Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing On Interagency Coordination O

CSPAN2 Hearing On Interagency Coordination On Coronavirus July 13, 2024

This is just over two hours. This hearing will come to water. I want to thank the witnesses first and foremost for the efforts as related to the current i guess we have to call it a pandemic at this point in time with conv19, the corona virus. I do think its important we put everything in perspective and i would ask my Committee Members to include my pretend Opening Statement in the record. But we often times. Let me rattle off a couple figures here. Ebola total cases worldwide ended up being less than 29,000. I remember in a crisis we were talking about it spreading and could be a Million People which would have been a huge problem because ebola had a mortality rate of 40 , but in the end because of effective action on the part of the world health organization, the Obama Administration and resources we prevented it from spreading some less than 29,000 contracted it and about 11,000 died. Weve had other outbreaks where we are Getting Better and weve developed some relatively effective vaccines to help protect Health Workers and we will talk a little about that in tha Senate Briefing as we pointd out that is a finite resource. The next deadliest virus weve been dealing with is the 2012 mers outbreak. Total cases are less than 2500. 850 people died as the mortality rate of 34 . 2003 week of the sars. 8,000 people affected, 774 people died. The mortality rate of 9. 6 . The average flu, the seasonal flu if these numbers are a wide dispersion of what happens, nine to 45 million a year catch it and 800,000 are hospitalized with it. Obviously anyone with Underlying Health conditions, the elderly are most affected by it and we will lose, there will be 12 to 67,000 fatalities per year justh just seasonal flu. Another virus that will reach pandemic levels that sounded scary is the end one each one virus and this diplomat of 61 million americans caught h1n1 it was over 200 million worldwide. 150 to 575,000. But the fatality rates were not that high. Even thousands die in the u. S. , but weve dealt with these things in the past so as far as i have them, we know about 81,000 individuals have contracted and tested positive for conv19. Close to 3,000 deaths. This is definitely more virile and. A higher mortality rates but i would caution everybody in terms of the mortality rate this as more deaths from people than we have tested and we dont have the type of test kit yet reducing the regulatory burdens in terms of testing and we will talk about that. We do want to clarify that situation. But my guess is when all is said and done and we have a sense of how many people contract this and do not display symptoms or they are mild i would think would probably come down to it but nobody knows. Theres an awful lothere is an e disease that nobody knows so what im hoping we can accomplish in todays hearing is talked about the administrations response which by the way i think has been almost immediate from what ive seen my interaction and the accessibility whether its acting secretary wolf, mr. Ken cuccinelli, id have access to them. I have and have used that access because you working to mitigate this problem, but i dont know how many briefings ive already attended. I appreciate we have two individuals here and you see why dont we have everybody representing every agency, i want them to work. They have a job to do and thereve been a lot of hearings. I think youve taken the whole of government approach. As ive said repeatedly i dont see the administration under responding. In fact, you take unprecedented steps, travel bans, corny quara, unprecedented steps so we havent under reacted, but i think this administration is fully aware in the cockpit of the cost of overreacting. The basic fact of the matter is the chance of the administration getting it just right reacting perfectly is zero. But again from my own introduction what weve seen with the interaction of the senate or the house, this is in all of the government approach and all hands on deck for this and being ignored i you see the eight billiondollar response as opposed to 2. 5 billion funding request funds will not be an issue. They will make sure the administration has the fun. We know the extent of what the outbreak is and i really want to talk about the regulatory issues, just the basic science issues. We talked to doctor kadlec in the front room. Theres a reason they collect ct medical practice. Its a whole new virus may be three months ago you are saying so tha but takes time to develoe test so they dont produce false positives and then you have to manufacture them. So i am heartened by what im hearing and we want to delve into those in terms of what testing kits are available and how they will be distributed throughout the nation and kind of what the priority is so we do get a sense because right now its been limited with high criteria. We want to talk about the role how you are cooperating with the cbc and with the measures are into the data. We talked about that so we can trace travelers that we have come in contact with people so we want to talk about those issues as it relates to the department of Homeland Security. Again, testing is a top priority that we also want to talk about the Current Issues with the supplied chain, but also in the future once we have this wall stabilized and we know where we are at hopefully this will prove to be somewhat seasonal. Once weve taken care of this and vaccines are developed and accessible which will be quite sometime in the future, we do need to take a look at the future stockpile and could supply chains and ask ourselves in a manufacturing process that isnt laborintensive, why are so many of these precursor chemicals for drugs produced in india which is now blocking export of some of these as well. I see no reason for the manufacturing of drugs approved for u. S. Use that those things should be manufactured overseas. I just dont. We have to learn from these types of situations and put in place either regulations or laws so we are better prepared for the next pandemic because there will be. I rattled off the ones weve already had to deal with so i really want to thank the witnesses and i hope this is a good discussion. I hope that its a clarifying discussion. Its about transparency and recognizing you dont have all the answers because there are things right now that are unknowable but thank you again for your work and for appearing before the committee and with that i will turn over to the ranking and are, senator peeters. The top priority is to keep americans safe and to be clear, the corona Virus Outbreak is incredibly widespread but nevertheless, it does pose a significant threat to the Public Health and homeland securit homd we have to take it seriously. Im grateful for the efforts of your agency and Public Health officials across the country to limit the spread of the contagious virus. While we have seen growing numbers of cases in the United States we have thankfully not seem widespread outbreaks yet in this country it is the job of this administration to work with congress. Its clear to me that we should also prepare for a worstcase scenario and widespread infections. Assessing information about the virus has been a significant challenge for the public today. The American People have a lot of questions. They want accurate, reliable information about the virus spread and what the government is actually doing to protect their health and safety. As we have learned from past epidemics and pandemics can outbreaks like this require aggressive coordinated and comprehensive response as well as timely and trusted useful guidance from Public Health officials as well as security officials. In the coming weeks and months your agencies will play a Critical Role in containing the outbreak, educating americans about the virus and protecting Public Health. Whether the response is timely and effective it will truly be a matter of life and death. I appreciate you joining us today my kids to wins in michigan and the American People want clear answers to the most pressing questions that they have right now. I look forward to hearing what steps the department are taking to ensure we have the right plans and they do have adequate resources. If you would both stand and raise your right hand. Did you swear the testimony you will give before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . So be seated. A senior official performing the duties of the department of Homeland Security. Mr. Ken cuccinelli served as the acting director of the citizenship and Immigration Services and served as the attorney general for the commonwealth of virginia. Chairman johnson, Ranking Member peeters and distinguished members of the committee it is my honor to appear to testify about the work of dhs and what we are giving to respond t doine outbreak of the corona virus known as covid19. Our department and health and Human Services and across the government are giving to contain the spread of disease slow the spread of the disease and to prepare for the domestic response to safety and security of the American People and we are working on a proactive role of government response in fulfilling that mission as required by congress in 2018, President Trump signed the firstever bio Defense Strategy to build upon the ability to rapidly respond to and limit the impact of bio incidents like the ones we are facing now. We are seeing the strategy paid dividends in the response to this disease. Dhs is taking action at the airports of entry and slowing the spread of the novel virus and working to decrease the workload of Public Health officials, expedite the processing of u. S. Citizens returning from china and above all ensuring resources are focused on the health and safety of the American People. Dhs including Customs Border protection transportation security administrations continue to work very closely with our partners and the cbc to route all admissible persons have been in Mainland China and iran in the previous 14 days to one of 11 designated airports of entry where the federal government has focused on Public Health resources. Any admissible person whos iran in the previous 14 days undergoes corrective entry at one of the airports and if they are asymptomatic to 14 days of self monitoring to ensure they did not contract the virus and dont pose a them ended up 95 on duty at any given time and for those that are medical screening are identified as particularly at risk they are then referred to the personnel that are onsite and made on sie arrangements with local Health Authorities. This has involved over 53,000 air travelers to date. We realize these actions could prolong the travel times for some individuals however Public Health and Security Experts agree these measures are necessary to contain the spread and protect th to protect the an people. To minimize disruption, the air carriers are working to identify the passengers before the scheduled flights. Dhs costs the wmd is screening efforts through agreements with state, local, private Public Health and First Responder personnel thats where the contractors come from. They established the capability in response to the virus that was emerging last summer to deploy the cbc with screening operations at the dhs was able to adapt t adapt the capabilityo quickly address the 19 threat. They are also the providing direct support to collect passenger information at all airport allowing the cdc to provide that information at the officials to facilitate Contact Tracing efforts. The efforts have significantly increased the accuracy of the data collected. The cbp and the coast guard continue to work to recognize the individuals arriving through the land ports and waterways who may be carrying the virus. All in coordination with the cbc. The coast guard continues although distant offenses of arrival this is one they get you for any ship comes through the american port. The medical status of anyone on the ship captain of the port will communicate any concerns stemming from the crew or passengers to the coast guard chain of command and the cosmos and quarantine station who will coordinate with local Health Authorities to ensure continued facilitation of International Trade coming on th come in on tr commercial vessels that have been in china or in work crew members have been in china or iran in the previous 14 days with no septembers, reload and depart the port. My time is up i will stop and im happy to answer your questions. The next witness is doctor Robert Kadlec the secretary for prepared to send response for the department of health and Human Services prior to joiningg in 2017 he served as the staff director for the select committee on intelligence and special assistant to president george w. Bush for the defense policy. He served in the u. S. Air force for over 20 years and was in u. S. Air force Flight Surgeon in the year 1986. They were expanded, i want to read a little bit more. Doctor kadlec was instrumental in drafting the pandemic signed a law. Conducting the bio defense assessment that culminated in drafting the policy for i appreciate it very much and that is a nice way of saying im a one trick pony. [laughter] Ranking Member peeters and numbers of the committee of the hhs is supporting the whole of hhs an and u. S. Government respe to the 2019 corona Virus Outbreak. Im this morning jus just want to take a few minutes to discuss how we are addressing this from the point of strategic anticipation. Working with my colleagues on supporting state and local authorities working hard to contain and mitigate the Virus Outbreak to save lives and protect americans. As for the four pronged approach to the domestic response this includes Countermeasure Development, supporting the Health Care System, incident management and direct support to the state and local entities. In the Countermeasure Development we are rapidly establishing the Department Counter or task force that includes partners across hhs, the department of defense and other federal agencies and private sector to identify therapeutics diagnostic vaccines that could be readily brought through the pipeline to address the coron coronavirus. They are looking at rapid detection and treatment and the therapeutic state and support of the affected persons. We are also working closely with nih combined all of the efforts pushing platforms as fast as possible for the overall response. How do we separate the Public Health system through the Hospital Preparedness Program in coordination with the Public Health emergency Preparedness Program we have improved coordination and collaboration between hospitals and Public Health sector and other entities like the medical services. Services. Weve also leveraged the national evil of treatment which was an idea created by congress and establishes the response of the 2014 people ebola as the Health Care System discredits the coronavirus this network has and will continue to link technical experts with quarantine to the treatment efforts of the state and local level. Shifting to the overall response structure since repatriation neighbors began, weve been working with the federal Emergency Management agency to put in place based on the National Response framework this is the first time that we have implemented a structure though we have practiced activating the structure in previous exercises, we are doing it for now and that means we can leverage the capacity. I want to end with a few brief update for we are providing direct support to state and local entities. I mentioned the repatriation where we brought approximately 1100 american from wuhan into the diamond princess cruise ship. There are no planned repatriation efforts at this time that show that there needed to be we are standing ready to support the state department or any other authority to provide direct support in the states weve used the stockpile to protect healthcare workers in a second shipment is arriving today to help with before they sent it this weekensend it thiso planning 28 of our Commission Corps Public Health Service Officers and team members to support them as well. We are concerned about the facilities where we know the most vulnerable populations reside and are working proactively with cms and cdc to provide information on the best practices and when possible help them shield the more older populations from the impact of the coronavir

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