Everyone go to coronavirus. Gov for the most information uptodate from the cdc. Dont touch your face, cover your cough and ceases and avoid close contact with others if you or they are sick. It likely has not yet reached its peak but is affecting all of our communities. I think theres a person in this room ters who isnt worried about the elderly or immunocompetent on compromised. Just yesterday the first two cases of diagnosed in the counties i represent an illinois. Our job is to keep americans safe. And lead us strong federal government responseees including with a supplemental response to each of these developments we must continue to support the local is a Public Health departments the Emergency Responders to the front lines a starts with having reliable data to prepare for the Health System and how much equipment is needed for Health Workers and developing and disseminating clear at Risk Communication to thear public. America scientific expertise that is unmatched throughout thehe world and it must be driving our decision we must protect people from Health Care Cost and price gouging medical essentials must be stopped without taking the steps the epidemic will worsen because they will fear they cannot afford and the communities will be less safe. Third with the Economic Impact must be softened on Small Businesses and families. Paid sick leave for every worker and Food Assistance if w needed. With the Coronavirus Response effort. To protect workers on the frontlines of the outbreak travelers entering the us and referring them for screening by healthcare workers of necessary. We will have questions today of the efficacy and how it has been of the air and land and sea ports. Also with the departments ability weather has adequate personal protectiveve equipment for Border Protection officers Border Patrol agents and fiansportation security officers. Finally in case of outbreaks there which is ports of entry or checkpoints or immigration detention facilities. Today we are joined by the senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary of Homeland Securityme to respond to these important questions. Also Department Representative on the task force i hope to tar from him about the work of the task forces afternoon a medical doctor and epidemiologist for the cdc. My understanding that he retired this month but it is agreed to stay on we thank you for the dedication to our country and thank you for being here the chair recognizes the Ranking Member of the full committee for an opening statement. Thank you to the witnesses for your time to prepare for that. As i said last week for those who are undergoing treatment it is a global event requiring a globall response with that outbreak of serious disease in the past we marshaled our collective resources im confident that will be the case. Congress has workede closely with the past administration to work with outbreaks like yours the pandemic to will enhance governments for the medical countermeasures. Since 2015 under Republican Leadership we have increased funding with 70 percent and just last week we came together in a bipartisan pashion to provide 8 billion to help keep Public Officials able to respond to this crisis i hope the spirit of bipartisanship will continue to shore up the economy in the wake of this process but i am concerned of the effects on the response of the Vice President the commission on bioan defense agreed the Vice President should be leading the response the only one with a direct line with the authority to achieve a whole government coordinated response to the outbreak. The Vice President in the chain of command last week we heard from a panel who all agrees the government is doing the best they can under the circumstances today we have the cdc and dhs to talk about their response efforts im interested in hearing how they are using the supplemental Funding Congress provided last week as well as additional authorities to respond to this crisis. In the middle of a crisis like this its very important for political leaders i encourage everyone to see the advice when sick and go to the cdc prevention website for information. I yield back. You are recognized for an Opening Statements. They give very much i appreciate the vice chairwomans handling of theli meeting today. I have some talking problems so i will be short. We have to have Effective Communication in a situation like this. And to call the governor of the state of washington last sweek and that was most heavenly one heavily hit. And then the Vice President turned around to say he should be doing the job. And this is very important when the issue came up a lot of people say it was a hoax. It was never a hoax we had a video of what people said. So in the interest of addressing this problem, i word encourage us to deal with the facts but it starts at the top. People have to respond and Going Forward that we will not call names and address the issue, a lot of communities are concerned from new jersey to new york and texas, all over. Everybody is impacted. Most of us who came to washington this weekst there were a lot of empty plane seats on those planes coming to washington t because people dont feel comfortable to fly. Some people on the planes have masks. And we have been told by professionals the masks do not address the problem. So i would hope madam chai chair, that with our experts here today, we will hear the back. And i yield other members of the committee for Opening Statements to be submitted for the record i wille go witnesses. As a senior official performing duties of deputies security from dhs also representative to the white house and Coronavirus Task force previously served as acting director from Immigration Services and the attorney general through 2014. Next the Deputy Director for Public Health service from the cdc. Previously directed the preparedness response when he was responsible for state and local readiness and emergency operations. As a medical doctor and epidemiologist with 30 Years Experience without objection the witnesses false statements will be inserted in the record i now ask each witness to for fiver statements minutes beginning with mr. Kochan now they. Thank you vice chairman. And distinguish members of the committee it is my honor to appear before you today to talk about the department of Homeland Security what we are doing to respond to the current outbreak of he im proud to work and across the government the departments top priority is the safety and security of the American People. E. Dhs is taking action at airports and land ports of entry to support hhs to slow the spread of the coronavirus not to say and to work closely with partners from the cdc through all those that have been in Mainland China in the past 14 days and one of the 11 designated airports of entry with the federal government has focused on e Public Health resources. 12473 cbp officers continue to remain alert to notify cdc another Public Health officials when encountering passengersns with overt illness regardless of travel history. Dhs currently supports cdc enhanced entry screening efforts with agreements of private sector emergency medical services, Public Health and First Responder personnel at all 11 designated ports of entry those that have been in china or iran the first 14 days. We support the collection of passenger informationon for cdc to provide direct information to state and local Public Health officials to facilitate tracing efforts. Cbp of the coast guard continues their work to recognize to assist individuals for the land ports and waterways coordination with the cdc in Us Coast Guard has measures already in place at all ports of entry to identify travelers of the first signs of illness to minimize the risk to the public. Us coast guard reviews all advance notice of arrivals 96 hours in advance of a scheduled arrival. Theh, captain communicate city concerns coming from deceased crew and the pageants. B will cooperate. This process has been working smoothly across the country. At and between landad ports of entry to see those with recent travel to china or iran to make appropriate referrals to cdc for the local Health System. Dhs workforce and every precaution is taken to keep our workforce safe especially for officers and agents on the frontline to make sure all remain safe and healthy is a critical with the onset of covid19 is a global concern the department proactively took action the dhs managementnt directoror established a workforce Protection Command center to ensure those procedures are in place for the frontline workforce who would regularly encounter potentials anden is working with all dhs components to assess readiness. We work with Us Government interagency state governors and state and local Public Health agencies non gl no on and private industry are partners and stakeholders with medical and Public Health coordination and information sharing. The Cybersecurity Infrastructure has been assessing the National Critical functions for iinfrastructure and systems from covid19 working closely with private sector owners and operators to identify issues of concern to ensure suntinuity of the critical assets. Fema is served on providing support and with incident management but additionally it remains to support hhs with consequent with any medication action. Dhs and its component is taking Decisive Action to analyze the threat and minimize the resistance and slow the spread by working with professionals and interagency partners involved in the whole of government effort. I want to thank you vice chairman underwood and the members and staff of the committee for the support shown to the department and the governments effort to respond to covid19 i look forward to your questions. Your now recognized for five minutes. Good afternoon chairs and good afternoon to members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to talk to you. Good afternoon chairwoman and thompson and Ranking Member rogers thank you for the opportunity to talk with you about the cdc role in the response to the covid19. Before i began its important to recognize this is a new virus and a new disease. Science continues to accumulatete he will continue to incorporate that into our response posture there are three overriding themes. First the cdc role of the interagency response is built on decades of Infectious Disease experience and second the response is dependent of the front line the state and local Health Departments. As we see communities spreading will all take action from common sense i can washing, stay home if you are sick and in particular for the high risk and vulnerable populations, to avoid crowds. I encourage you to visit the coronavirus website for the encdc thank you this is the second time we can talk about the website and all the information that is they are from the outset cdc in Us Government partners have implemented an aggressive multilayer strategy to slow the introduction of this virus into the United States. So to learn how it behaves and to prepare the Public Health care system for the possibility of a Global Pandemic which has been declared today. And to educate americans how best to prepare for disruptions to the daily lives and risk to families. The administration interagency containment strategy has relied upon triedandtrue Public Health interventions. Early diagnosis and for those fthat are returning from individual hospitals. But the Public Health response has relied p on detection and to slow the virus into the United States. February 25 was the Inflection Point for the outbreak when for thetb first time we saw a new cases outside of china outpace new cases within china we observed rapid widespread persontoperson transmission south korea iran and italy and before long we had detected the first case of communities spreading california. So what have we learned . The virus spreads easily and rapidly from respiratory droplets from sneezing and coughing going from 30 cases to over 100,000 worldwide in less than two months. Reports from china are so if 80 percent have and then in predominantly an older person for medical conditions. For this reason the cdc has issued new guidance for seniors to avoid crowds, stay close to home and avoid cruise ship travel and long plane trips. As of today cdc has receivedd confirmation of more than 900 cases of covid19 in 38 states and it is with Great Sadness i report there have been 31 deaths on this one disease in the us. As we experience growing communities spreading in the us state and local health agent agencies will make difficult decisions to reduce theo spread of guidance and support. Thank you for your support of Additional Resources to to help our communities. Cdc has put more than 630 staff in the field and working with state and local partners for 1500 working on a response in the field. Cdc is committed to the mission continuing to work 24 7 to protect the American People from the Global Health threat. Thank you and i look forward to yourloo questions. I remind each member you have five minutes to question the panel i recognize myself. Americans want to know what they should expect in the coming weeks andee months with our Health Care System needs to know so they can do everything they can to be prepared. I am looking for numbers what is the cover on upper and lower estimates that we should expect in the United States . I dont have an exact answer. It is important a lot of that depends on the Public Health intervention to determine the ultimate course of this epidemic theres are many unknowns. What are the updates for hospital and icu admission on admission. Again the same answer. The intensity of the intervention measures will determine the ultimate impact. Between california and Washington State how many beds. Again the more intense the lower those numbers will be. You expect seed dc to do modeling that is widely reported . E im not sure what our plans are we are in communication with modelers from uk and a lot of that has to do with estimating the value of interventions taken so i know those will be published but there is information out there already. So far Health Systems prepared to test every patient that meets that criteria but right now not everyone who should be tested has been how many meet the current criteria have actually been tested and received results . I can give you the number of people who have been. The guidance has changed recently. Thats what youre asking about current criteria. May be more than 1700 have been tested by cdc but if i might let me take the opportunity. Whatec we are trying to understand is how many tests need to be done to accurately depict those levels from the United States. What i like to do how Laboratory Testing works in the United States. We have heard that briefing so what is the plan to support the communities to get the test done and when will that be done . We have taken aggressive action over the last several weeks. Cdc has set materials to 75000 people to the Public Health system there are over 1 million tests. But my question is does your plan get those test out for every Single Person there is those numbers that you have outlined. That is true. There are two different systems and play the Public Health system not just for this disease but in general to detect cases early mid disease and then to estimate the overall burden of disease there is a clinical system which is more Clinical Care that the person is treated for the right disease and that is the much larger capacity that is being implemented rapidly with the previous efforts. I will stop you right there is every test result with the public and private labs being put into the public Surveillance System . Right now were looking to include commercial laboratories the large systems are included Public Health laboratories are included and others are outliers we are working to include. There is still a lot we dont know about the coronavirus from those experiencing higher mortality rates cdc has a coronavirus hotline as im sure you are aware or for those who may not be internet savvy like seniors when they call the hotline they could wait between 30 and 60 minutes how are you working to improve the hotline . Let me get back to you on that. That something very important that needs to be corrected and we will take action. More broadly we are to steer the government toward thee best outcome modeling helps with out common surveillances for modeling and test before surveillance we need to get all three right to make this an important decision without a comprehensive view of what we are facing we will send over some followup questions and would appreciate your help to ensure a prompt response. Thank you. I now recognize the Ranking Member or questions and in msterms of outbreak and with the European Countries to the United States . As each becomes more and more problematic and is reviewed on a daytoday basis and i would tell you is not just cbp, tsa, cbp, tsa, this is one of the things the task force has considered literally on a daily basis as we watch the pandemic move around the globe. Im sure there is s exit screening going on in italy in particular but because of the zone where the borders effectively in china they dont have borders for purposes of travel, there is 29 countries that we have to confront. The question arises, we will talk about italy and the fashion we want to china or south korea as a unitary entity even make sense . So what the task force came to with respect to italy that we are testing in fact the government is doing it on the exit side for direct flights to the United States and that is about half of them. They have dropped from and there has been a substantial drop in the travel we had a mix on chose not to expand those resources to capture the and direct flights and dont hold each of these exact numbers but this is to scale but to look at those travelers from full flight capacity would require screening approximately 100,000sa people. Those are resources that are relative to the costbenefit to be more appropriate to apply to Public Health efforts some in korea and allies on italy we have allies doing the exit screening and we are doing entrance screenings from those from iran or china or those who have been through their but the question is live about how to treat europe as a whole. You have Seen Department warnings go up that is not to ine level of using legal authorities yet but is under consideration. Given the freedom of trave travel, its obvious. But let me ask we just passed in a bipartisan fashion a supplemental i know a lot of that goes toward vaccine development, it went from two. 5 billion to eight. Three really fast. Tell me how that is broken out. As you probably it comes through hhs. Freeman and at their request is on hhs and fema is reimbursed for those services through interagency agreements. The dollarsrs to the supplemental come through hhs in exchange for services in accordance with the law. Right now it is just fema the coast guard, tsa are all operating out of the base budgets for all the work they are doing but some things would have to change for that not to be sufficient but so far. We had the chinese and then to be made completely aware what damage to that do to deal with this in a better fashion that you are aware of . There are some things didnt. Reporting the outbreak to boost the sequence of the new virus. They did appear to be a period of time things were going on if they required any admission that for those that are exposed to animals. That is a period of time, not anything we wouldve done differently as we are working on a diagnostic test and sending materials with the ball rolling to get started during production. Within weeks to identify the outbreak, really the restriction of travel from china. I yield back. But according to the Committee Rules and then them in church they will be recognized in the order of their arrival. The chairman for five minutes and from mississippi. Thank you very much madame chair. In my earlier comments from transparency and communication. The public only gets what we tell them so the best example i cans share in my opening experiment we are told that is a new number but the briefers t with members of congress they did not know the 800 number. The number is working but its a member of the public who would call and be pulled one put on hold between 30 and 60 minutes. That is too big of a problem i hope you look at it. To other people we heard from last week, one was former head of cdc the other was a respected researcher from john hopkins. They made it very clear to us that communication and transparency in this kind the what about the Coronavirus Task force is carrying out its meaning at a classified level or are they open . I know the meetings are being held in a classified facility i do not think they classified. Ed i want you to check. Becauseal i think there are some challenges in that arena because they are in fact classified and part of the problem i agree communication is the tool these people need to know what is happening or type of actions they can take to protect themselves i in one of the most important tools we have at this point. It so in line with the chairpersons question how many test kits do we have as of toda today . With the Public Health side right now the numbersrs are increasing rapidly between 1 percent and 2 percent. R on the public side but it depends on the company. We are trying to help the public. You are telling me we have 1 million test kits but if somebody from cdc came to explain to me how to access so theld first thing would be to call thedo doctor and then depending on how they have access to the test either through the commercial system or to the Public Health system. Are those 75000 so does that address all of the current needs here in the United States . It doesnt thats why commercial manufacturers are such an important part. Absolutely but are they talking to each other then there is thes. So based on what you are telling me is to put some clarity on how we address the situation. Yes sir. That experience is critical when they need a test they can get it done quickly. On march 1st and the District Courts ruled were you were not lawfully appointed to serve as acting director of the us cis and and those prohibitions so are you still survey and performing thee duties is that how the court ruled . No sir. As my position Principal Deputy i was not properly occupying the position of acting director for us cis. That is something we are still analyzing to obey the court order with my own to perform those what deputy secretary not like the previous capacity, but from my official position of us cis. So as i perform the roles as a senior official that is not affected by the courts ruling who did not role ruled by inappropriately occupying the position. That your interpretation. No sir. That is the ruling. Have you had dhs look at that . Yes or. Today provide anything in writing . No sir. So it is Pretty Simple and wraightforward it wasnt hard for them to explain it to me. We would like to get itld in writing because i think the court was fair fairly clear that your position was not consistent and we are trying to massage and this gets around it but we look forward to getting that correction and i yield back the gentleman is recognized. Can i ask for the last night of inquiry. With the timeline the ruling the case was filed last summer when i was serving as the acting director of the United States citizenship a Love Services assuming that vacant slot from my position as Principal Deputy. The hierarchy or the deputy secretary position as it currently stands takes us back to the Principal Deputy for the United States citizenship andtt Immigration Services not to the director actingr director in any way. That is why i gave the answer to the chairman that i did and why i got the legal advice from counsel that i did. I want to drill down. Further trying to get a handle was 75000 from the government sector and then the private domain, what happens to those 1 million tests . Where do they go . The purpose of those tests word be commission and the doctor Nurse Practitioner could order test just like you would get in a Doctors Office sent to a commercial laboratory at the hospital or Large Companies you get test results and then you make sure that information also is funneled into the government. But essentially it is our way to providing a test for. And then really to do surveillance. But with Clinical Care that is what you need. Is it fair that all are getting them but then what about the next few weeks . At the timeline and not so sure for the commercial etctor. There was a fair to say these numbers will go up and go up significantly. I think that is fair to say we will identify additional cases with more testing. As the numbers go up, you will have to act accordingly now theee who calls in a pandemic we have the American People who will have a very us into what they think it will be. The total numbers depend on the aggressiveness and so one of the things that is happening just in a strategy to respond, early on to d, case and the context of that case and recommend selfmonitoring to prevent further spread. At this point individual measures and some parts of the country with p intense Community Transmission those measures are not appropriate there are more important things to door thats very shift to Community Measures such as making sure Nursing Homes are specifically protected and we ask send seniors with chronic medical conditions to take different steps to protect themselves. It is a shift from the individual level. Should we make. You should from king but today there was guidance posted from those that were childish and what does it mean and to be in that situation you are in right now. But we have seen those other parts of the world like singapore and hong kong where they are taking very aggressive measures and in those cases have had good success in preventing the chance one dash. Especially if it is obtained the way now is that there is a device that is stuck in the nose to get specimens that is footage i could go to the process to denature that is that the denatured specimen puts them into a machine of the genetic material of the virus, also positive controls to make sure they could find if it is there are negative controls if it is not to be protected for but a low number means a lot. The gentle lady is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Teeten during the past so states like new york have had to respond quickly to deployiz Emergency Management work with local partners to keep citizens safe. Instead of your agency or on the frontlines of this outbreak. So for some reason if it appears you can let me like they have in private epidemic so could you clearly state what dh is on dhss role is with the coronavirus and Going Forward . Certainly. As we move further and further away from containment security he in the mitigation, which we have been giving for weeks now as it is referenced a number of times, the frontline folks or your local and state Public Health authorities. We are following the pandemic plan put in place two years ago, which is the most recent iteration of that plan, and it in fact calls for extensive cooperation with the federal government supporting local and state efforts. The sheer number of medical and healthcare professional personnel required to address a pandemic like this puts us in the position of necessarily relying on state and local officials to be frontline fighters in this effort. And i will give you an example. When we saw the grand princess problem developing off the coast of california, we had a unified command set up between the coast guard, cbc, california but in practical terms, because those people were going to live in california were most likely to be impacting california Healthcare Facilities in capacity, california very much had the lead and did a great job with it. And we are being very careful not to step on the state were to tell them what to do. We are partnering with them as best we can. My home state of new york we have almost 200 cases which makes it one of three states with the highest number of cases. Before this hearing, i spoke with the head of the department of health in Nassau County on long island with my district which is in full contact with and i asked i said i was going to be at a hearing with you and i said is there anything that you need if you dont have that the federal government can provide and he said what we really need, because now they are seeing more of significant cases of Community Spread, for instance in my district alone, the number of affected people has quadrupled since sunday. He said what we would want is some guidance what Public Events should be canceled and what should not. Doctor fauci testified sporting events should be banned. They are looking to the federal government for guidance on the issue so there can be states are not doing Different Things and getting people all riled up when they dont need to be. We operate the guidance and because of the novelty of this virus has been changing and i know i will turn it over. Doctor fauci also said we would recommend that there must be large crowds. Would you consider a political rally at the capacity with between eight and 12,000 people, but you consider that a large crowd . The purpose of gathering haso do you agree with doctor fauci on math that there should not be, that we would recommend there not be large crowds. Would you recommend that . Again, we looked at the medical professionals. Im asking your opinion. Im not giving you my opinion. I will tell you what i look to operationalize. Like to operationalize. Do you agree with what is being said . Yes or no . I looked to his employer. Is it because the president said he has no plans to not have thousands of people gathered together in large crowds . In two seconds he had agreed with doctor fauci. Do you agree with doctor fauci when he said we would recommend that there not to be large crowd . I am not prepared to do that. That is quite unbelievable and i think my time is up. The gentleman from North Carolina mr. Walker. Do you need another minute or are you satisfied with that answer . When we had this decision that we had to make last week. We will adjust the decisionmaking based on what is going on in a particular community at issue. What i have less reluctance in agreeing with doctor fauci if we are talking about seattle . Than a feathen if they are in te of an area of a state that was not experiencing this . Our democratic governor just ruled the incident should move on to some of this could be a geographical, would you agree . Depending what is going on in that local area. What procedures do you have in place wax i was recently in the Rio Grande Valley border over 60 Different Countries or migrants from Different Countries had been apprehended to be this year alone several hundred nationalists have been apprehended as well. Our procedures in place showing signs of respiratory problems how do you handle that . Do you separate or isolate them, how is a procedure handled like this . Prayer to the existing of the virus, we have in place operating procedures because we do confront Communicable Diseases on the southwest border with a certain degree of regularity. Those folks are transferred to i. C. E. And if that isnt available, cbp has systems to provide that support. Those are the two avenues we have. Thanks again for your longterm service. Appreciate what they were doing. There are two strains of the virus. If it continues to mutate is this possibly slow the efforts for a vaccine or continue another aspect is . Viruses that have the genetic material they naturally mutate. With reduced sequencing we get much different viruses and there is a consensus in the sequence. I think that they just naturally mutate. I dont think that we can predict what will happen. It would be unusual for there to be a mutation that we would produce now that wouldnt work because of that kind of drift. We had a strong presentation yesterday from doctor scott who was putting up the fact he believes in his opinion that this will slow down in the summer or dissolve a good but maybe potentially have a small spike back in the fall. Is that what you are seeing as well . I think that we hope in the summer we will see a drop in transmission. I dont think we can say that we know that. What you are describing is what happened with h1n1 where we had a fall. We talked about already. Its where you are moving forward with it. I think what about declaration is this something people working this already knew that its around the world and theres lots of transmission around the world. Do you have a plan for fema were talking about geographic and demographic cells while if there is an outbreak that could be considered a Natural Disaster. What is your role on this . You are probably familiar with the team that gets deployed for tennessee just had a devastating tornado and fema deployed it teams and followed p with support what we are designed around is fairly large teams to respond to a Natural Disaster is described. But here they can and are seeing eruptions all around the country, so what fema has done is theyve broken their teams down into smaller teams and so there is at least one for every single state and territory. They are smaller changg our setup and the structure if the local area is overwhelmed, if they have systems overwhelmed at that point they might request assistance on the more traditional basis that they were used to. I would note the stafford act isnt really designed for this kind of situation, but there are analysis of that going on. The chair recognizes for five minutes the gentlewoman from new mexico. Thank you madam chair and thank you for being here. I want to pick up on the string of coordination with state and local governments because as you know state and local governments are at the front lines of the crisis right now and its my understanding it is the standard to notify state officials if individuals from their state were on board is expected corona virus infected ship, can you comment on that . It depends on the setting and the volume that we are working with to identify who would actually do that notification. And in a setting would you not notify a state if there was a contacting the individuals is a different story. I appreciate that. We learned to individuals in the district who were on a cruise ship tested positive. Its my understanding the individuals returned to their local community for over a week before the cdc notified the state of new mexico. What are you doing to rectify the failure of communication . I have to look into that particular instance. I can get back with you on the specifics. I know things are moving incredibly quickly and so i we are all living forward together. On that note, while the cdc sent a list of all individuals who travel to new mexico from areas of concern today . I think that this is one of the problems we are coming into is that there is transmission from so many different places that it sort of depends on what locations would count as a place of concern, so this is one of the things that we are working with. Many countries in europe have cases. Its not just northern italy as it was a week or so ago. And i think that this is one of the things that was referenced earlier that there is daily discussion about what should be done about travel from locations as youve described. I think the current policy is problematic and theres a lot of cases. To start on the state notifications continue notify the state of all Service Members coming to new mexico who traveled from areas of concern . I believe the notification is occurring from parts of the world Service Members have been identified i and that we will te that for action. That is fantastic in th and e same with the dod personnel. And what about Public HealthService Members . I think that this is one of the instances where the more places that have cases to identify any traveler returning to the United States and there is a point at which i think theres going to be a point where that notification its harder to take that for publichealth action. Switching quickly in my last minute how many people have been tested for the corona virus in the United States lacks i cant give you an exact answer on that. 1784 have been tested at the cdc. There are thousand tested in the last week of the state Health Department laboratories and we are working on setting up the system to collect information from the commercial manufacturers, so what you are describing the question that you are asking is the one that we are seeking to be able to answer. 1784 plus others who are working on is lower than other countries where they are testing south korea for example tests up to 10,000 a day and a germany has done a lot. You have a timeline for scaling up the testing in the United States . We have scaled up in the past week but their 75,000 test kits, sorry, 75,000 people tested on the public healt publichealth a million on the commercial side. I would like to say we cannot really test our way out of this epidemic. It is a part of the response. But th the part we need to fs on, how many tests at a can we expect in the next few weeks . I think that is a hard question because although there are things besides having materials i think what we want is what everybody wants is that every person that needs a test can get it the same day. That would be the objective and we are working towards that end. Thank you. My time is expired. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Thank you madam chair and thank you for holding this hearing. Hearing. Id also like to thank both of the witnesses for appearing today and for keeping the congress informed as to what the administration and the efforts to combat and contain this novel virus. Mr. Secretary, thank you for mentioning in your testimony the work that the dhs is doing to keep our frontline employees safe especially given the nature of their work leads to a higher risk of exposure. You mentioned in your testimony all cbp personnel have access to personal protective equipment. Can you assure us that there is sufficient equipment for all personnel, and do you believe additional funding is necessary to ensure the ongoing availability of this protective equipment . Tracking for our employees is something weve done from day number one back into january. We are comfortably ahead of the curve. We keep a stock of 30 plus days on hand. We would probably say we have around 45 days available. We are not seeing a threat to that for a drawdown pace that is cutting into our ability to maintain protection and protected workforce. Thank you mr. Secretary. On another matter, the lack of a full operational control of our southern border is something of particular concern to many of my constituents. Since taking office, President Trump has repeatedly asked for additional time and were persecuted including hard physical infrastructure. Thats gone unfunded were ignored by congress. Briefly, mr. Walker said get in the control that comes in and out of the nation is at the hands of the cbp. It is imperative that we seek to prevent this from coming into the borders. Do you agree fully funding the president s budget request for Border Security is necessary for the protection of the country . The way that you phrased it, Border Security speaks to the competence of the nature of the strategy that we need to employ which includes the overall system but also the people, folks and the Border Patrol and those who back them up. You see the numbers of apprehensions and so forth but what doesnt get talked about as much as what we call the getaway. There are plenty of people that are not caught and when you think about that in terms of communicable disease, that takes on a whole new thread. It has existed with other Communicable Diseases, measles to name one and we do see them across the United States at levels that many communities have been seen in some time because of the situation at the border. We are not yet having a corona virus problem at the southern border, but we are planning for such a problem as we see that these numbers in south africa laments the rise precipitously as we are in other parts of the world. You talked about individuals that are apprehended and those who getaway. Have you apprehended individuals from china or other nations where we have no cases of the coronavirus . We have not apprehended anybody crossing illegally tested positive for the coronavirus. Weve apprehended almost four or red chinese nationalists since january 1. No positive tests among those individuals or any others at this point. Weve also based on the proclamation of the president implemented on january 29 i should say 31st affected january 2. Weve turned away people from many countries in the world because they had been in china or iran in the previous 14 days and the number one category we turned away are canadians, chinese are second at the land ports of entry under the 21240 so we do not know who among those folks had a medical condition because they were turned away. Thank you mr. Secretary for your chin to the subject. And i will yield back my remaining time. I just want to followu folln that. Are you testing every apprehended individual from each affected country . Are you testing every individual apprehended from the virus affected country . No, we are not. Said out oyou said out of th0 chinese nationals there was no coronavirus found so how many were you testing . I dont know how many we tested. They do not test o test unless e observe systems. Again using already existing protocols we are not creating new protocols to deal with potential virus sufferers. We deal with them as we would any other immigrants that we encounter, and of course setting it entirely aside, one of the goals not the medically trained us to observe those coming into the country for symptoms of illness in general. Absolutely. We are very well aware of the screening standards. Would you be willing to sit next to us in writing a summary of those tests performed on migrants apprehended at the southern border . I would be happy to determine how many we have tested for the virus. And said that in writing to the committee please. Thank you, sir. The chair will recognize mr. Rose from new york for five minutes. Would you agree that we will not be able to test enough people without automated with automatic testing in the state laboratories . That kind of testing is being done at the commercial scale. Thats where these different roles my understanding is that it needs to be approved in conjunction with the fda before it can occur in any laboratory commercial or public. There is a process of emerging use of citation and that is an approval the fda grants to do a test that is an earlier development. Its exponentially increases the bir good that can be conducd in one day and we need for it to happen as quickly as possible. Whether we do that on the commercial side or th for the pc health side its going to happen. Have any laboratories in the country been approved for automated testing backs to the i can tell you that they use the systems that have been approved. Is it happening anywhere in the country . Its happening and those laboratories. With the verify. Theres a difference between for automated. I can tell you dot one laboratory in new york has been approved. Can i have your word publicly that he will make this a top priority not just in new york that as many laboratories across the country proved as quickly as possible . I think we want the same end of which is to have every person that needs to be tested be able to get the test done on the day they need it and to that end the means to get there i dont want to quibble about that. That you agree we cant get there without automated testing. Thank you for that. I look forward to working with you and your team. Get there as quickly as possible. I think what is going on is some that we are working very closely with. They have any sense of the timeline how we can do t get toe automated testing is a new york . I guess again this isnt a problem we can test our way out of. I think that is a part of the overall strategy. We need to testing so that we understand where we need to be intervening and we understand the effectiveness of those interventions. I dont think that every Public Health person doesnt need to be tested. For example, in the influenza pandemic years ago we were not able to test everyone. We didnt need to test everyone. The Public Health interventions were guided by the ability to extrapolate from the Laboratory Tests that we had. Those that have symptoms should be able to be tested and we cant do that without these test kits. Especially for clinical purposes. It doesnt help if you are the patients my apologies in advance we are going to be contacting the office every single day until this happened. Thank you for your service. I want to talk about travel. Its my understanding those foreign nationals traveling from china and iran are tested upon reaching the domestic airport is the perfect . That is not correct. They are barred from entering the United States. So in terms of the board screenings, which nations are we doing screenings . The way that it works it only covers foreign nationals and doesnt havitdoesnt have the ao anything to you and i as United States citizens. A legal permanenthe legal permas and their families come in. Those are the people being screened at the airport. So, american citizen go from china and there are still some flights to one of the 11 airports. They encounter cbp officers come a blue uniform folks that you see when you come from another country you show them that passport. Now you come from china and they are going to send you to be secondarthesecondary screening. The screening is done by the cwnd, our contract medical personnel. Unlike the traveling questions asked, they will ask medical questions. These are medically trained personnel. Is there any consideration of expanding that to other nations that are hard hit . There is regular consideration of that. Did you think it is a good idea knowing what we know right now to expand that to south korea and italy . In particular cases of south korea and italy, those nations took quick affirmative steps to Start Performing exit screening. They are essentially doing what our medical screeners would do on entry and they did that in part two avoid being swept in to this situation and that was acceptable for the task force and he accepted it because of the transparency. These are allied nations that are being very upfront about what they are receiving and they are also barring passengers to test over at 37 degrees to use an easy one. Please keep us posted on the analysis whether that should be expanded. Thank you. The chair recognizes mr. Bishop for five minutes. Thank you madam chair. I had to step out for that so you may have covered some of these items. Doctor redd, do i over did it to understand the objective they were trying to make it so that any dr. Could order a test, is that correct . Yes, sir. And then her as i heard last week, that there would be a million test kits at the end of the week did not occur . Thats from the commercial side. 75,000 is the right number from the Public Health side. Do you get feedback to indicate whether or not they can order tests . Schools and universities are closing. North carolina has had several recommended the classes until the virus is more contained or slows down. So that is a local decision and we have been working with communities that have substantial transmission. Its a casebycase basis depending on basically what the issue is and weve posted guidance today. I dont know the details that we would be working then it two minutes with them on these recommendations. In response to the questions early on about how many persons youd expect to be infected you said it depends on the intensi intensity. How are you are there questions of how in ten to make it . You are part of the organization that decides so are you holding back or have you decided what the ideal is or is that changing based on circumstances and if its changing based on circumstances i assume that would be indicating how widespread this would be. I think that as the communities identify, there is a set of activities question should we cancel this or that. Those are not the kind of things we can have the federal guidance that would cover every eventuality, so its i think that this is an instance where its a widespread event. The federal government cannot cover every location, so the role is to support state and local Health Departments. There are going to be some instances where we can provide boots on the ground, but in general we are going to be providing guidance and working with communities to make decisions based on their own circumstances and just for example, a large gathering if its people at high risk so older people or people with chronic medical conditions with a large gathering can i add flavor to that as a former attorney general . For each of you you represent many different states coming in your states have in many cases vast Legal Authority in this arena and easy to overlook that i talked to many local and state officials that allow place to place and state to state. We are voting tomorrow on this political act to restrict to the authority to help the response for the task force that has been effective. Theres no question that the use of that authority has bought us time to local and state governments have used that time to be better prepared i just wanted to say at the outset im interested and think that we have heard from the former head of the cdc under the George Bush Administration talked about the importance of trust and how critical it is in the Public Health crisis or moment and so i want you to succeed, and i want all of us to succeed. We are on the vote together. So, i really want to have clarity for the people at home that are looking to you all and us for guidance. I guess i have a question on preparedness and i think weve heard a couple of times the earlier we intervened less of a spread for the lack of a better term. Ive seen others take aggressive steps. Italy has a lot more cases but people are staying in their homes and there is no going to destinations where public gatherings. Should there be guidance beyond the Public Health should we be getting people out of offices and schools not because this is a terrible threat, but im just saying preparedness helps us. This does help. I would point to singapore and hong kong as examples. In the case of italy it might be too late. What are the two or three other things people should be doing besides the Public Health guide to minimize the spread of this illness . We got the first two cases yesterday. Those are the people that are going to have the worst outcomes, so i think that there is a lot of work around Nursing Homes in particular that needs to be undertaken to prevent the virus from getting to a nursing home and things like reducing the number. Being certain that person is allowed back in and people that work at one nursing home dont work at another. When a patient is transferred from a nursing home to a hospital they arthehospital theo another. These are kind of things that are done to spread to other kinds of infections in that setting. I think that the work we do to protect people in Nursing Homes and the elderly is critical. Can i ask a quick question because again the public trust issue, the issue of testing. I will tell you the sense of the public is that there is not enough tests. Im glad to hear the numbers nu, 75,000 tests and another million available commercially. We are not getting those to the states in a way that feels reassuring to people. And i guess im confused on why we are fighting catch up on this. We have tested 8500 people across the country. But south korea is capable of testing 10,000 people a day. Can you help me understand why you are able to do that . They have implemented a different system than the one that we are using. I think that we probably should be scoring ourselves on the ultimate impact of the epidemic and how well we control it. Testing is a part of it. Its not the only part. So, i am not sure i dont have good visibility on whos being tested for just testing people who have not had any exposure and have had negative tests, im not sure that would contribute to the Public Health outcome. I do think that i agree with what you are saying we havent done enough if we are doing everything we can to correct that and i would also agree with your statement about the ports of trust. I have one quick second. A lot of us do respect the head of the cdc. Hes gotten us through a lot of crisis. I guess i would ask why a u. S. Default of things to the states and i know things are certainly going to be a little different, i guess its fact i was in new york city on 9 11 and whatever people think of rudy giuliani, he was clear, he was available, he was telling us what was good and what was bought by telling you people are missing that. They feel they want clear guidance and my recommendation is that he be allowed to take that role to reassure the country. The chair recognizes mr. Crenshaw for five minutes. Thank you madam chair and both of you for being here. Id like to continue on a fine of questioning because i have similar questions of what is the standard we are trying to achieve here. It makes people feel like they should also have a test whatever they want and you have to buttress against theagain in the future. Thank you very much madam chair. The chair now recognizes ms. Coleman for five minutes. Thank you very much. One of the functions of the cbc is to collect information and what is happening to our communities across the country. I know the cbc is no longer depending on the state coming to you before coming forward with the decisions that are you doing anything to collect all the information so that there is a Central Place where the information can be held i and ae you disseminating its . We are collecting information from the states. The status of the test the states are doing, they are performing diagnostic tests. They are then sending a clinical specimen to the cdc for verification. That isnt what im asking. The cdc director said yesterday that they are not depending upon their sending it to the cdc for verification. There is a designation called presumptive test and we are encouraging to take action on those results. What i want to know is are you collecting the information, is there going to be a Central Point of collecting because the one point we dont know the extent of what is happening in our community and we experience an incident daily so it becomes a new phenomenon. We would like to kind of have greater expectations and we have now and we dont have that sense of confidence coming from the cdc or from the white house. Let me describe in a little more detail what they are doing because they are collecting the results of tests that are being done in the states. The other thing that we are doing is working with our system for influenza. We are testing specimens being collected where people have respiratory illness into Santa Clara County san francisco. Are you also collecting the number of presumptive cases, are you collecting the data for the states are finding that new jersey has i dont even know today, more than it was yesterday. Thank you. This is a question the cdc has reported more than 600 confirmed presumptive cases so we are all concerned everyone is getting the kind of screening, testing and whatever treatment you can get irrespective of who you are. This question has to do with a conversation thats been developing around this Immigration Enforcement free zone. And so i guess for you more than anyone, i know many Health Experts and legal experts are saying how important it is for these people to be able to go in and be a tested and not fear being exposed to Immigration Enforcement. Have you had that discussion at all . Yes, we have. Where are you on that . Theres a preexisting policy and i need where they dont do enforcement except under unique single case circumstances, so that is not an issue with respect to Virus Testing or anything of that nature. So those individuals dont have to fear trying to get tested or treated. Correct. The president has touted that measures the administration took to prevent the infection from coming into the country by screening certain passengers coming in. We are told thereve been more than 40,000 people have been screened at only one of those passengers has actually been confirmed positive with the covid19. Meanwhile more have tested positive in addition to three ps those. Can you tell me if you think the screenings are effective if whered we should be applie appg our resources and by. By. The screening is at the 11 11 airports you are referencing at my most recent data is consistent with the comment about one person being quarantined. Although over 34,000 have been asked to consult isolation and communicate with their local Public Health authorities and we dont know, we dont go back to find out how many ultimately became positive. This goes back to the asymptomatic problem of people coming through screening. They wont necessarily show symptoms. Having information come back and collected and new information in a Central Location in havin and having inn available is some of that very important and seems to be a big gap from what we are experiencing right now. It is verthat is very troublingd concerning. My last question, today the governor banned more in Washington State and Governor Cuomo. As they charge responding to the virus can you tell if you have any direct involvement in the decision . I cant speak to having personal involvement with both states have been in deep conversations with federal partners, dhs and so forth for some time now. Thank you. I will yield back. The chair recognizes the governor from new jersey for five minutes. Thank you. And thank you for not retiring. Thank you both for being here. So, i just want to clarify a few things in my mind that would help everybody and a sort of almost a little bit rapidfire, but going back to Border Security, i just want to make sure its clear to people because i think that it is common sense to me that if we have open borders and sanctuary cities and sanctuary states and people traveling around just got to the country not in a normal proud, are you feeling that eventually could increase without question at the start of diseases . Absolutely. It is a simple matter of math. Theres nothing complicated about this. If people sneak into the country that havent gone through the normal route, we have a larger chance of the disease spreading more commo, is that correct . Would you say that that was obviously as much as we have issues and problems now, the issues and problems and challenges would have been deeper and greater, is that correct. Our understanding at the time we recommended it to the president and have that discussion with him, the academic model suggested not to do that. So our advice was contrary to the then existing model as it was described in the task force, we made the recommendation anyway, the president was well aware of that indicate should any adopted the recommendation and universally believe we benefited tremendously from adopting those measures. In canceling more events that we spoke about, wouldnt it be dependent upon the state, thinking how large the United States of america is compared, not to china obviously but a place like italy or some other areas, wouldnt it be on an individual case by case situation where his for example, will i understand in washington where you might want to cancel large gatherings were in nebraska you would not. Is that accurate at this point,. It most certainly is and why is for them to make that decision and why its appropriate for Governor Cuomo to make those decisions and not for us sitting here in washington to impose those decisions. Thats part of the partnership, the guidance has been flowing freely and change because the virus has literally not been known in human beings for three months on the planet earth yet. So were still learning and we will be learning for months to come, thats why the local sensitivities and local authorities have final say is so important. Let me understand testing. Hypothetically, i do not feel well and i feel that possibly i have the coronavirus, call my doctor, Nurse Practitioner, appropriate Health Professional, they really dont feel good i have the symptoms, what should i do, that person right now as of today is going to be able to get that test if the doctor or Health Professional thinks is appropriate. Is that correct . It is, i think theres work to be done to make sure they can get as quickly and easily as it needs to be. I think the test is available by making that Patient Experience optimal. There is still work to be done to up against done same day or the result quickly, there is work to be done even though its available. Are weakening close to where it would be the same day. I think we are getting closer but i would not want to give your timeline that the neck states were to be perfect. We all understand older people at risk and compromise their risk, i think i know the answer but pregnant women and their unborn child has not been born at. I think right now the evidence is not in, the evidence that there is does not suggest that its at particular risk which is a little bit surprising. Thank god. Researchers have been saying that they are months away from developing a coronavirus vaccine, any thought on that . I generally go with doctor fouci and his talking points, there will be a vaccine available very soon but it will not be tested yet and thats really can timeconsuming. Im not really sure what the israelis are promising but having it available does not mean its showing safe and effective. Thats what takes a substantial amount of time, theres two cycles of tests that need to be done. It will be a while before we have a vaccine that is approved that we know is safe and effective. Did i go over . Im sorry. Thank you, the turnout recognizes the gentlewoman from texas. I think the term very much and the chairman and the Ranking Member as a numinous consent to place in the american commodity march 11 in the letter from me on february 26. Let me think both of the witnesses and very quickly i have little time and let me thank you for your years of service. Can i find out the first moment that this country detected the coronavirus was coming in this direction. It was in late january, i get the date for you. Wasnt cases arising in china in 2019 . We believe that there were, the report that they produce was at the end of december, we think that probably the first cases were sometime in november, detected sometime after that, we think actually. Let me respect what is being done now, let me publicly say that i believe that this nation was not prepared in equated to its greatness and the responsibility it has, not only to 300 million plus the world watching us. You with the cdc and we needed to be far better prepared. So the first thing i want to have, as members spread out to the districts, we need an 800 number because we cannot use coronavirus. Gov and anything else. As members, i have people calling me and asking, are we closing their schools. So i am asking the deputy secretary to convey to the task force, set up a number for members of congress, however, you want to have a classified or code, give us a number to call. Can i have that conveyed and established please . I think we can commit to giving you a number. I appreciate. I think that the question of whether a particular school is closing or not im just saying these are calls coming in. Let me move on, the level of contagiousness of the coronavirus, can you explain that briefly how contagious it is. Sure, the measure that is used to describe that characteristic of a virus is a number of additional cases that would arise from one case called the arnott. I will have to ask you to move quickly. For influenza, its 1. 5, for this virus probably somewhere between two and three. Its more contagious be back more contagious. This is the information that needs to be presented to the public, not out of panic but in terms of educating. Let me go to the test kits. You indicated there were 75000 to be tested and is that test kits or test. Test and i agree, this kit has been confusing. These are individual tests, 75000. Correct. Is the 1 million individual tests or kids. That is people. So 1 Million People possibility but not yet . It has been sent out, i think the availability depends on other factors then the test material itself, thats logistics. There going out to local governments and labs or physicians and hospital. These are Laboratory Companies that do the. So you have to access that. Correct. There is a process to be tested, people need to be trained. There are people in the laboratory that are trained, mainly protecting yourself if youre an individual i have to go quickly. I thank you. So its not stand on the street and get tested or walk into an urgent care and possibly get tested. In the United States no, in korea they have drivethrough testing. Thats coming to my next point, i hope to get in a phone call back if i could, lowincome people, poor people do not have medical providers, they are walking to urgent care, clinics or hospitals. You have got to be able to respond and im not going to take the answer right now, you have to be able to respond to that. I do need a oneonone conversation, Baylor College of medicine Infectious Disease has a vaccine with 20000 vials, they dont have the resources to do the clinical test. I want them to be connected to the task force to get those clinical test or to get them connected for resources, they are ready to go right now. Theyre not somebody down the road and allowed that we cannot find, i need that to happen right now. Again, can i dialogue to find out how to work that out or who to connect them to . Yes. Let me ask my good friend here in dhs, we have Community Spread in texas but i take issue with the connecting flight. So our Community Spread came through a person who came to italy to frankford to the United States. And cbp is not prepared. You need to implement some form of testing of cbp in terms of asking the question of whether or not the person has come from italy. In the other point is, there are three officers diagnosed in san jose. Can you give me an answer of what youre doing to report preparation from those airports. If i can get those answers on the record. Yep. Deputy secretary the three tsos are all at one airport, san jose. So 46 other employees have been sent home for self pointing. I want to do tso across the nation. The gentleladies time has expired, she posed a number of questions and you could sit and transmit the answers in writing. The chair recognizes for five minutes. They came out of chairwoman. Did your Job Description includes advising and reporting executive in the department of Homeland Security based upon your background and your own personal experience and knowledge . Yes, sir. Doctor read, did your Job Description include advising at cdc and hhs regarding your background as a doctor in your specific mission requirements. It does. Do you gentlemen know doctor Anthony Fauci . Yes. Would you consider him to be a brilliant scientist with an incredible medical background and an expert on an analogy Infectious Diseases. I would. Would you concur with doctor fouts shes conclusions that based upon his scientific assessment and his Job Description as an advisor and a counselor based upon scientific data, would you concur with his conclusion that the large gatherings of americans that it would be best to slow the spread of this virus if they were not large gatherings. Yes. That concurrence with his opinion that is based upon science and medicine is a not . It is, there are elements that we can go into but yes. On a clean slate, thats strictly medical and scientific advice correct . And as his job, your job, it is to advise the executive. Yes, sir. Did you swear an oath when he took office did you not source to the constitution was a not . Crymac yes, sir. Its been alarming to hear suggestion in this committee and others that there seems to be suggestions that there be federally mandated, overriding authority to enforce restrictions of travel of free americans and to override the authority of sovereign states and the governors thereof to mandate the enforcement of restricted gatherings of free americans. We are not italy, we are not south korea, we are not beijing or hong kong. This is america. I have a great deal of concern that this virus, lets talk about that for second, theres been a lot of talk about preparedness, this committee and others. Because the cdc has stockpiles of millions of test kits and vaccines for virus that may surface that sure that we dont know what it is . No we do not. Of course not. When was covid19 first discovered within an american certified Scientific Lab and evaluated and said yes this is covid19, new barbara. January 2020. Did we have stockpiles of prepared test, they must be viral specific. They are, we produce them before we had the virus and once the sequence was produced. But you have the scientifics includes. We did. To know what that sequences for a virus that may be discovered next year. So other than having infrastructure of a massive federal government, work in cooperation with the National Organization and our state and local government, including private industry, how more prepared can a nation be for an unknown virus then we are right now. Surely we will learn from this view agree . So we will be better and stronger as we move forward, did we learn from sars. We did, we learned a bit over the last 20 years in emergency responses. If i can go back to your earlier point. We work closely with state and local governments, we dont make decisions for what they should do. We are really after Service Providing that technical scientific guidance that you described. So we dont make those decisions. I concur, as we should as a federal government and a constitutionalist of public sovereign states. So the governors of our sovereign states have been instructed and advised in empowered to make decisions within their states, is that correct. Absolutely. Would you see the role of the federal government and any other wake. I think there are places where things like quarantines authority, state authority, federal authority and those are things that we have to work out. But in general as cdc we work in the service of the state government. Thank you for your service, thank you for appearing before this committee today its been fascinating, thank you for all of this hearing. From the turnover can is is mr. Thompson. Let me get something straight doctor redd, we approved 8. 3 billion last week to go to state governments because they dont have the capacity to do exactly what we do. So now youre agreeing that states to do their own thing and the government stay out. We provide advice to states, we work at their service, were providing a lot of funding through your appropriation to do the things we all agree need to be done. Were giving them a lot of money, i dont think you can become a sovereign state and not rely on the federal government to help in times of a pandemic. I think that we are certainly doing everything that we can to support the states. They will be the ones making these kinds of decisions. Im not following you. I think thats a help decision the cdc makes an opinion of the state. We really work, the way that cdc primarily operates is by collecting information, analyzing it and then translating that into guidance or recommendations. We work very closely with state Health Department and state governments, the end of the day these things were talking about, it will be a state decision. But states rely on cdc. They do. Is a partnership really. No state on its own can survive a situation that were dealing with right now. Without the help of cdc. Yes. That would be my opinion. Thats what im trying to get. I yield back. The chair recognizes for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair, i want to think the chairman for holding this apartment issue and i want to welcome both of our witnesses doctor redd and doctor cicillincuccinelli, you said eai dont want to put words in your mouth but you said you did not want to essentially get in the way of local efforts, you did not want to interfere or step in any of those efforts, is that correct, something to that effect. Along the same lines of doct were talking about lessons lane and you mentioned what china would not do. But isnt it what our leadership is supposed to do. People are not always going to does volunteer but that is what we have our American Leadership four. Are leadership reached out in the president ial level and by secretary i mean two secretaries, secretary azar and secretary pompeo and the president reached out to their counterparts in china during the time period. My suggestion would be, sometimes you do not take no for an answer. Especially when youre playing with something this important. I need to explain to my colleagues, how many test insultsouthkorea are doing a da . They are doing a very large number of test each day, they have 60 sites that are drivethrough, and many more test they are doing. People in my district are not going to understand how south korea is ahead of us because were the United States of america. And its not the time to complain about it but we need to have that figured out. Because lets take a Community Like new orleans that is high on tourism, the poor desire, biggest industry, tourism is now second, when it comes especially if we have the ability to test like we should, so when do you think we would have that ability in new orleans to test as we need. The ability to test is increasing day by day, we have two systems to do test in the United States, we have the Public Health system, we have 75000 test out there in that system now, there are over 1 million test in the commercial sector, with that number increasing almost daily, the place where we have work to do is to make sure when a patient or doctor decides a patient needs a test, that they can get it that day and get results quickly. I think from a standpoint of being able to respond effectively and know where we are, a lot of things we are doing now are going to clarify where we are. For example, communities surveillance to make sure if there is a virus, not even having to say i have coronavirus but if you have respiratory symptoms and symptoms around the country that we are standing up to test people, not just for influenza but what the systems were designed for buffer coronavirus. We will be able to detect transmission in a way that does not require the prompting. The Technical Support that you are offering to local municipalities, that would include tracing. It depends on where we are in the epidemic. The Contact Tracing is really important measure when you want to extinguish transmission and thats what weve been doing in the early parts of the epidemic. When you have Community Transmission, is not feasible to do that in the effort is better directed towards the recommendations that you see in king county, santa clarita, and new york which is protect the elderly and do things at a Community Level that can prevent transmission. That would be my question because i guess what im hearing in new orleans now, we put in Technical Support for cdc. It appears that we have a case of an elderly person that lives in assisted living or nursing home, we will need all the help that we can get and we will need it quick. Are you prepared to assist an event like that. What we need to do i cannot promise that we are going to send a team to new orleans but we will definitely have the Health Department in every way that we can. Okay. So the answer is, you do not know. Let me ask quickly, do we think this is about the future and putting pandemics under the stafford act so when it happens we can mobilize without having to come to congress, we can do individual systems and all the things that we need if we put it under stafford act including when Natural Disasters, is that something we should do . One thing that we have learned from previous experience is very important work that congress has done to create the Infectious Disease, Rapid Response reserve fund, that allowed us to respond immediately and not be delayed for procreation. I think the question whether the stafford act is the right mechanism or not, its one that we need to have a dialogue about. Its essential that large emergency responses like this not be hindered by the lack of funding. I yield back. Thank you, the chair now recognizes mr. Green from texas for five minutes. The gentleman yield to ms. Titus for five minutes. Thank you, i appreciate that, i will be brief, i think that you said earlier that you rejected the academic models that advised against travel boundaries or travel restrictions and gave the advice to the president to the contrary, what would make you think that you could reject an academic model based on Scientific Study in evidence to advise the president , was that bod politics . Im not quite sure how to answer your i think it probably was. It was the best judgment. Do you actually want me too answer. The gentleman will suspend. You can answer this question, as an acting director, you oversaw the rollout of the cruel public charge rule, and we heard yesterday from the director of the cdc that the charge rule would discourage people from seeking health care that they need. Do you comment on this doctor red, do you think the fact that people dont have coverage or are afraid to get medicaid because theyre afraid they will lose their green card, that this will have some impact on the spread of the virus . I am not familiar without role, i think we should do everything we can to make sure people that need to get tested and treatment have access. Thank you doctor redd, in light of that mr. Cuccinelli would you recommend we take away the public charge rule . Do you want me too actually answer. I would. Its yes, sir no. No. Were not. I thought it was just yesterday no. Because it is completely unrelated. Anyone seeking help or testing healthcare related to the coronavirus does not affect the public charge analysis. I guess the director of the cdc would disagree, thats what he testified before house appropriation yesterday. If he so testified, he was wrong. Okay. I yield back. They turn our recognizes mr. Green from texas for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Doctor redd, if i may, ill try to move expeditiously because my friend mr. Cleaver is here and id like for him to have his turn. You indicated that in south korea they test people in their cars as they drive through. And you indicated that they test 60000 people. I did not get a number but that sounds right. Per day. I cannot verify the number. , need to be test per day in this country. It is not that high. Is at 40000. At cdc 1784 state Health Department is a 20000 per day. It is not 20000. Is a 5000 per day. Is it a number that exceeds 10000 per day. It is not a number that exceeds 10000 a day. Is it a number that exceeds 5000 per day. Is it a number that exceeds 3000 per day. Does is exceed 1000 per day. As i said before it be better if i got back with the correct number. Is it true that there is a way to test People Per Day. I think we will see is it true that technology exist such a thousands of People Per Day can be tested. Yes. Is it true that this technology exist in the United States of america, greatest riches company in the world can employ this technology. I think that we will be doing that. Is it true that the United States of america regardless of setting can deploy this technology . Is certainly as possible. In the United States of america, is it not true we can put a person on the moon. We have. Is it fair to say that were doing in south korea that maybe we can ask them how to do it. Were in discussions about the response, one, maybe two points to make, i think at the end of the day is it true if we had 1 Million People tested that we would not be able to aspartame the results within any reasonable amount of time, because we dont have the methodology, the memes by which we can examine and test and do it in a way such as get results, is this true is it true that if we had a Million People tested we would not be able to get the results back immediate immediately. I think the answer to your question is a true it would take longer than a week to get the results back. Im trying to answer questions. Am trying to answer questio questions. Is it true it would take longer than two weeks. Is a true take longer than three weeks. I think the systems exist to get results back more quickly if we had 1 Million People tested, 1 million, how long. People get blood test every day and theres more than 1 Million People and they get the results back the same day. Im asking about current circumstances. As we sit here, waiting for this answer so we can vote, how long. I think what we can get back the truth is there is a way to do this testing. It appears to me that we do not have the will, we dont have the will to acquire the technology, if we do not have it we can do this. This country has the ability to get great things done in short order. We for whatever reason dont have the will and the public becomes highly suspect when we dont exercise the will, when you a few facts and much speculation, the speculation is going to run rampant because we dont exhibit the will to do that which can be done. I respectfully disagree. I would respect you to disagree but i disagree with your disagreement. The turn our recognizes mr. Cleaver for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair, thank you, its a little personal but it probably has some applicability to her country. My father is 97 will not take the flu shot because he thinks it will make him get the flu. And by the way my grandmother said that messing around with the moon rest of the weather. And the flowers, we went up there and made mistakes of the moon. But let me get back to my dad, hes healthy as far as we know, 97 years old. But is very suspicious of things and then we are told that your shop wanted to advise elderly americans not to do certain things because im 97 years old and it was overruled. Im concerned about people who may be sick and ove older peoplo are early suspicious and they cannot get Accurate Information about their immune system and the vulnerability and the virus. So were probably going home tomorrow in a maria life im going to do with people this week and and want to know what is going on, the white house says its okay you dont need to worry about cdc if youre an older person to get on planes and so forth. Would you like to come speak i will call my father. I think the question of distrust of authorities and for example with influenza vaccination is a really difficult problem and it gets back to the question of trust that we talked about on some extent today. Im not blaming you, i just want to know how we got into this mess. I think you are son is going to believe you more than hes going to believe us. I would recommend you give him the vice thats on the cdc website. And do your best to encourage him to stay protected. Water brought elderly people flying. I think that is for a 90yearold person today, i would not recommend flying. Why would it be overruled . Actually in the guidance that we have, we do recommend. Earlier the white house said dont make the information available, i want to know why. No, sir, there has not been a point where we said or anyone at the white house said dont make the information available. These news reports there may be an interpretation with close states with limited air circulation, there are ways to interpret that. Okay. The news reports i dont have time to do this and you right now. If i have a news report ill get it to, it said the cdc says that there told not to do it at the white house. You asked for interpretation of her garden. I appreciate that. The cdc has been critical from the beginning of course, as doctor fauci testified, he did not testify, it was a press conference, when he said when he was directly asked, have you been muzzled, he said i been doing it for 30 plus years, and he said not to say anything, that has been the case with the cdc as well. Thank you. The gentlemans time is expired i ask unanimous consent to enter to the record of federation of employees. Without objection. I think the witnesses for the valuable testimony and members for the question. The members of the committee may have additional questions for the witnesses and we ask if you respond expeditiously in writing to those questions without objection they will be kept open for ten days, hearing no further business the committee stands adjourned. [inaudible conversations] mr. President. I ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mrs. Murray thank you, mr. President. I also want to thank all of my colleagues who are coming down to speak about this today. Mr. President , families in my home state of washington are scared, they are frustrated, they are angry, and so am i. New reporting now makes it clear that even after researchers in seattle raised serious concerns about the possibility of Community Spread in Washington State and tried to work with federal agencies to conduct testing, the administration didnt work with them to let the public know how serious the coronavirus was. You can be sure im going to get to the bottom of this and make sure it will never happen