Chair clyburn Ranking Member scalise and members, thank you for joining us today. The impact of the coronavirus on essential Frontline Workers and the steps the federal government can take to better protect these workers. The coronavirus pandemic has already killed more than 90,000 thancans, more deaths any other nation. Throughout this crisis, our nations essential workers have continued to serve their communities at Great Potential risk to themselves and their families. They are the true heroes of this crisis. I am deeply honored that several of these heroes have joined us today. These heroes treat patients who are sick with the virus and confront comfort the families of those who have lost loved ones. Callsespond to emergency and keep our communities safe. Stock our grocery and drugstore shelves. They keep our transit systems running, and they clean our hospitals and offices to protect prevent the virus from spreading further. Tens of thousands of essential workers have been infected with the virus, and many have lost their lives. Im particularly concerned that many essential workers still lack basic protections that are needed to keep them and their families safe and healthy. That must change. Unacceptable four months into this Public Health crisis that many frontline medical professionals and other essential workers still face shortages of critical supplies like masks and hospital gowns. These shortages must be acknowledged and immediate steps must be taken to procure and distribute these necessary supplies. Briefing, this subcommittee heard from two former fda directors and other bipartisan Public Health experts who warned that safely reopening our economy requires a comprehensive, nationwide strategy for testing, tracing, isolation, and treatment. Protections for essential workers must be a cornerstone of that strategy. Otherwise, these workers will be just will be put at an even greater risk as states begin to reopen and we all face a greater risk of a second wave. Essential workers across the United States have made sacrifices to serve their communities during these dark times. We owe them our thanks and much more. Them therovide protections they need, the support, and paid leave they deserve, and declare publichealth guidance that is critical to prevent further harm. Hear the stories of some of these workers. We will hear from Leilani Jordans mother, a 27yearold woman who continued to work at the Grocery Store during the pandemic in order to serve her neighbors and community. To passed away due coronavirus. We are honored to be joined today by ms. Jordans mother, zenobia shepherd. We will also hear the story of a bus driver from detroit, who died from the coronavirus. And we are honored to have his friend and fellow bus driver, eric colts, with us today. The committee will hear today about the stress and anguish faced by essential workers who fear spreading the virus to loved ones and have been forced to isolate themselves from their children and their families. We will also hear about the Financial Stress that forced many low income americans to keep showing up to work, despite the risk. And we will hear from First Responders, who battle the pandemic at the peak of the crisis in some of the hardest hit areas of the country, including new york city. Have cities and states been literally begging the federal government for months to provide more resources to , and manyese workers are still waiting. Today, witnesses have agreed to share their stories with us, including the incredible painful loss of their family members and friends. I hope we can honor their loved ones and ease their suffering by conducting todays proceedings manner. Ly bipartisan i hope we can find out about the needs and how we can fulfill them. I will now yield to distinguished Ranking Member mr. Scalise for opening remarks. Scalise thank you, mr. Chairman. I join all the members of our subcommittee in thanking the witnesses. We thank not just our witnesses that are here today with us, but all of those frontline heroes, nurses, doctors, emts, Grocery Store workers, truck drivers, janitors, factory workers in those essential industries. Mr. Chairman, there are millions of americans all across this country who have responded to this call. We mourn everyone who has died from this evil virus, and i share with you in welcoming those members that have loved ones and friends that have been some of the tragic victims of this virus. Too many families have been unable to say goodbye. Too Many Americans have lost their jobs or their businesses. Too Many Americans and students had their education interrupted. But because of people all across the country, like the witnesses we have today, the virus has met its match. It will be defeated. Americans do not hide from a fight, mr. Chairman. We dont back down. We will confront this challenge, like we confronted so many others in our nations history. The select subcommittee must honor those heroes by focusing on helping families get back on their feet, by helping businesses safely reopen, and by Holding China and the World Health Organization accountable. China moved, in january, to contain the outbreak domestically, yet they allowed the virus to spread to america and other nations all around the globe. Yesterday, the republicans on the subcommittee sent a letter urging you to immediately call on World Health Organization director general teodros and the Chinese Ambassador to the United States to testify. We requested to hold a hearing in person at the capital, but we are doing this by webex. We do know this, mr. Chairman china lied to the world about this disease. During critical periods in december and january, china withheld evidence of the virus, evidence that confirmed there was human to human transmission of the virus, evidence of the extent of the spread. Of americand entry and other medical experts from around the world for weeks. Our medical experts wanted to go in. There medical experts wanted us to go in, but it was the kind hes the Chinese Communist party who said no, because they wanted to hide what was happening from the world. During this time, they hoarded , the ppeal supplies that we have been so fervently trying to get manufactured in america. They hoarded those supplies. Masks, gowns, other lifesaving ppe. They hoarded it for themselves and imported it from other countries while they were hiding from the world what was really going on. This is something that the Chinese Communist party directed. We need to look into this, mr. Chairman. China knew the danger posed by the virus, and while they hid the truth, they used that time to stock up on not just ppe, but other vital medical supplies that they still poured to this day hoard to this day. While chinese authorities limited to domestic flights from wuhan to other domestic cities like beijing and shanghai, the china government urged International Carriers to maintain their flight schedules, seeding the virus throughout the rest of the world while they knew what was going on in their country. The who received warnings of human to human transmission of covid19 from the taiwanese government in late december of 2019, but they failed to act on that information. For more than two weeks in january, the who made a series of public proclamations that human to human transmission was not occurring, despite mounting evidence all across world to the contrary. And late january, the head of the who praised chinese president xi jinping for, quote, the seriousness with which china is taking this outbreak, especially the commitment from top leadership and the transparency they have demonstrated. Of course, mr. Chairman, we know this all turned out not to be true. At the time of that announcement, the whos International Expert had not even been granted access to china. Mr. Chairman, america has embarked on an unprecedented response to this challenge for the past few months. We are testing over 300,000 people a day, and that number keeps growing. HasTrump Administration procured hundreds of millions of ppe supplies from all across the globe, to provide for our Health Care Workers on the front lines combating this crisis. We all work to continue to increase that number, especially to bring that manufacturing back to the United States, so we dont rely on countries like china, who are porting this hoarding this. There are all kinds of numbers on the increases of respirators, masks, face shields, gowns, gloves. America has paid too high a price for chinas lies. This subcommittee owes it to all of our frontline heroes to expose the truth and to hold china accountable. I urge the here the chairman to schedule a hearing on this scandal as soon as possible. With that, mr. Chairman, i will yield back. Chair clyburn thank you very much, mr. Ranking member. Now i would like to introduce the essential workers and their family members who are with us today. Ranney is an emergency physician and associate professor at brown university. She has treated patients with coronavirus and helped start an organization to assist Health Care Providers in need of personal protective equipment. Talisa hardin is a registered nurse at the university of Chicago Medical Center and chief nurse representative of National Nurses united. Thata works in a unit treats patients suspected of having coronavirus. Withcolts is a bus driver the Detroit Department of transportation, who i mentioned earlier. Wilson is an emergency medical technician with new york fire department. Miss wilson has responded to emergency calls for those experiencing severe coronavirus symptoms. Custodian at is a Pacific Gas Electric in san francisco, where he cleans and sanitizes offices. Acres is a pulmonary and Critical Care physician in albany, georgia, an area hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak. Of thes managing partner of aurant group in new Restaurant Group in new orleans. Zenobia shepherd is a decorated navy veteran and mother of leilani jordan, who i also spoke of earlier. All, for being here today to share your stories. With that, i would recognize dr. Ranney for her opening remarks. Dr. Ranney. Chairmany thank you, clyburn and Ranking Member scullys and the rest of the theers scalise and rest of the members of the committee. I would also like to thank the other panelists for being out there and doing their jobs during this crazy pandemic. Im an emergency physician, as chairman clyburn mentioned, and a Public Health researcher at brown university, and today im going to share my perspective from three vantage point. First, the shortage of personal protective equipment. Second, the physical and mental effects on er docs and other frontline medical workers. Third, what comes next from our perspective . The lives of every Health Care Worker across the country changed for the worse two months ago. My own Hospital System had been preparing for the pandemic since the coronavirus was first reported. We had done our best to build up stores of masks and gowns. The number of patients coming through our doors started to skyrocket. Our ppe burn rate, the number of masks and gowns used every day, had gone through the roof. Supply had dried up. We were running out of essential protective year around the country, and there was no more to be had. Overseas manufacturing had been diverted to other hotspots like italy. A National Stockpile was inadequate and quickly depleted. We internally had not ramped up our u. S. Production in time. We were told by the u. S. Centers of Disease Control to use bandanas when we ran out of masks. Dan dennis have no utility in a Health Care Setting bandanas have no utility in a Health Care Setting. Frontline workers, like all of us joining today, were unable to protect ourselves from being infected. As a result, over the last two months, i have innumerable colleagues across the country who have been infected by covid19, many who have been hospitalized, and some have died. In emergency medicine, we are used to doing without. Every single day, Emergency Departments across this country have our finger in the tykes of the broken American Health care theem in the dikes of broken Health Care System. Our patients were alone, no visitors allowed. We Health Care Workers were scared, both of getting sick ourselves and scared of failing our patients. Because of the shortages of ppe, we couldnt sit at their bedsides and hold their hands. Because of lack of scientific knowledge and lack of supplies, we often couldnt save them. We began running out of not just ppe, but also other essential supplies, basic medicines like the ones we use to sedate patient on a ventilator, basic supplies like the plastic spacers we used to administer albuterol, a treatment for asthma. We were operating with levels of supplies and facing ethical dilemmas about who to give treatment to that we would never normally tolerate in the United States. As a result, many of us on the front lines felt abandoned, like we were on our own, and the secondary trauma from this experience is only just beginning to be felt. Personally, i am frustrated and exhausted. On behalf of my colleagues, we are seeing higher levels of burnout, anxiety, sleeplessness, depression, ptsd, and much worse. One of my colleagues, a fellow emergency physician, died of suicide less than a month ago, faced with covid19 herself and trying to run an Emergency Department that couldnt take care of the number of patients coming through the doors. Said, im also here to talk about hope and solutions. As mentioned in the early days pandemic, i and other Health Care Workers began to speak out on twitter and other Media Outlets about the shortages of ppe, lack of testing, and lack of supplies. Very quickly seeing there was no one coming to save us, we decided to band together and create an organization, get us ppe, whose original goal was to match donated protective equipment from nonmedical settings to Health Care Workers across the country. We wanted to distribute ppe equitably, so we didnt just go to the big name hospitals, but to everyone, whether in a hospital, nursing home, other frontline Health Care Workers in desperate need. Within a week, we had received requests from over 1000 facilities. Within a month, we had received more than 7000 requests from every state in our union, as well as puerto rico. And in collaboration with regional and corporate partners, over the first month of existence, with med students in chicago, boston scientific, our tribal nations, even amazon, we delivered well over 1. 6 one million pieces of protective equipment 1. 6 one million pieces of protective equipment 1. 6 million pieces of protective equipment. Early on, everyone needed surgical masks. Now we see the need for gowns, wipes, and other essential needs. One thing is clear, the ppe shortage continues in america. As long as this virus is here, we need a more stable and predictable solution then what we are able to provide as volunteers and donors. Over the past two months, i have seen the best, but also the worst of our country. I have hope based on the ingenuity and kindness of americans across this great nation, but we need your help, from the federal government. The heroes act is a beginning, but we must adequately ramp up manufacturing, increase the stockpile available, enhance our data on protective equipment and other medical supply deeds equipment ensure this is distributed equitably to everyone who needs it, not just the doctors and nurses, but all of the other workers who are speaking on this panel today. With that, i will close. I thank you for your time, your dedication to keeping us all healthy and safe, and to creating a Public Health response that will protect our communities. Thank you. Chair clyburn thank you, dr. Ranny. Now we will thank you, dr. Ranney. Now we will hear from miss hardin. Ms. Hardin good morning. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my experiences with you today. My name is talisa hardin. Im a registered nurse at the university of Chicago Medical Center, and im a proud member of National Nurses united, the Largest Union for registered nurses in the United States. Icu, and the burn since the pandemic began our unit has been operating as a pui, person under investigation for covid19 unit. Patients come to our unit when they are being tested for coronavirus. When they test positive, they are sent to the covid unit. Our unit is a revolving door for covid19. The percentage of patients who eventually test positive is very high, but our Hospital Management has consistently refu