Transcripts For CSPAN Public Health Preparedness Response 2

,or cherry Pick Committee today senator casey for serving as Ranking Member at senator murrays request. They have both been real leaders on this subject. Was the first author of the pandemic and the preparedness act. How do you say that . It the all hazards preparedness act. Helps protectaw us from the full range of Public Health threats. Terrorism,asters, and the outbreak of Infectious Disease. 2013, senator burr and can senator casey led the bipartisan authorization of the pandemic and all hazards hacked act. Many contributed to this committee. Now the bill midst to be reauthorized for a second time. The second weg is have had this year. Last week we heard from the administration on recommendations in advance of the reauthorization of the act included from the assistant secretary for preparedness for once. The fda, and the cdc. It is critical we reauthorize the act before many of the provisions expire in september. I hope we can do this in a bipartisan way. I expect that has been the tradition of the law amongst all of our bills. Aware of thet as devastation of the flu. I believe the figures are die of 50,000 americans the flu every year. Aboutllins is talk to us expediting a universal flu vaccine when she can see soon. Tennessee has seen her breaking stories this winter as the flu has put the state in the country. Andady a pregnant woman, three children have died and tennessee. The act provides the framework that enables us to be prepared and able to respond to Public Health threats. Medicineshave enough to protect americans and ensure our hospitals and state and local Health Departments are prepared to respond to Public Health emergencies. Thanks to all of our witnesses for coming today, especially the doctor who has come from tennessee. Thank you senator burr. Holding arning we are hearing facing 21st century threats. From a doctor who at Johns Hopkins center for Public Health. The commissioner of Tennessee Department of Public Health, a Senior Vice President for commercial operations, and the forair of the Alliance Public security. Head of pediatric emergency medicine at the Childrens Hospital in chicago. We will have the Opening Statement and then we would hear from the witnesses and then members will have up to five minutes for questions. I am pleased to chair the second onring to inform our work this. I want to thank the chairman for giving me the opportunity to lead the discussion. Today we will hear from some individuals with firsthand knowledge of the challenges that they see face Public Health threats on their ideas moving forward. Since the last reauthorization, the Emergency Preparedness and response framework has been tested by the emergence of pandemic flu. Multiple metro disasters and the of bola breakout and zika virus. The Lessons Learned in these events and these events or learn today. Their efforts to protect and to save lives. Season resulted in three storms that reason to question our ability to withstand periods of response. The emergence of zika to inform and to protect as many mothers and babies as possible. In 2014a breakout highlight the need to bring the knowledge and potential damage that can be brought by these threats. This deep understanding of the i look forward to learning more about the opportunity send barriers each of you see to better leverage Innovative Technologies to solve these problems. Whether it is the challenge of development of a vaccine, information crucial to the Public Health department and myths of a crisis, the infrastructure a doctor needs to rapidly care for patients, or improvements in the way these policies complement one another, your experiences reminds us we cannot let up on these efforts or lose sight of the urgency this mission demands. We must not get distracted by making changes to the laws that of outside of the focus perfecting poppa improving and , strengthening our policies and programs to make them more effective now and in the future. I look forward to the insight each witness can provide. Now i return to senator casey of for any remarks he would like to make senator casey thank you, senator. It would like to thank senator burr for his years of work on these issues. Thank you for joining us today. I want to thank our witnesses for bringing their experience and work to these issues and for joining us today. This is our second hearing on this topic, and the focus of course is our nations preparedness to combat Public Health threats as we look toward authorizing the pandemic and all hazards preparedness act later this year. Ever, we must rebuild our nations resiliency to help security threats. The threats that face our nation today are increasing in both frequency and intensity. Ever, t it is critical to foster in advance innovation and drugs innovation in the drugs, devices, and diagnostics. Yet, when we are considering any merging Infectious Disease or in engineered by a weapon that has oweapon that has yet to be seen by man or the , response to a Natural Disaster like a hurricane, we do not and will not have a vaccine or countermeasure to protect us from these scenarios. So in addition to supporting biomedical innovations, we must also strengthen our hospitals and our Public Health professionals, our front line of defense against these health threats. We must ensure that we give our communities the necessary tools and support they need to be ready when, not if, the next emergency strikes. Accounts, we have come a long way. I spoke at the last hearing about the success of the Hospital Preparedness Program, hpp, and the Public Health Emergency Preparedness program, and congress in concert with a trained to realm and in pennsylvania, one of the many examples we can site. For these programs also facilitate preparedness activities that help hospitals and publicHealth Systems with more regular occurrences. For example, when subzero temperatures caused bursting pipes at st. Vincents hospital in erie, pennsylvania, you got hit worst with snow than any place this year, the hospital contacted the Regional Health Care Coalition created through hpp funding to assist in a response to that circumstance. And yet, the funding for these Preparedness Programs has , with appropriations appropriatend levels and spiking only in and zika. O ebola the impact in reductions means a decrease in the amount of time that hospital staffs have to plan and train for an emergency. The loss of thousands of Public Health jobs, the reduction in Emergency Managers and public. Ab technicians its very dangerous to wait for a threat to emerge, to try to pass emergencyfunding bills. We must be proactive, not reactive. So how can we improve our health and ourtem repair this Public Health capacities, and thereby improve our Situational Awareness in an emergency . Can work towards a precision publichealth, using better data to more efficiently guide responses to help emergencies to benefit our communities . I think we cant. Example, as reported by the publication nature when transmission of the zika virus was confirmed in the United States, the entire country was not placed at risk. Totead, precise surveillance find two at risk areas of miamidade county, neighborhoods measuring less than 2. 5 square miles. This allowed for the targeting of resources to these regions. Welding on that experience, can expand surveillance to illuminate causes of disease and spark opportunities for prevention. Last i should say at weeks hearing, we also heard from the assistant secretary about the use of the and Power Program to identify and treat at risk individuals requiring electricitydependent medical equipment. He also identified a weakness. This system only pulls in medicare data, not medicaid and not try care data. Tricare data. So how do we ensure that we are acting on the data accurately to protect these seniors . The tragic death of 12 seniors during Hurricane Irma highlights that more needs to be done to protect the most vulnerable citizens. In fact, most of our citizens have additional characteristics that make them more vulnerable during a publicHealth Emergency. This includes our children, our parents, our rural communities, individuals with limited english proficiency, individuals with disabilities and of course individuals with chronic illnesses and more. We must do better to help our communities prepare for potential healthsecurity threats. Must continue to invest in innovative biotechnologies and we must also improve our nonpharmaceutical interventions. I look forward to the witnesses we cannies and how continue to prepare our hospitals and Health Systems to ensure equal consideration of all our constituents. Senator burr, thank you very much. You, senator thank casey. Im pleased we have got our four witnesses here today and i think each of you for taking the time to be here. I would like to introduce all four. Dr. Tom ingalls being his director of the center for Health Security and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is recognized for his work as a writer with numerous publications focusing on Public Health preparedness, endemic him and emerging Infectious Disease as well as the prevention of and response to biologic threats. Dr. Inglesby, thank you. Thank you, senator burkert would like to welcome dr. Dreisner, who is surely the tallest commissioner of health in our country. He has served the Tennessee Department of Public Health since 2011. He has significant experience responding to state and local Public Health emergencies including Infectious Diseases like zika, and Natural Disasters like the wildfires that devastated eastern tennessee 2016. Today he will provide important insights into our nations preparedness and response capabilities at the state and local level. What is working, where we can improve, where we can protect and save more lives. Is a physician with more than 25 years of service. As commissioner of health the house protect tennesseans from publichealth threats. I appreciate his leadership in tennessee and we welcome him to the committee. John, i am sure if you were a little younger there are a couple of tennessee basketball teams that would probably recruit you tomorrow, given their records this year. Next, id like to introduce brent macgregor, he is a Senior Vice President for commercial operations at secure us the secondlargest Flu Vaccine Company in the world. Ecuris is an example of the success that can be achieved through publicprivate partnerships so we are better prepared for the threats that we face. Most three the advanced manufacturing facilities in the country with the capability to rapidly respond in the event of a pandemic flu outbreak. Mr. Macgregor is also the cochair of the alliance for bio security. The Alliance Works to promote critical partnerships between the government, industry and other stakeholders to advance and encourage the development of medical countermeasures. Brent, welcome. And finally, dr. Stephen krug, head of emergency medicine at the Childrens Hospital in chicago. Dr. Krug is also professor of media professor of pediatrics at the university and serves as the chair of the American Academy of pediatric preparedness advisory council. Dr. Krug, welcome. Esby,l turn to you dr. Ingl and you can lead off with five minutes of testimony. Chance toou, for the speak about these important issues. Inglesby, andm i am professor of medicine and Public Health. Our centers mission is to protect Peoples Health from disasters. Will provide a brief overview the opinions expressed here are my own and dont necessarily reflect the views of Johns Hopkins university. The u. S. Faces a range of major Public Health threats, any of which critical occur without much warning. These include mass bombings, chemical skills, radiation, Nuclear Threats and biological threats. Biological threats, whether natural or accidental, such as an epidemic viral strain released from a lab come or deliberate like smallpox or anthrax, are of particular concern and a big focus of my concern today. Threats can range from modest in size, up to those capable of posing global catastrophic risk. What more can be done to prepare for the stress . First, we need to strengthen the Health Care Systems preparedness, that is the capacity to care for high numbers of sick or injured during an emergency. While there has been substantial progress in preparing for small disasters in the country, the nation isnt ready to provide medical care and large catastrophes or big epidemics of contagious disease. The Hospital Preparedness Program or hpp, and has been helping to fund and build these capabilities at the state and local level but Significant Resource constraints limit what hpp can do. Its budget has decreased more 200250 since its start in. That trend should be reversed, and new initiatives like regional Disaster Resource hospitals could be a strong component in improving preparedness. Second, we need to improve our Public Health systems ability to detect and respond to threats. Since 2001 there been serious efforts at state and local warningo provide early of new outbreaks, provide lab diagnostics, investigate and communicatereaks, to the public, and sure biosafety and bio security and much more. There has been good Forward Movement but there is too much to do and not enough trained professionals to do the work. Public health relies on funding publichealth Emergency Preparedness grants. That funding has been reduced by since 2000 to come even the publichealth crises havent declined. It should be strongly supported and in addition i think a publicHealth Emergency Contingency Fund should be established which would allow rapid Public Health response funding and emergencies funding in emergencies. Third, we need to move ahead in medical countermeasure development. Many priorities remain, anduding sustained Funding Research development, manufacturing of countermeasures, transitioning to new flu vaccine technologies in setting more ambitious targets for Rapid Development of products and emergencies so they are ready in the course of a given pandemic or epidemic. Fourth, the u. S. Needs to recognize threats that could inadvertently emergent biological research. After the moratorium on pan pandemicesearch research was lifted last month, researchers can now apply for funding for ways to make the lds most lethal viruses in the worstcase this could lead to the accidental and of a virusrelease that could cause a pandemic. I dont believe the benefits of this worker worth the risks that if it is going to go ahead and would advise there be high transparency in the program and serious dialogue among concerned governments internationally on how to proceed. And finally, we should fund the global Health Security agenda. In 2014 the u. S. Helped launch with a 1 billion commitment to have countries to help countries detect and respond to threats. Since then the program has toked in 39 countries increase lab and surveillance capabilities, increase public workforces and much more. But at this point u. S. Funding soon is funding ending soon. We should continue to support it. It is the most Effective Program we have to contain international operates at their sources overseas. Improving our nations preparedness and response activity is a daunting effort. I appreciate the committees time and welcome your questions. Thank you, doctor. Senatormorning alexander and senator casey and th