Thread by @BBuchman_CNS

Good morning.

The House Oversight Committee wants answers and they want them now on why broad testing for #coronavirus has yet to take place. Lawmakers will also scrutinize how tests are paid for, the role of insurers and more.
Hearing begins today at 930AM ET.
The witnesses:

On March 3, the Cmte sent a letter to CDC director Robert Redfield requesting the following breakdown on coronavirus cases. ⬇️
The letter in full available here: documentcloud.org/documents/6807…

There have been lingering questions over how CDC has reported its data and for a time, the agency yanked coronavirus test rate reports off of its website altogether. Yesterday, dir. Redfield vowed that CDC would restore reporting online.
Background:
courthousenews.com/house-grills-c…

Cmte chairwoman @RepMaloney also issued a letter to HHS Secy Alex Azar on Mar 3 seeking a breakdown of the agency's plans to cover costs associated with treatment for the uninsured and underinsured.
Full letter available here: documentcloud.org/documents/6807…

And of much interest to inquiring minds: the tests.
Why were they defective when first released? Why did CDC forsake WHO-approved testing methods? What sort of regs are in place for tests now? That letter from Chairwoman Maloney issued to Azar on Mar 3:
documentcloud.org/documents/6807…

A livestream of today's hearing on #covid19 aka #coronavirus will be available here:

You can also watch today's hearing via CSPAN: c-span.org/video/?470224-…

And if you missed my story yesterday, now may be a good time to check it out. The admin's response to coronavirus was eviscerated by public health experts and Obama's former Ebola czar ⬇️
courthousenews.com/obama-ebola-cz…

Lastly, I want to hear from whistleblowers at CDC if and where they exist.
If you have insight, let's chat. Details ⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://twitter.com/BBuchman_CNS/status/1237511718076440576?s=19

The hearing is underway and Chairwoman Maloney says there has been a change to the schedule.
The president has called on several of the witnesses to come to the WH for an emergency meeting. The hearing was expected to end at 1PM, it now ends at 11:45 AM.

Oversight will eventually meet with these officials again, and assuredly, these questions won't go away. Shame we have to see such a truncated schedule when the questions up for consideration today are so crucial.

Dr. Fauci tells members of the cmte:

- In the next 4 wks, US will enter "phase one" of clinical trials on a vaccine for #coronavirus. They currently have at least 10 vaccine candidates in various stages of development
- It will then take 3 mos. to determine if meds are safe

Fauci says if in those three months, the vaccines are determined to be safe, they enter phase 2 of the trial.

Phase 2, Fauci said, will take at least another 8 months.

Fauci: "Since this is a vaccine you don't want to give it to normal healthy people with the possibility it will hurt them or not work. So this phase [two] is critical... So when you've heard me say we wouldn't have a vaccine that wouldn't be ready to deploy, that's why."

Fauci just told Congress between testing for vaccines and necessary clinical trials, it will be, at minimum a year before a viable option is on the market.

Fauci says anyone who says it can go faster than that, "I believe would be cutting corners that would be detrimental."

Maloney: "Is the worst yet to come?"
Fauci: "Yes, it is. Whenever you have an outbreak that you can start seeing community spread... it becomes a situation where you're not going to be able to effectively and efficiently contain it."
#coronavirus
@CourthouseNews

Fauci: "What you see now, even though we are containing it in some respects, we keep getting people that are coming into the country (by travel) and then you get community spread and it makes the challenge greater. Things will get worse than they are right now....

Fauci continues: "How much worse they get will depend on our ability to contain the influx of people who are infected coming from the outside and the ability to contain and miitgate within our own country. The bottom line is it is going to get worse."

Maloney responds: The bottom line is if we don't test people, we don't know how many people are infected.

Republicans on the committee, including Rep. Mark Green of TN, has spent the near entirety of his opening remarks praising President Trump's response to the outbreak.

Rep Stephen Lynch, D-Mass, is candid this morning and saying, what I imagine, a lot of fellow lawmakers and Americans are thinking:

First, he notes - every single person on this committee, R or D, voted in favor of emergency funding to combat the coronavirus. "They are on board with efforts to get this under control regardless of party but that doesn't matter when POTUS repeatedly undercuts health officials

Rep Lynch, D-MA: "The president on Mar 6 told people the tests were ready." He cites Trump's 'anyone who wants a test, can go get tested. They're beautiful tests.' line.
"That’s not a medical term by the way," Lynch says. "My constituents went to get the test & there were none"

Lynch to NIH head Fauci, CDC dir. Redfield et al: "[President Tump] said this in front of some of you to at a press conf. and I saw no one step up and say the president wasn’t correct, the tests weren’t there, they’re not beautiful, they’re not available."

Lynch: "So we need a unity of purpose but we are not going to get that when the president is telling people the cases of coronavirus are going down not up."
Lynch, appears heated, at full volume, says cases "doubled" in his state yesterday

Boston is not a "backwater medically or technically" Lynch says, effectively arguing that there's no reason for delays.

Lynch referring to Trump's recent presser on Mar 6: "The pres. made bizarre statements. I want to be together w/my GOP colleagues but when POTUS said he has an uncle who went to MIT in the '30s & he has a natural affinity/ability for this, it has to raise some red flags."

Lynch: "We need honesty here."

The rep then went on to praise Fauci for actively standing up to Trump a couple weeks back when Trump lied and said vax would be ready in a matter of weeks.

Rep Jim Cooper, D-TN. asks CDC director Redfield: Any plans for drive-thru testing in the U.S.?

Redfield: "Not at this time. I think we’re trying to maintain the relationship between individuals and their healthcare providers."

Then there's silence for a moment.

Cooper sees the opening and takes it: That was an interesting answer. So the professional monetary relationship comes before public health?
Redfield: That was not my point. In able to access risk in the appropriateness & make sure individuals get proper care...

Redfield continues: "...We believe this is something that still has value to be dealt with in the medical setting.

Fauci tries to shore things up, says "monetary issues" are not a consideration at all but "its to try and get people at least, on a telephone basis, to phone their physicians ahead of time & say, I believe I have a situation and would give them instructions on how to get a test"

Fauci: "It’s the relationship between the patient and the physician."

Cooper, not missing a single beat, "Well, most Americans don't really have a doctor. They rely on the ER."

So, I called an area hospital yesterday to find out how easy it was to get the test WHILE Redfield was talking about how easy it is.
Shady Grove Adventist Hosp. told me if I was sick but didnt travel to an area with an outbreak, stay home and self-quarantine.
Then...

When I said, well, I'm concerned because I live and work around areas where the virus has cropped up and I'm a caretaker for a person over 70 with cancer and who is on chemo, can I come get the test if I start exhibiting symptoms?

The hosp. said if I did show symptoms, I can come in and IF THE DOCTOR AGREES TO TEST ME, I can be tested. I have to meet "criteria." I wanted to drill down on these criteria and no one from CDC responded to my multiple requests by phone and email.

The people at the hospital were very kind, very patient and helpful - to the best of their ability. But no one could actually tell me about those criteria in depth.

Rep Glenn Grothman, R-Wisc., asks Fauci, on the current trajectory, how many people will get coronavirus and how many people will die?
Fauci says he can't predict that.
Grothman says he knows that but based on the experiences of Italy, China... whats the #?

Fauci: "It's totally dependent on how we respond to it. So I can't give you a number."
Grothman says he's just looking for a "realistic" number.

Fauci: "I can't give that to you unless we do really aggressive containment and mitigation. The # could go way up and be involved in the many, many millions. But if we work to contain, we could flatten it."

Grothman then pressed Fauci for an answer on whether NBA or other sports leagues who have shut down games in fear of spreading the virus are overreacting.

Fauci: "We would recommend that there not be large crowds. If that means not having any people in the audience when the NBA plays, so be it. But as a public health official, [I would suggest] anything that has large crowds would give risk to spread [of coronavirus.]"

.@CongressmanRaja wants to know why states are not receiving enough tests, period.
He goes through the chronology:
The first coronavirus case in the US was confirmed Jan 21.
At that point, CDC began developing a test kit to diagnose cases and FDA gave autho to manufacture them

Unfortunately, testing did not get underway because of problems with the test kit, specifically, kits were contaminated at the CDC manufacturing facility in Atlanta. It took officials one month to discover the contamination, that kits were flawed and had to be replaced

.@CongressmanRaja notes this "dramatically slowed down our response" and asks CDC director Redfield to disclose whether the person who oversaw the facility at the time of contamination is still in charge.
Redfield: "This is currently under investigation and I'll leave it there."

.@CongressmanRaja: "Sir, you can't give us an assurance that the person bungled this production process hasn't been removed? Recovering from that misstep has cost us weeks if not months."

.@CongressmanRaja also said he respectfully disagreed with Redfield's assessment that the Trump admin had an "early" response within the first month of the first coronavirus diagnosis in the U.S.
In the first month, he says, "We still had not shipped press kits to public labs"

The lawmaker also came equipped with visuals today. I'll explain in this thread:

The U.S. & South Korea had its first confirmed case of coronavirus within a day of each other.
S. Korea first case: Jan 20
US first case: Jan 21
Both nations developed a test to diagnose coronavirus around the same time.
(continued)

The US developed its diagnostics on Feb 4.
South Korea developed their diagnostics on Feb. 7
"But then, at that point, activities diverge dramatically," @CongressmanRaja noted.

From Feb 6 to Mar 10, S. Korea tested 4,000 people per every 1 million persons in its population.
Italy tested 1,000 people for every million.
The UK tested 400 people for every million.
Rep Krishnamoorthi asked CDC director Redfield to point out where the US is on that graph

This graph:

https://twitter.com/BBuchman_CNS/status/1237759730522771456?s=20

Redfield, looking for US test rates on the graph: "I don't see it."
@CongressmanRaja: I can assure you the data is there but it doesn't show up. While S. Korea had tested 4,000 people for every million, we are at 15 people for every million in this country."

.@CongressmanRaja to CDC director Redfield on S. Korea far outpacing US testing:
"That's a testing response that's almost 300x more aggressive than what is here in this country and the problem, Dr. Redfield, is when we don't test as we should, the virus spreads and people die."

Maloney, before recessing the hearing, says WH is telling reporters that this meeting with Fauci and others is "not an emergency" but that's not what CDC staff told Congress this morning. Maloney: "There seems to be a great deal of confusion and lack of coordination at the WH."

Fauci, Redfield and others on the panel have been asked to come back later today at 2PM ET to answer the remaining questions from members.
Republican Rep Chip Roy stands shoulder to shoulder w/ Maloney, wants them to come back

Fauci says they have a coronavrius taskforce meeting at the WH at 3:30 PM but Fauci says he would be willing to come back at 2.

The logistics will be sorted out for now.

Hearing is now on recess. Stay tuned.

The WHO declared coronavirus a pandemic officially around 12:30 PM ET.

The hearing today was recessed around 11:45 AM ET.

I've reached out to the WH again and have asked if this announcement prompted today's truncated schedule or if there was any foreknowledge

h/t @Reuters -
reuters.com/article/us-hea…

Regarding the scheduling issues that emerged today, a sr dem committee aide tells me:
Health and Human Services told the committee that they were informed only this morning about the meeting at the WH for Fauci et al
WH reportedly contends mtg was on the docket yesterday.

STORY DEVELOPING.
The U.S. is lagging woefully behind on large-scale domestic testing for coronavirus, a senior health expert told Congress on Wednesday, warning that the outbreak will get worse if actual containment efforts don’t get underway soon.
courthousenews.com/infectious-dis…

The hearing reconvened for a moment but Maloney said she "doesn't know what is going on" with the scheduling issues that kicked off this morning around Fauci et al and the WH.

Maloney confirms we will resume the hearing on Thurs at 11AM ET.

Working on getting more info and will have an updated report for you soon.

In the meantime, go wash your hands.

UPDATED. As the @WHO declares a pandemic, health officials tell Congress if containment is not achieved soon, the outbreak will worsen in the US.
Also:
- no plans for drive thru testing
- no answers on affordability yet
- Hearing will resume Thursday courthousenews.com/infectious-dis…

Following today's hearing, @RepMaloney issues a letter to DHS to find out if coronavoris testing of detainees held in DHS custody is occurring, agency plans for quarantine and more.
Full letter: documentcloud.org/documents/6808…

Good morning.
Today at 11AM ET, the House Oversight Committee reconvenes to continue a hearing on #coronavirus and the federal response.
Yesterday, Dr. Fauci and CDC dir. Redfield were called back to the WH before the hearing could end so we just barely got into testimony.

We will hear more from Fauci and Redfield today but we will also hear from additional witnesses including:

Some key takeaways from the first hearing:
- #Coronavirus vaccine is over a year away
- W/o actual containment and testing, the outbreak will worsen
- Fauci/Redfield confirmed no plans for testing via drive-thru (hugely effective elsewhere)

Background:
courthousenews.com/infectious-dis…

House Oversight wants info on how testing/treatment will be handled for underinsured/uninsured.

Fauci & Redfield, when asked why no drive thru tests, agreed on need to prioritize patient-dr relationships & trmt in a medical setting.

But what of those w/no primary care doc?

In December, Harvard Medical School reported that between 2002 and 2015, the number of adults with a primary care doctor fell from 77 to 75%. The decline was steeper with adults in their 30s, where the rates dropped from 71% to 64%
The study: news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/…

According to the study, that drop from 77 to 75% correlates to roughly 2 million people losing their primary care doc, overall in that time period.

That's 2 million people w/o the relationship Fauci and Redfield say is the priority for coronavirus testing

Another issue I expect @RepMaloney to get into today: last night, the cmte issued a letter to DHS acting Secy Chad Wolf requesting extensive info about how the dept intends to address #coronavirus at ICE and CBP facilities.
The full letter: documentcloud.org/documents/6808…

In the letter, Maloney notes how DHS has a "well documented history" of failing to prevent spread of disease at its detention centers.
To wit - CDC reported from Sept 2018 to Aug 2019, there were nearly 900 cases of mumps in ICE detainees spanning 57 facilities in 19 states.

In that same time period (Sept 2018-Aug 2019) CDC found: 84% of patients were exposed "while in the custody of ICE or another US agency."
Only 5% were exposed prior to being held in custody.

In Dec., Oversight requested DHS respond to Congress about the dept's failure to prevent common flu outbreaks but the cmte never heard back.

Why so urgent? In part: these facilities are particularly vulnerable to spread of infectious diseases because of serious overcrowding.

There will be a live-stream of today's hearing courtesy of CSPAN available here:
c-span.org/video/?470277-…
#coronavirus

.@RepDianaDeGette tells reporters on stakeout: the main concern for members now is how many tests we can process every day. "While we're getting kits out, because of the way our public health system is organized we don't have the ability to process more than a handful every day"

Other lawmakers have walked by reporters who are staked outside of a member's briefing on coronavirus inside the capitol. When 1 lawmaker was asked what they had to say, she could be heard off camera saying "more confusing, more confusing"

.@RepMarkTakano exits the coronavirus briefing saying what has become abundantly clear today: "There's a processing capacity issue and there's only so much capacity to test in a timely manner."

Takano continues: A 2nd problem, he says, is around the reagents, or the chemicals used in the testing. "We are highly dependent on foreign sources for those reagents. I did not get satisfactory answers about how we will ramp up. They said "we're in touch with the manufacturers"

Rep Takano: 'We are really behind the curve on capacity to test and the process to test."

PSA: Broadscale testing is, according to multiple public health and infectious disease experts, the MOST CRITICAL FIRST STEP

.@RepSeanMaloney exists a members briefing on the virus very heated.
"That was the worst briefing I've ever received in all my years in congress... The administration has no leadership.
It is time for the White House to take the training wheels off and provide real leadership."

.@JacksonLeeTX18 comes out of the members briefing on the virus and like Rep Debbie Dingell did earlier, she too emphasizes how Fauci is working hard and providing sincere insight and info to lawmakers on this outbreak.

.@JacksonLeeTX18 continues: "We are under a crisis that continues to accelerate. It's important for the American people to know and feel that we are working together."

But she says too there is a broad lack of info and resources for virus tests and that's her chief concern.

"The increasing production of tests is the most important point, if you have symptoms, then the question of 'quarantine in place' is dangerous for a person in their own mind, their family, for senior citizens they may interact with." - @JacksonLeeTX18

The Texas Democrat continues: "Good people are trying to do good things but we're not where we need to be on March 12. The president's message last night was confusing at best."

.@JacksonLeeTX18: "I don't think our airports, buses, trains, are prepared. People coming from Italy, landing in Frankfurt and then heading to Chicago and they weren't assessed when heading into their final destination."

.@JacksonLeeTX18: "We must provide airports with quarantine resources and airports large and small haven't been working on that yet. We've got a lot to do."

Comments from @RepDebDingell earlier: "I think there are a lot of good people in the admin, and Tony Fauci is an excellent example." And she then immediately emphasized how "everything we do must be based on science." .

"Right now mitigation is the most important thing to do," she said. In Michigan, Dingell says the governor has canceled events with 100 ppl or more. She too is canceling live town halls and will replace them with virtual town halls and virtual coffee hours.

The House is poised to pass a stimulus bill known as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act today. This bill provides for: free coronavirus testing for all who need it, including the uninsured and more.
My colleague @ByTimRyan will have the story on that.

The stimulus package also includes: paid emergency leave w/both 14 days of paid sick leave and up to 3 mos of paid fam and medical leave; enhanced unemployment insurance and provides for $1B in food assistance as well.

That stimulus bill will boost funding for emergency food assistance and assistance for seniors too.

Dingell said of the stimulus: "We're going to pass a package today and won't leave until the House passes that package."

A previously scheduled recess for Congress kicks off tomorrow.
Dingell: "We're scheduled to go home but we're going to show our constituents how to mitigate but also let them know we're there to help them w/resources.... If we have to come back, we'll come back, that's our job."

Threads got a little screwy. So posting this here as well:

https://twitter.com/BBuchman_CNS/status/1238089778333171718?s=19