[georgia the world -- joy to the world] ♪ >> get c-span on the go. watch the world's biggest political events anytime, anywhere, on our mobile video app. c-span now. access top highlights, listen to c-span radio, and discover new podcasts, all for free. c-span today. >> next, a look into global health and the united ways leadership during the covid-19 -- united states readership during the covid-19 pandemic. this was part of the mid-atlantic regional summit. >> our first conversation is to really dig in on global health and the broader health crisis. we have an incredible panel. you can see our faces. we want to talk about why it is important to defeat the virus everywhere, how it is directly

linked to defeating the virus here at home, and some of the broader health agenda issues are imperative for preventing future pandemics and ending decades of progress here in -- around the developing countries and how this is all relevant to the conversations we have already had. we have incredible panelists. let me introduce them. welcome, senator koontz, of delaware. dale smith, state department coordinator for global covid-19 response. welcome. we have the special envoy for covid-19 for the african union. i don't know what time it is for you but we are glad to see you as well. and andrea, executive vice president -- rapid molecular diagnosed sticks -- diagnostics. we have a conversation that literally could take days and days but we will try and tackle

it all. ask you to keep responses short so we could get a few rounds in. i want to start with where we are and get a snapshot of where the global crisis is, particularly, and we will focus on covid in the first round. senator koontz, i will come to you, given that you have the state foreign operations subcommittee which is the funding mechanism that oversees that. the latest statistics -- the pandemic is expected to cost the global economy over $22 trillion in lost output by 2025. the failure, according to the economists latest numbers to distribute covid 19 vaccines equitably could cost an additional $9 trillion. the two-part question, senator. what is congress doing to support equitable global vaccines and help tie this back

to the question that i kicked off the program with. why is it important to american families and here at home that we get shots in thesen coons: tr facilitating this panel and for your leadership. i want to express my thanks to this amazing panel who represent a range of the critical partners in combating this pandemic globally. dear friends of mine leading africa's response with a bold platform, great partners like gail smith with deep experience in global health initiatives who is helping make real the promise of president biden's administration to engage in global outreach. private sector leaders -- one of many examples in the private

sector leadership as they have developed safe and effective vaccines. earlier today, senator patrick lahey of vermont announce he would not be running again. for decades, he was chairman of the state and foreign subcommittee. the united states has so far distribute it 240 million donating -- donated doses to 100 countries. i had the honor of joining bipartisan groups of senators in delivering vaccine shipments to several countries in the pacific rim, the western hemisphere, but there is a long way to go. we have provided $19 million in funding so far to address the global distribution of vaccines, but we need to fund a great deal more than that and, in the upcoming year, and

appropriation. there's a billion dollars dedicated to combating future pandemic, which is 800 million dollars more than in previous years, which includes an international financing mechanism for pandemic preparedness. one of the things i'm excited about is to work together to make sure there is cutting edge vaccine research, development and production capability in africa, in southeast asia, south asia, so when the next pandemic confronts the world, we do not have the long lead times we have today. there is dramatic in equity in terms of access to the vaccine. the united states has done a great deal to address it, but there's a lot more work to do and the panel we have got is exactly the right group to help us. the last point you asked about -- why does this matter at home here? first, because we care about the rest of the world. we care about our brothers and

sisters and hundreds of other places around the world where the pandemic is far from over and where there are too many human lives being lost. also because the pandemic isn't over until we defeat this virus globally and every time there's a new infection, there's a new chance for it to develop to do the the vaccines we are deploying. we need to vaccinate as many people globally as quickly as possible. one of the most important pledges made by the biden administration is we will deliver 1.1 billion doses through year. since we have the most effective and most widely donated vaccine, that is a critical benchmark. liz: i'm going to go to gail smith, who is in charge of making sure those -- you have a

tough job. the u.s. is committed to donating more vaccines than any other country on the planet combined. and she is responsible for getting them out the door. what i want for you to address is how hard this is because you and i have talked about the hurdles, but the logistic resources to get the vaccines. what is the administration doing to help ensure not only we are donating the vaccine but also -- this is so important -- i heard him speak on this. help us understand this. gayle: thank you. i appreciate everything that you do. this is hard but it's also doable. the way i like to describe it is

it is ambitious. eating vaccines outdoor, there are a lot of legal and regulatory hoops. these are specialized medical tools. so, we have to be very careful and make sure we have safety and efficacy. but the real challenge -- liz: we can hear you. gayle: sorry about that. the real challenge is getting those shots in arms. we have to turn vaccines into vaccinations. this is a challenge in the united states. think how much our cities come our states, the federal government's put on board to make vaccines available at different venues, to get the word out. we've got to do those things. that's one of our real rorty focuses right now -- how can we

work -- one of our real priorities right now. we are working with the private sector and a group of companies have come together to say they would provide the capability they have to help top up the capabilities on the ground in these countries. so the mission now is get vaccines out the door, but get the shots in arms. vaccines need to be vaccinations. you ask why does the president think this is so important? there are many other points senator coons referenced. it is true that none of us are safe until all of us are safe. but at a summit, he said america will leverage our support to bring others along and that is why he is so focused to setting ambitious targets, pushing and encouraging the rest of the world to join with us.

this is a pandemic we can and in 2022 if we all do what we need to do. and i think he knows it's possible and we should see what is possible, but he knows what the dividend will be for people around the world, for people in the united states, where the global economy, and ordinary citizens everywhere. liz: you are at the epicenter in africa when the pandemic broke out. you were named the african union special envoy to lead the africa covid-19 effort across the continent. there are low numbers. we all know the average is less than 10% of africans have had even one dose of the vaccine. hopefully there's some positive news. vaccine manufacturing coming online in a few of the countries. tell us how the african union

and african governments are working with the multilateral positions to work with equitable distribution and is it working fast enough? >> thank you so much and thank you for inviting me. it is great to be among friends. senator coons and gayle smith have been working on this since the beating. my role is a special envoy to coordinate our response will stop from the outset, the african member states, although we are sovereign member states, not a union in the way of europe, they are like latin america in many ways. but, we still recognize very quickly our leaders, that this

was a global pandemic that would know no borders. so we have to work together in an unprecedented way to tackle it. my role was to help countries secure emergency supplies. our challenge on vaccines is not often the way people have looked at it. from the outset, we knew, we set a target of 60%, which is about 800 million people. we were one of the first regions to declare we need to get to that sort of level. however, our challenge was accessing vaccines to actually buy. we were not looking for donations, we were looking for the ability to buy vaccines.

we raise money, we approach the manufacturers, and we found the key production centers of the world had imposed exports restrictions, so we couldn't import and we, ourselves did not have the production facility, so this forced us to go to the back of the queue. it took a long time to get this message through, that while we appreciate donations, we also appreciated being allowed to the front of the queue. i must say with the assistance of people like gayle smith, this

message was finally received and we have now began to purchase vaccines because america allowed us. we recently announced an arrangement whereby we came from the back of the queue and took america's position to buy the vaccine. not for donations, and we do appreciate donations, but we need 1.6 billion doses and we can't solve it with donations. we have to be able to purchase, we have to be able to produce, and that is what our focus is at the moment. liz: let me get andrea into this conversation. avid has with many companies played a role in confronting the pandemic had on. you have manufactured one billion testing kits to be distributed in the world. i remember when india had their spike in crisis and partnered

with ngo's. as an example, our participants can understand the private sector, talk about what avid is doing to facilitate a wide variety of testing services, helping close the testing gap, particularly some of these hardest hit countries where vaccines are still very limited. andrea: thank you for having me join this distinguished panel. i appreciate the opportunity to add onto this conversation about how accelerating collaboration across borders is not only the right thing to do but what we need to do. also to have the conversation about how testing is a critical part. we have seen how important and critical vaccines are but we have seen vaccines alone are not a good solution. since the start of the pandemic, we've been on the front lines

supporting health care workers around the globe. today, we've developed 12 different tests. we've distributed over a billion tests since the pandemic and this is leveraged across our platforms, getting tests into community centers, and the home, trying to touch all remote parts of the world across 160 countries. it's not just about manufacturing the test, it's about having strong collaboration across borders to be able to implement. we've been working closely with partners like the rockefeller foundation come in the clinton health access initiative, the gates foundation to make sure our tests are coming into the right hands on the ground. last year, we worked with our partners to commit 10 million a month to our production capacity to make sure those tests would be committed to low and middle

income countries and make sure we have the production capacity for the most underserved parts of the community. our focus is in this collaboration. i participated at the white house a summit in september to start the conversation of what is needed across the global community and what was asked of the testing community is we need to bring more tests into the low and middle income countries. this is achievable. we have distributed a billion tests since the start of the pandemic and have been in the low and middle income countries for decades with diseases such as hiv. while this is very ambitious, it is definitely very achievable and we continue to stay committed to do whatever is needed across borders during the pandemic. liz: i want to broaden the

conversation just a tad in our last few minutes because covid's act -- is issue number one but there are broader health crises. in addition to your chairmanship, you are chair of the congressional malaria and tropical disease caucus. i think this is a window into some of the other challenges. you know covid has upended many other global health issues and years of progress. in 2010 alone, million people were undiagnosed and untreated for tuberculosis as one example. at least 14 vaccines campaigns against diseases like polio and measles were postponed over the last year, where we are seeing over 13 million people -- i could go on and on but you know as well as i do. what are we doing to deal with

some of the health crises that can impact our own security? as short as you can on this round so we can get everybody in. sen. coons: it is critical we confront the ways in which we have lost ground on eradicating other infectious diseases while the world has been focused on the covid-19 pandemic. i think we need to focus on a holistic approach to strengthening public health systems instead of siloed disease efforts going forward and the fy 22 we recently posted includes $10 billion in u.s. government funding for global health programs, about a 1.2 billion dollar increase, including more resources for investing in community health workers and fortifying systems around the world. it's not just about doing the right thing, but it helps to keep people in school and

contribute into the global economy. one last point -- u.s. funding has helped lead to the first ever malaria vaccine, just approved last month by the world health organization for widespread use. as you know, malaria kills over 400,000 people every year in the world. i will never forget my first exposure to a family impacted tragically by malaria in kenya 40 years ago. this vaccine could save more lives than any other single u.s. government intervention in infectious disease and i am thrilled we are continuing to invest in things like the global fight against malaria. liz: you have had a front row seat on the global health response on so many issues. one of the most enduring and bipartisan examples saved over 20 million lives.

is there anything you think about the successes you are looking at the full array of global price around the world. any lessons learned that you are thinking about right now in your return to government service? gayle: sure, and i would echo something senator conns said. this is something there has been a lot of support for, but it has not just bipartisan but nonpartisan support. it is now something the united states does. we are associated with it all over the world. it is that staying power that comes between the legislative branch regardless of party. but we have seen is something quite remarkable that has helped

us now in response to the pandemic and that is over many years of support, we've helped build houses and those platforms are now being used. it is that kind of investment that is worth everything. it improves people's lives, it supports local economies, the global economy, and it is layered upon later of protection and safety for everyone. i think it is staying power, it is nonpartisan support, and it is responding to crises building that foundation underneath so everyone can have the dignity that comes from having the health care they need. liz: i'm going to ask you a similar question but i remember you are very successful in a private sector initiative to fight ebola. i'm curious of your own thoughts

as you are playing this role in covid. how do we get this ecosystem right for the future of global health crises? any thoughts about looking forward as we make sure we build on lessons learned of getting the ecosystem right? strive: whengayle was appointed to her position, i said now i understood how churchill felt when he got roosevelt to join the war. america is our most important partner globally in dealing with this problem and even if you look at the situation right now in the last few months, president biden, your congressional leadership, the support we have received, the commitment are exactly half the

vaccines we require. we ourselves will provide the other half if we have access to purchase. the white house has helped us to purchase and johnson & johnson vaccines to purchase with our own money moderna vaccine's. our challenge now is in the delivery side and i believe the delivery challenges also the greatest opportunity we have. it allows us to build clinics, to build hospitals, to build the pandemic legacy. let's do something great. wouldn't it be great if senator coons and his colleagues would give us something out of covid that gives us hospitals and clinics and helps us use this new mrna technology, the miracle of it to deliver new drugs for

malaria and other diseases? so, there is a silver lining from this great darkness that we can build something. we can't build back better because we haven't had it yet. but it is an opportunity to build something for the future. liz: i hear future legislation in the works. picking up on the same theme, there were a lot of warnings from experts about the potential post-pandemic and the world wasn't ready. but the private sector has really stepped up. we've talking about testing diagnostics, everyone talking about vaccines and technology. it sounds perfect but all of you are discussing the future. are there opportunities when you look back at the last year and a half, something we were learning about the infrastructure of how

the government, the private sector can take a page out of what we learned and get this right going forward? what are the private sector lessons learned here? gayle: where we can make a contribution is closing the time from where we see an outbreak and preventing it from becoming a pandemic. what that is going to take is the early detection and rapid response. what we have done is we have expanded our surveillance program and hiv and hepatitis. we've expanded the surveillance program to include respiratory viruses. we have partnerships with scientists and public health laboratories around the globe where we select samples and analyze them and we are mentioning them -- matching them to the sequences we have on file and we are hunting for viruses.

when it comes to covid, we are hunting to see if we see 80 variance. so where we can barely -- where we can make a contribution here is to expand the surveillance program. liz: the theme today is foreign policy for the middle class and trying to tie the conversation back to what happens in our everyday life. nothing is as close to home as the global pandemic. as i mentioned at the front end, as i travel, i'm trying to connect a question about what has worked and seeing if we have the political will to make the investments in the future. my question is to answer personally, professionally, however you want, what does work for america or for the world to

get this right, to end the pandemic and prevent the next one? i will go in opposite order. you got about 30 or 45 seconds. andrea: we've all been touched, we've all been disrupted, we've all been challenged. as the leader of abbott, we have watched how our customers around the globe have been impacted, what is different here is we, personally have seen the inequalities in health care. while we feel disruption, what has been eye-opening is the level of inequality and how much that has been exacerbated during the pandemic. while we have values around making sure we bring product to the market and increase affordability, i would say myself and colleagues around the globe feel it and see it and

when we are developing new innovations and bring it to market, it is very personal to all of us because we've seen how big that gaps are and that they are worsening rather than getting better. strive: my appeal is that this is really a dress rehearsal. we've just gone through the challenge this last week over the climate change. this shows us we have to work together. this pandemic shows us we cannot defeat this with nationalist policies, with nationalist mindsets. we need global leadership, which america has always exemplified. we need global leadership not only in the delivery of vaccine,

in the supply, but helping us to strengthen our economies. we ask you to help us with institutions like the imf who can help nations like our nation that are very poor, where people live on two dollars a day and we have had to use the brutal blunt weapon of lockdowns and now, our countries are terribly constrained. we need help to deal with the aftermath of this pandemic. thank you so much. gayle: i would say it's worth everything and here's why. it is personal. i, you come all of us will be affected one way or another. if we stop this pandemic, we

will be safer and the economy will be short up. it is practical. the virus knows no borders. it will have a meaningful impact on the safety and stability of the world. but at the end of the day, it is also principal. leadership is a valuable thing. when america leads, the world follows. people are member, people engage , we can do great things like in the pandemic and it is the right thing to do. it is personal and it is practical. sen. coons: as the horrors of the second world war came to a close, the united states have 8 -- had a basic choice -- bring our troops home and focus on rebuilding our own country or reach outward and invest dramatically in rebuilding the shattered countries and economies we had just faced in war. we chose the latter path and it

set a lot of the framework of the last century. we are in a similar place today where there are many voices in the united states that would seek to turn inward and think about our own future, divorced in some ways from the rest of the world. you lead and we are convened by the u.s. leadership coalition. we have a critical opportunity here to see the rest of the world, to contribute to solving this pandemic and then build the capability to respond to climate change as well as many other challenges facing us. it is essential. for my family, for my own sense of decency and commitment to humanity, for my state which houses the national institute for innovation in manufacturing biopharmaceuticals. for our country and our place in the world and i would say for humanity. for our opportunity to demonstrate and opened and democratic society can actually

be one of the key leaders in addressing global challenges together. so to this panel, thank you so much for helping us debate and discuss this today and to my colleagues joining me on this session today, i look >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government funded by these companies and more including buckeye broadband. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> buckeye broadband supports c-span as a public service with these other providers, giving you a front row seat or democracy. ♪ >> we have had one of our

analysts describe hospitals and other sectors as target reach and research for -- target-rich and research-poor. they believe they have a soft underbelly and in the case of ransomware, they would be willing to pay to get the hospital running quickly. they don't have the resources to enhance cybersecurity with the great risk they are facing . that is why i think we have tried over the course of the pandemic to make sure as hospitals become fragile, being overwhelmed with covid patients, we were able to surge the security support to those and get them loaded into free services we offer. frankly, that is only scratching the surface. there is more to do to make sure hospitals have what they need given the potential for disruption and consequences on communities and patients.

this is an area with more work needed. i will not pretend what we have done is nearly enough but it will be a constant focus for our agency in years ahead to mask -- match the. rest out there. . >> you can watch the hearing before the house oversight committee online at c-span.org or on c-span at 9:30 p.m. or on our video app, c-span now. ♪ >> he works in journalism for 60 years of his life until 2015. he was a national security correspondent for the washington post. on his new book, "blown to h ell," it is subtitled "america's deadly betrayal of the marshall islanders." does for the staging ground for 60 tests by the government in

1946 and ending in 1958. the castle bravo test in 1950 four was where america executed its largest nuclear detonation, 1000 times more powerful than hiroshima. >> walter pincus on this episode of booknotes+, available wherever you get your podcast or on the c-span now app. ♪ >> president biden announced his choice of jerome powell to serve another chair term on the federal reserve. here's a look at his remarks.