Coronavirus pandemic with dr. Redfield. [inaudible chatter] appropriations subcommittee on labor, health, human services, education, and related agents these will come to order. Witnessesthank our for appearing before the subcommittee today to provide an update on where we are on the areas that they are so involved in on covid19. Challengednue to be by this pandemic in the country, we know that 195,000 961 americans have died as part of the pandemic and 6. 6 million have tested positive during the process of testing in the pandemic. 6. 6 million have tested positive during the process of testing in the pandemic. This has rapidly swept across the globe, and even countries who thought their cases were contained are facing new outbreaks and dealing with those new and unanticipated outbreaks. This is a new disease in many ways. And even after 9 months we still know relatively little about this disease or coronavirus generally. This has hindered our Public Health response. In many ways this has been like trying to build a plane while we were flying the plane, and that is a challenging, challenging thing to deal with. Thats not to fully exonerate certainly the way the administration has dealt with it or the way its been funded, and im sure that justified criticisms can and will be leveled. But history allows us to look back over past events and to put current ones into perspective. If we wanted to look back just 6 years to 2014 for instance when west africa faced the largest Ebola Outbreak the world had ever seen and unlike covid19 we knew a lot about ebola at the time. The disease has been around since the mid70s. It was a disease scientifically we knew a lot more about in 2014 than we do about covid19 even today. And frankly we just didnt handle it very well. We made significant mistakes, and weve seen those mistakes occur in other disease areas. Members of congress use words when they talk about the cdc response like cryptic and misleading and thought the information provided wasnt enough. We even had a case found in a dallas hospital and the cdc director blamed the hospital. At the same time one of the nurses in the hospital was allowed to board a commercial flight with cdcs consent. So we seem to keep having to learn these lessons over and over again that we have to be better prepared. Public health is hard and it seems to be hard for us to keep our eye on what might happen in the future once we get beyond that moment. We should have learned and more importantly implemented more than we did from ebola or from h1n1. Hope wale well do a better job learning the lessons we need to learn right now. We know that in our committee weve worked hard in the last 6 years and in the last five budgets in a bipartisan manner to increase the funding in the annual Appropriations Bills for nih by nearly 40 , for cdc by 21 . And for preparedness by 44 . But those numbers all have to be coming together before we begin to use them the way that our Witnesses Today or this committee would like to see them used. Weve proven in our committee that medical research, Public Health preparedness are all priorities. And because weve done so we were more ready than we were at the last time or hopefully more ready in the future for the next pandemic. Right now 238 fda emergency use authorizations for diagnostic or antigen tests are on the market. And every day we get closer to an affordable reliable rapid test where you can get an answer in a way that allows us to really fight the pandemic rather than have another data point. In a few years when someone gives a History Lesson about covid19 response there will be criticism. Itll go back about 20 years, and it will be significant. But i know there are things we all agree on. We need to have more investment in testing, more resources for our candidates to finish their trials, manufacture the vaccine and for cdc to distribute through a vetted, well thought out plan. I hope we learn more about, and im going to insist we learn more about all those things today. I hope we might be able to include child care in our hearing today. We werent able to do that because of time, but clearly if youre going to get back to school, back to work and back to Better Health child care has to be part of that and something this committee has to stay focused on. So, again, welcome our witnesses. And senator murray and joining us from her office, i believe. And senator murray, were ready for your opening comments. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. And thank you to all our witnesses joining us today. You know, as our country approaches a tragic milestone in this pandemic 200,000 dead, i want to recognize that our Rising National death count represents countless personal losses. Families have lost parents and grandparents and children. Communities have lost educators and Health Care Providers and other front line workers. And people have not only lost loved ones but many have lost the small solace of being able to visit and comfort those they care about in their final moments. My heart goes out to everyone struggling with the hardship caused by this virus. Whether theyre suffering with the loss of life or livelihood. You all deserve leaders who take this crisis seriously, who take action to support and protect you, your family and your community. Who arm you with the facts you need to stay safe. Unfortunately, we have yet to see that leadership from the president. Like Many Americans i was deeply angered last week to hear President Trump admitting that even though he understood covid19 was more deadly than even your strenuous flu, thats a quote, he was intentionally playing down this crisis. But i was not surprised. These recordings were not a revelation. The reality has been painfully obvious for months. Early on President Trump not only claimed this virus was contained, controlled, going away, he claimed it was a democratic hoax. His Vice President wrote on an oped arguing that there would be no second wave just before we saw a heart breaking and record breaking increase in new cases and deaths across our country. When it came to testing, President Trump didnt just say he took no responsibility at all. He said he liked the numbers where they were. He said he wanted to slow down testing. And he blamed testing for the rise in case numbers. When it came to Wearing Masks he not only said that masks caused problems, too, he also shared a tweet saying masks represent a culture of silence, slavery and social death. And a video falsely claiming people dont need to wear masks and there is no cure. He made false claims on treatments as well, continuing to promote hydroxcl hydroxclori. And hes still saying weve rounded the final turn. Dr. Fauci is saying thats not true and pointed out weve plateaued at around 40,000 cases a day. That daily deaths are still regularly around 1,000. And experts have kwarned we still need to prepare for a fall wave that will coincide with the flu season. President trump has not been listening to the Public Health experts. He has been fighting them and suggesting fda is part of a deep state conspiracy and cdc is overstating the death count. But not only is he spreading inaccuracies and outright lies at a time when truth is a matter of life and death and trust trust in our Public Health agencies is paramount, his administration has been recklessly interfering with the work of these agencies for political benefit to promote unproven treatments, alter cdc guidance on reopening and testing and more. Just over the last week we have learned that President Trump put pressure on nih and fda to authorize convalescent plasma as a treatment and that political appointees at hhs have worked unsuccessfully to dictate talking points for dr. Fauci and has succeeded in demanding oversight of and changes to cdcs flagship scientific publication, the morbidity and mortality weekly report. That publication is a cornerstone of Public Health work across the world. It is dangerous and unprecedented that political appointees are editing, sensoring and ultimately undermining a report that is intended to give families, Public Health professionals, researchers and Health Care Providers what they need the truth. Trump Administration Political meddling shows a dangerous disregard for truth, facts, science, and most importantly peoples lives merchandise data and science are key tools in our fight against any health crisis. And the damage being done to public frust in those tools by this administration threatens to undermine our ability to respond to this pandemic, public truts in an eventual vaccine and Public Health efforts for years to come. The Trump Administration needs to leave the science to the scientists immediately. Full stop. The leaders of our Public Health agencies need to provide a full account of what political pressure has been applied and what steps they are taking to make sure it does not influence their work or the work of the agencies they lead. Congress needs to act now to demand the transparency we need to hold this administration accountable. Democrats will be laying out steps soon for how we can do that, and i hope every republican who has said they believe we need to follow the science will prove it by working with us on this because you cannot be for science if you arent against political interference. I also hope republicans will come to the table to work with us in earnest on a larger covid19 package that our communities so desperately need. Unfortunately, theyve not taken this seriously so far. And when democrats put forward the heroes act back in may republicans said there was no rush, they would wait to see if more was needed. When republicans finally did put forward a proposal months later it was woefully inadequate to address the crisis at had. While democrats have moved to find Common Ground and even offered to negotiate towards a lower top line number republicans refused that offer and instead put forward a bill last week that moved us even further away from Common Ground. This isnt serious negotiating and the ideas that have been put forward are not serious solutions. But the crisis we face remains deadly serious. We cant afford to waste anymore time. We need to stabilize the child care sector and make sure schools can educate schools safely whether theyre remote or in person. We need to make significant investments in Public Health particularly regarding testing and Contact Tracing and distributing and administering a safe, effective and trusted vaccine. And we need to demand the type of comprehensive National Plan for those efforts that has been long overdue. The Distribution Plan that cdc finally put out just today is a long overdue step forward, but there is still more to do. Im still reviewing this, and ill have more to say, but its clear this is still not the kind of comprehensive, end to end National Plan ive called for and that we desperately need. We are still missing important details on research and review like what standards fda would use to authorize a vaccine for emergency development, like how we make sure disparities are addressed in Clinical Trials. And manufacturing, like how we address supply chain issues. And we still need more details on addressing disparities. We also need to protect the safety and civil rights of those going to work and provide relief to those who have lost their jobs. We need to support families who are struggling to make rent and afford health care and get nutritional meals. And we need to address the severe disparities were seeing in how much harder nis crisis is hitting black and latino and tribal communities. We need to provide relief for our state, local and tribal governments. And last, we have seen recently certainly not least, we need to make sure once and for all that political interference from President Trump does not further undermine our response to this crisis. Now, im going to have several questions from our witnesses, but i hope were all able to get more than just answers in the days ahead. I hope were all able to finally come together and take action before we lose anymore time to save lives and prevent costly mistakes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator murray. Again, let me welcome our guests today, our Witnesses Today. Admiral brett giroir, the assistant secretary for health, and dr. Robert redfield is the director for the center of Disease Control and prevention. Were pleased youre here, like to give you time to make an Opening Statement. We have the statements youve presented. You can summarize those if you want, but we are eager to get to questions, but were also eager to hear from you. So admiral giroir, why dont you start with your Opening Statement . Chairman blunt, Ranking Member murray, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, im honored to update crow on our nations effort to combat covid19 with a specific focus on testing. Testing is an essential component to americas response to the pandemic. Recommended practices like wearing a mask, avoiding crowds especially indoors and washing your hands combined with smart testing is the formula to effectively slow the spread, flatten the curve and save lives. By being Evidence Based, providing county specific weekly guidance to governors, expanding supplies and managing their distribution, providing the right test to the right person at the right time and developing and allocating safe therapeutics we are seeing promising results. Specifically since the post memorial day peaks in Community Spread the number of new covid19 cases is down 48 . The number of people hospitalized with covid19 is down 49 persz. The number of people in an intensive care unit due to covid is down 62 , and deaths associated with covid are down 33 . But let me say emphatically that these gains could be fleeting or even reversed if we do not continue to follow the National Plan and exercise personal responsibility especially Wearing Masks and avoiding crowds. Now, specifically regarding to the over 2,700 federally supported or federally enabled Community Based testing sites at trusted retailers focused in areas of moderates to high social vul 234b89, and the literally thousands of hersa federally qualified Health Centers that offer testing to predominantly racial or ethnic minority patients. We are now at an Inflection Point in testing. This month we anticipate the availability of approximately 3 million tests per day, and at least half of these will be rapid point of care. We will have available more point of care tests in september than the total number of tetsts performed in august. Weve been building towards this Inflection Point, and i previously testified to its coming several times over the past months. As a result of regulatory flexibility, investment in the public and private sectors weve implemented cutting edge initiatives to flatten the curve and save lives while supporting the reopening of america. Protecting the elderly has been, is and will continue to be a foremost priority for this administration. So on july 14th we announced that every single eligible nursing home in america would receive a point of care instrument and point of care testing supplies. We have delivered on this promise. All 13,850 eligible nourish homes have now received a total of 13,985 instruments and over 4. 9 million rapid point of care tests ahead of schedule. On august 27th after months of planning and only one day after its fda authorization the administration announced a 760 Million Contract with abbot for the delivery of 150 million rapid by next now point of care at thes. This test is easy to perform, does not require an instrument, delivers test results in 15 minutes or less and costs 5. It can easily be deployed to many settings across the country, and it comes with a companion app that enables instantaneo instantaneous reporting. This week we will ship our first 2 million tests to further prevent spread covid in Nursing Homes, assisted living and in tribes. And to support vulnerable populations at hbcus. Thank you for the opportunity to provide these remarks, and i look forward to your questions. Thank you, admiral. Im the assistant secretary of preparedness and smchbs as a medical doctor and retired military officer and having served in the white house ive spent my entire adult career working and serving the american people. Our progress in Vaccine Development and our efforts to confront and mitigate this pandemic. I want to thank this committee for providing supplemental resource for Covid Response as well as sustaining operations in the past. Throughout 2020 weve used these resources to protect american lives and assisted in the repatriation of citizens from america and japan at the start of the pandemic. And today we have teams deployed to louisiana and mississippi prepared to assist in response and recovery operations following hurricane sally. Weve deployed personnel and teams to california and oregon to support wildfire response, and the secretary has