It's Brian Lehrer and this is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Monday, March 9th.

Coronavirus and tomorrow six Democratic primaries are the big stories in national politics right now. Senator Ted Cruz is

self-quarantining for the next few days after announcing that he shook hands with someone at the

conservative political action conference 11 days ago who later tested positive for coronavirus.

Cruz says he is showing no symptoms. President Trump and Vice President Pence

were also at that conference but are said to not have interacted with the patient. NBC News reports

that members of Congress are becoming increasingly anxious about coronavirus and there is growing

pressure on leadership to take steps to protect lawmakers, even potentially recessing for a period

of weeks, according to two Democratic sources. The Centers for Disease Control is advising older adults,

even if healthy, to avoid large crowds. Another of the federal government's public health leaders,

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who appears at all the news

conferences with Vice President Pence, was asked on Fox News Sunday if extreme measures like Italy

is taking, basically a regional stay-at-home policy for the northern part of the country

could become appropriate here.

You know, you don't want to alarm people, but given the spread we see, you know, anything is possible.

And that's the reason why we've got to be prepared to take whatever action is appropriate to contain and mitigate the outbreak.

That's administration official Anthony Fauci.

But this morning, President Trump tweeted,

The fake news media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power,

it used to be greater, to inflame the coronavirus situation far beyond what the facts would warrant.

Surgeon General, quote, the risk is low to the average American, unquote.

...