Face covering. Members who are not wearing a Face Covering are not permitted to remain in the hearing room and will not be recognized to speak. Let me also make a few reminders about hybrid hearings. For those members appearing in person, you will be able to see members appearing remotely on the two monitors in front of you. On one monitor you will see all the members appearing remotely at once and what is known as web x, as grid view mode. On the other monitor, you will see each person speaking during the hearing when they are speaking, including members who are appearing remotely. For those members appearing remotely, you can also see each person speaking during the hearing whether they are in person or remote, as long as you have your web x set to active speaker mode. If you have any questions about this, please contact the staff immediately. Let me remind everyone of the house procedures that apply to hybrid hearings. For members appearing in person, it timer is visible in the room directly in front of you. For those who may be remote, we have a timer that should be visible on your screen when youre in the active speaker with thumbnail mode and you have the timer pinned. For members who may be appearing remotely, a few other reminders. The house rules require that we see you, so please have your cameras turned on at all times. Not just when youre speaking. Members who are not recognized should remain muted to minimize background noise and feedback. I will recognize members verbally and members retain the right to seek recognition verbally. In regular order, members who will be recognized in seniority order for questions. If you are remote and want to be recognized outside of regular order, you may identify that in several ways. You may use the chat function to send a request. You may send an email to the majority staff. Or you may unmute your mic to seek recognition. Obviously, we do not want people talking over each other, so my preference is that members use the chat function or email to facilitate formal verbal recognition. Committee staff will be sure that i am made aware of the requests and i will recognize you. As members of the committee are likely aware, we expect votes to be called in the middle of this hearing. Out of respect for members and witnesses and time, and because of the Long Duration of each vote during this Public Health emergency, i do not plan to reset the hearing at any time. Committee members, including those who are recognized for questions while the vote is ongoing, will have sufficient time to step out of the hearing, cast their vote, and return to the hearing. We will begin this hearing in just a moment when they tell me they are ready to begin the live stream. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] we are having some audio problems with the live stream and were trying to get that straightened out before we begin. [inaudible conversations] good morning. I think weve gotten it straightened out. Ladies and gentlemen, our nation is in the midst of a Public Health catastrophe. As of this week more than 150,000 americans are dead from the coronavirus. By far, the most of any country in the world. As the virus is still spreading rapidly across our country, it took nearly thee months for the United States to go from one infection to one million. Now we have more than four million with at least a million americans infected in just the last two weeks. Hospitalizations and deaths are unacceptbly high. Hospitals in some states are at risk of running out of beds and some hospitals have reported that they may be forced to choose which patients to treat and which to send home to die. From our current course experts predict another 150,000 americans could lose their life from the coronavirus by the end of this year. My goal today is simple. To hear from our nations top Public Health experts on what steps do we need to take to stop the unnecessary deaths of more americans. To improve our response, we need to identify and correct past failures, especially those that are ongoing. Regrettably, nearly six months after this virus claimed its First American life, the federal government still has not developed and implemented a National Strategy to protect the American People. The administration has failed on testing. They were given warnings, including from this committee that millions more tests were needed. At least 11 states, including my home state of south carolina, are currently conducting less than 30 of the tests they need to control the virus. The state cases surging. States now face severe testing shortages, wait times are a week or longer in many places and some states have been forced to ration scarce tests, limiting them to only the sickest cases. Without widely available Rapid Testing, it is nearly impossible to control the spread of the virus and safely reopen our economy. Yesterday it was reported that back in april the administration considered implementing a National Strategy to coordinate the distribution of test kits and Contact Tracing infrastructure, but they decided not to do so because at the time the virus was primarily spreading in bl blue states. Since the earliest days of this crisis, the Trump Administration has also refused to call on americans to take simple steps to stay safe, like wearing a mask and social distancing. Instead, the president has downplayed the severity of the crisis, claiming the virus will disappear, sidelining Government Experts to disagree and seek to legitimize discredited remedies. When the Public Health agencies contradict the white houses political message, for example, when the c. D. C. Warned that fully reOpening Schools presented the highest risk for spreading the coronavirus, the white house pressured the agency to change their advice. The result of these decisions is that the virus has continued to rage out of control and our nations economic misery has continued. And that brings us to todays hearing. It is clear that the administrations approach of deferring to the states, sidelining the experts, and rushing to reopen has prolonged this virus and led to thousands of preventible deaths. In fact, the United States response stands out as among the worst of any country in the world. My question is where should we go from here . Today i am calling for the administration to finally give america a comprehensive National Plan that prioritizes science over politics. That plan should include buying and distributing enough tests and protective gear for every american who needs them and it should include clear Public Health guidance to every american to help curb the spread of the virus. I am looking forward to hearing from our panel what common sense steps we can take as a country to control this virus and how the administrations plans to accomplish this goal. Todays witnesses have long, distinguished careers under both republican and democratic president s. Public health is not a partisan issue and i hope that all members of the committee will gin me in seeking the best Health Advice for the American People not fighting partisan political battles. We do not need to lose another 150,000 american lives, but if we do not make drastic changes now, this tragic outcome is well within the realm of possibility. The chair now recognizes the distinguished Ranking Member for his Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank our witnesses for being here. Before i open, i do want to mention, m chairman, this is our first meeting that weve had since the passing of our dear friend and colleague john lewis. I know you personally were friends with him for roughly 60 years and we all feel that loss. Very fitting tributes yesterday and he was a dear colleague, but he was also a key, important part of the movement that has made america an even greater nation. Very fitting that our country is paying a great tribute to a dear friend and icon in the civil rights movement, our friends john lewisment thank you, mr. Chairman, too, for having this hearing. I want to thank the witnesses and i also want to thank your teams because you represent what is on the front lines of President Trumps plan to combat the Coronavirus Crisis. For anybody to suggest that theres not a plan, in fact, when you look at the title of todays hearing, urgent need for a plan, thats not the title of a hearing, thats a political narrative and a false political narrative at that. You wouldnt even be here today if there wasnt a plan because you are the people tasked with carrying out the plan. In fact, if you were sidelined, you wouldnt be here either. I know some people want to suggest that, but maybe they havent spent time reading different components of the plan. These are just a few, by the way, a few of the documents that your agencies have published to show states how to safely reopen. To show schools how to safely reopen. To show Nursing Homes how to care for their parents, which, by the way, if all governors 0 would have followed those guidelines thousands more seniors in Nursing Homes would be alive today if just five governors would have followed your plan that was developed by President Trump and is being carried out by you and your team effectively every day. So, again, let me thank you on behalf of the millions of American People who are alive today that wouldnt be alive if you werent carrying out President Trumps effective plan to keep americans safe, as we learn about this virus, as we work to get a cure for this virus and by the way, the cure operation warp speed is part of President Trumps National Plan and i think weve all seen just how close we are to a vaccine, which is revolutionary. Revolutionary in modern time to be this close to a vaccine. We wouldnt be here that close to a vaccine without President Trumps leadership and without the work of you and your teams to carry out that plan. So, again, i appreciate the work that you continue to do. Every day we learn more about a plan, like any plan, whether its a military plan or a football plan, you start the first play with a plan and then the plan has to change as things change along the way and were seeing that play out daily. When you look at the work thats been done, i think we talk about different parts of the guidance. Weve not always been in agreement on each part of them, but weve had a number of hearings where weve talked through how to improve testing. In fact, one of the first hearings we had in this committee on testing was back when america was maybe conducting less than 200,000 tests a day. Today, because of the work that you all have been doing and because of the president s plan, were at over 800,000 tests per day and that number continues to grow. Nobody is stopping. Nobody is resting on their laurels, but when you look at that trajectory, again, going from a virus that no one even knew about just six months ago, china lied about during that period where we could have learned a lot more, where we could have saved more lives while china was lying, i wish wed have hearings on that, because thats a real fact, thats not a political talking point. Not only did china lie, but they corrupted the world health organization, and perpetuating that. Made it harder for us. I remember being in a meeting with dr. Fauci months ago before it was a Global Pandemic and a desire to get some of our medical experts into china to find out what was going on. They wouldnt let you in. The Chinese Communist party wouldnt let you in when President Trump wanted in before it spread to the United States. That cost lives. Why arent we having a hearing about that. Clearly we talk about some of the Different Things done to stop the spread. The president actually did develop an early plan called 15 days to stop the spread. Its one of the first real organized plans to encourage states to pull back. It wasnt an easy plan for the president to have to issue, but it was necessary and in fact, there were meetings in the white house. I think dr. Fauci and dr. Birx was there as the plan was carried out, he determined maybe we need to go longer 30 more days. By going 30 more days, you could save one million, maybe two million more lives and President Trump announced that plan and did save those lives. The Trump Administration then released a plan, guidelines, how states could safely reopen and this is part of the mrap. Maybe some people are so busy reading tweets they havent actually read the plan. Its good guidance issued by some of the most recognized International Experts on disease prevention. Some of you here today represent parts of this plan and so in opening up america again, showed how states could safely reopen. The plan was developed by Public Health experts. Some complain that President Trump didnt have the power to force states to reopen so the administration actually released guidelines so states had discretion. We understand how it works, each governor is in charge of their states. Nursing homes are by the state not the federal government and weve given good guidance and that saved lives. We hear city, people talking about the cries for the need for testing. So, lets talk about what hhs has done the lead on testing. Zero tests. Sent over 800,000 tests a day and in a matter of just months, over 52 million tests have been conducted nationally. Were increasing that number. We will be over a million tests a day and maybe well have a hearing how much progress we made there. We want to continue to have progress. What were doing to increase testing and limit the goal, seven days for anybody to get the results. That number has narrowed, how, more than half of americans who get tested get their results in less than 24 hours because of the rapid work that this team has done carrying out the president s plan. Testing is not just about numbers, its about targeting testing to people at the right time. So that point to the Trump AdministrationRapid Testing in Nursing Homes. Ive talked to Nursing Homes who said that decision by the Trump Administration to purchasing a testing quite for every one in erik, more than 15,000 hursting homes. Each will have their 15 minute test. That will save lives. And the president announced operation warp speed, part of a direct and National Plan to combat this deadly virus. Operation warp speed, the Publicprivate Partnership for the production of a vaccine and others for the specific goal of delivering 300 million doses of a safe, effective. Fda proven vaccine for covid19 by january, 2021 and were seeing that happen at remarkable speed. Were not going to wait for approval. Theyre mass producing so if there is a vaccine approved by the fda, its ready to go. We dont start manufacturing at that point and cast us more weeks. Were ready to go. Some of that money was money that we passed on the cares act that President Trump has used effectively to be ready as the vaccines are being developed in testing phases. Now, dr. Fauci, ill look forward to learning more about the stunning progress that weve seen researchers make son cures and vaccines. I know you have been involved in researching some of the most deadly viruses that we have known in the world. Hiv, ebola, of course now corona. We still dont have a vaccine for hiv, over 10 years of work that youve done remarkable work to at least give therapy so people can extend their lives, but not a proven vaccine for so many of these diseases years and years later and here we are six months into corona and were this close to a vaccine. So you look at where weve seen the Chinese Government. We hopefully will get into conversations about how costly it was. How many lives were lost because the Chinese Communist party lied to not just the United States, but to the world, to give false information in those early critical days. Why dont we now talk about moving into august. A lot of work is being done to talk how to safely reopen schools. In fact, more guidance was given as part of this plan by c. D. C. To safely reopen schools. We saw, of course, the American Academy of pediatrics gave great guidance how to reopen schools and went further and talked about the damage to children when you dont reopen schools. So much damage being done to our children in those systems where theyre talking about not reopening. Hopefully we can shine some light and show the other School Systems how they can safely serve those millions and millions of children counting on us to get it right. Those School Systems have to get it right. Theres money, by the way, Still Available at every state for sanitize ersanitizers, mask the wi