No, of course not. All right. Dr. Fauci, the europeans are in a completely different place. Theyve got the disease on the run. In fact, the Asian Countries have the disease on the run. I saw some remarkable figures. Almost every other country on earth is doing far, far better in the United States except for brazil whose president has followed President Trumps policies. We have 153,000 dead. Canada, our nextdoor neighbor has less than 9,000. We have 17 times the number of deaths from it. China, which, of course, is much larger than the United States, has lost 4,661 people. Weve lost 153,000 people. Our rate of death is 36 times higher than china, and on and on. Do we have the Financial Resources and the scientific expertise in america to do what other governments have done to bring the infection rate down to something manageable so the end is in sight of this nightmare . I believe we do have the tools. Certainly theres been a considerable degree of financial investment. So what is the difference why are all of the other countries defeating the disease and were not . Why do we not have a plan, a strategy for victory to win, to beat covid19 . I believe i addressed that in not only my Opening Statement, but also in response to the question of one of the congressmen, and that is that, when you look at the comparison between asia and europe as is shown by the chairmans poster up there, that when they shut down, they shut down to the tune of about 95 , getting their baseline down to tens or hundreds of cases per day. Whereas when we did it, we got it down, but unfortunately our baseline was 20,000 a day. Were getting somewhere. Would you agree with me that the critical difference is either the presence or the absence of social cohesion and Political Leadership to actually develop a plan, execute it and stick to it . I think there was such a diversity of response in this country from different states that we really did not have a unified bringing everything down. The gentlemans time is expired. Dr. Fauci, if youd like to add more to his question. I think i just answered. The end is do we need to stop these disgraceful attacks on Public Health officials. The gentlemans time is expired. I now recognize mr. Kim for five minutes. Thank you. Thank you to the witnesses for coming out here today. I appreciate it. I want to start with the quick question of yes, no, if youre able to. A question that comes from a constituent of mind. The constituent asked me, and i wanted to ask you. Ill start with you, dr. Redfield. Would you assess our federal government, the cdc included is doing Everything Possible to respond to the Coronavirus Crisis . Dr. Redfield . I think we do have a comprehensive response. The one comment i want to make is the complexity is, as i mentioned before, for over five decades, weve underinvested in the core kafabilities of Public Health. Hopefully weve seen the consequence of that. With our capabilities right now, would you assess that the federal government is doing Everything Possible . Within the capabilities that we do have, but recognizing the core capabilities have not been invested in effectively over the last five decades. Admiral, same question to you. Is our federal government doing Everything Possible to respond to the Coronavirus Crisis . Its a very broad question. I do agree with dr. Redfield. I think within the capabilities we have we are doing that. Dr. Fauci, do you agree with your colleagues here, within the capabilities of the federal government, are you doing Everything Possible to respond to the crisis . I can only speak very cogently about the agency im responsible for, and i can tell you absolutely, that the National Institutes of health is really doing everything they possibly can and its really an allhandsondeck approach, not only for the institute i direct, but the director of nih himself is spending most of his time right now on this, even though hes responsible for a lot of other institutes. I think we are doing about as much as we possibly can. Appreciate that, dr. Fauci. Admiral, turning back to you. I got a text message from a constituent today that follows up on this type of question. Laura says, i got a covid test ten days ago at a driveup testing site and still do not have the results. I know you mentioned before that 76 of tests are coming back within five days. That also means about a quarter of tests in this country are taking more than five days to be able to get these results back. I wanted to ask you, would it be possible for our nation to have results for all covid tests completed and returned within 48 and 72 hours . Is that a possible benchmark that we can achieve . It is not a possible benchmark we can achieve today given the demand and the supply. It is absolutely a benchmark we can achieve moving forward. I guess ill question as you said, the demand and the supply. The demand is something you dont have an ability to control. But in terms of the supply, when i ask you that question, are we doing Everything Possible to be able to address the needs of the Coronavirus Crisis, what would you say to laura here . Is the federal government doing everything that they can possibly to be able to try to get that testing timeline down to 48 to 72 hours . I do believe we are. We talked about the raw numbers of things. With were intesting in technologies that will greatly expand pointofcare testing. I they tess future. Dr. Fauci talked about the nihs efforts. There will be a lot of announcements from them as well. Thats where were pointing because point of care gives you result in ten minutes. Earlier in the hearing you said trying to get pointofcare testing to Nursing Homes and longterm care facilities. I agree with that greatly. That feels like its a place where the federal government is stepping up with additional resources, im guessing because the states have been unable to fulfill something of that nature. Is that correct . We always wanted to do that, but we did not have the physical technologies that were available with the recent approval of a second pointofcare instrument and the manufacturing, we were able to do that. Literally as soon as that happened, we put that into gear. What interests me about that is this is a situation again, when it comes to tests, i keep hearing its the states responsibility to take the lead on this. With the longterm care, it seems like this is a place where the federal government is stepping in and trying to surge resources. This has always been a collaborative relationship, right . The federal government buys all the swabs and tubes immediately. We buy 40 of abbott ids and deliver them to the state, make affirmative actions to Nursing Homes. Thats where 40 to 50 is. Everything else is collaborative interaction, part state, part federal. We Work Together on that. We do not defer everything to the state. If we did, i wouldnt be spending 24 7 with a team of 50 people since march 12th. Great. Thank you so much. My time is expired. Yield back. Thank you. Without objection i would like to place two reports into the record. One is from forbes. Its entitled researchers say protests did not increase covid19 spread but republicans are still blaming them. This is one report. I have in my hand here, i have a report and study from the National Bureau of Economics Research that was published last month. This study found that there was no connection between black lives matter and protests in recent months and increased spread of the coronavirus. So without objection, i would like to place both of these studies into the record. We will now go to a second round of questioning. Id like to ask the panelists, would you like a fiveminute break before we begin the next line of questioning . Okay. So we are taking a fiveminute break, and we will be back in five minutes for more questioning. Thank you. And a good friday morning to you. Craig melvin here. We have been following this hearing in the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Members of the White House Task force there, dr. Fauci, cdc director robert redfielding. Testing czar admiral giroir. They have paused for a fiveminute recess. Well go back to it when it resumes. This morning theyre sharing quite the warning. There is still no end in sight for this pandemic. We did hear dr. Fauci say hes somewhat optimistic that theres a possibility for a safe vaccine, possibility by the end of the year. Todays hearing is called the urgent need for a National Plan to contain the coronavirus. Its trying to basically answer exactly that, what is the plan. As the hearing got under way, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn blasted the administrations struggle to implement one. It is clear that the administrations approach of deferring to the states, sidelining the experts and rushing to reopen has prolonged this virus and led to thousands of preventable deaths. In fact, the United States response stands out as among the worst of any country in the world. My question is where should we go from here. Today i am calling for the administration to finally give america a comprehensive National Plan that prioritizes science over politics. I want to bring in nbcs Garrett Haake who is following this hearing for us from the hill, nbcs Shannon Pettypiece is at the white house. Garrett, ill start with you. Some of the key moments from your vantage point, what have they been . Reporter i think one of the big takeaways is probably the news on vaccine development. You continue to hear dr. Fauci and others defend the way the vaccine is being developed, saying theyre optimistic it could be ready to go by the end of the year or early next year. Theyre defending questions from the other side saying theyre cutting corners, its modern technology that allows this em to speed this up and do it at the scale theyre doing. I think the comments from fauci and the others about why were doing so much worse than europe, that we essentially didnt shut down to the degree that europe did. We didnt lower our baseline enough might be useful guidance going forward. Im just sort of watching the different ways in which the republicans are asking questions of fauci and the others. Most of them are actually using his scientific expertise to defend things like reopening schools, about the dangers of people keeping their kids out of school for longer periods of time. Theres sort of the more hostile approach from jim jordan which was an anomaly. Im not sure entirely what he was trying to get across there, craig. No. Neither was i actually. Shannon pettypiece, it would seem as if President Trump is watching these hearings. The president doing what the president does. Hes tweeting. Reporter right. Live tweeting a bit of this hearing. He has nothing on his public schedule this morning. We now know what he was doing. He put out a tweet specifically mentioning a chart that congressman clyburn put up that showed the difference in cases between the u. S. And europe. Garrett referenced the response that that chart elicited where dr. Fauci said, yeah, thats because europe closed down 95 , and when the u. S. Closed down it was about 50 . Thats why you see that big disparity between the u. S. And europe. The president s tweet makes the claim that the europe has more cases because we do much more testing. That ignores the fact that we have more testsiing because we have more cases. For instance, in grease, they dont have an enormous amount of testing, because they dont have enormous amount of people in respiratory distress and having people they come in contact with needing a test. Clearly, this hearing is something the president is very focused on this morning. It should be pointed out that the president s tweet has been demonstrated to be factually incorrect time and time again despite the fact he continues to try and convince people that thats why we have more cases in our country. Meanwhile, while all of this was happening, shannon, there was another matter related to the coronavirus, another matter addressed there at the white house. I understand they called a briefing, announced an extension of Unemployment Benefits. These benefits, of course, affecting tens of millions of americans. What did they say . Reporter those benefits, that 600 a week added unemployment benefit people have been getting expires today. Ha es the deadline. Chief of staff mark meadows was at this briefing the white house held a few moments ago. He said he was meeting with pelosi and schumer at 10 00 p. M. Last night. They still hadnt reached a deal. Here is what he had to say moments ago about where things stand. The administration has failed on testing reporter i dont think thats the thought we were looking for. He said we dont have a deal and feels like theyre moving further apart, where you have the democrats, he says, increasing how much money they want for schools. He say it is white house presented four different offers to the democrats and none of them have been countered by the democrats. Thats his interpretation. He says talks will continue, but as of right now, its 11 00, the day those Unemployment Benefits run out. We still dont have a shortterm deal and not even close to a longterm broad deal like democrats and republicans were hoping they would have by this time. So theres not a oneweek extension . Reporter at this point we do not have a deal for a oneweek extension. Of course, in congress time, theres many hours left where something could happen. Of course weve seen these negotiations go on until the final minutes here and maybe we get some deadline deal. Its hard for anyone to know whats going to happen. At this moment the white house signaling theyre pretty far apart from the democrats and they dont see a deal coming together, at least at this time. What was the point of the News Conference . Reporter we have mark meadows out there probably trying to turn the democrats hands. When Kayleigh Mcenany was asked what people should do worried about losing their benefits, she said call Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi. Certainly an attempt by the white house to put the blame on the democrats which weve seen them do a number of times before when these deals fall through. Everybody puts the blame where they want to put the blame in these situations. Garrett, again, were waiting for this hearing to commence after this fiveminute break, but with regards to this relief bill, are you hearing that this is something that could get done before the end of the day . Reporter no. Theres almost no chance of that. The senate has already gone home. The house is slated to go home this afternoon after they vote on a couple more measures earlier today. Craig, this is what a negotiation looks like when one side has all of the leverage. Remember, House Democrats passed their heroes act back in may. The senate didnt even come up with a plan to start negotiating essentially until this monday, and democrats know that. Senate republicans arent on the same page with each other. Its never really clear if meadows and mnuchin are speaking for the white house or speaking for Senate Republicans or if theyre reliably speaking for either. Democrats have basically said we passed our bill, where is your alternative. Weve seen republicans over the last 24 hours or so come up with multiple different sort of theoretical extensions of a shortterm unemployment fix because they think thats one thing they all agree on. But its not even really clear if thats the case. There have been republican senators who say they dont want to spend a dollar more on this. So the republican side of the negotiations is such a mess, i had one democratic aide said to a member of our team earlier say its like trying to negotiate with a ghost. You would think the democrats have all the cards they can play here, but also, if the republicans arent unified in what exactly they want, its kind of hard to even negotiate a deal, if that makes any sense. It does make sense, as much as anything makes sense these days. Its all relative. Garrett haake on the hill, Shannon Pettypiece at the white house, thank you both. I want to turn to dr. Shoshana ungerleider is an internal medicine physician at California Medical Center and dr. Leana wen, a visiting professor at the George Washington school of Public Health, as we turn our attention back to the house testimony set to resume any moment now. Dr. Wen, this is a hearing about our National Plan to combat the virus. As you understand it, what is our National Plan . What does that seem to be . Thats right. Thats the topic of this hearing, is the National Plan. Here is my question. Do we have one or not . If we have one, then it seems like its a National Secret because i dont think anyone has been able to articulate it. If we have one, its also clearly not working if we have 152,000 people who are dead in the u. S. , whereas other countries have been able to fight the infection. If we dont have a plan, on the other hand, maybe its time for us to really get one going instead of having these piecemeal solutions. I think even on something as basic as testing, why is it that were having such backlogs of testing that we cant even get a guarantee of when were going to get tested delays to be under 48 hours. Over 48 hours is essentially worthless. We have the technology, we have the science. I think thats something thats come across clearly in this hearing. Why is it that were unable to get our act together. Theres one answer, which is lack of unfortunately, lack of political will. Dr. Ungerleider, apologies in advance if i have to cut you off. It looks like were about to resume here. So far, what information have you heard from the testimony today that uld would seem to have important implications for our front line medical workers who are fighting this virus in hot spots right now . Well, craig, its so clear that we need to change our approach. Were seeing our rising number of hot spots across the country. Its very clear that were not going to get through this virus or get it under control until there is a National Plan put forth. I am not hearing specifics about how theres a National Strategy for personal protective equipment, for example, ppe, the gloves, the masks, the gowns, so that Health Care Workers can do our work and keep ourselves and our patients safe. Theres currently shortages in many locales across the country as this virus surges on. Thats one area where id really like to hear more about the plans for increasing access and deploying resources for personal protective equipment for Health Care Workers. Dr. Ungerleider, thank you. Dr. Wen, thank you as well. Lets listen back in to the hearing. At 11 45, only about 25 minutes from now. We will go into a second round of questioning, but we recognize that you will have to leave, and we appreciate that. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I think everybody got their first round in, and so im going to begin the second round. Ill give myself five minutes. President trump has just tweeted out a statement that im going to quote in reference to my chart about comparing these cases. He says that the United States has far more cases than europe, and im quoting here, because we do much more testing than any other country in the world. If we had no testing or bad testing, we would show very few cases. Dr. Fauci, do you agree with the president s statement or do you stand by your previous answer that the difference is caused by multiple factors including the fact that some states did not do a good job of reopening . I stand by my previous statement that the increase in cases was due to a number of factors, one of which was that in the attempt to reopen, that in some situations states did not abide strictly by the guidelines that the task force and the white house had put out, and others that even did abide by it, the people in the state actually were congregating in crowds and not wearing masks. I might also just bring something that i thought about and mentioned to you before, mr. Chairman. Wen we talk about crowds and masks. Its always better outdoors than indoors. Being crowds indoors is always worse than crowds outdoors. Thats the case because of the circulation of air. We should avoid crowds under any circumstances, but wearing a mask is the critical issue. I agree with that. I think that i will go to restaurants who allow me to sit outdoors and not indoors. Ive been following the science and ive been agreeing with all three of you as to how we ought to conduct ourselves. Let me just say, and i feel very strongly about this, that the First Amendment to the United States constitution means a whole lot to me. Im sitting here as a result of a protest. We opened up this meeting today, many of you, dr. Redfield especially, and you, mr. Ranking member, talking about our great friend john lewis with whom i enjoyed a 60year relationship. We met protesting, trying to get off the back of the bus, trying to integrate schools, trying to be able to shop in a five and ten cent store without being arresting, trying to get School Supplies out of the store, but you cant sit down and eat a hamburger. Im glad the government did not limit our protests. So the First Amendment has constrain constraints. The Supreme Court has told us that. You cant yell fire in a crowded theater, but you can peaceably assemble to bring to redress your grievances. You can do that. Well, i dont think any of those people who were marching out here on this plaza does now call black lives matter plaza, they were not carrying guns. They were not disturbing anybody. They were peaceful. They were peaceful. When john lewis went across that Edmund Pettus bridge, nobody had weapons. They were peaceful. They were met by weapons. So i dont want us to get confused here. So im going to close out my five minutes here by asking whether or not this disconnect that seems to be between what the white house is saying publicly and what theyre saying out to the states privately . And as we mentioned early in the letter, several of these states seem to be reacting to the public states from the white house and not following the recommendations of the task force that are being sent to them privately. N now, this week a leaked White House CoronavirusTask Force Report paints a very different picture. Ive got the document here these states in the red zone that are refusing to comply, as you heard from us. So im not being pos ghent here. Were trying to save lives. I started my professional career as a Public School teacher. I have a daughter who spent 25 years in the classroom. Shes telling me every day how concerned teachers are about returning to School Without the safety precautions that so Many School Districts have asked us to do. That is what my concern is. Its not about going back to school. I know the value of going to school. I know what it is. To represent a School District where thousands and thousands of children do not have the internet and cannot receive online learning. I want them in the classroom. I want them to be educated, but i want them safe. Thats what this is about. Im not going to ask for an answer. Ive gone over my time. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Ill start with my questions with where the gentleman from South Carolina ended, and thats safely reopening schools. I first want to point out this is a report from the United States department of treasury. As of june 30th, based on the cars act and the 150 billion that we in Congress Working with President Trump sent to the states for various covid19 recovery issues, every state still has billions of dollars remaining in those accounts. I would urge any School System we dont want any School System to open up without safety precautions. In fact, the American Academy of pediatrics lays out really well how to safely reopen schools. The centers for Disease Control lays out very clearly how to safely reopen schools. That includes masks, sanitizers, other supplies. Any local School System that wants to claim they dont have the ability to do that, go straight to your governor. Your governor has billions of dollars in their account that we appropriated sitting there waiting for you to buy supplies. Its fully eligible, we dont need to change a law. Billions of dollars. Every state has money for supplies. If you run out, give us a call. Right now there is money in your states account to buy supplies, masks, sanitizers to safely reopen. But now lets talk about why its so important to safely reopen. Ill ask you dr. Redfield because youve done a lot of work. We see, for example, the District Of Columbia is currently saying theyre not going to reopen with inschool learning. Theres not been a single death of anybody under the age of 19 in the District Of Columbia. In fact, in virginia, youre seeing Northern Virginia take this same closedminded approach, not a single dealt in the entire state of virginia of a person under the age of 19 from covid19. But now lets talk about the danger, the detriment that this is doing to those children. I want to dig deeper into the studies ive seen on some of the things you talked about, mental health, a lack of screening for child abuse. Ive seen that maybe 14,000 cases of child abuse are reported in schools every year. Thats not happening. For those children that are in those Home Settings where the parents are abusing the children, nobody is getting reported because the children are sitting at home. Theyre not right now, in many of these cases, going to be allowed to go in the school where it can be detected. We dont talk about it a lot. Its an unfortunate part of our countrys society. It happens. In children are abused and in so many cases its detected in the school. Thats not going to happen if these schools dont open. Can you talk about those numbers . Have you seen some of that data . Congressman, i can just reemphasize what you said. Its obviously one of the more disturbing consequences of the lack now of that reporting, not just at schools which have been so responsible for mandatorily reporting child abuse, but the other place its sometimes recognized is obviously in the clinical setting. As we know, pediatric visits have been curtailed in a lot of clinical settings. It is a highly significant situation now. You can imagine what it must be like to be one of those currently abused children that has sort of lost their safety nets. I apologize. Were running low on time. I would urge any local School System thats making their decisions, go look at the cdc guidelines, all the data thats out there for teachers, for students, how to safely reopen. You can do it. You owe it to those kids. 50,000 kids in the District Of Columbia, over 50 million children are counting on us to do this right. It can be done. You have to go do it. You owe it to those kids. Theyre being denied that opportunity. Dont deny them. If you need money, theres billions of dollars sitting out there for the supplies to keep the schools safe. Go make it happen. Dr. Fauci, i want to talk to you about operation warp speed. I want to thank you for in your Opening Statement talking about over 250,000 people have signed up for those Clinical Trials. Whats the website again . Coronavirustreatmentprevention. Org. I know a lot of people dont know the details. Of all the plans out there, these are plans some people, including people in this room disagreed with President Trumps decision to stop flights from china. As you testified earlier, its the right decision and it saved lives. I guess theyre okay if more lives would have been lost. They may not agree with the plan, but the plan saved lives. When we talk about warp speed, i do think its real important to note because some people are concerned there might be some cutting of corners to get to a quicker vaccine. Clearly thats not the case. What President Trump really has done is removed red tape so agencies like the fda can laser focus on putting their efforts behind finding a vaccine. President trump worked, for example, to make sure Clinical Trials can be run simultaneously on the most promising candidates, a targeted plan to quickly find a vaccine thats safe. If you want to talk about operation warp speed, how safe its been and how that is helping us to move forward, is red tape being removed by the plan that President Trump has . Yes, it is, congressman. In fact, as i mentioned, and ill reconfirm it right now, is that the speed is not at all at the compromising of safety nor of scientific integrity. Getting from the sequence to the vaccine production was record speed, had nothing to do with safety, nothing to do with cutting corners. From the vaccine to the phase one again was in record speed only because red tape was really avoided. As we got into phase three, the same thing. Have you seen concerns about china trying to steal that information . I understand nih has an investigation going on. Weve seen cases where china is trying to steal this information. Clearly theyre a threat that President Trump is taking on. What have you seen . I have heard theres been tried to be hacking into the websites and the online components of certain of the people who are developing vaccines. Ive just heard that. I have no proof of that. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. I thank the gentleman for yielding back. The chair now recognizes for five minutes ms. Watters. Thank you very much. Let me first say that i was pleased to hear the very, very warm comments about john lewis this morning. We have been memorializing him in so many different ways. But between the press and everybody else, weve been doing him justice for the sacrifices that he has made. Let me just tell you, this virus is not democrat or republican. Im going to send my condolences to the family of herman cain who was a president ial candidate, who was a good friend of the president , who happened to have been at the rally in tulsa june 20th with no mask on, with a group of people around him with no mask on. And hes dead, he died. Im told he was in good health and that he, of course, contracted the virus as a result of his attendance without a mask there. So my condolences to his family. Like i said, this is not democratic or republican. I want to remind the committee that i spoke earlier about the manipulation of hospitalization data and what the president has done, basically ordering hospitals to change how they report hospitalization rates. I drafted an amendment to hr7617, one of the fiscal year 2021 appropriations packages that includes the department of health and human services. My amendment prohibits any funds from being used to require hospital laboratories and acute care facilities to report covid19 data under requirements imposed by the trump administrations new rule was adopted. I look forward to preventing a harm that i believe will lead to senseless and avoidable suffering. Let me go further and say im alarmed about the president is handling socalled information about children and their ability to return to school. This is a president who first called the pandemic a hoax. This is a president who said it was going to just disappear. This is a president who said you dont really need masks, he didnt believe in them. Hes gotten religion in the last few days. This is a president who disregarded social distancing. This is a president who recommended hydroxychloroquine as a cure. This is a president who went so far as saying disinfectant could be used. Now this president , who expects us to believe him rather than the medical experts, is saying children are almost immune. Is that an expert medical conclusion, dr. Fauci, that children whatever that means . What does that mean, children are almost immune from this virus . Well, generally when you say a person is immune, that theyre protected from getting infected. And children do get infected. And so this is not an expert medical conclusion that we have had documented somewhere . Well, i mean if youre talking about a conclusion that children in general are immune, children do get infected. We know that. Therefore, theyre not immune. I must just say, congresswoman, that when children get infected, that when you look at the deleterious consequences, they generally do much, much better. If you look at the hospitalizations, that children have a much, much lower rate of hospitalizations than adults. In fact, the curve goes way up as you get older and older. When you get to the age group of children, they generally do not get serious disease as much. I understand that. Ive been listening. I do understand what you just described. What i was asking really was about this president s latest comment that children are almost immune. So i think i got the answer to that. But let me just say to mr. Scalise, this billions of dollars that youre talking about in every state, i dont know where they are. But you keep referring to supplies. Its more than about supplies. Its more than about being able to wash your hands. Its about space and whether or not all of the schools have the space to do the social distancing. Its about whether or not children are going to wear masks and how thats going to be enforced. Its about how you keep children from gathering. Its about how do you feed them . It is about more than the fact that they need some supplies. Would the gentleman lady yield . Yes, ill lead. Clearly that is all part of ps what is laid out in cdc guidelines, the American Academy of cdc guidelines. Okay. Reclaiming my time. Reclaiming my time. Reclaiming my time. Let me just say this. That all of the professionals are saying that this is a decision that must be made by parents in the communities with the educators, et cetera, et cetera. You cannot hand down an answer from the federal government that, you know, would absolutely protect these children. One decision by the federal government is not sufficient to force these schools to open. I yield back. Thank the gentle lady for yielding back. Before i go to mr. Jordan, let me say to admiral giroir, i understand you need to leave in four minutes. Would there be anything youd like to enter into the record before leaving . No. The reason im leaving is because we have a meeting virtually with all 6,100 of the Commission Corps officers whom i have the honor to lead along with Surgeon General adams. Weve done over 7,200 deployments of 4,000 individuals. Let me tell you, the other 2,000 are hard at work taking care of people at qualified health centers, the Indian Health service or in the prisons. I mean no disrespect by leaving. But this is crunch time for our officers on the front line of the pandemic. I really appreciate the opportunity to recognize them and also to be with my brothers and sisters in uniform. We thank you for your service and we thank you so much for that. I think you might find me either to be the biggest booster in the United States congress for federally qualified Community Health centers. I consider them to be the ultimate safety net in health care, and i have been that way since ive been in the congress. I go back over 50 years with Community Health centers, and i believe in them. Thank you so much for bringing them into the process. With that i yield to mr. Jordan. Five minutes. The right to protest is important, mr. Chairman. I have engaged in it with fellow citizens, peacefully assembling to talk about important Public Policy issues. My guess is everyone on this committee, probably everyone in the United States congress has done the same thing. But i think all the First Amendment is important. Democrats seem to think its just the right to protest. I think all of it. You think about the freedoms we have in the First Amendment, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom to petition your government, freedom of speech. Whats interesting to me is the first one your founders mentioned is the right to practice your faith. Government is putting all kinds of limits on abilities to do that. Democratic mayors and governors have been sued over limiting peoples right to freedom of religion. I want consistency. Thats what i want. In fact, im concerned about the whole constitute. Democratic mayors and governors limited americans rights to exercise their Second Amendment liberties, Closing Stores that allow people to purchase firearms and exercise their Second Amendment liberties. I think its important that americans get an education. Weve got democrats who say, cant go back to school, kids cant go get what they need to put them on the path to achieving the american dream, but boy, they can protest. In portland, in fact, the Teachers Union says we dont want to go back to school, we dont want to teach kids, but theyve encouraged teachers to go protest. The nineweek protest going on in portland where they burn the city every single night, where just last weekend three officers blinded by the lasers that some of these Peaceful Protesters use. Im concerned about all rights, all kinds of americans right now arent permitted to go to work. Maybe its a Small Business they started, put their entire life savings on the line, started this business, have a number of employees whose families are counting on them running their business. What do democraticled governments do . They arrest them if they want to run their business. Ask ian smith and fran frank trumbetta who run a gym in new jersey. The ability to engage in your livelihood, to have your kids get an education, practice your faith are just as important in your mind as protesting. I wish the democrats would look at all the rights we enjoy as americans and make sure theyre dealt with in a consistent fashion. This idea were limiting what people can practice their faith, run their business, employ people, engage in their livelihood after they powerured their entire lives into it is just wrong. You know who else has to go to work . Law enforcement has to go to work. Are you guys tracking whats happening to Law Enforcement at all at these protests . Im not talking about the 49 plaufrs who we Police Officers attacked in chicago, not talking about the three blinded this past weekend in portland, what the seattle chief of police said when she said she cant deploy she had to do an adjusted deployment because the protests are so bad and the defunding process happening in these cities, the chief said she had to do an adjusted deployment and told the citizens, were in the going to be there, youre on your own. Where they are out there, the Police Officers, are you tracking whats happening to them . Not talking about the violence but the exposure they have to the coronavirus, dr. Fauci . Im sorry, sir. What was the question . Are you tracking whats happening to Police Officers and their exposure to the coronavirus while theyre out doing their job . I dont do tracking of the infection. Thats probably more of a cdc question. Is that a concern . You talk about park police have been under siege, Law Enforcement in our municipalities have been attacked. Im just talking about the exposure of the virus when people are yelling and screaming in their face. Are you concerned about that . As i said before, im concerned about any crowds, particularly people who dont wear masks. Im concerned more about indoor crowds than i am at outdoor crowds, but crowds without masks are a problem. Dr. Redfield. We continue to look at the variety of First Responders in some of our surveys, looking at antibody to try to understand what the virus attack rate is. We do have that for some cities. I dont have it for the west coast right now. So you do have that information on some Law Enforcement in some cities . First responders. For example, weve done new york, detroit. Were doing rhode island right now. That would be information that would be helpful to this committee, when i think about what our Law Enforcement is having to endure, particularly at these protests, not just the violence, but the exposure that theyre get together the virus from the protesters. Frankly, i would i wish we would get some something from the other side. The silence on whats happening at these protests and the impact its having on our Law Enforcement i think is just unfortunate. I hope they join us in speaking out against the defund the police concept and everything happening to Law Enforcement around the country. The gentlemans time has expired. As i yield to ms. Maloney, i will say to the gentleman, im sure enough waiting on you to tell me the difference between a First Responder and an essential worker. Just think about that for a moment. All workers are essential. With that ill yield five minutes to ms. Maloney. I thank the chairman and the Ranking Member for this incredibly important hearing and for all of our participants, our witnesses. I have two questions that i think are especially relevant that have not been discussed very much. And one is, what is the task force doing in relation to safeguarding elections . We are going to be all voting in november. Some states have vote by mail. Other states do not. Many people prefer to vote in person. We have guidelines that say social distancing of six feet, but possibly could it be changed to three feet if its going to be more of a hurried participati participation. I think it would be helpful to the American Public if the task force considered and came out with clear guidelines for the professionals working in the board of elections across the country and the people participating in voting. So im making that request. You may want to comment on it now, dr. Fauci, or get back to us. Id be happy to get back to you on that. We could discuss this at a Task Force Meeting if youd like and get back to you. And to the public i would say. Congresswoman, if i could just comment. Cdc did in march and updated in june guidelines for polling facilities. Well obviously be looking at that to see if they need to be updated more. We do have an mmwr coming out this week looking at the primary results in out this week looking at the primary results in wisconsin. So this is an area were trying to make sure the Polling Centers and people who go to Polling Centers to vote, understand the importance of the guidance we can give. That would be very, very helpful. Secondly, as a former teacher, im concerned about the contradiction in messaging. As a teacher, were taught to get your facts straight and then communicate it very simply and directly. So the task force will come out with very important, relevant information, and i try to follow it all religiously, but then its countered by other leaders. This i think underscores or undermines the ability of the public to respond. And maybe you could get back to me on that. But i also want to talk about something i think is very important, that people are really not discussing, and that is the turnaround time on testing. And in new york, we are working very hard, not only in supplying the tests, but were also trying to trace and isolate. And the professionals working in this area say they have to wait so long, especially if its a private test from quest or something, the turnaround time is like a week or 16 days in some cases. So then they cant really trace, because by the time they get the results of the test to start tracing and isolating, its too late. So i would like both of you to comment on it. This is something that my city is working very, very hard to respond professionally to everything youre recommending. But they tell me theyre having a terrible time trying to implement the tracing and the isolation, and they nail it on the turnaround time from the test is too slow. Maybe i can just summarize what he had said both in his Opening Statement and upon response to a question. Theres no doubt that if you have to wait multiple days for the test for contact tracing, that in many respects obviates the purpose of doing it. One of the ways to prevent that and mitigate that for a bit is if a person goes in for a test, they should assume it might be positive and should essentially isolate themselves until they go back and get the response to the test. Admiral giroir had said the reason for that is there is such a demand for tests, theyre trying to overcome for that by trying to separate the test sample to one group and let the testing that has to do to determine if an individual is infected, to be able to cut that down. He explained that, but as i said, hes much more capable of giving us the precise numbers. But it is an issue if you cant get it within a 24, 48hour period. Thank you. I yield back. I thank the gentlelady for yielding back. The chair now recognizes mr. Luptemeyer for five mips. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I always ask people to try and keep in perspective the disease, the solutions, the other things that are out there. I asked the question a while ago with regards to attention on covid and the seeming lack of that for a while on the rest of our health care needs. Another situation that i think is concerning is, as we open up our schools, one of the things that you know, we look at the damage and concern we have for the Childrens Health care, but yet i did a Little Research on football injuries. Were almost in the same neighborhood with the deaths, not taking into account the severe or lifetime injuries sustained by young men playing football in high school versus the total deaths that would be anticipated from opening or reopening our schools. I dont see any outcry about that. So perspective to me is something we always need to consider. One of the things that concerns me also is, i wish that admiral giroir was here, i asked this question of him the last time he was here and we didnt have enough time to continue our discussion on it, but it was with regards to the sort of perverse incentive for the medical folks to claim that somebody died of covid versus, as long as you have covid in your system, you get to claim it as a covid death and you get to claim more money. The statistics were getting from the states are inflated. We found the governor of colorado, who is a democrat, actually did research on this and found he had to get rid of 12 of the deaths that were recorded in his state. Dr. Redfield, would you like to comment on that a little bit, about the perverse incentive and is there an effort to try and do Something Different in a way these deaths are recorded so we have better records, better numbers, better data to go with . Thank you, congressman, i think youre correct, weve seen this in other disease processes too, in the hiv epidemic, someone may have a heart attack but may also have hiv and the hospital may consider the hiv because of reimbursement. Ultimately its how the physician defines it on the death certificate and the group in hyattsville, we review all those death certificates. I think its probably less operable in the cause of death, although i wont say there are not some cases. I do think, though, when it comes to hospital reimbursement issues for individuals that get discharged, there could be some play in that for sure. The admiral certainly acknowledged that last time he was here so i think thats very concerning. Dr. Fauci, one of the things, you made a comment a while ago with regards to hydroxychloroquine. And i have an article here that quotes the Henry Ford Health system who did an extensive study on hydroxychloroquine and they say it significantly reduces the death rate of covid patients. The study was highly analyzed and peerreviewed unlike many other studies. And quoting the executive officer, as doctors and scientists we looked at the data for insight and the data here was clear, there was a benefit to using the drug for sick and hospitalized patients. In talking with a lot of older doctors, ive been around a while, i trust their judgment, and their use of hydroxychloroquine, they say that the initial studies didnt really use zinc with it and they say zinc is an enabler to be able to help hydroxychloroquine actually do its job of going after and reducing deaths in patients. I had a long conversation with a doctor earlier in the week and he said as long as zinc is there it definitely works, without it, its minimally effective. Would you like to comment on that . Thank you for the opportunity to comment. The Henry Ford Hospital study that was published was a noncontrolled retrospective cohort study that was confounded by a number of issues including the fact that many of the people who were receiving hydroxychloroquine were also receiving corticosteroids which we know from another study gives a clear benefit in reducing deaths with advanced disease. So that study is a flawed study and i think anyone who examines it carefully, it is not a randomized placebo controlled trial. Its peerreviewed. It doesnt matter. You can peer review something that is a bad study. But the fact is it is not a randomized placebo controlled trial. We all want to keep an open mind. Any and all of the randomized placebo controlled trials, which is the Gold Standard of determining if something is effective, none of them have shown any efficacy for hydroxychloroquine. Having said that, i will state, when i do see a randomized placebo controlled trial that looks at any aspect of hydroxychloroquine, either early study, middle study, or late, if that randomized placebo controlled trial shows efficacy, i would be the first one to admit it and to promote it. But i have not seen yet a randomized placebo controlled trial thats done that. And in fact every randomized placebo controlled trial that has looked at it has shown no efficacy. So i just have to go with the data. I dont have any horse in the game one way or the other. I just look at the data. Thank you very much. I yield. The gentlemans time has expired. The chair now recognizes for five minutes ms. Velazquez. You want to yield to kim . Mr. Kim is now recognized for five minutes. Thank you. I wanted to start here picking up where i left off, i started my last question line asking each of you if our federal government was doing Everything Possible to be able to respond and each of you said, within the capabilities of our government, that we were. The reason i wanted to address this is, when we talk about a National Testing strategy or greater coordination on personal protective equipment, what ive heard over and over again is that its about where the responsibility is. Is this the responsibility of the federal government or the responsibility of states or localities. When i talk to the people in my district, what they want to know is about capabilities. And they really dont want to just see this kind of bralame gn between different parts of our government. They ask if were doing everything humanly possible to be able to address this crisis and is every level of government including the federal government doing everything we can to deal with this and if not, the American People deserve to know why. Dr. Fauci, just to be clear, when i asked you this, and you