Mrs. Maloney the committee will come to order. I thank our witnesses for returning this morning. We appreciate the recognition of our interest and oversight responsibilities. Yesterday, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. C. D. C. Has reported that we have 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. 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 3 to h. H. S. And c. D. C. Requesting basic information including basic testing. We have not gotten response to those letters and with that, i represent mr. Higgins. I dont lead the task force. Its led by the Vice President of the United States. Mr. Higgins but youre the lead scientist . We have myself, dr. Redfield, dr. Burks. Mr. Higgins the scientists i have spoken with in committee see you as the lead man. I believe most of america does. We greatly respect you and these gentlemen being here today. However, let me clarify for america watching that according to the rules of this committee, members have the opportunity to submit our questions in writing and given the nature of this challenge and the president s announcements of last night, with all due respect, madam chair, i believe that this hearing should have been canceled or postponed, these gentlemen should be able to go do their work. Theres a time in battle when you need your frontline men on the frontline, not in the rear with the gear. These yemen showed us great respect. The oversight role is incredibly important. But you gentlemen have work to do, ill be submitting my questions in writing, my office will publish those questions and your answers in a press release at a later date. Madam chair, i urge you to consider adjourning this hearing and i yield my time to the anking member. The chair would lead to the gentleman from tennessee, mr. Green. Mr. Green my first question is for dr. Kadlec, a concern about liability and Liability Protections that might be very important for the fact that this is such a catastrophic event and we are pushing to the extreme our stocks on p. P. E. If you could comment about that and specifically the liability issues. Dr. Kadlec youre correct theres a great demand for personal protection equipment, particularly respirators. We have a limited supply, an 50u8 youllly about 350 million respirators are used. Only a small percentage is used by the health care industry, about 35 million. We believe the demand for that could be several hundred million to up to a billion in a sixmonth period. Its a high demand item. C. D. C. Is n a providing guidance on reuse and using them longer. Weve got manufactures talking about how to surge more and many are. And even though the fin and then finished products from overseas. And then how to use masks that havent been used for the medical area nonmedical n95s, could be used in that fashion. F. D. A. Has basically certified the n95 used in manufacturing and in mining and con instruction could be used in ealth 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 masks pardon me of users of products defined 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 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 respiratory protective devices for that purpose. Thats a critical item. Thank you very much for that answer. Dr. Redfield, i had a bunch of constituents ask me after yesterdays hearing, whats the difference between a Public Health lab and a commercial health lab . Everybody in this room kind of understands that, but would you for the record and for the folks watching on tv make the clarification between those in the few seconds i have left. Dr. Dr. Redfield thank you very much. We have a serious of Public Health labs throughout this country whose primary purpose is to do surveillance. To kind of get eyes on whats going on in the community. And c. D. C. Has worked cooperatively with them, as you know, about 70 of our funding that we get from youall is distributed to the state and local territory travel Health Departments, including the Public Health labs. There is also clinical medicine. Practice of clinical medicine. The private sector. That actually tries to provide diagnostics so we can diagnose diabetes or anemia. Lots of different diseases. And its really the engagement of the private sector to get these tests in to clinical medicine which is its a partnership between the private sector, c. D. C. Usually develops the test first. Gets it out into the Health Department to do surveillance, and the private sector comes in to provide the clinical tools we need to basically diagnose patients, not the surveillance f a community. Chari maloney thank you. The gentlelady from florida, ms. Wasserman schultz, is recognized for five minutes. Ms. Wasserman schultz thank you, madam chair. Dr. Redfield, yesterday my colleague, mr. Raskin, asked you about a nurse in california who was quarantined after treating a patient with coronavirus and showing symptoms of the disease herself. She couldnt get tested if you recall even though her local Public Health department recommended this. She said this, i quote, the public county officer called me and verified my symptoms and agreed with testing the national c. D. C. Would not initiate testing. They said they wouldnt because if i were wearing the protective equipment i wouldnt have the virus. When you were asked about this yesterday, you said, this is a misunderstanding if it did occur. You testified that, quote, the test was always available in atlanta, where c. D. C. Is located f you sent the sample to us and never a time when the Health Department could not get a test had you to send it to atlanta. You never placed restrictions on who got tested. That was guidance. Quote, we always left the discretion to do testing to the local Public Health group. The Committee Staff reached out to National Nurses united, the Union Representing this nurse not able to receive a test. They sent us the following Statement Last night. Madam chair i ask unanimous consent that this statement be entered into the record. Chair maloney so granted. Ms. Wasserman schultz according to National Nurses united in recent weeks we have been made aware of multiple circumstances in which Health Care Workers have been exposed to covid19 infection and have not received covid19 tests despite requests for testing. They continue. There have been too many cases where expose the Health Care Workers have been renewed testing for this to be considered a misunderstanding. Further, members of our union across the country have reported countless cases in which testing has been refused to patients when clinicians recommended t dr. Redfield, the National Union that represents nurses across this country just issued a statement publicly contradict your testimony before this committee. I ask this question, will you admit that there is a serious problem in this country with individuals, even Health Care Workers, obtaining access to testing for coronavirus . Dr. Redfield i thank you for your question. Im going to be looking into this in depth. As i said yesterday. Clearly we need to protect the Health Care Workers on the frontlines. N general in general these are will call decisions. Ms. Wasserman schultz these are people who contacted c. D. C. And c. D. C. Turned them down and said they couldnt be tested. Dr. Redfield i will look into that in detail and get back to your office as soon as i can. Ms. Wasserman schultz as soon as you can hopefully will be today. There are countless more examples of problems of people getting access to tests across the country including in my home state of florida. We need someone in charge of making sure that as many people as possible across this country have access to getting tested as soon as possible. Who is that person . Is it you . Is it the Vice President . Can you give us the name of who can guarantee that anyone but especially Health Care Workers who need to be tested can be . Dr. Redfield as i tried to explain to congressman green, from the c. D. C. Perspective ms. Wasserman schultz im asking for a name. Who is in charge of making sure that people who need to get tested who are indicated to be tested can get a test . Who . R. Redfield i was trying to say that the responsibility that i have at c. D. C. Is make sure all the Public Health labs have t they can make the judgment how they want to use it. Ms. Wasserman schultz they are references people who have been advised to you and been turned down. Is it you . Dr. Redfield im going ms. Wasserman schultz reclaiming my time. Basically you seem to be saying, because you cant name anyone specifically, there is no one specifically in charge that we can count on to make sure that people who need to be tested, Health Care Workers or anyone else, there is not one person that can ensure that these test can be administered. Yes or no. My colleague is looking at me to answer that. Here we go. Ms. Wasserman schultz i do have another question. If we can get chair maloney very quickly. The system does not is not really geared to what we need right now. What you are asking for. That is a failing. Ms. Wasserman schultz a failing. Dr. Fauci the way the system is set up the Public Health component that dr. Redfield was talking about was a system where you put it out there in the public and a physician asks for it and you get it. It i hear of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we are not set up for that. Do i think we should be . Yes. But we are not. Ms. Wasserman schultz thats disturbing. And i appreciate the information. If i can quickly ask my other question. Which is what i wanted to ask yesterday. In my home county we have four positive Port Everglades workers who tested positive. These employees according to our state department of health likely contracted the virus with interactions with infected passengers on ships they were working at the time during their shift. Ships that held likely held upwards of 50,000 passengers. The people on these ships potentially exposed should have been notified so they could have taken swift steps to protect themselves and others. They deserve to know they had been exposed to someone with the virus. When i asked our department of health what steps were being taken to determine who came in contact with these employees, when i asked the port, cruise lines, state department of health the department was not forthcoming. Didnt direct the cruise lines to notify the passengers. Instead of being forthcoming with me, i couldnt get a straight answer from department of health and they said they were going by c. D. C. Guidelines. Dr. Redfield, what are the c. D. C. Guidelines for notifying people who have been potentially exposed to a confirm coronavirus case. Shouldnt passengers on the ships worked by the Port Everglades employees who have coronavirus been notified so they could take precautionary measures. They still havent been otified. Dr. Redfield thank you very much again for both your concern and question. I know you got a chance to speak to admiral read yesterday about that. C. D. C. Last night i spoke with the princess cruise ship about this situation. They agreed to send a notice to all passengers on the ship. Where the greeters have worked. We are obviously in contact today with the Florida Health epartment. We would concur that individuals that have been exposed, particularly in a cruise setting, should be notified. I think the controversy here, congressman, is, i think the state actually thinks they may have gotten infected in the community. But i think we should err on the side of concern and get these passengers notified. Ms. Wasserman schultz respectfully the state department of health specifically said in the study they did they had not these employees had not traveled internationally and not had contact in the community with anyone with coronavirus. Days and days have gone by. Thousands of passengers floated around the ocean with people who had coronavirus likely on the ship they were on and days and days have gone by with no notification, no precautions those passengers should have taken, and they could be out there spreading coronavirus right now. Today to this day the cruise lines still have not been notified and urged by any Public Health entity to notify their passengers to make sure they can figure out whether they have een exposed. Dr. Redfield my only comment was after you brought this to our attention we did have that conversation. And the princess ms. Wasserman schultz not just princess. Chair maloney the members time has expired. But the witness may answer the question. Dr. Redfield i just said that reason the Company Cruise ship staff agreed to send a notice to all passenger that is were on a ship in which any of these greeters worked. Ms. Wasserman schultz it was not just Princess Cruise Lines. This is the second largest cruise port in the world. And there is more than just Princess Cruise Lines that these mployees worked. Dr. Redfield well follow up to see with the state any ship that had passengers that these individuals could have exposed would be notified. Ms. Wasserman schultz thank you. Chair maloney the gentleman from south carolina, mr. Norman, is recognized for the equivalent time. Mr. Norman point of order. Do i get seven minutes . Chair maloney yes, you do. Mr. Norman thank you so much. I want to thank each and every one of you for coming here. I agree with my congressman higgins that youall need to be on the frontlines. I admire you for coming in here. There is nobody watching across this country that has listened over the last few days that doesnt recognize you are doing all you can do. There are certainly people, certain groups want to find every fault. We are in unchartered waters here. Are you not drink interesting a fire hydrant but a tidal wave. I admire what you doing. Please know the majority of the country understands. We didnt anticipate this. You are handling it and we appreciate t first question, i just met with a company, fortune 500 company, who is looking at testing their employees as they ome in the door. Yet their concern was, one frivolous lawsuits, class action suits by trial lawyers, hipaa violations, health violations, you just cant take temperatures of people without all type getting into all type of ssues. What for any of you, what would you say for them dr. Redfield c. D. C. Has published guidance for usinesses. Got over 500,000 downloads. I would like people to look at that guidance carefully. Secondly, there are complexities probably most importantly the number of people could actually have this virus and actually have no symptoms. The other reality is, when the test turns positive after you actually are infected is still a scientific question. I can defer to dr. Fauci. At this stage we really would like to see the tests provided to those individuals that feel they were exposed in the clinical setting. As we continue to try to expand that. Those individuals that obviously are presented with flulike symptoms in the hospitals. Obviously we want to see the tests used for broader Public Health surveillance. Thats the stage we are in. Id like to see if tony wants to add something. Dr. Fauci there are two types of situations dr. Redfield described. One which is the classic tried and true c. D. C. Based situation where its based on the doctorpatient interaction. Where a doctor has a patient who wants to get tested for cause. They are sick, they have been exposed, or what have you. That works well. The system right now as it exists of doing a much broader capability of determining what the what its like in society at now is not operational at all. What the c. D. C. Is doing now is that they are taking various cities, they started with six, and then they are going to expand it, where they are not going to wait for somebody to ask to get tested. They are going to get people who walk into an emergency room or a clinic with an influenzalike illness and test them for coronavirus. If you do that on a broader scale throughout the country, youll start to get a feel for hat it is. Thats a different process. Unfortunately, our system from the beginning was not set up to do that. Thats the reason why we are not able to answer the broader questions of how many people in the country are infected right now . We hope to get there reasonably soon, but we are not there now. Mr. Norman what is your opinion on the question i was asked by this employer, do i give do i take the risk of when