Top US Health Authorities to Testify in Senate on CCP Virus and Reopening of Economy

WASHINGTON—Top U.S. health authorities will testify on May 12 to a Senate committee looking into plans for reopening the nations businesses, schools, and other sectors of the economy closed because of the CCP virus pandemic, as experts recommend doing so cautiously.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, Assistant Secretary of Health Brett Giroir, and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn are scheduled to testify before the panel.

Fauci, Redfield, and Hahn have been taking self-quarantine steps after announcements they had come into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Each of the witnesses will be testifying remotely at Tuesdays hearing, according to a committee aide.

(L-R) National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Assistant HHS Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield testify on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 26, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander is also self-quarantining in his home state of Tennessee for 14 days after a member of his staff tested positive for COVID-19. He will chair the hearing virtually, his office said on Sunday.

The shuttering of businesses to combat the spread of the CCP virus has led to mass layoffs of workers, sparking the greatest economic disruption to the United States since the Great Depression nearly a century ago.

President Donald Trump, who previously made the strength of the economy central to his pitch for his November reelection bid, has encouraged states to reopen businesses that had been deemed non-essential amid the pandemic.

So far, his administration has largely left it to states to decide whether and how to reopen. State governors are taking varying approaches, with a growing number relaxing tough restrictions enacted to slow the outbreak.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the CCP virus as President Donald Trump listens, in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on April 17, 2020. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

Worker Safety

But Trump and his task force coordinating Washingtons response to the CCP virus have faced questions on how U.S. workers will be kept safe during reopening, especially after two staffers working within the White House tested positive for the CCP virus.

One of the staffers is Vice President Mike Pences press secretary Katie Miller, the wife of senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller. The other is a valet to the president.Read More From Source
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