This hearing will come to order. Without objection the chairs authorized to declare recess at any time to give money welcome to todays hearing on coronavirus, understanding the threat of Infectious Disease and mobilizing Innovative Solutions. I will recognize myself for an Opening Statement and then i woke frank recognize the Ranking Member for his Opening Statement again thank you for being here. Obviously this is an incredibly timely process. Covid19 is not the first pandemic we are ever going to deal with and certainly not the last one but it is incredibly important that we come together as a nation to get ahead of this, dress it and come up with treatment for it. If we think about Global Health security to threepronged approach. Containment medication and treatment. This is the third hearing that im sharing on the subject and the hearing is focused on the containment. It was the first hearing the congress held. The conclusion of that was the initial strategy of trying to contain this disease with travel plans etc. Its very difficult when i think what china did was ambitious and bought us some time but most of this in the Public Health world and im a physician by background in a large Public Health system recognize we have likely seen committee cases that would be difficult to stop the threat of this disease for the second hearing we had last thursday was on mitigation. Largely looking at testing testd this was last thursday after the First Community threat case hit my hometown of sacramento were a patient was hospitalized at the university of california davis Health System were used to practice. What we discovered was the testy too rigid that we were missing a lot of Community Test and we also started to discover the ability to test the availability of test kits etc. Was largely not there. I am pleased to share with the Vice President yesterday and things are wrapping up. We are likely going to see many more Community Cases probably in all of our congressional districts. There is a lot to be learned from the bureaucratic breakdown getting those tests out there. Todays hearing is focused on treatment based on science and what we can learn from how the virus initially developed, what we can learn from looking at the chinese response dataset how did they manage it and china is a communist country so they are able to do things that we can do as a democratic nation. We respect individual rights and individual freedoms here but theres a lot we can learn. Especially given the breadth of contact thats likely going to happen based on the community pieces that we are going see you cross the United States. Wont have enough the cdc wont have enough personnel so what can we learn and how china and korea and since you are looking at the data kamenev korea their approach to testing testing and communitybased testing they were doing 18,000 tests a day may have actually mitigated and how bad the response could have been. I think thats going to be incredibly important. We also looked at the science of how is it spread and how officially as it spread . How long can this virus live on inanimate objects. They think this is incredibly timely hearing. I think this is a Science Committee so im glad we are working with the science base treatment and again i appreciate the witnesses that are here bringing their scientific expertise to help us better understand the disease. Without the chair now but this is the Ranking Member for an Opening Statement. Good morning and thank you for holding this important hearing as we do with an emerging and rapidly evolving situation with the spread of coronavirus covid19 but according to the centers for Disease Control at this time most people in nine states have little exposure to the virus however Public Health experts advise we must gather the facts. Today i hope we can provide Important Information we can share with constituents but i also hope we can learn what tools are needed to detect and predict and prevent the next pandemic. Covid19 was first identified in wuhan china in december of 2019 presence in the World Health Organization has reported over 90,000 confirmed cases and over 3000 deaths throughout 76 countries. In United States the cdc has reported at least 152 confirmed cases and 11 deaths. We know for most individuals its not serious but we are getting information on the death rate. The impact on vulnerable populations is particularly concerning and my thoughts are with the individuals and families have been affected. This is not the first Global Pandemic in modern times and im quite certain it wont be the last for just over one or two years ago we face one of the deadliest pandemics in history the 1918 evian flu also known as the spanish flu that killed an estimated 50 Million People worldwide including over 600,000 people in the United States. Since 1980 outbreaks from Infectious Diseases have been occurring with greater frequency and causing higher numbers of human actions than in the past. The vast majority of these infections are initially caused by the spread of the disease from animals to humans. This sars outbreak and the avian flu or wakeup calls to the american Public Health system. In congress made considerable investments in improving our nations capacity to detect and respond to pandemics. We would be in a much worse position without those investments. Im confident the u. S. Government has the tools necessary to deal with this. We have the best scientists in the world with nih, the cdc and our universities. They work as you look considerable advanced mens and Health Technology disease surveillance and Predictive Modeling as well as medicine, drugs and Vaccine Development. Technology like Artificial Intelligence and greater availability of availability of data we are able to identify outbreaks faster. We set up a framework to deal with precisely this type of outbreak. While significant progress has been made gaps remain and the severe pandemics like the Novel Coronavirus could be devastating to a vulnerable population. The human population has grown so has livestock swine and poultry populations the defeatist but this is the number of host provides increased opportunities for viruses and birds cattle and pigs. The spread of false into people. To better understand how diseases like evian flu swine flu ebola zika and sars and now the coronaviruss read and operate we must invest in the basic research to learn more about the interconnection between people and animals and plants in shared environments. Yesterday the house passed a supplemental appropriations bill to address the response and the development of a vaccine critics supported the bipartisan bill and i hope my colleagues and i could Work Together on a longterm strategy to prepare for any local pandemic we might reason the future but our top priority is the health and welfare of the American People. Im pleased to present has created a task force for this Interagency Group is working to contain and mitigate the spread of Novel Coronavirus while ensuring people have access to accurate and uptodate information for the best things americans can do is to follow the guidance of the cdc. Many of the recommendations are simple ones. Youll learn from your mother. Wash your hands, wash your hands frequently, cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze avoid touching your face and stay home if you are sick or want to thank the witnesses for taking the time to share their expertise with us during this crucial time to help keep american safe healthy and secure. With that i yield back the balance of my time mr. Chairman. Is there a member who wishes to submit an additional Opening Statement . Your statement will be added to the record at this point. At this time it like to introduce their witnesses. First we have doctors susan murray production murray is the Program Director for the Global Health program at the Smithsonian National disease and conservation biology group. Next is. Your John Brownstein the chief innovation operator boston Childrens Hospital and the professor at harvard. Third i welcome dr. Peter hotez who will be introduced by the subcommittee on energy. Thank you very much mr. Chairman. Truly a privilege and a pleasure to introduce an internationally recognized physician scientists and Global Health with tropical diseases fat and Vaccine Development who is also my neighbor and a cheerleader in our community. Dr. Hotez is a professor at airy college of medicine and codirector of texas Childrens Hospital for Vaccine Development as head of texas general Vaccine Development he leads the partnership for developing new vaccines for a variety of diseases including other human corona viruses like sars and mers diseases affecting hundreds of millions of children and adults worldwide while championing access to vaccines globally and in the United States. Dr. Hotez, welcome. We are glad to have you here today. Lastly we have dr. Sell is senior scholar at johns top and center for Health Security and assistant professor at johns top school of Public Health. Youll each have five minutes for your spoken testimony to written testimony will be included in the record. When they have completed your testimony we will begin with questions. Each member will have five minutes for questions. Dr. Murray you may proceed. It very much. Congressman ami bera Ranking Member lucas and all members of the committee thank you for calling this hearing and inviting me to participate there my name is doctors Suzanne Murray than the director of the Global HealthProgram Based of the National Zoological park and Conservation Biology InstituteTheatre Program utilizes experts and wildlife medicine human medicine publichealth conservation biology and epidemiology to study in response to Health Issues the human animal interface. We utilize a multidisciplinary approach to investigate emerging diseases that threaten human and animal life and we know capacity to train the next generation of Health Specialist in short this is the reason our program was created. Human health wildlife and Environmental Health are inextricably linked and depend upon each other. In order to safeguard the survival of all species its critical that we examine Health Across the continuum of species and have research and decisions firmly rooted in science and technology. Understanding the current viral threat in disease emergence and what contributes to such a merchants will best allow us to not only respond to this outbreak but the next one and the one after that is we do know they are coming. Already we have identified many of the drivers of disease emergence and spread including landuse change increased wildlife interaction and the globalization of travel and markets. Time in history ever paid really shown us that it is much more humane efficient and economical to prevent disease rather than to identify a respond diagnose treat intent to contain an outbreak. To increase understanding of the as yet undiagnosed virus is the driver and risk factors associated with various behaviors we can develop Early Warning systems, prepare Rapid Response teams and provide Critical Data and information to the vaccine industry to better prepare for the next outbreak read just as critical we must educate medical professionals and the People Living in the community of the greatest risk of outbreak. By preventing the spread of pathogens at the source we can avoid the global consequences we are experiencing now. For example over the last 10 years working with Partner Agencies are a team of collectively identified over 1200 novel viruses. Between those viruses only a small amount of the ones that are out there 161 of these belong to the same family as covid19. In this time we strengthened the capability for virus tension and characterization in six new labs in which pandemics are most likely to originate. We have also changed over 6000 people in more than 30 countries in the frontline defense and emerging diseases. At this moment the world is focused on the Novel Coronavirus as it should be per while we do our thing we can to respond its also the time we need to be thinking of emerging viruses. The next Global Pandemic is not a matter of if but when and where. To quickly identify and contain such Infections Health and disease must be evaluated across a global scale. While we might not have mention of context was right when a sevenounce of prevention is worth a comment here. I comes to outbreaks and responding to crisis and upfront investment in research and education. Beyond the obligation to protect human life there are financial benefits from focusing on preventative measures. For example the human and economic toll from the west african Ebola Outbreak was massive. More than 11,000 people lost their lives and well over 4 billion was spent globally. In the case of the sars epidemic in 2000 for the estimated Global Financial impact was between 30 and 50 u. S. Billion dollars in the current scope and impact while still evolving in a dynamic situation is expected to be on orders of magnitude higher. Enhancements in the detection of mouthful passenger pathogen shows the best way to respond is through the coordinated wildlife survey mr. Loy estimate there are 1. 7 as yet unknown viruses about half of which can affect human people and some reach new pandemics. As of now there are no coordinated programs to work in regions identify these unknown viruses get the genetic sequence into lab and identify ways to reduce risk. Our best defense against spreading diseases that make their way into the human population is through research and education. While we cannot stop every disease outbreak we can reduce their frequency and build the capacity for rapid Global Response when they do occur. Thank you once again for this hearing and youre just in this important topic that i look forward to answering any questions you might have. Congressman bera Ranking Member lucas and distinguished members. Knott. Dr. Brownfield could you turn your mic on . Congressman bera Ranking Member lucas and distinguished members of the house of Representatives Committee on sciencebased technology thank you for inviting me today to speak with you. Today the novel technologies like Artificial Intelligence can help detect monitor and predict emerging Infectious Diseases. We will discuss some nontraditional sources can supplement technological techniques but as you describe the good news that i want to sugarcoat the bedford investment we gently need federal and local investment to lj from publichealth surveillance and response such investment will admit the capacity and publichealth to implement new ways to monitor the healthy population. Well keep an understanding of kennedy based brutality. We will also stabilize. This is the goal where we develop Innovative Surveillance technology and use on line information to provide publichealth agencies and the general public. We did this for the h1n1 influenza pandemic evian influenza ebola in west africa and covid19. These platforms should ultimately play a Critical Role in the Innovative Surveillance technology to help detect monitor and communicate diseases. Our project which is available to the public brings together sources from a variety