Debate live from cleveland tuesday night on cspan. Stream at cspan. Org or listen live on the cspan radio app. And live now to the Senate Health committee who today will hear from dr. Anthony fauci, dr. Robered redfield and other members of the White House Coronavirus task force. Theyre expected to update lawmakers on the federal response to the pandemic. Live coverage here on cspan 3. Senator ted kennedy used to say our committee had the broadest jurisdiction in the senate. You only have to look around the room at a hearing and see that we also have the broadest range of views in the senate and some of the ablest advocates of those views. But thanks to our Committee Members and to senator murray most of our hearings have been bipartisan which means weve agreed on a broad range of witnesses to present points of view. And while the questioning and statements of senators has been probing, theres always been a high level of courtesy both to the witnesses and to the other senators which im grateful for. I believe this ability to Work Together during such a rancorous time is a big contributor to why weve been able to accomplish so much. The work of this committee represents my view that as far as the United States senate goes, its hard to get here. Its hard to stay here. And while youre here you might as well try to accomplish something good for the country, which this committee has done on numerous occasions. The Trump Administrations program to develop and deploy a vaccine against covid19 is on track to be an unprecedented sprint to success. The program called operation warp speed will save lives without cutting corners on safety and efficiency. The covid19 Vaccine Development process is likely, likely to produce its first tens of millions of doses within one year. The United States has never produced a vaccine that rapidly. When i was a child i saw classmates in iron lungs. We waited 10 years for a polio vaccine so we wouldnt be afraid of polio. Many existing vaccines for other diseases that children take routinely before they go to school like chickenpox and the measles have taken 10 years to develop. The secret to the success of this effort is that the government in partnership with private industry is for the first time developing and manufacturing vaccines in parallel. Now, what that means is that operation warp speed is manufacturing tens of millions of doses of the six vaccine candidates at the same time the Clinical Trials are ongoing and the food and Drug Administration works to determine whether those vaccines are safe and effective. If the fda does not approve the vaccine it will not be distributed. So the risk is taxpayer money not the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. The administration had set a stretch goal that once seemed impossible but now seems likely. The administration hopes to have as many as 300 doses of Vaccines Available to be deployed by mid2021 according to an august 26th article by operation warp speed programs principal advisor and vaccine expert that with was published in the new england journ of medicine. The authors also wrote no Scientific Evidence could guarantee success but the Strategic Decisions and choices weve made, the support the government has provided, the accomplishments to date make us optimistic that we will succeed in this unprecedented endeavor. With the department of health and Human Services said recently in a meeting if all goes well its possible up to 700 million doses will have been manufactured by april of next year, 2021. The department of health and Human Services, department of defense, private sector, Public Health and medical professionals also are working together to lay the groundwork for deciding who gets the first doses. Such as Health Care Workers and certain high risk populations and how to get those doses to those individuals. The centers for Disease Control has asked states to submit plans by the middle of october of this year next month to begin distribution. Now, theres been a lot of back and forth over exactly which date the first vaccine doses, which remember are already being manufactured and made ready for distribution, when will they be available for distribution to the public . The answer, of course, is that the only people who know when a vaccine will be ready are the scientists at fda who will review the science and the Clinical Trial data and determine whether the vaccine is safe and it works even dr. Steven han, the commissioner of the fda whos testifying today does not know when that date will be because the fda will not approve a vaccine until three things happen. One, independent experts overseeing Clinical Trials determine theres enough Data Available to the fda to make a decision. Two, after demonstrating safety and efficacy based on Clinical Trials the vaccine manufacturer submits an application to the fda, and three fda experts conduct their review and make the final determination the vaccine is safe and that it works. Now as to treatments, the second unprecedented story of the United States response to covid19 is the development of treatments. There are five products authorized for emergency use today to help treat and manage covid19 symptoms including remdesivir, certain steroids, blood thinner, convalescent plasma. Operation warp speed officials are optimistic, they say, that more treatments will be identified and developed and in Clinical Trials this fall. With potential for approval or authorization by the end of the year. The most promising are antibody cocktails. Knowing there is some medicine that will help treat covid19 should greatly relieve the anxiety of americans who want to go back to college, back to school, back to child care, back to work and out to eat. And third, a third Success Story is the explosion of fast, cheap, reliable diagnostic tests. After initial missteps our country lost several crucial weeks in distributing the diagnostic tests that would help to identify and isolate those who contracted the virus but since then an unprecedented effort has provided capacity for administering tests. Abbott laboratory says its on track to produce 50 million of its tests a month by october which can produce a result in 15 minutes and cost 5 a test. The government has purchased 150 million of abbotts test to help expand testing in places like schools and Nursing Homes, and im sure well hear something about how that will be distributed today. Congress funded the socalled shark tank or rapid acceleration of Diagnostics Initiative at nih with the objective of developing and deploying tens of millions of new rampant diagnostic tests. Dr. Francis collins dr. Of nih that reported combined these new technologies have the potential to add at least 60 million new tests a month by december. Dr. Collins has told me, quote, this is not the end of the story. There are lots of additional technologi technologies coming through the pipeline many which are point of care and home based tests, unquote. Until vaccines and treatments are widely distributed, this explosion of many cheap reliable rapid diagnostic testicize our best weapon to build confidence among the American People that its safe to go back to school, back to work and out to eat. There should be plenty of tests. In fact, there are now to do surveillance testing of those without symptoms in certain settings like colleges and child care centers. Its important to give credit to this congress and this president for funding this unprecedented knowing full well one or all might fail with a considerable loss of money. Since march congress has appropriated 47 billion for test treatments and vaccines, a large amount of pales in size, though, to the 3 trillion spent to try to ease the pain by shutting down the economy. Its important to give cred lt to the previous president and congress for the important work theyve done the past 20 years to make possible the successes i just described earlier. The doctor, for example, told me that the government today could not be manufacturing four of the vaccines currently being developed if congress had not provided the department of health and Human Services with funding to make awards in 2012, 8 years ago to build three manufacturing plants that would be on standby for the next epidemic. The decision to look ahead then to the next pandemic and on this committee, senator burr specifically had a role in that, the doctor said that was visionary. On march 1 the New York Times reported that the United States is among the countrys best prepared to prevent or manage such an epidemic focused on covid. Why would they say that on march 1st . Well, lets look at nih. For five consecutive years this congress has significantly increased investment in the National Institute of health for biomedical research. And nih is infectious Clinical Consortium was able to rapidly shift ongoing Clinical Trials and enroll volunteers in treatments or vaccines. Or look at the fda. Congress provided fda with specific authorities beginning in 2004, 16 years ago to issue emergency use authorizations for test, treatments and vaccines to respond to Public Health emergencies. Dr. Han has used that authority. Fda has used that authority to authorize 250 tests and five treatments as quickly as possible and also to remove tests and treatments when additional evidence showed they didnt work as well as they should, or look at barta. Congress established the Biomedical Advanced Research authority in 2006, 14 years ago to help Companies Work to get fda safe and effective vaccines out. Barta was able to announce awards for potential covid19 treatment of vaccine candidates just over one month after the vaccine was first reported in china. As i said earlier four of the first six vaccines are being manufactured in facilities built in 2012 for this purpose, for a future pandemic. And then theres been federal support over the years for state, local and hospital preparedness. 21 billion between 2002 and 2017. Cdc has used existing programs to help states retrain work forces, expand lab capacity, planning for a future pandemic from pandemics during the last several years. And even with super computing, these congresses, the last few have increased funding in the department of energy so that the United States is first in the world in super computing. Theyre in our National Laboratories and theyre being used to help develop treatments and vaccines. So i go through all of that to show that several congresses and several president s have done things to help us get ready towards this unprecedented sprint towards vaccines, treatments and tests. And finally id like for this congress to be visionary as well. And while were in the midst of this pandemic to help get ready for the next one. The author of guns, germs of steel says the main thing about this germ is the jet plane, that people can travel around the country and around the world and spread it. And so he concludes that the next pandemic could be next Year Congress should take stock now while our attention is on the current croesus of covid19 many of the witnesses that have appeared before this committee have agreed we have three things to do. One, sustain onshore manufacturing of test, treatments and vaccines. Two, create a sustained stockpile of supplies so theyll available in a public heth emergency and strengthen the Strategic National stockpile. Weve seen time and time again Attention Spans are short. We must act now to stop the cycle of panic, neglect, panic. I look forward to hearing from all our Witnesses Today about how the federal government is continuing to respond and to help state respond, how soon we can expect more treatments and a vaccine for covid19 and what steps we can take now to prepare for the next pandemic. I will now recognize senator murray for her opening statement. Well, thank you very much, mr. Chairman. And thank you so much to our witnesses for joining us once again today. Before we begin i do want to take a personal moment to acknowledge the passing of justice ginsburg, a friend, a role model and a woman who opened doors for all of us with her genius and her relentless pursuit of justice, freedom and equality. This appointment to our nations highest court could not be more pivotal especially as we face down a Historic Health crisis. We are in the middle of a pandemic that has cost more than 200,000 american lives on this administrations watch, has left nearly 7 Million People across our country with new preexisting conditions, and 5. 4 Million People without coverage. Yet none of that has stopped republicans from using every tool at their disposal including the Supreme Court to attack health care and protections for families across our country. Im not going to let anyone forget many of the same republicans who are considering filling this vacancy with a nominee virtually guaranteed to tip the balance of the court against Peoples Health care and the Critical Care coming up this year critically said in march of 2016 said the American People should have a voice in the selection of the next justice and said many times over the past few years they support protections for preexisting conditions. The entire country is going to be hearing what another Supreme Court nominee hand picked by President Trump will mean for their health care and their rights. Now to todays hearing. Back in january i worked to help organize the first bipartisan briefings with the Administration Officials about the covid19 threat. And i wrote to secretary azar shortly after asking what steps we were taking and specifically asking about our diagnostic testing capacity. At a hearing in february i pressed him directly about issues with those tests. And i asked him pointblank if our country was ready. Tragically the clearest answer i got to that question did not come from the Trump Administration. It came back from families in my home state of washington, and it came as a resounding no. By march im hearing from people in my state who believed theyd been exposed but could not get tested. And who had been tested but were left waiting for results. I was hearing from schools in my state including myground daughters they were canceling classes and closing schools. And i was seeing nothing from the Trump Administration to inspire confidence or to act with urgency. Lets be clear, we had a window to prepare for this and the administration missed it. We had a pandemic play book that warned against some of the very problems we were facing. They ignored it. We had a clear understanding of how dangerous this disease could be, and they downplayed it. So much has changed since those early days of this crisis. Now the number of people infected in our country has passed 6. 5 million. The number of People Killed passed 200,000. The number of people without a job and without Health Insurance has skyrocketed. And businesses have been shuttered. Gatherings from weddings to birthdays to graduation to funerals have been delayed or canceled. But one thing has not changed. President trump is still putting politics ahead of Public Health. He is still downplaying this crisis and falsely claiming it will just go away or were turning the final corner. When the reality is cases and deaths are still alarmingly high. Testing and Contact Tracing are frustratingly inadequate. The health disparities, black, latino and tribal communities and other communities of color face are still severe. And we need to repair for the upcoming flu season when experts warn us we could see another wave of cases and yet President Trump is still trying to sabotage the work of our scientists and Public Health experts for his own political ends. As the leaders of Health Agencies on the front line of our response to this pandemic, our witnesses have an important firsthand perspective on this interference. Dr. Han, the food and Drug Administration has a Critical Role to play in evaluating the safety and efficacy of treatments, diagnostics and vaccines. The American People are counting on you to uphold