c-span.org/video/?472348-…
Committee chairman @WhipClyburn begins.
Covid-19 has killed over 90k Americans, more deaths than any other nation.
Throughout this frontline workers have continued to serve communities at great risk to themselves.
It is unacceptable 4 months into this crisis, that many essential workers still face shortages of crit. supplies.
Her mother, Zenobia Shepard, will speak today.
Too many businesses have been shuttered.
He says to honor the families here today we "must hold China and the World Health Organization accountable."
A janitor for 10 years, he knows firsthand how easy it is for himself and those like him to come into contact with the virus and also how hard it is to deal with the consequences.
Internally US production had not ramped up, CDC told them to use bandanas, and bandanas have no utility in the HC setting. Without these PPE, frontline workers went unprotected.
Her full remarks:
documentcloud.org/documents/6921…
Because of PPE shortages, they couldn't sit at their bedside and hold their hands, she says.
She notes that one of her colleagues committed suicide after struggling with the constant flow of patients and the lack of supplies to treat them.
"But this is not enough," Ranney said.
Early on it was masks, now they need gowns.
"The PPE shortage continues in America."
documentcloud.org/documents/6922…
Two months later, Univ of Chicago Medical Center is still failing to protect them correctly, she says.
We need the president to use Defense Production Act to create more PPE right now.
We need that PPE distributed immediately.
We needed them 3 months ago and we need them now.
- Talisa Hardin, nurse @ Univ of Chicago Med Center
His friend Jason Hargrove, a fellow bus driver, has died of Covid after a woman coughed openly on his bus.
He hopes every day he doesn't bring this virus back to his family.
"I'm really afraid because I go to a stop not knowing who is going to be at the stop. Who have they been in contact with or if they have the virus."
They call buses a "40-foot incubator."
"You have no way of practicing social distancing on a coach," Colts says.
Colts says "There's no way a bus could have. They tried their best with seating charts, but that never works because people are still coming out with no masks."
His full remarks:
documentcloud.org/documents/6922…
He only got them 2 weeks ago.
Until recently he was wearing a bandana or an N95 mask that was old and of questionable integrity.
She has been with the FDNY for 17 years. She has two sons and a daughter. She became a widow in '19.
She sent her sons to live with loved-ones to protect them. She has not seen her children in 10 weeks.
documentcloud.org/documents/6922…
Now they respond to 6 to 10 cardiac arrest calls in an eight hour shift.
They are finding people dead in their cars, Diana Wilson says.
They need the proper equipment to keep working and saving lives.
"We are first responders. First."
They are the first to enter into a home to determine if someone has Covid as police or firefighters secure the perimeter.
"COVID-19 has made it harder for janitors to do our jobs safely. We are coming into frequent contact with objects touched that could be contaminated with coronavirus."
documentcloud.org/documents/6922…
Let that sit with you for a second. Because the thing is, he isn't wrong. He's fortunate to have what he does.
He is trying to raise his family with one paycheck.
School lunch programs helped feed his children before the pandemic.
Now, the cost of covering extra meals on one income is a challenge.
His company just laid off 200 workers in one day. He has no idea if he will have a job in a week or two.
Of those 448 beds, 38 are ICU beds.
Her full statement available here:
documentcloud.org/documents/6922…
What started as one case spread like wildfire.
A funeral had become a super spreader event, and one case quickly became 5 and then 15 and then the 38 ICU beds quickly filled.
They filled ward after ward until 5 floors were dedicated just to Covid-19 patients.
What PPE was stocked to last 6 months lasted one week at the rural hospital.
We were and still are forced to make that supply stretch, Dr. Shanti Akers says.
@CourthouseNews
"I wish I could explain to you all how terrifying it feels to be that helpless," Dr. Akers says.
@CourthouseNews
Why couldn't grocery store workers receive the basic items they needed? Gloves? Disinfectants to clean the store.
Her mother, Zenobia, says this with her voice choking.
Her daughter died in her arms.
We have to do better to keep people safe, including and especially our seniors and the disabled, she says.
Clyburn says he thinks about this daily. He wants Coats to explain what keeps him going to work knowing the danger.
He wants people in his city to see him and know that he is there, like others, to help them.
They had to bring their own hand sanitizer, but at the time, everywhere in PG County Md, it was hard to get that, let alone a basic mask or gloves.
Scalise says as the admin has been working to get resources out there, "China knew about this long ago."
Seating is 10 feet apart for tables. Front house wears masks too.
She notes how custodians are often the lowest-paid workers and supports his call for increased pay and supports organized labor.
Waters asks him to explain what other struggles he faces.
He says he is doing the best he can and it's hard on his pride to feel the stress of food insecurity.
Ranney says she wasn't the one responsible for issuing them, but says the shut downs helped ease pressure on the hospitals.
If we have accomplished the goal, isn't it time to get back, he asks.
"We should be going back to work using data and science to inform this so we don't undo all of the hard work and sacrifices that Americans have made over the last 10 weeks."
@CourthouseNews
She asks Talisa Hardin, a frontline nurse in Chicago.
Patients are waiting to take tests there or are waiting for results to come back.
If she could be tested, if more workers could be tested and get those results back faster, some of the things that make life harder right now would go away, she says.
Maloney says its not just normal life either, it's life or death.
Medical workers in NY still cant get testing.
It would be "transformative" if she could test every person with a quick result in 15 minutes. She could separate those with Covid from those who dont have it.
Rep. Maloney: If the federal govt. won't use DPA to get PPE, the power should be given to governors.
"We are at war," Maloney underlines.
Pettus says the anxiety about waiting to reopen is considerable and that the second wave they are concerned with is the thousands of people that will be laid off.
She calls for the Senate to pass the Heroes Act.
"It is great to say thank you but it will be much more important to encourage the Senate to provide the kind of resources we need."
Background: courthousenews.com/house-democrat…
"We dont have enough nurses to take care of the patients we have now," Hardin says.
They don't want to take "two steps back."
@RepBillFoster speaking.
But, he says, "because Canada listened to scientific advice and nat. sec. advice instead of mocking it" Canada has a much lower death rate than the US.
91 nurses have died in the US
0 nurses have died in Canada.
"But I love being a nurse and that's not something I would ever do," Talisa Hardin say.
Note: Hard to say how many lives Ms. Hardin has saved by making these sacrifices to stay away from her family.
These frontline workers may be heroes, "but that doesn't give your government the right to turn you into martyrs," he says to witnesses.
"The federal govt has been acting like a spectator or a heckler."
And the price gouging: A protective gown that might cost 30 or 50 cents, suddenly cost $10-$20.
Ranney: I do not think we are currently prepared. We still lack adequate PPE in most hospitals throughout the country.
"We need to give accurate data so we can explain where and why our answers change and how those answers depend on science."
"Nobody is suggesting there should be a trade-off between your fiscal health and physical health," Scalise says.
"We need to be cognizant of all of the human costs of shutting down," Scalise says.
"If we can focus on what China did and how they hurt the world," Scalise argues, that is start.
He said this crisis presented an opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYj89hJXYAENfyT.png)
I will have a full report up soon for @CourthouseNews.
courthousenews.com/congress-hears…
@CourthouseNews