Center. It involves eating only fruits from fruit sources, drinking from bottled water and washing your hands in chlorine solution virtually everywhere you go. You go through your day at the , end of the day every time you come back into the compound at the end of the day where wherever youre going to get your temperature taken again to ensure that you stay ebola free. Will the u. S. Military personnel have zmapp or other experimental drugs on the ground . Im not aware there will be any zmapp available on the ground. The equipment will be issued to them depending on their level of expected exposure. For the vast majority of people that will include gloves, boots, a suit. Obviously for the medical personnel would be more along the way for lines for the Health Care Providers. Doctor lurie, in 2005 the Bush Administration proposed a rule change that would allow the cdc power to confine individuals believed to be infected with deadly pathogen like pandemic flu. Two you the cdc should have authority over an infectious . Isease like ebola thank you for the question. I think with every situation we are always reviewing and taking a look at whether we have the authorities we need to do the job. Our system now that it rests with the states and they have authority to do that when they think its necessary. The cdc shouldnt have that authority and it should be flexible . Dont you think that would be a valuable authority to have . We are always learning and based on our experience that is what we will be looking at going forward. I hope so. Im not sure that we are adjusting as rapidly as possible and im certain we are not giving any type of security to our medical workers, nurses including our citizens out there that we have a solid policy in place that is first and foremost protecting our citizens against these type of problems and i think its evidence of either hearing today and hearings that will go on but youre not bringing a sense of security and as a member of congress representing a district im expressing the point of view who believe that we are less secure than we ought to be if we could use the policies that we could put in place. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. I will now recognize the gentleman from virginia for six minutes in the spirit of equal time. I thank the chair. It seems to me based on what we know in the hearing that United States objectives have to be twofold. Domestically it is to protect and prevent. And that goal cannot be successful if we dont address the second goal which is to deal with the disease at the source in west africa. And especially given the fact that we are potentially looking at an explosion of infection that is exponential in a very short period of time in the next two months it seems to me there is enormous urgency in the latter not to diminish at all the need to address the former. We have some good news today. Ms. Pham has been declared a ebola free. But dealing with the first part to protect, it wasnt thanks to the protective gear and the guidelines that were in place at her hospital. While the cdc was giving us assurances of how hard it was to contract the disease we are pretty confident we have things in place and so forth. Two of the Health Care Workers including ms. Nina pham came down with it. Doctor lurie, do you think that perhaps the cdc missteped . They said some missteps have been made that theyve taken a quick look at the experience and doctor lurie, im asking a Public InformationHealth Question on how to deal with event when i was the head of my county. One rule i had was never reassure the public when you dont know. Never do that because it is your credibility. As youve heard from some of the questions on the other side to gave them an opening to attack the credibility of the administration by extension. Because the cdc wasnt capable of saying not yet. We dont know. Its a work in progress. Whats so horrible about doing that . I think right now as we look at the situation we see that it is a work in progress and we can see that its taking constant steps to just a just as we learn more. Ms. Burger, you indicated he would welcome a law establishing if not executive order preferably a wall that codifies establishing uniform guidelines, uniform protocols so we dont have this up and down. Is that correct . Excuse me, you left out one critical word which is mandatory optimal standards for the personal protection created the cdc guidelines are merely guidelines and all 5,000 hospitals in the usa gets to pick and choose what part of the guidelines they implement. I take your point. Doctor lurie, would the administration welcomes such legislation and is the president contemplating such executive action . One of the things to keep in mind is the federal government does not license or regulate hospitals in this way. They are regulated primarily by states but i think its fair to say at this point no hospital wants to see its healthcare workers infected. The cdc guidelines provide options for safe protective equipment in large part because theres probably not a onesizefitsall solution. Its important for people to be able to practice in the equipment that they are using comfortably daytoday provided that it meets the Safety Standards the cdc has articulated. Not sure what that means in terms of whether the administration is contemplating executive order or you would welcome the legislation that would make it mandatory as suggested, but we will be in touch im sure. Final set of questions mr. Torbay. In the United States there are 245 doctors per population and in liberia, 1. 4. In guinea one, sierra leone, 2. 2. Health spending per capita, 8,895 here in the United States and 65 in liberia. 32 in guinea. The cbc says if we dont achieve 70 of the isolation of existing ebola victims in the affected before i gavel this to a before i go from 10,000 or so, jawdropping. Thank you for your question. There are steps that could be taken and are being taken to contain this, and to hopefully never achieve that 4. 1 million number, and that includes the isolation of patients the minute we know they develop symptoms, and treatment for ebola you, theould interrupt cdc says that if you isolated 70 now, you would achieve ebola,e abatement of then we are on a path to a complete reversal of the virus and the disease. But if we dont do that, we are headed in the opposite direction. Sorry. Awareness and education is critical. But also, we cannot forget the need for regional preparedness outside of these countries. One twoyearold girl was taken to a hospital in mali and so regional preparedness is critical. Inamed includes burial teams and consistent Community Messaging so there are no two conflicting stocking of well as supplies that are needed in case of an outbreak. This is critical and it is an area being ignored. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your generous nests generous ness. I want to thank the doctors of the soldiers for their courage and their sacrifice. Very few people are willing to run towards us, so i want to start by thanking that group of people. Lurie, i want you to listen to a quote. I wait atomically you think the author of this quote is. Want this country to be in preparation of any Adverse Health situation that comes in. Do you said that . Who . You did you conducted 30 to tabletop a ball, botulism, plague, etc. Another story about your career says that you want to make sure what we are in in preparation for a pandemic, an earthquake, shes got it. Yep. She has a communication strategy. So here we have a doctor with an incredible background in medicine who also happens to have planned for crises like ebola whose Job Description also includes communication strategies, so why in the hell did the president pick a lawyer to be the ebola czar and not you . Questions,iate your and i want to make some clarification. The cdc has ample authority to do but it needs to do. And its use to those Authority Many times. The proposed regulation would have refined the process but the underlining statute already gives the cdc the authority that is needed. The record is now complete with respect to door position on the quarantine. Now i want a record to be complete on why in the world of the president pick a lawyer to head the ebola crisis instead of somebody with your varied background. And i appreciate the vote of confidence. The role of the coordinator in the white house is a whole of government coordination role. I appreciate that, doctor lurie, but mr. Klain is not a doctor, he is not an osteopath, hes not a nurse come hes not an epidemiologist, he doesnt have a background in communicable disease, he doesnt have a background in Infectious Disease, he doesnt have a background in west africa so how in the world is he the best person to be the ebola czar and not you and i dont want to hurt the secretarys career and i fear that i will by complimenting her but she is an incredibly bright person, one of the more capable people ive met in the last ten years is your boss, the secretary of hhs. We disagree on fairness on a lot of policy, but she actually has a background through her work in the foundation in global health. Youre a doctor if this were an outbreak of people that dont have a role in west africa or if this were an outbreak of the contested elections in west africa, then i would say yes go hire mr. Klain. But its not. Its a medical crisis. So why not you . Right now i have a fulltime job in the the department of health and human services. I appreciate the vote of confidence and i have a lot of confidence in him. How about another doctor . Whos an expert in Infectious Disease or an expert in west africa or the delivery of healthcare . God forbid we pick somebody with a background in medicine instead of a lawyer. And in the interest of full disclosure, i am one. With respect i think the will of the coordinator role of the coordinator of the white house doesnt require a doctor it requires someone that is able to bring part of the government together to enhance the covert nation. Im going to make you this promise and i want you to hold me to it. The next time theres an opening on the Supreme Court i want you to see whether or not the president considers a doctor or a dentist for that job. And we actually are about to have a vacancy for the attorney general. And i want you to consider or be mindful of whether or not he considers maybe like a tattoo artist to be the next attorney general. I promise he will not. He will pick a lawyer for the Supreme Court and to be the head of the attorney General Department of justice. Im just lost why he wouldnt pick someone with a medical or healthcare background to be the ebola czar. Can you understand why people might possibly think that this could perhaps be a political pick instead of a medical Science Health pick . Can you understand how people might be a little bit suspicious . I can understand a whole variety of issues. Despite the medical background. I was going to let you go. With aneed Someone Health care delivery background. One of the things that is the great thing about im going to take that answer that he has none. He has me, doctor frieden, doctor fauci. We could go on and on. We had access to those people before he hired mr. Klain so why pick a lawyer to head up the response for ebola . Color me cynical cynical it just appears to be political. But but with that, mr. Chairman i would yield back. Will my friend yield . Of course i will yield to the gentleman from virginia. I just want to join my friend and colleague from a nonlawyer its the healthiest thing weve had in the last 50 years. Thank you. Are you applying . Are you interested . I thank the gentleman. I now recognize the gentlewoman for five minutes. I thank the chair. Doctor lurie are you trying to say someone needs to be good at coordinating and managing and cutting through a lot of the bs . That is exactly right. I think the panel for meeting with your committee today to our committee today to discuss this issue and i want to let you know my thoughts and deep appreciation are with all of the Health Care Professionals dealing with this crisis and those in the audience and because i represent illinois a special shout out to those from the chicagoland area. My questions are about the dods role in west africa. Secretary lumpkin, i know some commented that there is no reason to involve the u. S. Military in this kind of humanitarian crisis. Why is the u. S. Military so critical to getting that but they are under control in west africa . Thank you for the question. Again we are in direct support of usaid and their whole efforts, and the government efforts. Usaid came to us because of our speed and scale of response. We can mobilize quickly, we can and still command and control but we have to keep in mind think about 200 inches of rain a year. When we were there it was raining six to eight hours a day sometimes and many of the roads are impassable except by foot and what goes by foot is the ebola virus as well, so there was an accessibility to the various areas. We have the ability to reach and get those areas and to support usaid. We have the ability to do construction and to build the ebola treatment units. When i was there i had the chance to get on the ground to talk to some u. S. Navy individuals building the monrovia medical unit and working through the rain with the equipment to get what looks to be impossible they make it possible. The final piece that we can do is scale to training for up to 500 workers per week to staff these treatment units. So we bring the capacity in order to do that. So, again, we are an interim solution to support usaid into the International Community to mobilize in order to take over our efforts. So you feel you have extensive experience in conducting humanitarian efforts like this . Usaid onpported numerous occasions. Weve done it in places like japan several years ago, the philippines most recently, the team on the ground we worked with from the Disaster AssistanceResponse Team has extensive experience working with the department of defense and we are very tightly lashed up and i would say that its seamless. Thank you. General can you provide general can you provide a status update on the operations in the region and let us know what your Biggest Challenges are . Yes maam, thank you for the question. As mr. Lumpkin said we were asked to do this mission because of our unique capabilities. As we are here today we have 698 personnel on the deck, split between liberia and senegal. We are expecting the next 24 hours to 121st Airborne Division will complete its move in the country and we will begin a rotation for them to take over the command and control piece of this equipment continues to flow through the staging base in sen egal. As mr. Lumpkin said, we were asked to do engineering. Usaid asked us to be prepared to build up the 17 ebola treatment units and weve been asked to build 12 since we are currently under construction and as for the training effort, we have identified the National Training center in monrovia where we will bring in the military trainers to begin training healthcare workers in the next couple of weeks. This question is for both of you, if this epidemic is not contained and it spreads over a continent do you agree that this affects International Security . To reiterate my comments, this is a National Security priority for the United States that truly has global impacts. So, we have an opportunity right now to flood the zone to make sure we have the capabilities in country working as a whole of government to mobilize the community to respond. While it still is at a point while it is dire if it gets worse it is good to be hard to manage, so we need to take this opportunity that we have right now. General, did you have anything . Nothing further. Thank you both for your testimony and, again, a deep appreciation to all of the Health Care Professionals. Thank you. I thank the gentlewoman and i will now recognize myself for five minutes and i want to thank the six of you for your continuation and your efforts in the United States of america and the men and women that serve on the front lines of the workers and First Responders i join in thanking all of those that run to the sound of the guns into the graces that have been that they are amazing individuals and have our thoughts and prayers and hearts behind them. On the military side of things i dont know whether to start with mr. Lumpkin or the general, but help me understand the proximity to the challenge how many usaid personnel are they supporting . I dont have the number off the top of my head. Do you have a range . Is that hundreds . It is so integrated. We can get back to you on that. I would be happy about that. It is my understanding, doctor, is there is a 21 day window in which a person who may have been exposed to ebola will actually potentially come down with ebola and starts to show signs of having this virus is that correct, 21 days . Thats correct. So general, why do we only hold the troops for ten days before we release them to bring them back to the United States . Yes sir, thanks for the question. I can understand the confusion on this but let me see if i can make it clear. To start the 21 day period for monitoring has to take place outside of the infection zone. For us, that would be in the United States. Out of an abundance of caution, prior to departure in order to reduce the risk, commanders will be allowed to remove their personnel from whatever jobs they were doing for up to ten days prior to the departure from liberia in case of to limit their exposure and provide an extra layer of protection. However im going to need further explanations because i dont understand about ten days the science is 21 days. That the 21 day monitoring for the military personnel will take place