'Meet the Press' transcript for May 3, 2009

MR. DAVID GREGORY:  Our issues this Sunday:  Flu fears sweep the globe.  Here at home, as the outbreak grows the risk remains unclear.

(Videotape)

VICE PRES. JOE BIDEN:  I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now.

(End videotape)

(Videotape)

DR.  RICHARD BESSER:  I think flying is safe, going on the subway is safe. People should go out and live their lives.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  What is the government doing to try to stop the swine flu's spread, and could the U.S. outbreak turn deadly?  All the latest from the three top officials charged with coordinating our national response:  Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius; Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano; and acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Richard Besser.

Then, a surprise switch on Capitol Hill.

(Videotape)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (D-PA):  I do think, Mr. President, that I can be of assistance.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  Veteran Republican Senator Arlen Specter becomes a Democrat and pushes that party very close to a filibuster-proof majority.  How will his decision impact the Republican and Democratic Parties and their agendas in Washington?  In his first television interview since announcing his decision, our guest, Democratic Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.  Then, what does Specter's move say about the future of the Republican Party for 2012 and beyond?

Plus, an unexpected retirement on the Supreme Court.  Who's on the short list now?  And is a new partisan battle brewing?  We'll hear from two key Republican voices:  Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and former Republican congressman from Florida, and Ed Gillespie, former counselor to President Bush and former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

And in our MEET THE PRESS minute we remember one of the Republican Party's political stars, former Republican vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp, who died last night at the age of 73.

But first, the latest on the H1N1 or swine flu outbreak around the globe. Here with us, the top U.S. officials coordinating the response:  Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the CDC; Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano; and the new secretary of Health & Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.

Welcome to all of you.

DR.  BESSER:  Thank you.

MR. GREGORY:  Dr. Besser, let me start with you.  This is the cover of Newsweek magazine hitting newsstands now, and it talks about "Fear & the Flu: The New Age of Pandemics." This is what people are concerned about.  What's the very latest on how bad this is?

DR.  BESSER:  Well, this is a rapidly evolving situation with, with a lot of uncertainty.  The, the good news is that each day we're learning a lot about this virus and, and what it's doing both here, in Mexico and, and around the globe.  And we're starting to see some encouraging signs, and, and that's good, but our approach has to be aggressive.  With a new infectious disease you may only get one chance to get out in front of it, and that's what we're doing.

MR. GREGORY:  So what are the raw facts here, number of cases, number of deaths?

DR.  BESSER:  Here's where we are.  In the United States we've got 160 confirmed cases, 21 states.  The World Health Organization this morning reported confirmed cases in 15 countries.  Thankfully, in, in this country we are not seeing the number of deaths in Mexico.  We reported last week the tragic death of the child in, in, in Texas.  But as we're looking we're not seeing those deaths, but I'm not totally assured.  We need some more information to see what this is going to do.  And it's very encouraging to see that people are taking this seriously.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

DR.  BESSER:  And our doing the things to protect their health that they can do.

MR. GREGORY:  But let, let, let me try to understand this, because this was the big issue:  What's going on in Mexico?

DR.  BESSER:  Right.

MR. GREGORY:  Why are people getting this flu and dying, whereas people in the United States are getting the flu and they're OK, they're going through it but they're recovering?

DR.  BESSER:  We're getting clues to that.  We're, we're in Mexico as part of a tri-national team with Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, and we're looking very hard at that question.  Ands what we're starting to see, we're starting to see that there was widespread flu in Mexico.  Initial reports really were looking at flu that was all presenting as hospitalization, high rates of mortality. As we learn more about how widespread this is, it may be that the rates of severe disease in Mexico will end up being not different than what we see here.  We're earlier than the Mexicans are, and it appears that they have had widespread flu across their country.

MR. GREGORY:  But I just want to be clear.  So in other words, we're, we're talking about 19 confirmed deaths in Mexico, 473 confirmed cases in Mexico. But many, many, many more cases of this particular virus than, than we knew to be the case.

DR.  BESSER:  One of the first things that we worked to do with the Canadians and the Mexicans was help them set up laboratory capacity so that they could do those confirmations.  The initial tests that were all being done were on hospitalized patients, the sickest of the sick.  As we're looking more, we're seeing that that may have actually been the tip of the iceberg, with a large number of cases that were less severe.

MR. GREGORY:  OK, and that's an important point, that you could have this flu, this virus coursing through a country, a community, and that for most people it's less severe.

Secretary Sebelius, some, some context here.  The seasonal flu, what we all know about, kills 36,000 people every year, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized.  In this country 13 have been hospitalized with H1N1 or, or swine flu.  Are we overreacting?

SEC'Y KATHLEEN SEBELIUS:  Well, I think, David, we, we don't know.  And what's important is that we're aggressively reacting to what the science is telling us.  And as Dr. Besser just said, it's evolving day at a time.  And so the guidance is being updated, the information is being updated.  We know a couple of things.  As you just said, seasonal flu kills people every year, hospitalizes people.  What we don't know is what this new virus will do, what this new flu strain will do.  And what's why I think taking precautions, being prudent at the outset and then reinforming as we move forward is the most important thing.  We are in vaccine mode, so we're producing--accelerating the production...

MR. GREGORY:  There's no vaccine right now.

SEC'Y SEBELIUS:  No.  You can't begin a vaccine until you identify the virus and the strain.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

SEC'Y SEBELIUS:  So we're--but the flu strain has been identified, it's being grown, it's going to be tested.  We can be ready to produce.  Meanwhile, the production of seasonal flu vaccine is accelerating.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

SEC'Y SEBELIUS:  So we're going to do both.  We're going to be ready for both come fall.

MR. GREGORY:  Secretary Napolitano, isn't the quandary here for the government, for this administration getting out all of the necessary public health information, raising that level of concern, but then being careful not to make people too alarmed or getting them to panic?  And this week it seems like the administration went over that line.  Vice President Biden on the "Today" show Thursday said this:

(Videotape, Thursday)

VICE PRES. BIDEN:  I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now.  It's not that it's going to Mexico, it's you're in a confined aircraft.  When one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft.  That's me.  I, I would not be, at this point, if I--if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  Vice president's office issued a statement later saying, "What he meant to say was if you're sick, don't get on an airplane." And look what happened just this week, Friday, a flight from Munich to Washington diverted to Boston because a woman showed signs of the flu, was complaining about flulike symptoms.  They diverted the flight.  How much damage do comments like Vice President Biden's do in the middle of all this?

SEC'Y JANET NAPOLITANO:  Well, I think the vice president immediately clarified what, what he meant to say, which is if you're sick don't, don't get on a flight, don't get on--in the subway.  If your child is sick, don't send the child to school.  If you're sick, don't go to work.  Stay home.  Our whole strategy is built around containing the spread of, of the virus.  But on, on the other hand, people should otherwise just carry on with their normal, everyday lives.  And by and large, that's what Americans have been doing.

MR. GREGORY:  Well, you, you say that.  But The New York Times reports some of the reactions, some of the precautions being taken.  And, Dr. Besser, I want you to react to this.  "In Delaware, a rap concert was canceled.  At Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, 22 students who had been student teaching in Mexico were told not to take part in graduation ceremonies.  ... In Chicago, some Roman Catholic priests stopped giving communion wine and were asking parishioners to avoid shaking hands.  `The handshake of peace will be the nod of peace for now,' the Reverend Joseph M.  Jackson of St.  Ignatius Church said.'" Appropriate or overreaction?

DR.  BESSER:  You know, what we're seeing across the country is people who are concerned and trying to do what they can to protect their health.  And what we're trying to do is, is share what things do we know really work, and, and encouraging people to do those things.  The importance of hand washing or using alcohol hand gels.  The importance of covering your cough with your sleeve and not your hand.  The important of staying home if, if you're sick. We're seeing other things taking place as well, and when we see that we try and channel towards the things we know that, that work.  We're not telling people to, to not get together for, for concerts.  But we are telling people who are sick, don't go to that concert.

MR. GREGORY:  OK.  But--fair enough.  But, but that's your message.  But the reaction seems to be different.

DR.  BESSER:  Well, you know, everybody is going to deal with their concerns in different ways, and, and that's the nature of, of people.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

DR.  BESSER:  What we can do is, is try and tell them what the risks are, what do we know.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

DR.  BESSER:  Share information as we have it and continue to, to hit the messages of, of those things that can really be effective.

MR. GREGORY:  But, Secretary Sebelius, you've got reports, one out of Southern California, where people are flooding emergency rooms when they cough, afraid that they're going to die.

SEC'Y SEBELIUS:  Well...

MR. GREGORY:  That isn't, that is not correct.

SEC'Y SEBELIUS:  You're right.  That's, that is likely an overreaction.  But it's also an indication of another of the key priorities of the president and this administration.

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.

SEC'Y SEBELIUS:  One of the reasons people visit emergency rooms is that we have far too Americans who don't have health coverage, who don't have a doctor to call, who don't have a health home.  And it, it--this situation that we're in links directly into health reform.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

SEC'Y SEBELIUS:  It, it presents itself as why we desperately need a reformation of the health system, while we need attention at that issue so we get people health homes, we get preventative care and we get a conversation going so people have more information on a regular basis and have that kind of preventive care and don't go through emergency room doors.

MR. GREGORY:  I, I want to be clear about something, Secretary Napolitano.

But first, Dr. Besser, the strategy right now is containment.  Let me walk you through this.  So a virus like this is unpredictable.  So it may seem like it's tame; it could evolve in such a way to become deadly.  It could become a more devastating virus in the United States.  So...

DR.  BESSER:  Could I correct something you've said already?

MR. GREGORY:  Yeah, OK.

DR.  BESSER:  The strategy is not containment.  Containment is a strategy that...

MR. GREGORY:  Secretary Napolitano said we're trying to contain the virus.

DR.  BESSER:  Well...

SEC'Y NAPOLITANO:  Contain what you spread of the virus.

DR.  BESSER:  Yes.

SEC'Y NAPOLITANO:  If you're sick.

DR.  BESSER:  Yeah.  In...

SEC'Y NAPOLITANO:  Let's be careful what we're saying here.

DR.  BESSER:  Yeah.

SEC'Y SEBELIUS:  Yeah.

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