It took nearly 3 months for the United States to go from one infection to 1 million. Now, we have more than 12 million at least 1 million americans infected in the last two weeks. Hospitalizations and deaths are unacceptably high. Hospitals in some states are at risk of running out of beds. Some hospitals have reported they may be forced to choose which patients to treat and which to send home to die. On our recent current cross, experts predict another 150,000 americans could lose their lives on 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 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 6 months after this virus claimed its First American life the federal government has still not yet developed and implemented a National Strategy to protect the American People. The administration has failed to advance testing while they were given warnings included from 50 committees that millions more tests were needed. At least 11 states including my home state of South Carolina are currently conducting less than 30 percent of the tests they need to control the virus. The state surgeon, states now face shortages, wait times results for a week or longer in many places and some states have been forced to ration scarce tests, limiting them to only the sickest patients. Without available Rapid Testing it is nearly impossible to control the spread of the virus 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 decided not to do so because at the time, the virus was primarily spreading in 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 who disagree and seek to legitimize discredited remedies. When the public agent Health Agencies contradicted the white houses political message , when the cdc warned that fully reopening schools presented the highest risk for spreading the coronavirus , the white house assured the agency to change their advice. The result of these decisions is that the virus has continued to raise out of control in our nations economic misery has continued. And that brings us to todays hearing. It is clear that the administrative support deferring to the states sidelining the experts and rushing to reopen has prolonged this virus and led to thousands of preventable deaths. In fact, the United States response handout as among the worst of any country in the world. My question is where should we go from here . Today, i am calling on the administration to finally give america a comprehensive National Plan that prioritizes science over politics. That plan should include buying and disputing 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. Today witnesses have long distinguished careers on under both republican and democratic president s. Public health is not a partisan issue. And i hope that all members of the committee will join 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 openingstatements area. Accu mister chairman and thank our witnesses for being here. Before i open i want to mention Mister Truman its the first meeting since 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, a very fitting tribute to yesterday and he was a Dear Colleague he was also a key important part of a movement that has made america an even greaternation. Its very fitting that our countries are paying such a great tribute to a dear friend and an icon in the civil rights movement, our friend john lewis and thank you mister chairman for having this year and i want to thank the witnesses and also thank your teams because you represent what is on the front lines of President Trumps plan tocombat the Coronavirus Crisis. Or 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 the hearing, thats a political narrative and a false narrative. In fact he wouldnt even be here today if there wasnt a plan because you are the people carrying out the plan. If you were sidelined you wouldnt be here either and i know some people want to suggest that maybe they havent spent time reading different components of the plan. These are just a few by the way, a few of the documents or agencies have published to show states how to safely reopen, how to show schools how to reopen. To show Nursing Homes how to care for their patients which by the way all governors would have followed those guidelines , thousands more Nursing Homes would be alive today if just five governors would have followed your plan was developed by President Trump and is being carried out by you and your team effectively every day so again 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 work speed is part of President Trumps National Plan and i think weve all seen how close we are to a vaccine which is revolutionary. Revolutionary in modern times to be disclosed to a vaccine. We wouldnt be here that close to additional vaccines without President Trumps leadership and without the work of you and your teams to carry out that plan so i appreciate the work that you continue to do every day we learn more about a plan like any plan with her 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 andwere 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 we had a number of hearings where we talked through how to improve testing area and one of the first hearings we had in this committee on testing was back when america was maybe conducting less than 200,000 tests per day to today because of the work youve all been doing and because of the president s plan we are at 800,000 tests per day and that number continues to grow. Nobodys stopping, nobodys resting on their laurels but when you look at that trajectory going from a virus that no one even knew about six months ago and china lied about during that period when we could have learned a lot more and we could have saved lives while china was lying. I wish we could have hearings on that because thats a real fact. We know not only did china lied, they corrupted the World Health Organization and they were perpetuating that as well. I remember being at a meeting in the White Housewith doctor fauci before it was a pandemic and we were talking about the desire to get some of our medical experts into china to find out what was going on and they wouldnt let you in. The Chinese Communist party wouldnt let you in when President Trump wanted to send medical experts into china before it spread into the United States and that cost lives. Why arent we having a hearing about that . Clearly we talk about some of the other Different Things that were done to stop the spread but the president did develop an early plan called 15 days to stop the spread. Its one of the first organized plans to encourage states to hold 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 doctor fauci and doctor birx were there and the plan was determined we may need to go longer and that going 30 more days you could say 1 million, maybe 2 million more lives. And then President Trump announced that plan and it did save those lives. So the trumpet ministration then released a plan called guidelines opening up america again on how states could safely reopen. This is part of the plan by the way. Maybe some people are busy reading tweets that they havent actually read the plan area its good guidance issued by some of the most recognized International Experts on disease for type prevention. Some of you here today represent parts of this plan and so in opening up america again , it showed how states could reopen. Some complained that President Trump didnt have the power power to force states to reopen the administration released guidelines so that states had discretion. Each state we all understand how the10th amendment works. Each governor is in charge of their state. Nursing homes are actually regulated by the states, not by the federal government but we give guidance and its been good guidance and that guidance i saved the lives we hear cities and we hear people talking about the cries of the need for testing. So lets talk about whathhs has done the lead on testing. Protests. Zero tests to 800,000 tests per day in a matter of months. Over 52 million tests have been conducted nationally and nobodys slowing down, or increasing the number you we will be over 1 million tests per day and maybe willhave a hearing on how much progress weve made. I know doctor giroir was with the Vice President talking about what were doing to increase testing even to limit the number of days as a goal to get below seven days for anybody to get results and that number as narrowed dramatically to more than half of america, half of americans to 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 area its about targeting testing to the right people at the right time so that what the Trump Administration has begun distribution of rapid pointofcare tests to Nursing Homes. I talked to nursing home tests who said that decision by the Trump Administration to purchase nursing and actual testing kits for every single nursing home in america for 15,000 Nursing Homes, each of them well will have their own 15 minute test area that will save lives. Thats part of this plan. On may 15, 2020 President Trump announced operation work speed. Part of a very direct and National Plan to combat this deadly virus. Operation work speed is a Publicprivate Partnership to several federal agencies to accelerate the development, manufacturing and distribution of a covid19 vaccine as well as diagnostics and other things to direct the specific goal of delivering 300 million doses of a safe, effective fda approved vaccine for covid19 by january 2021 and were seeing that happen at remarkable speed. Were not just going to wait for approval, their massproducing those miles so that if there is one of those vaccines approved, its ready to go. We dont start manufacturing at that point and cost us more weeks, we are actually ready to go. Some of that was money we passed in the care zach President Trump has used to be ready as the vaccines are being developed in testing phases. Doctor fauci i look forward to learning more about the progress weve seen researchers make on tours and vaccines. I know youve been involved in researching some of the most awful deadly viruses that weve known inhistory of the world , hiv area e bola and of course corona we still dont have a vaccine for hiv. Its over 10 years of work youve done a remarkable work to at least give therapy so that 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 we are this close to a vaccine. So you look at where weve seen the Chinese Government. We hopefully will get into conversations about how possibly it was, how many lives were lost as the Chinese Communist party light to the world, not just the United States but the world adding the World Health Organization to give false information in those critical early days but why dont we now talk about moving into august . A lot of work is being done to talk about how to safely reopen schools and in fact more guidance was given as part of this plan icbc to safely reopen schools area we saw of course the American Academy of pediatrics gave great guidance on how to safely 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 they are talking about not reopening. Hopefully we can shine some light and show those other School Systems how they can safely reopen and serve those children millions and millions of children are 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 sanitizer, for all the things you would need to safely reopen area its not about money,its about the desire to do it. You have the will. You have been carrying out the president s plan. Every day we will learn more and continue to strive to address the new challenges but lets not forget the things that have already been done as part of this plan have saved millions oflives. We mourn every loss but lets recognize the lives that would have been lost if you worked on the jobcarrying out President Trumps plan to find a vaccine which we are on the brink of and to help safely reopen our economy , safely reopen our schools so we can get back to our day of life as we combat this deadly virus and with that i look forward to hearing from our witnesses i would now like to introduceour witnesses. Today a select committee is pleased to welcome doctor anthony fauci, director of the institute of technology and Infectious Disease at the institute of health. We welcome back admiral brett giroir, assistant secretary of health at the Departmentof Health and Human Services. And finally , we welcome doctor robert redfield, director of the centers for Disease Control andprevention. Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today. Will the witnesses please stand. So i may swear them and please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god. You may be seated. Let the record show that the witnesses all answered in the affirmative. Without objection, your witness statements will be made part of the record. Doctor fauci, you are recognized foryour Opening Statement. Thank you mister chairman, Ranking Member scalise and members of the committee. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss with you today role of the National Institutes of health in a Research Endeavor to address covid19. Our Strategic Plan which we put together several months ago and barks on 4 separate points. The first is to improve on the mental knowledge of the virus and the biology of the virus and the response to the virus. This has led to a delineation of the cryo em structure of the famous now protein which is the target of virtually all of the vaccines being produced today in addition to delineate the nature of the receptor in the body to which the virus binds, very important in understanding the path of physiology and pathogenesis of. In