The minute and scoring an endorsement this evening. Amy klobuchar is dropping out of the race and reports that mayor Pete Buttigieg will be endorsing joe biden and will be in dallas. We begin with the bigger story right now, the coronavirus. We are execing to hear from Vice President pence in a few moments from the white house giving an update on the government response and join by ambassador birx. The expectation is that she is giving daily briefings about the government response from here on out as necessary. This update comes as we just learned of four more deaths in Washington State bringing the total to s total to six in the United States. This update as researchers say that the coronavirus may have been spreading and circulating undetected in Washington State for weeks. Thats according to a genetic analysis of samples. New cases reported today in california, oregon, illinois and new hampshire. New york city reported a first case of coronavirus in a woman who has recently traveled to iran. Speaking with the mayor of new york city bill deblasio in a moment. At least 14 states identified the virus with nearly 50 cases of americans evacuated from wuhan, china, and that cruise ship. The virus has spread to more than five disease countries around the globe and more than 3,000 people died. Here in the United States fema officials reportedly ready that President Trump will make an Emergency Declaration to use funding for the coronavirus response. President spent part of the afternoon meeting with pharmaceutical executives, a previously scheduled event having to do with price issues but they also spent a lot of time talking about a potential vaccine and the availability and affordability. Officials say it is time to be prepared. Nbc colleagues of mine are following the developments. All around the country. Hans nick nichols at the white house and gadi schwartz. Hans, lets start with you. Expecting to hear from the Vice President in a few moments. The first one of the briefings, the last briefing on saturday coincided with the announcement of the First American death. I assume were not hearing from Washington State officials for an hour. I assume theyre letting federal officials take the lead on this . Reporter one thing i think the white house wants to do and talking to proofficials is to try to have as much up to date information coming into them to share it with the public. So the challenge for the white house for the president on this is the short term and long toerm. Most of what we heard from the president today is about longer term, having some sort of vaccine in the pipeline. About expediting procedures, using the levers they can here at the white house to try to alleviate the regulatory hurdles to have a real emergency fast track. On the short term, well see if theres anything additional to talk about. There have been hints of additional travel restrictions but given the extent to which the virus is prevalent in the u. S. It is unclear if this is having an affect and see what they have to say about new testing kits because theres a broad sort of consensus that they want to have more testing kits for accurate information. Chuck . Hans, thank you. Lets go to kirk land, washington. Gadi schwartz. Gadi, look. We have been there were reports yesterday morning that perhaps this is circulating longer and in some ways i imagine thats of odd relief to folks because it was scary if a tiny outbreak causing the deaths. What have we learned today . How many of these deaths appear connected . Reporter yeah. So right now we have six confirmed deaths and only about 22 confirmed cases in the state of washington which is terrifying for anybody living out here. Sounds horrible an scientists and Health Officials caution thats most likely not the case. We are looking at a situation where hundreds of people may have already been infected here, possibly over 1,000 people infected and the way they know that is because of a genetic marker that was in connected to the genome of a case they saw back in the middle of january. That was a man in his 30s that came by from wuhan, china. He came here and then six weeks later another case of a high schooler getting the same type of strain with the same marker and extrapolated that and no way to tell because frankly not enough people have been tested here. What they do know is now seeing an outbreak in a nursing home and linked to four different deaths from that nursing home. Six deaths total in Washington State. All of them happening here at this hospital and so many people are wondering if this cough thats been going around this community for sometime is actually the coronavirus. Gadi schwartz with that update, thank you. I want to bring in well go to this briefing as soon as it starts but bringing in virologist and contributor dr. Fair and mayor of new york city deblasio. Its a nice pairing here. Youre gong to give us our Public Health issues and i assume you may have questions for him. Always. First of all, mr. Mayor, toll us what we know about the new york city patient. We have one case, first one after a string of eight cases that we tested and found negative. This is the first positive. Health worker was in iran. Gotcha. In the 30s. Did everything, of course, right. She is a Trained Health worker and the minute of symptoms on saturday she was tested. Went right to isolation after that. Isolated at her apartment. Had serious contact with her husband only. He is isolated, too. So, you know, look. This is a reminder for a lot of people this is manageable. It could feel like the flu when handled right and if people dont have the underlying conditions. Thats the good news here but a reminder to be seeing more of these and we have to get ahead of it. Doctor, we spoke yesterday. Yep. And right when we were speaking i said, hey, have you seen the reports . Looks like they think there might have been 1,500 cases of the virus in Washington State. Your reaction was, thats what i expected. Yeah. Explain. Epidemiology and once we have Community Based transmission. Community based some people hitting me on this. Can you just meaning sneezing and coughing , right . Unknown origin. Other Community Based transmission issi transmissi transmission is ongoing. That will be done. Just hearing they were analyzing the genome of the virus. Its a detective and learning where the virus came from. Would you be wanting now to almost go to the clinics that people might have gone to over the last six weeks in that suburb and see are there cultures to go retest . Is that something thats not available . Not right now. I think in the next couple weeks we will have enough testing up an running do that retrospectively. I think it would be prudent probably to also start sampling of pneumonia cases and we know theres Community Based transmission and nice to see random sampling done to see in case it is covid19. Mr. Mayor, are your Health Officials going back in time now . Look. Right now, what were trying to do is make sure anyone with the symptoms regardless of whether they have a nexus to travel goes and gets health care. This is job one for us today. Get it away from that notion that if you went to china thats the only reason it might be part of your life but to focus everyone getting to the health care to get people having an effective outcome and protect against the spread. We havent what to do that detective work. We have a group of disease detectives we call them at the department of health and had this one positive case and we know that there wasnt a lot to track in that case. But i think the amazing thing is that we have been telling new yorkers five, six weeks get to health care immediately and seem to be heeding that and helpful here. Folks often try to explain away with a disease, ill deal with it later. With coronavirus get to health care immediately. Theres an unintended consequence, you can overwhelm the system. Absolutely. What is the balance here . So the balance is honestly, most of the cases and most of the cases will be mild to moderate. Coldlike symptoms. What would we do . Stay at home and take care of ourselves. In this particular case, because its covid19, a new virus, ideally you would be able to quarantine yourself and theres unintended consequences with that. How do you get food and pay your bills . If you are working at an mcdonalds, for example, not necessarily feasible to stay home for 14 days because that might mean your rent so theres only a lot of derivative effects of quarantining yourself. Given that four of the deaths from one senior facility. Yes. Okay . This is frankly, many families probably like my own today. I have a grandmother in a senior facility and worried. This is one outbreak and it can really what can Nursing Homes, assisted living facilities, what do we need to do Something Different here to protect them . I would say thats an argument for a long time in general because nursing home and Elderly Care Facilities known for being breeding grounds of disease and needs to be heightened awareness. There needs to be rigorous cleaning protocols and sterilization and adhered to from this point onwards. Mr. Mayor, the governor of this state, governor here, talked about that theres still not a full cooperation of the federal government. How much of this do you feel is them getting up to speed . I think it took way too long. We have been down this road before, chuck. Finally now we have testing to do locally in norgs. Enough kits . Enough for now. We have to build capacity and the ability to test, could have been done weeks ago by the federal government. We are waiting on supplies. They could have put that structure together weeks ago. Well be reimbursed. So i would say bluntly there was about a month of lag and now getting the federal cooperation we need. This is common sense says considering where this came from first that your seattle, san francisco, l. A. Was going to be some of the hottest spots. Chicago, new york would be next considering the international travel. Do you feel as if your that the right amount of quarantine is happening and at the airports testing is happening . I think the travel restrictions were the right thing to do. I think the administration did the right thing. Want to see more of them . Any time of Major Development in a country, just shut off that my personal view, cut off that possibility. That scientifically . I get the government argument. That make sense . We found its limited effectiveness. Theyre not always honest about where they have been for fear of being screened and isolated once they arrive where theyre going and limited effectiveness. That being said, by china quarantining a vast majority of the population, they slowed the spread of the virus to the rest of the world and particularly with china restrictions that did slow things down for us and clearly it didnt prevent it from getting here altogether so, you know, it is a balance we have to take and always a controversial one. You feel confident that three major airports here are on good footing . Yes. I would emphasize people have to heed the warning with symptoms to come in. Someone comes through the airport and doesnt manifest until the next day and this is understanding the responsibility, everyone else, symptoms, get the help. Before we go, dr. Fair you gave me what i consider good news. The death rate is higher than the flu but the death rate is lower than 1 . Anywhere from 2 to 3 rate that we have heard of, thats in the vast majority of cases in wuhan and really the reason that happened perspectively and cant say scientifically but why that happened is that the system was overwhelmed and people not able to get the supportive care. Some people may have died that shouldnt have died. Indeed, absolutely. Outside of that, the rates we have seen hover. 8 . Compared to the flu . 1 versus. 8 . Lower than 2 . I was going to say. Better news. Good luck handling this. Dr. Fair, i appreciate your expertise. Thank you. Waiting on the briefing from the Vice President at the white house. Well bring that to you as it happened and the white house getting the message right on coronavirus. Our political experts weigh in next. First buttigieg and then klobuchar. Whats going on with Michael Bloomberg . Democratic president ial contest looking more and more like a twoperson race. Th experts warn the us is underprepared. Managing a crisis is what Mike Bloomberg does. In the aftermath of 911, he steadied and rebuilt americas largest city. Oversaw Emergency Response to natural disasters. Upgraded hospital preparedness to manage health crises. And hes funding Cutting Edge Research to contain epidemics. Tested. Ready. Mike im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. You should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. And you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. Make ice. Making ice. But youre not mad because you have e trade which isnt complicated. Their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. Dont get mad get e trade and start Trading Commission free today. With the worlds first invisible trailer. Invisible trailer . And its not the trailer right next to us . This guy . You dont believe me . Hop in. Good lookin pickup, i will say that. Oh wow. Silverado offers an Optional Technology package with up to 15 different views including one enhanced view that makes your trailer appear invisible. Wow. Thats pretty sweet. Thats cool. Oooohh thats awesome. Whered the trailer go . I love it. Its magic. I love it. When the murrays head to work. Their dog michelangelo gets to work, too. Todays job . Own. The. Bed. Stinkeee. Good thing they use new gain ultraflings with two times the oxi boost and febreze, for ultrabig, ultrastinky loads. Fresh again. Gain. Seriously good scent. And if you love gain flings, youve gotta try the dish soap. Where you can find games, news and highlights. All in one place, right on your tv. The new xfinity sports zone. Use your voice to search every stat and score. Follow the teams you love. And get notifications when the games about to start, with the xfinity sports zone, everybody wins. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Say xfinity sports zone into your voice remote today. Right now we are awaiting Vice President pence who is about to hold a briefing at the white house on the covid19 coronavirus. Bringing it to you live when it happens. Trump administration has been touting the ability to keep the coronavirus out of the United States as long as possible but today it may have been here a lot longer than first thought. Joining me now joshua johnson, Zerlina Maxwell and john podquist. I felt like theres a sea change of how the administration focused on this since the first death, joshua. Even the president s own rhetoric has for him changed. He was angry and on friday night he didnt bother the level of attacks on saturday. I feel like in general everybodys sobered up. I think so, too. The initial response to this President Trump trying to kind of of project calm, dont worry. Everythings going to be fine. There was some of the political comments of a hoax and what Mick Mulvaney said at cpac and so forth. I think the people that every day folks listen to are not in washington. Theyre not even at the cdc. It is your primary care physician. It is the person to i think tony fauci matters, a little to people. I dont think they knew who he was unless theyre following the hiv epidemic which he was active in. Reporters follow him an it does matter if hes projecting one level of that is who the reporters are going to follow, whose lead if that makes sense. Granted but looking at alerts in san antonio mall that closed. Parishes should stop Holding Hands in our father. Nodding here. Yeah. All had these conversations. I understand about Anthony Fauci but at the end of the day it is people like patients who are going to need that one person they already trust to say what do i do . Those people, the caregivers, are the one who is are looking to government but i think folks like you and i as long as i look at my doctor and trust what my doctor is telling me i will feel okay. Yeah. I think some of this is fear of the unknown. A personal conversation that me an my family you know, we have somebody in a Senior Living facility and when you see Washington State thats scary. My sister works as a home care person so everyone in that industry is thinking about how they can protect themselves because theyre the First Responders and theyre taking care of patients every single day. But to your point i think that people are looking to the primary care doctors and i think it matters that the administration is on the same message in terms of whether or not we should panic or whether or not we should watch more netflix. It is more serious than not serious at all. And in addition, i think it could get a lot worse and it can be precipitated by actions taken by the administration or not. You cant sharpie marker your way out of this one because people are getting sick and unfortunately some have died so they need to take it seriously and cant try to spin their way out of this one. John, one bad habit the administration has is dont spike the football on, hey, look what we were able to prevent the disease and literally the next day, no you with respect. Yeah. You know . You dont need to tout something that isnt you know, that you dont know if it worked. Go back in time. Every unanticipated crisis that administrations face is pluraled. Is handled at the beginning. Its hard to think of any where the administration was on a strong footing from the getgo. Katrina, deep water horizon, ebola at the beginning, sars and now this. Whats different i think is exactly what you said which is that there was a weird instantaneous protect the president , protect him and say nice things about him and blame the four years in is that weird . On brand . Its weird for a and i think you are right. Something happened like cold water splashed on their faces and it is like i think thats what happened. The deaths and, you know, a Senior Leader of the iranian mu mullahs died. The pope got sick after attending to coronavirus patients. You know . The luvre closed. The workers refused to open the place. They knew better. The concern in terms of government messaging an take your point on has to do with being able to cut through the foolishness online. That is a new level that mers and sars, we are in a that to me is something thats a new level of difficulty. I consider my family to be bright. I got a text of someone saying i have a friend working in china and drinking hot water and ginger and hot peppers and exercise you will stay safe. Guys, i spent my whole career becoming a journalist to tell you to stop sharing that thats my concern. Is that there will be no one in government who is authoritative enough to get through to my family and convince to stop sending the texts, particularly people that delight in sharing misinformation. Getting your information from facebook get it from me. Call. Just please. Greatest fear is the way facebook circulates. Well sneak in another break. The White House Briefing obviously not yet started so were keeping an eye on that podium. White house briefing room. Its been huge developments in the president ial race. We have a few minutes before that, we may bring you the developments, as well. Sneaking in another break. Again, waiting on the official briefing today from the white house on the update on coronavirus. I have moderate to severe pnow, theres skyrizi. Things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free to bare my skin yeah thats all me. Nothing and me go hand in hand nothing on my skin thats my new plan. Nothing is everything. Keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90 clearer skin at 4 months. Of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. And skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. I see nothing in a different way and its my moment so i just gotta say nothing is everything skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. Nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. And then what happened . Wheres our family from . Was he my age . So nana and pops eloped . And then what happened, daddy . Well, before us, there were your great, great, great grandparents. Turn questions youve always had into stories you cant wait to share; with ancestry. Doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Turn questions youve always had into stories memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. groans hmph. food grunting menacingly when the food you love doesnt love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. Tum tumtum tum tums with tums smoothies. Two years ago, my wife and i were over 50k in debt. Through sofis help refinancing we paid off all that debt. Now were debt free and visiting places like this. Thank you guys Steve Kornacki back here at the big board. Welcome back. We are still awaiting the briefing from Vice President pence on the latest on the coronavirus. Well bring you that when it starts. The 2020 president ial race is changing quekly. Nbc news confirmed not only that Pete Buttigieg is going to endorse joe biden but tonight in dallas. This comes a day after the former south bend mayor ended the campaign. By the way, also in dallas tonight, endorsing biden is Amy Klobuchar. We are not 100 shire at the same event but thinking it might be. So eve on super tuesday the democratic contest fast becoming a twoperson race. Bernie sanders and joe biden. The democratic establishment appearing to coa les around the former Vice President. Aly vitali with me and Josh Letterman following the Bloomberg Campaign in washington. Ali, Elizabeth Warren isnt going to love the fact that every reporter is asking her the same question. Are you going to drop out now that more opponents have dropped out. What is the Warren Campaign saying about the developments today . Reporter chuck, you know, i think at this point in the campaign for all of these candidates not named bernie or biden, theres a strategy to control and the strategy you cant. On the strategy you can control front, the Campaign Said theres the goal to pick up as many delegates at possible on super tuesday and scoop up the delegates across the map. Nothing to say of the fact that Bernie Sanders is nipping at the heels here in home state of massachusetts and hard for her to walk into the convention with however many delegates she has but theres the things you cant control and quite frankly the Warren Campaign calculus long been that the field needs to winnow for her strategy to be successful and todays news about buttigieg or yesterdays news of buttigieg and todays news of klobuchar probably the first thing going right for the campaign in some weeks now. Well, theres something to it. I think both sanders and biden need warren more so than any of the other candidates left in the race. Josh, theres all sorts of chatter in bloomberg world and connected with the democratic establishment. Theyre also a very Data Driven Campaign and the data doesnt look good right now. Is this the campaign to make it to the end of this month let alone the end of the week . Reporter i dont know about the end of the month, chuck. Theyll make it to tomorrow. Michael bloomberg refusing to bow to what is now mushrooming pressure for him to exit the race and spoke to a bloomberg official whos theory of the case is that the candidates dropping out actually could help him because at least some of those votes for Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar will probably go to Michael Bloomberg and they argue that could actually put him above the 15 viability threshold in a few states where he otherwise wouldnt be able to get any delegates. Michael bloomberg confirmed, announced in an appearance in virginia that he had spoken to klobuchar and buttigieg but officials that im speaking with in the Bloomberg Campaign say neither of the democrats called on him to exit the race or endorse biden, a friendly chat and so far the opinion from bloomberg officials is to go into super tuesday tomorrow. Josh, per foefect timing. The briefing has begun. Thank you, mr. Letterman. Good afternoon. We just finished the monday meeting of the White House Coronavirus task force. Since the time the president established the task force here at the white house its literally met daily and continued that effort today. We added the head of the center for medicaid and medicare services, the task force today as well as roblt welke with the va. First a few basic facts and reports and then hearing from other members of the task force about ongoing efforts. At the present moment we have 43 domestic cases of the coronavirus. 48 cases of individuals who have returned to the United States. Of the domestic cases, 29 of the 43 are either in california or Washington State. And we have communitys that are facing what the experts tell us could be potentially a cluster in those communities. Sadly today there were four addition alp additional fatalities that six americans lost their life to coronavirus and on behalf of the president and all of the American People, we extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of those that were lost. Despite todays sad news, lets be clear. The risk to the American People of the coronavirus remains low. According to all of the experts that were working with across the government. This president has said were ready for anything. But this is an all hands on deck effort. Todays activity really reflects the president s effort to bring the best minds of private industry together, the best leadership from around the country at every level. We had a good meeting this morning with governors of 50 states and 3 territories. I was able to convey to them the gratitude that the president and our entire administration feels, particularly for governors that are dealing with the coronavirus in their states, those that have taken repatrioted personnel. What i hear from the nations governors is theres a seamless relationship between all the agencies of the federal government and states thus far. And were encouraged to hear that but i told them that we are committed to a full partnership with state governments and to Health Officials and to local Health Care Providers going forward. We also met today with some of the leaders of the Top Pharmaceutical Companies in the country. The president spoke to them not just about vaccines which many of the companies are already beginning to work on but just as importantly the development of therapeutics and it is remarkable to think there may well be a vaccine going to Clinical Trials in six weeks. The nature of the trials as the experts explained to us is that the vaccine might not yet be available until late this year or early next but the therapeutics giving relief to people could be available by this summer or early fall. The most encouraging news from that meeting was that our pharmaceutical companies which are recognized as the greatest in the world all have already formed a consortium to Work Together to share information in the development of they arapeut and vaccines. Quick update. Yesterday, we were fully implementing the new travel advisories for portions of italy and south korea. And the implementation of screening of personnel from across those countries who are trying to take a direct flight to the United States of america. I was pleased in the White House Task force meeting today to learn that within the next 12 hours there will be 100 screening all direct flights at all airports across italy and across south korea. The president has directed us to bring the full resources of the federal government and to bring the very best minds in this country to bear on this effort. And finally today im pleased to welcome to our White House Team a world renowned Global Health official and a physician. She will be my right arm through this effort as the president tasked me to lead the white house response to the coronavirus. And im grateful that ambassador deborah birx also dr. Deborah birx on our team and already been contributing significantly to our discussion. Dr. B i rx serves as the u. S. Government leader today for combatting hiv aids global and she is a scientist, a physician, someone with three decades of Public Health expertise and virulent diseases, vaccines and vast experience of interagency coordination. And dr. Birx and i have talked about the importance of bringing the various entities together to bring about President Trumps vision for a whole of government response to the coronavirus. So with that, id like to recognize dr. Deborah birx for a few introductory and welcome remarks and thank you for stepping up one more time to serve our country. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Vice president. It is a lpleasure to be here. I arrived from south africa last night. I had computer and phone in record time. It really shows the level of e frns sy and expertise here to get moving quickly. It is clear that the early work of the president with travel restrictions and the ability to quarantine has bought us time and space for the task force to be effective. I have never worked with such incredible scientists and thoughtful policy leaders and i got to spend the day with them. Im trying to get up to speed as fast as possible and i look forward to the days ahead of working together to end this epidemic. Thank you. Great. Secretary . Well, thank you, mr. Vice president. I just want to first start out by saying how delighted we have that ambassador birx is leading, coordinating the efforts across the government. We go way back. Basically she and every leader at the depth of health and Human Services go way back together and we have established relationships and maybe not so far back, right . We already have very established, productive working relationships that i think keep the interagency working incredibly smoothly and the doctor is asking the right questions and challenging us on the policy matter that is we need to focus on. I just want to begin by recapping the Current Situation we face with covid19. As the Vice President mentioned as of this morning we have 43 confirmed or presumptive cases of the virus in the United States excludeing the repatrioted cases. 17 of the cases are travel related in one way or another. 26 are believed to be person to person spread. Because of the president s strong leadership and the hard work of the local, state, federal level the immediate risk to any individual american has been and does continue to be low. But the risk for people with possible exposure to identified cases can be high. What every one of the experts and leaders have been saying for more than a month now remains true. The degree of risk is a potential to change quickly, especially if we see sustained spread of the disease around the world which could qualify this disease adds a pandemic. As dr. Fauci said this morning, well see more cases of Community Spread in the United States. As we emphasize for sometime now, we all need to prepare for the potential need, prepare for the worst. Hope for the best. In some places we will have to use the range of the mitigation efforts. In fact, we already are working closely with Santa Clara County and the state of washington and particularly king county to assist them in thinking through some of the best practices from the pandemic action plan as well as learnings from singapore and hong kong around the most Effective Community mitigation efforts such as temporary School Closures or even more tight responses and talking to you about such as having school but perhaps not having assemblies in school. Thats why the president has taken an unprecedented whole of government approach to protecting the American People including the steps in the last few days to radically expand and improve the testing we have and to improve access to respirators needed by health care workers. The Vice President , and i spoke with basically almost every governor we have this morning and we greatly appreciate their close cooperation with us. I also wanted to now introduce an individual who i asked the Vice President to have joined this task force because the centers for medicare and Medicaid Services play such a vital role. 1. 3 trillion spending here in the United States providing health care to 60 million american seniors and as we have seen this disease can have a disproportionate severity impact on the elderly as well as the medically frail. And so, seema verna has an important responsibility with regard to funding of care, therapeutics or vaccines or diagnostics for our Senior Citizens but also a vital role that you may not know of in regulating longterm care facilities such as Nursing Homes and other Health Care Facilities, important regulatory function and delighted that the add ministry or the is formally joining the task force. Seema . Thank you, secretary azar. For the Trump Administration and cms, patients come first in the health and the safety and welfare of americas patients and provider work force is our highest priority. So let me start with what cms is. As the secretary said, we are the nations largest insurer covering over 130 million americans between medicare, medicaid and the individual Insurance Market and some are the nations most vulnerable populations, those in poverty, elderly, children and so forth. We have a regulatory responsibility for pretty much every Health Care Institution in america, hospitals, critical access hospitals, Nursing Homes, home health agencies, dialysis facilities, Surgery Centers and the list goes on and that gives us a very Critical Role in addressing the coronavirus. We are responsible for enforcing the quality guidelines thanbase part of information from the cdc. Cms has longstanding Infectious Disease policies in place and used effectively for other outbreaks such as influenza and Health Care Facilities already have these procedures in place and should be prepared for what they may see and proactively updating the regulations, working with cdc. Right now like i said those are already in place and its our job to make sure that Health Care Facilities are effectively implementing the guidelines and we will work with the cdc to determine whether we need to update or change those. Also, we are looking at what we cover and clarifying the types of products and services that our programs will be able to pay for in terms of medicaid and medicare. And with that ill turn it over. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for stepping up. I want to recognize a couple other members of our team. Tony fauci. National institute of health. Thank you. Thank you very much, mr. Vice president. Three comments and points. To underscore what the Vice President and what the secretary azar said, we had an extraordinary meeting with the ceos of a variety of individuals in the farm suit call and bio Tech Industry and those actively collaborating with and the enthusiasm of getting involved in helping us along with the development of products and the availability of products be they vaccines, antibodies or therapeutic. It was very gratifying. Sec, im pleased that the president and Vice President will be visiting the nih tomorrow and will have the opportunity to show them firsthand in realtime the things we are doing. Finally, just one comment about ambassador dr. Birx, a couple of people said i go back a long time with dr. Birx. Nobody goes back as long as i go with ambassador birx. She was actually a fellow in my program as a trainee and we knew she was a star then and now it is happened over the years she is a superstar. Together we saw the first patients with hiv back in the early 80s. We were involved a vaccine trial, the First Successful trial of hiv. We have known each other through i had the privilege and the honor among others of putting the program for president bush and she was the ambassador in charge of the program so i cant tell you how excited i am to finally once again get back in being a partner with debbie birx. Thank you. Great. Thank you, mr. Fauci. Finally, dr. Bob redfield, cdc. Bob . Thank you, mr. Vice president. What i would like to do is just recognize that cdc continues to work and provide support to really the backbone of the Public Health system in this nation. And these teams continue to work to identify new cases, isolate and contact, trace these to Work Together to try to limit the transmission of the coronavirus. And working with our Public Health partners, we continue to be able to identify new Community Cases as the secretary said we always anticipated. And use our Public Health assets to aggressively, again, confirm those cases, isolate, do Contact Tracing to use our Public Health tools to limit the spread of this virus. I want to echo what was said by the Vice President and the secretary that despite seeing the new Community Cases, that shows you we have a Public HealthCommunity Across this country in action, the risk to the American People is low. I also want to add my looking forward and i know my entire agency is looking forward to the president and the Vice President and secretarys visit to atlanta on friday and to get to meet the wonderful people that form the backbone of this great agency. Thank you. Thank you, bob. Mr. Vice president . Taking a few questions. Steve holland, roitders. Based on what we have seen so far, how quigley do you expect the virus to spread throughout the United States . Let me refer that to the experts. Go ahead, bob. Are there details about the cluster in Washington State that i think the important thing is the secretary said from the beginning we have anticipated to see Community Cases pop up. And now we have a number of new Community Cases which the Health Departments are aggressively evaluating to see if they can understand the linkage, who are the contacts, hows this virus spreading. I think the American Public should rest assured, we have one of the finest Public Health programs in the world. When you look at the state and local territorial. So well continue to see the cases as a consequence of them doing their job and use the Public Health strategies that we can to limit that transmission. I think weshld focus on that right now. We are working very hard in trying to contain the Community Outbreaks but as the secretary has said we are blending that now with very strategic mitigation methods. Dr. Fauci . Theres two aspects of this. Cases coming in and controlling the spread of whats already in here and two things are going on. Restrictions of travel to areas where there are hot spots in the rest of the world just like the origin hi bigs of travel here with china i think is going to mitigate against the question of the wider spread and the Contact Tracing and isolation going on aggressively. We hope you can never predict 100 of anything but i think whats going on right now with the cdc and particularly state and local Health Authorities to really get us through this. Mr. Vice president . Steve, its something i learned along the way when we have cases that emerge, the state and local Health Officials are in the lead but cdc is on the ground immediately helping to identify how that might have originated with that individual, to find out any other people that they have been exposed to. We know there will be more cases. Now were focussed on mitigation of the spread. Kristen fisher here . She walked out . Let me go with hallie jackson. Two questions for you, sir. Number one, President Trump hinted today as a potential for new travel restrictions on top of what year already seeing in italy, south korea, china and iran. Is germany, for example, which is seeing cases of Community Spread, is that on the table . President is very clear. Were going to follow the facts and listen on the experts every step of the way. The action the president authorized this weekend raising the travel advisory, the American People should know were saying you should not travel to certain sections of italy or south korea. Those advisories will expand butted well allow the caseload in those countries to define that. In addition to that, by establishing the screening protocol, which will be in full force and effect in the next 12 hours in both countries, will insure that anyone traveling on a direct flight to the United States of america receives multiple screenings at all airports in italy and south korea. But to your point, the nature of the European Union is one doesnt require a passport to move around. So, our task force spoke today about new cases and there were some in several european countries. Were following that very closely. And again, well listen on the experts. Well watch the cases and i know the president will make the decisions with regard to both travel advisories or restrictions on the basis of those facts. And the word pandemic. Do you, do your experts behind you, do you consider it a pandemic in all but designation only . I would refer to the experts is thats for the World Health Organization to define. Our team was in touch with the World Health Organization today. Let me let the secretary address that. This isnt so much about simantics. Our briefing was were in more than 60 countries at this point. So, were going to continue to focus on insuring we do all we can to prevent people come nothing to the country with the disease to mitigate any spread of the disease once we identify cases and of course to provide treatment. Did you want to speak to that . Of course, mr. Vice president. Zb spoke to the Incident Manager of the World Health Organization about this precise question because i wanted a sense of their thinking and how theyre assessing pandemic status. At the moment, while were seeing Community Spreading in multiple regions of the world, theres not a there are many definitions people use around pandemic and one issue the w. H. O. Is focused on is sheer m magnitude and while weve had very large numbers in spreading in china, the number spreading outside of china, while reflecting Community Spreading r not comparable of any other pandemics that have been declared before. Even h1n1 where you had billions infected around the globe. We dont have a view as to whether they should designate it a pandemic or not. I just wanted a sense of how theyre thinking about it and assessing it. Thats, i think reflective of their current thinking. I ask ed if they could put out points. Ben. Reporter screening passengers from italy and south korea, what would that screening look like . Is that every single passenger . Who will be conducting it and will it be expanded to other countries . And how many tests have been conducted . Last week i believe you said 3600. Whats an update on that . Well, let me just our state department, Interagency Group has worked that out with italy and south korea. South korea, actually, about three hours ago fully implemented the screening on all direct flights, all airports. And as i mentioned, within the next 12 hours or so italy will have implemented the same thing. It will be multiple temperature checks in the airports for people before they are boarding. And were working very closely to assist them in implementing that. But let me speak about dr. Hahn . Yeah, dr. Hahn can speak in and out status of tests. Because one of the things i heard from governors last week was the issue of test kits, availability of testing and i want to commend dr. Hahn in the fda for very swift work making it many more tests available, more kits, that include multiple tests and authorizing local testing, which will now make it more possible, as our experts told us, to identify additional cases. As we find more cases, it will mean our Health Officials are doing their job in large part. And the availability of those tests will contribute to that. Dr. Hahn . As you heard from the secretary and the Vice President this weekend, we had the capacity to perform between 75,000 and 100,000 tests. On saturday we issued new policy allowing us to have flexibility, regulatory flexibility around the availability of the tests. So private companies can develop these tests, tell us they validated the tests and begin to use them. They alert us of that and later on, within 15 days we can look at the validation data. Theyre having the responsibility to show validation of the tests. Weve heard from multiple companies and we expect to have a substantial increase in the number of tests this week, next week and throughout the month. The estimates were getting from industry, by the end of the week close to a million will be able to be performed. You guys came out and said the risk is low. But with so few tests being done and n incubation rate being two weeks, how can we accurately say the risk is low at this point . We havent put out a million tests yet. If you talk about the entire country, in the whole 360 Million People in the country, the risk is a low risk. I think the point youre making is since we havent done yet, but will happen really soon, the testing to the community, how do we know the risk is low . I would imagine its still low regardless of that. What happens in real time, which is why we do this so frequently is things can change. But right now today on this day, monday, if you look at the country as a whole, the risk is lee. My last question. Go right ahead. Reporter across the country theyre worried about spring break and wondering if they should book travel or cancel their travel. Two parts, one, is what is the yes for opinion on the task force on spring break travel and domestic travel. And secondly, would you, yourself, feel comfortable bringing you, your family and your grandchildren on a trip to disneyworld . I can say theres been no recommendations on travel within the United States of america. But let me let the experts speak to recommendations with regoord travel. You want to get that . I travel across this country all the time. My kids live all over the country. And look, this is a time to use commonsense. Good time to wash your hands. And this time of year thats always a good decision. As we said the risk remains low. And while weve had a tragic losses for today, the reality is, as i said, 29 of the 43 domestic cases are in california and in Washington State and our centered in very specific areas were working to identify the source on. But i think people should continue to use commonsense this time of year and with regard tainternational travel, let me yield to the expert. I just want to echo what the Vice President said. We want people to go about and live their normal lives in this nation right now. The secretary is right. Before the coronavirus, if you asked the cdc what you should do about preparedness, we would give you that every individual should think ahead and prepare, whether its a hurricane. Those recommendations havent changed. I want people to reflect that. In going to your life, theres no travel restrictions in the United States. The cdc and the state department and ari melbourne will be picking up our coverage right now. Thank you very much from chuck todd. We have been following that coronavirus briefing. Right now on the beat we begin with breaking news that could have the showdown on super tuesday. Three have dropped otom steyer, Pete Buttigieg last night and now Amy Klobuchar. Now there are moves to consolidate completely around joe