This hearing will come to order. I would like to welcome dr. Robert redfield, director of the centers for Disease Control and prevention and we thank you for being here this morning. Dr. Redfield, to discuss the cdc and the on going response to covid19. I also want to welcome the subcommittee members, Ranking Member congressman thomas pole and our full Committee Chair. I want to thank you to the subcommittee members here in person as well as subcommittee members who are participating by secure video teleconference. Before i move to my Opening Statement, and because this is our first labor hhs and education appropriation subcommittee hearing with some members participating remotely, i would like to begin by offering a brief explanation of how it will work in order to benefit both members and the public. This hearing room has been configured to maintain the recommended six foot social distancing between members, witnesses, and other individuals in in the room necessary to operate the hea
With questions from carolyn maloney. I want to ask about testing. Why being asked over again the United States is so far behind other countries and why the American People cannot get tested. Our first case of coronavirus was on january 21. The u. S. Has tested 4900 people. In contrast, south korea has tested almost 200,000 people. They can test 15,000 people a day. South korea contest more people in one day then we tested over the past two months. So, dr. Fauci, why are we so far behind korea in testing and reporting this crisis . Dont like to pass the buck. Numbers. Eld has the i dont have that in front of me. Is the worst yet to come . Yes, it is. Can you elaborate . When ever you have an outbreak where you can stop seeing Community Spread, and you dont know when the index case is and how you can approach it is my contact tracing, when you have enough of that, it becomes a situation where you will not be able to effectively and efficiently contain it. Whenever you look at the history
We have a change in schedule. As we explained in the hearing memo, we were planning to do Opening Statements from 9 30 to 10 00 and testimony and questions from 10 00 to 1 00. This morning we were informed that President Trump and Vice President pence have called our witnesses to about emergency meeting at the white house. We dont know the details just that it is extremely urgent. Now the witnesses have to leave at 11 45. In light of the sudden change we will significantly reduce Opening Statements. We will do 10 minutes so we can get right to questions. Witnesses, please keep your oral statements as brief as possible. At 11 45 we will recess the hearing and work with the agencies to determine when the witnesses can return. With that i recognize myself for a few remarks. I want to thank everyone for being at this hearing. Our thoughts go out to everyone and our colleagues representative meadows and representative gosar who cannot participate here today. Were now in the middle of a Glob
Brought to you today by your television provider. Next, centers for Disease Control and prevention director dr. Robert redfield and National Institute of allergy and Infectious Diseases director dr. Anthony fauci testify on the coronavirus outbreak. They were joined by other Health Officials at this House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing. It is two hours and 10 minutes. The committee will come to order. The chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. I want to inform members that we have a change in schedule. As we explained in the hearing memo, we were planning to do Opening Statements from 9 30 to 10 00 and testimony and questions from 10 00 to 1 00. This morning, we were informed that President Trump and Vice President pence have called our witnesses to an emergency meeting at the white house. We dont know the details, just that it is extremely urgent. Now the witnesses have to leave at 11 45. In light of this sudden change, we are going to significantly reduce Openin
Redfielddr. Robert testify on the outbreak. It is two hours and 10 minutes. South korea has now tested more than 196,000 people but we are not anywhere close to that. They started conducting drive through testing, but people here in the United States cant even get tested by their own doctors. This is the United States of america. Were supposed to be leading the world, instead were trailing far behind. How did south korea test so many people so quickly but we didnt test a fracture of that number . Why did it take so long . We must do better. Unfortunately these delays have been systemic. Just last week the Trump Administration promised to deliver a million tests by the end of the week but it didnt even come close. On sunday they admitted they delivered only 75,000 tests, thats over 900,000 tests short. And this was their own stated goal to the American People. Now the Trump Administration is saying they have distributed a million tests and they will be distributing four million by the e