Project like this . Mr. Ballmer yeah, its an effort we started about four ago with me trying to actually understand our better. Nt by the governments own numbers. How big is the government. Come does the tax base from, what what do things get spent on and what are the outcomes . Said lets use the discipline that a company would shareholders. To the securities and Exchange Commission requires a factual 10k reportled a and we started out on the journey and weve really learned lot by sorting through numbers not only at the federal level local the state and level. And what about the need for realnumbers, real data, facts, in the middle of the kind of situation that the country is the coronavirus epidemic . Mr. Ballmer its more essential ever and well suffer with some of the other problems we see with government data. Timenment data has a hard staying current, staying recent. You look at historical numbers on the Affordable Care act and medicaid. Theyre two, three years out of date. Right now were struggling to have uptotheminute data about the coronavirus, about the impacts on the economy, and certainly if youre sitting at the federal level, you want to see those things consolidated in realtime which is very difficult since the prime place in which this data gets collected is at the county level. Id also like to ask you about something you did last you announced you are going to be donating 25 to fight the effects of this epidemic and youre doing targeted way, in places like your own city of seattle and los angeles and detroit. What is the role of philanthropy when we are up against this kind of crisis and how did you decide to put your own resources . Ourballmer it builds on general philanthropic focus on kids and families in need. Wet happens to be where focus. Some nationally, some in the three geographies you talked about. Id say the work weve done so far falls in a few areas. Filling in gaps on the medical side. Were not talking about longterm medical research but theres a shortage, for example, now, of nose swabs. And before government can step in, theres weird supply chains coming out of china. Lets get that supply chain moving. Lets accelerate testing. University of washington tests everybody in our state. They can now test everybody who day inthe hospital each a very short number of hours which is quite fantastic. We helped out. There are funding collaboratives. Example,s fund, for in l. A. , that are worried broadly about whats going on in the community. Put money in. We have found a number of steppingions that are in to the gaps whether its food dealies or other things to with food insecurity, which is very important. We stepped in there. Weve also put money into our existingn notforprofit grantees and them weather through, weather through this crisis. Agencies areervice Small Businesses but not Small Businesses that are well apply for p. T. P. Funds so theres a number of to jump which we found in. Well, i must say a big it seems like for an organization like usafacts is really helping people get their both the size of the challenge and how quickly this coronavirus has been moving across the country. Here, a timephic found at i mr. Ballmer it would require software and leg work to collect that data for the counties and a good one thattion like the you have. Literally we have programs that offhrough and scrape data of county websites and put it together in a database. C. D. C. Has used our database for a number of things around we are scrounging if you will on very, very local data. But also putting it in a form whether its the c. D. C. , a number of parties can use it. Explosionc shows the in the disease and variations. The county in the state of was an early virus. On of the have another graphic that shortcomings. He people this week started getting their first payments from the rescueent under this bill. Could you talk a little bit we have theecause house and the senate and the white house are all arguing what the second funding should look like. A great thingts about democracy, that people will figure that out. You is for show families that are in the middle class. People define middle class differently. Going to define it as the families in the middle 20 in those peopleers, only make between 33,000 and 66,000 dollars a year as a family. If you take a look, we have this,ment data on all of what do these families spend money on, you can see the amount for food, spending for housing and a variety of needs. The size of the stimulus check is in green. Costs andcovers food housing costs for somebody in middle of our spectrum and as you get to the 40 of people than that. S affluent these needs stay fixed. One month of peoples needs are faceed and were going to crisis quickly. The Unemployment Insurance will in some instances but 1200 doesnt go that far middle class. Those slices, average costs for families, 366 for healthcare. Obviously, one of the most immediate effects that weve last month is our Healthcare System is just theletely overwhelmed by epidemic. About thatalk 80s about the shape of the Healthcare System. Providing even in ordinary times real value for the money were spending on it and is it deal with an emergency like this one . Mr. Ballmer its very interesting. Explosion inhe almostare costs, tripling over the last several of costs perrms person served and yet if you look at our longevity, the average age at which we die, that has not increased very much. The number of hospital beds come down by about theres goodwo and news in that in terms of the Healthcare Industry getting more more effective. Numbers, ifat these i was in government, having a strategy for this is quite the cost given pressures in healthcare and yet the needs to serve in a pandemic. Like this steve, we really appreciate taking some time with us this morning and talk to us about what i think is a very and necessary project at this moment. Mywill be turning now to colleague, bob costa, National Political reporter, who will to f. D. A. Commissioner stephen hahn about the latest of testing but first we e this short introduct we introductory video. This has been a fast moving we really have to take this day by day. I primary issue is the safety americanre of the people. That has to come first. Light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Fauci, dr. Birx have said that. We see the resiliency of the people with respect to social distancing, hand washing and all those mitigation factors so that gives me great hope. Bob good morning. Are joined bye dr. Stephen hahn, a member of president s Coronavirus Task force. And commissioner of the f. D. A. , the food and drug administration. May follow him and if you dont, he oversees efforts on medical testing, public and drug approval and hes been doing that throughout this pandemic and before the pandemic. Dr. Hahn, thanks so much for being with us today. Dr. Hahn bob, thank you for having me. My best to your viewers. Bob thank you, sir. Weve heard about this interview topofmind question for almost everyone is when will a Antibody Test be available for mass use across the nation . Bob, sear test or Antibody Test that detects someones Natural Immunity after having to the coronavirus. Theres a period of time in which that test will work. Has a role but based upon the timing of when the antibody f. D. A. selop so the role here is to evaluate those thes and determine reliability as well as the reproducibility of those tests. We currently have authorized as serologicght four Antibody Tests. As part of our march 16 regulatory flexibility, we permitted laboratories across the country to develop their own test and come to market and use as they validated those tests and 84 companies or usoratories have told theyre doing that so we expect more to come through the regular emergency use authorization process which is where f. D. A. Has oversight on to the testing characteristics and has a stamp of approval with f. D. A. So we expect more companies to come and were working actively. I have three or four calls a Laboratory Test developers to make sure were on track that they have the supplies they need, the samples they need and remove any road blocks to the development of these tests. Dr. Hahn, youve expressed concern about the f. D. A. Allowing dozens of tests, some in china, to come into the u. S. Market without a full f. D. A. Review. Why do you have those concerns and do you continue to have them . Always, and since the beginning of this epidemic, whether it was with drugs or p. P. E. Or diagnostic tests, were always trying to strike a balance between Regulatory Oversight and regulatory flexibility and the point youre making is a really good one that americans are concerned about and that is can we rely upon the tests that are out there. What i can tell you is that if a company or Laboratory Test developer comes through the emergency use authorization f. D. A. , we put our stamp of approval behind that. Weve looked at the data. The validation. We than its reproducible so cane are the ones that we stand behind. We do know that others have come to market and weve reached out and asked them to send us their tests. Some have, some havent. Partnership with the n. I. H. As well as the c. D. C. , validationrming studies of those tests and we commit to being transparent about those data. The bottom line is that people should be cautious about the byts that arent backed up f. D. A. Emergency use authorization and that is on our website and if they havent its incumbent upon the lab that uses those tests to do their own independent validation. I cant stress that enough. F. D. A. sit the decision to allow this to unfold the way it has unfolded . Dr. Hahn we provided the flexibility for more testing to the market with the caveat that whoever wants to use those tests must do validation. Bob there has been a shortage asthma drugs for ventilator patients. How are you going to fix that problem . Dr. Hahn asthma drugs, we recently approved a new generic. We continue to review those will absolutely work with manufacturers, number one, to increase the supply from asrent manufacturers as well to expedite the approval of any us. Ication we have before sedative drugs is a different issue. Prove fol was recently added to shortage list. It has been off and on our drug shortage list for some time but recently was added on because of the issues around ventilated patients. Were finding alternatives to recommend to Healthcare Providers and hospitals as well working with manufacturers to increase those supplies and our drug shortage list has been in place for some time and there are a multitude of factors related to drug shortages including precursors for those drugs and increased demand. In this case for the asthma and sedative drugs, it is about increased demand. F. D. A. The things that does is talk to manufacturers, find out where the supply is and marry those two up. Where theres spot shortages for hospitals, well work with the hospitals to try to find supplies around the country where maybe demand isnt as large. Bob beyond testing, all of our readers are talking about covid19. Drugs for when you do research for the fora. , you find a Center Drug Evaluation and research, cder. I wonder if they have the appropriate resources at this to properlyent evaluate covid drug candidates . Dr. Hahn we have seen a surge in the applications to the agency for potential drugs that are being considered for covid19. We took an allhands approach at the agency called the Covid TreatmentAcceleration Program where we brought people from not just theency, center for Drug Evaluation Research but center for Biologic Research and all of our centers some of which werent as busy as the drug evaluation people and brought those to the table. About a month ago. And prior to that had been a prioritization scheme on this. I am confident in the scientific expertise of the people at fda. They are wonderful and have looked at these applications and have prioritized them and have been making decisions based on data and science. Here, little antidote bob. Anecdote. I was on a call this morning with the team that is doing the work and i can tell you science is being applied very well. We are using a datadriven approach and at this point with we do not haves a significant lag in assessing applications. Much of this is dependent on sponsors bringing the data. We want to make sure they have the right information so we can make the appropriate decisions for the american people. To expedite Clinical Trials, is there a chance you would go beyond our borders and work with foreign agencies . Dr. Hahn absolutely. We have relationships around the world and are participating in that. Let me describe one effort with development. Ccine we want to develop a master protocol which is where multiple different vaccines and this can for therapeutics and has been done for therapeutics, can into this protocol. It is an efficient way of looking at multiple vaccines. Thats one example of how we will and are doing that moving and now. Bob in terms of the drugs on radar, we have been reading geez afgen and the antiviral do you see an expansion of trials on that drug in the weeks . Dr. Hahn we have seen applications and we approved to go forward with a trial. We have been working with sponsors on the trials. When they come to us, we do not delay. Science,o look at the make sure theres adequate people. Ons for i expect to see more of that in the area. You step about when back a little bit and look at the drug legacy products out there. Is there anything under consideration for approval that we are not talking about that you think will be important . Dr. Hahn there are many. We are getting hundreds of applications and prioritizing those where we think the science best. We look at every application. Yes, i do think thats the case. I am limited by confidential commercial information and i cannot speak to anything not in Public Domain but i do think thats the case youre describing. Academics,mendous drug innovators, manufacturers, who are looking at a wide range therapeutics. Although we have seen evidence that our mitigation efforts are have to keep pushing forward aggressively on this because we need to make sure have all the available resources as we move into the summer and the fall. Pres. Obama since were in the middle of a pandemic, if some of approval,s get f. D. A. Will traditional f. D. A. Rules for directions Consumer Advertising be relaxed way . Y dr. Hahn we are going to look at all of our authorities and be as flexible as possible. This is another point of risk versus benefit. Usingemergency situation emergency use authority, our job is to assess the risk and the benefit. If we determine a certain set of authorities, such as directtoConsumer Advertising, is something of valley and the concerns oreighs risks, we will certainly move forward. We are taking this on a casebycase basis. See in general a certain approach is the right approach from a broader point of view, make that gins known, as well. Bob you are a longtime medical professional. You may have seen your name in one of my recent stories in the post. You are part of a meeting at the white house on hydroxychloroquine. Ask. Porter, i ask to do you feel pressured by the white house in any way to bring prod hydroxychloroquine along approval . Dr. Hahn i do not feel pressure other than the urgency of the situation around covid19. My white house conversations have been very professional and i have repeatedly told everyone and i will tell you this, bob. That i can promise america that f. D. A. Will use science and data always. Our decisions, that is our solemn promise and promise to theat american people. Bob your emergency authorization for fda was not pressured from the outside on hydroxychloroquine . Dr. Hahn that was the f. D. A. s decision, absolutely. Let me explain that, bob. Its an excellent question. We received a lot of donated drug for use in this particular situation, hydroxychloroquine chloroquine. And one of the legal parts of the agreement for the donation was to have emergency use authorization. Youll see in that emergency use authorization, we used the data published about hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to drive that decision. That did not mean fda has authorized the use of the drug for the treatment of the virus but it allows the drug to come into the system so it can be used for the really important Clinical Trials as well as for prescribe in a doctorpatient relationship if they see fit. Let me assure the american people, again. We are using data and science to make these decisions. Thing. St one final a lot of people reading out there. Anecdotal reports of heart conditions and side effects from hydroxychloroquine. They have caution in pursuing that even though its doctors to treat covid19 in some cases . Dr. Hahn as little as three ago i was a practicing physician. Nothing is more important than the doctorpatient relationship and this conversation has to take place between a patient and a doctor. What medications the patient is on, what medications will be started, do they have an underlying heart condition. Hydroxychloroquine has been used for years for lupus and is safe. We also know that when its combined with other drugs there might be an increased risk of complication. So doctors need to be aware of this and make a decision that is best for the patients. One thing i know about american and nursesur doctors do. They have the interests of their patients at heart and that relationship is sacred and really important to keep it within that conversation. Bob final question, dr. Hahn. I know youre busy. The president has been talking about trying to reopen parts of the country and the economy around may 1. Are you comfortable with that decision and the push to move toward may 1 as a reopening date for parts of the economy . Dr. Hahn this is going to be a data and science driven decision. I am comfortable using science and data to make that decision. I have been proud of the task force and how the doctors have come together with everyone, governors, folks in congress, the white house, to have collaborative discussions. A lot of giveandtake and a lot of discussion about this. The decision the president makes and the recommendations that he has will be fully informed by the information that we have and particularly the science and the data. Bob any metric on testing you want to see before that happens . Dr. Hahn i want to see the appropriate use of testing in this setting. I know task force doctors have worked very hard to determine what is the appropriate role for testing. Remember, big country, areas where there have been hot spots higherks infected at a prevalence than other areas. We must individualize for areas andgeographic also for patient characteristics. A 22yearold who is healthy is different in terms of how a Healthcare Provider or state addressfficial will that versus someone who is older with coexisting illnesses and medications. Ther it is complicated and it is the interface of economic, political, most important, health and safety realities. Bob dr. Steve hahn, thank you very much for your time. Dr. Hahn thank you. My best to the american people. Bob thank you for joining us here on the Washington Post live. We will be back next week with more programming. Even though we are at home, we will do our best to provide you with peopleations making decisions in this country at the state level and federal level. Thanks to Karen Tumulty and for joining us earlier. Im bob costa. Stay safe. Announcer cspan has roundtheclock coverage of the federal response to the itsavirus pandemic and all available on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch white house briefings, updates from government officials. Track the spread throughout the world with interactive maps, watch ondemand anytime, unfiltered, at cspan. Org coronavirus. The shannon pennsylvania harold. Congress and mike kelly recovering from covid19. Fromepublican pennsylvanias 16th Congressional District joins us on the phone from his home in butler, pennsylvania. How are you feeling . Guest steve republican congressman mike kelly is joining us from his home. Health, ck to my normal which is usually excellent. It was quite a trip. One of those things i totally did not expect, did not see it coming. March,t the middle of started to feel a little bit funny. This time of year,