Thread by @BBuchman_CNS

Hearing underway in a little under an hour.

https://twitter.com/BBuchman_CNS/status/1238068394957701121

.@SpeakerPelosi on whether Europe travel ban was wise - "It's easy to travel from these countries, you can just get in the chunnel and get in the country." But, she said, its a decision that's been made, "We'll see what the ramifications are." But I'm here to go forward, she says

Then Pelosi, says, the most important thing is: "Testing testing, testing. That's the only way you're going to learn how this spreads."

.@SpeakerPelosi reemphasizes today repeatedly that the most important thing (besides testing) is that we focus on policy not partisanship. "It's important to face what is current. It's not about spending a lot of time saying how we got here, it's about where we go from here."

Now to the hearing with Dr. Fauci and CDC director Robert Redfield.
Stream is available here:
c-span.org/video/?470277-…

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana immediately criticizes @RepMaloney for holding the hearing today, saying that Fauci and Redfield have other places to be instead of here today.

They could have finished this yesterday but they were pulled out of the hearing by WH.

Dr. Robert Kadlec, Health and Human Services Ass't Secy for Preparedness and Response testifies that the demand for personal protective equipment is limited.

Kadlec: There's a limited supply in the strategic national stockpile. 350M respirators are used each year, only 35M used by healthcare industry. The demand could be from 700M up to a 1B in six month period.

Kadlec: Manufacturers are working with HHS to "surge more" even though the products are largely coming from China
Non medical masks could also be used; FDA is certifying that N-95 respirators used in manufacturing, mining/ construction could be used in healthcare settings.

Kadlec: The only thing keeping manufacturers from selling those masks to the broader population is lack of liability protections.

A piece of legislation from 2005, the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act indemnifies manufacturers, distributors and users of these devices, but Kadlec, who worked on the bill originally, said they never considered it would need to be modified to incl. resp. devices.

The legislation must be modified immediately, Kadlec urges.

Rep Wasserman Schultz grills CDC dir Redfield. Yesterday he said tests were readily available to those who needed it. But nurses have not had this experience in California. "

Redfield said this was a misunderstanding "if it did occur, the test was always available in Atlanta, then there was never a time the health dept couldn't get a test."

He claimed there were no restrictions on who got tested, rather, it was guidance and testing discretion was left to the public health group, Redfield said.
But Wasserman Schultz got a message from National Nurses United.

Natl Nurses United said in recent weeks they've become aware of multiple circumstances where workers are exposed to covid19 infection and have not received tests despite requests for testing.
Rep WassermanSchultz: There are too many cases of this for it to be a misunderstanding.

The Florida Democrat continues: Testing has also been refused when clinicians recommended it.
Wasserman to CDC dir Redfield: will you admit there is a problem with healthcareworkers getting testing?
Redfield: I will be looking into this in depth.

Redfield: "Clearly we need to protect healthcare workers on the front lines. In general, these are local decisions.
Rep. Wasserman Schultz: They contacted CDC and CDC turned them down.
Redfield: And I will look into it as soon as I can.
Wasserman: Hopefully that will be today.

Wasserman Schultz lets Redfield have it.
"We need to make sure we have someone in charge of getting people tested. Who is it? Is it you? Pence?
He hedges.
Again, she wants to know, who is in charge of testing?

Redfield: The responsibility I have at CDC is to make sure all the public health labs have -
Wasserman cuts in: But they're referring to you and they've been turned down. So basically, since you can't name anyone in charge to make sure people get tested, there's not 1 person...

Wasserman Schultz continued: "...who can make sure tests are administered?
Redfield literally looks to Fauci for help answering.
And then, we have Fauci say something very blunt:

Dr. Fauci: "The system is not geared to what we need right now. What you are asking for it. It is a failing. Let's admit it."

The way the system is set up, he explains, with the public going to a physician, and a physician asking for a test, and then you getting that test - our system wasn't set up for that, he says. That's why we can't answer Q of how many people are infected now, he adds.

Dr. Fauci: "The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we're not set up for that. "

Redfield says we're moving toward broader strategies that really help mitigate spread - social distancing in the work place, at restaurants, sporting events.

Fauci: In the spirit of staying ahead of the game, right now, we have to do things that separate us from people who might be infected.
Crowds. Limiting access to the Capitol, that's a really good idea, other outing cancellations and so forth.

Fauci says specifically, in areas where there isn't a big outbreak, still: stay away from crowds, avoid public outings, etc, use common sense.

Rep Norman asks where we are at on testing.
Redfield says he wants to stress "the complexity of getting tests" because it's not just having the reagents CDC made for the tests. He says we've put out over 75k at public health labs, but they need the people to do the test and...

Redfield continues "the equipment. They need early reagents, there's a whole system that we can see different limitations as things expand."
Many CDC labs limited to doing 300-350 tests a day, other systems can do literally 1000s and thats coming online now w/LabCorp, Quest Diag.

Rep Welch asked about surveillance testing, the question is what can we do and how best can we do it.
Fauci and Redfield both have said there two essentials: testing and social distancing/quarantining.

Dr. Fauci said surveillance testing is very useful, (drive-thru testing, temp scans etc).
Redfield says CDC has multiple different systems to use and they're moving them into covid-19 capabilities now. (No timeline established yet)

Redfield agrees with Rep Welch that in addition to individual testing, we should be surveillance testing.

Rep Welch asks about the Europe travel ban and the exemption from UK, even though diagnoses are higher there than others.
When they looked at the "pure public health aspect of it" 70% of new infections in the world coming from Europe data Fauci said.

Fauci continues: And 30 of 35 countries where most of those recently getting infections were getting it from there; from Italy, France, Germany.

Fauci: So, when the discussion was, 'why don't we just ban from Italy, we were told by State Dept that you really can't do that. it's sort of like one country, the whole EU thing. the UK was left out because there's a difference in ease of transportation between euro nations/UK.

Republican Rep Chip Roy calls out his GOP colleague Clay Higgins who criticized Maloney earlier for having the hearing today. Roy says she was right to call it, we need to hear this, he says. He pushes back against GOPers who complained about lawmakers speaking longer than 5 mins

We need to have dialogue, @chiproytx said, before adding that if we need to talk a little longer, we should.

What can Congress do to ensure that public health experts and private health providers can continue to respond to covid19? Fauci says the $8.3B supplement was a huge help, for the NIH, what they rec'd will accelerate therapy and vaccine study for the virus.

Fauci says he and Redfield being here before them is equally important. The situation isn't static because the situation will evolve over the next several weeks, he says. "It's not one-off and you're done."

Redfield announces that CDC will reward over $560M "to the frontlines" for covid19 response

Rep. Plaskett expresses concerns about containment and school closures.
She's worried about students being able to keep up with work in communities where kids dont have access to broadband connectivity

Rep Plaskett is concerned about health and nutrition for kids who rely on school breakfasts/lunch for their nutrition. She's also v. concerned about her constituents in Virgin Islands. They haven't recovered from hurricanes of '17.
They have 7 hospital beds for 100K people.

Dr. Kadlec: The Public Health Commission Corps, (falls under ass't secy of health) their intent is to expand their role to serve areas that are hard hit.

They will send people to help in Virgin Islands, he says.

Chris Currie, dir of FEMA, offers FEMA help, notes how he knows the hospital in St. Croix is still destroyed and then says how he knows there's a temporary hospital in place
Plaskett: Well we don't have a temporary hospital. It's been two years.

Rep Plaskett: "I've found FEMA has been great in initial response but in the aftermath, the building is still much slower. Two years later, we don't have a mobile unit for our hospital, so it shows there is gaps."

Rep. @AyannaPressley reps a district where 30k people are uninsured. CDC website says stay home if you have symptoms and seek care, but doesnt address the realities of being uninsured.
What if you're a hotel worker, prediabetic, uninsured, what specific guidance does CDC have?

Redfield says critical ppl do their 14 days at home and not sneak out so they can earn a living.
Pressley pushes: Will the cost of testing be covered?
Redfield: Cost of testing will be covered.
Pressley: What about the treatment?
Redfield: Cost of treatment will be covered.

Pressley asks CDC to post info on its website today to clarify how testing is covered financially for people.
Redfield says he will do his best.

CDC says LabCorp and Quest haven't really defined the costs yet, but they're leading this too.

Pressley says she's partic. concerned about people with underlying ailments. What can they do?
Fauci says they fall into that category: they need to take extra special precautions. They are vulnerable and they need to help protect themselves, society needs to help protect them.

Fauci on those who have underlying illnesses: Keep people who are sick away. Stay away from crowds. Don't travel. And above all stay away from cruise ships.

Pressley asked CDC director Redfield for information about containment efforts at prisons.
He said he will get back to Congress.

You can watch the live-stream here folks, fyi:

Rep. Deb Haaland laments Trump's messaging early on in the outbreak that it was part of a democratic hoax. She passionately says that there are Rs in her own district she cares about, she doesnt want anyone sick, doesnt care what their politics are.

Rep Haaland says Trump "can be careless with his own health if he wants to" but for the millions of Americans who would go to his rallies because they don't know the truth - it's up to us to protect them, she says.

Rep. Haaland cites this ⤵️ as she speaks:

https://twitter.com/gabstargardter/status/1238118508166348800?s=20

Fauci says right now right regardless of what testing is going on, we need to avoid crowds, telework if possible.
"This is not business as usual. If you live in a state with no or few cases, it doesn't matter."
@CourthouseNews

Fauci says they havent confirmed it yet but they believe coronavirus might be like other viruses where, once you get it, you may not be able to contract it again.
If you wait weeks after you recovered from seasonal flu, the tests will confirm if you had it.

Sarbanes: If a person who recovered from the flu, came down with another cold, thought it was the virus, would another test show if they had it or not?
Fauci: If you wait weeks/mos. after your recovered, an antibody test will tell you whether you were formally infected w/covid19

Sarbanes: "So, if somebody has the immunity and in that sense is not a carrier, they can still transmit, if they're in a space where they got the virus on their skin or something else? They can still put someone at risk, even if they think they're immune? Is that true?"

Fauci: Absolutely not. Let's say, I get infected, whether I'm sick or not but I clear the infection from my body, i do 2 tests 24 hours apart which is the standard, to see if I'm no longer infected.
(Continued)

Fauci: "A month & a half later, if I do a test & that test is positive, I'm not transmitting to anybody because my body has already cleared the virus. So even though my antibody test says, 'you were infected a month or 2 ago' right now if no virus in me, I'm not able to transmit.

Rep Gomez asks about older adults with chronic health conditions. But how does CDC define that?
Fauci says generally, it's people 65 and older but the thing he wants to emphasize is that there's still a great deal of vulnerability and not purely based on age.

It isn't linear, Fauci says.
Older individuals are seeing higher rates of mortality, but not all have the same level of immunity.

So again, it's about caution folks.

Rep Norton notes social distancing is not an option for those working in hospitals, ERs, etc. She then asks Redfield whether any medical provider who wants to be tested today, can they be tested?
Redfield: That's a decision the hospital would make and the individual's physician.

Will shortages of personal protective equipment hamper public health response? What priority is given to who gets this vital equipment?
Kadlec: Much of what we get is sourced from overseas, so we're making sure supply chains are uninterrupted/ allocations go to HC workers first

Rep Norton asks if HHS is taking any steps here in the US to boost production on supplies?
Kadlec: Yes. We've requested proposals for half a billion N95 masks to boost production, working with manufacturers to get raw materials sourced in the U.S.

Kadlec says its critical to pass leg in the House that would help workers, esp. healthcare workers with furlough etc, testing, liability protections.

Norton's look to another lawmaker is priceless (below) after hearing this and as she says I guess we should pass that bill then

On whether the classified setting briefings in WH on coronavirus are needed.
Dr Kadlec says there's some confusion. The content of what is being discussed isn't classified, there's secure vid. conferencing & that reqs they be in a rm that is considered classified, (situation rm)

Kadlec says there's people in these rooms during these virus briefings/meetings that do not have classification credentials and don't need them, because nothing being discussed is classified.

Fauci says its not a functional classification system being applied at all, "There's nothing that is said in that room" that he wouldn't share here at a public setting, he says

Redfield clarifies his stmts on coverage for the uninsured
"CDC is examining all avenues that uninsureds have access to testing and treatment and we encourage use of federal qualified health centers that can do this at reduced rates or free." They'll continue to update congress.

I'll have a story up for @CourthouseNews shortly.

STORY:
"The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it – we’re not set up for that. That is a failing. It’s a failing. Let’s admit that.” - Dr. Anthony Fauci on the lack of federal large-scale testing for #coronavirus
courthousenews.com/us-failing-on-…