The committee on first i would like to welcome everyone and go through some administrative things. Weve taken the advice of the attending physician that center for Disease Control health and Human Services so we are seated 6 feet apart. There is no room for the public. And the press is operating by poll although this can be watched by streaming or later in an era of fashion. The witnesses were here in person and we welcome them. Some senators are in person in the summer participating by videoconference. I would like to say this about masks. Weve consulted with the attending physician. Since we are 6 feet apart we dont need to wear a mask when we are here although you are free to if you want to. I wear my mask when i am outside of this room according to the recommendation of all four of the witnesses who are here today. Im grateful to the rules committee, sergeant at arms press gallery, the Capitol Police and for all the hard work to keep us online and safe. Senator murray and i will each have an Opening Statement and then we will turn to our witnesses. Wed like to ask you to summarize your remarks in five minutes. Then we will recognize each senator for five minutes of questioning. We have participation today, so i expect a very good hearing. This will be the final. Last week at the hearing i thank senator murray and staff for diligence and Cooperation Without which the committee would not have accomplished all the things we have been able to accomplish. This week i would also like to thinthank the most senior repubn senator and all other 20, both democrat and republican. Senator ted kennedy is to say that our committee had the broadest jurisdiction in the senate. You would only have to look around the room at a hearing in the sea we also had the broadest range of views and some of the ablest advocates but thanks to the Committee Members and to senator murray most of the hearings have been bipartisan which means they have agreed on a broad range of witnesses to present points of view and while the questioning and statements have been probing, theres always been a high level of courtesy both to the witnesses and other senators for which im grateful for. To Work Together during such a rancorous time as a contributor to why we have been able to publish so much. The work of the committee represents my view as far as the senate goes it is hard to get here. Its hard to stay here and while you are here you might as well try to accomplish something good for the country which this committee has done on numerous occasions. To deploy a vaccine against covid19 is on track to become an unprecedented sprint to success. A program called operation warp speed will save lives without cutting corners on safety and efficiency. The Vaccine Development process is likely to produce its first tens of millions of doses within one year. The United States has never produced a vaccine that rapidly. When i was a Child High School classmatehigh schoolclassmate i. We waited ten years for a polio vaccine so we wouldnt be afraid of polio. Many existing takes routinely before they go to school like chickenpox and measles have taken ten years to develop. The secret to the success of this effort is the government in partnership with private industries for the first time are developing a manufacturing vaccine in parallel. Now, what that means is operation more speed is manufacturing tens of millions of doses of the six vaccine candidates at the same time the Clinical Trials are ongoing and the food and Drug Administration worked to determine whether those vaccines are safe and effective. If the fda does not approve the vaccine, it will not be distributed. So, the risk is taxpayer money, not the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. The administration had set a goal that once seemed impossible but now seems likely. The administration hopes to have as many as 300 million doses of Vaccines Available to be deployed by it made according to an august 26 article operation warp speed principal advisor and vaccine expert doctor matthew f. Byrne published in the journal of medicine the authors also wrotwrote the scientific enterpe could guarantee success they would succeed in this unprecedented endeavor. With the department of health and Human Services said recently in a meeting that if all goes well its possible that up to 700 million doses will have been manufactured by april by next year, 2021. The department of health and Human Services, department of defense and the private sector, medical professionals are also working together to lay the groundwork for deciding who gets the first doses such as as healthcaras healthcare workers n highrisk populations and how to get them to those individuals. The state is to submit plans by the middle of october of this year, next month, to begin distribution. The doses that are being manufactured and ready when will they be available for distribution to the public they answered of course, the only people who know when the vaccine will be ready or the scientists that the fda who will review the science end of the Clinical Trial data and determine whether the vaccine is safe and works. Even doctor stephen hahn, the commissioner who is testifying today does not know when that day will be because the fda will not approve until three things happened. One from independent experts overseeing the trials to determine theres enough Data Available to the fda to make a decision. Number two, after demonstrating safety and efficacy based on Clinical Trials of the vaccine manufacturer submits an application to the fda and three, fda experts conduct the review and make sure that its safe and it works. Authorized for emergency use today and they help treat and manage. Blood thinner and plasma and operation warp speed officials are optimistic they say that more treatments will be identified or developed in Clinical Trials this fall. The most promising has been used to treat other diseases like ebola. Knowing there is some medicine that will help treat the covid19 should relieve the anxiety that want to go back to college back to college, back to worworking out and eat and a thd Success Story is the explosion of fast, cheap reliable diagnostic tests our country lost several crucial weeks and distributing the diagnostic tests that would help identify. But since then an Unprecedented Research has created capacity this month for more than 90 million tests about half of them i did a test according to the admiral who is here today. Its on track to produce 50 million of the tests, 50 million of its tests a month by october which can produce a result in 15 minutes and cost 5 a test. The government has purchased 150 million of the tests to help expand testing in places like schools and Nursing Homes and itoensure that we will hear something about how that will be distributed today. Congress funded the socalled shark tank or rapid acceleration of Diagnostics Initiative and i h. With the objective of developing and deploying tens of millions of rapid diagnostic tests. They told me this is not the end of the story. There are lots of additional technologies coming through the pipeline many of which are rapid and homebased tests. Untold vaccines and treatments are widely distributed come this explosion of many cheap reliable diagnostic tests is our best weapon to build confidence among the American People that its safe to go back to school, back to work and out to eat. There should be plenty of tests. In fact, there are now what to do surveillance testing of those without symptoms in certain settings like colleges and child care centers. Its important to give credit to this congress and this president for funding this unprecedented effort to develop and manufacture vaccines before they are all approved knowing full well that one or all of them might fail with a considerable loss of money. Since march congress appropriated for than 47 billion for tests, treatment and vaccines. A large amount of tables in size to the 3 trillion spent to try to ease the pain by shutting down the economy. Its important to give credit to previous president s in the Previous Congress for the bipartisan work theyve done over the last 20 years to make possible the remarkable success i just described earlier. Doctor sally for example told me the government today could not be manufacturing the vaccines currently being developed if congress hadnt provided the department of health and Human Services was funding to make awards in 2012, eight years ago to build three manufacturing plants that would be on standby for the next academi epidemic. The decision to look ahead, senator burr specifically, had a role in that. Doctor sally said that was visionary. The New York Times reported that the United States is among the countries best prepared to manage such an epidemic. Focused on covid. Why would they say that on mar march 1 . Lets look at the nih for five consecutive years the congress significantly increased investment in the National Institutes of health for Biomedical Research and nih infectious Clinical Research consortium that was established last year was able to rapidly shift ongoing Clinical Trials and quickly enrolled volunteers for covid19 trials and treatments and vaccines. Or look at the fda. Congress provided that they specific authorities beginning in 2004, 16 years ago, to review and issue emergency authorization for tests, treatment and vaccinations to respond. Doctor hahn has used that authority and the fda has used that authority to authorize 250 tests and find treatments as quickly as possible and remove tests and treatments when evidence shows they didnt work as well as they should. The congress established the Biomedical Advanced Research development of a ready in mid mid2006, 14 years ago, to help Companies Work with fda for treatment and vaccines. They were able to award candidates just over one month after the vaccine was first reported in china. As i said earlier, four of the first are being manufactured and facilities built in 2012 for this purpose, for a future pandemic. Vendors can support over the years the state, local and hospital preparedness, 21 billion between 2002 and 2017. The cbc has used existing programs to help states retrain workforces expand capacity, planning for the future pandemic, a future pandemic during the last several years and even with supercomputing. Several have done things to help us get ready for this unprecedented spread toward success and vaccine treatments and tests. The next pandemic is in the isna question of if but when. The next pandemic could be next Year Congress should take stock now. While our attention is on the Current Crisis of what they learned during covid19 and address some of the problems we know we can solve like the Previous Congress as in the previous president s did. Many of the witnesses that have appeared before this committee have agreed we have three things to do. One, sustained onshore manufacturing of test treatments and vaccines, number two, create and sustain the stockpile supplies so they will be available to the Public Health emergency and strengthen the Strategic National stockpile. We have seen time and time again Attention Spans are short. We must act now to stop the cycle of panic, neglect, panic. I look forward to hearing from the Witnesses Today about how the federal government is continuing to respond if both states respond and how soon we can expect for treatment. Thank you very much mr. Chairman, thank you for the witnesses for joining us once again today. Before i begin i want to take a personal moment to acknowledge the passing of Justice Ginsburg in a wall model that opened doors for all of us. A position to the highest court would be more pivotal especially as we faced down a historic publichealth crisis. They are in the middle of a pandemic that has cost more than 200,000 american lives on this administrations watch and nearly 7 Million People across the country with new preexisting conditions and 5. 4 Million People without coverage. Peoples health care in the critical case coming up this year previously said in march of 2016, the American People should have a voice in this election and said many times over the past few years they support protections for preexisting conditions. The entire country is going to be hearing about with another Supreme Court nominee would mean for their healthcare and their rights. Back in january i helped organize the first bipartisan briefings with the Administration Officials about the covid19 threats coming in favor of two secretary shortly after asking what steps we were taking and specifically asking about our diagnostic testing capacities. At the hearing in february, i addressed him directly about issues and i asked point blank if the country was ready. Tragically the clearest answer that i got the didnt come from the Trump Administration. It came back from families in my home state of washington. And it came at the resounding no. By march i was getting from people in my state that believed they had been exposed but they couldnt get tested and who had been tested but were left waiting for results. I was hearing from schools including my granddaughters that they were canceling classes including school and i was seeing nothing from the Trump Administration to inspire confidence or act with urgency. Lets be clear we had a window to prepare for this and the administration missed it. We had a pandemic playbook that warned against some of the problems they were facing. They ignored it. We had an understanding of how dangerous this could be and they downplayed it. So much has changed since the early days of the crisis. Now the number of people infected in the country have passed 6. 5 million. The number of People Killed in the past 200,000. The number of people without a job and without Health Insurance has skyrocketed and businesses have been shuttered. Gathering some birthdays to funerals and weddings have been canceled about one thing has not changed. President trump is still putting politics ahead of the crisis. The cases of death are still high. Testing and contract for tracing are inadequate. Tracing are inadequate. The Health Disparities in the communities if we need to prepare for the upcoming flu season when experts warn us we could see another wave of cases. And yet President Trump is still trying to sabotage the work of our scientists and publicHealth Experts for his own political ends. As the leaders of Health Agencies on the front line of the response to the pandemic our witnesses have an important firsthand perspective on this thread doctor hahn good food and Drug Administration had a Critical Role to play in evaluating the treatments, diagnostics and vaccines. The American People are counting on you for this on the scientific principles and work of agency specialists so it is incredibly alarming that this administration has undermined Public Trust Network of the agency by spreading conspiracy and pressuring the agency to ignore the science. Earlier this year the administration promoted hydroxychloroquine. But even more recently the administration pressured the fda to rush through an emergency use authorization for therapy and last month the secretary repeatedly overruled you directly and undermined the authority when he was an oversight of the tests that allowed unreliable tests in the market. Then last week he further undercut your agency by completely barring the fda from signing any new rules without his approval and left a power grab for to make a pandemic. The center for Disease Control and prevention plays a Critical Role providing data and sciencebased public guidance for families, researchers and Healthcare Providers to rely on for life and death decisions. Guess the Trump Administration has repeatedly interfered in those efforts. We have seen the white house contradict critical guidance on reopening the communities and returning to school. We have seen the president conspiracies about the death count and misinformation about masks. The trump Administration Officials have reportedly taken unprecedented steps to hijack the cdc and undermined its credibility. The administration i