Certainly china is to blame and has to be held accountable. View, doesr point of the sovereign immunity act need to be amended at all to allow you to move forward . We are moving forward because we believe that is how we proceeded on our lawsuit which we filed in the United States Federal District court of mississippi. That onportant to note the foreign sovereign immunities act, the commercial activity section is an act based on commercial activity in china that has a direct effect on the United States and they may not be immune. A reference to the nature of the court of conduct and a particular transaction or act. China was engaged in commercial activity, including the production, purchasing, import and export of ppes. Even essentially nationalizing the manufacturing. We believe this exception is workable and that is why i am proceeding with our lawsuit. Now, certainly the amendments of the Foreign Policy immune act would be helpful. Providing additional exceptions provides us broader
Outbreak a global pandemic. Cdc has now reported that we have almost one thousand confirmed cases. That is up from 100 reported cases a week ago. A 900 increase. Americans are worried. They are scared. It is essential that we are able to hear directly from the Health Officials leading this effort with just the facts. Im going to go to the republican side first, which is where we left off. Before i do that, without objection, the following three letters we sent on march 3rd to hhs and cdc requesting basic information including about testing are entered into the record. We have not gotten any response to those letters. And with that i recognize mr. Higgins. Thank you, madam chair. Dr. Fouci, gentlemen, thank you for returning today. And let me ask dr. Fouci, do you lead the executives task force regarding our nations response to coronavirus . No, i dont, sir. Your status is what on the task force . I dont lead the task force. The task force is led by the Vice President. Youre the lead sc
Respirators used in manufacturing and in mining and in construction could be used in health care settings. They are very similar but not the same but could be used that way. And the only thing thats keeping a lot of manufacturers from selling those masks to the Broader Health care population is because of Liability Provisions or lack of liability protections. There is the public readiness Emergency Preparedness act passed in 2005 that basically indemnifies manufacturers, distributors, and users of these mafpks pardon me of users of products defind as a device or covered counter measure. So i happen to be on the staff that did that legislation in 2005. We did not consider a situation like this today. We thought about cac vaccines. Therapeutics. But not respirators to be the first and only line of defense for Health Care Workers. Thats an important capacity and capability is to include language or modify the prep act to include language to include rest pritory protective devices for that
Bars and restaurants close . V. P. Pence thank you, mr. President , and good afternoon. Than 2900 cases of coronavirus in 49 states around the country, i want to assure the American People that this administration, all of our partners at the state level and local Health Officials have no higher priority than the health and safety of the American Public. Cap the president s direction we will continue not only a whole of government approach, but as we discussed today, we will continue to build on a whole of america approach to confront the coronavirus across the country. The Health Experts continue to groom firm confirm, based on the latest information, for the American People as a whole the risk of serious illness remains low. But because the risk is heavily weighted to the most vulnerable, to people with immunodeficiencys and to i and peopleencies with serious Underlying Health conditions, our administrations, state administrations will continue to focus on the most vulnerable and we w
The committee will come to order. I thank all of our witnesses for returning this morning. We appreciate the recognition of our interest and oversight responsibilities. This is a crisis that is evolving quickly. Since our hearing yesterday, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Cdc has now reported that we have almost 1,000 confirmed cases. That is up from 100 reported cases a week ago. A 900 increase. Americans are worried. They are scared. It is essential that we are able to hear directly from the Health Officials leading this effort with just the facts. Im going to go to the republican side first which is where we left off. Before i do that, without objection, the following three letters we sent on march 3rd to hhs and cdc requesting basic information including about t t testing are entered into the record. We have not gotten any response to those letters. And with that, i recognize mr. Higgins. Thank you, madam chair. Gentlemen, thank yo