arguing over the diagnose i guess, and that's the affect. >> brennan: senator said don't be the dithering party, be the doing party. >> as amy p pointed out, the ugy national picture hurting democrats-- as you would expect it to because of history-- that ugly national picture makes it look uglier when it looks like nothing is happening in washington. what i heard in everything senator kaine was saying is pass this bill, pass this bill, so we can talk about something on the

campaign trail, shift the topic off of other things and talk about what we're doing. his message was, boy, this week really set up-- we have to get going on this legislation. it may not work are but you have to have something. and a piece ofivation that has passed is better than having nothing. >> brennan: amy, you know, the exit polls, as we went through with senator kaine, showed economy, education taxes, the republican candidate-- soon to be governor-- led on all of those things, on substance. did glenn youngkin kind of form the platform for the g.o.p. to take back control in 2022 with these midterm races? >> well, he certainly showed the road map for how a republican in a blue state-- i mean, let's not frget, virginia, it's not just that joe biden carried the state by 10, obama carried the state in '08 and '12. this is a blue state. he did that by being able to get above donald trump. donald trump was not a part of

this campaign. he was able to keep him at arm's length. he was able to do that because, one, it's not a federal race. it's a little bit easier when it's a local race. but also the way that he was chosen as the nominee was through a convention process, not a primary. sohe didn't get a long, drawn-out primary like we have in so many of these states cocoming into 2022, where the president is going to insert himself or has already inserted himself. but what youngkin was able to do is the wind was at his back, and he was able then to focus on the things that he knew would win back those swing voters-- education, economy, taxes. those are classic, not just for the suburbs in and around washington but for the rest of the state as well. >> just to pick up on what amy is saying, the reason primary is important the purchase price of doing well in the primary is wrapping your arms around donald trump. and since youngkin didn't have to do, that he created some of that distance. he also had a second issue that was firing up the trump base. one of the reasons you have to

embrace president trump is he has all the vo voters and the ky question for any republican is will the trump voter turn out for you if you're not donald trump? he didn't have to worry about that because he had critical race theory and other issues surrounding education that would turn out that trump base. so he had the benefit of the trump base. and then as amy said, those republicans were desperate to come home. they left because of donald dond trump. if youngkin doesn't look like trump, they're happy to come home for a candidate who is also talking about very traditional republican issues. >> brennan: on that point, education is how it's referred to, right? and that has been an issuerebls, just to reopening classrooms. now it's about what's taught in those classrooms. youngkin really focused in on that. does critical race theory and everything it's come to symbolize become one of those cultural wedge issues? is it the new defund the police, essentially? >> they're related. there is nothing more sensitive in american life than race, and no worse place to talk about sensitive issues than a campaign because it's about attack and

fuzzying up issues. if you think after george floyd was murdered, america had a conversation and an opening up a perspective about how to deal with race. it was in corporations. it was in politics. was in religion. and in the school room there was a feeling you had to teach that racism didn't just come with a white hood. enter the critical race theory, which is a legal fight over here, but it's brought in, in the political context to fuzzy everything up. you have people who both don't like the idea-- who are just straight-up racists, and those who don't like to be called a racist because they're questioning the idea of defund the police. condoleezza rice says black students should not be empowered by making white students feel less empowered. what somebody would respond is, yes, but we can have a conversation about the contemporary ramifications of historical racism. we should be able to. but you can't in a political fire department. >> yeah, nuance is not great in campaign. >> nuance doesn't happen in campaigns -- >> brennan: this isn't just in the campaigns. we're seeing this in school boards. >> absolutely. >> brennan: this is being used

to galvanize. >> right, and what happens-- the challenge for democrats is the democrats have to decide, this is an important issue to us, but if we fight on it, we're going to be fighting on republican turf. and that's bad turf because it comes at the expense of conversations we can have about other things that we want to pass. if they don't talk about critical race theory, they're giving up an issue they care a great deal about. >> right, and they're going to say, especially for younger voters, younger voters of color who are marching in the street in 2020, are saying, that's it, democrats. that's all you're going to give to us? we came out and we voted for you and now you're backing off saying we have to be very careful how we talk about these issues. we can't lose our suburban voters. i don't know if the issue would have gotten the traction it has gotten without everything else, a national political environment, bad for democrats, and students coming back into a classroom that looks and feels different. anybody who has a child who tried to survive the pandemic knows that their kids are struggling, that teachers are struggling.

so when you hear these school board meetings, a lot of it isn't just about-- it's not about that. it's oh, my gosh, my child who has special needs was totally left out. or my kid has fallen through the cracks. or why weren't teachers there in person? we needed to have them there. why did they cut out sports and a.p. classes. it's deeper than just that. but that motivated the base for sure. >> brennan: it's anger, it's anxiety, it's everything that's going on. thank you for your analysis. and we will be right back. ♪ now listen to the beat ♪ ♪ kinda pat your feet ♪ ♪ it's all right ♪ ♪ have a good time 'cause it's all right ♪ ♪ oh, it's all right ♪ mass general brigham. when you need some of the brightest minds in medicine,

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good evening. thanks for joining us. president biden begins a new week with something that he and democrats have been lacking. momentum. they got it for now. with the house passage of the massive bipartisan infrastructure plan. still, sharp divisions remain with republicans and democrats. late today the president and first lady seen there ignored reporters questions as they headed out to the beach on a cool day near their delaware home. they even posed for a selfie. soon, they'll return to the political heat that awaits them in washington. that's