Television provider. White House Coronavirus Task force members dr. Anthony fauci eat, cdc director dr. Robert redfield, and fda commissioner dr. Steven hahn testified at a Senate Hearing on the governments response to covid19 and reOpening Schools. The panel addressed the recent spike in positive coronavirus cases. Dr. Fauci also warned that the u. S. Could see up to 100,000 new cases a day. Other topics included progress on a covid19 vaccine and news of a new swine for. Mr. Alexander the committee on health, education, labor and pensions will please come to order. First, some administrative matters based on the advice of the attending physician and the sergeant at arms after consulting with the department of health and Human Services and the centers for Disease Control. Individuals are seated 6 feet apart. As a result theres no need for , the public to attend in person. Representatives of the press are working as a pool. In person. Representatives of the press are working as a pool. The hearing may be watched online and unedited recording will be available on our website www. Health. Sena www. Health. Sena www. Health. Senate. Gov. Some senators are participating by videoconference. Id like to say a word about masks. We may remove our masks and talk into the microphone as long as were 6 feet apart. So thats why my mask is off right now because im 6 feet away from everybody else. But like many other senators when im walking the hallways or on the senate floor im wearing a mask. People wear a mask because cdc has said, quote, simple cloth coverings slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others. Unfortunately, this simple lifesaving practice has become part of the political debate that says this. If youre for trump you dont wear a mask. If youre against trump, you do. Thats why ive suggested at the president occasionally wear a mask even though in most cases its not necessary for him to do so. The president has plenty of admirers. They would follow his lead. Tmd help end this political debate. The stakes are too high for this political debate about protrump, antitrump masks to continue. Around here senators and staff wear mask because we dont want to make each other sick. For example, i was exposed to covid19. My prosymptomatic staff member on my way to Dulles Airport and as a result had to selfquarantine for two weeks. The Center Physician said one reason i didnt become infected because the staff member was wearing a mask and that in the physicians word, greatly reduced the chances of exposure. Its also a pretty good way to make a statement. I like to wear my plaid mask. Dr. Fauci uses his mask to demonstrate his loyalty to the washington nationals. Senator kaine is either a cowboy or a bandit. Im never sure which. If you want College Football to return this fall here is what coach Philip Fullmer says. If you really, really want to see some football this fall wear a mask. The United States is in the midst offense a very concerning rise in covid19 cases and hospitalizations in many states. The experts in front of us have told us that washing our hands, staying apart and wearing a mask are three of the most important ways to contain the disease and slow the spread of the virus. Im grateful to the rules committee, the sergeant at arms, the press gallery, the capitol police, our Committee Staff both democratic and republican, chung czech and Evan Griffith and to keep us safe. Well turn to our witnesses who we thank for being with us today. We ask you to summarize your testimony in five minutes, and then the senators will have a chance to ask a five minute round of questions. We have full participation today it looks like. Should be an interesting morning. Among the casualties of this dangerous and very sneaky covid19 virus are the 75 Million Students who were sent home from school and college in march. Add to the casualties the teachers who werent prepared to teach remotely and the working parents who suddenly had children at home and werent prepared to home school. Add the lost sports seasons and the once in a lifetime graduation opportunities, and then they were unprecedented dilemmas for administrators in inadequate school budgets. Being sent home from school doesnt rank with the sickness and death the virus has caused. The United States has over 2. 5 million cases over the virus and over 125,000 deaths according to john hopkins. While states and communities continue to take action to keep people safe nothing, though, was more disruptive to American Life and nothing was headed back toward normalcy more rapidly than for those public and private schools and 6,000 colleges to reopen this fall. Earlier this month this Committee Heard from College President s and School Leaders about their plans for safely reopening this fall. This hearing is an opportunity for an update and to hear from the nations Top Health Experts on how head masters, principals, superintendents, chancellors and College President s can open their schools safely just a few weeks from now. This Committee Last heard from todays four witnesses on may 12th when three of the four were quarantined and most of the senators were participating virtually. That was one of the first Senate Hearings in history and surely the best watched. Every network carried the 2 1 2 hours of questions and statements from senators. The question before the country today is not weather to the go back to school or college or child care or work but how to do it safely. Even though covid19 is not in general hurt Young Children and College Age Students nearly as much as older and more vulnerable americans there is some health risk. When in my view the greater risk is not going back to school. Guidance for reOpening Schools from the American Academy of pediatricians tells schools the following. Our academy strongly believes all considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school. The academy continues the importance of inperson learning is well documented. As theres already evidence of negative impacts on children because of School Closures in the spring of 2020. Lengthy time away from school and associated interruption of Supportive Services often results in social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits as well as child and as lessant physical and sexual abuse, substance use, depression and suicidal ideation. This in turn places children and adolescents of mormidity and in some cases mortality. Beyond the Economic Impact and social impact of School Closures theres been impact on Food Security on children and families as the American Academy of pediatricians. The incoming president of the massachusetts chapter of that academy of pediatricians told reporters while for most children covid19 has not had the devastating and life threatening physical Health Effects that have occurred in adults the negative impact on their education, Mental Health and social development has been substantial, unquote. Nothing can take the place of the daily facetoface interaction our children experience when attending school in person, dr. Fisher said. Many american colleges overall considered the best in the world will be permanently damaged or even closed if they remain in Brown University president s christina paxtens words ghost towns. Mitch daniels, the president of perd perdue wrote in a the Washington Post oped, quote, failure to take care of the job reopening would not only be unscientific but also an unacceptable breach of duty. So today in addition to hearing more about the concerning rise in cases in hospitalizations in some states id like to ask our witnesses and their statements and answers to questions to put yourselves in the place of one of americas approximately 14,000 superintendents of School Districts or the principal and headmaster of one of 135,000 schools or as president or chancellor of one of 6,000 colleges and help them answer the question of how to reopen schools and colleges safely. So, dr. Fauci, i hope in your Opening Statement or answers to questions youll suggest steps a superintendent might take to open schools sifly and not only how to keep children safe but to keep safe the adults, teachers, parents, grandparents with whom they come in contact. Dr. Hahn, will there be treatments or medicines this fall that will help speed the recovery from covid19 or reduce the possibility of death . I believe the fear of going back to school or going anywhere these days is in large part because of the fear of severe illness or even death. If that risk can be lessened by new treatments it should increase confidence in going back to school. Id also like to commend dr. Hahn and the work the fda did to get tests on the market quickly as possible to help understand the spread of the virus. Since then fda has worked out which tests have not worked as well as they should and taken step tuesday remove them from the market. Thats whats supposed to happen in the urgency of a pandemic. Admiral, in our last hearing you said you expected there to be 40 to 50 million diagnostic tests available each month by september. Is that still true . And exactly how does the School District go about making sure it gets those tests, and who pays for them . What are the prospects in the shark taj at the National Institutes of health that there will be new, reliable and inexpensive tests so we can have even more widespread testing . And dr. Redfield, youre continuing to work on updated guidelines about going back to school and college safely, and are cdc employees going to be available in our states to help work with School Districts to develop their plans, and what advice do you have about the arrival of the flu season this fall at the same time as covid19 . This is a lot to discuss, but there will be time during the next 2 1 2 hours to answer most of those questions. Let me quickly highlight three areas that have come up in our four earlier hearings this month that i think need clarification, first on Contact Tracing. No doubt Contact Tracing is crucially important. It identifies the people who might have been exposed so that people who dont so that they dont in turn expose someone else. According to an npr report on june 18th states have already hired at least 37,000 contact tracers. State officials at John Hopkins Center for Health Security issued a report estimating the need for as many as 100,000 contact tracers. Several reports suggested congress appropriate money to pay for those tracers. The reality is Congress Already has. On april 24th congress appropriated 11 billion, which has been sent to states and tribes for the expenses of testing. That legislation explicitly said the money could be used for Contact Tracing. This is in addition to 755 million from the first emergency appropriations legislation on march 6th that could be used for Contact Tracing. And thats in addition to the march 27 legislation in which congress appropriated 150 billion i mean, 1. 5 billion in the cares act for states, territories and tribes to use for covid preparedness and response. The cares act also included the 150 billion to states, but a significant amount of that 150 billion has not been spent even though it is all designated for expenses related to covid19 which include Contact Tracing. For example, tennessees governor has told me hes reserving as much as a billion of that so he could determine and Washington State has not spent as much as 1. 2 billion. Missouri state treasury says theyve not spent about a billion. According to a report by state Health Officials in john hopkins an average salary for a contact tracer would be a little more than 35,000. This adds up to about 3. 4 billion, so the point is congress has already sent to states plenty of money to hire all the contact tracers that are needed. Second, who pays for the testing . In the cares act congress voted to make all covid19 tests available to patients at no cost. This meant insurers would cover diagnostic tests, which detect whether a person is currently infected with the virus. And also antibody tests which indicate whether a person has had covid19 in the past and now may have some protection in the future. Guidance from the labor department, Treasury Department and centers for medicare and Medicaid Services said last week that insurers were only required to pay for tests without patient cost sharing if a Doctor Orders it. I agree with that. But given that the cdc specifically recommends doctors order tests in two situations when a person has signs or symptoms of covid19 or recently had contact with someone known or suspected to have covid19 who pays for thesing at other times. I believe congress will need to take action to further clarify who pays for the testing at other times. For example, the school may want to do random testing. Perhaps it should make an arrangement with the state to pay for that. Or perhaps Congress Needs to provide more money to pay for that. If an auto maker wants to test all its employees at the plant every two weeks perhaps the auto maker should pay for that or perhaps the statewide want to pay for that. That needs to be clarified. Finally flu shots. Cdc has said more people need to get flu shots this fall so Health Care Workers can getter distinguish between covid19 and the flu. Cdc says a priority for all children over the age of 6 months to be vaccinated for the flu so they dont become sick and pass it to more vulnerable populations who can have more severe consequences. On january 24th. Senator bernie and i hosted our first bipartisan briefing on coronavirus at a time when there were only four cases in the United States. Since then this committee has had four more briefings. Today is our eighth hearing on coronavirus in u. S. Preparedness. Last weeks hearing was about steps to take this year while our eye on is on the ball to better prepare for the next pandemic. Ive issued a white paper outlining five recommendations for congress to prepare americans for the next pandemic, and that paper has received more than 350 substantive comments that are available to all members of the committee. After all senators have had a chance to ask their questions i will conclude the hearing by asking our witnesses if they have twoe or three suggestions about steps congress should take this year to deal with the next pandemic most of which will also help with this one. But this hearing is about what happens now. As administrators prepare to open schools and colleges, experts underestimated this dangerous and sneaky virus and theres still much more we dont know about it. But we do know the basic steps to take to open schools and colleges in 2020 before there is a vaccine, and those are these. Social distance, wear a mask, wash your hands, test, contact trace, and isolate those expoelexposed or sick. And hopefully by the fall there will be treatments to make the consequences of the disease less severe. I look forward to hearing from our distinguished witnesses, School Leaders and College President s can safely reopen 135,000 schools and 6,000 colleges and also learning the latest developments on testing and treatments that we can expect during the year 2020 before vaccines arrive. Senator murray. Well, thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of our witnesses for joining us here today, and of course thank you our staff for setting up the technology so we can hold this hearing safely. I want to get to the point quickly, and im going to be blunt about it. The covid19 response in our country is still a disaster. 126,000 lives lost was once considered an estimate on the high end of the spectrum. But the year is just halfway over and it is now a grim reality. We have lost more americans to covid19 than we lose to the flu each year, than we lost to the Opioid Crisis last year, and more lives than weve lost in every american war except the civil war and world war ii. And despite what President Trump claims this pandemic is not fading. Far from it. Several states are seeing rapid record setting increases, and the country just saw its largest single day increase to date. And while this Public Health crisis rages across the country weve seen a leadership crisis raging in the