Bufr has denied engaging in Insider Trading. New unemployment numbers this morning showing nearly 3 million americans filed claims last week, bringing the total to a staggering 36 million americans over the past two months alone. Lets get right to Msnbc Garrett Haake and dr. Howard ko, who served under president obama. Garrett, give us a quick reminder what this is about today. Dr. Rick bright, who was he . What is he expected to say this morning . Bright is an expert in Biomedical Research and for a time the top official in that field at hhs. He was transferred to another role he contends as retaliation for pushing back against the administration on responses that he felt were not based in science, including the administrations cheerleading of the hydroxychloroquine drug. His testimony here today is likely a mix of backwardlooking at the decision to remove him from that role and what the administrations response has been to date and forwardlooking, focusing on his belief that the future of this country could be one of the darkest winters i think we ever remember is the quote from his prepared testimony. He believes we need National Testing and much more skintsbased process on reopening. I suspect hell be probed on the forwardlooking and backwa backwardlooking as soon as we get under way. Dr. Ko, let me ask you about dr. Brights expected testimony. The u. S. Hell possibly say in the Opening Statement could face the darkest winter in its modern history. Do you share that concern and do you think that will resonate with members of this committee on capitol hill . Well, as a physician, and former assistant secretary for health at hhs, i think the hearing today will be crediticay important because we need this fair, open and transparent discussion about how to put forward the best science in the midst of this pandemic. Theres so many scientific questions that need to be addressed with the best data possible and with respect to hydroxychloroquine, for example, a key study was just published in the journal of the American Medical Association two days ago, some 1,500 patients in new york showing that hydroxychloroquine did not benefit patients with covid and when that drug was used with another drug, azithromycin it led to increased cardiac side effects. These are some of the key questions that need to be addressed as we move forward as the country tries to consider reopening schools and businesses and we need the best data and science possible to develop lifesaving vaccines and therapeutics going forward. Viewers seeing dr. Bright on capitol hill, expected to start shortly after the members of the committee, after the Committee Members give their Opening Statements. The president tweeting out calling him a disgruntled employee not like or respected by people i spoke to who with his attitude should no longer be working for our government. What do you make of that type of attack on someone who served in the position that he did . We must do everything we can to support the highlevel scientists in government. This is a key time for our country and our globe. So many questions to be asked, and we need to he will the scientists do their job, people like dr. Bright and dr. Fauci who i worked with closely when i was assistant secretary. These are the scientists that have facts, data, evidence on their side. Theyre working 24 7 to develop the best vaccines and therapeutics, so we can save lives and treat patients in the future. So we need to support such scientists, not get in their way. Speaking of scientists, and particularly dr. Fauci this morning, President Trump also pointedly disagreeing with dr. Fauci again for his testimony before congress this week. Take a listen to this. Anthony is a good person, very good person. I disagree with him. I total lly disagree. I call them embers, he calls them spikes. You might have that and well put it out. How confident are you, sir, that we could be able to put out spikes quickly if they emerge as the president say . We need to be very careful and cautious right now. We know how dangerous this pandemic has been for our country and the world. Weve all seen it for ourselves. As assistant secretary for health i had the great privilege of working close with dr. Fauci and i know how dedicated he is to science and evidence and facts, and what dr. Fauci has on his side is that science and experience and commitment and global reputation for insight and integrity, and the understanding from everyone that his only agenda is to improve the Public Health of the american people. We need to support scientists like dr. Fauci and dr. Bright. Youre seeing on your screen dr. Rick bright in front of the special committee. He is expected to make comments shortly. Well bring those to you live as soon as they get under way, after the opening remarks by members of that committee. Now to another Major Development that is unfolding on capitol hill this morning, the fbi serving senator richard burr with a search warrant at his washington, d. C. , area home and seizing his cell phone. Federal agents are investigating potential Insider Trading after the republican senator sold stocks that were later hit hard because of the coronavirus pandemic. As the chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee, burr received daily coronavirus briefings before the markets plummeted. He sold a significant percentage of his stock portfolio during that time, up to 1. 6 billion. Burr repeatedly denied any wrongdoing saying the trades were made based on Public Information rather than the private hearings he was privileged to. Burr asked the Senate Ethics committee to review and hed cooperate with. Let me get right to you, ken, if i can. What can you tell us about this investigation and what does it tell you about where the fbi is going with it so far . Eamon, this development is a dramatic escalation in this investigation. It shows the fbi was able to convince a federal judge it had probable cause to believe a crime was committed. Thats the standard you need to get a search warrant as opposed to issuing a subpoena and asking burrs lawyer to hand over the phone, so this is a dramatic step and suggests the fbi had reason to believe perhaps evidence would be destroyed if they asked for the phone. And i should add, eamon, im speaking to sources on the Senate Intelligence committee who are insisting there was nothing in those briefings that would have led a reasonable person to say i need to dump my entire portfolio. We should keep an open mind. There is a lot of places that senator but could have gotten inside information. He insists thats not what happened but the phone could be a key piece of evidence in terms of who he was talking to, not just his broker, of course, because we know he talked to his broker, but where else he was getting information, and there are now public documents showing that burrs brotherinlaw also sold a significant amount of stock on the same day, further adding to the questions about all this. I should also add, eamon, we looked at the stock sales of every member of congress, and we could find no other lawmaker in the house or senate who dumped a large share of their portfolio before the market crashed the way that senate burr did. Isnt burr one of several senators from both parties who sold and bought stock before the pandemic hit the markets . Yes. Do we know if anyone else is being looked at . We are not aware of any other crimical investigations and Kelly Loeffler sold stock and Dianne Feinstein sold stock but nobody sold a large percentage of their portfolio. Burr is not one of the wealthier members and appears to trade his own shares. And make his own decisions about individual stocks. Others go through a blind trust or third party. So burr is in a unique situation here and this is a very serious investigation. Casey, let me bring you into this conversation. Is there any fallout on capitol hill, any indication that senator burrs chairmanship of this quite powerful committee, the intelligence committee, is in jeopardy . That the point, no. If this were to result in burr being charged with a crime, that that could be something that would ultimately unfold. There are other republicans behind him who would potentially be interested in the job but it shows you that there are republicans currently standing behind burr as he faces down these charges. I think its important to undercore whunde underscore what his committee is still doing and how that unfolded over the past couple of years. A lot of Trump Supporters are angry with how burr handled the russia investigation, just a few weeks ago. They put out a piece of their report that says they concur with the Intelligence Community in saying that the russians interfered in the election specifically to help trump, that of course is something that President Trump has been pushing back against, and that those who support and surround him have been talking about. There also is the question about the incoming or likely incoming director of national intelligence, john ratcliffe. Burr had privately opposed ratcliffe before and the Trump Administration had to pull that nomination but now his hearing was already held. Were expecting a Committee Vote early next week. He could be approved by may or june. I think this is something just to dekeep an eye on, as we keepn open mind as this fastmoving story develops. Guys, stay with me. I want to bring into the conversation msnbc contributor mika oh, from the National Security program. Good to have you join the conversation. As someone who worked on capitol hill for many years, i want to get your reaction to the news that the chairman of the Senate Intel Committee is one of the most influential positions in congress. Hes privy to a lot of information that even other members of his committee are not. Thats right. Senator burr is known as the gang of eight, the most sensitive intelligence programs in the country. Things like they were prebriefed for the bin laden raid. They know the most sensitive secrets the nation knows, other members of the committee may not know. It will be difficult for people to get access to that information in the context of this investigation. Those briefings are probably held at a level higher than the fbi investigators. But this is a very significant development. Its also as kasie noted burr was not blindly following the president and attacking the career National Security professionals in their judgments that russia interfered in our elections. He had been following the evidence and looking at what kind of information was coming forward and making his decision based on facts. Should he step down at this point . Can he temporarily step down as the investigation plays out and resume the chairmanship if he is not charged with any wrongdoing . Yes. Weve seen that happen before on the house side. Devin nunez chair of the house intelligence committee, the ethics investigation of him. He stepped back from parts of his responsibilities so not all of them while an investigation was pending, and then stepped back in before the democrats took over control of the house. So you could see a situation where burr steps back from some of his responsibilities while this is happening. Often members of Congress Wait until the information is more certain as to whether or not theres really anything there there. Kasie, back to a point you alluded to, the kind of political dynamic unfolding within all of this. What are the ramifications . We should pay to tension to burrs colleagues in the senate and how they react to this, both democrats and republicans, because under usual political circumstances, you might see democrats attacking any member of the opposite party who got ensnared in Something Like that. Certainly you saw calls from democrats when Chris Collins over on the house side, Republican Trump supporter, was ensnared in an Insider Trading scandal. Im watching very closely to see how democrats handle this particular series of events. Thats not to minimize or take away from the fbi action. We have to be cognizant of the fact its significant for the justice department, the fbi to make a decision like this, to go after someone part of a separate but coequal branch of government. Thats not the decision you make lightly every day. Its important to remember the broader context of how all of this is playing out. Certainly the sources im talking to on both sides of the aisle, frankly, are raising these questions. Id be curious to know how high up the food chain this authorization had to go from within the fbi. Kasie hunt, ken dilnaniai, and mieko, thank you very much. Dr. Rick bright is about to testify before lawmaker. Live coverages of his testimony will get under way as soon as it happens. Plus staggering new weekly unemployment numbers just out this morning. Were going to drill down on which industries and group of workers are now being hit the hardest. And in michigans capital city, demonstrators gathering against the governors stayathome orders. Were live on the ground next. T. Come on, no no nnnnono only discover has no annual fee on any card. Lets be honest. Quitting smoking is hard. Like, quitting every monday hard. Quitting feels so big. So try making it smaller, and youll be surprised at how easily starting small can lead to something big. Start stopping with nicorette. Confident financial plans, calming financial plans, complete financial plans. Theyre all possible with a cfp® professional. Find yours at letsmakeaplan. Org. Theyre all possible with a cfp® professional. Saturpain happens. Aleve it. Aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. When pain happens, aleve it. All day strong. Roundup for lawns is here to put unwelcome lawn weeds to rest. So, draw the line. Roundup for lawns is formulated to kill lawn weeds to the root without harming your grass. Roundup brand. Trusted for over 40 years. We have breaking news on the job market this morning. The last sign of the Economic Impact of the coronavirus lockdown the Labor Department has this morning reportedly added 3 million more americans to the unemployment applications since last week. That brings the total to more than 36 million since the shutdown began in march. Staggering number. Im joined by nbc News Business correspondent jo ling kent in los angeles for us. Jo, the thing about this report was that it was worse than expected. Reporter yes. Worse than expected but overall the numbers are ticking down week by week. I want to remind you, that when you see 3 million unemployment claims filed in just a week, were talking about multiple times the normal averages we would have seen prepandemic. We expect these numbers to continue to rise and a good example of that is connecticut. For the first time connecticut has been the hardest hit state so far this week, because we show that backlog now getting cleared. The processing takes so much time for each of the state unemployment offices. Going down the list, you have georgia, california, new york, florida, also all hit very, very hard as 36. 5 Million People are filing for jobless claims. The Labor Department says 17 are now receiving unemployment insurance. The Insurance Benefits are being paid out here but we are starting to see major cracks in the economy. Remember, we had a retail spending already down a record amount several weeks ago. You have that major jobs report that came out last week, and so this data is adding up and what were starting to see is people spending less money, and also going ahead, if you look ahead at whats to come down the pike, eamon, there are several states, about a dozen, that still have not put in pandemic unemployment assistance yet for those contracted workers. So freelancers, gig workers are eligible for federal help and you still have about a dozen states that have not started to process those claims yet. Expect the numbers to go up. Jo ling kent live in los angeles for us this morning, thanks. With millions out of work, the desperation and frustration grow. In michigan, theres another protest over the continued stayathome order. Governor whitmer is slamming protestered armed with long guns calling the demonstrations calls to violence, and overnight in neighboring wisconsin the state Supreme Court overturned governor evers stayathome directive which paved the way for bars and restaurants to open up for business immediately. The governor denounced the decision on the Rachael Maddow show last night. Were the wild west, ali. There are no restrictions at all across the state of wisconsin. Well have more cases. Well have more deaths, and its a sad occasion for the state. I cant tell you how disappointed i am. Joining us now north bays Shaquille Bruce ebrewster and k tibbles. Governor Gretchen Whitmer in michigan took aim at some of the protesters. Talk to us about what were expecting to see this morning at the protest. Ich in the car right now because its lightening outside and raining lightning so we moved to the car. Thats not stopping the protesters. I believe we have a camera of the protesters out there, its least 100 or so people out right now. You see their umbrellas and different signs theyve been having, different signs with supporting President Trump, signs against the governor, dprech Gretchen Whitmer. The main complaint a lot of them have is they want the state open. They understand and i spoke to one person who has a Small Business in the family and said she understands that this is a serious situation, in this state there have been 4,700 people who have died from this coronavirus, but she says that she wants certain parts of the state to open up. So listen to what Governor Whitmer said about the situation, the protests that are expected and that were seeing today. When these events happen, they are political rallies. Make no mistake about it. Its not just people that disagree. This is an organized effort. They bring confederate flags which is not something you see in michigan very often. They bring swastikas and long guns. They bring their antichoice propaganda, and i think this is more about a political rally than anything. Governor Gretchen Whitmer was referencing the last time we saw this protest, this is now the third large scale protest that weve seen in michigan at the State Capitol and the last time we saw an event like this, people with long guns who went into the capitol as the legislature was negotiating and debating legislation surrounding how the state should respond to this and certain Lawmakers Said that made them feel uncomfortable. That was allowed but right now youre not going to see that scene today. The State Capitol is closed at this point. Both houses of the legislature here are not returning until next week, despite that, you still see people on the steps of the capitol about 100 to 200 people there out in the rain and there was just another flash of lightning there. Eamon . Kevin, let me get your thoughts on this. We just heard in that clip from governor evers we played in the setup called wisconsin the wild west. Have all restrictions been lifted in that state . Whats still on lockdown, if anything . Well, eamon, first off, i need to correct the governor, because it is the wild midwest that is he referring to. Obviously further west in states like washington, there are no Court Challenges with regards to stayathome and things like that, but of course, in wisconsin, they had overturned it with the 43 ruling from the Supreme Court there, and what he is essentially saying is that its do as you please as of now in the land of cheese. There are no restrictions. You can do whatever you want in wisconsin as of the moment that that ruling came towdown. The governor has been having a hard time with this pandemic and not only talking about health reasons. The statistics in the state are no greater or less than those in many other places, but hes been having a political nightmare as a result of this, what this pandemic has brought. We can look back to the primary and what happened there when he wanted to delay the vote in order to protect lives, and folks ended up lining up outside for hours in order to cast their votes, and now this has happened. So not only is evers grappling with the pandemic, also grappling with the deepest, darkest politics of the age. Kevin, let me ask you quickly, do we know if based on the decision from the Supreme Court, if the governor does not have the authority to shut down this state, who does at this stage . Do the local mayors, do the local officials have that ability, decide to go it alone . Yes, what happens and the governor has something to say about that as well. Each sort of the 70plus areas in wisconsin are now allowed to start making their own decisions, but this is where and this word gets bandied about all the time and im not a big fan of it but all i have a sudden now were talking about chaos in wisconsin, because as the governor says, how in heavens name are we going to be able to sort of make any sort of unity out of a quilt that has 70plus people trying to move, entities moving around it. Hes got a tough road to hoe ahead of him. He does. Kevin and shaquille, thank you for joining us. Lets cross over to capitol hill, dip into that briefing of dr. Rick bright the whistleblower from the hhs who filed the complaint. Lets listen to that hearing. Whistleblower testimony under oni a witness would normally be under oath and if hes not under oath, if we get into whistleblower allegations, how can we be sure the witness is telling the truth under oath if theyre not under oath, and if theyre not under oath, how can you talk about the whistleblower complaints . I thank the gentleman in a fair and equitable manner. I thank the gentleman for his inquiry. All witnesses know that it is illegal to lie to congress, and in our subcommittee, unlike oni, they are the only subcommittee that, i mean its a practice its a tradition, but we dont swear people in but witnesses know that it is illegal to lie to congress. Usc 10003 or somethi1003 i b. Thank you. The gentleman is recognized for five minutes. The world is coping with an historical deadly pandemic we always knew was possible but we prayed would not happen. In a bipartisan way we did everything the experts said we needed to do to be prepared, should a pandemic or other hazards strike. Madam chair, the work you, dr. Burgess, representative susan brooks and i and others did over two congresses when each party has controlled the house resulted in one product, the pandemic all hazards preparedness act. Dr. Bright, i know you were part of our efforts in writing and reauthorizing that law, and we thank you for your work. In fact, given the role you once played at asper before going to barda, you had a big responsibility to make sure congress provided the Strategic National stockpile that it needed, or to inform us if there were shortcomings especially as we were modernizing the pandemic all hazards preparedness act. Over three hearings we held where you testified regarding the zika outbreak may 23rd of 2017, seasonal flu march to 18 and the hearing on june 15th, 2018 entitled the state of u. S. Public Health Preparedness responding to biological attacks pandemics and emerging Infectious Disease outbreaks. I wanted to make sure we hadnt missed anything. Nothing jumped out at me as i reread the records. We granted new authorities, we followed your recommendations and those of others who played a key role in this combined effort. Unfortunately some of the systems we put in place to prepare for a pandemic systems designed without actually living through Something Like this have not performed as expected. Weve learned we didnt have enough of the basic supplies that weve always taken for granted. While the chair and i warned about the vulnerabilities of our medical supply chains especially from china, not enough was done to address the problem and it still hasnt been fully addressed. Im thankful President Trump invoked the defense production act to ramp up u. S. Manufacturing of masks and ventilators and used the Emergency Powers and Money Congress provided to launch unprecedented efforts to search the globe for supplies to rapidly advance development of treatments and ravaccines. We have much bipartisan work to do well take a quick pause from that and keep an eye, waiting for dr. Rick bright to start his comments. When he begins his comments after the representatives have concluded their opening remarks, well bring those comments to you live. Right now we want to cross over to georgia, because in that state there are new cases of coronavirus cases on the rise i should say. Some counties reporting a rapidly deteriorating situation this week. One new setting up a temporary hospital as it braces for more cases and georgias governor announces some extensions and rollbacks to restrictions. Alison barber is in clarksville. One of the areas seeing increase in new cases. Good to have you with us. What more can you tell us about the situation taking place in the rural parts of georgia and how are officials responding . Reporter hey, eamon. In terms of Governor Kemp and the new orders and regulations, ordinances that he issued, as you alluded to, he did issue a new executive order this week, related to covid19 in the states reopening process. He gave a number of outlines, extensions that were sort of expected related to businesses and Business Safety. Ill walk you through a little bit of what he did in that executive order. According to the latest executive order, bars, night clubs and music venues are going to stay closed through the end of the month. After may 31st, the governor says he will reassess some Business Safety guidelines, rules related to social distancing and sanitizing. Those have been extended particularly for nonessential businesses. Restaurants are still operating under similar safety guidelines but could now seat tables up to ten people in one single party. Summer day camps are allowed to open starting may 14th if they need safety guidelines. Overall, the total number of confirmed covid19 cases continues to increase in this state. There are 35,793 confirmed covid19 cases as of this morning. The number of new cases per day was around 700 additional cases per day at the end of april. Right now the Georgia Department of health is reporting a sevenday moving average slightly under 300 new cases a day. Heres Governor Kemp. Okay so we dont have that sound bite, i apologize. Hull county is in in order georgia, rural part of the state, it has emerged as a hot spot with over 2,000 confirmed covid19 cases. The countys Largest Health care provider has added temporary outdoor medical units to treat covid19 patients. Soon theyre going to construct an even bigger outdoor medical unit with 20 beds again to treat covid19 patients. The whole county outbreak according to doctors and nurses we have spoken to on the ground is not close to its largest number. They are expecting a surge in cases there in the coming weeks and the outbreak in hull county has actually started to spread to neighboring counties, where we are is habersham county, a county north of hull county. The outbreak from hull county has started to spread here and now have about 400 cases in this rural part of the state. Last number for you, 285,000 tests administered in this state, a little less than 3 of the states population. Eamon . Ellison barber live in georgia, thank you. Dr. Rick bright is beginning his testimony, just removed his mask and we expect him to begin his comments shortly. Because together it was our legislation that created barda, so thank you for your willingness to join us today, and to offer testimony, dr. Bright. We look forward to your testimony. Youre certainly familiar with the lights. I dont need to explain those to you. You have five minutes for your statement. Welcome and got the microphone on . There we go. Good morning to you. Good morning, chairwoman and Ranking Member burgess and distinguished members of the subcommittee. I am dr. Rick bright, a career public servant, and a scientist who has spent 25 years of my career focused on addressing pandemic outbreaks. I have a bhast of masters in biology and physical sciences and a ph. D. In immunology and malcolor pathogenesis. Ive led teams developing drugs, diagnostics in government, private industry and nonprofit organizations. Im here in my private capacity, the views are my own and not those of the department of health and human services. I joined barda in 2010 and for the last three and a half years until april 21st of this year i had the privilege of serving as its director. Barda partners with private industry and others in governments to address National Health security threats. Today the world is confronting a Public Health emergency unlike any weve seen in over a century. We are facing a highly transmissible and deadly virus which not only claims lives but disrupts the foundations of our society. The American Health care system is being taxed to the limit. Our economy is spiraling downward and our population is being paralyzed by fear, stemming from a lack of a coordinated response and a dearth of accurate Clear Communication with the path forward. Americans yearn to get back to work, to open their businesses and provide for that i families. I get that. However, what we do must be done carefully, and with guidance from the best scientific minds. Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to improve our response now based on science, i fear the pandemic will get worse and be prolonged. There will be likely a resurgence of covid19 this fall. It will be greatly compounded by the challenges of seasonal influenza. Without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history. First and foremost we need to be truthful with the american people. Americans deserve the truth. The truth must be based on science. We have the worlds greatest scientists. Let us lead. Let us speak without fear of retribution. We must listen, each of us can and must do our part now. On tuesday, dr. Fauci delivered a message in a voice that is clear and trustworthy has encouraged us to act with caution as we return to our daily lives. We should listen to him and other scientists sharing their expertise. While waiting for a cure and a vaccine, which i believe will come, there are things we must do immediately. We must increase the Public Education about the basics, washing hands, social distancing, appropriate face covering. Theyre simple but critical steps that buy valuable time until theres vaccine. We need to ramp up production of essential equipment and supplies, including Raw Materials and critical components. Shortages of these increase the risk of our Front Line Health Care workers, and they deserve the best equipment to protect themselves. We need to facilitate equitable distribution of essential equipment and supplies, and finally, we need a National Testing strategy. The virus is here. Its everywhere. We need to be able to find it, isolate it and stop it. We need to have the right testing for everyone who needs it. We need to be able to trace contacts, isolate, quarantine and appropriately while striving to develop a cure. Initially, our nation was not as prepared as we should have been, as we could have been. Some scientists raised Early Warning signals that were overlooked and pages from our pandemic playbook were ignored by some in leadership. There will be plenty of time to look back to assess what has happened so we can improve, but right now, we need to focus on getting things right going forward. We need a xwcomprehensive Plan Everyone knows and everyone participants in. Congress has taken important steps to support the response and theres much more we can do. With your help, we can get through this crisis. Working cooperatively with our global partners, we can and will succeed in finding a cue fre fo covid19 but that success depends on what we do today. We will either be remembered for what we did or for what we failed to do, to address this crisis. I call on all of us to act, to ensure the health, safety and prosperity of all americans. You can count on me to do my part. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Bright. Well now move to member questions and i recognize myself for five minutes for questions. Thank you again, dr. Bright. You have a distinguished career. Youre one of our countrys leading Public Health experts on how to respond to pandemics and National Security health threats. Youre the first Government Official whos been on the inside, seeing everything firsthand, to come forward and share an unvarnished experiences about what really happened from january to the time you departed barda in april this year, and dealing with the virus. So i want to make sure i understand what youre telling us. You stated in your written testimony a window of opportunity is closing, but it is not yet closed. What do we need to do with the time left to get it right, and if we dont, what do you mean when you say 2020 will be the darkest winter in modern history . Chairwoman, thank you for question. The window is closing to address this pandemic because we still do not have a standard centralized, coordinated plan to take our nation through this response. I believe with proper leadership and collaboration across government with the best science leading the way, we can devise a comprehensive strategy. We can devise a plan that includes all of americans and help them help us guide us through this pandemic, but time is running out, because the virus is still spreading everywhere. People are getting restless to leave their homes, and we have to make critical decisions on how to balance the economy and science. My concern about this fall is compounded by my knowledge and preparation and response to many years of influenza outbreaks. Pandemic influenza and seasonal influenza outbreaks. Our country in 2017 we had nearly 79,000 people die in the u. S. From influenza. That coupled with a covid19 resurgence this fall could be devastating for our Health Care Systems and for americans. We have a limited window of opportunity to get plans in place to address both of those. Thank you. When you look at the first four months of this year, would you describe the governments and the administrations response as a success or a failure . I believe we could have done better. I believe there are critical steps that we did not take in time. Was there a failure to respond when you correctly pushed a claim early virus samples from or to obtain early virus samples from china, so we could develop critical medical Counter Measures . From my perspective, in working with Companies Developing drugs and vaccines and diagnostic, viral samples are critical. As soon as we were aware this virus could pose a significant threat to human lives, i began pushing for those virus samples and i met frustration and dismissal. When did you do that . I zha z that in the office of secretary azar in january. The push for the virus samples initially mentioned on january 23rd, and the strong push on january 27th for those virus samples. And was there a failure to respond with the needed urgency, when you correctly pushed to ramp up production of masks, respirators, syringes, swabs . Congresswoman, weve known for quite some time that our stockpile is insufficient and having those critical personal protective equipment, so once this virus began spreading and became known to be a threat, i did feel quite concerned that we didnt have those supplies. I began pushing urgently in january, along with some industry colleagues as well, and those urges, those alarms were not responded to with action. Was there a failure to take immediate action, when you correctly pushed to acquire additional doses of the drug remdesivir, which is the only drug so far that has, appears to be at least mildly effective, thank god, for treating people with covid19 . There was no action taken on the urgency to come up with a plan for acquisition of limited doses at remdesivir, nor to distribute those limited doses of remdesivir, once we had the Scientific Data to support their use for people infected with this virus. Instead of acting on your recommendations, was the response of others to try and cut you out of key meetings, marginalize your participation . I was told that my urgings were causing a commotion and i was removed from those meetings. My time is expired. I now recognize the gentleman, the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, dr. Burgess. I thank the chair. Dr. Bright, i hope as it is clear to you, everyone on this dais on both sides appreciates you coming before us today, even if we are frustrated having this hearing without a full understanding of the facts, again, just to clarify, youre testifying in your personal capacity, and not on behalf of the agency or the administration . Thats correct, sir. Thank you for that. Let me ask you a question about hydroxychloroquine, really even maybe a little bit more broadly, the disease modifying ant antirheumatic drugs looked at for therapy for this disease. I ask you about hydroxychloroquine because it seems to be central to whatever disagreement you had with department of hhs and the administration, but hydroxychloroquine was initially identified as a potential therapeutic, because number one, of its antiinflammatory effects and its ability to calm things in the immune system and as we know, one of the features of this disease is the overwhelming cytokine response that overwhelms the host. There also may be in effect of blocking the virus at the point of contact with the cell. Certainly something that probably deserves a little investigation, but again, its not the only one. There were some other drugs. I think if im correct, barda supported with investments. Kev suppress the cytokine response as hydroxychloroquine, am i correct in that . There are a number of drugs were evaluating initially, congressman, that we were considering to conduct clinical studies to get further information that they really had an impact and if they were safe to use in patients infected with this virus. Do you have available to you the dollar amounts that barda appropriated or authorized for each of those two drugs, acterma and kevzara. I dont have those numbers available with me, no. Would you make those available to the committee . I believe hhs to make them available. Were you concerned with hydroxychloroquine at the time you made those awakts for acterma and kevzar, was the concern with hydroxychloroquine which became paranount your disagreement with the administration, was it already established when you made these other investments . In similar medications . My concerns around the safety of hydroxychloroquine in people infected with the covid19 virus reflective of the scientific review we received from inner agency group of clinicians and regulatory experts and scientists, at the time that we learned about hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine there was limited Data Available and if we could identify a source of that drug so the n ih could conduct randomized controlled Clinical Study, a similar action we took with remdesivir, once we thought remdesivir had promise from data coming from china. Nih quickly established a Clinical Study and randomized control study to evaluate remdesivir. With hydroxychloroquine that was also our preferred plan of action. And you of course authored the letter to the fda asking for the emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine . I was directed as a barda director from the office of the hhs secretary to put in place an expanded access i. D. Program to make chloroquine donation from bayer available to americans through a unique opportunity that would utilize an app and perhaps make it available to americans who were not under close supervision of a health kafr provider. Undcare provider. This is not a hearing on hydroxychloroquine. Of course id welcome a rebust hearing on research thats going on, what weve invested in, what seems to be panning out, what has not. Ill note both kev zara and the other medication may not have panned out. I think the Manufacturing Company for kevzara. Ly tell you since starting this, since you identified yourself and this hearing got noticed, im hearing from a lot of doctors, my state, around the country, who have experienced using hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine coupled with erythromycin and zinc, and theyre reporting significant benefit if it is used early enough in the course and may eliminate the need for hospitalization and ventilatory gentlemans time has expired. I dont know that its right. I think its important enough we should look into it and would be interested if you did that as part of your duty as at brrksarda . The gentlemans time is expir expired. Will the witness be able to answer the question . What question . I believe its important. Ive heard those anecdotal stories as well. They were not conducted in the context of a randomized controlled Clinical Study. Its very difficult to understand data from those observal studies or anecdotal studies. The drug might have benefit in some populations but we wont know until its from a randomized controlled study. Many of those are going on now. The studies in those populations tested havent shown an overwhelming evidence of benefit from the use of hydroxychloroquine in those patients. Different studies are devised to look at different angles of it. Most of those studies the chair recognizes the ranking the gentlemans time please. We all want to be fair to each other. The gentlemans time has expired. The chair recognizes the chairman of the full committee mr. Pallone for his five minutes of questions. Thank you, madam chair. Let me say, dr. Bright, thank you for your courage in being here. When i was younger, we used to read a book by president kennedy called profiles in courage. Your courage in being here remind me of some of the people i read about in that book. I am concerned, dr. Bright, that the Trump Administration doesnt have plans for a nationwide Vaccine Program to ensure once a vaccine is approved, well be able to quickly make it available to everyone. In other words, i dont want to see the same mistakes by the Trump Administration, the incompetence that they had with the supply chain and the testing repeated with a vaccine. You stated at the outset of the pandemic in january, you began urgently pressing hhs officials to provide the necessary resources to begin vaccine development, that your pleas fell on deaf ears. As the pandemic progressed you stated you were alarmed by pressures from some Administration Officials for your agency to invest in drugs and vaccines, i quote, without proper scientific vetting or that lacked scientific merit. Can you tell us where we are now in the hunt for a vaccine and where we could have been had the hhs leaders made Investment Decisions sooner that were based on scientific merit . Thank you, congressman. As we all know, vaccines are very difficult to make. Its nothing you can do quickly and you need multiple shots on goal to make a vaccine. There are many diseases weve attempted to make vaccines for through history and havent been able to do so. It takes many opportunities and many different approaches. Right now very over 100 different approaches for developing a vaccine for this coronavirus. So were confident that hopefully, i should say, at least one or two of those will work. Youve identified key critical challenges that we need to anticipate and prepare for early. Number one is the supply chain for those vaccines, reagents, buffers, salts and various ingredients that go into a vaccine as well as the glass vials that theyre put into and needles answer rings. And then a carefully coordinated administration and distribution strategy. We havent yet gotten to the downstream strategies. The urgent need for funding at the outset of a pandemic is something weve known about through many years of pandemic exercises, even in our august 2019 crimson contagion exercise, it was highlighted we would need at least 10 billion from the outset of a pandemic to start the drug and vaccines. Every day we delay delays the out put of that vaccine or drug. My first meeting with secretary azhar, i asked for funding for people and for those viruses. The three critical things to get the vaccine started. It took some time to get the funding available through various processes. What barda did, we began to look internally at other contracts and programs we had to redirect available funding to even as early as january be able to initiate contracts or agreements with some companies to start working on those vaccines as soon as possible. Its because of those actions now that not only have those vaccines started and made some progress, but also the United States has a placeholder with some of those companies to be able to place orders for those vaccines when they are available. We did Everything Possible to ensure that those investments were in companies that would build capacity in the United States to manufacture those vaccines. We had to get in line first, even when the money wasnt fully there to complete the development program. Thats what we did. I guess my concern is, im very critical of the administration in terms of their i call it incompetence with the supply chain, with lack of testing. Im afraid the same thing is going to happen with vaccines and the distribution. Should i be concerned based on your experience . Absolutely, sir. Were already seeing those challenges with limited doses of remdesivir with data were getting that remdesivir has some benefit in people. We have limited doses and we havent scaled up production. We dont have a plan on how to fairly and equitably distribute that drug. If you can imagine this scenario this fall, winter or early next spring when the vaccine becomes available, theres no one company that can produce enough for our country or the world. Theres going to being limited supplies. We need to have a strategy and plan in place now to make sure we cannot only fill that vaccine, make it, distribute it, but administer it in a fair an equitable plan. Thats not the case at this point . We dont have that yet. Its a significant concern. Thank you. Thank you, madam chair. The gentleman yields back. I now have the pleasure of recognizing the Ranking Member of the full committee, mr. Walden for his five minutes. I thank the witness for being here i want to get some clarification. Bardas job is to do the vaccines, right . That is one of bardas roles, yes, to support industry to make the vaccines. Is it bardas responsibility to direct the personal protective equipment acquisition distribution, the ppe, is that part of your responsibility at barda . Barda plays a role in pandemic preparedness for our nation in line with our other federal agencies. We are familiar with the critical gaps in supply chain. Barda isnt responsible for procuring those items for the Strategic National stockpile, were aware of the shortages and the needs. What i was doing in my capacity as director was raising those concerns and needs with the appropriate group within asper. Asper has the responsibility to go do that, right . Thats not your direct responsibility. Youre obviously in this discussion but thats its my responsibility to raise a significant concern about a limited supply or shortage that i think will affect the lives of americans. Did you raise that concerns with people up here on capitol hill . And if so, who and when . I raised that concern with my leadership, sir. I raised it with the appropriate folks in the Strategic National stockpile and our Critical InfrastructureProtection Program not up here . My role is to raise it to my supervisor. I also did raise that concern in the white house with mr. Navarro. In the future, i hope you would, anybody listening in those agencies, if youre spotting something not working right, we need to know. On the first case of sars covid 2 in the u. S. , identified january 22nd in Washington State. Cdc put the positive specimen in culture that day, correct . I believe so, i think january 20th. Okay. Its my understanding the samples from the virus with made available to the u. S. Government and the cdc expanded the virus stocks between january 29th and february 3rd and shared the bei on february 4th to enable broad sharing. According to your complaint, after virus samples were available to the u. S. Government from the Washington State case and potentially even after the cdcs effort to grow the virus and share with the bei bio repository, you were still seeking to obtain a sample of the virus, correct . Thats true, sir. We need more than one im going to get to that. Were they available to you . Sir, i was asking for viruses in january because we wanted to make sure we had a head start on developing the vaccine. I get that. They became available, i think february 6th through the bei resources. Then those were distributed to laboratories did you ask for the virus sample from Washington State as part of that . Absolutely. You did . Barda did. We asked to make sure we had access to those viruses, and they were dis