This archive report was first published on 12 May 2020.
On Tuesday, the Senate Health Committee will hold a hearing titled 'Covid-19: Safely Getting Back to Work and Back to School,' featuring Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and three other top government doctors. The hearing will be conducted virtually, with the chairman and witnesses appearing by video due to coronavirus exposure.
Dr. Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has not appeared before Congress since President Trump declared the coronavirus crisis a national emergency on March 13. The hearing will provide an opportunity for Dr. Fauci and his fellow M.D.s to speak freely, without Mr. Trump's influence.
Democrats are eager for the hearing, with Senator Chuck Schumer saying, 'Dr. Fauci, let it rip.' The senator added that President Trump has muzzled or contradicted health experts, and the hearing is an opportunity for them to speak freely.
President Trump has announced that his administration is sending additional money to states to boost their testing capacity. However, many public health experts view the total number of tests as irrelevant, and instead focus on the percentage of the population being tested.
By those metrics, many states fall short of the necessary testing to reopen safely. The administration officials have said that states will be given enough tests to screen at least 2 percent of their populations for the coronavirus, but experts have recommended that anywhere from 0.9 percent to 50 percent of the American public must be tested every week.
Senator Christopher S. Murphy has expressed concerns about the broken supply chain and the lack of transparency about how the administration is intervening in the supply chain. He said, 'I'm still scared to death about the broken supply chain... the continued lack of transparency about how the administration is intervening in the supply chain is maddening, and ultimately fatal.'
The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. and will be broadcast live by C-SPAN and streamed on the committee's website.
