In the drop on record ppe data. Some similar things, but hasnt really captured what we are seeing in terms of covid19 yet. European stocks rolling over. The telco sector is doing reasonably well. Vodafone leading the charge there. Good numbers. Retailers are doing well. Real estate, travel and leisure, insurance is where we are seeing weakness today. We have seen the u. K. Going to the syndicated market today. Usually u. K. Sells debt via auctions. A rare trip there. Absolutely staggering demand for that debt. We continued to see yields going higher in italy. Keep an eye on that. Crude catching a bid. We are up by nearly 2 today. Vonnie also, we are awaiting testimony by dr. Anthony haoching today from the nash dr. Anthony fauci today from the of infectioustute diseases. Lets bring in Bloomberg White house reporter josh wingrove. Will know yet if dr. Fauci say anything that will be troublesome to the administration . Josh i think it could be interpreted as it, but i would expect it is more troublesome for governors. It seems like he will signal that he is uneasy with the pace that some governors are moving ahead. The question is how the president will interpret those remarks. The president hasnt really objected to those reopening plans from governors. Are shows that americans overwhelmingly pretty nervous about opening too quickly. We will hear a lot from dr. Fauci. I do think hes been on tv a lot lot, hes been on tv a but measures in the white house are ramming up right now. Just looking at this from a , what is dr. Ctive fauci likely to say about a vshaped economic cover he vshaped economic recovery . Is he likely to say that that will most likely the more like and l or a u . Josh i think he will focus on the risk of a new wave, and other words, a w scenario. I think what he is saying is if we move too hastily, we will not only set ourselves back, but it will even cost us time and throw away the work we have done so far. Beenauci has not particularly up arrow with regards to the Economic Outlook on a reopening plan, so i wouldnt look for him to be delivering that message. I think consistently, he is going to say that America Needs to proceed cautiously. There are a lot of signs that is not ready for reopening, doesnt have the Testing Capacity to make ,onsumers comfortable with it to catch cases where they pop up. Vonnie we are not going to hear dr. Fauci before the house. He will not be appearing there. There will not be any panel at this, and Infectious Disease panel dropped to the house, so all we get is before the senate today. What is the gold for the Senate Committee of this hearing . It is joint, of course. Republicans control the senate. Democrats control the house. President trump doesnt want to send velti to the house, so we will seek him to sends ouchi to send shes fauci to the speak so we will see him to the senate. They will highlight measures that dr. Fauci has endorsed previously. He has avoided criticizing the president fairly directly during these briefings. It will be a bit of a twostep going on here, but we do not expect him to testify to the house on this. Against the backdrop of all of this is talk of a phase four plan. Democrats look like they will put out their own unilateral proposal, but it is very unclear right now as to what republicans if willing to do, or even there will be a phase four regarded to the lockdown measures of this virus. Senators our republican senators expressing concern about whether there will be a phase four . Or are the deficit hawks coming out to play again . Vonnie thank you for your contributions, josh wingrove. Actually getting lamar alexander, the senator from tennessee, making an Opening Statement from his home, so lets listen in. Sen. Alexander that is 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, is 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 ut about that. Chairman what would persuade those 31,000 students, as well as the 50 million k12 students in the inntry to go back to campus august . Willis where dr. Collins hear about it on thursday, i remarkable scientific exercise in what we call that competitive shark tank, to see if dr. Collins and his associates can find if you 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 that a personiva provides at home instead of a nose swab or blood. It authorized its first antigen test, like the ones used for flu or strep throat, which involves the swabbing of the nose, and you can get the result in just a few minutes. Another proposal not yet approved is to put in your mouth a sort of lollipop sponge, take a photo of that with your cell phone, and send that to your doctor. The university might send that to a nearby laboratory, which could be a gene sequencing. Aboratory that same process could occur at. Middle School Anyone testing negative one day positive the next. Such widespread screening of entire campuses, schools, or places of work will help. Dentify those that are sick that in turn should help persuade the rest of us go back to school and back to work. In addition to more testing, i expect dr. Fauci to talk to us about additional treatments that will be available to reduce the risk of debt and the administrations plan to do something our country has never done before, which is to start before it 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. Roadswe have them, all 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 quarantined the sick 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. That is why i said on thursday that what our country has done so far in testing is impressive, but not nearly enough. First, squeeze all the tests we can out of current technologies. 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 can safely go back to work and school, and to determine what else we need to do in the United States senate. Such an exercise encourages finger point. Before we spend too much time finger pointing, i would like to suggest that almost all of us, the United States and almost every other country, so far as i can tell, underestimated this virus, underestimated how contagious it would be, underestimated how it could travel so violently. How it can be especially deadly for certain segments of our population. The elderly, those with preexisting conditions, minority populations. Let me go back to the march 3 hearing we had in our committee on coronavirus. Six weeks after the first case was discovered in the united eights, only two deaths were recorded in this country. I read at that hearing this hearing from the New York Times two days earlier. They reported this. Much about the coronavirus remains unclear, and it is far that the outbreak will reach severe proportions in the United States or can affect many regions at once. With its topnotch scientists, modern hospitals, and sprawling health infrastructure, most experts agree the United States is among the countries best prepared to prevent or manage such an epidemic. That was the New York Times on march 1. A lot of effort has gone into trying to make our country wellprepared. Over the last 20 years, president s, several congresses, and response to 9 11, bird flu, passed major laws to help get this country ready for what we are going through today. Were standing up the Strategic National stockpile, preparedness, creating incentives for the developer to vaccines and medicines that we are using today, strengthen the centers , thanks to control the leadership of senator blunt and senator murray. All of this was part of a shared goal. ,emocrats, republicans president s, several congresses tried to get ready for what we are going through today, whether it was known like anthrax or unknown like covid19. Despite that, even the experts underestimated covid19. This hearing is about how we improve our response to this next. As well as the i also 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 we are about to hear about that will make it even faster the next time . How can we keep hospitals and states our share of the funding responsibility . How do we provide enough extra hospital beds without canceling 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 . What is the best way to manage the stockpile . My preacher once said it is not what you do on sunday that concerns me as the rest of the week. We become preoccupied with other important things. Our collective memory is short. Just three months ago, this country was preoccupied with impeaching a president. Now that seems like ancient roman history. This crisis has full attention, i think we should put into law this year whatever improvements need to be made to be wellprepared for the next pandemic. If there is to be fingerpointing, they are pointed in that direction. Distinctivee four four distinguished witnesses. We are grateful for their service to our country. We will have a fiveminute round of questions from each senator. Every senator will have a chance to have his or her five minutes. Senator murray will then have an opportunity to ask the last question, and i will then close the hearing. There will be other hearings to follow this hearing, like selects thursdays like last thursdays hearing, and senators may summit their questions in writing within the next 10 days. Staying at home and definitely is not the solution to this pandemic. There is not enough money available to help all of 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 technologies to identify those who are sick and of been exposed so that they can be quarantined. By containing the disease in this way, give america enough confidence to go back to work and school. In 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 and have been exposed so they can be quarantined, and by containing the disease in this way, give america enough confidence to go back to work and back to school. 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 her Staff Members 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, their families, and their communities. Lives are at stake. The president isnt telling the truth. We must, and our witnesses must. We are counting on you today. And families need us to take this opportunity to dig into the facts so we can finally get them on track because the Trump Administrations response to this Public Health emergency so far has been a disaster. That put us way behind where we need to be on diagnostic testing 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. That after learned experts at the centers for Disease Control and prevention spent weeks developing a detailed guide to helping our communities, understand how to safely reopen when the time , the Trump Administration tossed it in the trash bin for being to prescript for being too prescriptive. This is not the first time the admins trajan has defied experts doing their job and in Public Health first the administration has defied experts doing their job and putting Public Health first. 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, ending numbers continue to climb. Still, President Trump is trying to ignore the fact 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 that is abundantly clear, we need dramatically more testing. It is unacceptable we still dont have a National Strategic plan to make sure testing is free, fast, and everywhere. That is why i thought 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 24. And when i say i plan, i dont mean a pr plan. I mean a plan with specific timelines and numeric goals for supply and funding needs, one that actually addresses the issues we are seeing on Testing Capacity and distribution and disparity, and building out our Public Health system, and makes clear to states, employers, and the American People what they can expect and what the ministration will do to keep america safe. But testing alone wont be enough to reopen our country. We still need far more personal protective equipment then has our healthble for care workers on the front line, and we will need more as we reopen, so we desperately need this administration to step up and get that equipment to those who are doing everything in their power, but simply cannot get nearly enough. But 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, and for the fda to act promptly, not weeks later when people may have already been exposed. Just as importantly, we cant expect people to go back to work or to restaurants or to confidently send their kids to schools if there isnt a clear, detailed guidance about how to do that safely. Schools from Early Childhood through college need to know how to get their students, staff, and educators safe. When should way they when should they wear masks . How do you run a School Cafeteria or school bus . If they cant reopen classrooms, students and families need to know that every student will get an education. Online learning can only go so far if we dont address the Digital Divide so that every student can access them. Even then, there will be learning loss that could deepen existing educational disparities populations if we dont make sure they get equal access to resources and support. And of course, schools arent the only were aces weve got to be ticking about the only workplaces weve got to be thinking about. We need to make sure industries across the country know how to safely reopen and that people know their workplaces safe. Secretary scalia needs to stop dragging his feet and do his job, and have the department of labor set forth rules that make it clear that worker safety is not optional. I hope this committee can hear about these Critical Issues from secretary dile from secretary scalia and secretary devos. This is especially important to protect Nursing Homes and other congregant care facilities, where we have seen some of the most deadly outbreaks. As the rash of breaks at meatpacking plants shows, this isnt just an issue for the healthcare industry. It is an issue for everyone. Just as we need a 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 i will be asking about our progress on those issues today. Safely reopening our country may be a ways off, and the Administration May be behind, but there is still a lot that Congress Needs to do. Some might include in the white house, say we have already provided enough iconic relief. What good is a bridge if it only gets you to the middle of the river . To wait around to see if people need more help. We know they do. We needto m wor to work more aggressively on a relief bill and protect our students, workers, and families in addressing this Public Health crisis, not bailing out corporations and protecting business from accountability. People across the country are doing their part. They are washing their hands and Wearing Masks and social distancing and staying home. They need the government to do its part. They need leadership. They need a plan. They need honesty, and they need it now, before we reopen, so they can rest assured that we are doing things safely and confidently, with their health and wellbeing as a priority. Thank you, mr. Chairman. It is an important hearing, and no a lot of people and i know a lot of people maybe watching for the first time. We have 23 number said this committee, one more republican than, groep. Republican than democrat. We have some very strong views, but we are able to Work Together ourrespect each other and witnesses, and a big part of that goes to senator marie and her staff. Have fivess will minutes to give testimony. Thank you for being here by video due to these unusual circumstances, and thank you for what you are doing for our country. Our first witness is dr. Anthony fauci, director of the National Institute of allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of health. He has advised six president s and worked on hiv aids, influenza, malaria, ebola, and other Infectious Diseases. In treatingved people at the nih and also worked on vaccine trials. Next, we will hear from dr. Robert redfield, director of the cdc, which has its headquarters in atlanta. More than 30 years he has been involved with Critical Research related to virus and infections. He was the founding director of the department of retroviral militarysr the u. S. Hiv research program. He spent 20 years with the u. S. Army medical corps. , the assistant secretary for health at the u. S. Department of health and human services. That puts him in charge of. Olicy recommendations he has focused on the increasing number of tests we can do with the existing technology. Ofncludes a variety activities with our defense department. He was part of the Blueribbon Panel to reform the u. S. Veterans Health System. Finally, we will hear from the commissioner of the food and drug administration. Before joining fda, he was the at theedical executive university of texas cancer center, chair of the departed of theation and oncology at university of pennsylvania, a senior investigator at the National Institutes of health, commander of the u. S. Health Public Service commission. I will ask each of our witnesses to summarize their remarks in five minutes. Following that, each senator will have five minutes for questions and answers in the order of seniority. Dr. Fauci, lets begin with you. Welcome. Dr. Fauci thank you very much mr. Chairman, Ranking Member murray, and members of the committee. Thank you for giving me the chance to discuss with you today the role of the National Institutes for health and research for covid19. The plan we have is fourfold, one is to improve our understanding of the virus, to develop new care diagnostics, to characterize and test therapeutics, and finally, develop safe and effective vaccines. First, with regard to diagnostics, as you probably heard from dr. Francis collins last thursday, the nih has developed the rapid acceleration of diagnostics program, called radx. It supports the develop of covid19 diagnostics. There is a National Call for Innovative Technologies that will be evaluated in a shark process todiagnostic get to either success or failure rapidly. Moving onto therapeutics, i will talk a bit about the remdesivir success in a moment, but let me in for size that there are a number let me emphasize that there are a number of antivirals in various stages of testing. In addition, we will be looking at plasma from individuals who have recovered from covid19 to be used in passive transfer, either in prevention or treatment. In addition, hyper immunoglobulin can be used as a shot. We will be looking at repurposed drugs, as well as immunebased modifiers,nd host and finally, antibodies. Let me take a moment to describe the remdesivir placebocontrolled randomized trial, which was done internationally with the power of more than 40,000 individuals drop the world. It was in hospitalized patients with lung disease. The endpoint was primarily time to recover it. The result was significant, but modest. It was only a modest result showing that the drug made a 31 faster time of recovery. We hope to build on this modest success with combinations of drugs and better drugs. Moving onto vaccines, there are at least eight candidates for covid19 vaccines in clinical develop. Has been collaborating with our mystical little with pharmaceutical companies at various stages of develop. One we have been involved heavily in developing, you might on thisn january that committee, i said it might take one year to 18 months if we were successful in developing a vaccine. The nih trial moved very quickly. On january 10, the sequence was known. On january 11, the Vaccine Research center developed a plan. On january 14, we officially started the development. 62 days later, we are now in phase one Clinical Trials with the two doses already fully enrolled. ,t will be animal safety directly going to phase two and three in late spring and early summer, and if we are successful, we hope to know that in the late fall and early winter. There are some important issues, however, in covid19 development. Winnersto have multiple with multiple shots on goal. This will be good for global availability if we have more than one successful candidate. We also, as the chairman mentioned, will be producing vaccines at risk, which means we are investigating considerable resources in developing doses even before we know any given candidate or candidates. I must warn there is also the possibility of negative consequences, where certain vaccines can actually enhance the negative effects of the infection. The big unknown is efficacy. Will it be present or absent, and how durable will it be . Finally, i want to mention the nih has launched a Publicprivate Partnership for therapeutic interventions and vaccines. Andpurpose is to prioritize accelerate clinical evaluation of therapeutic candidates with nearterm potential. Hopefully our research efforts, together with the other Public Health efforts, will get us quickly to an end to this terrible ordeal we are all going through. Thank you very much. Happy to answer questions later. Sen. Alexander thank you, dr. Fauci. Dr. Redfield . Dr. Redfield good morning. Our nation is confronting the most serious Public Health crisis in more than a century, yet we are not defenseless. We have powerful tools to fight this enemy. We have tried and true effective Public Health interventions, such as early case identification, isolation, and Contact Tracing, combined with important mitigation strategies, including social distancing, frequent handwashing, and face coverings. These tools have end will continue to slow the spread of covid19. Provide a brief overview of some of the cdcs ongoing work. Cdc has been working 20 47 to combat the pandemic. Cdcs Emergency Operation center is supporting state, tribal, local, and territorial Public Health partners in building core data andies for analytics, as well as conducting Health System surveillance. Community mitigation teams are providing guidance on infection control, and Laboratory Experts are performing testing to better defined the extent of a symptomatic populations. As they reopen, they will require varying degrees of federal support. Each will face unique circumstances. Cdc has conducted a statebystate assessment of Public Health testing, capacity, and Contact Tracing capacity, as well as surge planning. Cdc is providing Technical Assistance and funding provided through the supple mental c. A. R. E. S. Act and Health Care Enhancement act. We are working directly with the state Public Health leaders to for testing needs supplies and manpower in reporting, Contact Tracing, infection control, and outbreak investigation. I want to spend a moment to focus on several key elements. First, testing. Rapid, extensive, and widely available, timely testing is essential for reopening america. Cdcs role in testing continues to support diagnosis and Contact Tracing, surveillance and outbreak. We work with our partners to define their particular testing strategies for their jurisdiction, and will address the testing components of the response in greater detail. Increasingcing, capacity is critical. Stop a critical part to the transmission and prevent the occurrence of sustained community transmission. Edcs role is to provide Technical Training assistance and support for the states as they hire and build a workforce necessary to be fully prepared to effectively respond to the Public Health challenges caused by the ongoing covid pandemic. This will be an expensive effort. Surveillance. Our nation Surveillance Program is built on a combination of systems, including existing influenza and respiratory viral disease systems, combined with commercial and research lab platforms and our case reporting system. Cdc is adapting these and optimizing it to have a Surveillance System in response to covid19. Importantly, in light of the nificant occurrence of asy itasymptomatic infection, becomes an important tool for early at invitation. Cdc is working with each jurisdiction to develop a perspective Surveillance Program to include active surveillance among those most honorable, such as individuals and longterm , andfacilities, intercity the homeless. Analytics, Public Health laboratory resilience, and our nations Public Health work, now is the time to put it in place, not only for the Public Health system that our nation needs, but for the Public Health system our nation deserves. Before i close, i want to recognize the tireless commitment of the dedicated cdc everywho have employed order of this nation. Withce and data continue Technical Expertise and public theice amid the backbone of cdcs public response. I extend my serious gratitude to the Health Care Workers on the front lines, as well as their families, and the essential emergency person well emergency personnel, as well as the American People for adhering to the stayathome guidelines to protect the most vulnerable. We are not out of the woods yet. He battle continues, but we are more prepared. We need to stay vigilant with social distancing. It remains imperative. I am confident that we will emerge from this and make stronger, together. Thank you. Sen. Alexander thank you, dr. Redfield. Admiral giroir, welcome. Adm. Giroir im here to provide you with an update on the nations in testing for covid19. Azarrch 12, secretary requested that i lead the covid19 testing efforts within hhs, including oversight and of tanation of the cdc. Since then of the fda and cdc. Since then, we have performed a number far greater than any other country and doubled the per capita tests performed to date in south korea. We implement it a phased approach to meet testing needs during mitigation, and now during phase i one reopening of america. Pioneeredmarch 20, we 41 communitybased drivethrough testing sites in locations prioritized by the cdc with profound success, testing over 167 thousand highrisk individuals and demonstrating a prototype that is being duplicated multi fold in nearly every state. Leveragedministration trusted retailers, including aid, whoreens, rite are now providing testing in 33 states, 69 of which are in committed bees with moderate to high social phone or ability. To meet the need for collection supplies like swabs and media tubes, we first secured the Global Supply chain through a military air bridge. We worked directed with manufacturers to increase mastic production. We collaborated with the private sector and the fda to validate multiple swab and media types that vastly expanded supplies while minimizing the need for ppe. Finally, we used title iii of the defense production act to domesticnvest in manufacturing to further prepare us for reopening. To support the need for surveillance testing, on april 27, we issued a new testing framework that also prioritized testing for persons without symptoms, who are prioritized by health apartments or clinicians for any reason, including screening of a symptom at individuals according of asymptomatic individuals according to guidelines. Next, we performed multiple calls with leadership from each state to set state specific testing objectives. Collectively, states and territories to leptin overall goal to perform 12. 9 million tests over the next four weeks. The federal government is able to, and will support the achievement of this goal. Specifically, the federal government is shipping to states 12. 9 million swabs and over 9. 7 million tubes of media and may alone. Last month, we also detailed the location and capacity of every lab machine in every state that could potentially run covid19 testing, and our team has worked with suppliers to match agents to this machine. Looking forward, between now and the end of 2020, the federal government to procure over 135 million swabs and 132 million tubes of media and distribute these two states as requested to supplement the now robust commercial supply. We anticipate marked increases in current tests, as well as genetic expansion of new pointofcare tests like the first in class antigen test authorized by the fda just last friday. Quit dell they anticipate being able to produce 100,000 tests a day. Everytember, taking aspect of many factoring in supply chain into consideration, we project that our nation will be capable of performing at least 40 million to 50 million tests per month as needed at that time, and if new technologies are authorized like whole genome sequencing approaches or any novel nihsons uncovered by the new diagnostic initiative, that number will be much higher. Finally, i want to acknowledge and express my heartfelt gratitude to the officers of the u. S. Health service commissioned corps, the Uniformed Service i am honored to lead. 3471 men and women have deployed in support of this pandemic. On the cruise ship in japan to our military bases repatriating americans, to our communitybased testing sites and international airports, to fema and our task forces, to nursing facilities, including kane county, washington, into field hospitals in hardhit communities across our nation, i think each and every one of these officers and their families, and on their behalf, i think the members of this committee for supporting our Training Needs and the establishment of a Ready Reserve to supplement our ranks in future national emergencies. Thank you for the opportunity to provide these remarks. Sen. Alexander thank you. Now, dr. Stephen hahn, our fourth and final witness. Dr. Hahn chairman alexander, Ranking Member murray and numbers of the committee, thank you for inviting me to participate in this hearing today. I first want to start by thanking the mark in people for their incredible efforts at mitigation, and extend my condolences to those who have lost loved ones. From day one of this pandemic, the 18,000 fda employees who are just incredible scientists, doctors and nurses, have taken an active role in the government response to this pandemic. Fda has worked to facilitate the develop of medical countermeasures to diagnose, treat, and prevent covid19. We have worked closely with laboratories, manufacturers, academia, product developers, our federal partners and companies that dont even make medical products, but want to pension but want to pitch in. Every decision we have made is driven by data, with the goal of also protecting the health of the American People. In a Public Health emergency, however, a response is balanced to the urgent need to make medical products available with the level of oversight that helps ensure the safety and effectiveness of those medical products. I would like to take a few minutes to tell you what fda is doing to help the country at this point, and to ensure that america is safe to return to work in school. It starts with testing, as others have mentioned. Fda has worked with more than 500 developers who have said that they will be submitting requests for authorization for covid19 tests. This includes some newer technologies that have not been used as part of agnostic tests to respond to a pandemic. We have issued 92 individual emergency use authorization tests per laboratories, and been informed by more than 252 laboratories that they have begun testing under the regulatory kit abilities we outlined in march. We are conducting rolling reviews of submissions so that we can quickly authorize tests which the data supports. In a Public Health emergency, the accuracy of diagnostic tests is important not only for the individual patient, but for patients at large, for the public at large. Fdas helping to ensure the available he of tests providing accurate answers. We are also monitoring the market place for fraudulent tests and are taking appropriate action to protect Public Health. We are working to provide more clarity about which tests have been reviewed and authorized by fda and which have not. Unlike diagnostic tests, which detect the presence of the virus, serologic tests analyze the amount of antibodies in the blood when responding to covid19, and help identify individuals who can overcome an infection. We will continue working with labs, manufacturers, and the government to find a balance between insurance that Antibody Test is accurate and timely access to such test. Of course, the way we will eventually beat these viruses with a vaccine, and fda is working closely with our partners, including the nih, vaccine developers, manufacturers, and experts across the globe. We intend to use our regulatory flex ability to help ensure the most Efficient Development of a safe and effective vaccine to prevent covid19. Until a preventative vaccine is approved, however, we need medical products to bridge the gap. Fda has been working with several months to facilitate the develop into an availability of therapeutics as expeditiously as possible, and created an Emergency Program for this acceleration, called the coronavirus treatment exhilaration program. We have reassigned staff to work with urgency to review requests from companies, scientists, and doctors developing therapies, and we are using every available authority and regulatory ability that is appropriate to facilitate the development of safe and effective products to treat covid19. Therapeutic areas are being developed, as well as convalescent plasma and others. As dr. Felty also mentioned, we recently announced the positive results of the trial of remdesivir in hospitalized patients with covid19. Two other promising treatment site mentioned are the antibodies tests, and i am certainly willing to go into more detail if numbers of this committee have questions about this, but we are working very aggressively and closely with stakeholders to facilitate the what could actf as a bridge therapy to the developed of a vaccine. We recognize that developing vaccines and therapies need to go hand in hand, ensuring that there will be sufficient supplies for our country, so we are also working with manufacturers to make sure that this supply is robust. Members of the committee, please know that in the fda, you have a dedicated team of some of the nations finest scientists, health care providers, and professionals. We are guided by science and data, and we wont let up until we facilitate the develop of the products that our nation needs to get back to work. I look forward to your questions. Sen. Alexander thank you, and thanks to all four of you for your expertise, for your dedication to our country, and your hard work. We will now begin they round of fiveminute questions from each senator on the committee, alternating between republicans and, kratz and democrats. If you have a video conference, you have a time clock at the bottom. I would ask you to try to stay within five minutes for your questions and answers. Ive got a question for dr. Fauci, and then admiral giroir. Lets look down the road three months. 5000 will be about campuses across the country trying to welcome millions of college students. What would you say to the chancellor of the university of tennessee knoxville, or the principle of a public school, about how to persuade parents and students to return to school in august . Lets start with treatments and vaccines first. If you could save some of my five minutes for admiral gir oir, i would appreciate it. Dr. Fauci i would be very realistic and tell her that, in this case, the idea of having treatments available, or a vaccine, to facilitate the reentry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far. As i mentioned, the drug that has shown some degree of efficacy was modest, and it was in hospitalized patients, not yet, or maybe ever, to be used as prophylaxis or treatment. If the issue is that the young individuals who will be going back to school would like to have some comfort in that there is a treatment, probably the thing that would be closest to utilization then would likely be passive transfer of convalescent serum. But we are really not talking about necessarily treating a student who gets ill, but how the student will feel safe going back to school. If this were a situation where we had a vaccine, that would really be the end of that issue in a positive way. But as i mentioned in my opening remarks, even at the top speed we are going, we dont see a vaccine in the availability of individuals to get back to school this term. What they really want is to know if they are safe, and that is the question that will have to do with what we discussed earlier about testing. I would like to pass the baton to admiral droit, who would address the question of the availability of testing and what role that might play in returning to school. Thank you, sir. Sen. Alexander thank you, dr. Fauci. Admiral, you said that while we are doing about 10 million tests this month, we might be as high september0 million by , which is a significant increase. If i am chancellor of the university of tennessee, can i build a strategy where i say to all of my students that we have antigen tests, which are quick and easy, and you want everyone on campus to come by and take it before you get to school, to let everybody know that on that day, we have isolated anybody that is positive, and then we can continue to monitor . Is that strategy possible in august and september . Dr. Redfield thank you, mr. Chairman. The strategy that is going to be employed really depends heavily on what is the Community Spread at that time. If there is almost no Community Spread, your strategy will be different. But yes, technically, we will have the ability and your chancellor will have the ability. We expect there to be 25 to 30 million pointofcare tests per month available. It is certainly possible to test all of the students, or much more likely that there would be a surveillance strategy done where you may test some of the students at different times to give assurance that there is no circulation. That would be done in conjunction with the cdc and local health department. Theres also strategies still needing to be validated. We know in some extremity labs, as many as 10 or 20 samples can be pooled, so essentially, one test contest 20 students. Finally, there are some x per metal approaches that look interesting, if not promising. For example, waste from an entire dorm or entire segment of a campus could be tested to determine whether theres ,oronavirus in that sewerage the wastewater. So there are strategies being developed, and i would like to at least give 20 seconds to dr. Redfield, who really will be working on the strategy of how to employ this given Different Committee spread. Sen. Alexander dr. Redfield . Dr. Redfield first, i thing it is really important to evaluate critically the role of changes in social distancing on College Campuses and schools in the situation, not to forget the importance of what we have learned. Clearly, also developing aggressive education, making sure people understand when they are symptomatically, they need to seek evaluation. I think we are going to have to look at the role of testing. I think there will be an Important Role for testing in this circumstance, and i think it will be individualized based on where these different schools are. Sen. Alexander i am going to wrap it up there so i can set a good example for the other senators with their five minutes. Senator murray. Dr. Redfield thank you sen. Murray thank you very much, mr. Chairman, and thinking to all of our witnesses. Warned of you have needless suffering and death if we push to reopen too soon. The president has actually be sending the opposite message. What is the most Important Message you have for communities and states that are reopening, even as our Public Health experts make it clear it is too soon . Tell us what the consequences are. Dr. Fauci thank you very much for that question, senator murray. As i have said many times publicly, what we have worked framework ofeline how we safely open america again , and there are several checkpoints in that, with a gateway first of showing that, depending on the dynamics of an outbreak in a particular region, state, city, or area, that would really determine the speed and the pace with which one does reenter or reopen. Has been that i get concerned if you have a situation where the dynamics of an outbreak in an area are such that you are not seeing that gradual 14 day decrease that would allow you to go to phase one, and that if you pass the checkpoints of phase one, go to phase ii and phase three. What i expressed then and again is my concern that in some areas , cities, states, what have you, jump over those various checkpoints and prematurely open up without having the capability of being able to respond effectively and efficiently. My concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks. Therefore, i have been very clear in my message to try to the best extent possible to go by the guidelines, which of been very well thought out and delineated. So ifuci sen. Murray a community or state or region doesnt go by those guidelines and reopens, the consequences could be pretty dire, correct . Dr. Fauci the consequences could be really serious, particularly, and this is something we should also Pay Attention to, that states, even if they are doing at the appropriate pace, which many of them are and will, a pace that is commensurate with the dynamics of the outbreak. But they have in place already the kick ability that when there will be cases, theres no doubt that, even under the best of circumstances, when you pull back on medication, you will see some cases appear. It is the ability and kick ability of responding to those cases with good identification, isolation, and Contact Tracing, that will determine whether you can continue to go forward as you try to reopen america. So it is not only doing it at the appropriate time, with the appropriate constraints, but having in place the kid ability of responding when the inevitable infections occur. Sen. Murray thank you for that. It is clear that in order to do that, it is about testing. This administrations approach to testing has been plagued by unrealized goals and systemic problems within the supply chain. Last week, an average of just 250,000 tests per day were performed in the United States, a small fraction of what we need. Yesterday, President Trump had the gall to declare u. S. Had prevailed on testing in a press conference that was filled with misinformation and distortion. Gioir, Public Health experts do not think the u. S. Prevailed. Has prevailed. [indiscernible] [no audio] and we know, by the way, that testing needs will persist long past june. Today,nted to ask you will the administrations forthcoming Strategic Plans now required under the package just passed and signed into law, will that Strategic Plan on testing include