Transcripts For CSPAN3 CDC 20240705 : comparemela.com

Transcripts For CSPAN3 CDC 20240705

[inaudible conversations] i would ask her guess to take their seats. The subcommittee on oversight investigations will come to order. I recognize myself for an Opening Statement to todays hearing is the first opportunity for congress to hear testimony from doctors mandy cohen since she was appointed to the centers for days Disease Control director in july. Dr. Cohen congratulations on your point maybe we are taking the reins of the cdc at a critical time you have a heavy task ahead. As i have said editor jan oversight hearing to cope with 19 pandemic revealed he we did not have the cdc we thought we had. I look forward to hearing how you plan to change that. This is an opportunity to hear firsthand about how the cdc is responding to the ongoing respiratory virus. Im particular interest in hearing about how the cdc is helping to mitigate the shortage of respiratory essential virus or are city immunization for all infants. We have heard reports that are as the cases are sharply in certain areas of the country. With Unprecedented Demand for rsv immunization this year with the supply constraints i hope we hear what the cdc plans to do to ensure we have a sufficient supply of product for the season to comfort her to that the safe effective are cm initialization initialization immunization to protect her children but it does us little good if we dont do a better job at keeping supply. House the cdc planning to rebuild public trust in the agency, has the cdc learned from the mistakes it made during the cope with 19 pandemic and is the cdc committed to making deep reforms needed to avoid repeating the same mistakes. While im looking forward to hear your testimony on this point i cant believe i havent seen that evidence yet that the cdc is taking the failings of the cope with 19 pandemic to harp another area i have great concerns about as a detrimental effect of the School Closures have had on our kids learning. According to the report by the assessment of Education Progress for u. S. 13yearolds is at the lowest level in decades. According to a New York Times report from earlier this month School Closures led to 50 million children including my own being out the classroom causing the students to miss an extremely crucial time in their lives since they were forced to attempt to learn from home. Let me assure you learning from home for schoolage children is not as effective as being in a classroom. In that same report the times claims this may prove to be the most damaging instruction in the history of American Education but the damage brought by School Closures was enormous and our children will be living with the consequences for decades. If i said before cdc recommendations and guidance carry great weight. They justify not only School Closures. Preventing nursing home visitations of Vaccine Mandates that would result in millions of americans losing their jobs. In addition businesses Fitness Centers and of all churches and other places of worship were closed. Abiah left exposed mo problems for the cdc for the management of federal aging program has been such criticism for inadequate investigations in response to buy a security incidents including the investigations from this very subcommittee. Reading the china select racer porsche is how the cdcs approach to select Agent Program cdc initially refused to even investigate the lab and only did so once they were contacted by democratic representative jen costa california the cdc refuse to test the thousands of samples that may have contained, that could have contained unknown and dangerous pathogens. The agency also failed to take meaningful action regarding a refrigerator that was labeled ebola during the socalled investigation for the cdcs response was inadequate and failed to provide any support for the local government and put the public at risk through indifference. This is not acceptable and the cdc must do better. As we look to the future its clear that the cdc needs to do more than just a reset. There needs to be a Seismic Shift. They announced in april 2028 undergo a reform by starting to review their process the structures in place. Hence they have made a handful of changes but more is needed. I know that you have not been there like that to implement a Seismic Shift but i hope we can start to see the cdc guidance driven by the latest science and robust data. In closing i hope your tenure as director will start that process and reinvigorate this important agency. Thank you and i yield back myself and i now recognize the subcommittee Ranking Member ms. Castor for high for her fiveminute Opening Statement. I think you mr. Chairman and good morning everyone. Welcome dr. Cohen and thank you for your service as director of the centers for Disease Control and prevention for the timing of your appearance here today is very important as we want to ensure that all americans have all necessary information to protect themselves from respiratory disease as we head into the season of higher infections in illness driven by the flu, covid 19 and rsv. This subcommittee held a hearing in july and how the cdc can improve its effectiveness and performing its Core Public Health mission but they did so without having anyone from the cdc provide a substandard updates and thankfully we can hear directly from dr. Cohen today about her priorities to help americans stay healthy and to prevent and fight disease but one of the strength of the cdc is that it works in collaboration with states and local communities. Strong Public Health partnerships and infrastructure are our best line of defense. Families communities businesses and policymakers like us rely on uptodate information to understand the risks and devise Prevention Strategies but are working together we can improve the lives and health of the americans. Earlier this week the cdc released data showing Life Expectancy in america last year increased slightly after he decreased in 2020 and 2021 due to the heavy toll caused by covid19 where 1 million americans lost their lives. We are struggling compared to other wealthy countries. Nevertheless thanks to this historic emergency legislation passed by democrats in congress and extraordinary efforts of communities and Health Professionals across the country and the Biden Administration we put the days of the pandemic behind us. We can focus a new on ongoing Public Health risks like heart disease, cancer, maternal mortality, a weary prevention suicide and others. Poor country that is grappling with debts and deficits and for families looking to Lower Health Care costs is more important than ever that we make sure that all americans have access to Good Nutrition and lifesaving vaccines and that they dont start with. Unfortunately for years after the onset of the covid19 pandemic some of my republican colleagues continue to aggressively undergoing cost savings and maligned saint for lifesaving medical research. The republican majority actively opposed strengthening Public Health and failed to use the Lessons Learned to better position america to respond to the future. Republicans budgets in Congress Tell the story. Instead of working to keep our neighbors safe and avoid higher Health Care Costs republicans want to take us back to harmful cutbacks, shutdowns and a budget showdown. Meanwhile democrats are working to put people over politics, to keep our neighbors healthy and to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations and deaths and to be ready for the next ebola or zika or coronavirus. You never know whats going to happen. For sample earlier this summer serves the florida experienced a surprising outbreak of malaria with patients hospitalized to thank goodness the cdc experts jumped in to aid the community and brought up a containment and prevention strategy. There hasnt been an outbreak in 20 years and that is good because malaria is one of the worlds greatest Public Health problems and affects approximately 219 Million People each year with over 600,000 deaths. We are grateful for the response by the cdc but its also a great example of the importance of timely information for the public. Access to Timely Health information became entirely too political during covid with some officials in my state and other places altering information that the public needed. I hope you can all Work Together to improve the availability of accurate and Timely Health information for the public. Even in the best of circumstances the cdc has a very difficult job. While some politicians are intent on discrediting the cdc are actively spreading misinformation as former president trumpeted repeatedly in 2020 during the height of the coronavirus pandemic and as the governor and Surgeon General and my state of florida continue to do so today the job its so much harder. But we can do better. We can come together to improve Public Health and make sure that all americans stay healthy and well. I look forward to hearing from dr. Cohen today. Thank you and i yield back. I think the gentlelady and i now recognize the chair of the full committee mrs. Rodgers for her full statement. Id also like to welcome and congratulate director cohen for the center of Disease Control and prevention and they must have a transparent and honest conversation about the future of the cdc, an agency that is never and needs to be authorized by congress. Director cohen you might be the last appointed cdc director without a senate confirmation. Your actions and decisions can help return the cdc back to its fundamental mission or your actions could allow the cdc to drift further away. We want to hear from you today about the cdcs preparedness with the current wave of seasonal viruses such as the flu rsv and covid19 and at the same time we want to examine the cdcs past decisions and guidance to understand how you are taking Lessons Learned from covid 19 and other Public Health threats to improve our current and future Public Health strategies. This is a chance to restore transparency and build public trust in our Health Institutions and ensure that the d. C. Issued guidance is clear practical and consistently relevant and uptodate with the latest science. Sometimes this may include telling the American People with the cdc has done in doesnt doesnt know but to put it bluntly your predecessors took bad advice. They acted on bad advice and use political pressure and misled the American People. The institution you now run wanted schools remain closed by listening to nonscientific stakeholders namely the Teachers Union and because of their guidance to keep schools closed for an extended period our children the very future of our country now suffered generational learning loss and devastating Mental Health conditions. The gravity of the situation is clear, if we fail to restore trust in Public Health institutions and correct the past mistakes of the consequences for children and our country could be dire. It is in this context of urgency that we must consider the substantial investments made during the pandemic through congress provided schools with 190 billion to combat covid allocating the estimated 20 to mitigate learning loss and despite these efforts students in grades three through eight are lacking months if not years behind in breeding and math abilities. Nationwide or childrens academic performance has suffered a historic decline with reading and math scores plummeting to the lowest levels in 30 years. Further School Attendance is down and students are dealing with the crisis. These facts are not merely statistics, they are our children. Our nieces and nephews are neighbors children. They are the next generation of right now this is a stark indication of the broader fallout from actions taken during the covid 19 pandemic that we are only beginning to uncover. To reflect on events the events that led us to this point we must acknowledge the wave of responsible if it comes with being the director of the cdc. The agencys guidance has farreaching implications affecting not just Public Health but our daytoday lives and overall wellbeing of our children. It is imperative that we make a commitment to cooperate. To many of our inquiries the president an adequate answer to hold it nor do i think we all agree being transparent with us the americans that we represent is foundational to restoring trust. I know this is your first time testifying before congress is director of the cdc. Appearing is more than a perceived formality. Its a Pivotal Moment for accountability and reassessment. The insights to share today will only shed light on past decisions that will take a step toward rebuilding trust. This hearing is an opportunity to share how you will use Lessons Learned and apply them to the respiratory illness season as well as future decisions by the cdc. You have an opportunity to show the American People hiding a plan to lead as director and we look forward to your testimony and hearing about how youre going to to leave the cdc moving forward. Thank you for being here. I think the gentlelady for yielding back and i recognize the right member of the full committee for his statement for five minutes. Thinking mr. Chairman and thank you dr. Cohen. I look forward to your testimony working together on all the important decisions that the center for Disease Control attacking but its critical that we make every effort to extend access to vaccines against seasonal respiratory illnesses to all americans and new options and methods of vaccine delivery and take a coordinate effort between the cdc local Health Department those who were on the ground distributing and administering these vaccines. Right now covid 19 vaccines are being distributed commercially but not by the government for the First Time Since beginning the pandemic. We are now available for the first time for Older Americans and its critical that we communicate the message to americans about where and how to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their families from this respiratory illness for the cdc has the cdc is produced to compress a campaign to inform the American Public about the availability of covid 19 nrsc vaccines providing clear guidance on the best available ways and encouraging to see you contributing to this campaign dr. Cohen. Congress test do its part and must ensure the cdc has the resources and authority needed for the American People to protect her health and wellbeing for the covid 19 pandemic has systematic shortcomings in our Health Infrastructure preparedness that we must address instead of coming together to advance a bipartisan pandemic preparedness for authorization that applies to Lessons Learned in the pandemic of republican colleagues push an adequate in partisan this committee. I contain to be astonished and disappointed that we still can cant agree on the hard Lessons Learned throughout the pandemic. The very title of this hearing shows why a republican colleagues which was an important tool in reducing the spread of the deadly virus. Unfortunate a rejection of science seems to have taken a hold of House Republicans in its refusal to learn making it difficult to find a bipartisan path forward unnecessary important legislation to protect the American People as we go forward. Over and over again Public Health experts have told us having access to timely data during the pandemic is critical to an Effective Responses. Access to updated streamlined coordinated data is essential in order to the cdc to provide recommendations and guidance on information to the general public in a way thats useful and timely and better Health Information means better guidance for the country for the force and a republican colleagues refused to include such a provision in and extreme in partisan reauthorization bill. Democrats are committed to future preparedness and will continue to work toward that goal. We saw what happened during the early days of the pandemic and we should do whatever we can to avoid

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