Www. Health. Senate. Gov is our website. I think it makes it possible for us to be table to attract witnesses who have very busy schedules on the same day such as today. Some senators are participating by videoconference. Senators may remove their masks since were 6 feet apart. Im grateful to the rules committee, the sarge want at arms, the press gallery, the capitol police, our Committee Staff for all their hard work to help keep us safe. Senator murray and i will each have an opening statement, and then well turn to our witnesses who we thank very much for being with us today. Each witness we would ask that you summarize your remarks in five minutes, which will allow more time for the large number of senators who we expect to participate to present their testimony. Well have one round of questions for a five minute round. Less than four months ago on march 1st the coronavirus situation was about this. At the end of february there were 79,000 cases around the world, only 14 in the United States except for 39 who had been brought home from overseas with the virus. By march 2nd there were two deaths in the United States. By march 3rd when we had a hearing there were six deaths, and on march 1st on sunday in the New York Times on the front page it said this. That most experts were far from certain that this virus would carry to all parts of the United States and that with its topnotch scientists, quote, modern hospitals and sprawling Public Health infrastructure most experts agree the United States is among the countries best prepared to prevent or manage such an epidemic. Even 6 weeks after the first virus was found in the United States even experts underestimated the ease of transmission and the spread of coronavirus without symptoms. These qualities made the virus in the words of dr. Fauci, my worst nightmare. In a period of four months he said it has devastated the world. This committee is holding this hearing today because even with an event as significant as covid19 memories fade and attention moves quickly to the next crisis. While the nation is in the midst of responding to covid19 the United States congress should take stock now of what parts of the local, state and federal response to this crisis worked, what could work better and how, and be prepared to pass legislation this year to be better prepared for the next pandemic which will surely come. On june 9 i released a white paper outlining five recommendations for congress to prepare americans for the next pandemic. They were these. Number one, test treatments and vaccines, accelerate research and development. Number two, disease surveillance. Expand our ability to detect, identify, model and track emerging Infectious Diseases. Number three, stockpiles, distributions and surges, rebuild and maintain federal and state stockpiles and improve medical supply Surge Capacity and distribution. Number four, Public Health capabilities. Improve state and local health capabilities. And finally, whos on the flagpole . Whos in charge . Improve coordination of federal agencies during a Public Health emergency. Ive invited comments and responses and any additional recommendations for the Senate Committee on health and labor and pensions to consider. I will share this feedback with my colleagues both on the democratic and republican side. This is not a new subject for any of the witnesses that we have today. 15 years ago the then majority leader of the United States senate bill frisk said in a speech at the National Press club that a viral fpandemic is o longer a question of if but a question of when. He recommended what he calls a 6 point Public Health prescription to minimize the blow. Research, stockpile Surge Capacity. Senator frisk is one of our witnesses today, and im including in the record two of his speeches. Our next witness, dr. Jonee c caldun serves where shes worked to coordinate the states response to covid19. The third witness is the doctor who served as the doctor for the centers of Disease Control and prevention under president george w. Bush. She helped lead the effort in response to sars, h1 virus, and the rise of multidrug system bacteria like mersa. He was administrator of epa under george w. Bush. The governor increasingly focused his efforts on pandemic preparedness. As secretary in 2007 he said this 13 years ago. Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after a pandemic will seem inadequate. Thats the dilemma we face but it should not stop us from doing what we can do to prepare. Congress has passed legislation to prepare for pandemics before. During the last 20 years four president s clinton, bush, obama, trump, and several congresses have enacted significant laws to help as well as hospitals and providers to prepare for a public emergency including a pandemic. Congress provided over 18 billion to states and hospital preparedness systems over the last 15 years to help them prepare as well. In writing those Laws Congress considered many reports from president ial commissions, offices of inspector general, the Government Accountability office and outside experts. The reports contained all sorts of warnings that the United States needed to address the following familiar issues, familiar by now. Better methods to quickly develop test, treatments and vaccines and scaleup manufacturing capacity. Better systems to quickly identify emerging Infectious Diseases, more training for the health care and Public Health work forces, better distribution of medical supplies, better systems to share information with and among states and between states and the federal government. Many reports also warn that while states play the lead role in a Public Health response many states didnt have enough trained doctors, nurses and health care professionals, had inadequate stockpiles and struggled with funding challenges. In some instances overreliance on inflexible federal funding contributed to these problems. Looking at Lessons Learned from the covid crisis thus far many of the challenges congress has worked to address during the last 20 years still remain. Additionally covid19 has exposed some gaps that had not been previously identified. These include unanticipated shortages of testing supplies and sedative drugs which are necessary to use ventilators for covid19 patients. Memories fade, attention moves quickly to the next crisis. Four months ago, five months ago we were in the midst of an impeachment of a president. Today that seems like ancient roman history. That makes it imperative that congress act on needed changes this year in order to better prepare for the next mpandemic. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses and i would also appreciate the feedback were receiving on the white paper. Ive set a deadline for june 26th on that feedback so the committee has time to consider it and to draft and pass legislation this year. Senator murray. Well, thank you very much, mr. Chairman. And i also want to thank all of our witnesses for joining us today and of course thank our staff for wrangling the technology to make this hearing possible. I said before we need to understand fully and exactly everything that has gone wrong in our response to covid19. Why and how we work to make sure we are never in this situation again, but i want to be absolutely clear from the start, reflecting how we prepare for the next crisis is no substitute for responding to the crisis at hand which has infected over 2 Million People in our country, killed over a 120,000 and which continues to spread. Unfortunately, the white house is pretending this pandemic is over. President trump has said its fading even as several states see record case increases. Vice president pence wrote an oped saying we are winning the fight and there isnt a second wave. While experts like dr. Fauci warn we arent even through the first wave yet. Admiral girard has stepped down from his role and President Trump is calling for less testing even though we dont have anything close to the testing and tracing capacity we need to safely reopen our community. But its not just officials in the white house who are sticking their heads in the sand. Leader mcconnell and some republicans have suggested theres less urgency to take further action since weve gained some 2. 5 million jobs after losing more than 20 million jobs. You know, as a former preschoolteacher i can tell you even some of our younger students know that math doesnt add up. So i hope we dont just spend our time today talking about hoato avoid mistakes in the next pandemic but instead address the mistakes this administration is still making dure this one and the ones theyre at risk of repeating as the response to covid19 continues. One lesson weve already learned, this crisis is no great equalizer but rather a force which perpetuates and deepens the injustices so many others face. We have known for decades that our Health Care System treats some communities much worse than others especially communities of color. Those disparities are caused by a long history of systemic racism and underfunding. And those in charge have a responsibility to acknowledge the problem and do everything they can to close that gap. This administration has not taken that responsibility seriously. At best they turn a blind eye to the problem. At worst they seem determined to make it worse as weve seen in the administrations irresponsible rule to allow discriminati discrimination in health care. So workers can stay home and do whats best for their health and for Public Health without fear of losing their job or their paycheck. And weve learned how important it is the department of labors occupational, safety and Health Administration is. They need to stop dragging their feet and finally make clear safety isnt optional by immediately oiging an Emergency Temporary Standard. Theres also several lessons regarding vaccines. We cannot allow the Trump Administration to bundle this like they have so much else. This pandemic will not end until we have a vaccine that we can equitably distribute and free and accessible to everyone. We dont just need a fast process, we need a thorough, transparent and science driven one. We need to know the process is free of political influence especially after the hydroxychloroquine. And the covid19 vax own or vaccines truly meet the Gold Standard families have rely on for so long, which is why the Administration Needs to commit now to being fully trance parent about the Vaccine Development and review process and about the data that is ultimately used to evaluate safety and effectiveness. We also need the administration to detail how it will produce and distribute vaccines everywhere to everyone. Even the incomplete data we currently have shows black, latino and tribal communities are disproportionately impacted by covid19 and have significantly less access to testing than white communities. This is an injustice that we cannot repeat when it comes to vaccines. Nor can we ford to repeat delays like those the Trump Administration cause by refusing to take responsibility for resolving coordination problems in the National Supply chain. Instead of the Trump Administration must work now to draft and release a comprehensive covid19 vaccine plan, the type of comprehensive plan we still havent gotten on testing. One that addresses all of these questions and other barriers like how do we fight misinformation and Vaccine Hesitancy . How do we strengthen our immunization instruct, and how do we build global partnerships in this effort instead of turning our backs on the rest of the world which not only betrays our American Values but also puts people here at home directly in harms way . Mr. Chairman, these are not questions we need to ask before the next pandemic starts. They are questions we have to answer before the current pandemic can end. I look forward to hearing our witness per speskts on all these issues today. And mr. Chairman, i hope in the future, very near future this committee will also get the perspectives of several important members of this administration we have not heard. Secretary azar, secretary scalia, and secretary devos. It is clear we have a lot more work to do to respond to this pandemic, and i urge our colleagues come back to the table so we can work on this together. The Public Health crisis of covid19, the economic crisis this pandemic has set in motion and of course the persistent systemic inequities driven by racism are urgent. Our nation cannot keep waiting. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator murray. Each witness well ask you to summarize your statement in five minutes. Well have more time for questions. I welcome our witnesses. Its a distinguished panel. We look forward to hearing from each of you. Its my privilege to introduce the first one. Senator bill frisk with whom i served and many of us served. He represented tennessee for two terms in the senate. He was the majority leader of the United States senate. He served on this committee in the United States senate. Hes a heart and lung trance pl plant surgeon by training. He now serves on several boards. Hes senior fellow at the Bipartisan Center and chairman and founder of health nashville. In 2005 and im sure hell talk about this, he gave many speeches on the inevitability of a Global Pandemic. Ive submitted two of these speeches to this committees may 7th hearing. Well hear from dr. Caldun. She serves as the chief executive and director for the Michigan Department of health and Human Services. In this position she oversees the population health, medical services and aging and behavior of health and departmental Disabilities Administration for the state of michigan. The doctor has extensive experience in state andc c c and health Detroit Health department. Shes a practicing emergency medicine physician. Our third witness is dr. Julie. She is is executive Vice President and chief patient officer at merck and company and serves as a cochair on the commission of strengthening American Health care. She served as the director for the centers of Disease Control, the cdc, from 2002 to 2009. Under her leadership cdc coordinatedp coordinated preparedness efforts and responses to sars, west nile virus and avian flu. She played a key role in the cdc response to anthrax attacks in 2001. Senator rommy will introduce our final witness governor mike l levitt. Mike is actually the one whos most responsible for freeing me from the golden chains of the private sector. He got me to leave my position and come out and help run the olympic winter games in 2002 in salt lake city. As such he was my boss and the governor of the state of utah at the time, and we became since then dear friends. He also was kind enough when i was running for president to lead my transition team. Im not sure id have been a great president , but id have had a Great Administration because he put together an Extraordinary Team and laid out a pathway to help our country in numerous ways. Mike levit has you also have indicated was a three Team Governor of utah. In the Bush Administration he served as administrator of the epa and then for several years as the secretary of health and Human Services. One of his priorities was to focus on pandemic preparation. He secured some 7 billion in funding with the administration through the administration and congress to prepare for pandemics. Since leaving government he has founded a firm called levitt partners. It is the premier Health Care Consulting firm in the country with hundreds of employees under his management as well as a private equity firm that he has built. Its an extraordinary record and he continues to contribute to our country. My friend mike levitt. Thank you, senator romney. Now well begin with senator frisk. Welcome senator frisk, back to your old committee. Good morning chairman alexander, and Ranking Member, murray and members of the committee. Its great to be back in the halls of the senate even if only remotely and see so many old friends and colleagues. I do want to commend the committee on placing a focus now on preparing for the inevitable and Infectious Diseases that will absolutely come in the future. As you mentioned december 8th of 2005 at the