It was my Justice Department that arrested them. Its not my Justice Department. Its the peoples Justice Department. Yeah. Yeah. Just one of the ways things will be different 47 days from now. Its definitely not his Justice Department. So let me ask im just curious. So its not going to be his Justice Department. No. Not his. Its not going to be his military. Its not going to be like the bullets that he gets what was that one, willie, before i became president , what did trump say . My army was out of bullets. Ammunition. Theyre out of ammunition. Oh, my gosh. It was monopoly or something. He talked about my generals. He loves to talk about my generals, my military. Its amazing to listen to joe biden. It seems radical to Say Something as conventional as the Justice Department does not belong to me. I mean, it is a radical departure from the last four years but its something that the president should say. Its in line with what republican president s and what democratic president s have said for well, our entire lifetime. So its nice to hear that again. It is. Good morning. Welcome to morning joe. Friday, december 4th. With joe, willie and me we have nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of way too early, she never sleeps, kasie hunt. And for the second straight day well get right into it. The u. S. Has set a record for coronavirus deaths and the president is talking about lawsuits. According to nbc news, more than 2,800 people died yesterday from covid19. The previous record came just a day earlier when the country also saw the highest number of infections and hospitalizations. I want to stop there for a second because, you know, willie, for so long the president would lie to the American People. Lie to his own voters and say the only reason our numbers are higher here is because we take more tests. Of course talking about infections. The one number that doesnt lie of course is the number of deaths. We were struggling with a thousand deaths today and again, the president said this wasnt coming back in the fall. We are at 9 11 numbers. I mean, were getting close to the same number who died on 9 11 dying yesterday from a pandemic that the president told us in january was just one person coming in from china. Told us a month later it was just 15 people and it was going away. Then promised it would be away in april. When it got warmer. Then the clips we showed yesterday, telling us and undermining his own advisers, cdc director and also dr. Fauci saying its not going to come back in the fall. Lets put up the number from yesterday. This is how many people died of this disease this pandemic that the president said good god. They have been lying about for nine months, it would go away, but again, these are 9 11 numbers. Right . And if you add up the number of americans who died two days ago and died yesterday, thats a higher number, willie, i think if my addition is right than all of the american soldiers who have died in afghanistan over the past two decades. Thats how Many Americans have died of covid in just two days. Yeah. The number sounds right to me. Just off the top of my head. An incredible way to put it. My gosh, puts it in some perspective. I hate to add on to this darkness, but dr. Fauci pointed out on an interview on msnbc with andrea mitchell, he said we havent gotten to the seeding that took place during thanksgiving. This is going into fall and early winter. We havent seen and we will see in a couple of weeks that comes with the thanksgiving gatherings. We saw millions of people traveling across the country against the advice of the cdc. So its the beginning of something that dr. Redfield, the head of the cdc, said the worst public moment in the country and well be going through the next couple of months with donald trump as president. Theres only so much joe biden can do at this point as hes on the sidelines. So we have a president who is obsessed with overturning an election. And not this tragedy right in front of us. And if you think about that, hes got these pitiful attempts with Rudy Giuliani say no more right there and we have records highs in deaths because the president wont daily tell people to wear masks. He wont daily do a briefing with dr. Fauci and top doctors to explain to people that were not there yet with the vaccines. In fact, when he talks about vaccines he talks about how he somehow created them and it somehow is the trump vaccine no, its the trump virus and this presidency continues to kill people. I dont know i dont know how to get through to people who follow donald trump to the end but look at the people who are dying. They like trump have not taken this virus seriously, many of them have been impacted or victimized by others who havent taken this virus seriously. Its unbelievable. These are numbers that dont need to be happening. And it would have hard but it was simple what needed to be done and this president couldnt get it done. He couldnt get it done. Willie, though, you talk about how dr. Fauci is warning that the worst is yet to come. Mika is talking about rightly about how the president never took this virus seriously. And there are a lot of dead americans because of that. There are a lot of governors, republican governors who have acted like total idiots by proudly saying that they didnt believe that masks should be worn. Local republican officials who have acted like idiots but if you saw the New York Post today, my god, the progressive leaders we talked about gavin newsom and what he did. Denver mayor Michael Hancock telling citizens not to travel for the holidays then boarding a plane for mississippi, not an hour later. Austin, texas, mayor steve addler recording people and telling people to stay home and filming it from a time share in cabo. You have Dianne Feinstein caught maskless at the capitol in the airport. You have Governor Cuomo of course planning the family thanksgiving that would have broken his own rules and then backing down. You have the mayor of San Francisco going you know this must be whats that restaurant in San Francisco that they all go to . Because when this covid when this covid pandemic breaks, whats it called . French laundry. French laundry, right. Were going to invite the entire morning joe audience, 1. 5 about 4 million. Were all going to cram into French Laundry when this is over because it must be a hell of a restaurant because leaders in california keep risking their lives and keep risking the lives of their family members and keep risking. And you are the leader. You should live the things youre saying. We have seen tons and tons of hypocrisy from democrats and from republicans. I mentioned dr. Anthony fauci a minute ago. Joe biden said that dr. Fauci will stay on as director of the National Institute of allergy and Infectious Diseases and serve as chief medical adviser. It came after he met with the president elects Transition Team during a zoom meeting to discuss covid19 related topics. The president elect has tapped a veteran of the Obama Administration to serve as americas top doctor. The Washington Post reports former u. S. Surgeon general vivek murphy has been asked to come in as an expanded version and is expected to lead the nations response to the coronavirus crisis. Also, president elect joe biden will ask americans to wear masks for the first 100 days after he takes office. In the first day im inaugurated to say im going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. 100 days to mask. Not forever. 100 days and i think well see a significant reduction that occurs with masking to try down the virus significantly. Will you get vaccinated in the way that president s bush, obama and clinton are saying they i will stand before the public and see look, part of what has to happen, jake, people have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work. Already the numbers are really staggeringly low. So i just wonder 100 days of masking across the board, americans being required to wear masks just how quickly the numbers will change and i wonder if some of the friends you have been talking to, joe, and some of the republicans who have been standing by as stooges to President Trump not stepping up for the American People and their safety and, quite frankly, stepping up against the president s stupidity and cruelty not being a leader on this coronavirus, i wonder how quickly the numbers will change. I wonder if your friends and those republicans will actually admit that actually doing basic things to mitigate this virus would have changed the course of this pandemic. Should i ask him that way . Yeah. Ask him. Because you know what . The numbers will change. And at this point, i dont yeah. I would be careful. Let me ask them. Okay. Ill dial and willie, what do you think . Do you think i should ask my friends . Do you think i should let mika ask my friends in that tone . Mika calls the restaurant. You call the friends, lets do it that way. Okay. Honestly, honestly, honestly, how stupid can you be at this point . If you just actually read about it, learn about it. Youre right. How stupid can you be to be so arrogant and to be so flip about this. When we have numbers like this. How crazy are you . We have been asking that question for some time. I think well be a little polite first and pick up the phone im done with being polite. I actually would like people in this country to stay alive. Unlike some of your friends and republicans in the senate and in the house. And President Trump whose presidency is killing people. Right. By the tens of thousands. We agree with that. Talking about how i approach my friends. Willie, what friends . Those are great friends. How about alabama, they sure looked good against auburn. Well start with that. The president wanted you arrested, joe. And they still stood by him. Im just saying could you require that he doesnt kill people . Hows your family doing . How is your mom . Tell her i said hi and then i will say you can wear a mask. Speaking of working things in, i think now would be a great time to work in some really smart time. Lets bring in right now a member of the Fda Advisory Committee on vaccines, dr. Paul ofete, hes from Childrens Hospital in philadelphia. Also with us is a medical director of the special pathogens unit at the Boston School of medicine, dr. Nahid bedelia. I need to start with you, dr. Ofete, with family members. I have a son whos a diabetic. I have another son, hes got asthma, he had pneumonia last year. We keep them in the bubble. I keep saying these vaccines are coming along, im excited for you guys. They said, i think were going to wait a little while. Dad says i dont think they are. How can we make sure that americans i have heard this skepticism not only from my own kids but from so Many Americans because of the garbage they pick up on social media. How do we convince americans especially Older Americans and those who have underlying conditions that when they have a vaccine and if dr. Fauci says its safe that they can trust the word of that and understand not taking the vaccine is far more risky than taking it . I think that most people are concerned about safety. I mean, reasonably they argue this is a message rna vaccine, this is the first ever rna vaccine, how do we know its safe if it hasnt been tested in large numbers of people. It will be tested in large numbers of people before it hits throughout and we can say it doesnt have severe side effects. I think people can reasonably argue we havent it doesnt have a rare, serious side effect but the way it will roll out, the 1a group will be longterm facility residents and staff and essential Health Care Workers which is another 21 million people. Which means by the time you get to other essential workers, much less those who are 65, or high risk individuals this is in tens of millions of people so youll have a huge safety portfolio, hopefully it doesnt even cause a rare side effect. I think then with that kind of information, those kinds of data, i think people will feel more comfortable. Dr. Bedelia, im sure you have been encouraged by what youre hearing out of the biden Transition Team and yesterday he talked about mask wearing for the first 100 days of his term. But we have a long way to go and we have difficult days as many people including dr. Fauci have said. Until we get the Biden Administration. We are setting new records of deaths, cases, hospitalizations and another one yesterday. Where do you think we are right now and without joe biden in the white house, what mitigation efforts should be taken right now . Good morning, willie. Really glad to hear the talk about the work around the vaccines because its the Advisory Committee that theyll be putting in thats going to set part of my mind at ease to look at the data from pfizer and moderna. The worrisome about this is exactly what dr. Fauci said, were not at the peak. Were at the incline. We know thats correct because our test positivity rates have gone up. That means were missing chains of transition. Over 100,000 people have been hospitalized and the human mind boggles because one death, you can understand the suffering of a death, you know . When it becomes thousands, hundreds of thousands, it becomes we dont understand the suffering as much. The things that we can do and i say this because i want to sort of drive in the gravity but there are things we as individuals can do. It is the masking and there is a yale study again this week that showed that mask mandates can drop mortality. Drop it by about 12 in isolation even before you do stay at home orders or anything else. So you dont travel this winter if you dont have to. Then to do the three cs to avoid the three cs, closed spaces so youll get into the spaces that are indoors or that have no ventilation, crowds, dont be and people who arent part of your household, particularly if you cant help it, without masks. Close contact. Dont be in close contact with people who are not in your household without a mask on. Those are things we can do. What our leadership can do, well, one thing is i really hope, you know, our government passes that covid relief bill that we have been waits for. Because president elect biden said yesterday, look, states are still looking for assistance. Theyre not just looking for guidance and a National Approach and how to approach this, but theyre looking for fund because of the increase in hospitalizations to help with distribution of the vaccine. Kasie, i know youre covering for us in a minute, some glimmers of hope, but a question for dr. Ofete. You were at the Childrens Hospital of philadelphia which is just one of the countrys preeminent institutions and were lucky enough to benefit from your expertise when i was growing up and when joe was talking about his kids and the Text Messages im getting are what to do if youre pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant or if youre concerned about the health of the baby and your own health. What concerns do you have about pregnant women about getting this vaccine, if any, is it safe for them and their baby and what kind of data do we need before well know that its safe especially for infants and toddlers to get this vaccine . Okay. So two parts to that question. So first of all, although pregnant women have been excluded from the huge trials by pfizer and moderna the fact remains whenever you do huge trials like that, pregnant women are included because people sign up for the trial and didnt know they were pregnant and get the vaccine and find out theyre pregnant. There is data what happens when the pregnant women gets the vaccine and thats going to happen when the vaccine starts to roll out and if given to essential Health Care Workers who didnt know they were pregnant. The cdc has a program called be safe where theyre following up the women to do two things. One, has this affected them and two, has it affected their child a once born . So i think those studies will start to roll out in the next few months and then well know if theres any problem with women that were pregnant getting the vaccine. Either for them or their child. In terms of children, children have not been a priority for this vaccine. For the simple reason is people less than 21, although they make up 26 of the population they make up 0. 8 of the deaths compared to nursing homes, 40 of the deaths. I think early this coming year, i think moderna is going to start doing prospective placebo controls and seeing what the right dose is for the children. I think by the middle or end of next year well know whether how we can best immunize them. The fact of the matter is, children can die of this. As many children who died from this virus and and children can suffer longer term problems like inflammatory disease and i think children need to be immunized. Kind of basic, but im just looking at for example this Washington Post piece from a couple days ago where the secretary of state has invited hundreds of people to a series of indoors partied. Its called diplomacy at home which i would rather it be called come on over and get killed. But here is the secretary of state taking pictures with a woman looking scared, theyre very close. This lineup of parties is happening over the next three weeks while the u. S. Government is saying dont have parties. What are we supposed to think of this . Hundreds and hundreds of people are one of them has 900 people coming to it, invited. What are we supposed to think . Well, from the Public Health perspective, it breaks through all of the three cs, close contact, crowded people and it is i