This is a rush transcript from "Sunday Morning Futures," March 22, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo coming to you today on "Sunday Morning Futures."

Is America headed toward a complete lockdown? This is the question being asked and debated this weekend, as the number of coronavirus cases spike across the country and our nation's hospitals become strained, many already overrun with cases.

Lockdown this hour in some of America's biggest states, meanwhile, nearly 44 million Californians under a shelter-in-place order, New York's pause plan taking effect tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Coming up right here, acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on the stricter rules at the border this weekend.

Plus, the Senate right now working overtime on an up-to-$2 trillion economic rescue package ahead of Monday's deadline for a final vote. Florida Senator Marco Rubio takes us behind the curtains. He will break down the most expensive stimulus bill in U.S. history.

Also today, President Trump triggering emergency war powers to help with supplies. White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro is here explaining the federal response to coronavirus and its impact on the economy.

Also here, he has been studying the pandemic for weeks, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on how coronavirus is impacting the country, including our nation's hospitals. Are they on the verge of breakdown?

Plus, hope for the future of innovation and science in America. The CEO of Johnson & Johnson is here to discuss a vaccine and antiviral treatments to defeat coronavirus.

All that and more right now, as we look ahead on "Sunday Morning Futures."

Now the latest on coronavirus.

Today, there have been over 26,000 cases in the U.S. More than 340 people are now dead, more than 311,000 cases and 13,000 deaths worldwide. The State Department has raised its global travel advisory to a level four. That is the agency's top warning level. It is recommending that U.S. citizens remain in place or return home, and then, this weekend, at least eight states with guidelines to stay home.

Joining me right now is the acting secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf.

Secretary, thanks very much for being here.

CHAD WOLF, ACTING U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: It's good to be with you this morning.

BARTIROMO: So, let's get to the very latest, the U.S. closing its border with Mexico, closing the Canadian border effective this weekend.

Is the president considering a full shutdown of the country for a period of time, sir?

WOLF: Not at this time.

The president, again, through the vice president and the task force, has been very aggressive and very forward-leaning in providing a number of guidance, a number of information to the American public. We have the 15 days to slow the spread.

So there's a number of measures that we're asking the American public to take. You will see that there's been a number of governors, particularly in New York and California that have taken the extra step, and imposed some additional strict measures.

And we certainly agree with those measures. There's going to be certain communities that have widespread community transmission that need to take more aggressive measures than perhaps other communities.

So, again, we're working with them. We're working with the state and local and the governors to do that. And we continue to encourage them to take those aggressive measures.

BARTIROMO: So, let's talk about those aggressive measures, because I'm in New York, and there is a statewide stay-at-home order or guideline beginning Sunday at 8:00 p.m. California is on lockdown.

It feels like it is a shutdown. So I mean, you're not going to do that across the country, but it's effective enough to do it in large states?

WOLF: Well, again, I think we're focusing on those states and those localities that, again, have widespread community transmission, so New York, California, Washington. There's other parts of the country that we're seeing cases spike.

And so those governors are obviously looking at those numbers closely. They're in touch with the CDC. They're in touch with HHS and the task force. We're sharing that information. And in those localities, in those locations like New York City, they're having to take some aggressive measures to slow that spread.

There are other parts of the country, perhaps in the Midwest and the South, that are not seeing those same numbers. They don't need to take those aggressive measures at this time. But, again, we continue to evaluate this really on a day-by-day, week-by-week basis.

BARTIROMO: It's like when you and I were talking on the phone this weekend, and you said, look, if we shut down in New York and California, maybe you don't have to shut down, for example, Nebraska. Maybe that's a chip that you use later on? Is that the thinking?

WOLF: That's exactly right.

What we want to do is, we want to take aggressive steps again in those communities that we're seeing large numbers and outbreaks, so that we don't have to take those measures elsewhere if we don't need to.

That's really the concept behind it. But, again, I would say that there are measures that the entire American public can take, regardless of where you're at. That's the 15 days to slow the spread that the vice president came out and the task force came out with.

So there's a number of recommendations that any American can take anywhere they live. Those individuals that are in, again, high-transmission areas, like New York City, like parts of California, the governor is asking them to take additional measures, so that, again, we can control the spread and mitigate that.

BARTIROMO: Tell me, Secretary, about the CDC changes, what we heard this weekend from the Centers of Disease Control, and why that's important.

I want our audience to better understand what was significant about the CDC's new regulations this weekend.

WOLF: So, on Friday, the CDC gave an order to the Department of Homeland Security that said to suspend the entry of any individuals coming into the country without proper documentation.

And that's important for a couple of different reasons. One, without that documentation, we see individuals coming into the country without proper identity documents, without travel documents, without medical history, and so it's very hard to make a public health determination on those individuals.

They were also very concerned -- the CDC was also very concerned about, when we take those individuals into custody, and we put them in Border Patrol facilities and our ICE detention facilities, what type of public health concerns and issues that that raises.

And so it raises a number of those issues, serious danger to not only other aliens, but certainly the DHS work force and the American people at large. And so the CDC said, we need to suspend that.

So, that's what the department has been doing over the last 24 hours. And I would say that it's working. We have seen almost a 50 percent drop in illegal apprehensions, those illegal individuals coming across our borders.

BARTIROMO: And this is important, because it's not just air borders that you're now focused on, but it's land borders, right?

WOLF: That's exactly right. So we put in measures from 30 different countries, travel restrictions, the president did, very aggressive, very forward-leaning, early on in this process back in early February.

We have travel restrictions from 30 different countries. Those are individuals coming into our airports. But we also need to look at land ports of entry and maritime ports of entry. And we are doing that.

So, again, also announced on Friday is limiting essential travel across our land ports of entry, both with Canada and Mexico. So, now what we're asking is, nonessential travel, individuals coming across the border for tourism, for recreational services, if you want to go to your local favorite restaurant, we're asking you not to do that.

What we're trying to do is, we're trying not to close the border, we're trying to keep the border open. And so we're trying to put measures in place so that we can keep that legitimate trade and travel continue to flow across both Canada and the Mexican borders.

What we see every day is about $1.7 billion in trade and commerce that flow across the U.S.-Canadian border. And that's every day, about $1.5 billion from Mexico every single day. We want to make sure that we continue that trade. We want to keep the supply chains open, keep the economy running.

But we need to take measures now to limit that essential travel to limit the introduction and spread of the virus.

BARTIROMO: Yes, which leads me to the issue of rethinking the coronavirus strategy.

No doubt you saw the op-ed in The Journal last week, which is questioning the strategy, because it is putting our economy to a standstill. I'm going to get to that in a moment.

I have got to ask you about domestic travel. A lot of people are wondering. They see reports that the president is considering shutting down all domestic travel for 30 days. Is that in the cards?

WOLF: Well, I would say that the task force, we continue to look at it.

There's no immediate plans to put travel restrictions on domestic travel. We continue to be concerned, again, about those high-transmission areas like New York, like parts of California and Washington.

So, we're going to continue to look at that. If we see that we need to put some targeted travel restrictions in place, we will do that. But I will say, there's no immediate plans as of right now for any widespread travel restrictions.

BARTIROMO: Because, if we look at the timeline in terms of the timeline of border closings, I mean, this has been pretty consistent in terms of closing activity. So what is the threat here? How worried are you that we're going to see a shutdown of the U.S. economy already? Most people are expecting a recession.

Some people are talking but even worse than that. What's the thinking around all of these shutdowns and its impact on a $20 trillion economy?

WOLF: Well, again, the discussions that we have in the task force certainly consider the economy and what we're doing on that, but, first and foremost, we need to protect the American people from the virus.

So that's first, and that's really what we look at. And so the travel restrictions that the president put in place go to just that. And we continue to look at countries around the world, look at their -- the number of cases they have to see if additional travel restrictions need to be put in place.

So, one is a containment or mitigation strategy, making sure that we don't continue to import the virus into the U.S., and we try to protect the American public here.

But then, of course, there's already transmission here in the U.S. So what are the measures that we're putting in place here domestically? And there's a variety of measures. The task force announces measures every single day to do that.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

WOLF: And so it's a two-pronged strategy, a two-pronged approach here.

And so the measures that we're taking at the border, from the Department of Homeland Security's perspective, is making sure that we're, again, letting that trade and commerce flow. We got to keep the economy moving. We realize that.

The easiest thing for us to do is to shut down our borders completely, let no one in.

BARTIROMO: Sure.

WOLF: We realize we can't do that. The American economy will not survive that.

So, we want to make sure that we put...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

WOLF: ... thoughtful restrictions in place to keep that cargo, to keep that trade moving.

BARTIROMO: And I know you're walking this balance.

Really quick -- we only have a couple of seconds here -- you wanted to mention this disinformation campaign which continues. We know there is a disinformation campaign coming out of China.

But when people see reports, it may very well be cyber-fraud, right?

WOLF: Absolutely.

We have seen a number of reports, and I have personally gotten contacted a number of times, about text messages or these screenshots going around saying that I know someone at DHS, and they say we're going to have a national lockdown or a national quarantine.

And I would just say, that's absolutely false. It's not true. And it is part of a disinformation campaign. And what we know,whether it's Russia, or whether it's other cyber actors...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

WOLF: ... they like to sow discord on any controversial issue.

So, it doesn't just have to be elections. It can be any issue.

BARTIROMO: Sure.

WOLF: And we're seeing that now with the coronavirus.

And so what I would say to the American people is...

BARTIROMO: And -- yes.

WOLF: ... don't believe it, don't pass it along, and get your information from trusted sources, such as your state officials and your federal officials.

BARTIROMO: And you're going to have enough data by middle of April, end of April, to figure out if this is working, right? You're going to have enough data to understand whether or not the moves you have taken have actually been successful?

WOLF: Well, certainly, the doctors on the task force, CDC, HHS and the like are really tracking that day by day.

What I will say is, some of the measures that we are putting in place, some of the aggressive measures that we're putting in place, we need to put those in place now to see results in three to four to five weeks from now.

And so, again, they may be uncomfortable measures that you see in New York City, that you see in California and elsewhere.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

WOLF: But we're doing that, in conjunction with those governors, so that we can see results in that three-, four- and five-week period out.

BARTIROMO: Understood.

WOLF: And so I think -- I think we will see some numbers in April sometime to know if the measures that we're putting in place are working.

BARTIROMO: Secretary, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks very much for updating us today.

WOLF: Thank you.

BARTIROMO: Acting Homeland Secretary Chad Wolf joining us, thank you so much, sir. We will keep in touch.

The Trump administration working with businesses to ramp up medical supply production, meanwhile. A surge of coronavirus cases here in the United States is threatening shortages.

White House economic trade adviser Peter Navarro will join me next for an exclusive interview.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States, the White House and federal health officials are working with business to produce critical medical supplies, such as face masks for health workers on the front lines.

Let's bring in Peter Navarro right now. He is assistant to the president for trade and manufacturing policy.

Peter, thanks very much for being here.

PETER NAVARRO, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY: Good morning. Good morning, Maria.

BARTIROMO: I want to go through some of the deficiencies in terms of what our health care people need in a moment.

But, first, we have got a lot of stimulus coming at us because of the economy and everything being shut down. You have got senators. And we're going to speak with Marco Rubio shortly. He's there in the Senate right now talking about a gigantic stimulus package, including rebates to companies, corporate tax relief, small business loan forgiveness, airlines, distressed industries, unemployment insurance, public health spending.

Give us your sense of the overall stimulus response from the government to this crisis.

NAVARRO: Sure, Maria.

We talked last week about the need to hit four points of the compass simultaneously. So, you have relief assistance, you have got fiscal stimulus, you have got impacted industries, and you have got liquidity needs.

So let's walk through those four points.

On the targeted relief, we have got things like paid family and sick leave, so that people don't have a choice of going to work sick or staying home and going broke. So check that box.

On the fiscal stimulus, we're going to provide a cash cushion to workers. There's going to be things like a payroll tax holiday deferral for small businesses, and there's going to be loans that are going to turn on with a good spigot.

In terms of impacted industries, it looks like about a $200 billion collateralized loan program. I think probably around 25 percent of that will go to the airlines, with the rest of it spread out.

And then, in terms of the liquidity, this is the Fed, working with Treasury, using things like the Exchange Stabilization Fund, to turn on the spigot, so that we get whatever we need in the economy.

So that's a sound strategy. We're going to hit all four points of that compass. And we're going to see that bill soon.

BARTIROMO: OK.

NAVARRO: And, hopefully, the Democrats and Republicans all join hands on that.

BARTIROMO: And we will hear from Marco Rubio shortly. He's coming up.

But the layoffs have already started. You know that. Most people expect we will see a recession this year. And Bank of America is out with a report forecasting unemployment insurance claims to be up to three million this Thursday.

We get the jobless numbers out every Thursday. We're going to have them on "Mornings With Maria" on FOX Business. Last week, they were 281,000. This upcoming week, they could be two to three million, Peter.

What should people think when we see that kind of a number when jobless claims come out this Thursday?

NAVARRO: President Trump is now a wartime president. We have a clear battle plan.

The tip of that spear is the mitigation measures that are -- that the American people have to embrace, so that we can slow down the spread of the virus, flatten that curve. We know that, as we do that -- and public health is paramount in this -- that we're going to suffer some economic impacts in the short run.

The second part of the strategy is to put in place what the Congress is doing today, so we have the economic lift coming out of that. So, that's a very clear strategy.

The third part of the strategy, Maria, is something...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NAVARRO: ... and I'm actively involved in here at the White House, which is tactical.

It's getting the supply chain to deliver what we need to the places where we need it. It's the face masks. It's the gloves. It's the booties, the gowns. It's the ventilators. And that's what I'm spending all of my time working on right now, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Yes. And we're going to talk with Steve Bannon about this, because he's very concerned that we're going to see a collapse of the health care system.

If we were to see a collapse in the health care -- someone said to me, we are about a day away from no more ventilators, no more beds, because they're going to be so overrun with coronavirus cases.

I know you're working on the supply chain.

NAVARRO: Let me talk...

(CROSSTALK)

BARTIROMO: Yes, go ahead, Peter.

NAVARRO: Yes.

Yes, let me give you some examples. It may provide a little comfort to the American people on it. Literally, across the street in my office, every day, we're working to deliver products.

And what has been beautiful about this is, we have got the full force of government, certainly, but we also have the full power of American enterprise working together.

So, just in the space of a week, we have had close to a million...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NAVARRO: ... swabs delivered with the help of the Pentagon and FedEx spread across the country.

Pernod, which is a liquor company, is donating hand sanitizer with their production lines. We're going to get a truck coming right into New York City on Tuesday with that.

Honeywell, we have got a factory springing and sprouting up in Smithfield, Rhode Island, to give us millions of masks. And we have the National Council of Textile Organizations.

BARTIROMO: Yes. Yes.

NAVARRO: It's the fruit of Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, Parkdale Mills. They're going to give us millions of masks. They're immediately hitting the ground running on that.

And our job here...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NAVARRO: ... is to not only get the production done, but to get it to the people in need.

Hey, we got planes in the air. We got FEMA planes, FedEx planes. We got Pentagon planes.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

NAVARRO: And that's what I'm focused on.

And the American people should be comforted...

BARTIROMO: Absolutely.

NAVARRO: ... because the full power, the full power, Maria, of American production is coming to bear on this, just like in World War II.

BARTIROMO: All right, well, I wouldn't bet against America. That's for sure.

NAVARRO: I wouldn't either.

BARTIROMO: Peter, I know you're working hard on this, and long term on the supply chain as well. And that Defense Protection (sic) Act has been critical.

Peter Navarro, we will see you soon. Thank you, sir.

NAVARRO: Thank you, Maria.

BARTIROMO: We will take a short break.

When we come back, the Senate's coronavirus relief bill nearing $2 trillion price tag. Not everybody's happy with its contents. We will take you behind the curtain and find out if there will be a floor vote early this week, when I speak with Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.

He will join me next, as we look ahead on "Sunday Morning Futures."

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

The coronavirus outbreak putting an enormous strain on our economy and our health care system.

My next guest says the worst is yet to come amid this growing pandemic.

Joining me right now is Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. He is chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship. And he joins us now.

Senator, thanks very much for your time today. Thanks for being here.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): Good morning. Thank you.

BARTIROMO: We are talking about the most expensive stimulus package ever. Larry Kudlow says it could top $2 trillion.

Can you take us behind the closed doors and tell us what the negotiations look like right now, ahead of this important vote later today?

RUBIO: Yes, so it's broken up into four pieces. And then there's a spending component to it, sort of additional spending on ventilators and the other material that we need in the medical system.

But it's broken into four pieces. The one -- I have a little bit of insight into the other three, although I don't want to misstate anything, because they have been negotiating in those silos -- the one -- silos.

And the ones that I have been negotiating and the one that I have been involved in the negotiation, leading the negotiation on, is the sector involving small businesses, primarily -- what we're talking about here are businesses with 500 employees or less, and what that would mean for them.

And on this, we have a very -- a strong general agreement, is that they will be able to go to a bank or lender, even an online lender approved by Treasury, and they will be able to draw down a loan or, I say a grant, really, in the amount of 250 percent of their one-month payroll.

And they will be -- as long as they use that money to meet payroll, to meet other benefits for their employees or to pay rent or leases on the property that their small business operates out of, that will be 100 percent forgivable. They will not have to pay that back.

And the key here is, they're not going to the government for the money. They're going through private lenders, banks. There's over 800 banks that already participate in a similar program under the Small Business Administration.

So these are not government interactions. You're interacting with the private sector, so we can move this. This is money that needs to get into these hands very quickly, before these doors continue to close and people keep getting laid off every day.

BARTIROMO: I know that you have been talking with various businesses. I mean, you talk with one of the airlines, and they say, look, Senator, I'm running out of cash in 60 days, in 30 days. Then you talk with somebody else who says, guess what, Senator, I'm out of cash.

RUBIO: Right.

And that's the difference here. I'm not diminishing the need in some of the really important industries who also provide backup for our Defense Departments and so forth.

But I'm not -- I'm not -- I'm not talking bad about them. There is a need to do something for them as well. But there's -- there's one silo that's about the companies that have a line of credit that will expire in 15 days, 30 days, 45 days.

I'm talking about the people that don't have that line of credit, the people who are already closing or have closed. And I'm talking about the dry cleaner, the bakery, the guy who owns a couple gas stations...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

RUBIO: ... the person who owns a hotel or two that are in many cases seasonal, and this is the season. That's who I'm talking about, the people who -- and their workers.

This is really about the people that work for them who are being laid off. And we have got to get money into the hands of these employers, so they can keep these people on payroll as long as possible.

BARTIROMO: Well, let me -- let me take you to really the timeline that we have in terms of when this first started.

And one of the issues that we keep talking about is the fact that, had we known what was happening sooner, maybe we could have had a better handle on things, this timeline of China coronavirus campaign, where we continue to see a disinformation campaign.

They knew about this back in December, but still sent this big delegation to the White House to shake everybody's hand to do the phase one China deal. Then they sent the largest delegation ever to Davos.

Where -- what's your take on what we're hearing coming out of China right now in their disinformation campaign? And how do we deal with that?

RUBIO: Well, my first take is that the entire planet, every government on Earth and every country, is badly prepared for the sort of pandemic that we're seeing right now.

And, frankly, this could have been -- it's very bad as it is. It could have been far deadlier and far worse. If this was anything like the Spanish flu in terms of mortality, we'd be in a tremendous amount of trouble.

The Chinese made that far worse, because the way you respond to something like that in a global event of that magnitude is, you immediately declare it to the world, you bring in all of the experts, and you start working, and you try to contain it to the place where it starts. You try to keep it from leaving there and getting to other places.

And, instead, what Chinese authorities were interested in was their image. They didn't want to look bad. They didn't want to look like they had a problem. And so they covered it up and they punished the people who actually spoke about this openly. And they weren't open to researchers.

They didn't share the original virus, or they didn't and disclose human-to- human transmission until very late in December. And everybody really lost four to six weeks here in responding. We could have been four to six weeks ahead of this had they have been more transparent.

That doesn't absolve us of missteps that we have made or people in Europe have made or someone else has made. But I can tell you, it was made much harder by the fact that not only did the Chinese not disclose it. They bullied a bunch of countries into not cutting off flights.

And so these cases got into other countries as well, because they didn't do what President Trump did here.

BARTIROMO: Well, we also remember an article from Chinese state media that reminded the world that, hey, all of the prescription drug active ingredients are produced in China, so if the Chinese communist government decides to hold back and not export any of those active ingredients, well, then that's what happens.

Beijing can do that. They will stop sending prescription drugs that are so badly needed in the United States.

How do we -- how do we trust a partner on the global stage when we hear things like that? We know that the communist government runs the state media in China.

RUBIO: Yes, so I think, actually, this put -- touches on an issue that preexisted this and that I have been talking about for a long time.

And that is that, from time to time, the free market, which we all support, reaches conclusions that are very efficient, but aren't in our national interests.

And when the free market determines that our industrial capacity on all sorts of sectors is more efficient located somewhere else, that may make all the sense in the world economically. It does not make sense from a national security and ultimately from a long-term economic perspective either.

So it is not in our national interest, for example, that we can't make those active ingredients. It's not in our national interest that we can't mined for rare earth minerals in this country, not because we don't have them, but because they have been -- we have been undercut by Chinese price supports for that industry.

The list goes on and on. And we're confronting some of those now.

BARTIROMO: Yes. Exactly.

RUBIO: You have to have an industrial capacity. And we're learning it the hard way.

BARTIROMO: Right.

RUBIO: And I hope that one of the things that emerges from this is that we will never again think that we can rely on everybody else to provide us our industrial needs.

BARTIROMO: Yes, bingo.

Senator, thanks very much for all that you're doing, particularly how you're protecting or trying to protect small business. We will see you soon, sir. Thank you.

RUBIO: Yes, thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

Business is grinding to a halt across the United States, as local governments step up efforts to contain the coronavirus, while economists are predicting a lasting impact on the U.S. economy and our health care system as well.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is forecasting -- quote -- "a gigantic fourth quarter."

Watch.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

STEVEN MNUCHIN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: You're going to see a lot of pent-up demand.

So, I think you're going to see, when we get through the next few months, and American see what's happening, and we have killed this virus, people are going to be comfortable going back to work, we're going to be opening back businesses, and people are going to continue what they do.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BARTIROMO: And that was Steven Mnuchin with me last week on "Mornings With Maria."

I want to bring in Stephen Bannon, a former White House chief strategist.

Steve, it is good to see you this morning.

STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: Thank you. Thank you, Maria.

BARTIROMO: You have an idea in terms of what this economy should be doing. Tell us what your reaction is to the current stimulus and plans in place for these shutdowns or staying-home orders from various states.

BANNON: Well, look, the president's a wartime president.

My colleague Jason Miller identified that, identified the president as that, back in January, when the president took the first big, bold move, which was to shut down all air traffic from China, and to then quarantine people as they came into the United States that had the virus.

You have seen his activity with Governor Cuomo working on this horrible situation in the New York medical system, where President Trump has kind of turned American industry into an arsenal for democracy or an arsenal for health care to start building more ventilators and getting more masks out, et cetera. So you see these kind of wartime efforts.

If you look at the situation we're in, you got to put in three buckets, the pandemic, the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, both the short term and the deeper things on the supply chain, and then the financial crisis that's now on top of it in every financial market across every asset class in the world.

And I think -- and I -- look, I really respect Secretary Wolf, and I understand the mitigation strategy. But I think -- and if you listen to Paul Bedard, I think it was, at The Washington Examiner said there was discussion starting about a much tougher -- a much tougher solution that got us there quicker.

I don't think we have months to do this. I think what should happen, and my recommendation would be to kind of dovetail with President Trump's action, action, action and get it done yesterday, is to drop the hammer. Don't mitigate the virus. Don't -- don't spread the curve.

Shatter the curve and go full hammer on the virus right now with a full shutdown. Use the stimulus to kind of bridge that economic crisis -- it may take $2 trillion, it may take $3 trillion -- to force cash into the little entrepreneur and to the little guy.

And you do that. You got -- Steve Cortes has got a plan. Eric Bolling has got a plan. Bernie Marcus' Job Creators Network has a plan of forcing cash into the system. That bridges us.

Whether it takes two weeks or four weeks, we get through this hard and fast. And on the capital market side, you basically do what Kevin Warsh and Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke are arguing in -- are arguing for in The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal, which is merge the balance sheet of the Fed and the Treasury...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BANNON: ... and use that as a lender, use that as a lender of last resort to actual corporations, what the ECB and the Bank of England have been doing. We turn that balance sheet to save all the big companies, OK?

You save Boeing, you save the airline industry, you save all the big investment grade credits.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BANNON: You then solve the liquidity crisis and you solve the solvency crisis.

Look, it's going to blow up our balance sheet, I don't know, $4 trillion, $4 trillion, $5 trillion, but we have to get through this. And what you do...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BANNON: One of the things I learned from President Trump -- he calls me his best student -- is that he is about getting it done yesterday.

And if you want to get it done yesterday...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BANNON: ... you drop the hammer today on the virus.

BARTIROMO: Drop the hammer today.

Look, I know that you started a show back in January. You saw the seriousness of this. In January, you had it, "War Room: Pandemic." You were the first to call Trump a wartime president.

And I understand, in your -- in your voice, in your tone, the emergency that we're talking about.

But Ted Cruz tweeted this today: "In negotiations for economic crisis relief, some are pushing for a special carve-out just for Boeing and GE. That would be wrong. Millions are losing their jobs. We don't need bailouts or corporate welfare. Those companies should participate in the same liquidity programs as everybody else."

Steve, you know, once you start bailing out one industry and one company, everybody else is going to want it. You're talking about shutting down a $22 trillion economy for a period of time. What is that going to look like on the other side, Steve?

BANNON: The president...

(CROSSTALK)

BARTIROMO: I mean, that -- there's a reason The Journal wrote that op-ed rethinking the coronavirus strategy.

BANNON: President Trump is a wartime president.

One of the wartime figures he admires is General Patton. General Patton said, a simple plan violently executed today beats a more complicated plan that takes months and months to execute.

We have to get through the pandemic part of this. We have to get through the virus. You see what's happening to the medical system in New York. OK? You have to get through this. And you -- if you're going to go through hell, let's go through it as fast as possible.

You have a bridging event. That bridge is the cash you put into the system to the little guy, much of what they're working on Capitol Hill. But there's also better ways to do it to force cash into the system for the little guy.

And then, for the bigger guys, you obviously are going to have different negotiations. Yes, if they -- if they hit shareholder buyback programs, maybe you work around the edges on that.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BANNON: We don't want to have a situation like in 2008, where, basically, the elites made all the money.

However, we have plenty of time to adjudicate that on the other side of this. We have an economic inferno coming at us, OK?

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BANNON: Secretary Mnuchin was talking about 20 percent unemployment.

Remember, from the great crash in 1929 -- and our stock market over the last three weeks has been like the great crash in '29.

BARTIROMO: Right.

BANNON: When Roosevelt was elected, that was two-and-a-half years later. Unemployment didn't drop really off the market until '31 and '32.

Now it's going to drop next week and the following week. That's why you have to get on top of this today.

Look, President Trump's greatest virtue is his entrepreneurial spirit, his toughness and his focus, OK?

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BANNON: And I'm just saying, right now, not mitigate it, hammer it.

BARTIROMO: All right.

BANNON: And you are going to have to take the pain up front.

We're going to have to shut it all down to kill the pandemic, bridge it with a cash infusion, and then take care of the solvency and liquidity problem with using the Fed and the Treasury Department to actually lend to corporate credits.

BARTIROMO: What you're saying is, you want the powers that be to flood this economy with cash.

You want those balance sheets combined, flood it with cash, send money to everybody, and deal with this later, in terms of -- in terms of the impact to the economy.

We have already lost how much in market value? Twenty, twenty-five trillion dollars, when you look at global markets, Steve. And then we have got a health system on the brink right now.

(CROSSTALK)

BARTIROMO: I want to get your take on that. Go ahead.

BANNON: This is the point.

We have already shredded 25 trading, I think, in all capital markets throughout the world just on the equity side. Look what's happened on the bond market. Look what's happened to companies. Look what's happened to jobs.

We are on the brink of having permanent damage to the greatest economy in the world. Before this started, President Trump and the whole team had had a really a great economy going. We can get back to that.

But the way to do it is to hammer it now, go deep, and then you -- then the pushback will be -- your time up will be even better. But you have got to flood it with cash today.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BANNON: You got to use every power of the Fed, in fact, new powers for the Fed, new powers for the Treasury.

This is a war. And people in this town are still thinking of convention, like it's 2008. This is so much deeper than 2008.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

BANNON: And I'm not saying a giveaway to the corporations. That's the last thing I want.

BARTIROMO: Real quick. We have -- right.

BANNON: Yes.

BARTIROMO: We have 20 seconds left here.

Do you worry that the health care system is on the brink? I was told yesterday by someone who said to me, look, we're only several hours away from no more beds, no more ventilators. Peter Navarro is working on getting the supply chain back here.

But what's the impact here, very quickly, Steve?

BANNON: The CPC virus that the CPC unleashed on the world has -- now on the brink of potentially destroying the New York City health care system.

That's why President Trump and Governor Cuomo are going all in, every piece of equipment, the Navy's hospital ship, the Army Corps of Engineers, Mayor de Blasio looking for other spaces, the Javits Center.

BARTIROMO: Yes. All right.

BANNON: They're going all in for the gating event, the ICUs, the emergency room, and our great first responders and doctors and nurses.

BARTIROMO: We're going to check in with the health care industry when we talk with the CEO of Johnson & Johnson next.

Steve, thank you, Steve Bannon.

Stay with us. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

Concerns are rising over the state of hospitals, hospitals already getting overwhelmed, as the coronavirus pandemic hits all 50 states and the District of Columbia, some nurses saying that they need more masks, ventilators, beds, gloves, state and federal governments struggling to coordinate, as lawmakers call on the private sector to pitch in, as we just heard from Peter Navarro.

Joining me right now is the CEO of Johnson & Johnson, Alex Gorsky.

Alex, thanks very much for being here.

Can you talk to us a bit about your efforts? I know you have been on the phone all day and all night with hospital executives. Give us the state of play right now.

ALEX GORSKY, CEO, JOHNSON & JOHNSON: Hey, Maria.

First of all, thank you very much for having me on this morning, and really your efforts and those of all the guests really to address some of these major challenges that we're facing.

I mean, who would have even thought a little while ago that I'd be Skyping from my basement, as likely we're facing one of the greatest global health care challenges, public health care challenges that we have ever faced in our country?

But you're right. We have been working really hard at Johnson & Johnson, really for the past several months now, to make sure that we can -- patients can get access to our medicines, our products, even our over-the- counter products, that they're available for consumers around the world.

We have been working hard to take care of our employees, as well as with a number of different government officials around the world to do everything we can to harness all of our resources and all of our science.

And, look, as part of that, I have been on the phone a lot with many of the major hospital CEOs, but also with physicians and some nurses on the front lines. And, clearly, they're stressed right now.

But what I can tell you is, at the same time, they're confident. They're doing everything they can on the front lines right now to make sure that -- first of all, that they're getting the right use of diagnostics, because we have to make sure that we're identifying the right patients, that they're getting the right kind of care.

And that starts with diagnostics, and that they're used appropriately, making sure that they have got the personal protective equipment, the PPE, that a lot of your guests have been talking about.

And, look, one of the dynamics that I'm hearing right now is the correlation between those, where it's so essential that we're getting the right diagnostics done on the (AUDIO GAP) because, if we don't, it ends up consuming a lot more of the personal protective equipment that I believe is also contributing to a shortage.

And, last, but not least, they're working hard with ventilators, as well as making sure that they're converting things like operating rooms and post- anesthesia care units into ICUs and CCUs, if they should get the increase in patients that some of the models are predicting.

Those are some of the things at least that I have heard from, again, nurses, physicians and some of the executives who are dealing with this firsthand.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

I mean, I want to ask you more about those efforts, because I know, in addition to that, you, as a company, have been working on a vaccine. And you're going to start human trials, human clinical trials, later this year.

So, let's take a short break. And then we have got to ask you where your efforts stand on that.

Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky is with me this morning. We will take a break, and we have got a lot more with Mr. Gorsky when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

And I am back with the CEO of Johnson & Johnson, Alex Gorsky.

And, Alex, I want to get to your efforts for a vaccine for coronavirus. You are going to be doing human trials, human clinical trials, this November for COVID-19. Tell us about it.

GORSKY: Yes, Maria.

Look, the most important thing we can do is stop this virus from occurring in the first place. And I just want to highlight the efforts of our scientists around the world, who really back in late December and early January, when we first found the underlying code of this virus, quickly ramped up.

And a process that can easily take anywhere between five and seven years, frankly, they were able to do in a matter of weeks and months. So we're working hard with partners around the world, including the government, the FDA, the BARDA, which is the organization responsible for vaccines in the United States, as well as CEPI in Europe, and I think, in a very collaborative way also with other academic institutions, to do everything we can to accelerate the development.

We continue to run our different clinical trials. We expect to be starting up very soon, likely within about the next month. And I think we will have important data by the end of this year.

And, of course, the other really important component here, Maria, is not only to produce -- or to be able to find the vaccine that works, but it's to have adequate supply.

And so, right now, we're making very significant investments, somewhat at risk, but knowing that...

BARTIROMO: Right.

GORSKY: ... we need to have adequate supply, in parallel with knowing that the vaccine actually works. So those are some of the things that we're doing right now.

But, look, I also acknowledge efforts across the industry that are taking place as well. And, frankly, I think that's a result of the billions of dollars of research that have been going on over the last several decades that allow them to take those kind of actions at this moment.

BARTIROMO: Are you willing to take your supply chain entirely back to America? I mean, people are really scratching their heads why, for three administrations, we have been relying on China for the active ingredients in our prescription drugs.

GORSKY: Well, look, I think the facts are that most of the large companies now have large, global, integrated supply chains.

BARTIROMO: OK.

GORSKY: And I think we also recognize that this crisis provides us with an opportunity to make sure that we have always got supplies, not only on a global basis, but also on a national basis.

BARTIROMO: Right.

GORSKY: I think what we want to be thoughtful of is, as we go through this in the short term, that we prioritize making sure that we're getting the supplies that we need, and then, longer term, what are the important changes that we need...

BARTIROMO: Exactly.

GORSKY: .. and transitions that we need to make in our current system to make sure that it's effective? BARTIROMO: Yes.

Yes, Alex. Thank you so much for all your efforts, Alex. I know that there are antivirals that will come sooner than a vaccine, which are also quite important.

Good to see you, Alex Gorsky. Thank you so much for joining us.

That will do it for us for today. Thanks very much.

Stay safe and strong, everybody. I will see you tomorrow on FOX Business, "Mornings With Maria."

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