this sunday, biden's big win. >> thank you, thank you, thank you. >> joe biden gets the landslide victory he needed in south carolina. >> the democrats want a nominee who's a democrat, a proud democrat, an obama-biden democrat! join us! >> bernie sanders finishes a distant second. >> there are a lot of states in this country. nobody wins them all. >> while warren, buttigieg and

klobuchar trail badly and steyer drops out. can biden pull voters from bloomberg and slow sanders heading into super tuesday? this morning i'll talk to former vice president biden and pete buttigieg of indiana. plus the coronavirus. the dow falling. >> breaking news tonight. the stock market closing the week in freefall. >> fears escalating. >> very clear, if we have a global pandemic, no country is going to be without impact. >> president trump insisting there's little to worry about. >> my administration has taken the most aggressive action in modern history to confront the spread of this disease. >> as he and his allies blame the media for frayed nerves. >> they think this is going to be what brings down the president. that's what this is all about. >> vice president leading the country's response. >> we're going to bring the full resources of the federal government to bear. >> this morning my sitdown with the vice president. and i'll talk to virus hunter and nbc news medical contributor

dr. joseph fare. joining me no insight and analysis are nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. eddie glaude jr., peggy noonan and former white house press secretary robert gibbs. welcome to sunday and a special edition of "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news headquarters in new york, the longest running show in television history, this is a special edition of "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning from our election headquarters right here at rockefeller center in new york city. we have so much to talk about. yesterday south carolina's primary, our look ahead to super tuesday and the growing fears over the coronavirus which has now claimed its first victim in the united states. so let's get right to it. we'll start with presidential politics. while he's not yet the comeback kid, joe biden got the win he so desperately needed yesterday. biden's south carolina firewall held and then some. with almost all the votes counted, joe biden won every single county in the state, crushing bernie sanders by a 2-1 margin with everyone else trailing badly.

biden's big win helped him close the delegate gap considerably with sanders. with six south carolina delegates still to be allocated, it's very close. >> just days ago the press and the pundits had declared this candidacy dead. now, thanks to all of you, the heart of the democratic party, we just won and we've won big because of you. >> despite biden's big night, the confetti could stop for him on super tuesday and sanders is much better organized and positioned to take a potentially commanding delegate lead. >> the people of this country on super tuesday and after are going to support our campaign because we are more than a campaign, we are a movement. >> 14 states plus american samoa and democrats abroad will be voting on tuesday with 1357 pledged delegates at stake.

or 34% of the entire total available. it is a national primary day. biden needs lower tier candidates to drop out as tom steyer did last night. we'll have much more on the race in a moment. the other big story of course is the coronavirus. yesterday we learned of the first death of someone in the united states as a result of the outbreak. this person had no known travel exposure. i spoke with vice president mike pence who's leading the government's response effort and you'll see that later in the show. we're going to begin with the democratic race and the big shakeup here. perhaps no one had more riding on south carolina or has more riding on super tuesday than joe biden. the former vice president joins me from a super tuesday state, montgomery, alabama. vice president biden, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks, chuck, for having me. i appreciate it. >> well, let's start with your big win last night. how do you ensure that what happens in south carolina doesn't stay in south carolina? >> i keep talking about the same things i've talked about, chuck. about how we have to restore the soul of this country, bring back -- look, it's not about organizing a democratic party, it's about giving confidence to

the american people that we can get the things done which i believe we can get done. they're not looking for revolution, they're looking for results, they're looking for change, they're looking for movement forward. so i think -- and i'm going to continue to talk about the things i've been talking about, including -- look, this is not just about wealth, this is about work being rewarded. so all the things i've talked about in the past i'll continue to talk about and i feel good about it. >> when we last spoke about two weeks ago, there was a concern among many of your supporters, where was the urgency, where was the fire. you certainly showed it this last week. you showed the urgency, you showed the fire. how do you reassure those supporters that you will sustain this? >> just watch me. just watch. a lot of supporters stepped up the last 24 hours. we raised over $5 million last night. we've raised a considerable amount of money this month. things are beginning to move online. >> $5 million last night?

the last 24 hours. >> yes. well, it's online. you know, things are moving. look, we got outspent 40-1 in south carolina. 40-1. and we won every single county. and we've now won more actual votes overall since this began, since the whole process began, than bernie has won. and so, look, we're feeling good. again, i take nothing for granted. i'm not going to be a pundit and say where i'm going win and how i'm going to win. if we win it's because of the message we have and because we're going to get something done. >> last night you were trying to make this a two-person race. you said you were either going to win big or lose big. do you believe bernie sanders would lead the democratic party to a big loss? >> i do. i think bernie sanders' position on a number of the issues, even in the democratic party, are going to be very -- are very controversial. the idea that you're going to find $60 billion and not going to -- trillion, i should say,

not going to have to raise taxes on middle class people, the idea that we're talking about immigration. if bernie had voted for the -- if we had passed the immigration bill that i voted for and teddy kennedy and the others voted for about ten years ago, we'd already have 6 million people who were undocumented american citizens. so there's a lot of talk. we're getting down and everybody is going to look at bernie's record as closely as they have looked at mine over the last five months and i think they'll see some stark differences in where we stand. >> on wednesday morning if you are behind by a big chunk of delegates, it may be because of michael bloomberg. do you have a message to michael bloomberg? >> no, i'm not presuming to sending anybody a message. as i've said before, i respect the people running. they're going to make their own decisions. we'll see what happens. but there's a long way to go. >> are you concerned, though, that michael bloomberg and in your candidacy, you're appealing to the same group of voters, the same sort of moderate centrist pragmatists, whatever you want to call that group of voters,

and you split -- you know, the combined number may be greater than sanders, but sanders may win these primaries because of that split? >> well, look, chuck, i'm not being facetious here, we've had this discussion before in kind. i'm not a pundit. all i know is why i think we should -- why i should be the nominee, why i think we have such an enormous opportunity, and why i think people are not looking for revolution, they're looking for results. they want to make sure their work gets rewarded. they want to make sure they have access to health care, not a pie in the sky notion, that we can get it done immediately and they can be covered quickly. they want to make sure that they are in a position where their kids have access to an education. they want to make sure that we do something about climate change, and that's an international as well as national responsibility. they're the things that have been in my wheelhouse my whole career and i think i'm ready to get done. >> there's no doubt jim clyburn's endorsement was a big

deal to your candidacy, the exit poll indicated it was a big deal. he's got a lot of things to say about your campaign. i'm sure you heard about this, but this is what he said yesterday. i did not feel free to speak out about it or to even deal with it inside because i had not committed to his candidacy. i have now. i'm all in and i'm not going to sit idly by and watch people mishandle this campaign. do you accept his critique that you've had people running your campaign that have mishandled this campaign? >> no, i -- well, i accept the critique that we have to do a lot better. i accept the critique that it's a matter of addition, not subtraction. i think the people running the top of the campaign are doing a great job, inside each state we've had there are different qualities and capabilities of people. we just keep -- this is a matter of addition. as we move on, every primary, every caucus, we're attracting more people of talent to join us. but i'm ready and wide open to accept criticism of people like

jim clyburn, as i have with others, including criticism of me, how i can get better. >> one of those issues has to do with organization in the super tuesday states, particularly out west, specifically california. one visit isn't going to fix your problems out there. i know you're going out there, i think, on monday evening and spending tuesday. what is a good night for you in california? >> again, i'm not going to speculate what's good and bad. look, we have had limited funds to begin with, number one. number two, the first two caucus and primary did hurt the campaign in terms of whether or not people thought that we were likely to win. and it did have some impact. and, look, i haven't had the kind of money that bernie has been working on for a long, long time here. he's done a great job of it. i haven't had that kind of staff. i have a significant number of endorsements and quality people, from the mayor of los angeles to

barbara boxer to people like dianne feinstein and serious, serious people in the state, but that's not enough. it's hard to put people on the ground when you haven't had tens of millions of dollars other people have had. >> do you think you can win this primary before the convention -- >> i know i can. >> do you think it's inevitable that you and sanders may have to work this out at the convention? >> i think i can win it before the convention. but again, i'm not -- look, all i know is i think we're moving into a constituencies that are constituencies when they hear me have always been mine, diverse communities, white working class folks, african-americans and hispanics, women in the suburbs. there are places i've always been very strong my whole career. one of the reasons why i was asked to join the ticket with barack obama in 2008, that hadn't changed. i think people know me and it's a matter of my being able to get organizational structures on the ground in big states and it

looks good some places and looks tougher others. >> all right. well, we will find out tuesday night and wednesday morning. thanks for coming on, sharing your views and be safe on the campaign trail. >> thanks, chuck. joining me now is former south bend mayor and presidential candidate, pete buttigieg. mayor pete, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you. good to be back with you. >> so let's -- i assume you don't want to sugar coat things. you spent the second or third most amount of time in south carolina. you put every effort that you could into this state. it's not like you glossed over it. i assume you're disappointed in your finish. where does this -- where do you think your campaign stands now? >> well, you know, every day i get up and look at how we can do our part to make sure we defeat donald trump and that continues to be my focus. we knew south carolina was going to be a challenging state. we competed hard there, but nothing can take away from vice president biden's commanding victory and i congratulate him on that.

i think the most important thing is to look at what we can do to make sure that we put forward a campaign that is going to end the trump presidency, because everywhere i go, americans are focused on ensuring that we not only get better policies, that we turn the page on all of the things that this president is doing and has done to our country, to our democracy, but also that we turn the page on the tone in our politics and that we move on from this divisive and toxic season in american public life. that continues to be my focus, as it has every day since the campaign began. >> the venn diagram of presidential messaging of what you just said right now and vice president biden's victory speech last night, there had been a lot of overlap there. joe biden makes almost the same case you're making now of what the nominee of the democrats needs to be, the focus on donald trump. at what point do you have to look at that and say, huh, we both have the same message, he's

winning? >> well, there's certainly that overlap there. we also obviously represent a different style and approach in many ways. but what i'll say is that call to decency i think is something that is very strong in our party right now. it's what we need in our country right now. we cannot go on like this with the politics of being at each other's throats. part of how i believe our campaign has been able to beat the odds and defy all of the expectations is that our message of belonging is one that has resonated across the country and that is reaching people in so many different ways. >> you had said that you thought voters are color were giving you a second look. the exit poll shows a pretty tough number here, 3% of the african-american vote, according to the exit polls here. this is after a second look. the nominee of the democratic party has to be able to win -- has to be able to have a strong coalition of african-american voters, latino voters. this has been a struggle for you both in nevada and south carolina.

>> well, again, there's no question that the vice president had a commanding lead with black voters in south carolina. that bar of earning the trust of voters of color right now, that bar is high for a reason, especially when you're talking about black voters in the south. that is a hard won vote that is brought about -- often that access is brought about within living memory. i understand why that bar is so high. i'm humbled by the challenge and have continued to focus on making sure i present not just our policy ideas but what this campaign is about in a way that can reach out to black voters and voters across the board. >> you ran for dnc chair a couple of years ago. had you succeeded, you'd be the chair of the democratic party right now. what do you believe chairman buttigieg would be saying to candidate buttigieg in this situation? you have said bernie sanders is a very polarizing figure. you think that is not the direction the party ought to go. at what point would chairman buttigieg say to candidate

buttigieg do what's best for the party? >> well, look, every day i'm getting up looking at how we can do what's best for the party. it's why we got into this race in the first place, the belief that a different kind of message and a different kind of messenger could rally people together, could forge new alliances, could help us reach out in the very places where we had the best message, and yet found ourselves defeated by president trump in 2016 and cannot let that happen again. every day we're in this campaign is a day we've reached the conclusion that pushing forward is the best thing we can do for the country and do for the party. >> how should we judge success for you on tuesday? your campaign hasn't pointed to a state you're going to win. you've talked about it being a delegate strategy and that is what it's about, it's about getting delegates. tell me where you're going to get these delegates. >> well, we believe that there are places from coast to coast in districts across different states where our message is resonating particularly well.

we'll be looking at the math as we continue to push and make the most of the resources that we have. i think what matters most right now is calling americans to that vision of what it could be like in this country. if we could turn the page on the toxic and divided character of our politics right now. there is already an american majority that agrees with us, that agrees with our party on the need to raise wages and empower workers and do something about climate and act on gun violence. you wouldn't always know it from looking at the outcomes in washington, but right now the american people are already with us. what's going to be needed is a message, a messenger and leadership to make sure those priorities are met and i find that true in the reddest of states and on the coast as well. >> is there a result on super tuesday for you that would change your outlook on your campaign? if you don't keep -- >> we do a lot of math on this campaign, so we'll be assessing at every turn, not only what the right answer is for the campaign but making sure that every step we take is in the best interest

of the party and that goal of making sure we defeat donald trump because our country can't take four more years of this. >> i know you'll be spending the morning with the carters, so thanks for coming on and sharing your views. be safe on the campaign trail. when we come back, joe biden has about 48 hours to make this a one-on-one race with bernie sanders. can he do it? the panel is next. and later, how prepared is the trump administration to deal with the coronavirus? my interview with vice president mike pence. so, i switched. to always discreet boutique. its shape-hugging threads smooth out the back. so it fits better than depend. and no one notices. always discreet. i had no idea why my mouth was constantly dry. it gave me bad breath. it was so embarrassing. now i take biotene dry mouth lozenges whenever i'm on the go, which is all the time. biotene dry mouth lozenges. freshen breath anytime, anywhere.

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welcome back. the panel is here. eddie glaude jr. of princeton university, "wall street journal" columnist peggy noonan. nbc news white house correspondent kristen welcome, and former white house press secretary robert gibbs. welcome, sir, been a long time with you, mr. gibbs. >> thank you. >> we've got a couple of super tuesday polls i'm going to throw it out there. i've got north carolina and texas, probably as good of bellwethers as you can have on the future of both sanders and biden. in north carolina it's sanders with a two-point lead.

basically margin of error. look at the bloomberg number, though. add up bloomberg and biden, that's an interesting number. among african-americans, this was done before south carolina in the middle of the debate, so only 36% there for biden that. number could grow. shows you growth potential there. let's look at texas. bernie sanders a bigger lead here, double-digit lead thanks mostly, look at the latino support sanders is getting here. 46%. this is what's interesting here, eddie glaude jr. we may be seeing the democratic party basically split right in half with two different coalitions. bernie sanders leading a liberal, latino coalition and joe biden leading a moderate, african-american coalition. >> that is so fascinating for me, mind blowing actually. in some ways i would have never imagined, although i understand the data, that african-americans would in some ways be the firewall for the moderate wing of the democratic party. to me that is just stunning news. but let's be clear. i think we're in the south.

south carolina is a unique space. so to think about the african-american vote as monolithic in that way, we need to be careful there, particularly as we move out of a particular side of the south. but let's be clear here too. latino voters, that time bomb that everyone thought was about to explode has exploded. we'll see them having an impact on the election -- >> it's the west versus the south. >> exactly. >> and it's going to clash right in texas, peggy. >> it's -- it's interesting, to say the least. i also thought the truest words joe biden said when he made his victory speech last night were to jim clyburn when he said essentially thank you for saving me. he did. and not only -- >> not only did he just say you're welcome, and i've got some things to say. >> it's very clear. so not only as eddie says did we see a firewall saving a moderate

democrat, but we saw, i think, a leader is the wrong word, but there's a sense in america sometimes that establishments and authorities are losing their clout. but jim clyburn came forward the other day and he said i'm going to tell you what i want you to do, and people listened, considered and did it. we saw in the exit polls. half the people leaving said i listened. kind of touching in a way. >> and more than half the people said they wanted to keep obama's policies intact, so at least in some places this is still obama's democratic party. the question is does that hold in north carolina. and what, if any, bounce is biden going to get in places like north carolina and texas. but, of course, the unknown also is early voting. you've had folks who have already gone out and cast their ballots before south carolina. >> texas and california the two biggest ones there. all right, robert, has biden -- he wants to say this is a two-person race. i think he could sweep the

south. i mean it's possible, north carolina will be the toughest one. >> you look at the numbers you just showed and you've got bloomberg at 15% right at that viability line. so last night's win and that momentum push a couple of points up for vice president biden and push bloomberg down a couple of points? do you force that one-on-one contest through viability? i think joe biden's strategy has to be to survive the big states of california and texas and wake up wednesday morning as the coal competitor to bernie sanders. >> can we flip the script here and talk about bernie? eddie, the bernie south carolina result has to be really disappointing to sanders. they did put some effort into here. it looks like they have made no progress to win over african-american voters from four years ago. it doesn't look like they made much. >> look, we can't underestimate clyburn's endorsement in south carolina. that's the first thing. the second thing is that i believe south carolina provided

the best litmus tests for the sanders claim that they were going to expand the electorate. it's a saturday vote. >> no excuse. >> so it's a saturday vote. they have been on the ground. so what i was looking for was to see how young african-americans voted, how young college students voted. i wanted to see the numbers. >> he didn't win young african-americans. >> exactly. so, again, we might have to kind of attribute it to the uniqueness of the south carolina electorate. but sanders and his campaign, they have to be concerned. i was not expecting this margin. i said explicitly it's not going to be 15, 16%. >> you're right, it wasn't 15% or 16%. it was more than that. >> so we have to really test the claim. will the sanders campaign actually make good on its claim they're going to expand the electorate. >> peggy, i want to put up two pieces of writing. you're the best writer here. i want you to react to it. one is making the anti-sanders argument and the pro sanders argument. if mr. sanders becomes the

democratic nominee, voters will have to choose from a right wing populist who scorned the rule of law and institution, and a left-wing populist who blamesbleairs and business for all that is wrong with the world. here's "the new york times." at the end of the day, sanders is the only candidate who can unite the anti-trump section of the electorate, and helped give democrats the house of representatives. both things rung true to me, in a weird way, both rang true to me. >> we're in an unprecedented time. a great political party, the democratic party, feels that it is making some fateful decisions here. between are we going to acknowledge we're interested in a socialist or social democrat future or are we going to stay kind of where we have been for

the past 20 or 30 years? it's a big decision. it does have to do with left and right and with interesting coalitions. it is interesting to look at bernie, however, i saw his speech last night after biden won. bernie does not do happy warrior. he doesn't come forward and say we're going to fight and do all that stuff. i mentioned this to a young journalist. i said he doesn't do happy warrior. he said, you know, boomers like happy warriors. he's not going for boomers. >> i was just going to say, this is the barack obama issue with sanders. he doesn't like the tone, even though he's impressed with the movement. is that fair? >> that's a good question. and you always see bernie describe it as a movement. one of the things that was written there, though, when we peel back some of the results in south carolina, there's a big suburban vote yesterday, particularly in the charleston area. and what does that mean going forward? again, is south carolina unique? is it because of the relationship that it has with vice president biden? or does it tell us something going forward?

it will be interesting to see. i don't know that we'll know for a while. >> turnout, it was good, not great. >> good, not great. it was better than 2016, not as strong as 2008. i did talk to democrats who said they were encouraged by the turnout. big question for candidates like buttigieg. what's the path? he couldn't name one state, chuck, on super tuesday that he thinks he could win. >> if i had more time i was going to ask specific congressional districts. they're not naming those either. >> not naming names. when we come back -- >> it's very important that the american people know that the risk of infection to people in this country remains low. >> the coronavirus and my interview with vice president mike pence. that's next. ♪ limu emu & doug

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welcome back. the world health organization has raised its risk assessment of coronavirus to very high as the number of cases continue to grow. now to more than 86,000 confirmed cases around the world. nearly 3,000 people have died, mostly in mainland china. now the first american on u.s. soil, a man in his 50s in washington state who had underlying health conditions. uncertainty is already taking a toll on the economy.

the dow had its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, plummeting 12% for the week. this weekend the president blamed democrats and the media for exaggerating the threat, at one point calling the virus their new hoax at a rally on friday night. on saturday, he tried to explain what he meant. >> the hoax referring to the action that they take to try to pin this on somebody, because we've done such a good job. the hoax is on them. >> i sat down with vice president mike pence, who is leading the administration's response effort and began by asking him about the american who died. >> well, it's a tragic loss. the man passed away. he was an individual we believe in his late 50s that also had some other high risk factors. but it doesn't take away from the tragedy. the encouraging news is that of the now 22 americans, including the man who sadly lost his life,

the majority of them are recovering well. there are four that remain in serious condition and so we have -- we have this man's family in our hearts and we'll keep all of those that are dealing with and working to recover in our prayers. >> do we have any information as to how this gentleman contracted the virus? >> we're working it. the process, chuck is that state and local officials are in the lead but in instances involving the coronavirus or any infectious disease, we have cdc on the ground immediately to assist and support, and they're working to identify it. but i think it's -- i think it's very important that the american people know that the risk of infection to people in this country remains low, and that is -- >> you keep saying it remains low and that's good news now. >> it is. >> but the virus is here now. >> it is.

>> do you have this confidence that this is not going to continue to grow? >> well, there will be more cases, there's no question. but it's not my confidence, it is the confidence of all of our health experts who are widely regarded as the best in the world that it's important that people in this country understand that while there are 46 americans that we brought home from china and 22 americans now sadly with one loss of life, that the vast majority of those people and the vast majority of any american that would contract the coronavirus will be treated -- >> in fairness, 1 out of 22 is scary, okay? that's not reassuring. it's reassuring that so few have gotten it. it's scary in the very few cases we have had, we already have a death. >> well, but let's be clear on this point. what our health experts have told me, since i was asked by

the president to lead this effort this week, is that if president trump had not made the decision to suspend all travel from china into the united states and establish a quarantine effort for people returning to the united states, we'd be in a very different place. >> many companies have decided to pause travel, even some domestically cancel some public events. is this something you would discourage or encourage? >> i think we've got to follow the facts on this. again, i want to say -- >> because some schools are being closed. one in washington state are closing for a day to scrub it. >> look, those are decisions -- i was a governor of the state of indiana. those are decisions that governors in consultation with local health officials will make as they deem that necessary. but other than in areas where there are individuals that have been infected with the coronavirus, people need to understand that for the average american the risk does remain low.

we're ready. >> so you're going to continue you are saying you think some of these companies perhaps are overreacting? >> not necessarily. i would defer, whether it's foreign travel for those companies and their employees or gatherings in various places around this country. look, it's a good time to use common sense this time of the year, even if the coronavirus wasn't a reality. but i think that what the president has told us to do on the task force, what he did when he initiated the suspension of all travel from china, the quarantining effort, is we're leaning into this effort. it's all hands on deck because our effort here is to do everything possible to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the united states. >> so better safe than sorry. so if a school superintendent says we should shut down the

school system for a week, you're not going to question that? >> i think the president would respect any decisions that are made at the state and local level. but again, i think it's important -- >> you guys seem -- >> -- people follow the facts. >> you seem to be nervous or the president seems to be nervous that this is going to slow down economic activity unnecessarily. is that your concern here? >> well, look, the president's concern is the health and safety of the american people. i mean the fundamentals of this economy are strong. we just saw some new numbers come out in housing and consumer confidence and business optimism, unemployment is at a 50-year low. more americans working than ever before. the fundamentals in this economy are strong. as the president said yesterday, we're going to focus on the health of the american people and this economy will -- and particularly the stock market that saw some downturns this week, it will come back. but our focus will remain on the health and well-being of the american people.

>> you've gone out of your way since you've been appointed to this to keep this from being politicized. you have made every effort, every statement. i want to play for you what some of your allies have said about the coronavirus. here's including the president's son and the rnc chair. take a listen, sir. >> the coronavirus is being weaponized. as yet another element to bring down donald trump. >> democrats are using this for their political dpan to try to stoke fear in the american people, which is shameful, wrong, and i think un-american. >> for them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they could end donald trump's streak of winning is a new level of sickness. >> none of this seems to match the facts. what facts are there that democrats are doing this? it seems like people are asking questions and are concerned about the virus. this implies some sort of political motivation, which is kind of gross. >> well, i will tell you there's been a lot of irresponsible

rhetoric among democrats and commentators on the left. >> who? who is this? name some names, sir. it feels like gaslighting. please, name some names. we're all big people here. >> there was a column in "the new york times" by a prominent liberal journalist that said we should rename it the trump virus. >> does that apply to all people? >> so that the president would be blamed. chuck, this virus began in china. >> why take this approach? this does not help us. >> the president took decisive action to protect the american people, and when you see voices on our side pushing back on outrageous and irresponsible rhetoric on the other side, i think that's important -- >> do you think this rhetoric from your side helps? >> i never begrudge people responding to unwarranted, unjustified attacks. but i promise you, we are going to continue to focus on the mission the president has given this task force and given this government, and that is we're going to bring the full

resources of the federal government to bear. and the american people -- the american people can be confident that we're going to continue to work this issue. we're going to work with leaders with both parties in congress to make sure not only our federal agencies have all the resources they need but our state and local governments, health care providers, have the resources and the support to provide the care that every american would want. remember, chuck, this is about the lives of the american people. >> and you can see my full interview with vice president pence on our website, meetthepress.com. when we come back, how big a threat is the coronavirus here in the united states? i'll talk to a man who has made a career out of studying and, yes, hunting viruses. that's next. elt i couldn't be a. ...best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret... ...i was cured. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret... ...i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all types of hep c.

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welcome back. my next guest has an unusual job, hunting viruses. he's chased ebola in africa and now his focus is the coronavirus and the danger it poses as it spreads around the world. nbc news medical contributor dr. joseph fare joins me now. welcome to "meet the press." you were telling me you spent a lot of time in the lab where they discovered this virus in china.

simple question, how concerned should americans be right now? >> right now with the data we have and i emphasize the data we have because we haven't rolled out broad testing nationally yet, your average individual american doesn't need to be that concerned right now of catching this virus. however, community-based transmission in one state means that there is probably community-based transmission in other states. once we roll out that testing and lower the criteria for being tested for covid-19 we'll probably see more cases than we thought was here previously. >> there was a report in washington state where we had the first death with no apparent connection to anybody that's been traveling, they think it's possible there have been hundreds of cases that were missed. is this most likely the scenario here that maybe has played out on the west coast, that it may have gotten here before we knew it? >> it's difficult to say numbers but yes, definitely, it was probably here before we knew it because we had a very strict testing criteria that you had to

have documented travel to china or one of the places where transmission occurred. usually every time we look for a virus, we can find it somewhere. having found that one case, there may be others that have the virus as well. they may be asymptomatic or in the low risk group and didn't show the symptoms. at that point in time, they didn't meet the cdc testing criteria which has now bilowered so a lot of people can get tested now. >> tell me what pieces of information you'd like to know now that would make you feel more confident to know where we're headed, where this virus is headed? >> really it all comes down to the diagnostics. we need to start testing anyone that is negative for flu and negative for your average common cold for coronavirus. once we get that diagnostic testing up and running nationally, we get a lot more major cities, et cetera, tested, i think we'll see more cases and that will give us a much better indication of where we have community-based transmission and how many actual cases we have in the country. >> we were talking earlier and i

was asking you the likelihood that this is one of these issues where one of those viruses will go dormant in the summer and back in the fall. that's what happened with the spanish flu. you weren't ready to make any of those assumptions yet. explain. >> this is a new virus to science. it's not a new virus, it's a new virus to science. we weren't familiar with this virus before. we do have cold and flu seasons which do tend to diminish in the summer months. we don't yet know if this is going to be the case. you can still get flu in the summer and get a cold in the summer. it is likely cases might dip during those summer months, but it is likely also that it will stick around for quite some time because we're not going to have a vaccine, presumptively we won't have a vaccine before the end of summer. we could see a dramatic rise again in the cold and flu season that precedes this one. >> speak to school superintendents, to people that have to decide do i have a basketball game tonight at the high school. you know, when should you make

those calls? what would be your advice to these leaders who have to make this decision? >> yeah. right now, and again i emphasize right now because this could change quickly and i'll go back to diagnostics. if we have diagnosed community-based transmission in an area where your school is or you're a superintendent of a school where you have a documented case of covid-19, that's the time you want to start thinking about cancelling mass gathering events such as basketball games and actually closing schools. japan has just closed all their schools for one month at least. those are the times. it all depends on the first diagnosis and the data that we have. we try to make these decisions based on data, not just because someone has a cough or a sneeze because we are in the midst of cold and flu season and it might just be that. >> dr. fair, i appreciate you helping us out in understanding this a little better with a little scientific expertise. president trump is suggesting that coronavirus may be a threat to his re-election. end game is next.

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officially hitting the us.virus man: the markets are plunging for a second straight day. vo: health experts warn the us is underprepared. managing a crisis is what mike bloomberg does. in the aftermath of 9-11, he steadied and rebuilt america's largest city. oversaw emergency response to natural disasters. upgraded hospital preparedness to manage health crises. and he's funding cutting edge research to contain epidemics. tested. ready. mike: i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. back now with end game and i guess the president's unable to get his hands around the coronavirus. you wrote a pretty tough column. >> i think so. and it seems to me the president, in terms of his first three/three and a half years, he

has been astoundingly lucky and it's a good thing. but he's been lucky in various physical natural disasters haven't happened, international crisis. we couple that with the fact that managerially this administration has tended to be symbolic. jobs not filled, jobs temporarily filled. you put those things together. if luck holds, this will all turn out okay. if luck does not hold, this is a managerial crisis and we'll see how it goes. >> walk us through this week. they're realizing this is a serious problem. but it seems like it took the death to really sober them up. >> it did and you have mixed messaging throughout the week because you have health official whose said this is significant. we should brace for coronavirus

to come here. the president tried to down play it. he didn't want this to become the crisis it's becoming. he had that press conference yesterday. he's had two in the briefing room. rare too, say the least. one, chuck, he did try to strike a more disciplined tone talking about all of this. he tried to walk back his comments in which he referred to the democrat's response as a hoax. a lot of republicans were deeply concerned by that type of language. they sithay this is life and de. this is different. >> your first crisis was the oil spill. and i remember the first -- i'd say couple of weeks -- you guys struggled. it's never easy. >> because everyone catches up to it at a point where it seems chaotic. i hope they use that briefing room more. because this is a public health crisis, not a pr crisis.

the american people need information. they need an administration transparent about what the american people need to know and need to do. stop making predictions and overdeliver. >>s the, his instincts -- you know what they are. i have 100 ebola tweets. t this is what happened in 2014. hawa he was stirring the pot and saying it's all over africa. shut down the flights. so, we know he's just uncomfortable handling moments like this. >> and we know he doesn't have the capacity or the -- >> we don't know that yet. we hope you're wrong on that one. >> look, i want the administration to succeed for a variety -- for obvious reasons.

we're talking about a competency crisis. we've all been asking this question. will they be ready and prepared to deal with there genuine, genuine crisis in the country? and let me just say this too. this proves the argument that there's a role for government. we've seen over and over again an attack on big government. it's not efficient. we see the purpose of government now. >> this is a case where you need government to work. >> you certainly do. this is a public health challenge or real crisis. you need your public institutions to come forward competently. and not panic anybody but also not say there's no problem. you need -- it's very hard in life, as we all know, public life, private life, strike them down. but in a crisis, you got to hit that place. >> the thing the president is going to hate is there's going

to be, every day there's going to be another state gets its first instance. >> it's moving so quickly. this is undoubtedly his greatest leadership test to date. and you sort of saw that dicaughtomy on display yesterday. he was in the briefing room and then you had the president trump that went to c-pac and he stepped away from using the type of language that this is a hoax. of course the health crisis comes first and people watch what happened to the stock market this week. that's his signature argument for re-election. you saw this play out a little bit on twitter. they're saying wait until summer. it's going to rebound. >> this is an opportunity after the democratic debate was just food fighting. the president could have put dr. fauci front and center,

walked away and market probably recovers friday. >> and i think you got to have the doctors in the forefront. they're the experts and d dr. fauci does this really well. he walks people through what's going to happen in a calm, easy voice. you understand what's supposed to happen and they feel more confident in the response. nbc news will provide complete coverage of the super tuesday voting. for complete and i mean complete coverage. 8:00 eastern. 8:00 pacific. six hours, don't miss it. we'll see you tuesday night. thank you for watching. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪ (burke) at farmers insurance,

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