The House has begun a subcommittee to counter the President's messaging regarding reopening the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaNGBbRxJtc
I don't know the name of the chair but he introduced the topic with these goals:
1. coordinated faster and freeer testing
2. Contact tracing, tracking, surveillance to identify sources, locations
3. Treatment in medically isolated setting
He wants to hear what the Federal Government should be doing from the subcommittee.
Opening comments by ranking memember Scalise notes that the House should be in session, other parts of federal gov in session, House should come back, the subcomittee need not be virtual, virtual meeting sends the wrong message to the public, congress needs to set an example for the public. He notes that the committee can follow the same rules that the public is asked to follow regarding social distancing. Scalise displays (camera video) the conference room where the subcommittee should meet which is sufficiently large enough to provide required social distancing, and notes their are adquate meeting rooms all over the capital that could accommodate the 12 member sub committee. Scalise notes the president comes to work every day and so should the House and this subcommittee.
Scalise takes on the subcomittee for harrassing companies etc. Scalise totally takes apart the undermining goals and focus of the House in a detailed manner. The chair started to break in and Scalise completed his comments.
The Chair (Cormer?) then went on to introduce the panel members and each has 2 minutes to speak.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the first panel member, uses his 2 minutes to advocate testing, blame the shut down on insufficient testing and says we must do better. He wants the FEDS to a) have visibility into testing supplies b) coordinate supplies c) offer guidance in testing strategies d) insure adequate incentives in greater and and better tests e) be transparent with public re how much testing we need and offer a roadmap.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, FIRST phased re-introduction to reopening, cased based intervention, tracking and tracing, even if only tracking a small percentage of those ill would help (he acknowledges that since many people are asymptomatic, tracking would only impact a small percentage of those with covid) SECOND Testing THIRD Testing turns on Technology ,,,,cut off at 2 minute mark.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, contact tracing and testing, most vulnerable communities - those who work in public facing jobs and those who live in underserved, long term planning as testing system will be a continued effort going forward
Dr. Mark McClellan, testing, opening safely, we haven't met testing goals, technology would help, we're still not testing everyone who meets CDC recommendations. 1) further steps to create financial incentives for better testing, pay more for tests that get results faster or more easily shared, - provide money to healthcare providers ....cut at 2 minute mark
Dr. Inglesby, Before reopening 1) reduction in cases for 14 days, 2) capacity to hospitals to give all patients standard of care , 3) capacity to test anyone with Covid symptoms, and finally capacity to trace contacts and "guide them" into quarantine. Isolation and contact tracing crucial in countries who've gotten their Covid under control, without contact tracing epidemic will grow in surprising ways, we need 100,000 contact tracers working with states (30 workers per 100,000 population) As of last week, states have announced plans to hire 66,000 contact tracers and 8 states have announced plans to exceed that 30 contact tracers per 100,000 people benchmark. Contact tracing will need to be key part of strategy until vaccine is available. Stopping at 20:35 second mark.
You might be interested in this. This is from the FB page of a friend of mine, a priest. He was speculating on what to believe about all the conflicting information about Virus.
This was one response he got:
” I am a research nerd, retired pharmacist and published scientist who is the business director of primary care medical practice.
1. The studies show that Hydroxychloroquine +Zinc + Azithromycin works. Our office prescribes it with the onset of symptoms with good results.
2. The most important data is deaths from Covid-19. The CDC data from actual death certificates show a dramatic drop in deaths with Covid-19 from the peak back on April 11th. We are now BELOW epidemic levels. NJ data shows that the virus is going away as fast as it came.
3. One common denominator for those who got the sickest was low Vitamin D levels. Getting outside into the sun is the best way to raise your Vit D levels without supplements.
4. Despite what you have heard in the news over the last couple of days, children under 17 do not get sick from SARS-CoV2 virus and should be back in school yesterday.
Conclusion: The virus will be with us, but the epidemic portion of the disease is over, finished, kaput. LTCFs and the elderly need to be protected but everything else can and should be reopened with proper hygiene.....that includes Mass.”
Marking to read, thank you for writing that out!
Trying to catch up over here....