Good morning. The committee has come to order. One thing, i want to thank the witnesses for your testimony. Those appearing in person, traveling to d. C. To give it orally, and, also, answer our questions. The title of this hearing now is, i guess, examining the u. S. Approach to early covid19 treatments. I thought it was i originally set out a title of early treatments for covid, a essential component of a covid solution. It was inevitable that the coronavirus pandemic to be politicized into the tragedy it was. From the start, i knew it was impossible to have a perfect response. We were facing a new virus. No one wanted to underreact, and as a result i feared the tendency would be overreact. The challenges facing us were daunting. Our National Strategic stockpile had been reduced during the h1n 1 pandemic. It took time to develop a test. The fact that a large percentage of people that become infected exhibit no symptoms made the coronavirus even more difficult to detect and contain. I