Rep. Carter: Risk of coronavirus outbreak in US is low, we need to be prepared just in case

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Rep. Carter: Risk of coronavirus outbreak in US is low, we need to be prepared just in case

Georgia Congressman Rep. Buddy Carter weighs in on the coronavirus briefing by top U.S. health officials.

This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," February 28, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: All right, look on the bright side. It was a lot worse.

This 342-point hit in the Dow, bad, but it was looking about three times that, the worst week, though, for stocks since the financial meltdown in 2008. The S&P 500 entering its fastest correction ever. The Dow and the Nasdaq going right along for the ride.

And all of this at a time every one wonders what's next. The Fed is vowing to use its tools to deal with economic risks that come from the coronavirus. Now, traders didn't know what to make of that. Where they are at least an agreement on now is, thank God the week is over.

Welcome, everybody. I'm Neil Cavuto. And this is "Your World."

And more swings on Wall Street, but the trend still remains down, as these virus fears continue to flare up.

Here are some of them. Word now that a Google employee in Zurich has tested positive for the virus, as Amazon is telling its workers to defer all nonessential travel. But get this. That includes the continental United States.

Chicago monitoring hundreds of recent travelers for the virus. Meanwhile, the big Geneva auto show canceled, as Switzerland vows big events. And all this as the World Health Organization raises its risk assessment to very high.

We are all over these fast-moving developments with Kristina Partsinevelos at the Nasdaq on the stock shock, and John Roberts at the White House on how they're absorbing all of that shock.

We begin with Kristina -- Kristina.

KRISTINA PARTSINEVELOS, FOX NEWS BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, it's been, I guess to say an exciting day, but ending a little bit more positive from those session lows, the Dow closing -- at one point, it actually hit more than 1,000 points lower.

So we did come back at the end of the day in what we call bottom-feeding. So we're talking about the Dow did close lower. The S&P 500, I wish I could say that there was one sector that did well, but all 11 sectors did close in the red.

If you take a look, though, just over the past week or so, it's just been a really, really tough week for our 401(k)s, as well as for a lot of traders out there, essentially, the worst week since the financial crisis.

The month, though, the month is that -- we are heading into a weekend and we are closing a lot of positions. That's what a lot of hedge funds do right now. They close. They rebalance. So you did see what we call a lot of liquidity in the markets, so a lot of people selling and buying every time we saw a dip.

And so it did create a lot of movement today, and that adds to the whole closing of the month. But it doesn't always have to be doom and gloom. If we look back historically, and if you're patient, you could reap the benefits in the market.

And what I mean by this, if you look back at when we had the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003, when the first occurrence happened, if you held stocks in the S&P 500, you held onto it for six months, you would have seen a gain of roughly 14.59 percent, if -- and, again, if you don't believe that, what about Ebola?

So when Ebola hit the markets and that created a pandemic across the globe, what we did see is, if you held stocks in the S&P 500, that would climb to about 5.34 percent six months later. And both -- if you were really, really patient and you wanted to hold the hold these stocks quite long for past 12 months, with SARS, you would have seen your gains up over 20 percent, and, with Ebola, you would have seen your gains up over 10 percent.

So it does pay to be patient. There's still a lot of uncertainty in the market. But we did come off of those session lows today -- Neil, back to you.

CAVUTO: We did indeed. Thank you very, very much, Kristina.

By the way, one of the reasons why we did get to that sort of comeback level -- and I put comeback in, I guess, italics, parentheses, you name it. We got to a record low on interest rates, a 10-year note barely hovering a little bit more than a single percent. That will translate into fixed-rate mortgages that will be under 3 percent, maybe get down to 2.5 percent.

Couple that with the fact that the slow down fears are igniting interest in mortgage refinancing applications and first-time mortgages. That's the hope, at least.

Meanwhile, the president is getting ripped over his administration's handling and response to all of this.

John Roberts on how the White House is responding to that.

Hey, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Neil, good afternoon to you.

The president probably happy that the interest rates are going down, though probably not happy about the reason why the interest rates are going down.

You can hear the helicopter on the South Lawn just behind me. The president coming out to go to North Charleston, South Carolina, tonight for a political rally. We may hear from him on the way out the door.

Earlier this afternoon, for about 45 minutes, we heard from the Health and Human Services secretary, Alex Azar, conducted a pen-and-pad briefing, as the World Health Organization warns of a possible worldwide spread of the coronavirus.

Azar told us that, at the moment in the United States, there is 63 cases of coronavirus virus, no new cases in the past two weeks, other than that one case of suspected community transmission in California.

The Centers for Disease Control is actively conducting contract tracing to find out -- try to find out how that woman contracted the virus. Azar says they do not believe that it is connected to the quarantine of people at Travis Air Force Base -- the woman lived near there -- a short time ago.

Talks also about the $2.5 billion emergency supplemental are accelerating. Azar says he hopes that Congress will pass it early next week, so that the president can sign it by the week after.

And amid increasing criticism from Democrats of the White House's response to the coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence a short time ago defended the early actions that President Trump took to address the virus. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president took unprecedented action in January to declare a public health emergency, to suspend travel to the United States from China from all non-citizens or non-legal residents.

And it's why the president instituted an unprecedented quarantining effort for Americans that were returning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: HHS Secretary Azar also talked about that whistle-blower complaint that the team that was sent to repatriate Americans from the Diamond Princess didn't have the necessary equipment, nor the expertise to handle the job.

Azar said that team typically does refugee repatriation. He says HHS takes the complaint seriously and is investigating to determine that complaint's validity and what steps they could possibly take in the future to ensure that there are no other problems.

Azar was also asked about Japan's possible plans to close schools for a month and whether something like that could happen here, Azar saying that they have a full continuum of possibilities and that everything is on the table.

But there was no suggestion that we're about to close schools here in the United States.

Azar was also asked by me about whether HHS could use what's called the Defense Procurement Act to ramp up production of things like personal protection equipment, those N95 masks, Tyvek suits and other things. He said, yes, they are thinking of doing that, Neil, but he says he doesn't see the need at the moment.

But it is something they're keeping in their back pocket. That's typically ramped up or used during times of war to shift production of certain things. It hasn't been done for a while, but Azar suggesting that could be in the offing in the next few weeks.

CAVUTO: All right, John Roberts, thank you very, very much.

Again, I want to take a look at the corner of Wall and Broad, because you might not think of this as a stunning or significant development, but the fact of the matter is, we were down about 1,000 points today. We paired that dramatically.

So we closed actually on a -- kind of a better level of the day. Now, a lot of people will go through this like chicken entrails and tea leaves here, look at those type of developments which could be potentially constructive.

Having said all of that, we told you about how the markets have all corrected, in other words, gone beyond 10 percent from their highs, to these new levels. Now, some of them are flirting in bear market territory with this loss today from these all-time highs.

The Dow is down about 14 percent, Nasdaq about 13 percent, S&P 500 about 13 percent. It takes 20 percent from highs to define what they call a bear market. Now, we got as close as a 19.8 percent drop in the market, particularly the S&P 500, around Christmastime in 2018.

And we just came back from those levels. But we have not seen a bear market, one that would meet sustained, with a 20 percent or more drop, in that time. So we dodged that bullet so far. And some are interpreting what happened today as a sign that maybe we can dodge it going forward.

Way too early to tell. I only pass that along to you because, while others are obsessed with this, you might remember we had General Honore here, of course, the Ragin' Cajun, who was the face and force behind fixing things after Hurricane Katrina back in 2004, who is not taking too kindly to Wall Street and its temper tantrum.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), U.S. ARMY: America has a very short fuse on disasters. Everybody wants them solve tomorrow. This is not an instant response.

We're going to have to all put our big boy pants on and work through this. And the stock market needs to shape up.

(LAUGHTER)

HONORE: They're not complaining when they're making money and nobody can figure out what the hell they're doing.

And when it's starting to go down, they start crying. They need to shape up and figure out how to go to shore up to supply chain, and stop whining.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: I don't think the general is a fan of the Wall Street crowd.

Speaking of whom, we have got Heather Zumarraga here and Scott Martin.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: All right, guys, I assume, at least Scott, you have got the big boy pants on addressing that.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: But what he's saying and, Heather, what he's saying is, Wall Street's obsession and -- on pouncing on what it doesn't know is a little bit unseemly, but it is what it is.

SCOTT MARTIN, KINGSVIEW ASSET MANAGEMENT: Yes.

CAVUTO: Heather Zumarraga, what do you tell your investors when they see this kind of thing?

HEATHER ZUMARRAGA, FINANCIAL ANALYST: Well, put your big boy pants on, right?

(LAUGHTER)

ZUMARRAGA: It's a flight to safety, flight to quality, obviously, with the 10-year treasury hitting all-time lows, as well as interest rates across the board.

This is a good gauge for everything from mortgages, what you are going to pay to take out a loan, as well as credit cards. And it's also good gauge usually of the health of the economy. In this case, it's not, because the U.S. economy is on solid footing.

This is more a situation of a horrific potential pandemic, where people are buying our bonds, sending the yields lower, and the stock market as well.

CAVUTO: Yes, but, you know, Scott, they're not just lower. They're like incredibly record low.

And I'm just thinking, when a 10-year note is yielding not all that much, over a single percent -- and I think of how that translates into much lower mortgages, much lower auto and related loan rates -- you would think that would be a nice sort of backdrop for the markets and a point at which you get that inflection, where people say, all right, all right, let's buy some stock.

MARTIN: I agree, Neil.

And I will tell you what's interesting, though. As a money manager, as somebody who invests money for clients, what we have been doing is finding total return in bonds and dividend or yield in stocks.

And that is, in a word, messed up. I mean, that shouldn't be that way. It should be the other way. Yield should be in bonds, and total return should be in stocks. But, frankly, as you pointed out, that's the way it is.

And so I will tell you that -- well, I will give you three things that were really good today. You mentioned kind of the hints of what the promise may be on the close today is that the SOX index, which is the semiconductors index, so think about the chips that go into your computers and phones, that was up all day long.

Tech was up on the day as well. So other Nasdaq stocks, like Microsoft and Apple, as a conglomerate, were up. And gold, which is a fear trade, which is something that we still own, mind you, because we like it, because it doesn't correlate to the markets, was down big today.

So three good reasons today to be somewhat optimistic about next week.

CAVUTO: All right, we have trader Peter Tuchman joining us outside the New York Stock Exchange.

And, Peter, one of the things I noticed, not only that we closed off our worst levels of the day, but there was this dramatic improvement in the rate environment. By that, I need much lower. That could support the consumer, coupled with much lower energy gas prices and all for the consumer, at least, whether he or she is in the market or not.

They're going to have a little bit of free cash coming their way. What do you think?

PETER TUCHMAN, QUATTRO M. SECURITIES: I kind of think that -- I appreciate what you said about the gold.

I was sort of looking at the gold as a capitulation trade, because they were selling the equities, selling the gold in a big way. Maybe there was a margin call involved, right?

CAVUTO: Right.

TUCHMAN: But I kind of think that you're right, that the fact that gold was down that much, I kind of think people were trying to get into cash.

That seemed like the only safe haven, on top of people trying to support bad positions in equities. And it was a fascinating day. It was a fascinating week. I don't -- I don't go along with the trade that things are that much better.

I kind of think that the rally on the close was a huge short cover from a position that was so heavily put on for the week.

CAVUTO: That's very interesting.

So, Peter, what you said, the fact that this was one of the fastest corrections on record for the market, and the fact that it eased up a little bit -- and I said we're still down 357 points, to your point. So you're still -- you still got your worries going forward?

TUCHMAN: You know, what we posted that. We had a huge sell and balance on the close. The market kept trying to get off the mat, but it didn't.

We rolled over big. Literally, 15 minutes, 10 minutes before the close, we were down 950. So, my gut is that there was a big push on the short side. And basically people didn't know. The Fed -- during the day, the Fed did come out. Powell said that he would use the tools necessary to support the market, if possible, that the economy was still strong.

And that sort of took the real fear out of the market for the moment. But I think that the sell side into the 350 posting, with $3.5 billion for sale, basically, people didn't want to go home with the idea that maybe the Fed would say something, maybe things aren't as bad as they seem.

And I kind of think it was more of a short cover. I don't think the anxiety is off the table. I think that gold trade is one where people wanted to be in cash. Maybe some people decided to buy something into the weekend. But I didn't feel that.

CAVUTO: That's very interesting.

Scott Martin, one of the things we did see is that people are now increasingly betting the Federal Reserve is going to cut interest rates to help alleviate this pressure.

Now, even though a number of district presidents and Fed officials here and elsewhere have been sort of pooh-poohing that talk, I think people who bet money on this are seeing a 100 percent possibility the Fed funds, the overnight bank lending rate, is cut.

Do you see that?

MARTIN: Yes, so you're telling me there's a chance, Neil. Maybe one in a million?

I mean, yes, I think there's definitely a possibility the Fed is going to come to the rescue here. And, kind of contrary to Peter's point, though, maybe, Neil, is the market already knows that. I mean, the market already knows the Fed is here. We got three rate cuts last year.

The market already knows that Powell was going to come out and say something.

CAVUTO: So, it could happen.

Heather, do you see the possibility the Fed cuts rates this soon? Would that panic people, real quick?

(CROSSTALK)

ZUMARRAGA: Yes, sure. But, no, it shouldn't panic people.

Even if the Fed cuts rates, they're already heading lower on their own. I don't think the U.S., we should have a situation of negative rates.

It's not posing well for the rest of the world. And maybe we don't need it.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Guys, we will watch it very, very closely.

(CROSSTALK)

ZUMARRAGA: Fair enough.

CAVUTO: All right, I hear you.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: What we got to focus, then, is on the virus.

We're still waiting to see the virus, and whether it's mutating into something that could mutate markets as well -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, what happened in Washington is the kind of uncertainty that kind of unnerves investors.

You had top U.S. health officials warning House members that there could be many, many more cases in the United States.

Mike Emanuel on what else they might have learned.

Hey, Mike.

MIKE EMANUEL, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Neil, good afternoon.

Yes. After House lawmakers were briefed today, you had Republicans like Doug Collins of Georgia saying the importance of the American people remaining calm, saying, if you have symptoms, you should go to the doctor. The CDC is providing new guidelines all the time.

Meanwhile, we have had some Democrats come out and say they feel like the Trump administration should show a greater sense of urgency, Dan Kildee of Michigan emphasizing the point that this could be a big deal, and so the federal government needs to respond and respond swiftly.

Meanwhile, bipartisan lawmakers and the White House are negotiating a coronavirus emergency response package estimated to be $6 to $8 billion. It's interesting to note that number has grown steadily throughout the course of this week. There will likely be action on it next week in the House.

And then I should also note, in that bipartisan briefing today, Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro got up and blasted the Trump administration's response. That led to some Republican lawmakers walking out -- Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, Mike, thank you very, very much.

Well, Georgia Republican Congressman Buddy Carter was at that briefing.

By the way, the congressman is a pharmacist by training. So, we have the perfect guy to talk about all this.

Congressman, thank you for taking the time.

REP. BUDDY CARTER (R-GA): Thank you.

CAVUTO: What did you learn today, sir, that either put your mind at ease, got you worried, what?

CARTER: Well, first of all, the message was clear.

And that is, there's no need to panic. And we don't need to do that. We do need to be prepared. There's no question about it. Not only did we learn that today, but when we had the hearing earlier this week with Secretary Azar in the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, he gave us that same message, that we need to be prepared.

We're doing everything we can to make sure that we are prepared, but there's no need to panic.

It was made clear today by Dr. Redfield and by others that the risk of an outbreak here is still low, but we need to be prepared in case it does happen.

CAVUTO: You know what I get nervous about, sir, that when people keep telling me not to panic, I wasn't going to panic until people kept telling me, don't panic, right?

Then I get news out of Iran that it's got 143 more cases of those with the infection, South Korea, 571 more. It's over 2,000 right now, outbreaks in Africa, Nigeria, of course, the first of the region to declare such cases, more cases in Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Britain.

That's when they start freaking out, right?

CARTER: And that's understandable. That's human nature, I think.

But the most important thing to understand is that, if we're prepared, we're doing everything that we can, then, if there is an outbreak, and there are -- the numbers are going to grow, there's no question about that. They're growing and they will grow.

But we can prevent a lot of this just by common sense, washing our hands, staying healthy, making sure you are sleeping right, making sure you're eating right, making sure you're practicing good hygiene, making sure that, if you are sick, you stay home.

It's OK. You can afford to lose a day or two. Don't worry about that. But if you're sick, don't be spreading it. And make sure you're covering your mouth and your nose when you cough, all of those things.

CAVUTO: OK. We will see.

Congressman, thank you very much for taking the time.

CARTER: Thank you.

CAVUTO: Now, out an abundance of caution, so many cancellations, right?

Even now, when it comes to music groups like Green Day and, get this, the Korean boy band BTS, they're canceling their tours in Asia. Really?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: Green Day just said another day, part of the growing number of rock groups around the world canceling concerts that had been planned for Asia because of these coronavirus fears.

This with a new -- number of new cases outside of China for the second day in row eclipsing those inside of China.

So, how safe are we for large venues here in the United States?

Let's ask Dr. Amesh Adalja from the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Doctor, good to have you back.

DR. AMESH ADALJA, INFECTIOUS DISEASES SOCIETY OF AMERICA: Thanks for having me.

CAVUTO: So, this reluctance to tell people to go to large gatherings, to cancel those gatherings altogether, is that wise? Is that an overreaction, Doctor?

ADALJA: You're going to see some overreaction, such as canceling large venues.

Right now, in the United States, we don't have community widespread established. But you are seeing some people take precautionary measures. As we get further into this pandemic, you're going to see less impact on canceling those events because it's going to be everywhere to begin with.

So it's going to kind of be hit or miss with how this happens over time. I wouldn't be canceling those types of things now, especially in the United States, especially in countries where they don't have a lot of community spread. But, eventually, that may become a reality, and we're going to have to deal with them on a case-by-case basis whether or not they're warranted or not.

CAVUTO: You know, I was talking to a lot of infectious disease specialists earlier on FOX Business, Doctor, and to a man or woman, they were saying something.

It's not so much we're dealing with a virus like this, but what it could change into, mutate into, whatever. Is that a fear that you have or that, if you can't define it or how it's passed along, that that is what increases the worry level? Or what's your view of that?

ADALJA: There's definitely uncertainty about this virus.

And that uncertainty centers on the case fatality ratio. What actually is the rate of people that die from this illness? And we know that in places like Hubei province, it's 2 percent. But outside of Hubei province in China, it's less than 1 percent.

So we don't know really where that falls. And most people believe that it is going to fall much below 1 percent, once we actually start testing mild cases. And a lot of these types of social distancing, this -- the social distancing procedures, these cancellation of events, all of that is really premised on a high fatality rate of 1 or 2 percent.

And it may be much lower than that, and we may not need to think about it in that same manner. So, once we understand how fatal this disease is, and where it sits, and can come up with a risk stratification, we may see some of the panic die down and some of these measures kind of fade away.

CAVUTO: How do you guide people who are concerned, especially when the World Health Organization raises the threat assessment level, saying that this poses a very high risk at a global level?

And a lot of people hear that, and you can understand the Amazons and the Googles and some of these other companies saying, you know what, we're going to restrict travel, I believe, in Amazon's case, even in the domestic United States, that it -- doesn't that make the angst around this even worse?

ADALJA: It does.

I think that there is a lot of panic. There is a lot of uncertainty. And we're hearing a lot of mixed messages from different public health agencies.

What is true is that this virus is going to be disruptive. It's going to be akin to what we had during 2009 with the novel influenza virus that originated in Mexico, that there was disruption, and we had to cope with it. But we did cope with it. And we didn't have this type of economic disruption occurring.

Hopefully, people will come up with ways to mitigate this impact, and we won't have as much of an economic disruption. But it seems to me that that's going to be a hard -- a hard challenge to meet, because of all of the rhetoric going on about this and the uncertainty and what's happened in China.

CAVUTO: All right, Doctor, thank you very, very much.

To put that in perspective here, J.P. Morgan also restricting all nonessential travel. And airlines abroad, particularly British Airways, Finnair, EasyJet, are all in bear market territory, simply on the notion that restricted travel means, well, they're going to make restricted money.

Meanwhile, forget South Carolina tomorrow. One of these Democratic candidates is running ahead with it ahead of Super Tuesday -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, hours ahead of the fact, they are gathering in Charleston, South Carolina, to hear from the president of the United States.

He's not left the White House. We do know he's talking to reporters there. When he's done, we will get that tape to you.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, South Carolina has a primary tomorrow. A lot of the 2020 candidates have been busy slamming the president for his response to the coronavirus.

Peter Doocy in Columbia, South Carolina, with the latest on that front.

Hey, Peter.

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, despite all the talk about the coronavirus, candidates are still out there on the campaign trail shaking hands and taking selfies with voters.

And it's not just Democrats today, because President Trump is on his way to South Carolina right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Think that you would have a president of the United States leading, work -- working with scientists all over the world, bringing people together to figure out how we're going to deal with this crisis.

He is here in South Carolina. He doesn't even have any opposition in the Republican primary. Why is he here?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY: Elizabeth Warren is tweeting about this.

She says: "The Trump administration's careless incompetence has put lives at risk. Punishing whistle-blowers shows how unwilling they are to take responsibility. It's time for a competent leader in the White House to manage this crisis."

Pete Buttigieg is also down here in South Carolina, and he is arguing that the president's signature 2016 campaign promise isn't helping the coronavirus at all, because he says that infections like that don't care about a big border wall -- Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, Peter, thank you very, very much.

Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, is coming out on top in the latest FOX News poll, emerges as the clear front-runner, certainly ahead of Super Tuesday, maybe not so much in South Carolina.

Chris Anderson from the FOX News Desk joining me right now.

I'm surprised they let you leave your desk, for everything you have been following.

CHRIS ANDERSON, FOX NEWS DECISION DESK TEAM: Well, there's no data to start counting yet.

CAVUTO: Yes. All right.

ANDERSON: But I will be tied to it tomorrow.

CAVUTO: All right, so let's talk a little bit about what's happening nationally or what you see happening, particularly with Bernie Sanders, no matter what happens in South Carolina.

ANDERSON: Sure. Sure.

So, big reversal in the race nationally since December. We had Joe Biden up by 10 points in December. We now have Bernie up by 13.

The big thing that's happened is that many Democratic voters are deciding that Bernie is the better candidate to beat Trump, because that's still the overriding thing that Democrats are looking for in their candidate.

In December, 75 percent of Democratic primary voters said they thought Joe Biden could beat Trump. That has dropped to 56 percent in our latest poll.

Meanwhile, Bernie was at 60 percent who thought that he could beat Trump. That's up to 65.

CAVUTO: Wow.

ANDERSON: So, he's gaining some ground. And I know...

CAVUTO: So, all the socialist and everything under it, people who say, oh, no, don't nominate him, he's a sure loser in a national -- they're not buying that?

ANDERSON: It's not -- it's not what Democratic primary voters are seeing when they're assessing their field.

They're liking something about Bernie.

CAVUTO: Yes.

Obviously, they're seeing past all these other charges against him. Do a lot of these polls deal with or came during the emergence of this coronavirus thing, and that it's spilling over to the markets, fears for economies?

ANDERSON: Yes, that's really not reflected in our poll.

We were in the poll in the field Sunday through Wednesday.

CAVUTO: Got it.

ANDERSON: And this has been evolving so quickly, that -- we asked folks in our poll if they thought that the federal government was prepared and ready.

And we had about three-quarters saying they were. So, as of Sunday through Wednesday, people were feeling fairly confident. Is that still the case after the last 48 hours? I don't know.

CAVUTO: You know, the reason why I mention it, Chris, because of a number of Wall Street analysts were talking to me on this network and on FOX Business, that the sure thing nature of the president getting reelected, which might still be the case, given the underlying strength of the economy, Wall Street lately notwithstanding, how the markets have done, but that is an environment that would favor the Democrat having a better chance, if this virus and other stuff continues to grip markets and supply chains around the world, as it has already.

ANDERSON: I would think so.

That's been the president's -- he's got his strongest ratings on the economy. Recently, they have been by far the best. So we will see if those hold up.

Yes, we're looking at this interesting number here, where 56 percent of voters think Trump will be reelected. That's a big increase since October.

Another number that's interesting in our new poll is that we asked if voters thought that -- if they would vote for him if the election were today, and there, we had 42 percent saying, yes, they would vote for him, 52 percent saying someone else, which doesn't sound very good.

But they're very similar numbers to where Obama was at this point in the cycle.

CAVUTO: Is that right?

ANDERSON: Yes.

CAVUTO: Wow.

ANDERSON: So it's -- and those numbers move around quickly.

But I wouldn't say that any sitting president would want to have a majority saying they're going to vote against him, but doesn't mean he's not in this race at all. I -- the ballot tests that we did, we show some Democrats up by seven, eight points, others closer.

In my view, any of the candidates in this race could beat Trump, any of them could lose to Trump. It's really wide open once we get to the general. There's some structural things that are working against him, some structural things that are working for him.

CAVUTO: Chris, well put. Thank you, my friend. I know you have a busy few days ahead of you, Chris Anderson following that from our FOX News Decision Desk.

Of course, this whole issue of the coronavirus and how the president is handling it, he has not left yet for South Carolina. He has been talking to reporters as they gather in Charleston, South Carolina, for a campaign event he's going to.

But he did say that they are making progress working on a vaccine. He's very optimistic in that regard. He was talking about that he is spending a great deal of time on this issue, along with the vice president, Secretary Azar, Dr. Fauci and all.

They're all watching. They don't want any bad surprises. He didn't answer a question as to whether this constituted a crisis. He's looking at the possibility of extending a travel ban of countries with disproportionate numbers. Simply hasn't made up his mind.

So we're getting some dribs and drabs out of what he's saying to reporters, presumably on the South Lawn, as he boards Marine One and heads over to South Carolina tonight.

He has routinely done this ahead of a big Democratic event, of course, the South Carolina primary tomorrow, but he is sending the signal here that, with regards to the virus, he's on top of it.

More after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)  CAVUTO: Not just in Asia. A lot of travel worldwide put on hold because of the coronavirus. A lot of airports could be seeing more health screenings very soon.

David Lee Miller at JFK International Airport in New York -- David Lee.

DAVID LEE MILLER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, we are at Terminal 4 at JFK.

Now, JFK and nearby Newark are two of the 11 airports in the country where travelers from China must undergo health screenings.

Despite calls from some local officials, there are, as of now, no planned increases in those screenings, but that could change. The CDC's three tier- list alert system lists China and South Korea at its most severe level. It says to avoid those countries when it comes to all nonessential travel.

Italy, Japan and Iran are level two. The CDC cautions older people and those with chronic conditions should reconsider travel. And because of the coronavirus, fewer people are flying. A U.S. travel agency says that ticket sales are now down more than 9 percent.

United, Delta, and American continue suspension of all flights to China. And United today suspended some flights to Japan. Major U.S. carriers are waiving, canceling change fees to Italy. And JetBlue, in what that airline describes as a confidence-building measure, it's doing away with all cancellation and change fees regardless of the destination.

And here at JFK today, we saw a small minority of travelers with those hygiene face masks. One man we talked to, arrived from South Korea, advised, yes, take precautions, but do not overreact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a little scary. I mean, I just -- I just came back from Korea. So it's not as bad as people think. I mean, it's pretty bad, but it's not as bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILLER: And experts say, when it comes to most travel, it is perfectly safe, but they do offer this one piece of advice, Neil.

Play it extra safe. Take the seat by the window. They say your chances of getting sick there are far diminished. That's because you interact with fewer people. And, of course, you get the view -- Neil.

CAVUTO: There is that.

David Lee, while I have you -- we're 45 seconds away from hearing from the president at the White House.

Is it your sense that, so far, no more sweeping actions at airports have been considered, but if they are, could JFK handle that? Could these international airports handle it?

MILLER: I didn't hear your question, Neil. I'm sorry.

CAVUTO: No, are they ready for more of the tightened restrictions at the airports, getting people in and out?

MILLER: That remains to be seen, the extent to which they going to be able to screen more people.

I think that's one of the problems that the authorities face if, in fact, they want to start screening the right places from South Korea -- Neil.

CAVUTO: All right. David Lee, thank you very, very much.

The White House might indicate what they want to do in that regard. The president right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thousands of people outside and it's going to be very exciting. We have a big day tomorrow, in terms of the Democrats watching. See what happens. And then, on Tuesday, you have a very big day, so it will be interesting to see.

We're at the same number. A lot of people are getting better. Very much better. The 15 number. Plus we took in, as you know -- from Japan, we took in some great American people and citizens and they're getting better very rapidly. They're doing very well. All of them are doing well.

The 15 people, likewise, we have them down to a much lower number. They're in good shape. Most of them are in really good shape. One of the people is -- I wouldn't say not doing well, but it's very -- she's very sick. But she's hopefully getting better.

But we're at the same number. We've only -- so, it -- essentially, we've only had 15. And a lot of that is because we called it early. we were -- we made a decision very early to close up our borders to certain areas of the world and we did that. And so we are hopefully getting lower from that number, but let's see what happens into the future.

Some countries are doing well. Some countries are not doing well. You can see that for yourself. And a lot of things are happening. We're very well organized. We have great talent, great doctors, great -- great everyone. There's tremendous spirit. A lot of spirit.

And, as you know, with the flu, on average, we lose from 26,000 to 78,000 people a year -- even more than that, in some cases, some years. We haven't lost anybody yet. And hopefully, we can keep that intact. We -- there have been no deaths in the United States at all. A lot of that is attributable to the fact that we closed the border very early. Otherwise, it could be a different story.

So we'll -- we'll just keep doing a good job. We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of -- a lot of elements that, frankly, we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical. We are working on cures and we're getting some very good results.

As you know, they're working as rapidly as they can on a vaccine for the future. And, with that, I think I can head out.

QUESTION: Mr. President, what can your administration do to limit the risk of an economic recession?

QUESTION: This is the worst week for stocks since the financial crisis. Is this more of an economic or public health crisis?

TRUMP: Well, I think it's just people don't know. It's the unknown. You know, they look at it and they say, How long will this last? I think they're not very happy with the Democrat candidates, when they see them. I think that has an impact.

And we think -- we think we're going to win. We think we're going to win easily, but you never know. It's an election. I don't think that's helping.

But I think that, basically, it's the unknown a little bit. But I feel very confident and our people are doing a fantastic job.

And again, we haven't seen an increase and people are getting better. Almost everybody that we see is getting better. And it could be everybody, too.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... a crisis? And how much time are you spending on it?

TRUMP: No, I -- well, I'm spending a lot of time on it, just in coordination.

Mike Pence is doing a great job. Dr. Fauci -- Dr. Fauci is great. They're all doing, really, a fantastic -- Alex Azar is right on top of it. We're all watching it very closely. We don't want any bad surprises.

QUESTION: Sir, on Syria -- on Syria, do you think NATO should help Turkey in Syria to protect Turkish soldiers in Syria or not?

TRUMP: What is it?

QUESTION: Should NATO be involved in -- helping Turkey to protect its soldiers in Syria?

TRUMP: You're going to have to speak up. This thing is...

QUESTION: Mr. President, will you expand the travel ban to the countries that aren't allowed in -- for example, from Italy?

TRUMP: Well, we're looking at that right now and we're looking at a couple of countries -- a few countries that have a little bit disproportionately high number. And we're going to make that decision very soon.

QUESTION: And then, is this a hoax? Your Chief of Staff seemed to suggest that our coverage of this was a hoax. Do you think this is a hoax?

TRUMP: Well, I think that the media is -- yes, I think that CNN is a very disreputable network. I think they're doing everything they can to instill fear in people and I think it's ridiculous. And I think they're very disreputable.

And some of the Democrats are doing it the way it should be, but some of them are trying to gain political favor by saying a lot of untruths.

The fact is, I made one decision that was a very important decision and that was to close our country to a certain area of the world that was relatively heavily infected. And because of that, we're talking about 15 -- who seem to all be getting better. One is questionable.

And, had that decision not been made, it could be a much different story. So, some people are giving us credit ...

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... the CDC has overestimated the risk?

TRUMP: Quiet.

Some people are giving us credit for that, and some people aren't. But the only ones that aren't, they don't mean it. It's political. It's politics.

So, speaking of politics, I'm going to South Carolina. I think we're going to do fantastically there. And it will be very interesting to see what happens tomorrow.

Thank you.

QUESTION: Are you talking to CEOs about the stock market, sir?

TRUMP: Say it?

QUESTION: Are you talking to CEOs about the stock market, sir? What are they telling you, the business community?

TRUMP: Well, I think the stock market is a reflection of this, plus I also think the people are not happy when they look at what's running on the other side. You know, it is an election and I think we're going to do very well in the election, but it still is an election and I don't think people are very inspired when they see the people running on the other side.

But we're going to win and that'll solve that problem. And after we win, you'll see a rise in the stock market like you haven't seen before.

QUESTION: Have you talked to the Fed about intervening or doing something?

TRUMP: Well, I hope the Fed gets involved. You know, I'm not a big fan of the Fed. You know that. I think they make a lot of mistakes. They've made a lot of mistakes. But I hope the Fed gets involved and I hope they get involved soon.

If you look at Germany, they're putting in a lot of money and they're probably lowering rates still further. You look at other countries; they're all stuffing the till. They're all going in there. They're putting a lot of money. And our Fed sits there, doesn't do what they're supposed to be doing. But that's up to them. That's up to them. They're independent. But they've done this country a great disservice.

Thank you very much.

QUESTION: Mr. President, have you finished your annual physical?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: All right, that's very interesting at the end.

It might have been hard for you to hear, but the president taking another slap at the Federal Reserve, referring to the fact that they screwed up a lot -- I'm paraphrasing here -- and these rumors that the Fed was going to get involved, and these people who are betting on the fact that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates, maybe sooner, rather than later, as soon as next month.

That seems to be the betting on the markets, even though, officially, the Fed is kind of pooh-poohing or pouring cold water on that talk. The president is saying that other countries are doing that. Germany and a host of other countries are putting and flooding a lot of money at this to deal with this.

And the equivalent of that would be that the Federal Reserve should do the same.

Republican Louisiana Senator, medical doctor, by the way, Bill Cassidy on all of that.

Senator, thank you for taking the time.

What did you make of his reference to the Federal Reserve and this growing talk that it do something? The talk seems to center around another rate cut. Do you think that's warranted?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I don't know if it's warranted yet.

But, clearly, this has the ability to impact world economies. If you think of how consumer -- consumer spending drives much of the world's GDP, if people are no longer going to Italy, and people from Germany are now staying at home, and then -- I can go on -- you can imagine that would impact world GDP.

So it may be that we, being the engine that pulls the rest of the country - - the rest of the world, would need to do something.

CAVUTO: The doctor in you, Senator, if I can indulge side of your brain, and that is what's going on here, because I talk to a lot of doctors, a lot of medical and disease specialists, who -- they're perplexed by this one, and that they can't say that it's over.

So, when the president is saying he's got this or that we're doing a good job, could that be or does it risk being premature?

CASSIDY: It's the president's responsibility to make sure that people do not panic.

CAVUTO: Right.

CASSIDY: It's a doctor's responsibility to make sure that people are prepared.

You're actually seeing that tension played out. We hope that all this will be for nothing, but we want to be prepared as if it becomes quite something.

So the president's doing his job. But, as a doctor and all the folks in the health care professions, I think we are also doing our job.

CAVUTO: There's been this back-and-forth on the funding issue, whether the monies are going to be enough.

Is it your sense, no matter what they ultimately are, if you have to go back and get more, it won't be an issue?

CASSIDY: We will need -- we will get as much as we want.

If we lose a percentage point on our GDP, my gosh, that's going to be billions, trillions. We need to -- over time. We need to address this. Congress will be aggressive in addressing this.

I'm not a believer that shoving money is the answer. But if money is the answer, money is going to be there.

CAVUTO: So, if money is -- won't be the big, big issue here, and you have seen what's been happening in the markets, Senator, do you worry, as the president seem to intimate there, that part of this is this fear of Democrats possibly winning this election?

What do you think?

CASSIDY: Well, I'm sure if I -- I spoke to a woman the other night.

And she said, I would never vote for -- normally would never vote for President Trump, but when I see who he's running against, those folks would kill my small business. I'm voting for President Trump.

Now, here's someone who, frankly, doesn't find the president very tasteful, but she's got provide for her family, and she's afraid that those folks will destroy her ability to provide for her family.

I think there's a lot of that out there. Frankly, I think it's valid.

CAVUTO: Senator, we're just learning that a federal appeals court will not order former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress, more or less dismisses the case.

How do you feel about that?

CASSIDY: It's an executive privilege. That was the tension all along.

Republicans always said, take it to the courts, let the courts decide. The courts decided. Whatever I feel about it, I believe in our courts. I believe in our division of power. So, if that's how they decide, we live with it.

CAVUTO: In the middle of all of this, with the virus and politics always comes up, Senator.

So does it look right for the president to be at a big rally in South Carolina when we're dealing with this in this country?

CASSIDY: The main thing Americans have got to realize is, we need to go on with our life.

The only thing we have to fear, if you will, is the fear of the virus itself. We need to be prepared. But if we start hunkering down, not living our normal -- normal life, the virus wins, even without ever infecting a bunch of people.

I would just say, live your life. Now, at some point, it may be that there will be a disruption in our life. But you don't plan better for that disruption by acting now so fearfully.

I'm all with the president.

CAVUTO: All right, Senator, Doctor, thank you very much. We used both expertises.

In the meantime, I want to get Gary Kaltbaum, get a read on all those developments.

Gary, for a crazy end of a week for the markets, what do you expect next week?

GARY KALTBAUM, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: All day to day.

And when I was on here early, I was saying that I thought the market had a chance here to put in a low. I think it has in the near term.

My main group that I follow the most are the semiconductors, because it's in everything, was up 2 percent today, and that drove the market into the clothes. I suspect there's a chance that central bankers around the globe may make an announcement over the weekend.

That's why I think Powell made his little paragraph the announcement today. And I'm pretty optimistic going into next week. But the old line, don't blink, because the news is fluid, stays front and center.

CAVUTO: You know, you're talking about Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, who seemed to sort of say, we're monitoring this, et cetera.

Others are betting who actually put money on the line that we will see a cut in interest rates next month. Do you agree with that?

KALTBAUM: A hundred percent.

I think he telegraphed it today. They're very good at telegraphing things, then making the move. And, look, we have had an event here, 4,600 Dow points in eight, nine days.

But I think this may not be such an economic event that people are saying, unless this really starts to spread.

CAVUTO: Yes.

KALTBAUM: If it doesn't spread, if we can really hold it in here, I think we will be in good stead.

And I think we will be hearing the word one-time charges from a lot of companies. And then will be on again, because I do know one thing about the consumer. They love spending. They love traveling. They love going to the malls.

I'm going to Disney World tomorrow just to check it out to see how many people are there. And I think we will be in OK shape. But, again...

CAVUTO: Just to check how many people are there?

You're not going to go on the teacup ride or...

KALTBAUM: Oh, I will be on Space Mountain.

CAVUTO: All right, do that.

KALTBAUM: But I definitely want to check out if it's affected things.

CAVUTO: All right, real quick, I look at these developments.

I'm, unfortunately, showing my age. I have covered more than a few of them. And the one thing I always discover, despite in the moment, in the crisis in the moment, the trend is your friend with markets, and that if you're a long-term investor -- we're showing a chart from the beginning of the last century -- that you're richly rewarded waiting things out.

Not everyone can wait a century, but, usually, five, 10-year time frames, you do OK? Do you still subscribe to that?

KALTBAUM: History says so. We have gone through crashes, smashes, recessions and depressions, and we have come out of all of them.

So, eventually, we will come out of this too, no doubt in my mind.

CAVUTO: All right, thank you very much, Gary.

Always appreciate it.

KALTBAUM: Thank you.

CAVUTO: And, again, it depends on your age, doesn't it, folks?

I mean, you get to my age, pretty long term for me is maybe lunch tomorrow or maybe 10:00 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow, when we are following this live for you.

We have the Ragin' Cajun with us right now. He's been a very big critic, that is, General Russel Honore, on how we have not exactly done well.

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