Precious and beautiful souls who were taken from us. He also took time to offer condolences to the family members of those killed and impacted by the attacks. And as we remember that terrible moment in American History 19 years ago, its important to remember that we are in the midst of another terrible moment in American History. The coronavirus pandemic has taken the lives of nearly 200,000 americans this year. In fact, our nation has not seen a week where the coronavirus death toll was fewer than 3,000, i. E. 9 11, since the end of march. To put it glumly, we are losing more americans every few days to this virus than we lost in 9 11 entirely. And it just isnt that the president is not appropriately acknowledging the gravity of the growing death toll and the virus. Hes also still downplaying the severity of the virus. According to excerpts of recordings published by the Washington Post the president told bob woodward in march that he knowingly downplayed the coronavirus risk to avoid creating a panic he said. Like i said the president who thrives on creating panic is still downplaying the risk. Last night he held a rally in michigan. Very little social distancing and masking. Flouting michigans coronavirus rules. And heres what he had to say about the pandemic. By the way, i think the vaccines going to come very soon. Going to come very soon. And with it or without it were rounding the turn. You see whats happening. You see the numbers are plunging. We had to take a pause to get rid of the china virus. And we got rid of it. Were getting rid were coming around. Were coming around that turn. Im telling you, you watch, next year, better than last year. Well, obviously were not coming around. But we want to pause here for a second. Joe biden is stepping up to make some remarks in shanksville. Lets go there. Good to see you again. Hey, chuck, do you hear me . Its peter alexander. Give us a little narration here of what were seeing. What youre seeing on the ground. Yeah. The former Vice President arriving there alongside jill biden, greeting some of the families of those who lost loved ones here at this, what they describe as sacred ground, arriving just moments ago, a couple hours after the president was here for a formal ceremony. The former Vice President , democratic nominee, not expected to make any formal remarks here, really just wanted to pay his respects after going to the 9 11 memorial in new york earlier today. It has now reopened to the public, and theres about 100 people who have gathered here at this site. Its a place that represents unity and courage and heroism in the face of just remarkable adversity on that day 19 years ago. I had the privilege of meeting some of the families that were here for this anniversary. One of those lost on that day, a 42yearold by the name of joey knacky. His cousin is here today, just 11 1 2 years old. His name is joe. In honor of his loved one who died on that day. The former Vice President came here because he said it was crucial that he have an opportunity to help honor the sacrifice made by so many others. You can see him elbow bumping with some of the families as he did with the Vice President mike pence earlier in the day at the 9 11 memorial, chuck. You know, peter, youve been there all day. Youve been there when the president was there, youve been there when joe biden was will. Im curious what kind of scene do you see as people come in and out . I know this is such an important day for so many people to take time to get to pennsylvania and to get to shanksville. Reporter yeah, well, what was striking earlier today is while they would normally have about 1,000 people here on this anniversary as they remember the lives lost today, maybe 100 or 200 people who gathered for the president s remarks earlier today. All of that a function of the crisis were still dealing with right now, the coronavirus pandemic. There was social distancing. Many people in the audience were Wearing Masks at the time the president spoke in terms you dont normally hear during a campaign season. The president speaking about this idea of unity, honoring the sacrifice by those who died 19 years ago. The former Vice President joe biden now in really what is more of a spontaneous moment as there are families who are here, members of the public and others who heard he would be coming who gathered here. They have surrounded him. Most of them are quiet, just sort of appreciating this moment and appreciating his visit to this site here. I had never been before, and ive got to tell you, it is expansive and it is solemn. But it is certainly powerful. I mean, it covers miles, what was a barren field in western pennsylvania, now this just stunning memorial to honor those lives lost. It was 33 passengers, 7 crew members. A gorgeous wall that honors their memory. Notes that were left by loved ones who came on this day. And theyve really sort of, chuck, formed this community of those who lost their lives. But they lost their lives preventing 9 11 from being an even greater tragedy. Its said that the plane, the united flight 93 they were on, it was just 18 minutes away by air from reaching what they believed was the terrorists intended target that day, the capitol. But not just the capitol. The Capitol Building itself in washington, d. C. Before it came down in this field. And on this day each year they open whats called a ceremonial gate, chuck, where only family is invited to go to what they describe as the sacred ground where a giant boulder marks the spot where the plane ultimately did go down. You know, peter, you were saying that this is a bit more informal than what we saw earlier with the president. Are these can you tell, are these just people that knew joe biden was going to be there, they came . Do you get a sense there were some people that have been there waiting to see him . What can you tell us about the folks he is meeting with . Reporter yeah, some of the folks hes meeting with, obviously they were aware the Vice President would be coming. They stuck around. This family in fact that hes visiting with was here earlier when the president dlifrds remarks during todays ceremony. You know, what is striking to me in this part of western pennsylvania where the ride out here even before dawn was lined with trumppence signs and in this crowd thats watching and taking photographs of joe biden, there are a lot of trumppence tshirts. Even a make America Great again hat that one man is wearing in the distance. But everybody is sitting here silent, appreciating this moment, appreciating the sacrifice of those individuals so many years ago. Youre struck by the conversation politically right now is so divisive and so often so ugly. And this, if there is one event, this is the one event that really does have the potential to try to reunite us. Even if its for a brief moment. It is sort of its a brief reminder of what was. And in fact i want to bring in my next guest here. The former nato supreme allied commander, its admiral james stavrides. 9 11 changed everything. That was the saying. Weve said it a lot. 9 11 changed everything. And yet 19 years later, boy, the initial change has changed, to basically not use a thesaurus here. And weve changed again. We have. And not for the better. Lets be honest. As you look back at that moment, coming out of 9 11, you remember the intensity of it and you remember the spirit of the country coming together in recognition of heroes who had walked among us like todd beamer, who died in that field and led the effort on that airplane. You know, his immortal words, lets roll. I would go to afghanistan as the nato commander and i would see soldiers there with patches, lets roll. It was a real moment of unity, civilian, military, police, firefighters, our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen. Everybody behind us. Today, unfortunately, we are divided over things as simple as whether we should wear a mask or not. And obviously, we should. In the face of this pandemic. So chuck, weve drifted apart here. But i for one believe we can come back together over time. Theres something powerful about the american spirit. And as you said a moment ago, an event like this hopefully can remind us that we can transcend the differences of the moment and come together again. It also, though, frankly, is a stark reminder of how poorly weve handled collectively as a country and our leadership in particular has handled this pandemic. You know, weve had to think that we do so much to pay so much respect to this moment, to those that have lost loved ones, and to think what we havent done for the hundreds of thousands of family members who have victims of this pandemic. We have not had the same spirit to go after this pandemic as we did to go after those terrorists. That is entirely true. And heres another thought to kind of park or six months from now, twelve months from now. At some point we are going to have to have an accounting for this. After 9 11 we had a National Bipartisan commission that looked at our failures in the intelligence community. After pearl harbor we had a National Investigation which looked at how the military failed the nation in that moment. I think at some point, chuck, we are going to demand as a people an accounting. And that in itself will be divisive. But its important that we do that, that we learn from these mistakes and learn from the failures that have occurred in this extremely divisive moment. Lets think about lets take a few minutes here and talk about the state of the world. After 9 11 we were determined that we were going to do our best to root out terrorism wherever it was, particularly international terrorism. I guess the best way to look at it is okay, there havent been terrorist attacks in this country. What would you say is where are we today as far as Global Security is concerned and terrorism is concerned versus where we were on september 12th, 2001 . Id say in summary that we have made great progress but we still have work to do. Weve certainly made progress in circumscribing al qaeda, the terrorist group that led this effort. We have made progress in containing and taking territory away from the islamic state, which youll recall vividly three, four years ago was sending tank columns headed toward baghdad. Weve made progress against al shabab in africa. Weve made progress against boko haram in nigeria. There has been progress, chuck. And it is worth pointing out that that progress, much of it has occurred by a combination of hard power and soft power, by our military but also the work of our diplomats, our development teams, u. S. A. I. D. And others. It shows that we can Work Together as a government and have real effect internationally. And finally, we ought to remember on this 9 11 day, our allies, our partners, our friends. After 9 11 the nato treaty was invoked. For the only time in history, an attack on one is an attack on all clause was invoked. You saw british warships off our shores. You saw german aircraft flying overhead. And then our allies followed us into afghanistan. And in fact, when i was nato commander i signed hundreds and hundreds of letters of condolence not only to american soldiers but to european and pacific soldiers, people from australia, new zealand, and others. So as i look at Global Security, we still have that alliance structure. We still have the ability to work with allies, partners, and friends and weve made great progress but there is still work to do. Admiral stavridis, its always good to get your perspective on this, and this is an important day to get this larger perspective of where we are as a country. And of course where we are as far as the Global Security is concerned. Thank you, sir. Appreciate your expertise and perspective. Thank you, chuck. And before we went to joe biden in pennsylvania, you had just heard President Trump erroneously claim that we have turned the corner on the coronavirus. Well, at the same time the nations top Infectious Disease expert, dr. Anthony fauci, is saying just the opposite. Hes warning americans not to underestimate the potential of this pandemic, especially this fall and winter. Last hour my colleague Andrea Mitchell asked dr. Fauci to square that statement with the president s words last night in michigan. You said it was time to hunker down because the fall and the winter is not going to be easy. The president says weve rounded the final turn. How do you square those two messages . Well, you know, im sorry that i have to disagree with that because if you look at the thing that you just mentioned, the statistics, andrea, they are disturbing. Were plateauing at around 40,000 cases a day. And the deaths are around 1,000. What we dont want to see is going into the fall season when people will be spending more time indoors and thats not good fire respiratoryborne virus. You dont want to start off already with a baseline thats so high. Well, joining me now is Nbcs Carol Lee and jonathan lemire, the White House Reporter for the Associated Press and also an msnbc political analyst. You know, carol, on one hand we should not be surprised that the president did and said and acted the way he did in michigan last night, flouting the rules, awful those things. However, it did seem to be oddly timed. Here he is dealing with the fallout from these woodward tapes that seems to imply that he intentionally has been downplaying the threat of the virus. In essence it seems like hes decided hes going ocontinto c to be that person and he will continue into tensionally play down the impact of this virus as he did last night. Are they comfortable with this message or is it just who the president is . Well, i think its a lot of the latter and there are people who would like the president to take a little bit of a different strategy and theyve tried. Weve seen that throughout the pandemic. And it just hasnt stuck. This is who the president is. This is how hes been talking the pandemic since it began. And despite all of the other urgent all of the urging for him to shift, whether its from his medical experts or privately from advisers who think he should take a more moderated tone, this is what hes stuck with. And i think that what youre seeing here is this is what its going to be. If there were any questions about whether or not the president might moderate or calibrate or talk about this differently as we go into the final weeks of the campaign, the question seems to be answered this week. Hes under a lot of pressure, obviously because of the things he said to bob woodward that are on tape. And here you see him just going back to the same well with the same sort of posture that weve seen from him before. And theres a sense that hes dug in here and that this is where hes decided he wants to be and this is the message that hes going to drive all the way to november 3rd, chuck. You know, jonathan, Francis Collins did an interview on another network, on cnn. And he was asked about the same michigan rally. And he put it in these terms. He said, how did we get here . Imagine you were an alien who landed on planet earth and you saw our planet was afflicted by an Infectious Disease and mass wrkz an effective way to prevent the spread and yet when you went around and saw some people not wearing them and some people wearing them and you tried to figure out why and it turned out it was their political party. He goes, you would scratch your head and think this is not a planet that has much promise for the future. It was just an interesting way for those of you that dont though dr. Collins, he can use metaphors like that. But i thought it was an interesting remark by the president s own director of nih. Yeah. Its a stark image, chuck, to be sure. But its one thats reinforced on a daily basis. Weve been seeing the footage just now of joe biden, again, walking, making sure he has a mask. When hes this is obviously a somber memorial. But theres campaign events, too hes always masked, he keeps distance from the people hes talking to. Usually its a very small crowd. Sometimes you can count on the fingers of one hand. Thats the image they want to portray. They want to say hes being responsible. They want to say joe biden is listening to the health guidelines. Donald trum trump, president juppe 2ru7 is the exact opposite. He wants to project a sense of normalcy, that were rounding the corner on covid19. And its obviously he is doing so contradicting what were seeing every day in terms of statistics. Have deaths and cases leveled off . Since the surge earlier in the summer . Sure. But its still a virus thats claiming hundreds of lives of americans each and every day. And this is a political image and a message theyre trying to impart. Last night in michigan, also this coming weekend, the president is heading to nevada. And it is one where the state officials there have tried to, theyve canceled his two rallies in reno and las vegas. But the trump campaign, they Just Announced theyre going to be forging forward. He will be holding an event in reno tomorrow night. Details still to be released. But they want this fight. They want to portray the president and his party as the party of progress, the party of were moving ahead on the virus, were going to get around this, and theyre trying to suggest that democrats are just getting in the way. Hey, carol, is part of this issue with the trump campaign, though, is they may have no choice . If they really have money problems, then the only way to replace a money problem on state television is to send the candidate. How much of this is being driven by their resource issues . Well, they certainly were having some resource issues. This is a lot of President Trump. He really wants to be out there and its part of this image that jonathan was talking about, that having the president out and traveling and visiting multiple states in a week and having these rallies is part of the message because of the images that it creates. While theres criticism about lack of social distancing and people not Wearing Masks, it underscores what the president is trying to do, which is create this sense of were moving forward. The economys going to move forward. The virus is he said weve turned around the final corner. I mean, hes really and that a vaccine is coming sooner than you think. All of those messages are meant to be reinforced by the images that are coming out when you see the president in various states with hundreds of people, some masked, some not, and the fact that hes not hunkered down in the white house. And its part of the broader picture and the broader message that theyre trying send here. Carol lee, jonathan lemire. Carol at the white house. Jonathan as always, sir, thank you. Thank you both. Up next were going to get the Public Health perspective. Still ahead, a devastating mix of wildfires, recordbreaking high temperatures, toxic smoke plumes. All of it is ravaging the west coast. Climate change is changing the way we live right now. This is not a problem in the future. Its a problem were facing now. Well be right back. Alright, everyone, we made it. My job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. Im having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. So were using a speakerphone in the store. Is that a good idea . One of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. Youre looking for a grout brush, this is garth, did he ask for your help . No, no. No. We all see it. We all see it. He has blue hair. Okay. Blue. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Keep it coming. You dont know him. Im a delivery Operations Manager in san diego, california. Weve had a ton of obstacles in finding ways to be more sustainable for a big company. We were one of the first stations to pilot a fleet of zero emissions electric vehicles. The amazon vans have a decal that says, shipment zero. Were striving to deliver a package with zero emissions in to the air. I feel really proud of the impact that has on the environment. But were always striving to be better. I love being outdoors, running in nature. We have two daughters. I want to do everything i can to protect the environment to make sure they see the same beauty ive seen in nature. My goal is to lead projects that affect the world. I know that to be great requires hard work. When ourkids, bedtime her kids moved in with us. My goal is to lead projects that affect the world. She was worried we wouldnt be able to keep up. Course we can. What couldnt keep up was our bargain detergent. Turns out its mostly water, and that doesnt work as well on stains. So, we switched back to tide. One wash, stains are gone. Kind of like our quiet time. [daughter slurping] what are you doing . Dont pay for water. Tide is concentrated with three times the active cleaning ingredients. If its got to be clean, its got to be tide. Always have been. And always will be. Never letting anything get in my way. Not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. And certainly not arthritis. New voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. And it can help you too. Feel the joy of movement with voltaren. Welcome back. As we mentioned earlier, the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is closing in on 200,000. As the president continues to downplay the threat of the pandemic. Here with their medical perspectives, vaccine expert dr. Peter hotz. And dean of the National School of tropical medicine at the Baylor College of medicine. And dr. Nahid bedelia, an Infectious Disease physician and msnbc medical contributor 37 let me start with what the president said last night. Dr. Fauci contradicted it. But this idea were turning a corner. What corner is it and whats around it . Chuck, i think the concern that most Public Health officials right now have is were actually going to see an increase given that were going into the fall and winter months. But i think the bigger concern is were at 9 11. And were talking about 9 11 right now. And right after that big event, one of the big things this country did was invest in Global Health security. And the idea that the threats to this country could be multifold. The emerging pathogens are one of those threats. When you talk to anybody in my field of pandemic preparedness and all the simulations that weve had and all the prepared activities that weve had, i think none of us actually considered the fact that the achilles heel to the american Pandemic Response might actually be our own white house. None of us had in our bing ore cards that it would be the president of the United States whos having large maskless rallies that potentially propagate this emerging respiratory virus. And certainly none of us planned on the fact that it would actually be the leader of this country that would downplay the virus so much to the point where there might be a portion of the population that doesnt believe that the pan dem sic a threat. The concern is Pandemic Response doesnt just happen in Government Agencies and federal agencies. It happens in our houses. It happens in schools and restaurants. It requires the cooperation of the public. And by driving a wedge in our population were basically prolonging and worsening the response to the pandemic. Dr. Hotez, is it possible i mean, would you be comfortable calculating the lives lost by the president s decision to downplay this virus . Yes, absolutely, chuck. Thats certainly possible. But just to reinforce the comments that the doctor just made, shes absolutely right. I was in washington, d. C. On 9 11, just to put this into context. I was very moved by the last segment. At that time i was chair of microbiology at George Washington medical school and saw the smoke rising out of the pentagon, put on a stethoscope, went over to the emergency room to see if we could help. But it was such an awful, awful day. And one of the things that happened in addition to launching the war on terror is the Bush Administration and then the Obama Administration expanded it was the launch of massive infrastructure to respond to pandemic threats. And what this president has done is piece by piece tried to dismantle it. By interfering with the work of the major agencies, the cdc and fda and really never launching a National Response to covid19. We never had a federally led response. Unlike what was done in europe and asia. And so now were at the point where were looking at 200,000 americans who have perished in this awful epidemic and the majority of lives could have been saved with that National Response. We failed to detect entry of the virus into new york with that massive epidemic. We failed to mount a response to prevent that massive surge across the southern United States. And were doing it again. Dr. Fauci is absolutely right. We are now going to see a rebound because of forced school openings, college openings, because of the weather and people indoors, and theres still no federal response. And so well be at 300,000 deaths by december 1. I want to talk about the next three months. Dr. Bhadelia, obviously there have been a lot of concerns about as temperatures get cooler you have the flu season. First of all, the flu. Are we seeing it . There were some reports that it could be we might have a milder season because weve been the globe has been socially distanced, that if people take their flu shot it might be more effective because it didnt mutate as much as it normally does. Is there any evidence youre seeing that maybe somehow flu season wont be as difficult as perhaps we may have feared six months ago . Or is that just happy talk . Well, chuck, i do hope thats a silver lining. The data were seeing from the Southern Hemisphere and australia is that their flu season has actually been pretty light, and the thought is that it is actually the Public Health measure thats were using to protect ourselves from covid19, you know, also a respiratory virus that might also serve to protect us from influenza. But its not guaranteed. And particularly if we dont have segments of our population potentially following those necessary measures. And so what remains important is for us to follow those measures but also to ensure that we get our flu shot in a timely manner. The concern would be that we dont all rush together. So we should try to stagger it out and all get our flu shots in september and october as the cdc recommends. The other thing to note is that part of the reason we want this is because we want to drive the flu activity down so that theres not a lot of people with the flu competing for the same beds that people with covid19 might need. People who get the flu, by the way, studies show that they may end up, if they have underlying conditions, they may end up with heart attacks and other reasons why they need to be hospitalized, so reducing the flu helps us take all those things out of the equation. And dr. Hotez, ive been wanting to talk with you for about ten days now ever since weve been hearing various vaccine proclamations first from the president promising one perhaps before election day, but then what we learned from astrazeneca this week where it looks like a second instance of a neurological issue with somebody in the trial. Give us your sense of the state of the Vaccine Development that you understand, that youre aware of going forward. So there are several moving parts to this. The big picture is im quite confident we will have several covid19 vaccines, as we talked before, the technical hurdle to develop covid19 vaccines is not that high. Its an old School Problem in virology. Its a matter of making sure we do all the quality control, quality assurance, and safety and efficacy testing to give it the time to release a vaccine thats safe and effective for the American People. That will happen. It will not happen prior to the november election. Its going to take more time than that. Maybe in the early part of next year we can start release iing vaccines to the public 37 thats the aspirational goal. One of the problems has been there has been no communication strategy around operation warp speed. Its been left to the companies. And the companies in some cases are just not up to communicating issues. So for instance, astrazeneca, which is really not a vaccine company, neither moderna, what theyve been doing is sending out press releases that dont make any sense and then you have this kind of leak around those two individuals that probably had complications that are unrelated to the vaccination but there was no communication. It all came out of a ceo phone call that was leaked or reported to stat news. And thats not the way the American People need to hear the information about covid19 vaccines. We need the federal government, operation warp speed, to step up, launch a proper communication plan, strategy, engage the public on a regular and frequent basis so they can understand whats going on. Theres a lot of complicated issues around these vaccines. Some will be only partially protective, some better than others. All of that has to be rolled out. If you had one spokesperson, trusted, updating us all the time, coming from nih, i could see that that could be very helpful to the american public. Perhaps somebody is listening. Dr. Hotez, dr. Bhadelia, thank you both for your expertise. Coming up, we take you live out west as firefighters continue to race against the rapidly moving fire lines in california, washington, and oregon. Well be right back. Need better sleep . Try natures bounty sleep3, a unique trilayer supplement that calms you, helps you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer great sleep comes naturally with sleep3. Only from natures bounty. Here . Nah. Here . 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This week i read a piece that i thought captured very well where we are as a country in this pandemic and how we got here. Atlantic writer ed yong says americas trapped in a pandemic spiral. Yong compares our countrys lackluster Pandemic Response to the way ants will keep marching in a circle until they die. Not changing their behavior. Even if it will save their lives. Diagnosing how we got here, yong writes, americans grabbed on to whatever solution was most prominent in the moment, and bounced from one often false hope to the next. They manifested again and again, distorting the debate around whether to stay at home, wear masks or open colleges. They prevented citizens from grasping the scope of the crisis and pushed leaders toward bad policies. And instead of overriding misleading intuitions with calm and considered communication those leaders intensified them. The country is now trapped in an intuition nightmare. Like the spiraling ants the americans are walled in by their own unhelpful instincts, which lead them round and round in selfdestructive circles. Well, the atlantics ed yong joins me now. Ed, i have to say it was you painted quite the picture. It was pretty depressing. So kudos there. But i think that was part of the intent, try to sort of get some attention. But i have to tell you, even in reading it, even in seeing all this ive come to the conclusion were six or seven months away at best from any new plan to deal with this virus and weve all just sort of got to do what weve got to do on our own. Is that the message weve been sent . My yeah. Hey, ed, were having a little bit of audio issues here. Heres what im going to do. Lets were going to sneak in a quick break. Lets see if we can fix this audio and try this again on the other side. Well be right back with more meet the press daily. E meet the press daily you should be mad at tech thats unnecessarily complicated. Make ice. Making ice. But youre not 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. Our bargain detergent couldnt keep up. With us. Ence. Turns out its mostly water. So, we switched back to tide. One wash, stains are gone. Daughter slurping dont pay for water. Pay for clean. Its got to be tide. Eve going faster than a closerollercoaster love like yours will surely come my way ahey, aheyhey [music playing] love like yours will surely come my way and i think we have our technical issue fixed up here. So ed yong is back with the atlantic. The ant death spiral is how i excerpted your piece because i thought it really just painted a grim picture. And as i said when i was winding up for the first question there, at this point ive come to the conclusion that were not this is sort of were going to muddle through this this way probably until a vaccine because it doesnt seem as if the public or the leadership is ready to change course. I think my concern is that these areas of intuition that have plagued us throughout the response so far will also cause us problems when a vaccine arrives. Like this idea that we pin all our hopes on a single measure, specifically a biomedical countermeasure, rather than fixing all the broken systems that have led to americas pandemic crisis is going to continue. When we have the vaccine it doesnt magically flip a switch where the country can go back to normal as many people still want to do. Well still need things like testing, Contact Tracing for the period when the vaccine is rolling out and especially if as many people as currently say they will resist a vaccine actually do so. So its not just going to be like the vaccine arrives and then bang, were back to the way things were in 2019. We will continue to need to resist these same areas of thought and conception that we have made all this time. Yeah, i thought it was interesting. You write your piece from the perspective that essentially it was a collective intuition mistake, you that almost that the leaders are more reacting to the american publics dealing with this rather than how much of this is sort of the state of america 2020 that we ended up here and how much of this do you pin on the Political Leadership . Well, its a bit of both. The areas that i talked about are things that all of us do. You and i did. Our viewers probably do it. And the sort of natural parts of human psyche worsened by the fact this pandemic is such a massive crisis. But you know, we would expect leaders we need leaders to lead the way, lead us out of this. The ants go round in an Endless Spiral because they have no coordinating force. We technically do that. But our leaders have utterly failed us in creating any sort of coordinated strategy to take us out of this Endless Spiral. And so its a bit of both. Its these problems that all of us face in terms of understanding a crisis of this magnitude but its also the utter lack of coordination and leadership that you know, as i said, i think thats going to continue past a vaccine maybe into the new year depending on what happens in november. The next place youre going here is in some ways its because we have collectively or we have such a large chunk of the population that has sort of inherent distrust in institutions or its leadership, do you think that is what explains why we have such a worse set of outcomes from our response to the pandemic as the European Union does collectively . I think thats certainly a factor there. When you elect people on the basis of distrust in government, what happens when those people then need to marshal the trust of the people . Obviously, youre going to have problems. And thats what we see now. But again, as i say in the piece, i dont think its right to blame the failures of the american Pandemic Response on any one factor. Were seeing pictures of trump here and hes central to the problem but hes not solely responsible. Theres also all the problems of americas broken systems. Its stretched health care system. Its underfunding of Public Health. Its legacy of racism and discriminatory policies that have led to people of color being disproportionately hit by this virus. Theres a lot of things to fix. Trusting government is one. The government itself is another. But there are a lot of things that we need to get right for the next time round. And i guarantee you there will be a next pandemic. Will we be ready for it . I hope we can do better than this time. Well, i certainly dont want to be an army ant. Thats for sure. Ed yong from the atlantic. Again, a very provocative piece. I encourage you to read the whole thing. Ed yong, thanks very much for coming on. I appreciate it. Turning now to the wildfires that are raging across the entire Pacific Coast of this country, theyre breaking records and its burning with unprecedented intensity. Nearly 100 fires are burning in 13 states, torching an area about the size of new jersey. In california 3 million acres, more than 3 million acres have burned and killed at least 20 people. The august complex fire, which is north of sacramento, is the largest wildfire in state history. And ready for this . Six of californias 20 largest fires in history have burned this calendar year. In oregon fires have scorched about 900,000 acres. Its nearly twice the states annual average. More than half a Million People have been ordered to evacuate, which by the way happens to be about 10 of the states entire population. Oregons governor warns that this year will not sadly be an anomaly. While our state reels from this horrific fire storm of dry weather, hot wind and drought conditions, this will not be a onetime event. Unfortunately, it is the bellwether of the future. We are feeling the acute impacts of Climate Change. I want to check in with our own jacob ward. Hes live for us in ashland, oregon. And jacob, you know, i do worry sometimes our viewers on the east coast, they just see oh, theres wildfires, that happens all the time out there. What were seeing in oregon right now, i mean, entire towns have disappeared. Walk us through where you are now and what youve seen. Reporter well, chuck, i think youre making an incredibly important point there. I think the brain gets used to these images of fires sweeping through towns. But you have to remember oregon, while it has seen its share of wildfires, has never seen them like this and theyve never hit places like this. Right now were looking at more than 35 active wildfires, four of which are considered megafires, two of them just about 20 miles south of portland, predicted to combine into one enormous fire. This is unprecedented fire behavior in this region. And just to get with the people here and hear their stories has been the most heartbreaking thing for me. Weve spent this morning with robin and tony akpan, who own shasta view wheatgrass. Theyre organic farmers here in ashland. And in this place they built their home. 14 years ago they put this home together, raised four children here and built a successful business, and now all of that is gone. Tony had to bail water out of his hot tub, trying to throw it at the flames, to try to save this place. It did not work out. Let me play you a little bit of what robin had to say about what the fight was like as she watched her husband from the base of the driveway with their kids waiting in the van. It was really scary. It was so scary. Tony was here, trying to fight the fire. He was determined to make sure that our home wasnt taken and our house that we built and we put everything into wasnt taken. And we were so scared because he wasnt with us. And then when we saw the wave coming, we were right there, and we saw the wave just move, the wind changed and it just moved this direction. And i was calling him and trying to get him out, and he just and it was so scary. Chuck, tony, who moved here from nigeria, describes this as his american dream. He says they will rebuild here with his family, but that seeing this incredible new reality definitely has shaken everybody in a way thats hard to articulate, chuck. And jacob, im glad you emphasized, oregon, were so, and again, its not to even lessen what california is going through, but thats what makes this what were seeing this year seem so unprecedented. Jacob ward on the ground for us in ashland, oregon, thanks very much. I want to stick with this topic because the wildfires burning out west is one example that extreme weather, everyone on this planet is facing right now. This idea of are we preventing Climate Change . The climate has changed. Tropical storms paulette and rene are churning in the atlantic. Were up to r in the atlantic and were not even halfway through september. Were probably going to run out of names. In the pacific, two typhoons made land in just a week. Five typhoons have struck south korea this season alone. Thats a new record. And all of this comes as a new report out this week predicts that more than a billion people could be displaced by 2050 because of Climate Change. But again, we say the words 2050. Right now, there are people displaced in oregon right now, and its 2020. Al roker is cohost of the today show. He joins me now. And al, you know, we talk about preventing Climate Change. Worrying about 2050. I think this is the year, if we didnt realize it, its happened. All of the, what are we facing, were facing. Fires out west that we have never seen before. We have to change our thinking on this, dont we . We absolutely do, chuck. Because like you said, 6 of the top 20 fires occurring right now. Three of the top four largest burning fires are going on. Theres no end in sight right now, and Climate Change is leading to these larger, more frequent and intense fires. And interestingly enough, theres talk, oh, california is not managing its forests well. The august complex, a good part is in the Mendocino National forest. So thats federal land. Right now, 3 million acres are burning in california. Almost a million acres burning in oregon. And the wildfire season, because of Climate Change, chuck, 105 days longer than since 1970. Three times as many large fires. Six times as many acres burned. And its not just fire. Its air quality. Sploek smoky conditions for the entire west coast. Hazardous air quality for parts of the northwest. We have air quality alerts for unhealthy air, Central California and all of oregon and washington. And theres major drought going on. Thats another part of Climate Change. 68 of the western states are in some sort of drought. A number of them in extreme and exceptional drought. And this just out, this report from the u. N. And the World Meteorological organization, united in science, the earth continues to warm, 2020 probably going to be the hottest year on record. And chuck, from 2016 to 2020, its set to be the warmest five year period on record. Our pollpolar ice caps melting record pace in july. Sea level rise accelerating which leads to Sea Level Rise along our coast. Greenhouse gases, since 1990, co2 emissions up 62 . Those trap excessive heat. That causes the polar ice caps to start melting, and Climate Change with more ice melt, with more Sea Level Rise, that puts more moisture into the air. That provides more energy for rapidly intensifying hurricanes and severe impacts from droughts and floods. And were now in the la nina, so that means sea surface temperatures are below average across the equatorial pacific. What does that mean for us . Generally, the jetstream will bring an active storm track into the pacific northwest, the great lakes, but it stays dry down south, theres no el nino, which tears apart hurricanes. So more active tropics in the atlantic, and as you mentioned, were going to be looking at paulette. This may hit bermuda as a category 2 storm. As you look at our investigation areas all across the atlantic from africa into the gulf, look at this. So there you have it. I mean, its an active season, as you said. We just passed the peak middle part of the hurricane season. And just this warming water, it means that new jerseys the new north carolina, right . New jersey, youre going to have to worry about hurricane possibly hitting more often than you used to before. Thats the reality. Right . Is this the adaptation americans have to start preparing for . Thats right, chuck. And look, youre seeing i was was just in cape cod this past week. And a number of beaches, they have giant signs out with sharks. Why are they seeing more sharks . Well, seals are moving further north. Lobster moving further north. Seals, so the sharks are chasing the food. It just continues to feed upon itself. It is a Chain Reaction that were not seeing stopping anytime soon. And what it sounds like, it also can accelerate as all this stuff happens. Anyway, al roker, really appreciate it. Thank you, sir. As always. And thank you all for being with us and trusting us this hour. Well be back monday, of course, with more meet the press daily and if its sunday, its meet the press on nbc. Msnbcs coverage continues after this break. Tinues after this break or face to face, were here to help utilizing our resources as one of the nations largest banks and a local approach with a focus on customized insights. So youre ready for today. Did you know that some aluminum free deodorants only mask odor . Secret aluminum free helps eliminate odor instead of just masking it. And is made with three times more odor fighters. With secret, odor is one less thing to worry about. Secret. Come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. We adapt and we change. You know, you just figure it out. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. To soccer practices. And new adventures. You hope the more you give the less theyll miss. But even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past. They may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. Lets help protect them together. Because missing menb vaccination could mean missing out on a whole lot more. Ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination. Ask your doctor if your teen look limu someone out there needs help customizing their Car Insurance with liberty mutual, so they only pay for what they need. False alarm. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Good afternoon. Im katy tur. It is 11 00 a. M. Out west and 2 00 p. M. In the east, and today is the 19th anniversary of 9 11. The worst terror attack in American History. No one has forgotten. President trump spoke at the flight 93 memorial in shanksville, pennsylvania, earlier today. And joe biden paid his respects at the memorial earlier this afternoon. Biden says hes putting aside politics today, taking his ads off the air, and not campaigning out of respect for the lives lost. And the president s speech was largely