Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing On Coronavirus Air Travel 20240713

Departments, customs and Border Protection in the cdc. Sen. Ted cruz, cheers this size transportation subcommittee hearing. This hearing is called to order. On december 30th, 2019, doctor lee, 34 yearold ophthalmologist and wuhan central hospital, ten to a group chat he was in with some friends from medical school to discuss a sars like illness, and recently been making people sick around the city and he posted it alive analysis that had found sars coronavirus and extensive bacteria colonies innovations airways. Is that this new wellness webelos hospital 214 some patients in the emergency department. So frightening, member of the group chap replied. It sars coming again. And this Chinese Communist government, which like all Authority Ten james, is often more concerned about protecting its image in the life and safety of its citizens. It was not please. And even a dedicated Health Experts scribbled. To collect more information on what was happening, china Security Services were busy trying to stop them. Probably scarred fist for example, january 1st, the Wuhan Public Security bureau summoned eight doctors including him. Theyre posting and spreading quotes more homework rumors about wuhan hospitals receiving sars like cases. While the doctor was eventually released two days later, that was a before he was forced by police to sign statements acknowledging that his warnings had been illegal behavior. Meanwhile, even as the city of oman, and the nation of china, getting sicker and sicker. This did not stop. The community event, political raised public gatherings and global commerce, including most importantly, this hearing on global aviation, continued. Following this virus is spread in the prisons in the city of wuhan, and the rest of china, and finally out to the rest of the world. In 2 58 a. M. , on february 7th in the city of wuhan, doctor when young died. From the very virus he had tried to warn about. A virus which as of today, has infected almost 95000 men women and children across the globe. Including right here in the United States. And its killed, more than 3200 people. Including nine foreign washington. We now know, is the virus that he was warning about, and the virus that took his life, is not sars, similar, is normal coronavirus countdown is covered 19. The spread of this virus across the globe has had and continues to have, this covid19, has farreaching impact. Commerce facility, government has been taken and people are understandably scared. This virus was also called in a real question the efficacy of international organizations, a World Health Organization, and the icao, both of which give a to to participate in this hearing the both of which i declined to participate or did not respond. The icao, the International Civil aviation organization, for instance excluded timeline from his information sharing regarding the virus. This despite the fact that the viruses like this, because sars showed us, spread overwhelmingly by air travel in taiwan has the 11th Busiest Airport in the world. To be a joke, has appraised then every turn, response to the chinese government, despite the mountain of evidence that the plaintiff the seriousness of the virus, and the extent of the spread for more than a month. These organizations are not going to look out for the broader global interest said, they will pray the authoritarian regimes. Makes the question of its time to reevaluate library list make a concerted effort to push reforms. Covid19 is a real and serious challenge. Any call heads and factbased decisions. Most panic, hysteria. Unfortunately, some of the media whether intentionally or not, seem to be inciting panic over the virus. As a large part of the reason why we convened this year. To give the American Public the opportunity here to hear straight from officials, on the frontlines without a spin, or partisan bias read so heres what we know. This is a rapidly changing situation. Every day, on sundays every hour, we are learning more the virus. What is spread, and how the human body response. So far, mortality rate has been around 2 percent. Enlisted the deaths have been in the elderly and those with Underlying Health conditions. The virus appears more transmissible, the typical seasonal flu, but so far reports indicate the vast majority of cases are moderate mild. Requiring little to no medical attention. Early on the administration acted and acted swiftly. To limit travel to and from the affected regions. And it quarantine americans that into those regions. In a tonight entry to foreign nationals from those regions. This was the right thing to do. And those actions have proven critical for slowing the spread of the virus pretty to the United States and its process, additional time to prepare. An antivirus this year, and its spreading. We must be ready. There is more that can be done, theres more that should be done. Communication between agencies and municipalities are vital to containing the spread of the virus. In san antonio, munication was lacking. Patient was relieved from the air force base prior to testing positive after testing positive from the patient was returned to quarantine and is currently in the supervision of the cdc. Hires a cdc to stay vigilant. Giving lines of Communications Open all localities. To ensure the safety of the Public Health, and texas, and all across the United States. We must do everything we can to marshall every resource necessary to protect the safety of the lives of americans. I look forward to hearing about the facts. I look forward to hearing about the medical science. Looking forward to hearing about what we know, we are doing, and what more we can and should be doing. And with that, i recognize the senator for her opening. Thank you pretty thank you for your efforts to help protect americans against the coronavirus. I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of the air carriers in the Transportation Industry. In the face of a Public Health crisis, we must Work Together to share the burden of keeping americans safe both here and abroad for potential global pandemic. During his focus on the content data, entering into the United States and close gaps with a maybe. We need a timely and orderly way for travelers to have detailed Contact Information based on criteria the cdc is outlined. I spoke with Vice President vince about an opportunity yesterday to quickly develop and implement this information i sent him a followup letter this morning. If a Public Health officials need to ensure that we have a direct link to travelers and to eliminate gaps that allow travelers to enter the United States without Public Officials can able to reach them in the case of the potential risk or exposure. I represent arizona. We have two confirmed coronavirus cases. It is critical that congress have a bipartisan settlement package and most necessary resources to developing vaccine enter per minute. Reimburses state and local governments and ensures the safety of our frontline workers. And seniors another bone that compilations who are most at risk. Although we do not yet know the longterm impacts, the impact that weve seen thus far, calls for action now. To protect and to reassure the public. The situation continues to evolve, we must Work Together, we must coordinate the states and communicate with our partners. I look forward to hearing todays testimony. I yelled back. Thank you ruling would consider to be one of the most important subcommittee hearings we possibly ever have. I want to take a moment and semite something to the people of Washington State to the families who have lost loved ones into the healthcare workers are continuing to work diligently to respond to this epidemic. We are in the state of washington, and the numbers continue to increase we now have ten people have died in the coronavirus we now have nine confirmed cases. 231 people are being monitored and we had schools and businesses and even the federal facility is been shut down temporarily as more people have been detected as possibly being exposed to the coronavirus. All the while people are experiencing symptoms and yet not getting tested. The main focus i believe we need to communicate today. We need to have a robust testing regime, across the United States. Participating in the testing process. This will give us better information and give us more information about the spread, the Community Spread of this disease. Last friday, the suspected of covid19, were required to be tested at the cdc to obtain results. In essence the update, the fdas actions, last saturday we will be able to run more aggressive tests. But i still think we are only at a few hundred test today. This is in washington. We need to be in the thousands if not more. I hope we will get this right for the future of other states. And figure out how to have a clarion call for all labs, please develop these tests and be in compliance but get these kids developed into the testing because the people are calling with what they think are symptoms and they want to be able to be tested. I think that todays hearing is a perfect example of why fat is so important. We have 14 states that have confirmed cases in one of the first persons is a person from North Carolina who tested positive after visiting nursing home in Washington State that is been subject of much attention and travel home to North Carolina playing. This underscores the importance of making sure the aviation sector is also prepared and how we mitigate the impacts the virus spread. After all there more than 44000 flights in this country every day in more than 2. 7 Million People fly in and out of our u. S. Airports. With just sent a letter to the Major Airlines and airports asking them for their plans to meet this challenge and the guidance i think hopefully we will hear today, on how we can give the flying public safety. The airports in the airlines, in the spirit of cooperation, need to understand the measures need to be taken to help us in dealing with the coronavirus and additional be wondering from the federal government, what they should be doing, they should be very clear about what measures we can take what measures we should take to help keep the flying public tape so i hope this department of transportation the cdc should learn that here today. I look forward to hearing more about their answers coordinating with you how we get this information out to the public in a timely fashion. The public wants to do something they can do to but we have to get chris burke on our answers about what we should be doing today. Thank you. Cement thank you. Lifting a particular families who are grieving the loss of their loved ones. And i hope we will continue to see bipartisan cooperation, to marshal all of the resources necessary to do Everything Possible to prevent any more loss of life. Without let me introduce another. It. Department of transportation, he has served extensively across the department of transportation, since the early 2000s. In 2005, the oversaw the u. S. Governments reconstruction of the iraqi airports, sports and railroads. Served as the transportation counselor in baghdad. He also previously served as transportation policy Deputy Assistant secretary for management and budget. The duty. Mr. Has been served as the director of the maritime and ministration and most recently he was named the Department Rick transportation in the presence Coronavirus Task force, have coordinate the spread of the outbreak. And the admiral, Deputy Director for Public Health side of an implementation science, the center for Disease Control and prevention. In this capacity, doctor redd is responsible for state and local readiness, emergency operations, collect agents and toxins, the nations cash emergency medical countermeasures. Higher to this role, it was the director of the influenza coordination unit. He was also the Incident Commander for the 2009, page one and one, pandemic response. Doctor red received his bachelors degree in history, at princeton university, his medical degree with honors, at the Emory University school of medicine pretty trained trained in medicine, at Johns Hopkins hospital, and completed the two europe during Intelligent Service Training Program at the cdc. In our third witness, mr. William bill ferrara is the executive assistant commissioner for Operations Support a u. S. Customs and Border Protections. He has served in numerous roles of the cdc. Deviously he served as the acting executive director of admissions support at the office of Field Operations. When i was responsible for managing and operating budgets for 4. 1 believe dollars. As well as providing asset Logistical Support and customer focused Human Resource solutions for nearly 28000 employees. From june 2016, to june 2019, mr. Far also served as the director of Field Operations to boston field office. November 18th for my 19, answer perform the duties of the department of Homeland Security, the united kingdom. He was an associate of arts degree in business from the Community College of rhode island, and is a graduate of the cd see Leadership Institute and the University Chicago school of business. I recognize him for his testimony. Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to testify on behalf of the department of the transportation. Unfurling 26, President Trump and president. Secretary azra is on the task force, since its inception on genuine 31st. Normans Health Professionals have the lead in determining the response to the coronavirus. The deity, and supporting role, has and will continue to coordinate daily with the aviation orders, counterparts and other federal agencies to manage the risk of the United States. In this capacity, determine the translation continues to ensure first active and safe return of the affected areas to america. Secondly, Airlines Passenger flights one of 11 designated airports, help screen americans, and the virus stricken areas. Third, continued air and sea cargo traffic to the ics in china and other countries, such as south korea and italy as the virus spreads. Fourth, of protocols established to protect the crews of aircraft continuing to fly to the United States and foreign locations. Finally, Health Information for airlines to use to inform the passengers. Travel restrictions have been remarkable effective in the first layer of Health Screening of overseas travelers before they could return home. They delayed the spread of the virus from china to the my states and the precious time to recover the measures and plan for proper medication. In verse 25 days since the president s proclamation, only 15 cases were detected within the United States. Our actions assured that nearly 200,000 americans who are in order had recently left for china, could return to the United States to an error good home. Number of passengers traveling has fallen. Roughly 15000 people each day, before the fire set right to hear than a thousand each day now. To date, over 53000 incoming passengers have received Health Screenings. This achievement took the cooperation of nearly 200 commercial airlines, overseas airports, and Civil Aviation authority of china. The department is also working thusly with her sister federal agencies of the task force. Expertise and authorities were all necessary to accomplish the success. On january 302,001st, the ministration declared the virus in a Public Health emergency the United States for investing day, president ial proclamation, establish the framework for travel restrictions intended to protect the public from an disease. Allowing the american nationals to travel safely home. The restrictions for supply to china, and subsequently been extended to iran Airport Passenger exit strains have been introduced with the capra cooperation of their authorities. Expertise in the medical professionals conducting screening and the secretary of the department of Homeland Security, directed all flights inbound to the u. S. , caring persons who were recently in china, to arrive at 111 u. S. Air force significant consideration, coordination and analysis among federal agencies occurred to select is appropriate airports. Prior to this in a proclamation from the deity and the partners actively communicated with the carriers and others in the aviation administration. Homework 475 industry participants. Presenting a range of u. S. Informed carriers, domestic airports, trade associations, unions and other valued partners. As a plan for community transmissions, within the United States, the deity will be coordinating similar as part of the whole government plan which includes a state and local Public Health agencies are the frontline mitigation efforts. One of the lessons we learned from sars is that the public considers travel in the face of a new disease. Covid19 is having the same impact on aviation today. Industry analysts estimate that the virus will reduce numbers five some 4. 7 to 6 percent worldwide online. Industry resilience snaps back quickly. The biggest stars, u. S. Travel, and two was back to normal. The federal government, state and local governments are actually getting along prepared Emergency Response plan and the presence Coronavirus Task force was constructed to coordinate the whole government effort to work through the virus. And we will work through it. We will come out on the inside. Thank you. Thank you. Smith good afternoon. My name is stephen read and i am the Deputy Director for health and Health Service and implementation science. Im also serving as senior spots professional and cdcs 2019 coronavirus response. Thank you for the invitation to testify today on behalf of of the centers of Disease Control and prevention of the efforts to protect the health and safety of americans from this disease covid19. I think begin by acknowledging and this is a new virus the new disease. New information and science continued to accumulate in u. S. Government decisions to respond to this epidemic will continue to be based on that evolving science. Our overriding goal is to protect america from the effects of the virus and were working to slow it spread into the u. S. And minimize the impact. U. S. Governments approach to covid19 is built on years and years of preparing and responding to Infectious Disease emergencies such as sars, ebola, and pandemic influenza. A key component of our work is to support state and local tribal and territorial Public Health apartments. This system is the backbone of Public Health and also our response to Public Health emergencies. After now more than 1500 cdc staff have been involved in response headquarters in atlanta and in the field. Over the past two months, federal state and local governments and mobilized to protect the American People. As we heard globally, we have seen over 90000 cases and they occurred in 85 jurisdictions. We discussed several countries reporting sustained Community Spread. Cdc, with our federal and local partners, have instituted multiplayer containment and litigation measures to slow introduction and spread of the virus into the United States. These Public Health interventions include early case recognition in isolation, identifying and tracking contacts in some instances, implementing restrictions or quarantines. We have posted targeted travel warnings for several countries, and even for cruise ship travel in asia. So americans can stay informed on proper precautions to take when and if they travel abroad. The measures that they have taken denying entry to the u. S. For certain travelers, and is hit has reduced number of people coming into the United States from china by over 90 percent and weve also as you heard, final travelers from highly affected countries where we have instituted screening. As of noon today, cdc has reported hundred 20 cases of covid19 from 13 states. We expected to continue to find more cases and we expect these cases will be a mixture of travel related cases, cases related to contacting Community Spread cases. It is likely that we will see some countries highly affected while others remain virus free. On recognize that people are concerned about this as barley. And our number one priority, is to help the safety of the American People. We appreciate that americans are taking this threat seriously and continuing to seek information about how to be prepared. While the immediate risks to that general American Public is a large today u. S. Government is doing everything we can to keep it low. The risk by exposure in some areas of the country are now experiencing Community Spread. I ask you as trusted leaders in their communities, to help us with our mission to provide clear information to you and your constituents by urging people to get the facts from cdc about how to best protect themselves and their families. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today at the cdc response to the coronavirus covid19. Its an integral part of the u. S. Governments response to the virus. Men and women served at the front line of defense, as in in between the point of entry whether they be land, air or sea. They have been working closely with the department of homeland sick purity and prevention and other interagency partners is the cases of the virus has increased in china. They taken decisive proactive and preemptive actions to mitigate the threatened demise and risk and flow of the virus. Limited exceptions, all foreign nationals who have traveled to china are run within 14 days are ineligible to enter the United States at this time. Dhs including cdc continues to work very closely with our partners at the ds cdc, and Mainland China or iran in the last 14 days, one of the 11 designated points of entry when the federal government has focused public and health resources. All flights coming in from china, and one of the designated areas, there are no flights from iran. All passengers coming from iran, are also final to one of the 11 places. Passengers traveling to the United States by air, we also work in collaboration with air carriers supported partners to the deny that boarded individuals that would be found in the United States the details. The help screen these travelers, extreme measures are critical, part of the u. S. Government strategy to the spread of the virus and protect the American People all travelers in china and iran in the past 14 days, or who exhibit symptoms consistent with covid19 are sent to the cdc staff, or dhs, and weapons of mass destruction, medical evaluations. Theyve been identified as cdc, primary inspections of refer to secondary screening area. The secondary screening area, dhs, Contract Personnel for taking the following actions in support of the cdc. He verified the cdc enhance training is required and click Contact Information for travelers inclined on handheld screening and travel developed Health Status for example if they have a fever, a coffee or have difficulty in breathing. They take the temperature. They are supporting the screening efforts through agreements with the state, or locally Public Health and First Responders in a number timely capacity. He established this in response to the ebola virus threat. These actions ensured vetted in workforce ready to rapidly deport and dhs was able to use this established capability to fully address the threat of covid19. Officers and agents continue to remain alert or by cdc and other Public Health officials when the travel travelers exhibiting illness. Officers and agents are welltrained and use a combination of prerequisite questioning observation to identify those requiring additional Health Screenings. They also closely work with the u. S. Coast guard to show ships and crews are appropriately identified and screened prior to coming to the porch. Arm plays are our greatest asset and we are taking every precaution to keep artwork for safe especially those who are around the disease carriers. Theyll have a 30 day supply of protective equipment including gloves mass and coveralls and hand sanitizer. Theyre located across field offices. They continue to work with dhs and the interagency among the global chain impact critical needs for the workforce. Unfair write that, 2020, cdc issued an updated job hazard analysis total employees the allens the current guidance. Endless guidance under the appropriate circumstance. And they can tend you to share information on an ongoing basis. Theyre committed to doing all that we can to keep artwork for safe. As they work to ensure the safety of our nation. Thank you for the opportunity to appear today to look forward to questions. Thank you very much to each of the witnesses. If i begin my questioning, on submit three letters to the record. Without objection from the first is a letter from commissioner john of the Texas Department of state and Health Services. And it sent to sec. Azra to the department of health and Human Services and others. In the second, in that letter, requested that the cdc submit a written net rationale to release patients from 14 at the lachlan air force base in texas. The secular has the response from doctor redfield from the cdc commissioner, outlining the procedures for discharging patients in the third letter is a letter that i sent along with the senators to the cd, regarding the possible spread of coronavirus across the border. I want to start my questions with that third letter. Would you please explain how the screening process at the border currently works now people coming through the 29 land ports of entry in texas are strange. All reports of injuries are trained the officers are, but exhibit signs of illness. Thats something that every day of the week in our operation. Particular note to the coronavirus, the covid19, we have guidance through our officers to add certain questions about travel that folks tried traveling from china, they are now included in that. And questions will be checked travel documentations, and other information to tracy an infected person has traveled to those two areas. In fact, and the cdc and its available, who work directly with them and if not we have our respect these are Public Health officials, local Public Health officials we have relationships with who come to the proper conclusion. It. Is a cdc plan to work for the medical staff in the future to heighten the level of screening at those ports of entry. We currently working with cdc would follow the guidance of the medical guidance of cdc provides. So thats an erection, it is continually happening sir. Doctor read, let me ask some specifics about what we know of this virus. Right now, what is the overall case for this totality for covid19. Is an american give you but i would like to say that as more cases occur, we gain more experience and that number is likely to change. Theres been a lot of questions about the detection of the numerator in cases that have died and also whether all of the cases have this disease have been identified. This particular true china. The case rates have been a little bit higher than been seen in the rest of the world so i would encourage us to look to answer that question tonight, to look for cases that have been imported in other countries and the spread theres a cleaner set of information. With the understanding that that information is growing, what is cdcs best estimate of the fatality rate greatest among i would say between half a percent and 1 percent and just give you a frame of reference, seasonal influenza is one in a thousand. All of those estimates are higher than seasonal influenza today. Differs from a number of the World Health Organization. I think the number includes information from china where there is a question of whether all of the severe cases have been counted are the less severe cases have been counted. I think is more cases occur, will likely see that percentage decline. But i think thats really a stay tuned but what we know now is substantially more than the seasonal influenza good. How contagious is it and can you explain what that means as well. Going to be is how many cases occur from one case. How many additional cases can be for the downstream cases, seasonal influenza usually somewhere between more than one and one and half new cases generated from a single case of information we have right now with a Novel Coronavirus is probably between two and three or two and a half and three half percent. The numbers largely based on the experience in china and the elements of that is what determines if that number of new cases, has to do with the virus in austin do with this sensibility of people who might expose to the virus has to do with context. So situations where theres a lot of crowding, but expect to see if higher are not than a place that has less scarring. Something this number also, that we are going to be following. Commentators little bit less variability in that particular number than there has been the mortality. Reports are coming from china and have indicated that the incubation period is up to 24 days. It differs from my understanding of a 14 day protocol releasing patients from 14. Sharon the accuracy of that. That is one report i think that is the key question. What we need, i think it will just be an important to monitor that. We have not seen secondary cases after people have gone through that 14 day incubation. I think the preliminary indication was actually incubation. This virus is a little bit shorter on average than stars. They can cause severe disease in humans. So i think that this is something that provides some margin of safety between the average, i think its something we will have to follow the just as new information comes available. It. Are there common sense and reasonable precautions that americans at home should be taking now. If you concerned about your health and safety. Absolutely and i think this is an opportunity, because i close my statement, you can help us with this. That would have a terrific but really youre the things that we help protect respiratory infections in general. Hand washing, covering costs, your sick with a respiratory illness, stay home. They can be hard thing to do. I think in this circumstance, it is even more important that it is and lastly, its really important for people to stay informed. The information is changing so quickly, that if you know something at the beginning of the week, could be different at the end of the week anything particularly, areas where the disease has been identified to something has been changing quite rapidly. My first question and to it is my understanding that it can be difficult for airlines to comply with passenger data requirements. It sought to provide complete data or in the case of working through thirdparty sites. I would like to ask the unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from the airlines thats been sent to the Health Department services. They have suggestions two oh, this gap by having the federal agencies set up a Single Online form for all Inbound International passengers. That would be by sea, land or air. Mr. Chairman if there is no objection, would like to ask that be entered into the record. It would allow the cdc to directly capture information for more complete and accurate and timely data. When discussions of any have them in between the Department Transportation u. S. Customs and Border Protection and the cdc with the concerns these airlines have raised along with their proposed suggestions from a Public Health perspective would compliancy improve all travelers were directed to some sort of single portal and if so, what kind of funny part Additional Authority would be needed in congress to create this rapidly. Thank you for the question and your interest in their area wanted to my hat to the Airline Aviation industry. In the really stepped forward to offer Common Sense Solutions to this challenge that we have. This real need that we have with the federal government as travelers are coming to the United States, we want to be able to contact or trace them, so that it if it turns out this money comes and that is alcohol we can reach back and find out who else they have been in contact with. Previously information has been gathered that we can collect directly from the industry, while he is about 20 or 25 percent accuracy. Partly due to the fact is much of this information, comes to the travel agents which is not directly affected by information is provided by the air carriers themselves. So we have been working, i would say multiple times daily, communications among the agencies and also with the association trying to work through the technological difficulties of getting to the ultimate goal of this role is been put out. And curiouser said they have taken six to 12 month before they could be complied with. As we do not want to wait that long to get the data. So he an interim system, they carriers and kind enough to work with us right now. Based on the travelers that are coming in. That works well in the small number of passengers that are we have arriving right now. It coming mostly from china. With that, the system we have now covers that but is not scalable as we had, the concerns with more countries of travel. We think that the proposal, its definitely worth looking at. And the challenge that were going to have the technical one how will the market within the various it databases rated. We provide all of the information that we had to cdc and airlines. In the secretary, mentioned, it is not complete the cdc purposes. When manually inputting the computers directly at the 11 airports. The first part of your question, we have participated in its an effort to speak with the Airline Industry. In this Data Exchange and the constant conversation, not just this particular issue. So there a lot of the right people working in getting through but there are some challenges. We join just respond as well. I think the moment where trying to make the system that we have worked, but it is clear we need a better system. A small example of how we are working together, when the customs and Border Protection, didnt have computers entered the data, we were able to provide this to the cdc so we could facilitate that entry. Yesterday i had the opportunity to provide in my Opening Statement, followup letter to him and this morning my understanding is there is a Web Developer who has the Technology Available to develop an app. Similar to the mobile passport app. It could be done as quickly as two to four weeks. And of course, the technical challenges how we get that across all of our institutions. I believe that provides a real opportunity for us to address his contact issue in a matter of several weeks rather than six to 12 months. So thats something i hope we can Work Together on and consider how do home at that quickly. A question that i asked earlier, the collaboration between the Transportation Industry and the government, is incredibly important. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are also currently leading the way in developing this vaccine and a plasma based treatment. Companies like johnson johnson, many others, are providing expertise in dealing with previous pandemics. And collaborating through the Biomedical Research and Development Authorities as well as other Public Health entities and theres been conflicting information coming from different parts of the administration on that timeline or lunch is the development but the implementation of the vaccine for ordinary americans to access. That is unacceptable. So my question for you, is a cdc engaged for these by medical and pharmaceutical companies both in the development of the vaccine and treatment of those experiencing element illness, when was have been approved, hello cdc work with others to deploy it amongst our transportation border and Health Person personnel and increased risk for exposure because of the role of keeping the broader public safe. Thank you. I appreciate the last part of your question because i think thats where i can speak most directly. The nih, and the advanced research and Development Authority are the main parts of the department that are working on but the basic development and the Events Development to get a product can be approved. I think the example of the work that we did in h1 n1 influencer, that would beat what i would foresee. It will be a while before we have a vaccine that meets those vaccine or probably treatment as well. Thanks once again one, the government procured the vaccine, distribution, and is it essentially a government run program and built on vaccines for children backbone for product it was not license at the time. And we didnt procure it but we managed the distribution of a drug called perimeter bear, is just used to treat influenza. I would envision that credit assistant, and the first part of the question is really the key one, to give profit. And safe and effective. Thank you. I just wondered for the first question, my understanding is that the airlines have offered to contract with a Third Party Vendor and to cover the cost themselves to stand up a website and or a secure mobile app they believe could be set up within two weeks. Together the information that cdc is requesting. Do each of the three of you think that is a good idea. Short answer, yes we welcome the fact that they have reached out to make this proposal. Our challenge at this end, working as hard as fast as we can is it technologically feasible. If we can, is a great solution that gets us from contemporary wonderful working with now and not having to wait for 12 months for permanent solution. It. The way the system was devised right now, cdc receives information from customs and Border Protection and think however that information is highquality and complete, that would be great. Is all the privacy rules and security scanners, i think it would be a great opportunity to look into. Thank you. I think our Public Health officials and whole the on the work that they have been doing rid to make sure that we have a 50 state approach that you owe or filing for each and every day. Footsteps has the cdcs taken to coordinate with foreign governments to verify their screenings and Public Health protocols compliant with u. S. Standards. So we are in very close contact particularly with the state department and the department of defense in korea, and my understanding is that paris korea and italy have instituted exit screening to identify persons mobile the coronavirus. I think this is really an ongoing global effort are also working with World Health Organizations, and at work, and it certainly two parts in places that we have staff able to directly interface. That is true in korea, not true in italy. It is true in china. It is not true in iran. Doesnt make sense to provide or to test everyone who comes in from countries of higher concern. Hundred percent trip testing pretty. I think the problem with that would be similar to the symptoms screening that a person could be incubating the disease. Then later the develop systems. And actually they have the virus. When they have questions regarding how to abide with the cdc, ms protect their passenger and my employees, to help them prevent the further spread of covid19, they a person, single individual compared to or can serve as the point of contact for this questions. What weve done is that is out for comments. There is a way to provide comments to that rule work we are examining. It. But we have no expedited procedure to appoint one person who can answer these questions. There are actually multiple people reviewing that. It. Whether or not we can appoint one person to answer questions. It. We are reviewing questions. That are being submitted. At six oh right now there is no one person per point of contact pretty. There is not. Theres a joint email address. And it actually gets better coverage in a Single Person can provide. I think in effect, there is a place for one contact. It was also with the issue is. Statement how does this take helen hesitate. There is that final rule and it will be continued until the Health Emergency is over or until Pacific Power were waiting pretty. Is open for public on it now pretty. When does it go into effect. The part that makes the instrument has gone into effect already. So that is this process. s are able to operate under this pretty thank you. Has a provided updated information to states he will tester covid19 and light of the Community Spread. When we are coming over in a taxi, it was reported that has been released essentially, giving at a broader discretion to clinicians, caring for patients to get testing done rapidly. So that would into effect today. You have a national or International Standards that govern the airlines precautions, disinfection calls pastor coronation should an Airline Employee test positive for covid19. With guidance. I think the rules about that, i might defer to my colleague about the standards. We do have guidance posted specifically for covid19 on aircraft equipment issues. There are also international regulations. I will turn to my colleague. Are you asking by the standards that we have for or how we disinfect the aircraft or the standards for the cruise. How an extremely airplane itself a safe and the crew. Because made a conscious decision that the travel research with china not to take that on all flights. We still have american flights coming back in china. We also want to put into place, about the passenger in the cargo flights. In those are and they different terms of the requirements for whether they can leave the aircraft or airport facility, and a contact with other people and the things to do from washing hands to the protective gear. Depending on whether or not they are china based, where theyre coming from the u. S. , saying briefly in china and then turning around and coming back. Let me ask one more question. So we have no way right now 200 percent or near 100 percent contact every passenger on the plane, maybe flying with an individual who tested positive for coronavirus. Have true. It was before we put in these interim measures printer Contact Tracing was about 20 to 25 percent with interim measures we have in place now that the if 11 airports, that mr. Ferrara was can referring to. Right now according to dhs, there at 94 to 96 percent accuracy with that Contact Information. I would actually like to them and my answer. The guidance for cleaning, we are expecting be cleared today are very shortly so we actually dont have it out today. So they correctly told you earlier pretty. I hope it gets approved immediately. Thank you and i will note for the record that this hearing, the news broke that we now have the 11th fatality in the United States from california the first has occurred outside Washington State. Take you. I would like to cover a couple of things. One we are trying to do a supplemental to try to get more funds out to the states for a Public Health, hopefully we will vote on that before the end of this week. I think there is 11. 5 million that would be rent to Washington State for Public Health getting some of that money could be used to Better Direct the public towards testing regime i know are being very broad and we are saying is this suspect something, when people are calling the doctors in the same we dont have that. We have to go over here and they call them, they are saying no. To me as some of the dollars that youre going to get to be crisper about how to go about the testing. If you one phone call says you have to call your physician personal is clearly state that in the they must be clear about coming test today they were able to do and how we create a system for that. Assuming since. Does make sense and i think that some of the moneys early be used for communication activities. I think that guidance clarifying that guidance on to should be tested and can be tested will be an important part of that is also likely to change over time. And as it has already occurred. So i also think if you create the site inaccurate information for people, and you would have the anxieties if you will saying, i feel sick, i have this going on and he cannot get the test. So we want to alleviate that. So i hope that some of these dollars can be as for that and another thing that i would that you would advocate for his seattle study, was a research institution, everybody working celebrity to study and analyze results. Obviously you had to consent to be in that and thats how we caught the one student that he thought that the individual student that they were sick with the flu and then through 40s later we finally change the political who could get testing, tested positive and now the universitys policy adjacent and so that also covers covered 19. Covid19 in every city in america it should be doing this. Everybody should have a flu covid19 irb. A research analysis, the reason why it is important, as we can see this interplay between those who think they have the flu so we can track the genetics of where this is going. Because now we find its all related to the washington one case. This finding out how communities spreads marks. Can we also do that. Sooner i believe today, there will be the collection specimens in several jurisdictions with additional jurisdiction through the week. The plan to build out the system that would be much broader really, for all the reasons that you said in addition. If every city and could start now, they have to get the agreement and information. I think using the flu system, really being built on flu surveillance to add normal coronavirus so that communities will know that the virus in the community and would be able to have an estimate it is not there, what is the certainty that it is not there. Im glad the university of washington got this done. I think it is there. Now for the airplane, how long can the virus material last on the surface pretty. The virus can last hours to date. As the estimate similar to other coronavirus is pretty. Up to a whole day. Yes maam. Im not heard that before. Im glad you are clarifying that. Weve heard generals. We for the generalization. I think that is what and i am out of time, and into a day. Now what do we need to do for our place. Given that much. It. Thats going to be the greatest that we have released, there is a outside of that guidance which will be released in the issue we addressed earlier in the question. I think people are concerned about the obvious individuals being able to contact them. People want to understand what our plan is. As the department of transportation to communicate and can be alive in a service for a whole day. One hundred precautions do we need to take. On our air services. Inc. You for the question. This is a whole government effort when you look at the safety side, it is to say is man in consultation with the other agencies especially with osha, which developed these standards for individuals of the airplanes. Our focus is to ensure that the mix of chemicals other treatments do not actually harm the aircraft itself. Cement are you saying you dont have the authority to set the standards pretty. All standard is by design, not our authority because the health authority. Whose authority is it. His cdc. Information would be guidance. When have Statutory Authority is my understanding. In my understanding, and again im not the net medical person on this panel, much of the authority runs with osha. It is on the panel here. We are in discussions with osha on developing the standards. Thank you for having hearing. Thank this is something we need to tackle right away. We need to understand what we are saying to the public about what the airline should be doing, what we should be doing, to create the most positive environment for air transportation to continue. As you said, we want the transportation we wanted to be done so lets get this protocol clearly establish and work, get established. Thank you. No underscore the point, if there are authorities needed to keep the client public say, let Congress Know immediately and we will create authorities because of the priority needs to be public safety. A. Think to all of you for being here. Congress is preparing to consider supplemental funding. To several agencies to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. Two weeks ago, the Trump Administration requested new funding monies. From congress for various response efforts. I would like to ask each of you to respond briefly and share how your agency when plan to use supplemental funding and also to responded to a related question regarding assuming the administrations request, reflected the needs of agencies to respond, if Congress Gives you substantially more than what the administration asked for, or what you asked for, to the plan to responsibly spend all of it and what would it look like. Statement currently based on cdp we have what we need to do our job and should things change, we would certainly inform resources. Youve got what you need without a supplemental. Yes or. Use the funds substantial amount of those funds would go to state and local Health Departments to do the work is being done right now. Identifying cases and testing those cases in their laboratories and identifying contacts and is very laborintensive work. Celebrity rate testing and elements of that, at the state and local level, communications surveillance, and some of the things that we talked about with the effort to test specimens that are collected for other respiratory specimens, suite of activities at state and local governments and that they would do at the federal level, would be able to use those funds for many of the same things. But the support and surveillance work, communication, and the things that we do, we do in emergencies. So that i think we would not have problems spending all the money. With regards a part of the money hurt are the questions, we assume that included whatever supplemental some you might need. So if we would authorize more than that, we have it covered pretty cement i think it might be better to see where we are with the bill that is going through. Thank theres a scalability to a smaller amount of money, with us a shorter amount of time a large amount would last longer. Time. Thank you for the question. In the game plan, this whole government effort is led by the health community. So the vast majority of the money requested, i believe the money that is under discussion might have a conference, is for the cdc and the other Health Agencies and much of that money, or some of that would flow through them to address the needs such as senator cantwell mentioned. Where try to do the Health Guidance and protocols. In the is going through hhs salute is no money specifically being requested for the department of transportation. South korean government has been trying to get him on his coming into the country by having air carriers try to assess passengers that are boarding the planes going into korea. To figure out whether they are suffering from the virus prior to boarding. Are you providing any to air carriers in the United States. Dealing with that. Hollywood assess this with inbound passengers. Im not familiar with south korea. We have provided guidance for screening that would be passengers coming to the United States that there is Something Else. I think that the value of that screening, a lot of that work is to figure out and collect some of the information we have been talking about, thats what the way we have done in the past. To collect Contact Information so that those individuals can be tracked. This really the reason for this interim final rule is to do more to automate that system. To automate the system whereby you collect data on each passenger. Correct. Hopefully excluding those who might bear symptoms or show some symptoms and carry the virus. But the question earlier, if a person is incubating the disease, being able to track them through the incubation. Is it something or at least informing them that if they have symptoms, heres what you should do pretty are not be able to identify the disease from the Contact Information but we could use that information to follow them. Thank you doctor red, i am trying to get a handle on our National Strategy is. In terms of containment versus medication. And it seems to me that containment is something that you do in the first phase of something the potential of the pandemic the rear rapidly entering a phase of this during which there is sufficient Community Spread with a containment strategy has sort of vanishingly, smaller and smaller returns. And i want to make sure that im getting that right. And then ask a followup question. That is correct. I think one sort of new ones to that is that there are likely to be part of the country where negation is a right posture in the same same time there could be other parts of the country where you can still use containment. So my next question was, if are mostly into a Mitigation Strategy phase, then why restrict or trouble at all. If were talking about restricting or trouble from korea, it seems to me that with the exception of the religious organization and part of south korea, was actually happening is just tested more burke got very aggressive about it. Their data is in an art it is not in. Its not clear to me in their numerator and denominator suite it and up in a higher than ours will end up by the do all of our testing. Something is a little silly for not allowing people to travel when one place is not any less or more sick than the other. I agree with your general point. I could give an example where for a short period of time but a travel advisor to mexico that didnt last real to be more likely to get it in the United States and you would if you were returning from mexico. It would be a situation where we would basically be stereo like that would not make sense to do this really intensive effort to not track people for entering the country. No question. The website renounces their 80 total cases. Thats not true is that. We have to god on a daily basis. In his cases are reported from states, into than on their own schedule. So ours couldve elicited day. Is sort of garbage in garbage out. Its not that you have 80, two confirmed 80. That is correct. Cement i would recommend you have a better way of reflecting read whats going happen afraid is right now people right think, and reasonably reassured by the slow total case count. And recently fearful of other places thats really what is happening is that deployed it test more efficiently and effectively the United States has. As i was going to happen is were going to be calm until the task of deploying in those numbers are going to spike like crazy. There would a panic as a result of that. I think he really got to figure out on communications and how to reflect that uncertainty and prepare the public in a very high likelihood that the number of cases that we have confirmed, who is going to skyrocket, so because, we finally deployed the kids. People know the study that senator cantwell ascribed to us will help address that issue. We do more testing we dont find, and it is possible. Im talking about next couple of weeks as the testing is out. The final question for you, this is so constructive and so bipartisan. I think the chairman for convening this hearing in the Ranking Member. Can you ask the folks at the cdc, they would commit to a Daily Briefing on camera, no politicians involved, it is not have to be inflammatory, does not have to be enormous. Just a daily, heres was going on. Because thats what happens in a National Disaster context. This would happen in a Civil Defense issue. We just need to hear from a singular authoritative informed voice and on the daily basis so that we are not all trying to figure out where the data is one of the things going. My understanding that you have the authority to implement an emergency order so that those as you were talking to senator cantwell about this, right now the guidelines and i understand under normal circumstances, you talking about the weather or not the airplane can fly safely. But these are emergency circumstances under want to spend another two or three weeks figuring out whos authority is necessary to get a bunch of lawyers involved try to figure out where you derived in an emergency situation, certainly are authorized to change those voluntary guidelines that the airlines, some are abiding by and some are not. And just change that into an emergency order and i would like you to look at that please. Center, we will and we will look at it as a whole effort. And it legally falls through the cracks, what agency. Thank you. Bangmac regarding testing from my conversation yesterday, my understanding is that testing kits are going out. What to me is by the end of next week of the capability will be there for 1. 25 billion test. Is that accurate. Is a combination of numbers from the Public Health test that cdc is deployed. Health. The others would be company and developed. One of the great frustrations is the lack of testing, you are telling the subcommittee that the kits are on their way, and testing that will be remedied shortly . Is that correct . For the Public Health testing we will have the capacity to 75000 test by the end of this week. Center sullivan. Thank you, mr. Chairman, thank you for the panelists for this very important briefing. Sec. Szabat, i want to followup on our earlier phone call and see if there is any more progress. You know the broader discussion from the other witnesses is we have closed down the passenger travel from china and other areas where there has been a risk, a big risk. On the issue of mitigation of the spread for air travel. However, there is a loophole, and i think everybody, ive raised this issue now for going on for weeks with the senator administration officials. The loophole is cargo. Air travel cargo is very important for the whole country, for the whole world. We need to be able to have the slot entrance supplies to be able to have a sick potential significant challenge for our country. But the pilots on these cargo flights in some ways are loophole. You have chinese based crews that get off in the United States, big cargo hubs weather anchorage, seattle, l. A. , memphis. And they spend the night, they are in the population. There is nobody ive spoken to, and ive spoken to everyone including secretary chao in others does not recognize the loophole. But the agencies seem to be pingpong and backandforth on how to address it. The one suggestion i have made, is to essentially do a turn and burn. You have cargo passenger planes to say anchorage, they have two sets of pilots. They land get rid of their cargo, then they get the other pilots to fly it back. There was some concern they might retaliate against our cargo airlines, however, some of the senior officials ive spoken to dont think that would be a problem. So can you, mr. Secretary, i am hoping you can have a little bit more definitive answer than our discussion this morning. Can you tell this committee what we are doing to address this issue . Because heres the real problem, ive somehow theres a spread in another city, say anchorage, and its trayce back to, you know of pilate on a cargo crew. The likelihood of us then wanting to react to shut down the whole system is going to be strong. So we are trying to preempt this with good ideas. These are decent ideas that are workable. Nobodys really complaining about it. But the authority seems to be pingpong and backandforth. What are we doing to address this overseas based crew loophole that everybody acknowledges we have . Senator, thank you for the question and thank you for the courtesy of flagging this for me earlier today. I regret, i do not have a more definitive answer for you now than i had this morning. Except to say we are working hard and we will definitely have an answer to you as quickly as possible this week. When will that be question archive literally been raising this for almost a month. A month. Said that today is wednesday will have achieved by close of business friday, and hopefully before. Will that be cleared by everybody, no pingpong in terms of fa doesnt have authority . There is this issue that some people are viewing the crew rest does not count if you rv viewing the crew does not rest on a plane. Im sure the resting as they on a plane coming over. They have to be rested enough to fly it back. If that is an authority or regulation you need authority on . Let us know. But dont use that its been four weeks now since ive been raising this with people. So far so good, we have not had a spread from a cargo pilot. But i think we are dodging bullets here. And we need to address it. I will have a whole of government answer back to you by close of business friday, senator. Thank you. Admiral, i want to ask and highlight another issue thats a little bit more particular to and trent my state, the great state of alaska. Or one concern i have is our alaska native populations aware, you know, theres over 200 communities in my state that are not connected by roads. They are very isolated and very, very remote parts of america. The most remote parts of the whole country. They dont have hospitals. They barely have clinics. Some of these communities dont even have flush toilets and clean water. Which is a tragedy for the whole nation, in my view. But as you likely know, the 1918 spanish influenza decimated these communities in alaska. Decimated them. So they are vulnerable, and what im concerned about is if there is enough focus from cdc we do have a cdc office in anchorage, in part because of our high rates of an affectionate diseases. What is the cdc doing to make sure these extremely vulnerable populations, if you ever get an outbreak in one of them, where we are ready to address the situation so we dont have a situation that happened 100 years ago. Which in some ways still has an impact on my state. Yes, sir, i think this is an important issue. I know that you know that doctor j butler, who had served as the state Health Officer in alaska is now in atlanta at cdc. Yes he is outstanding. s i think we have that local knowledge of alaska now in atlanta. I think that will help to make sure that we dont forget about about remote populations. I think it is a real challenge though. Can i get your commitments have something a little more definitive that recognizes the vulnerabilities of certain communities like this that are very remote, some ways you might not get the remoteness held with the spread, but if it does get out there and theres really no very there is no hospitals, there are very few doctors. Can i have your commitment to have a more definitive plans help address these kinds of. Let me commit to get back to with what our proposal would be in we can have a dialogue about that. Great, you might want to work with the cdc office in anchorage unchecked anchorage which how also has coronation with their native health system. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator chester . So really . I appreciate that mr. Chairman. Now you beat me. I appreciate you all being here. I want to thank you for the work youve already done on this critically important issue. I think it is critically important, i i hope it doesnt turn out anything like what i have imagined in my head. So i just want to give you my circuit stanchion and ive fly for it legs a week. I have town hall meetings, i meet with people all the time probably meet with 70 or 80 people today alone. The question is, is if anyone is gonna get this, it is going to be those of us to serve in the United States senate. Because we all do that. Senator cruz flies home, he takes a Different Airline than i do, he flies a different leg comics most are different population, we come back and have a commerce hearing together. Okay . So the question i have for you, i get the washing the hands again the flu vaccine. Is there anything we can do to protect ourselves . I dont care who answers it. That you would recommend or do we just have to do what that is hope you dont have Something Else wrong with you so you can get through it and survive it and move on . So let me give a broad answer to that. I think handwashing is a critical element in protecting yourself, and for all of us protecting ourselves. There is kind of the other side of it, which is things we want other people to do who might contract this disease and give it just. And that would be covering coughs, really, really important to stay home when sick. And i think that is probably something we are going to have to just continue to stress. And that doesnt protect the person staying home, but it does protect everyone else. I hear all those things, so it is the incubation pair and on this test . Do you know . So stew neck while on average five to six days with the range of shorter a couple of days up to two weeks as we have heard. So, ive got a few aching bones today. Does that mean i stay home . I think i would not stay home are use that as a reason for coronavirus. I think fever and respiratory symptoms would be aware steam exit by the time you say help me party been effected for five or six days is what youre saying. Well, youve been incubating. Think this is one of the issues. You can say no we dont know if we dont know. During that incubation period, can i spread it to the good senator from illinois customer. So i dont think that you are going to like my answer. I did wash my hands okay . [laughter] it is not possible to give a definitive answer on that. Id say that there is a much stronger suspicion that with very mild symptoms or right before you develop symptoms, that there is there is in a lot of cases the chance of spreading the disease, which is different from other coronavirus. Different for most viruses or the viral load increases the sicker that you get. This may be a case where viral load can be hi, even in that very early almost like the symptoms you describe. I wish it werent true. No, i got it. I just so how long you think this is gonna take for run its course in our population . I dont think that its possible to speculate. Anybody customer nobody knows . There are a lot of factors that could go into that. But so its really is not possible to say. Okay, so, there has been a lot of talk, the good senator jacky rosen just told me that italy just shut down some of their schools. I think theres been talk about shutting this place down. Theres talk about shedding all sorts of stuff down. Im going to tell you, i personally think thats a mistake because i dont think its going to matter. To be honest with you, a paralysis here is bad enough without really creating a paralysis. So what would be a recommendation on all that stuff . Because its like youve got a person with coronavirus in an airplane, they commit and clean the airplane, and somebody else gets on with the coronavirus, we really havent done a damn thing. That is a very difficult question. I think its one of the reasons that the president has set up the system that he has with the Vice President in charge, that those different sectors are able to communicate more effectively so that we are we can talk about what the Health Benefits might be. But the adverse consequences, we are not really experts in those. So i think this is something that will facilitate the appropriate decisions being made as quickly as they are needed to be made. Good, this is a question for mr. Szabat. Do you believe there will be flight restrictions placed if this thing plays out as potential . Well, the easy answer to that, senator, is guarding a flight restrictions in place. I know im talking about domestic flights. Two i dont know. We are outside the playbook. The original playbook did not envision travel restrictions, Health Officials have historically said in case of widespread flu or similar contagious diseases we dont do travel restrictions. We went outside the playbook on this one, and i would contend that travel restrictions that we and some other countries were very effective. In some cases they werent. Italy did even more of a prohibition then we did but waited until after we did. And it did not turn out to be effective. Theres going to be a lot of Lessons Learned from that. But to your question, its now in the playbook, something to think about. But i cant tell you under what circumstances we might consider pulling the trigger. While, i just went to thank you all for your good work. I cant thank you enough. I have been frustrated with the president and his reaction to all is in the get go. But you guys are pros and want to thank you. Senator capito. Thank you i want to thank these gentlemens here today. I just want to ask a general question of mr. Szabat. You may not have the statistics, but as of now, do you see Domestic Travel on the decline because of this and people canceling flights, less people traveling . What he will sing . Senator thank you for the question, youre better served asking that question from the industry analyst to have specific numbers. But certainly, we are in daily contact with the industry, and they are looking at a decline in bookings going forward. Having said that so far the biggest hit for the Airline Industry has been an asian travel. For the u. S. Industry, that is the smallest part of both of their revenues, especially of their margins this only becomes a major hit for the u. S. Flagged airlines if the coronavirus spreads or the concern spreads and passengers decide to not travel domestically. And secondly between United States and europe. So thank you mr. Ferrara for your work at cbp. We had the tsa administrator in front of my subcommittee, which is the Homeland Security appropriations. Give it a talk about the protocols that you are all coordinating with. Let me just say when someone comes in at the 11 airports, those of the citizens coming into the 11 airports, you do a prescreening, you do that in coordination with cdc. What if somebody exhibits symptoms . Are they tested immediately . Hows that rolling out . Thank you maam, as you said once they come into one of the 11 airports, our officers identify them as being potentially ill or coming from either iran or china. We refer them over to cdc or cw md, who is there. That is a medical determination, so they would determine the vitesse is required or not. Our Law Enforcement the priority for Law Enforcement piece of it is making sure they get there. So get to where the need to go question or. Yes, maam. It was brought to my attention there is an article in the wall street journal this morning, the title hackers target companies with coronavirus scams. Its pretty shameful people would try to capitalize on what we see is growing fears and exide he of whats going on. I dont know if this is a Homeland Security question, absolutely you all have cybersecurity capabilities within your agencies. Is this something that you are all made aware of . That there are people who are impersonating the World Health Organization . Obviously this is a moneymaking kind of scam. Doctor redd do you know anything about this . I was not familiar with that article. I think the general issues of Cyber Security are ones that we need to take very seriously and i think this would be an example of it. If those measures are in place how they can lead to trouble. You can imagine the scenario of a hacker contacting semi saying you want to buy 25 masks or some preventive, or vaccine, or expedited travel, or whatever you would be offering would really make you make a lot of the population very vulnerable to this kind of attack. So i would suggest that all of you in your respective departments take this back with you as a red flag. Mr. Ferrara did you want to Say Something . Yes, maam that is the department of Homeland Security is one of the functions we do have. I will certainly bring it back and give that information to the department. So let me ask you again, we talked a lot about aviation. We obviously know about the crews ship situation that occurred. We also have a lot of cargo going back and forth all around the world, but certainly to the far east and coming back in. I think initially, when i raise this question, Homeland Security said well, the incubation period is so much so that if you are on a ship for 14 days, getting back and forth its really not going to be an issue. But we see that it really is an issue because it could be passed from time to time to time. Are you working with the coast guard on this to make sure wherever those ships are coming in from that you have some kind of capabilities there . Spin it yes, maam. In conjunction with the coast guard we again target people from china or iran for traveling on those cargo ships. We make sure working with our medical partners to keep those folks out of the port until we get the all clear from the medical folks. Just as a regular course of everyday living, today i kind of challenge myself to try to see how may things i could not touch that i know it been touched by numerous people before me. What a challenge. Ten so i think if everybody would try the exercise around the country, you would realize how not just susceptible you are, but how careful you need to be when you know youve been in some kind of contactor direct contact, or you yourself have may be a colder beginning to not feel well. So with that that was pretty stagnant starting with the elevators, doors, restroom, we could go on and on. Constituents coming to visit and all those things. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator duckworth question works. Thank you, mr. Chairman i want to thank you in the Ranking Member for having this hearing. As of yesterday, my illinois, my home state had tested positive. I wish them and everybody elses been infected a speedy recovery. I went to credit all the staff at state and local levels for the work that they have done. But i have to share my frustration here, because i cant believe that we are having some of the conversations we are having now. After having faced other global outbreaks such as h1 n1 and sars. Did we not learn anything about processes and procedures from those previous diseases . You know, americans have been flying commercially for more than a century. Yet today, on the cusp of global pandemic, the inability of the federal agencies to collect and share Critical Data effectively if u. S. Airlines and state and local partners is really hindering our ability to stop the spread, and to fight this disease. And so, you know, my last job in the army, when i was finishing out my last tour was working at the pentagon in the defensive port of civil authorities. The last thing i did was give a briefing on global pandemics and what we would do in that particular office. Doctor redd knew worked on h1 n1 right . You alluded to that earlier. Yes, maam so okay that was in 2009. So how the heck is a cdc, the sea bp, the dot, how come youre still trying to figure out these issues . How come they dont have computers after weve seen a bullock, weve seen h1 n1, leasing sars, and what are we going to do in this instance but then also looking forward so that the next pandemic that hits, there will be another one. That we are ready for it and not caught flatfooted the way we are right now . I think that we have improved since really my own history begins with the mid to thousands. I think we are far ahead of where we were at that point in time through a lot of hard work and attention from the members here. Congress and the administration. I think that you are pointing out some things that need to change, and i think there will be both in the very near term work to make sure that we are operating as effectively as we can now. And that there will be after action review items that will come out, many of which you are listing. So how long mr. Ferrara, how long does it take for state and emergencies to receive flight information about potentially infected travelers . How long does it take the state department . I have one of the Busiest Airports in the world in chicago, how long does it take id ph, Illinois Department of Public Health or the local officials to receive information about a flight coming in has potentially infected patient on board . Cb pete transferring the information from these flights within an hour over to the cdc. I dont know the process of cdc to the states. But the information we do have, we transmit within an hour. So okay, doctor five how long does it take in my state does it take for my id ph get. I think the problem is information is often incomplete. And that is what were trying to correct. If we have a name, thats not very helpful. If we have a name and address that is somewhat helpful. If we have a name, address, phone number, email address we can find people. That information at the Health Department would basically be the ability to do complete followup of those Data Elements are available to mex you dont have a timeframe for me right now and we dont know when we are going to have the capability to rapidly let local Public Health people no . Well, i think for what we have is very short period of time. The real question is getting complete information and doing that in a timely fashion. Center, if i may just add to that, this has been discussed at the task force level. The goal of cdc, the Health Officials, has been to collect the information so that cdc has it by the time the plane arrives. And is already providing it to the local officials pray the challenge we have the Public Health officials to wear this passenger actually going. Because of course, they come to one of 11 airports for initial screening. But thats not where theyre ending up. So someones flying into chicagos going on to massachusetts, cdc wants to gather the information and extended to the Public Health officials for wherever massachusetts are going to. The system we have right now as an interim system, which is working very well. It is paperwork and personnel intensive. And so it works for the passenger load we have coming in now from china. We could not scale it up to be more broad. And thats a challenge we are talking about. About having a better nationwide system. Having said that, the system we have now is immeasurably better than anything weve had before. Weather is with h1n1 or sars. So each time we have one of these we learn. And as doctor tran finds that we will do hot wash after this we will learn from what we learned here and will do better next time. I think we need to do a lot better than better next time and i would ask the chairman to maybe consider holding a hearing after the epidemic and have Lessons Learned and what they planted during next time. I do want to add one more loophole to what my good friend the senator from alaska mentioned with cargo. Our passengers aboard charter receiving the same scrutiny as those aboard put commercial flights . I think in addition to the cargo aircraft, private aircraft are another loophole that is in the system. And im out of time. Please answer that question, its a good question. I will answer the question paid senator, we will get back to the full answer for the record, but i know i can speak personally for example for a charter aircraft. We apply exactly the same rules to them as we do to any commercial aircraft. So if you are coming for example from china, or now from iran, we dont have direct flights ran but if youre coming from china you would have to land that one of the f11 airports. So what about private customer so i will get to an answer on that. So okay thank you. Thank you, senator rosen. Thank you chairman for having this very important hearing, thank you for the work youre doing. I know your staff, youre just working aroundtheclock to try to figure out how to get ahead of this, be proactive, protect our nation. So i just want to share my appreciation and all the nevada he ends with you. But since the coronavirus is changing so rapidly, it is critical that our Public Health officials during the work on the ground, have all the information they need to do Contact Tracing and the monitoring of travelers when warranted. So i just like to understand what the threshold metric being used to determine when air travelers must fill out that government Public Health locator form. Can you explain that to us . People are not having to do that . What is the threshold . Just people from china, just people from italy . Please explain that. Okay, the current rule applies to travelers from china. So only . Were not doing it for anybody outside of china . So should be expand that . With your permission, center, i will take that on. We have two countries now that are covered by this socalled to 12 process. We have travelers from china and iran. We have no direct frights for malan. They are very few americans coming back miranda 14 day window. So for the most part, the ifr rules apply to those travelers. We are looking at a model that can be scalable and expandable. For example we just introduced new types of restrictions or travelers coming from italy and south korea nath. They are getting exit screening coming out of those countries. But they are not being required to same kind of Data Collections we are doing. So who is doing the exit screening . What kind of qualifications and training are doing for that . So, its a careful answer that question, senator. These screens are being done by the authorities in south korea and italy. Before they come . So exactly. Exiting from there when they come here. That is correct. To mex you are thinking about expanding it and you will obviously keep us apprised of that and considerations for that. I also want to build upon that a little bit because obviously were tying my air travel, and we have all of our wonderful flight crews. The pilots, the attendance, people clean the cabins, but really the flight crew health given the direct interaction the contact has with hundreds of passengers, id like to hear little bit more about the recommendations for ensuring that their health is protected, and what requirements does the dot have for personal protective gills for flights staff such as masks and gloves of its recommended by Public Health officials. Sos are going to start by answering this question, center, and i will put doctor redd finally passed on to him. The department of truck transportation were working closely with the industry and we hear from both the representatives of the pilots and the flight attendants. But our role in the ppe side is that we pass on that guidance or the requirements, and it can be osha, or other Health Agencies. We are in a sense from the department of transportation perspective, we are passed through. Given my position on the task force, the role of the task forces to ensure that guidance is put out. If i may put a plugin, because as you point out, we give a lot of praise often for First Responders. But First Responders are responding to something. Our flight crews right now are on the cutting edge. They are the ones dealing with these risks every day. We do it out to them to make sure they have the very best equipment, and the very best knowledge of how to perform a self safety practices. So you talked about you or the passthrough. So how are going to compel the Airline Industry to be sure that the health of these workers are protected, as they look we all, all of us fly every multiple legs on many Different Airlines. So at the moment the requirements we have is the airlines agreed to meet these voluntary standards. Now if they refuse to meet them, or fail to meet them, we can consider other measures. But right now its clearly in the economic interest of the airlines and certainly in the personal interest of their pilots and crew to file these measures. I just have a quick second, some going to make this very short. Are we providing or are you helping the airlines to provide training, additional training to those flight crews for looking for signs of illness so that they may help when people are on the plane or when they are getting off the ground and assisting in any of those reporting issues there . Theres a lot of interaction with the Airline Industry in that domain. Im not familiar we are actually doing something very specific to coronavirus, but theres been a longstanding collaboration in that kind of work. Let me followup specifically on that question. We do have guidance for protecting crews, again, its the question of voluntary guidance on what you should do versus having the rule or the authority to do that. Which resides with osha. So is not just a question of the flight crews health but then they become carriers in and of themselves. So thats the spread the public spread can be great. So thank you, i appreciate it, my time is up. Thank you. Senator thune . Thank you mr. Sharon thank you for this hearing and thank you to all of you for what youre doing and continue to do to address the crisis. Doctor redd appreciate the cdcs work in keeping with the spread and containing the spread and i want to followup on a couple questions it may already been asked. My understanding is cdc has issued guidance to air carriers to ensure they are taking precautions necessary to contain or respond to potential coronavirus cases on international flights. So the public is aware, can you again perhaps talk about some of what those steps are are with the airlines or following . I think the main thing is identifying patients who have respiratory illness and taking action to really notify there is a system of communicating with ground. If Something Like that works recur, its really, i think, standard guidance. But putting a little sharper edge on it because of the situation we are in with the coronavirus. So do you are there instances of domestic Community Spread that youve seen so far . And does the cdc anticipate the need to provide similar guidance to air carriers for domestic flights, some of what youve done with their international . So there are locations in the country which have cases that have been acquired within the United States. Specifically in Washington State and in california, and i think it would not be surprising that other locations would see cases like that. That guidance for identifying people who are ill is not limited to International Carriers. So it wouldnt be only International Carriers get that kind of guidance. Mr. Szabat, i understand and agree with the current focus on Major International airports in large cities and efforts to contain coronavirus, but it is important to ensure that smaller airports and Public Health authorities in rural areas are also prepared when confronted with a potential case. Has a department conducted outreach are provided guidance to small airports on containing the spread of the coronavirus . Senator, thank you for the question and for the concern. We share the concern for the health of the entire traveling public. And of which smaller airports are an important part of that web within the United States. We are working through, again we have the whole government effort when it comes to delivering Health Preventive mage measures to these airports to any one of our private sector stakeholders, within the playbook, the Emergency Response planning, that falls under health and Human Services and in Homeland Security. So our job is to ensure that those Communication Channels are open and are flowing. We have had, just in the last two weeks, two major conference calls, including aviation organizations and individual airports for exactly this reason. To connect them with, their first line is their own Public Health distorted jan authorities, and then through that is cdc for Health Guidance. Doctor redd what resources is a cdc providing airports across the country including small airports to ensure they can properly respond to the potential outbreak . I think in general the quickest line of where to get help would be the local Health Department. We are certainly available to communicate, but we would have guidance and we would work that through the local and state Health Departments. Thats going to be the first line of defense in the Public Health system would be the local Health Department and the state Health Departments. So okay. Mr. Ferrara i amped minor send it cbp has enhanced screening measures at airports across the country to increase the chance it affected passengers or corn team before entering states. Can you elaborate on the information thats collected and how that has change for points of entry where that has been enhanced . Thank you sir, the information that we are collecting for Contact Tracing it comes through the traditional cbp Airline Systems and thats passed on to cdc. I think thats the only difference with the process, that it is passed on to cdc as a rule if these folks are coming in from those countries of iran and china. Mr. Szabat, does the department have initial estimate for coronavirus effect on global air travel to and from the u. S. . Senator, the department does not, we are closely following what the Industry Analysts are saying. And so currently, the current projection seems to be in the range of 4. 7 to 6 decline in Global Travel over the course of the year. So and does that, does the department believed the reduction in International Travel will potentially lead to supply chain constraints for certain medical supplies . The department as the department does not have a position on that, but i can certainly save the member the task force we see that there are disruptions in certain parts of the supply chain. You know, we will take us a Lesson Learned going forward, and this is both true for our private sector counterparts as well as ourselves. I think theres a lot of lessons to be drawn here about having overreliance on a Single Source of supplies. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator markey . Thank you, mr. Chairman. Admiral redd good to see us there. Thank you for your service. My wife is a retired rear admiral in the Public Health service. So i know your core, your work, and which are dedicated to. So if you could perhaps discreetly just described to us what it means when the president started to call the coronavirus a hoax or puts out information which is medically inaccurate. What from your perspective is necessary in order for you to to be able to do your job and for the public to be able to respond to the message which you are sending, which is medically accurate in terms of the disease itself and then what the response should be from the public . I think, that in the last several weeks there has been a focus on making sure that we are in alignment as a whole of government approach. I think that has been very helpful with Vice President penson charge. I think that will help make sure that when a decision needs to be made, that there will be communication across departments so that all of the experts are able to work more closely together. I think that is going to be very helpful as we move forward here. Okay well, thank you but just know that we respect you and we respect science. Respect your conclusions and we really dont want this to be politicized at all. That will interfere with our ability to implement a plan that is effective as soon as possible. I think weve already seen too much delay and not responding correctly and doing so soon. Id like to come to you mr. Szabat, thats on the question of airline fees. We have a pandemic, which is going to hit the United States and much larger measure over the next weeks and months, according to the experts. We have airlines that actually have taken charge fees, chains fees and they made a whole industry out of it in terms of the money they can, in fact charge. The dot is the only Consumer Protection agency overseeing air travel and you are statutorily charged a stop on furry practices in aviation. Allowing any airline to charge these excessive fees during the coronavirus outbreak is beyond unfair. So, i urge the department of transportation to take action immediately and prohibit all cancellation and charge fees during this emergency. Anything less is a failure to fulfill your duty, and thats why i plan to send a letter to secretary chao later this afternoon, formally asking her to suspend these changing cancellation fees in the face of this Public Health crisis. The time for dot to act is now. We dont want citizens deciding they have to fly just because the cancellation fee would be too large, if in fact from their perspective, given their own health or their other family members health, that might be a danger if they came into contact with it. Would you commit to ensuring that dot, which is the Consumer Protection agency, ensures that changing cancellation fees are suspended during this crisis . Your concern and requests are noted, senator. You have my commitment that we will get on that right away. I just say, this is an Emergency Response situation. We are not looking to spend months or years developing a rule, so we will get you an answer back very quickly. I think that is not incidental issue for many families. I can see more and more people have flown i have flown seven times last ten days. More and more people on each flight have a mask on. So for every one of those people, there is somebody elses very concerned and did not want to cancel the flight because they had to travel. But they might have if they did not have the additional fee. You are not the only one who is notice that. I have noticed several the carriers and industry of already decided to say theyre going to cancel that they will withdraw some of those fees. So i just recommend to that it become an industrywide practice through your insistence upon it. And if i may, admiral, the highest fatalities in the coronavirus have been in areas where the Healthcare System has been overwhelmed. Cdc must take steps to prepare hospitals for surges of coronavirus cases that could stress Health Care System capacity to care for those patients. Especially those who may need hospitalization and airborne infection isolation rooms. Cdcs current guidance, which hasnt been updated since february 11, nearly a month ago, is for facilities lacking airborne infection isolations room to transfer patients to facilities with those rooms. But we know this option may not be available if there is a surge of cases in a particular region. Doctor redd can you commit to provide hospitals and other healthcare prep providers clear and specific guidance on how to safely care for surgery patients without airborne infection isolation rooms . Let me look into that in a back with you. I think youre bringing a very important point, and if there are a number of patients exceeds the number beds, theres going to have to be guidance for that situation. So yes, see will provide clear guidance to those hospitals . Yes, sir. Let me get back to you with that, but we will do that. So you will get back to me are you will provide the guidance . First get back to you and then provide the guidance. I think they need guidance. I think that many places in this country. Need it right now, they need to know what to do. So i would honestly i would put a crash Team Together and try to figured out tonight. Put them in a room and send out these hospitals. They are out there waiting for you, you are the expert, to tell them what the plan should be. So yes or so so i honestly believe it could hit a region within the next couple of days and they would be without any real instruction, and i think that would be providing a disservice to those people. So thank you, mr. Chairman. Statement thank you, senator markey. I think it is important to correct the record that i do not believe it is accurate that the president has said the corona virus is a hoax. And, in fact, i think thats quite contrary to what he has in fact said, an effect on. The president can be so speak for himself, but my understanding is what the present referred to as a hoax was the partisan claim that some are advancing for partisan advantage, that the administration is not treating this Public Health crisis seriously and is not marshaling the resources to keep americans safe. And, i will say in my observation, having yesterday met with the Vice President of the United States, with the secretary of hhs, with commissioner at the fda, that the resources with the head of the cdc, that the resources deigned at marshall are significant. And admiral redd i want to ask you, in your opinion as a health professional, and as a lifelong expert in communicable diseases, how significant was the step that the president , the administration took early on to halt air travel inandout of china, and to quarantine americas returning to china. How significant was that . I think that was a very important decision to make, and i think there was a prolonged period of time when we had a very small number of cases. So i think that was the right decision at the right time. I think that we will be in a better position to evaluate that more fully as time goes on. But at the present time it was an important decision. So in your medical judgment, had travel proceeded unimpeded, would we be facing in all likelihood a substantially worse outbreak in the United States . We would have more cases, i think we can say for sure if those msured had not been put in place. So and mr. Szabat, from the perspective of the department of transportation, how unusual is it for that administration to take the steps this is ministration took right at the outset of this outbreak . Senator, the steps were beyond unusual, they were unprecedented. I can tell you, i spoke personally with the president i think two days after air travel was halted to china, and the president asked me directly or he said ted, what you think . I told him mr. President , you made exactly the right decision. I recognize there are real economic consequences of halting air travel, but at the end of the day the First Priority has to be protecting health and safety, has to be protecting lives, until we understand the scope of this outbreak. Until we understand what is happening with this virus, we need to do everything that is possible to prevent this outbreak from becoming a pandemic. And, and so i am grateful the administration acted. That doesnt mean every step the administration has taken its been exactly right. Dealing with any crisis, they are going to be challenges, theyre going to be mistakes. I think we have seen a serious focus on this Public Health crisis, and thats the right thing. And i would note one of the mistakes was releasing an individual from lackland who subsequently tested positive. And that was a mistake that i addressed at the beginning of his hearing. I want to ask a couple more questions in them to wrap up shortly. It has been reported, my understanding is that the cdc has asked commercial airlines in affected regions to take the temperature of passengers boarding planes. And that commercial airline gate agents are understandably feeling not prepared to do so, not trained to do so. They are not medical professionals. Is that understanding correct and is it right to be asking the gate agent to be taking some as temperature rather than a medical professional with the training to do that . I will have to check on that. I am not familiar with that process. I know that in korea and in italy, the governments are doing the exit screening. But let me get back to you on confirming that my lack of knowing about is that its not happening. Mr. Szabat . And just an update, our information flow is good but not immediate. So for the task force level, we have learned while these measures have been put in place by the respective governments of italy and korea, in consultation with our agencies, they have chosen how to implement it. So in korea there are three levels of screening, two of them are walkthrough, you walk past devices one when you enter the airport while many got the security. But the third they are asking all airlines both korean that are flying to the u. S. Those handheld temperature devices to check the temperatures of people going into the United States. So that is a request that the government has made at the u. S. Carriers as well as a foreign carriers to do that testing. So so your test so i can understand, the government of korea is asking them to do it not the u. S. Government . So the u. S. Government is saying to the government of korea, if you want to continue to have flights to and from the United States you have to do Health Screening. Come back and tells how you intend to do it. This is how they come back until its how they intend to do it. Let me suggest, listen, i think hell screening a makes an awful lot of sense very thing ive heard. But the concern from airline gate agents that they are not trained, they dont have the background to be doing that screening, that seems a very reasonable concern and it seems to me it ought to be Health Professionals that are doing Public Health screening. Let me shift to another issue on the cdc. Last month the cdc received reports that some of the testing kits were faulty and experienced inaccuracies in their testing. Where there cases in which the cdc released patients after they had been tested with faulty kits . And if so what circumstances . Let me go through the details of the lackland case. I think that is one instance where that occurred. That was not a faulty test. It was a process of communication, actually the thing you talked about an Opening Statement is what happened. There is an individual who is ill, who had recovered from that illness. On the protocol that point, and is still is the case that two specimens that are negative more than 24 hours apart is a requirement to release an individual. This person had one test that was negative, had a second test was indeterminate, and then had a third specimen obtained that was negative. But that knowledge of the negative test did not occur until after let me get the sequence right. Theres a negative test, there is an unknown to the people who did the third test, fourth test was obtained by a different group. According to the protocol, there is a negative test, the indeterminate test and a negative test, so that met the criteria. Unfortunately that fourth test that wasnt known by the people making the decision to release the person turned out to be a positive test. I think what that detriment so the real issue was the communication. No one should be released to the pending test. Thats one just obvious thing that is really about the internal communication. I think that the meaning of that test and whether there is some issue with the test or with the person having a very low level of virus, i think that is something we dont know right now. I dont think it was related to the other issue of the Quality Control work that was done on the original test. Is cdc examining why someone who tested positive had to negative test . That certainly raises questions. Yes, sir, yes, sir. I think one of the questions will be i mean this is a really new infection and snow virus. For example, in the bull response, and west africa, the role of sexual transmission was not something that was recognized for an outbreak of that size occurred. During that outbreak it was learned that could be an important cause. Outbreaks or infections. Im not suggesting that is the case here, there is more that the Scientific Community is going to learn about this disease. I think it may shed some light on how and out comic that could occur. So is the current protocol for releasing someone from quarantine three consecutive negative test with no intervening test . Its too negative test separated by more than 24 hours. So that is not change. I think that youre suggesting that this needs to be have a hard examination is completely correct. I think the real issue here was that there is a test that was out there, that the existence of that test pending should have been something that would have kept the person from being released at the first place. Then with a positive test, we would not have had it would still be the question of how to get that kind of sequence, but we wouldnt have the situation with the person with a positive test is released. So so with respect doctor tran, i think its important to frame the problem for the problem wasnt the fourth test that happens, were grateful it did because it actually caught someone is positive. The concern is wide, assuming someone who started out as positive and end up as positive, why were there to test in the middle that were negative and why was there an inconclusive test . Like that that raises real questions about the accuracy of the testing. And i understand this is not an easy thing to do. So i can give you some possibilities, but i think we can i cant type for sure why that circumstance occurred. So i would welcome this possibility space. One would be that there were a small amount of viral particles existing at that fourth test that were detected, it was a correct test. But the other negative tests were right through somewhere right at the limit of detection that there wasnt actually live virus available, just kind of the remnants of that nucleic acid that the virus still existed even though there was not a live virus it was there lower amounts. That would be one explanation. Another would be i think this is getting progressively less likely but there is some source of that virus that emerged, its similar to the aids or the ebola virus where person contest negative over a long period of time, but still have the virus in semen. So maybe theres some protected site that we dont know about. I dont think thats very likely, by think its a question that really demand scientific scrutiny. Let me also raising the question about protocol. So in the letter from the cdc director Robert Redfield to the director at the texas state of Health Services, doctor redfield stated the 11 individuals who had been passengers aboard the diamond princess and they had been offered voluntary testing for the coronavirus and were asymptomatic for the entirety of the 14 day quarantine. Is the reason the testing was only voluntary because they were asymptomatic . Does that make sense for lifting a quarantine if we no someone has been in an environment where theyve been exposed . I think this is a balance of individual liberty in protecting the health of the public. I think that the experience has been that staying asymptomatic for that period of time, that those people would not have had a positive test. But i think it is really kind of the Civil Liberties versus protecting the public balance. To mix or the current protocols that someone will be released from quarantine if there asymptomatic for 14 days whether or not theyve been tested . That is correct. And those are the protocols, even though we had this exchange in our first q a. Let me check back with you, let me verify that before i Say Something that is incorrect. I mean there is that study from china indicating a 24 day incubation. That may not be accurate, but if our current protocol is to release someone after 14 days without testing them, if there is an incubation period longer than 14 days, that could presumably contribute to the spread of the virus, is that right . If there are two circumstances were true, guess it would. I want to thank all the witnesses hear testimony, went to echo, youve heard centers from both sides of the aisle, thank the professionals. I know you guys are not getting a lot of sleep right now. Youre working hard. This is a serious challenge. This is not easy. There are a lot of unknowns. I believe we need to follow the science. We need to follow the medicine. But we need to also be proactive protecting the American Public. So i thank each of you for doing so, i also want to underscore a point that was made from multiple senators. Which is, if there are legal authorities that any of your agencies need right now to protect Public Health and safety, and prevent the spread of this virus. Tell us and tell us quickly. I think youll find a bipartisan eagerness to ensure we have the tools to prevent this outbreak from growing, to prevent further deaths. But we cannot address legal impediments if your agencies dont draw them specifically to our attention. I would note, we have a funding bill that is moving rapidly. And it is possible even as quickly as that funding bill attaching a provision to that if it proved necessary to addressing this challenge. With that i want to thank all of the witnesses for their testimony, the hearing record will remain open for two weeks. During that time, senators are asked to submit any questions for the record and upon receipt, the witnesses are requested to submit their writs written answers to the committee as soon as possible. And with that, the hearing is now adjourned. [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] this weekend on booktv mayoral leadership reflections from watergate lawyer and effect of a twoparty political system on democracy. Saturday night at 11 00 p. M. Eastern in the nations city former chicago mayor and Obama Administration chief of staff rahm emanuel on innovation at the local level in cities across the country. On sunday at 7 50 pm eastern in her latest book the watergate girl, jim one bank stocks about her legal career including her role as one of the three assisted special prosecutors in the watergate case. At 9 00 p. M. On after words new america senior fellow lee druckman argues in his book breaking the two Party Doom Loop that the two party system is damaging americas democracy. He is interviewed by George Washington University Professor and author Matthew Dallek what would be the advantages to having multiparty democracy . Democracy is always involved conflict, politics is conflict. The issues of consensus are not political issues. The challenges we need to have some system by which we can agree that some set of rules are fair and some set of procedures are fair and we can abide by those outcomes. Watch rahm emanuel, jill wine banks, and after words with lee druckman, this weekend on booktv. Be sure to tune in next weekend for our two day live coverage of the tucson festival of books on booktv on cspan2. On wednesday the Supreme Court heard a challenge to louisiana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at the hospital within 30 miles of the facility where they perform abortions. The oral argument from that case is up next here on cspan2 your argument this morning case 1813 23 june medical services versus russo and the cost petition 1814 60 russo rs