Outbreaks. They are outbreaks in specific counties. In some cases, outbreaks in specific communities. Personnel,ged cdc hhs personnel. I didnt mention before, but three weeks ago when we were seeing similar activity in North Carolina and alabama, we sent personnel into those states. We have seen declining numbers beginning in both of those states. The important thing is not one side not onesizefitsall. The overall guidance to every american is to practice good hygiene, the measures we recommended at home and at work. Stand. But our focus today is to make sure in those areas of the country where we are seeing a significant not only increase in cases, but positivity level, just how important it is to listen to whether state and local Health Officials are directing them to do. Wearing a maske has become a political statement. Are you concerned about that . Is there a message you would like to send to people about the importance of wearing a mask . We think that the first principle is if people should listen to their state and local authorities. President trump and i couldnt be more grateful for the partnership we forged around the country. Governor ofhe florida, arizona, texas, just within the last 12 hours. I told them that from this podium, we would remind their citizens to heed the guidance and direction of state and local officials. In some cases, there is a statewide guidance with regard to facial coverings and events and gatherings. In other cases, there are specific countywide or citywide directives. We just believe that what is most important is people listen to the leadership in their state, their local community, and adhere to that guidance, whether it has to do with facial coverings, the size of gatherings. We will reinforce that message. You mentioned state and local authorities. What is the correlation between the spike in cases we see in states like texas and florida, and the way they handled their reopening . Was it too much, too soon . I want to ask dr. Fauci, you said in an interview that something is not working. What is it working . Did you all in your meeting today come up with a plan to fix whatever isnt working . Let me respond first, then i will let dr. Fauci address it, as well. Dr. Birx may, as well. I think there will be a temptation for people to look at these sunbelt states that have been reopening and putting suggestack to work and the reopening has to do what we are seeing in the last week or so. Frankly in the case of each of these states, they reopened almost two months ago. Cases, their new cases from testing were low and steady, the Positivity Rate was low. , andwe are observing today ive heard this from florida, texas, and some other states. We are seeing more and more of 35people under the age who are testing positive. In many cases, they have no symptoms. But they are coming forward and confirming they have contracted the coronavirus. We are working with the states. Embeddeddc personnel in every state of the union. We are surging more cdc personnel as requested to help them unpack what the data is suggesting. I know the governor of texas announced some new measures, which we fully support. Is what we are going to do give our state leadership the best information. Message thatis one comes through, i hope it is saying to younger americans in these states and counties in that they are a big part of the numbers we are seeing in new cases. And while there may not be a significant threat of a serious outcome to them, i know of no young person, and i have three twentysomethings in my immediate family, no young person would ever want to inadvertently dad, grandmother, grandfather, somebody who is vulnerable, to a serious result. So alerting them there has been spread among that age group, urging them to take ed whatmeasures, and he governors and local officials are doing will be our continued strategy. What i meant by what is not working, and this is not anybodys fault or any institutions fault. What we are dealing with right now is Community Spread in the context of a substantial proportion. Identification, isolation, and Contact Tracing to contain that is difficult to make it work under those circumstances. The superimposed upon that, the fact that even with identification, isolation, and Contact Tracing, often the dots are not connected. If you get on the phone and talk to people in these communities, you find a lot of it is done by phone. When its done by phone, maybe half of the people dont want to talk to one, because they think its a government representative. If you live in a community that is mostly brown or black, you are in a different situation, maybe 70 dont want to talk to you. You can identify a contact, you dont isolate them because you dont have the facility to isolate them. Thats was not working. What we are going to do, and we of doing, flooding the area a community to get a feel for what out there, particularly among the asymptomatics. We are dealing with young people, people who will be a symptomatically, and people getting sick in a community setting. Not an outbreak setting, or you know who to identify, isolate, and contact tracer. I just want to finish that thought. About three months ago, we talked about how important it was to have community at the center. When you talk about what will be different, and why the president and Vice President have asked me to go out to texas, new mexico, and arizona, is not only to meet with state and local Health Officials, but Community Groups so the Community Groups can help us support community specific messaging. Public health messaging, when you say the same thing over and over again and people get tone deaf to it, its because its not tailored to their specific circumstances, and they dont see the message resonating in their lives. Weve had to do this across the world. Ive done this over and over again for hiv, tb, and malaria. At the center has to be the community. In the community will help us identify who needs to be tested, which household has the most vulnerability, and how we can go into those communities and support that response at a very local and ground level. When we started, we were very much facility based. We know facilities carry us a long way. If we want to change the transmission rates in these metros, in specific communities and parts of those metros, we have to walk sidebyside with Community Leaders and Community Groups that know how to dogmaate our scientific and information down to a level where people will understand it, hear it, and act on it. I know when they hear it and understand it, they will act on it. When you ask what will be different, thats already started, and it will already be different. Thats exactly what we did with hiv 30 years ago. We got the Community Involved in helping us to outreach. I think thats important to underscore what dr. Birx said. Thats what is being planned, to get people who know the community who live in the community, who the community trusts. Do you expect the death rate to go up in the next three or four weeks, like we see the rate of infection going up . Our hope and prayers is that is not the case. Seen anoted, we have precipitous decline in fatalities. One is too many. Loss of every american life. The fact that two months ago we had lost 2500 americans in a single day, and two days this week, we lost less than 300 americans, is a testament to our health care workers, to all of the medicines that the secretary just described being available in all 50 states. It is a testament to the efforts of the American People. We hope as we engage, we can continue to see those numbers decline. At thisr thing is point, when we look at the 2. 5 of all of in people took place under the age of 25. Each case,ricans in at least 90 , or people with preexisting conditions, underlying conditions that contributed to that sad outcome. As we see that in florida and texas, they have reported half or even more than half of the new cases showing up every day are people under the age of 35 or younger, in most cases, asymptomatic. Our hope is those younger healthy americans will continue to go through the coronavirus, will recover. Our message today as we have spent so much energy in the last four months protecting the most vulnerable. We deployed testing resources, supported state efforts. States across the country in the last month have answered our call to test all the residents of their Nursing Homes to set up a plan to test all of the staff on a regular basis. We need to protect the most vulnerable. We want a message going out to younger americans, particularly those among the sunbelt in these counties where we see new cases on the rise, positivity on the rise, to know that we need them to do their part to make sure and protect the most vulnerable so we can see those losses rise. It is in the hands of the American People. Particularly, young people in this country. On the campaign, it does sound like you are saying do as we say, not as we do. You tell people to listen to local officials, but in tulsa, you defied local Health Officials to have an event, that even though you say didnt result in a spike, dozens of service agents, staffers, are now quarantined after positive tests. In arizona, one of the hardest hit states, you packed a church with young people who werent wearing masks. So how can you say the campaign is not part of the problem that dr. Fauci laid out . Againant to remind you that freedom of speech and the right to peacefully assemble is the right of the constitution of the u. S. Even in a health crisis, the American People dont forfeit our constitutional rights. And working with state officials, as we did in oklahoma, and as we did in arizona, we are creating settings where people can choose to participate in the political process. And we will continue to do that. I think its really important how recognize how important freedom and personal responsibility are to this entire equation. Toowing younger americans understand, particularly in the counties that are most impacted, the unique challenges we are facing. Their age group, we think, is important. It is so important we recognize that as we issued guidance to reopen american now two months ago, and now as all 50 states are opening up our country, people are going back to work everyday life is being restored one step, one day at a time. I think its important we remind ourselves this is not the choice between the health of the American People and a strong economy. There are profound health lockdownsns to the through which we just passed. I heard a statistic not long ago at a Task Force Briefing that in one jurisdiction, there have been a 50 increase in the number of people presenting in Emergency Rooms having attempted suicide. There are profound Mental Health issues. There are profound economic issues. People needing to be back to work. Our objective today is to make sure the American People know in 34 states, the cases are largely stable. And there is no combination of rising cases and rising Positivity Rates. Thats a tribute to the American People. In the 16 states we are focused equip,y, we want to particularly young people, with the knowledge of the part that they can plate with the knowledge of stemming the rising tide in new cases. Not because coronavirus is a threat to them, in most cases it isnt if you are a younger american, but because no Young American whatever want to spread the coronavirus to someone who had a serious outcome. Im grateful for the time today. We hope this has been helpful. Are these massive rallies ok . Dr. Fauci . On tuesday, Coronavirus Task force members dr. Anthony fauci e, dr. Robert redfield, dr. Stephen hahn, and assistant secretary of Health Admiral brett giroir md tested before the Health Committee on what federal, state, and local governments are doing to help americans go back to work and school in the fall as safely as possible. Watch live coverage at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan3, on demand at cspan. Org, or listen wherever youre are on the free cspan radio app. Cspans washington day we arevery taking your calls on the air on the news of the day and discussing policy issues that impact you. Coming up saturday morning, Public Opinion polster and political analyst Scott Rasmussen talks about how the coronavirus pandemic is shaping Public Opinion. Also, the policing projects Barry Friedman talks about his role in changing police in camden, new jersey, and the effectiveness of community policing. Watch cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern saturday morning. Join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. Q a, and lena conus, author of vaccine nation on the lessons the polio vaccine in the 50s can teach us about a covid19 vaccine. We will face distribution problems. We will face problems of equity. Even if we have enough vaccines for everybody, there will be those who have the privilege to say im not comfortable getting it until 5 Million People have been vaccinated. Then there will be those who say i have to get vaccinated because i have to go to work and make sure im safe and can provide for my family. I guarantee that we will see problems of equity. Historians arent supposed to guarantee anything about the future, but this is one thing i feel concerned about. Watch sunday night at 8 00 q a. Astern on cu earlier today, nancy pelosi held her briefing at the capitol. She spoke about the upcoming legislative agenda, Police Reform legislation, and the coronavirus. This is 35 minutes. Speaker pelosi good morning. What a historic evening we had with the passage of the george floyd Speaker Pelosi good morning. What a historic evening we had with the passage of the George Floyd Justice in policing act, we couldnt be prouder of our congressional black caucus, karen bass the chair of the judiciary committee, mr. Nadler, and the fact that it was bipartisan both in rejecting the senate bill, which was their motion to recommit and by passing our bill. Legislation which made a tremendous which was their motion to recommit and by passing our bail. Justice also in terms of whats happening on the floor right now, in term os statehood for the district of columbia, long overdue. First Time Congress will pass legislation. For admission of to district of columbia as a state. Washington douglass, frederick douglass, would be the name of the 51st state. And yesterday being the anniversary of the horrible decision gutting the Voting Rights act, title iv. So this morning some of us are gathered in this very place to talk about the fact that we had passed h. R. 4, Voting Rights act that we hope that the senate will pass. Its about democracy, its about fairness. We know that they wish to suppress the vote and Voting Rights for the district and the rest but we will make our mark. We will stand our ground. And what is really important about all of this right now is the health of the American People. Martin luther king said, of all forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman. Because it also often results in physical death. F all the forms of injustice and inequality, health care is he most inhuman. So we gather here late at night last night in the midst of a pandemic, the white house, the administration in the dark of night filed their brief in the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care act. Thankfully, the American People, if you have a preexisting condition you will no long that means for millions of American People if you have a preexisting condition you would no longer have access to care, and it goes on what theyd overturn. Time limits, if you have a preexisting condition, theres no lifetime limit on the amount of coverage you would receive. In the midst of a pandemic. 130 million americans with preexisting conditions will lose a. C. A. s lifesaving protections. 23 million americans will lose their access to quality, afordable health care. The a. C. A. s ban on lifetime limits, young people staying on parents plans, being a woman no longer a preexisting condition, the administration wants to do away with all of that. As bad as that is, they think they can get away with saying, oh we support a benefit for preexisting conditions. When they dont. So when they say that, understand, they are in court to overturn that now. They continue to be and now theyve filed the brief. And all this as the a. C. A. Enrollment has increased by 46 last year, showing an increase in the coronavirus. So many people have lost their jobs and in some cases their insurance benefits. Therefore theyre turning to the Affordable Care act. Again, in the middle of a pandemic the president is saying, we want to slow down the testing. The testing. I just was thinking during the night about all of this, being at school, learning about the Scientific Method, thinking about legislation we passed over time here to say we should have evidencebased legislation. And what does the Scientific Method say . The Scientific Method is a systematic method of research involving the recognition and formulation of a problem. You have to do testing. To recognize the fullness and the formulation of the problem. The collection of data through observation. You have to do testing. To observe the data. And the formulation and testing of how you go forward. This administration and republicans in congress have two things going against the will of the American People. Theyre against science. They do not accept science. And they do not accept governance. Now none of us wants any more government than we need. But theyre against government. So look at all the issues we are faced with. Health care. Our pandemic. And they resist they resist he insistence, the imperative, that the scientists are putting forth that we must test, trace, treat and separate. Wear a mask. Wash our hands. Keep our distance. They resist that. And governance. Dont want to have theyre overturning the Affordable Care act. They dont believe in a public role. Some of their supporters say, hey, government keep your hands off my medicare. What do they think medicare is . What do you think medicare is . Its governance. Antiscience, antigovernance, you deny science or ignore it, and you dont believe in governance, you dont have to do anything. You dont have to do anything about climate. Youre in denial. You dont accept the science. And you dont want to punish polluters or have regulation of pollution in our atmosphere, which is a health issue. If you dont believe in science, you wont take the measures to protect the health of the American People. The list goes on and on. And so we have the legislation that we have passed and part of the cares act called for a g. A. O. Report and this is what it said. The g. A. O. Report said in early february the sole s. B. A. F. D. A. Covid tests were deployed by the c. D. C. To state Public Health laboratories. But they experienced accuracy and reliability issues resulting in significant delays in testing nationwide. In the critical early weeks of the outbreak. It went on to say the absence of complete and consistent covid19 testing data reported through may 31, 2020, a few weeks ago, has made it more difficult to track and know the number of infections, mitigate their effort and inform decisions on opening communities. We have a pandemic. The last couple, two days ago, was at 36,000 cases. A record. Yesterday, 40,000 cases. A further record. And the president is saying slow down on the testing. If we didnt have testing we wouldnt have these cases. So my purpose here this morning is about health care. This is about health. The ignoring of science, the resistance to the science, all of the advice getting from science, the early denial, delay, caused deaths. Caused deaths. And now with a spike that we are seeing, the president is saying, slow down the testing. Others said he was joking. He doesnt say that. And by the way, this is not a laughing matter. Its a matter of life and death. And as i said, many more people are signing up for the Affordable Care act so im so pleased that on monday, we will be putting forth our Patient Protection Affordable Care enhancement act to Lower Health Care costs, negotiate lower prices, expand coverage and push holdout states to adopt medicaid expansion. Combat inequity in health coverage. Combat junk plans. The list goes on. Let me say this. As i said earlier, many people who have lost their jobs have turned to the Affordable Care act because their job, their health care was tied to their job. So hopefully they get their jobs back. But in the meantime they had that access. Thats what the president is trying to overturn in the courts. God willing, the courts will do the right thing. But we just dont know. So we are getting prepared for what comes next in all of this. In all of this. But let me tell you this about the a. C. A. Enhancement. It has why we have some things in it and some things arent that we saved for another day because the president said he would support these things. He said he would support negotiating for lower prices. Thats what he said during the campaign. Thats been for years our one of our priorities we have never been able to get 60 volts in the senate and get it passed into law but the president said during the campaign he was going to negotiate like crazy. Crazy. Thats a good description of his actions throughout. But negotiate like crazy, aparently means not negotiate at all. That is the only way youre going to get the prices, the lower prices. In the bill, bring down the cost of prescription drugs which were promising to the American People and the savings to the federal government from not having to pay those prices will go to expand, bigger expansion of medicare since its inception. Benefits for hearing, for visual and for dental. Its quite remarkable. It has other advantages for seniors in terms of cost of precipitation drugs as well. But were very, very of prescription drugs as well. But were very, very proud of that so its really important as whats the g. A. O. And lacking in terms what the white house is doing on testing, and we comment on the president s i dont know how ould would even describe them, antiscientific comments, we have a better idea. It started march 4 with the first bill we passed on the coronavirus. Testing, testing, testing. In april work epassed the enhance the further p. P. P. Bill and we had a big investment in testing. Testing. Testing. Not really embraced fully by the administration. As you know. In the heroes act, one of the pillars of the heroes act is open up our economy. Testing, testing, testing. Testing, tracing, treatment, separation, wear masks, wash your hands, keep your distance. Testing, tracing, treatment. Big investment for that. And the Health Care Institutions that would implement that. It goes a long way to get back to my first point about justice. And Martin Luther king. Coronavirus has demonstrated very clearly the injustice of how a pandemic hits. Is disparity of deaths that so clear in the community of color. Disparity among groups and the big impact on communs of color. Requires that we do this testing. As mr. Clyburn, our distinguished whip has said, we need mobile units to go out into communities so people will be tested and then traced and the rest. Why should there be more deaths in the communities of color . Because there hasnt been testing and tracing. And treatment. To prevent those deaths from happening. So its really important for the senate to pass the heroes act. For what it does for our heroes who are risking their lives to save lives and now may lose their jobs because of the coronavirus. And the revenue lost to communities. Communities, state and localities that are footing that bill. Thats one part of it. But the second pillar is about testing, tracing, treating. Its evidencebased. It will provide us with the analysis of what the magnitude of the problem is, and the data to say how it is affecting communities of color and everyone in our population and help us defeat this virus. God willing and science granting, we will have hopefully a vaccine at some point, a cure, therapeutics and the rest. But we dont now. We dont now. But we do have the tools to kill the virus. Testing, tracing, treatment, separation. Our , sanitation, and in bill we have the resources to do so. And they respect the role that the states play in all of this. So im hoping that the grim reaper will not be responsible