Up where i left off, i started my last question line asking each of you if our federal government was doing Everything Possible to be able to respond and each of you said, within the capabilities of our government, that we were. The reason i wanted to address this is, when we talk about a National Testing strategy or greater coordination on personal protective equipment, what ive heard over and over again is that its about where the responsibility is. Is this the responsibility of the federal government or the responsibility of states or localities. When i talk to the people in my district, what they want to know is about capabilities. And they really dont want to just see this kind of bralame gn between different parts of our government. They ask if were doing everything humanly possible to be able to address this crisis and is every level of government including the federal government doing everything we can to deal with this and if not, the American People deserve to know why. Dr. Fauci, just to be clear,
when i asked you this, and you said within the capabilities, that we were, i want to ask you, would you say our response at the federal level to this crisis, would this be considered in your mind, drawing on all your expertise, is this the Gold Standard of responses that our federal government can do, is there nothing else that you can think of from your expertise and experience that we could be doing or should be doing that were not already doing . I think i just have to repeat what several of us said, that within the context of what we have, whats available to us, were doing everything that we possibly can. Ill just repeat what i said, clearly the thing that i am responsible for, we are doing everything that we possibly can, absolutely. With what you see with your position on the task force, for instance, are you confident in the level in which were using the defense production act to be able to bolster production . You know, thats something thats really out of hi relevmy
congressman, about the extent and the implications of the defense production act. What about when it comes to, we had federal test sites, 41 around the country, that we handed over to states refuse are you confident thats the right move, that we shouldnt be standing up more federally backed test sites . Im sorry. The federally backed test sites, 41 across the country, weve been handing them over to the states instead of continuing them under federal control. Do you think thats the right decision . I dont think i can give a good answer to that because thats not something i get involved with. I dont know, bob, maybe you have further information about federally funded testing sites, because thats out of the purview of what i do. Dr. Redfield, do you have any thoughts on this . I think it was important to as the chairman alluded to, to begin to enhance and transfer this capacity to these
federally funded Health Clinics and the increased capability. It is a partnership. So i think these were appropriate moves. I do think, when you ask are we doing everything that we could do, theres two things i would like to say. One is, dont miss this opportunity to realize how important it is to make the investment in the core capabilities of Public Health for the future, because clearly we were handicapped when this outbreak started, and we dont need to have that happen again. Secondly, i dont underestimate who ultimately is the most important in helping us beat this pandemic, and thats the American Public themselves. I get look, i get that. But i find that to be a frustrating narrative too, because certainly all individuals have to take on some responsibilities to be able to do this. But that feels like were pushing it off to them. And it feels like their responsibility is now being pushed to the American People. For instance, as you know, congress, we passed legislation in april that includes 25 billion in additional funding for testing and tracing. Im still hearing that a lot of that hasnt been used. So i wanted to ask you if you have knowledge of how much money hasnt been spent on this, and whether or not the omb or any other part of the government is holding up access to be able to do that so we have the capabilities and the resources to be able to increase our cables. Its important, congressman. Of that money, of that 25 billion, which is a significant amount of money, 10,250,000 came to cdc. We got out to the states, local, county Health Departments literally within two, three, four weeks. Thats been all distributed. One last question, here, dr. Fauci, do you have thoughts on using rapid antigen testing or paper strip testing, things like
that that could create more point of care response . Yeah, i can answer that one, sure. Anything that gets us quicker, more rapid, more scaleup capability of testing is something that would be desirable. And in fact, that was one of the things i mentioned very quickly in the third component of the nih strategic plan, the radx, about a half billion dollars, to try and develop the tests youre talking about, rapid, point of care, highly sensitive, highly specific. Lets try and work on that together. The time of the gentleman has expired. Youre recognize for you five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. The one question i have left today, i think its a question the American People want to know, my district certainly wants to know in indiana, is it your opinion, do you believe that china covered up the origins of the crisis . You are in this closer than anybody else in our country and the American People listen to what you have to say. Ive been asking lots of questions since this committee was created because i think china needs to be held to a much higher standard than were holding them. Do you believe china covered up the origins of the crisis . Congresswoman, it depends on what you mean, origin of the crisis. The beginning of the pandemic, the disease itself, as it broke on tv and we saw it. I think from what we know, and im sure bob can also comment on that, from the conversations that we had early on, it was led to believe that, early on, that this was jumping from an animal to a human in the context of the wet market in wuhan, and that it was an efficient virus that just jumped from an animal to a human and didnt necessarily spread well human to human, at a time when it was clear that it was at least a few weeks and maybe more of transmission from human to human that we didnt know about. Then when we finally found out that it was a highly efficient
transmitter from human to human, it would have been nice to know about that sooner. Do you think china is a threat to the american Vaccine Research that weve been talking about for the past three hours . Did china do what with the vaccine . Is china still a threat today to the american Vaccine Research . No. I dont think so at all. One of the things people need to understand, that what we do is really transparent. We publish it. We announce it. So if they want to hack into a computer and find out what the results of a vaccine trial are, theyre going to hear about it in the new england journal of medicine in a few days anyway. When i testified earlier, i was talking about the fact that a few days ago our country indicted by the Justice Department two chinese nationals for hacking the heroes working on a vaccine. China has obstructed every single thing weve done, turn weve made, place we go, starting all the way back with ppe. And i was very involved in my district in trying to get ppe and china was obstructing every
single part of the way. So i think, you know, my fellow folks in my district and in this country believe otherwise. I think the American People want to make sure, when were talking about safe vaccines and were talking about the fda and were not short cutting safety and those kind of things, i dont know how in the world that we can stand there and say, no, i dont think chinas a threat to the vaccine production in this country when we just indicted two people and not just two, but i think that i think that question is so important, madam chairwoman, i think its so important, i want to reask my question, i see our chairman is not here, but to you, madam chairwoman, i think we need to investigate that answer on cybersecurity. Weve already indicted more than two people, but just two people in the last couple of days ago, why cant we have a hearing in here, and i understand the chairman has said before, well, theres other committees having hearings on the role of china, but nobody is having a hearing on the role of china versus the producers in america and the vaccine process that were looking for, the heroes that are trying to save lives, that would
be appropriate for this committee, can we get a commitment, can i get a commitment from you sitting in for the chairman, that we will actually have a hearing and look at this . This committee is chaired by mr. Clyburn. Right now its chaired by you, madam. I do not intend to give you an answer to a question about how to run this committee in his absence. You may address him when he returns, not me. I appreciate that answer. And i will. But i think for the record, i think we still are owed an answer as to why we cant look at that in this committee. Theres no other committee set up to look at the vaccine process of oversight than this one, especially having you gentlemen here today. So i would yield back my time and add that for the record. Thank you, dr. Fauci. Mr. Foster, you are now recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair, and
to our witnesses. First off, i would like to second the comments of my colleague, representative dr. Mark green, on the letter that was recently sent from this committee providing for ongoing real time bipartisan oversight of operation warp speed by the Government Accountability office, the gao. With dr. Green and myself as the bipartisan points of contact, directing the gao, on points of interest to the committee. In my time in science, i was involved in billiondollar Research Projects that were subject to gao oversight. They would bring in outside experts, they would ask hard questions, and they would report back to congress the truth as they see it. Both from a technical and scientific point of view and also a project management point of view which can often be critical. Gao is fastidiously nonpartisan. They will give us real time briefings, staff briefings and member briefings, and period reports on the progress of Vaccine Development and
manufacturing under operation warp speed but they will only give us briefings on a bipartisan basis, which i think is very valuable, because it is crucial that people believe, when vaccines and therapeutics become available, that the process is not politicized, that we have bipartisan agreement on reasonable decisions, free of conflicts of interest or political intrusion, are being made. And that the gao is intent on not becoming a tool for partisan advantage, which helps our government work better. An example of the sort of thing that im interested in having them look into, something i was discussing with dr. Redfield over the break, which is Monoclonal Antibody therapeutic manufacturing. There is a lot of the good news is that there is a strong immune response to this virus by the human immune system. This means among other things that vaccines are more likely than not to work and it also means that antibody therapeutics are more likely than not to work
as they have against recent viruses. So we may be in this position where, yeah, theres a miracle cure that can then prevent or cure covid19. But we do not have the manufacturing to meet the demand, especially given the ongoing flareup of covid19 in our country. So you can imagine the politics of that will become extremely fraught rapidly, when we have to decide how to dispense this potentially lifesaving therapeutics. And so its also a circumstance in which aggressive project management may be crucial. You know, you can imagine, if you want to produce the maximum number of antibodies, you may say, okay, we are going to choose the most effective antibody from company a, we are going to produce it using the optimized cell lines from company b, and were going to use the high volume Production Equipment on company c. This will require things like the defense production act being used at their fullest to just
leapfrog around issues of things like intellectual property. Already the companies that are optimizing cell lines are getting into patent fights and so on. We dont have time for that. So one of the things i would like the gao to look into is to make sure that we have in advance the sort of project management, you know, that the contracts that are being made with all of these companies anticipate this, or that discussions for the applications of the defense production act, are actually taking place ahead of when theyll be needed. Its just one of many examples there. So i just want to encourage both of you and hhs generally to greet with open arms the gao oversight. They can you know, its not always fun being subject to gao oversight but their questions actually make the projects better. And so if and also, i think you probably have been involved with projects that have been involved with gao oversight. And so theres a careerlong association of the gao personnel and the agencies they represent. And so its not like youre getting a letter from congress where you just kind of roll your eyes and try to do the minimum. These are serious questions by professionals. So when dr. Green and i intend to use that to provide real bipartisan information to this committee and to congress and to the American People about whats really happening, i think that will be crucial. So any of you, do you have any comments on other things that we can really do to make the public confident that the right decisions are being made for the right reasons in this . Well, thank you for that, congressman foster. Yes, i mean, the fact is that we are very transparent in what goes on in operation warp speed. But there have been Public Comments by the scientists, the active collaboration, which was set up by hhs. Some of the scientists involved in that said i have no idea whats behind one of the
operation warp speed decisions. So in direct answer to your question, i think you brought up a good point about the monoclonal antibodies. We didnt get an opportunity to mention this in any of the questions, but monoclonal antibodies, just this week there were two trials that have been initiated, one on an outpatient basis for early patients, one on an inpatient for more advanced patients which we really have a lot of anticipation that that is going to be something that is going to be an important tool in the armamentarium of how we treat covid19 patients. So i wanted to get that in because i think thats really important. Remarked the scrutiny of the gao or otherwise, i have been, in the many years ive been doing this, had many gao looking into the things ive done, in fact ive found it in many respects very helpful. Thank you. I yield back. The gentlemans time has expired. Ms. Velasquez, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairwoman. I want to get back to the delays
in testing. Researchers at the university of pennsylvania recently found that testing sites serving communities of color in big cities are fewer in number, have longer lines, and often run out of tests faster when compared to sites in whiter areas in those same cities. As ben bernanke and janet yellen told the select committee, nothing is more important for restoring Economic Growth than improving Public Health. Yet we have a president who says slow down testing, please. And the most vulnerable are being impacted, from line workers, small businesses, that cannot reopen safely, in black and latino populations. I have some questions along these lines. Dr. Fauci, i have a simple question for you. Do you attribute this inability to control the virus to the delays in testing and Contact Tracing . Thank you. Control of the virus is clearly a multifaceted process that involves many things, the most important of which is what we were just speaking about before, about testing, about masks, crowds, outdoor versus indoor, distances, et cetera, et cetera. Weve been through that multiple times during this hearing. Testing is a part of the process. But the process of controlling infection, when youre talking about Contact Tracing, obviously you need testing, and you need testing back within a reasonable period of time. And the concern that youre expressing is for the days that it takes. And admiral giroir has addressed
that several times during this hearing. But testing is a part of the comprehensive approach, not the only thing, but as part of the approach. Thank you. South korea had rapid results for testing and tracing, and the virus is essentially contained there, or gone. Do you agree that what they did with respect to testing helped those countries get the virus under control . Virus under control in some of the Asian Countries were due to a number of factors. Their ability to shut down almost completely, as i mentioned in a remark before, to the tune of 90 plus percent. Did they rush to reopen the economy . No. They shut down, they had the capability, because they got down to a very low baseline, to do adequate identification, isolation, and Contact Tracing. Right now they are trying to reopen. Its going to remain to be seen
how successfully they do that. So for the record, does testing results in the u. S. See more covid cases or are other factors causing this spread . So are we seeing more covid19 cases in the u. S. Because of the testing results . Obviously if you do more testing, youre going to see more cases. But the increases were seeing are real increasing in cases, as also reflected by increasing in hospitalization and increasing
in deaths. Why is it that professional sport leagues can get testing turnaround times within 24 hours but we cannot do it for all americans . Well, some of the sports clubs have been using the rapid test which is really very different from the test that requires extraction of dna and takes time and a different machine. So they have bought a bunch of mach