Transcripts For CSPAN Former Senate Majority Leaders Discuss

Centers event on the nations response to the coronavirus pandemic. I serve as the chief medical advisor. Today the Bipartisan Policy Centers future is releasing a new report. You can find this report at bipartisanpolicy. Org. That is bipartisanpolicy. Org. Since the beginning of the pandemic a year ago, there has been more than 25 million confirmed cases of covid19 and more than 430 cases deaths across the country, accounting for 25 of deaths worldwide. While cases, hospitalizations and deaths have slightly decreased, the numbers continue to be staggering and there is great concern variants, more transmissible strains of the virus, may become dominant over the coming weeks leading to a further worsening of the pandemic. Todays report comes as president Bidens Administration launches an effort to combat the pandemic in Congress Considers additional aid to bolster the response and jumpstart the economy. The initiative released its first report, bipartisan subscription for health care in 2020, Offering Practical Solutions to make Health Care Coverage more affordable without adding growing Systemwide Health expenditures. Todays report is led by a Bipartisan Group of Health Care Leaders which include former senator majority leaders tom daschle and bill frist, former administrator of Health Care Financing administration, now now cms Gail Wilensky come also sheila burke, fellow bpc of strategic advisor, baker donaldson, president fellow Milton Friedman chair at the American Enterprise institute, dan crippen, former director dan crippen, former director congressional budget office, former commissioner of fda, Chris Jennings fellow at bpc and former clinton and Obama White House Senior Healthcare policy advisor. Lisa, former president and ceo of Robert Wood Johnson foundation, bill roper, former director for the centers for Disease Control and prevention, Senior Advisor at bpc and president of the foundation for research on equal opportunity. Mark smith former founding president and ceo of the california healthcare foundation, and leana wen, former Baltimore City health commissioner. They will augment Public Health infrastructure, bolster health care capacity, improve federal interagency coordination coordination during public on Public Health emergencies reviewing federal health care , coverage policies during the pandemic, and enhancing safety in congregate living facilities and in transitions to homes and communitybased services. Todays events will consist of opening remarks from dr. Kathy hempstead, senior policy advisor at the Robert Wood Johnson foundation am followed by remarks from senators daschle and frist. This will be followed by a moderated discussion with Gail Wilensky, doctor bill roper, dr. Mark smith and dr. Leana wen. At this time would like to thank the Robert Wood Johnson foundation or its a generous support of this initiative and listen to some remarks from kathy. Kathy hello and welcome. We are proud to support the group of the bpc future of healthcare leaders, a a Bipartisan Group that works together to reach consensus on a poor Health Policy recommendations. This group of leaders have been expanded this year and includes members of the broad range of valuable expertise and perspectives. I want to give a special thanks to our own doctor. Todays bit addresses our nations most Urgent Health crisis in many generations. The covid19 pandemic cast not only created extraordinary challenges for our Public Health and Healthcare Systems but has also exposed preexisting vulnerabilities, most particularly the terrible burden , of inequity. Today you will hear our leaders recommendations to policymakers regarding the most urgent issues and Pandemic Response. They include recommendations about testing, vaccinations, Surge Capacity, supply Chain Management, and better measuring the dimensions. Future work by this group will cover Public Health infrastructure issues and coverage and Health Insurance market reform, all of these areas have been made far more critical by the pandemic. I am looking forward to todays event, too. I will turn things over to anand. Anand thank you. I would like to welcome former Senate Majority leaders tom daschle and bill frist, both are cochairs of the bpc future of health care initiatives. They will be discussing the foundational principles behind todays report as well as the overarching recommendations. Thank you, anand, for your leadership on covid19 pandemic as well to bill hoagland and denis mcdonough, the entire Health Care Team at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and my fellow Task Force Members who worked on this important report for over the past six months. Today we are releasing six key recommendations for immediate action by the new administration and congress to address the challenges of the current pandemic with additional supporting recommendations under each one. As President Biden has said many times, we cant afford in action, especially with more than 3000 americans dying from covid19 each day. Since the covid19 pandemic began, there have been no National Comprehensive strategy to address this devastating crisis which caused delays in our nations response, and far too many senseless deaths. Thats what were glad to see the Biden Administration has released a Robust National strategy for the covid19 response, issued a series of executive orders to implement the strategy, and called on congress to provide additional funding to support activities such as testing, vaccinations, supply chain strengthening, and school reopenings. We are also pleased to see many of the recommendations we are releasing today in our new report align with the goals and actions that the Administration Strategy implies. They also include Additional Details we believe are important to implementing an effective and immediate response. Underlining our recommendations are five critical Guiding Principles i would like to review. First, political and Public Health leadership are central to successfully cordon aiding and managing a pandemic crisis. Looking back to the 1918 influenza pandemic we learned lessons that could be translated across the century to todays Public Health emergency. In 1918 and the covid19 pandemics were and are highly political events. Leaders selectively chose which scientific results to recognize and in some cases ignored science and downplayed the seriousness of the illness. Crowds continued to gather, cities shut down, but reopened too soon and people refused to , wear masks. Successfully tackling a Public Health emergency of this magnitude requires federal leadership, establishing a National Plan, paired with unified coordination and Communications Efforts across the country. Second, trust in science and commitment to Public Health are paramount to making progress in fighting a pandemic. At the federal level, bipartisan leadership our nations federal must support and elevate our nations federal allowing scientific guidelines. Science to guide the critical decisions and response to the covid19 crisis. Leaders must emphasize the importance of science and communicate the scientific basis upon which public guidelines are issued. Particularly those that require economic or personal sacrifice of the American People. Restoring trust in our Nations Health institutions, our leading health experts, will demand transparency at all levels with a focus on safety, efficacy and equitable distribution of treatments and vaccines. National and state leadership lead by example, and adhere to the scientific guidelines by Wearing Masks, physically distancing and obtaining the vaccine. Trust in science, our Health Agencies and worldclass scientists, is imperative for reducing transmission successfully defeating the , coronavirus. Third, national third, National Leaders must communicate and adhere to clear, consistent and customize Public Health and safety messages and serve as role models. Transparent communication with the American People will ensure people understand and trust the scientific process, and the tools and actions needed to end the pandemic. When new evidence emerges prompting Public Health leaders to update scientific advice, it is imperative to communicate with humility and transparency, sharing and repeating clear, consistent and customized Public Health messages by leaders at the national and local levels will help change of the conversations between people and on social media where many people keep informed. Tailoring messages and Public Education campaign to focus more on empathy than authority or politics and target specific , communities will go a long way for changing behavior and moving public opinion. Fourth, federal, state and local leaders, democrats and republicans must take action to , debunk conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories have evolved around covid19 treatments and vaccines, even the existence of the virus itself have been dangerous and put communities and individuals at greater risk illness and death. Our political leaders need to speak out against these conspiracy theories and theorists speak about what is , actually known and true. Fifth, federal efforts must recognize and address vulnerable communities. Public official must consider the unique experience of communities of color and other vulnerable populations, including native and rural there must be recognition the need for political leaders who engage with the American Public in a culturally competent manner. This pandemic has also exposed the need to focus attention on our nations nursing homes, chronic conditions understaffing, lack , of accountability in isolation has been hallmarks of covid19. An effective Pandemic Response must include a dedicated effort to address and mitigate the Health Disparities and unique challenges facing these vulnerable populations who are shouldering the burden of covid cases, deaths and hospitalizations. These are the foundation for the wreck and dacians the recommendations we are making today. Let this time i like to introduce my friend and colleague, senator bill frist, who will review the report. Mr. Frist thank you. It is an honor to participate with you and release todays report that outlines bipartisan recommendations for accelerating our nations Public Health response to the pandemic. I want to thank fellow Task Force Members for reaching consensus on this report. The same spirit must carry over to congress as it considers our stimulus relief package to support the covid19 response. As senator daschle mentioned we are releasing six key recommendations today that a align with the Biden Administrations national covid19 strategy, and include Additional Details that we believe are important to implementing an effective, immediate response. Recommendation number one, expand testing and contract tracing. We recommend the administration develop and implement an National Testing strategy that reduces Positivity Rates in each state to under 5 . This is 5 . This is a wellestablished metric that gauges the sufficiency of testing as recognized by the world health organization. We also call on congress to allocate additional funding required to implement this strategy. We believe a National Testing strategy should detail how Positivity Rates should be defined and standardized and reported by states. It should explain the amount and type of tests that are needed over the course of the pandemic. For example diagnostic tests , versus screenings. Testing such as saliva and home tests. Include a userfriendly diagram for the public to understand which test to obtain and under what circumstances, produce algorithms for the group of test s in specific atrisk populations in high risk settings. Offer guidance on the payment for these tests. Conduct a transparent analysis of the supply chain necessary for test production, provide a timeframe to achieve these stated goals. For states with a Positivity Rate higher than 10 we recommend assigning tiger teams to assist Public Health leaders in ascertaining and addressing testing and insufficiency. Number two, ensure Vaccine Distribution and update is efficient, transparent and equitable. We recommend the administration launch a national covid19 Vaccination Campaign that ensures efficient and prompt Vaccine Distribution, and educates americans on the importance of obtaining a vaccine. The current delay in Vaccine Distribution must be reduced through coordination at the federal, state and local levels to ensure there are ample, publicly accessible, and appropriately staffed vaccination rates. And federal assets such as fema and the National Guard should be deployed to support staffing and to build more Community Vaccination locations. The covid19 vaccine equitably to allocatethe covid19 vaccine equitably the administration should reevaluate the decision to allocate vaccine to states on a per capita basis in order to optimize saving lives and reducing viral transmission. To achieve both of these goals the administration should consider whether alternative allocation strategies and criteria such as taking into account Priority Group population size or severity of outbreak are warranted. Our report also calls for a national Public Education campaign that is based on science with a specific focus on communities of color, older adults, low income americans, and those living in disparate rural and urban geographic areas to ensure gaps do not develop over time. We strongly feel that Healthcare Professionals must also be a focus of this campaign, as there their acceptance will help of the vaccine will help instill confidence in their patients to do the same. Number three, to support Health Care System Surge Capacity. We recommend the Administration Direct hhs to engage in continuous Quality Improvement in its covid19 hospitalization dashboard and to publicly disclose realtime Healthcare System capacity data such as icu beds and staffing and ppe. An accessible and accurate dashboard will enable leaders at all levels of government to have better Situational Awareness and appropriately adjust the Community Mitigation measures. These data will also identify settings with adequate capacity for designation as relief healthcare facilities. The hhs protect public data hub currently collects information from hospitals related to beds, staffing and ppe availability. While facility level data on bed capacity, hospital admissions, Emergency Department visits have recently been added to the hhs protect public data hub, similar granular data on medical matters such as ventilators, medicines and ppe could also be helpful. Nu