Consulted with the centers for disease. Individuals are at least six feet apart. Theres no room for public to attend in person. Representatives of the press are working as a pool to relay their observations to colleague. The hearing may be watched online. An unedited recording will be available on the website. Witnesses are participating by Video Conference in a onetime exception. Some senators, including the chairman, are participating by Video Conference. Senators, we have been advised may remove masks, talk into the microphone when in the hearing room as they are six feet apart. Im grateful to the roall for t hard work to keep us safe. In our hearing last thursday, i said that all roads back to work and back to school run through testing. What our country has done so far on testing is impressive. Not nearly enough. Over the weekend, senator schumer, the democratic leader, was nice enough to put out a tweet quoting half of what i said. He left out the other half, the impressive part. Let me say what i meant. When i said impressive, i meant according to the Johns Hopkins university study, the United States has tested over 9 million americans for covid19. Thats twice as many as any other country. We dont know what china has done. Its more per capita than most countries, including south korea, which many members of our committee cited as a country that tested well. According to dr. Birx, the United States were double testing the month of may, which should get us up to 10 million tests. Here is what i mean by impressive. Here in tennessee where i am today, first, anyone who is sick, First Responder or health care worker, can get tested. Our governor is testing every prisoner, every resident and staff member in a nursing home. He offered weekend drivethru testing. He has done outreach for testing to lowincome communities. A tennessean can get a free test at the local Public Health department. The governors slogan is, if in doubt, get a test. He set his goals to the government. The federal government is helping him make sure that he has enough supplies in case he has trouble getting them through the labs and the other commercial sources. As a result, our state has tested about 4 of the population. The governor hopes to increase that by 7 in may. Thats one of the best in the country. This impressive level of testing is sufficient, we believe, to begin phase one of going back to work, which as i said last week, its not nearly enough to provide confidence to 31,000 students and faculty members that we hope will show up at the university of tennessee campus in august when school starts. Last week i talked with chancellor plowman about that. We said, what would persuade those 31,000 students as well as the 50 million k through 12 students in the country and the other 5,000 university students, what will persuade them to go back to campus in august . Thats why the new shark tank comes in. Dr. Collins at the National Institutes of health calls it rad x. We had a hearing about that thursday. Its a scientific exercise to take a few early stage concepts that are swimming around in what we call that competitive shark tank and see if dr. Collins and his associates can find a few new technologies to create millions of new tests that will scale up rapidly and make it more likely that students will go back to school in august. For example, the fda authorized last week its first diagnostic test using saliva that a person provides at home instead of a nose swab or blood. It authorized its first antige antigen test. You can get the result in just a few minutes. Another proposal, not yet approved, is to put in your mouth a lollipop sponge, take a photo with your cell phone and send that to your doctor. If it lights up, you are positive. The university might send that to a nearby laboratory which could be a gene sequencing laboratory which can deal with thousands of those samples overnight. That same process could occur at a middle school, could occur at a factory. Anyone testing negative one day can test positive the next. Such widespread screening of entire campuses, schools or places of work will help identify those who are sick, trace down those who are exposed. That should help persuade the rest of us to go back to school and to work. In addition to more testing, i expect dr. Fauci to talk to us about additional treatment that will be available to reduce the risk of death and the administrations plan to do something that our country has never done before, which is to start manufacturing a vaccine before it actually has been proven to work in order to speed up the result in case it does work. Those vaccines, those treatments are the ultimate solution. Until we have them, all roads back to work and school go through testing. The more tests we conduct, the better we can identify those who are sick and exposed and we can quarantine the sick and exposed instead of trying to quarantine the whole country. In my opinion, this requires millions of new tests, many from new technologies. Some of these will fail. But we only need a few successes to get where we want to go. Thats why i said on thursday that what our country had done so far in testing is impressive but not nearly enough. First squeeze all the tests we can out of current technology. Next, try to find new technologies to help us contain the disease and persuade us to go back to work. One other thing, this is a bipartisan hearing to examine how well we are preparing to go safely back to work and to school and to determine what else we need to do in the United States senate. Such an exercise sometimes encourages finger pointing. Before we spend too much time finger pointing, i would like to suggest that almost all of us, the United States and almost every country so far as i can tell, underestimated this virus, how contagious it would be, underestimated how it can travel silently in people without symptoms to infect other people, how it can be especially deadly for certain segments of our population, the elderly, those with preexisting conditions, minority population. Let me go back to the march 3rd hearing that we had in our committee on coronavirus. Six weeks after the first case was discovered in the United States, a day when only two deaths were recorded in this country, i read at that hearing this paragram from the new yoph york times. Much about the coronavirus remains unclear. It is far from certain. This is march 3. March 1. That the outbreak will reach severe proportions in the United States or affect many regions at ones. With modern hospitals and sprawling psprawl ing Public Health infratuck structure, the they agree the United States is among the best prepared to prevent or manage such an the New York Times on march 1 manage such an epidemic. The New York Times on march 1. Nine major laws to get this country ready for what were going through today. These laws stood up to national stockpile, created an assistant secretary for preparedness. Created incentives for the development of vaccines and medicines that were using today. Strengthened the centers for Disease Control. We have significantly increased funding to the National Institutes of health. All this was part of a shared goal. Democrats, republicans, four president s, several congresses, to try to get ready for what were going through today, whether it was known like anthrax or unknown like covid19, but despite that, even the experts underestimated covid19. This hearing is about how we improve our response to this virus as well as the next one. During the oversight hearing, i intend to focus on, as i said, the next pandemic, which we know is coming. What can we learn from this one to be ready for the next one . What can we learn from the fast tracking of vaccines and treatments that were about to hear about that will make it faster the next time . How can we keep hospitals in states from selling off protective equipment when their budget gets tight . How can we make sure congress does our share of the funding responsibility . How do we provide enough extra hospital beds without cancelling elective surgery, hurting other patients and bankrupting hospitals . Whose job should it be to coordinate supply lines so that protective equipment and supplies get where they are supposed to go when they are supposed to go . Whats the best way to manage the stockpile . My preacher said, im not worried about what you do on sunday, its the rest of the week that concerns me. Im afraid that during the rest of the week between pandemics, we relax our focus on preparedness. We become preoccupied with other important things. Our collective memory is short. Three months ago, this country was preoccupied with impeaching a president. Now that seems like ancient roman history. While this crisis has our full attention, i believe we should put into law this year whatever improvements need to be made to be well prepared for the next pandemic. If theres to be finger pointing, i hope they are pointed in that direction. We are fortunate to have four distinguished witnesses at the heart of the response to the coronavirus. Were grateful for their service to our country. Ive asked them to summarize their remarks in five minutes. Then we will have five minute rounds of questions from each senator. I have agreed we will end about 12 30. After we have a full round of questions. Every senator will have a chance to have his or her five minutes. Senator murray will have an opportunity to ask the last question or to close the hearing. I will then close the hearing. There will be other hearings to follow this hearing, like last thursdays hearing. Senators may submit questions in writing within the next ten days. Staying at home indefinitely is not the solution to this pandemic. Theres not enough money available to help all those hurt by a closed economy. All roads back to work and back to school lead through testing, tracking, isolation, treatment and vaccines. This requires widespread testing. Millions more tests created mostly by new technologies to identify those who are sick and who have been exposed so that they can be quarantined and be con ta containing the disease, give the rest of america enough confidence to go back to work and school. For the near term, help make sure those 31,000 ut students and faculty members show up in august, we need widespread testing. Millions more tests created mostly by new technologies to identify those who are sick, who have been exposed so they can be quarantined and by containing the disease in this way, give the rest of america enough confidence to go back to work and back to school. Senator murray . Well, thank you very much, mr. Chairman. My thoughts are with you and your team right now as you try to navigate the same challenge so many in our country are worried about. We all wish your staff member a speedy recovery. As everyone works to take appropriate safety precautions today, i would like to thank not only our witnesses for joining us today but also our Committee Staff for working to set up a safe format for members and witnesses and the public to participate in this hearing remotely. Families across the country are counting on us for the truth about the covid19 pandemic. Especially since it is clear they will not get it from President Trump. Truth is essential. So people have the facts. So they can make decisions for themselves and their families and their communities. Lives are at stake. If the president isnt telling the truth, we must. And our witnesses must. Were counting on you today. Families need us to take this opportunity to dig into the facts about where things did go wrong so we can finally get them on track. Because the Trump Administrations response to this Public Health emergency so far has been a disaster all on its own. Delays, missteps have put us way behind where we need to be on diagnostic tests and allowed inaccurate Antibody Tests to flood the market. Corruption and political interference have impeded efforts to secure desperately needed personal protective equipment and promoted dangerous, unproven treatments. And we recently learned that after experts at the centers for Disease Control and prevention spent weeks developing a detailed guide to help our communities understand how to safely reopen when the time comes, the Trump Administration tossed it in the trash bin for being too prescriptive. This is far from the first time this administration has silenced experts who were doing their job and putting Public Health first. The fact of the matter is, President Trump has been more focused on fighting against the truth than fighting this virus. Americans have sadly paid the price. Since this Committee Last heard from these witnesses on march 3, we have seen over 900 deaths in my home state of washington, over 80,000 deaths nationally and the numbers continue to climb. Still, President Trump is trying to ignore the facts and ignore the experts who have been very clear we are nowhere close to where we need to be to reopen safely. My hope today is that we can cut through this and have a serious discussion about what is needed to safely open, how close we are as a country to meeting those needs and how we actually get there. One thing thats abundantly clear, we need dramatically more testing. It is unaccessible we still dont have a National Strategic plan to make sure testing is free, fast and everywhere. That is why i fought to make sure our last covid19 package included an initial 25 billion testing fund. And a requirement that the Administration Submit a plan by may 24th. When i say a plan, i dont mean a pr plan. I immediatemean a plan with goa supply and funding needs. One that actually addresses the issues were seeing on Testing Capacity and distribution and disparities and building out our Public Health system. And makes clear to states and tribes and employers and the American People what they can expect and what theed aminute Va Administration will do to keep americans safe. Testing alone wont be fluff en. We need more personal protective equipment than has been available for our Health Care Workers on the front lines. We will need more for other workers as we reopen. We desperately need this administration to step up and get that equipment to states who are doing everything in their power to purchase supplies but simply cannot get nearly enough. Because the reality is, unlike states, the federal government has the tools to actually fix the problem if only the administration would use them. We also need that equipment to actually work. For the fda to action promptly if it does not, not weeks later when people may have been exposed. Just as importantly, we cant expect people to go back to work or to work or to restaurants or to confidently send their kids to school if there isnt clear, detailed guidance about how to do that safely. Schools from Early Childhood through college need to know how to keep their students, their staff and their educators safe. When should they wear masks . How do you run a School Cafeteria or a school bus . If they cant reopen classrooms, schools and families need to know we are working to know that every student gets an education. Tools like online earning can only get us so far that dont address the Digital Divide so that every student can access them, and even then there can be learning loss among lowincome students, students with disabilities, english language earners and vulnerable populations if we dont make sure they get equal access to resources and support. School it is arent the only places we are thinking about. We need to make sure they know how to reopen and schools are safe. Secretary scalia needs to stop dragging his feet and do his job and get the department of labor, set a rule that worker safety is not optional. Mr. Chairman, i hope this committee can hear from secretary scalia and secretary devos as well as other experts in the space in the day ahead and this is especially important to protect workers and residents at our Nursing Homes and other congregant care facilities where weve seen some of the most deadly outbreaks, and as the rash of outbreaks in meat packing plants shows this isnt just an issue for the health care industry. It is an issue for everyone, and just as we need to plan before we can start to reopen we also need a plan well before we have a safe and effective vaccine to guarantee that we can quickly produce and distribute it on a global scale and make it free and available for everyone. So ill be asking about our progress on those issues today. Today, safely reopening our country may be a ways off and the administrations planning may be way behind, but theres still a lot that congress doesnt have time to spare. So im including the white house and say we provided enough economic relief. My question to them is what good is a bridge that only gets you to the middle of the river . We dont need to wait around to see if people need more help. We know they do. We need to work quickly on another aggress of relief package and we need to make sure our priorities in that bill are protecting our workers, our students and families in addressing this Public Health crisis and not bailing out corporations and protecting big business from accountability. People across the country are doing their part. Theyre washing their hands and Wearing Masks and social distancing and staying home. They need their government to do its part, too. They need leadership. They need a plan. They need honesty and they