not just cdc, it's at the state level, cdc and state developed their own. i would like all the jurisdictions to be able to bring up their own tests. we could have a race who gets the test quick. it goes back to that core investments in public health. >> a point well made. let me ask you this and, again, i want to be careful for two reasons. ask you two related questions. the first one does relate to china. i recognize the delicacy of your position. we got work with china. this wasn't the best result but better than what we've seen in the past. but hopefully there's some candid discussion going on with them. not letting our folks in as rapidly as they should have. i think we could have been helpful to them and certainly would have been helpful to us. and this kind of close system does invite puts one in five people on the planet live there and they just can't -- i'm glad it's coming down where they are at but going up every where else. more rapid response from them would have made a big difference to every other place in the world. there's a special responsi

deed the cdc recommend that older americans not trouble? >> did they recommend at this point. >> -- not at this point at that point, did you recommend. >> i don't know exactly when that was. >> over the weekend when there was reports that did notot say t in your saying cdc do notot recommend, what point did they recommend seniors not travel. >> probably in the last in the last 72 hours. >> i would really love to know when it was recommended by cdc because there is a real dish trust, they don't know who the distrust is, because we are not getting this information and right now i'm trying to convince my in-laws to not to travel to las vegas are both in their 70s and one has health issues. this is what were getting asked on facebook live town hall, someone said it was not a request and i you recommending it. i would like to know when it was requested and if i need to -- >> we will get the information back. >> thank you very much. i apologize thank you very much. >> thank you all for your work, i agree with my colleagues, we should not cut your

that test was at cdc. we rapidly tried to get it to the health departments during our quality control, we basically found one of the reagents wasn't working. as i said today, we got that public health labs now throughout this country have adequate testing to do their public health mission. the other side of the mission is the clinical mission. i think that's the concern of most american citizens. how do i get evaluated? and, again, that really has been worked through the private sector. it wasn't really the public health lead for cdc to get the laboratory test, but i will say that the test we did develop, we publish published and let everybody use it. they could redevelop it. there was regulatory release. so, any certified lab according to the fda was given release, develop the test just like we did and use it. some universities have done that. we also the manufacturer that made our test for public health purposes, they were given the regulatory relief to make that test and sell it to hospitals. that's the

>> we currently work now with the cdc and follow the medical gietd dance that cdc provides. that interaction is continually happening, sir. chairman cruz: dr. redd, let me ask some specifics about what we know of this virus. right now what is the overall case fatality ratio for covid-19? dr. redd: there's a number that i could give you, but i would like to say that, as more cases occur and we gain more experience, that number is likely to change. there's been a lot of questions both about the detection of the numerator, the cases that have died and also whether all the cases that have infection with this disease have been identified. that's particularly true in china where the case fatality rates have been in general a little higher than seen in the rest of the world. so i would encourage us to look -- to answer that question and look for cases that have been reported in other countries and there's spread and kind of a cleaner set of information. >> with the understanding that information is still growing and there's a great deal unknown, what is cdc's best estimate of the f

president trump enters the cdc headquarters in atlanta. we don't hear anything. >> president trump: it's incredible. (no audio) >> tremendously talented man. >> thank you, mr. president. in this laboratory is where we gather materials that go into all of our diagnostic tests, not just the coronavirus. but also for all the other things we're working on. cdc is constantlyfirst heard ab unusual illness, we started paying close attention to see if there was any reason what might be the cause. as soon as the chinese announced it was the coronavirus and made available to the general public the sequence of that virus, we immediately started using that information to develop a test that could identify it. [inaudible] >> cdc is always listening for threats in the u.s. and around the world. we heard at the end of december about this unusual illness that was taking place in wuhan, china. the fact it was associated with a food market led some evidence it might be what we call animal to people transmission. as soon as the chinese announced it was a nov

of cdc provides. so that's an erection, it is continually happening sir. >> doctor read, let me ask some specifics about what we know of this virus. right now, what is the overall case for this totality for covid-19. >> is an american give you but i would like to say that as more cases occur, we gain more experience and that number is likely to change. there's been a lot of questions about the detection of the numerator in cases that have died and also whether all of the cases have this disease have been identified. this particular true china. the case rates have been a little bit higher than been seen in the rest of the world so i would encourage us to look to answer that question tonight, to look for cases that have been imported in other countries and the spread there's a cleaner set of information. >> with the understanding that that information is growing, what is cdc's best estimate of the fatality rate greatest among i would say between half a percent and 1 percent and just give you a frame of

and i'm not cdc, but i'm saying cdc is a data-driven organization. and if you really want the facts and data, i would just go to cdc.gov. i'm sure we'll start sharing that information. i want to switch gears in the last minute, represent along with congressman green, ft. campbell military base, in kentucky and tennessee. but can you tell us what is being done to ensure that there is not an outbreak, first of all, on our military bases to protect our troops? secondly, what our military is doing to be able to be in a position to help fight this if this is a mass outbreak? dr.: i will take that one. thank you for the question. so we have put out a series of -- for self-protection guidance that is aligned to the cdc recommendations. and we have tailored those -- that guidance for self-protection for military commanders and particularly for installation commanders. and installation and military commanders have a lot of latitude between right and left limits within our guidance that they can command and protect their military population. now, what we're al

senator, we work with the cdc on their tests. but the outside manufacturers, outside companies are using their platform to further develop the tests. our expectation in talking to the company scaling this up is that we should have the capacity by the end of the week to have kits available to the laboratories to perform about one million tests. toone thing i would urge please continue, as both senator alexander and murray said, we -- please hurry. in the allergy season and people are so scared that the first time they sneeze with an allergy, they are going to think they have got this and we need to try to educate folks so that the tests we have, the limited ones, are for the right reason. we have hospitals, another rural hospital closing this week in the state of alabama. are there specific things that you guys are doing to make sure that rural hospitals, who are living from paycheck to paycheck almost, have the resources they need, the financial resources and the tools that they need to make sure their communities are protected a

jonathan serrie at the cdc with the latest. >> hi, charles. right now i'm across from the cdc on clifton road on the outskirts of emory university campus. ordinarily a busy street in the late afternoon. a heavy police presence here as you can imagine. they have temporarily closed off traffic waiting for the president to arrive. while he is here on the cdc main campus, he will be meeting with leadership of the agency and also with some of the scientists, the disease detectives at the forefront of the coronavirus response. he is trying to draft the ongoing response, which is is a constantly moving target, coronavirus and also at the same time reassuring the american public which obviously has concerns how coronavirus will affect their health and the economy. this meeting at the cdc, though, almost never happened because of a false alarm. take a listen. >> there was a problem at cdc with somebody that had the virus. it turned out negative. we're seeing if we can do it. >> the trump administration and the cdc are closely monitoring the situation a

develop and market the cdc tests. they believed by the end of the week they will have sent out through their hospitals, other labs around the country, commercial, public health whatever labs enough tests to test 1 million specimens which would be the equivalent of being able to test about 400,000 people. they also believe they can scale up their production so by the end of next week they could be in the range of perhaps 4 million, 4 million tests. on people. for that, that needs more traditional things like you were in the hospital and that hospital has that test in their lab to be able to testy right there. if that hospital buys that test and has it or other labs, commercial labs. the third stage, the third stage is the guidance we put out on saturday morning from the fda has since the obama administration if you are developing a clinical lab tests like this, as cdc did come you do need go to the fda and get approval. they will use an emergency upper station to send this test out. the cdc did that or it will on satur

from the offset, cdc and the u.s. government partners and implemented an aggressive is a layered strategy to slow the introduction of this virus into the united states. divide time, so that our scientists can learn how this virus behaves. to prepare our nation's public health care systems for the possibility of a global pandemic which as you have heard, has been declared today. we need to educate americans how best to prepare for disruptions to our daily lives and risk to our families. the administrations interagency containment strategy has relied upon tried-and-true public health interventions. early diagnosis, isolation and contact tracing, travel advisories, and targeted travel restrictions selective use of quarantine for individuals returning from global transmission hot zones, and without immunity or treatment of our nation's public health response has relied upon detection and contact tracing to slow the emergence of this virus into the united states. february 25th, was an inflection point for the outbreak when

the cdc director said yesterday that they are not depending upon their sending it to the cdc for verification. there is a designation called presumptive test and we are encouraging to take action on those results. >> what i want to know is are you collecting the information, is there going to be a central point of collecting because the one point we don't know the extent of what is happening in our community and we experience an incident daily so it becomes a new phenomenon. we would like to kind of have greater expectations and we have now and we don't have that sense of confidence coming from the cdc or from the white house. >> let me describe in a little more detail what they are doing because they are collecting the results of tests that are being done in the states. the other thing that we are doing is working with our system for influenza. we are testing specimens being collected where people have respiratory illness into santa clara county san francisco. >> are you also collecting the number of presumptive cases, are you collecting the data for the states are finding that new jersey ha

without of help of cdc. >> yes. that would be my opinion. >> that's what i'm trying to get at, thank you. i yield back. >> okay. the chair now recognizes for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair, and thank you for holding this most important issue. i want to thank both witnesses, dr. redd and mr. cuccinelli, for being here today. we're all on the same team, so to speak. mr. cuccinelli, you said earlier, i don't want to put words in your mouth, you didn't want to essentially get in the way of local efforts, you didn't want to interfere, didn't want to step in those efforts. is that correct? something to that effect? >> along the same lines dr. redd was just -- >> and the reason i bring that up is i tried to have a town hall last friday in my district really to get information out. and i encountered very shy county health officials who didn't want to get ahead of this issue. there's a lot of confusion out there right now. and this issue is evolving on a daily basis. a world pandemic has been declared. who's in char

we move in the cdc personnel immediately. because the objective is to get the patient treated and we want to find out not just where they got it, but we want to find out who else may have been exposed so those people can receive the treatment and the recovery that most americans will have that ven contract this disease. >> what do you say to people who heard you and the president saturday talk about the woman who died and then it comes out later that the cdc had erroneously told you it was a woman, and it was actually a man who had died of this. and what do you say to the people who say this is not filling them with confidence about the federal-state coordination? >> it was the cdc had briefed us speaking to officials in washington state. it was just a miscommunication. it does not lessen the tragedy at all, and again, the hearts go out to man's family and friends in that community, but i have to tell you, jake, i mean, the president tapped me to lead this coronavirus response building on the great work our white house task f

cdc never had trouble with that. we've always been open at the cdc for testing. we had no delays in testing there. on wednesday we authorized 40 labs to use the test with only the first two elements of it specific to the coronavirus. yesterday morning we authorized home brewed test by certified clinical labs around the country. >> listening to that, doctor, your response to that? >> well, i'll look forward before i look back. looking forward by the end of the week we'll have the capacity to test about 10,000 patients a day that's from the public health labs. by the end of the next week, if we can get online the academic labs because the fda has given flexibility for the academic labs, high complexity laps to promulgate their own tests. if we can get them online we should have 10,000 patients a day testing capacity. so in two weeks time we could have capacity to test upwards of 20,000 patients a day. that's a pretty healthy capacity. that's assuming we can get the academic labs, some might be slow to get them online, others might be quick where they might be able

did manufacture the original cdc test that we used at cdc, and also manufactured the initial test we sent out to states. i dt manufactured the kits after that. i wanted to get that on the record, and secondly in my comments today, i wanted to clarify, we're currently examining all avenues to ensure that uninsureds have access to treatment, and encouraging the use of federally qualified health centers that can do this reduced or free, and we will continue to update the congress and public on all available resources for this population. >> thank you for clarifying that. >> i have one errata from yesterday. i misspoke, when talking about b.a.r.t.a., i mentioned 53 approvals, i was incorrect, it's actually 54. >> that's very accurate. >> would anyone else like to make a statement? i want to thank all of you for testifying today. we realize this is the third testimony, third meeting that you've taken today. we appreciate it. we appreciate you coming back. thank you for your public service, your hard work, your dedication, and particularly i want to thank dr. fauci for serving six presiden

did manufacture the original cdc tests that we used at cdc. and we also manufactured the initial tests we sent out to states. it's an idt manufactured kits after that. i want that on the record. secondly, my comments today. i wanted to just clarify that we're currently examining all avenues to try to ensure that uninsured have access to testing and treatment. and we're encouraging the use of the federal qualified health centers that can do this reduced or free. and we will continue to update both the congress and the public and all available resources for this population. >> thank you for clarifying that. yes, uh-huh? >> madam chairman, i do have one thing from yesterday. i misspoke when talking about barta. i mentioned it had 53 approvals. that's incorrect. it's actually 54. >> that's very accurate. would anyone else like to make a statement? well, i want to thank all of you for testifying today. we realize that this is the third testimony, third meeting that you've taken today. we appreciate it. we appreciate you coming back. thank you for y

what steps did cdc take? what areas are promising opportunity to address the public health emergency? >> cdc a appropriates that and we move quickly on this funding. we issued our first funding grant and had informational call for potential applicants and a record number for interested applicants. the intent next week is to issue these grants, to look at areas like mass violence. how are some prevented and why are others not. self defense firearms, when is it used against a person and when does it help for it a crime and school programs which are they effective in preventing firearm violence and safe storage. what are the best circumstances? >> there is one -- is there any applicant looking at homicides versus suicide? >> we don't know yet. our hope is to get a wide variety of applicants. we have greatly disseminated this to a diverse group of stakeholders. we appreciate the suicide funding as well. to look at primary prevention and community level prevention for that. >> let me yield to my colleagues. >> you

the national cdc would not initiate the test. they said they would not test me because if i were wearing the recommended protective equipment, then i wouldn't have the coronavirus. what kind of science-based answer is that? what a ridiculous and uneducated response from the department that is in charge of the health of this country. later they called back, and now it's an issue with something called the identifier number. they claim they prioritize running samples by illness severity and that there are only so many to give out each day so i have to wait in line for the results. this is not a ticket dispenser at the deli counter. it's a public health emergency. i'm a registered nurse and i need to know if i'm positive before going back to care for patients. i'm appalled at the level of bureaucracy that's preventing nursing from getting tested. delaying this test puts the whole community at risk. i have the back ing of my union. nurses aren't going to stand by and let this testing delay continue. we are going to stand together so w

over a concern of a potential positive test of coronavirus, at the cdc. you think that beyond the fact that the white house's statement was different from one hour to the next, you think that acknowledgement and admission is significant why? >> i think this is a -- this is one of the most remarkable things i've heard. i'll tell you why. look, they made a decision, sounds like it, what we're hearing now is true, that because someone at the cdc had potentially tested positive for the coronavirus, they were no longer going to allow the president of the united states into the cdc. we have a virus that is circulating around the country. for example, we know he's going to florida next. we know there are cases down in florida. are we now in this era of time where because he's the president, they're going to -- they're going to require testing around him? maybe even testing of the president to determine if this virus is actually circulating somewhere close to him or infected him. i don't know. i never heard of something quite like that before. having covered h1n1

>> i can speak for cdc. we take the health of our workforce very seriously, health and safety, and have predeployment, deployment and post deployment guidance. this is a totally new virus. >> what i described to you, is that consistent with the protocols? >> i don't have the full information of that. i believe dr. kadlik can expand. >> in particular, woor evaluating what may have been an issue and we owe it to you as well as identified by the whistle-blower report to report back to you on that. >> mr. chairman, i would just say that we need people to speak up when they see this situation. it is unacceptable if any of these workers on the front lines are intimidated into staying silent or believe they'll be retaliated against these issues. we have to keep the protection of public first and foremost in our minds and i want this looked at and want to make sure anyone who speaks up is protected. >> thank you, senator murray. senator paul? >> dr. fauci, you mentioned remdesovir. i'm interested in that they say it

connell: fox news alert, he is now speaking at the cdc. here is president trump. [inaudible] >> the thank you, mr. president. [inaudible] when you first heard it was an illness -- made available to the general public we have used the information -- [inaudible] connell: we were thinking this audio is not great and the president realized that, he has asked the officials to move around to the front and i will get a much better -- much easier to hear. >> we heard early on at the beginning and the end of december about the unusual illness taking place in wuhan, china. the fact that it was associated with the market led some evidence that might be a transmission from animals to people. as soon as the chinese announced it was a novel coronavirus and the chinese to their credit made the information available right away the coronavirus experts at cdc used that information to design a test so we could detect the virus. even though there were no cases in the u.s. at that time and we had no samples of the virus because we had no clinical periods. we went from designing that i

>> we haven't seen the cdc or cdc reasoning going into the decisions that are being made. 've seen the white houseve e some cdc decisions shortly after with no justificaon or rationale for why they've done so. unless cdc is at the decisn table and at the podium, i feel less safe. >> is it fair to say that cdc is not at the table when they are a member of the task force? the white house coronavirus task force? >> i find the organization of this response very confusing. the vice president is in charge. there is a white house coordinato there is a chair of the task force. there is a fema acting director who is running an incident command system. all of those systems could work. but it's very unclear who's on first here. ce but the cdc is on the task f so it's not as though their advice and guidance is being explicitly cut out. is that fair? >> what we saw on a weekend is at the end of the week before, cdc issued very thoughtful guidance on when schools should close, how that should be done. and then on the monday overruled that gui white house in a footnote to a one-page docu

our surveillance system at cdc. of those 30 how many have you filled. >> i don't have information but the laboratory activity for the coronavirus are not the larger parts of our program, we have both a response around the influenza capacity which is really grown with the generosity of the american people through congress. so the coronavirus capacity is relatively small, we bolted up after murders but were not able to sustain that. we really appreciate the support from congress to strengthen the cdc in the state. >> i was shocked and i like to think i am fairly knowledgeable of everything that we instruct and provide for agencies. i was shocked to find out that in the normal appropriation, this $150 million can also be used for cdc, facility construction, it's a little misleading to say this went for surveillance when the flexibility exist for some of it to go to facility construction. you know what portion of 150 did not go directly to fund surveillance? >> i'm not sure what the hundred 50 is, i will have to get bac

all of the cdc tests, the tests that are available to test up to 75,000 people, cdc has shipped to america's public health labs. those are out. the idt, the private contractor working with cdc to ship to the private sector and hospitals has already shipped enough tests for 700,000 tests. and the remaining lots are arriving at cdc this morning for quality control and should get out as we forecast this weekend. and then next week we'll keep ramping up production. so as many as 4 million tests next week are going to be driving forward. so everything is on schedule for the testing. >> mr. president, why aren't you going to cdc today? >> he's actually sent me. i'm going to go. >> we may go. there was -- they thought there was a problem at cdc, but somebody that had the virus. it turned out negative, so we're seeing what we can do. but yesterday afternoon, we were informed that there may have been a person with the virus, and they now find out that that was negative test. they've tested the person very fully, and it was a negative test. so i may be going. we're going to see if they can turn it aro

at cdc with somebody that had the virus. it tushed out negative so we're seeing if we can do it but yesterday afternoon we were informed that there may have been a person with the virus and they now find out that that was negative test. >> the shifting explanations over something as simple as a visit to the cdc perhaps showing the problems of the administration right now with the virus. joining me is susan paige, doug thorknell and david patterson. hello. susan, this has been one of those we have seen crisis management before. and like with anything, the trump presidency does it a little bit differently. >> and the way trump handled previous crises in the administration doesn't work this time, the bluster, the denial, the assertion over and over again, the hoax with the russia investigation. >> or even the happy talk. like during the -- we'll get this done. you know? let's go, america. >> the economy's being affected. people will see it in their own lives. the children's schools closed. it's harder to not be governing with k

the cdc has not said that, but remember, dr. schaffner has close ties to the cdc, so i said is that black and white? like don't go to these things? >> he said, look, if your granddaughter's getting married and you want to go to her wedding, go to the church but maybe stay a little bit off to the side. don't hug and kiss people, but if you don't need to go to the movies, don't go to the movies. if you don't need to go to a religious service over the weekend, don't go. he said stay home and be reverent at home. brooke. >> all right, elizabeth cohen, thank you. i want to start with that last point here, with me now dr dr. sanjay gupta our cnn medical correspondent dr. robing gersho. brilliance to my right. i'm going to pick your brains, talking to dr. schaffner last hour when he said that to me, i'm curious your thoughts on if you're older than 60, like don't go to the movies. don't go to a concert. would you -- >> it's certainly very prudent and this is the first i'm hearing it. i'm not entirely surprised but it does seem a little

the cdc or doctors in the cdc when the test kits came out and they were obviouslily inadequate and flawed? i'm getting at, there can be policy mistakes and just the luck of the draw they did their best and went wrong. any thoughts you have based on your experience? congressman, you know, i think we don't know the answers to that question. >> we don't know the answers to some of those questions. you have to ask cdc why they made the choices they made and the approach they took didn't work. i don't know the answer to that. i don't think this is a partisan thing. i don't think this is some conspiracy or political decision to go this way, but i do think -- and so i don't want to overstate my criticism of the administration puts also don't want to understate it. the signs were flashing yellow early on that the cdc approach was not going to work and i think stronger coordination and leadership from the top, to say we've got a mess here, no one chose to make this mess. it was an accident. we need to do something quickly to turn this around and get this fixed. i don't blame anyone for the initial

we need cdc to brief you on that. in terms of the scaling, we're scaling up now by commercialization of not only test kits that can be used in public health laboratories, but engaging the private health sector, labs that can do testing. we've been rolling off the line expanding the opportunity to do testing in public health labs, hospitals and clinics and doctors' offices that use these commercial laboratories. we may not get to drive through swapping, if you wanted to call it that, but also i want to comment on that point alone. you have to do it with some precision how you take those swabs and so the risk is you can swab somebody, if you're not careful and get a false negative. it does take a little bit of training. i wouldn't think jack in the box will be swabbing here in the united states any time soon. >> senator scott? >> dr. kadlec, we've got a lot of information out of nih and d cdc, i haven't seen anyone talk about the risk for pregnant women. is there any increased risk, any precautions to take? >> there's l

all of the cdc tests available up to 75,000 people, cdc has shipped to the america's public health labs, those are out. then, idt, the private contractor that is working with the cdc to ship to the private sector and hospitals has already shipped enough tests for 700,000 tests and the remaining lots are arriving at the cdc this morning for quality control and should get out as we forecasted this weekend. next week we will keep ramping up production. as many as 4 million tests next week are going to be driving forward. everything is on schedule for the testing. reporter: mr. president, are you going to the cdc today? pres. trump: we may go. they thought there was a problem at cdc with somebody that had the virus. it turned out negative. so we are seeing if we can do it. but yesterday afternoon we were informed there may have been a person with the virus. they now find out that that was a negative test. they tested the person fully and it was a negative test. so i may be going. we will see if they can turn it around with the secret service. we may be going. here, steve, this is for you af

cdc did that. what we said on saturday is if you are a certified clinical lab able to handle high-complexity tests, these are labs that are regulated by the administrator and cms, you may develop your test and you don't have to wait for us to approve it before you can start using it in patients, send us your validation data and send us your emergency use authorization after the fact within 15 days of beginning use. that's your lab corps, your large diagnostic companies and that will also radically expand availability. it will also make for a much easier experience for doctors and clinicians because they're very used to working with lab companies like this to get tests done. there is a work process flow that's very patient-sent rick , and easier.ntric i was very candid with both the house and the senate that as this expands, that experience will get better. but right now there is -- it is a challenge if you are a doctor wanting to get somebody tested, you do need to reach out to your public health l

the cdc admits the test rollout was not as smooth as it would have liked. >> would you admit the cdc did have problems with the testing? >> we did learn shortly after we distributed the first batch of our tests to some of the state health lapbs that there was an issue with one component of the test. >> reporter: now many public health labs across the country are testing for coronavirus. still, some experts say the delay caused irreparable damage. >> the tardiness in developing accurate tests has really been a setback in terms of our ability to understand how prevalent coronavirus is and to institute appropriate controls to keep the spread at an absolute minimum. >> reporter: also concerns that while hundreds of people in the u.s. have tested positive for coronavirus, cdc has published only one report about how a patient was treated, making it more difficult for doctors to learn from one another. >> doctors need to know how to handle it. and we need to be -- it's unusual times now, so it's an emergency, it's a crisis. we need to be fast tracking00,000 otrack ining our ability to learn

there has been a 15-year battle going on with the cdc and the airlines, the cdc trying to get a regulation in place for what they say are the five key pieces of data they need to effectively do contact tracing if the need arises. the airlines have successfully fought it off for 15 years. we in the task force dealt with the interim final rule that cdc in fact has issued, directing the airlines to provide these pieces of information. there is now a logistical gap between right here, as we sit here together, and when they have the systems in place to do this, because it has to happen at the point of ticket purchase. many people have already bought tickets already. i would also note that airlines are not the only ones who sell us our tickets. we will go to orbitz and travelocity and so forth, and they provide less information than the airline if you and i were to contact them. it is widely varying. as this broke out, cdp went through the databases, pulled manifest information going back two weeks from the previously existing wuhan flights. we are talking 7000 passengers over the course of two

>> we work with the cdc on their test. we're using their network but the outside manufacturers private kpans are using their platform right now to further develop the tests. our expectation in talking to the company that scaling this up is that we should have the capacity by the end of the week to have kits available to the laboratories to perform about a million tests. >> i would urge to please continue, please get information out there. we're about to head into the al e -- allergy season as well. people are so scared that the first time they sneeze with an allergy, they will think they have this. we need to make sure we educate folks so those tests we have are for the right reasons. second question i have, it concerns rural areas. we have another rural hospital closing this week many the state of alabama. are there specific things you guys are doing to make sure that rural hospitals, who are living from paycheck to paycheck have the resources they need, the financial resources and tools they need to make sure they'ir com

cdc director julie gerberding. the outbreak of sars and managed more than other emergency responses i'm very interested in hearing about her experience and how lesson source for managing those health emergencies can be applied to the covid-19 outbreak. and finally the risk from the virus. your expert medical opinions is valuable and reassuring the public. it's also very important for political leaders to avoid blaming hit and distorted. our jobs to be supporting the medical community and providing them with things that they need to handle this in future outbreaks. i am very pleased that we will be presenting a bill today, hopefully the funding will help speed along this vaccination resources that will help us out. >> i have a request enter this into the record. >> without objection. i now ask each witness to summarize his or her statement for five minutes. beginning with johns hopkins' dr. tom inglesby. >> given the chance to testify today about covid-19. i'm the director of the john hopkins health security. covid-

i would love to stop at cdc. it was a big deal with secret service, that they worked it out. -- but they were to doubt. the person was a negative diagnosis. dr. on monday, it said canceled because of the coronavirus. president trump: we had another big deal. there were two of them. recommended they cancel that one. there was another one in a similar area. >> have you considered not having campaign rallies? president trump: i have not. i will tell you what, i have not had a problem filling them. we had one in north carolina, south carolina, tens of thousands of people standing outside the arenas. >> is there a risk if there is that many people together? president trump: doesn't bother me if it doesn't bother them. >> what should be done about that cruise ship? president trump: that is a good question. i was on the phone with the vice president. if it were up to me, i would be inclined to say leave everybody on the ship for some time and use the ship as your base. a lot of people would rather do it a different way.

we will be working with the cdc. those are already in place and it is our job to make sure health care facilities are effectively implementing those guidelines. we will work with the cdc to determine whether we need to update or change those. we are looking at what we cover in clarifying the types of products and services our programs will pay for, in terms of medicaid and medicare. with that, i will turn it over. vice pres. pence: i want to recognize a couple other members of our team. from the national institute of health. >> thank you, mr. vice president. i want to make three comments and points. to underscore what the vice president and secretary azar said, we had an extraordinary meeting with ceo's, individuals in pharmaceutical and biotech industries. they were already actively collaborating with and were enthusiastic about helping us along with the development of products and availability, vaccines, antibodies, it was very gratifying. second, i am very pleased the president and vice president will be visiting

my prior executive order was based upon cdc based standards. this current executive order is largely based upon cdc standards as well as other federal standards. we want to stay connected to the standards that are established by the federal government. we will look into any standards that are established by the cdc for consideration. [indiscernible] >> we want to achieve the highest level possible of collaboration and sharing of information and we know that it's a two-way street. we have been mandated or required by the federal government to impose information gathering standards for the local governments to provide certain information to the state and health services to be able to provide to the cdc. on top of that, i can understand what i'm hearing from you. there maybe needs or desires from local governments to get access to certain information that we have. to the extent that's possible. to the extent we can create information channels to establish that goal. i think we should do it. one thick that all of us do, it could be dr. hellerstatd

to build on this platform that the cdc has developed. we have been in touch with this particular manufacturer over the last three or four days. we have reiterated this, we know them well. they have estimated that they are going to be able to scale up to deliver 2500 kits by the end of the week to providers of the test. let me ask you, how do we make sure that those are in the right hands? >> thanks. the cdc has been providing the public health labs with kits and expect by the end of this week that there would be sufficient for 75,000 people to be tested. as you say, not everyone needs a test. and we don't want to go through all our tests in low risk and not be able to really address the care and the context that is going to be critical. we have guidelines for this kind of thing for influenza about who needs to seek care and who can stay home. we have adapted them for this. we've also broadened our definition of who we think is a person under investigation that really needs be tested, not just related to travel to china, but all the other

the cdc and the state are considering a number of locations including san francisco. however, where the ship will dock will be dependent on if the location can enact the proper cdc, state ask local protocols and has the infrastructure to protect the entire community. our main concern is whether we can ensure those passengers that maybe infected receive the care that is needed. the passengers not impacted can safely travel home and the health and safety of our local communities. this is an evolving situation that requires the federal government, the state of california and san francisco to ensure all the best practices and protocols are in place to accept any cruise ship that may require coronavirus mitigation. thank you. >> thank you. i just want to say that san francisco is embarking on territory that's not unfamiliar to us. you all know that we have some of the most incredible public health experts anywhere in the world right here in our city. we dealt with challenges over the years whether it was the hiv crisis or sars or h1n1. we got through those events because w

>> the cdc director -- you won't leave me. [laughter] >> we continue to send -- we continue, our first responsibility is cdc was to develop the -- second responsibility is to get that out to the public health community. [indiscernible] wantstrump: anybody that to test can get a test. for thearted testing department of public health yesterday. we thought it would be today. we were testing today. ,res. trump: the second group how do you get tested in the clinical arena? role, the fda was able to take the test cdc developed and one of the companies said they wanted to sell it. that is what the secretary referred to. by the end of this week they were supposed to have one million -- >> they shipped 700,000 already. the remaining ones are being tested here. dr. munro test them. they have to do quality control and then if they pass -- anybody right now and yesterday, anybody that if the tests can -- they are there. the tests are beautiful. anybody that needs a test gets a test. if there is a doctor that wants to test, some of the com