the government's testing czar, brett giroir, dr. anthony fauci and cdc director robert redfield were on capitol hill fielding questions from house members about the government response. >> dr. fauci, can you help us understand why when europe has largely contained the virus, the united states has seen a continued rise in new cases? >> when they shut down or locked down or went to shelter in place, however you want to describe it, they really did it to the tune of about 95-plus percent of the country did that. we really functionally shut down only about 50% in the sense of the totality of the country. we feel cautiously optimistic that we will have a vaccine by the end of this year and as we go into 2021. >> we've seen all kinds of that stuff during protests, and we know the protests actually increased the spread of the virus. you've said that. so the protests don't increase the spread of the virus? >> i didn't say that. you're putting words in my

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. >> reporter: that contradicted another task force members admiralbred brett giroir who said the drugman ineffective in treating covid. >> we don't recommend that as a treatment. >> reporter: dr. anthony fauci also repeatedly warned against its use. >> hydroxychloroquine is not effective therapy for covid 19. >> i don't agree with that. i don't agree with fauci. >> reporter: the president also appeared to back off his threat to ban the popular chinese-owned video app tik tok as long as an american company were to purchase it by the middle of next month. >> so it will close down september 15 unless microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it and work out a deal -- >> reporter: even though the president has downplayed the need for covid testing nationwide, today the white house announced mandatory random covid testing for all west wing staffers, this comes after several white house aides and reporters here have tested positive. norah. >> o'donnell: paula reid at the white house. thank you. tonight we're getting the first look at body cam video from two of the minneapolis police officers o

>> well, i think brett giroir has done all that he can. i know he's really been working hard on this to try to ramp it up. but, you know, even he can't in his role as assistant secretary of health can't correct all of the underlying infrastructure problems that the country has had for a long time. so i know he's trying his very best, but it's been really hard to -- this has been a constant problem since the beginning. >> i just wonder -- forgive me for interrupting, let me ask you really quick, though. the admiral also said this week we are doing the appropriate amount of testing now to reduce the spread, flatten the curve and save lives and yet we've been seeing the positivity rate in the majority of the states across the country still going up and testing still going down. >> yeah. let me kind of bring it home to make some sense of this because quite honestly i think there's a lot of confusion. even i'm confused as to what's going on. for instance, here in texas we had -- we were doing 70,000 tests a day and then all of a sudden we dropp

. >>> well, the number of coronavirus tests nationwide may be declining, but admiral brett giroir, memberf the white house coronavirus task force, said people should not get hung up on the number. >> you beat the virus by smart policies supplemented by strategic testing. you do not beat the virus by shotgun testing everyone all the time. and i'm really tired of hearing it by people who are not involved in the system that we need millions of tests every day. >> so, right now about 700 to 800,000 people are being tested daily. but dr. ashish jha, the director of the harvard global health institute says the u.s. should be conducting 4 to 5 million tests daily. >> i don't know why admiral goiroi thinks we are doing plenty of testing when literally no public health expert i know in the entire country agrees with his assessment. >> i want to bring in admiral brett giroir to discuss all this. thank you for coming on, admiral. >> really thank you for having me on this afternoon. >> i want to start with your response to dr. jha. so you think testing is where it needs to be right now? >> well, i re

. >> this morning i'll talk to admiral brett giroir and dr. nahid bhadelia of boston university. >>> plus, trailing in the polls. the president floats delaying the election, blaming without evidence increased mail-in voting. >> these elections will be fraudulent. they'll be fixed. they'll be rigged. >> many republicans push back. >> we'll cope with whatever the situation is and have the election on november 3rd as already scheduled. >> why even mr. trump's allies say this time he's going too far. >>> also while honoring john lewis, president obama takes on president trump. >> george wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. >>> and who will joe biden choose as his running mate? >> i am going to do everything i can to make sure that he gets elected, and once elected, make sure that he's a successful president. >> i'll talk to a rising contender, congresswoman karen bass of california. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news chief foreign affa

and according to admiral brett giroir, the federal government is doing all it can. >> it's not enough of course it's enough. tell me one thing that we should be doing with any of these private labs that we're not doing or they're not doing. and i'm happy to do it. >> reporter: well, here, admiral giroir, is what the federal government should be doing according to those experts. first, national coordination of supplies. >> you have, whether intentionally or not, competition across states, across labs. >> reporter: there is not enough of anything. the swabs, pipettes and reagents which is leading to huge competition between states and labs. >> so if we had all of these supplies that we could use, we could perform around 10,000 tests per day. but we just don't have all of the supplies or all of the people. >> reporter: case in point, new mexico's largest medical lab is running just 3,700 tests a day instead of the 10,000 it could handle. nowhere near its capacity. >> we need goals at a federal level and the support at the federal level for us to get to where we need to be for testing. >>

. >> reporter: white house testing coordinator brett giroir defended the change that is baffling health experts. >> we're trying to get appropriate testing, not less testing. it really depends on where you are in the outbreak, where you are locally, and what kind of testing you're going to support. >> reporter: contrast that with the first lady's claim the president is doing everything he can. >> donald will not rest until he has done all he can to take care of everyone impacted by this terrible pandemic. >> reporter: there are few trump supporters and masks for that address. larry kudlow was talking about the pandemic in the past tense. >> it was awful. health and economic impacts were tragic. hardship and heartbreak were everywhere. but presidential leadership came swiftly and effectively. >> reporter: earlier this year he claimed the virus was contained. >> we have contained this. i won't say air tight but pretty close to air tight. >> reporter: as did outgoing white house counselor kellyanne conway who speaks tonight. >> it is being contained, and do you not think it's being contain

this hour, i'll speak with admiral brett giroir in charge of testing for the white house, a new

. >> reporter: testing czar admiral brett giroir admitted that the nation was not meeting the benchmark testing, and he urged americans to take responsibility for keeping themselves safe. >> we cannot test our way out of this or any other pandemic. testing does not replace personal responsibility. >> reporter: today, the national institutes of health announced they are ramping up, investing nearly $250 million in new technologies, which they say will significantly increase covid-19 testing by millions per week. it can't come soon enough as coronavirus cases continue to climb around the country. oklahoma, pennsylvania, missouri, and connecticut have all seen their average new cases soar. there are new worries about covid and kids. a new report released today by the c.d.c. details an outbreak at a georgia sleepaway camp. it happened last month, where 260 children and staff tested positive less than a week after spending time together. this comes as states are grappling with safely reopening schools. in uh,ll allowed to go to school even if they've been directly exposed to the virus, as lo

contradicted admiral brett giroir on hydroxychloroquine. even shutting down a nurse in the oval office in may over the availability of ppe. >> so ppe has been sporadic, but it's bee mageae. >>dic for u, b n op >> oh, no, i agree, mr. president. >> reporter: wearing a mask in public just three times, the president has fueled an anti-mask movement embraced by republican congressman louie gohmert, who just last week announced he was positive with covid-19. his daughter now pleading with americans, tweeting, "my father ignored medical expertise and now he has covid. it's not worth following a president who has no remorse for leading his followers to an early grave." >> so, let's get right to rachel tonight. we heard the president asked about dr. birx, but he also made news just moments ago, rachel, as you know, on the upcoming presidential election, saying about mail-in ballots, that he has the right to get rid of them? >> reporter: david, the president was asked today if he would issue ative order baotch he claims are subject to fraud, saying

. >> this morning i'll talk to admiral brett giroir and dr. nahi

. >> the white house testing czar, admiral brett giroir, was on cnn earlier today. this is what he said about testing in this country. here it is. >> has the administration actually exhausted it? to get more supplies, like reagents and tips and other testing supplies to the labs? is that true? everything's been done? >> i'm going to say, definitively, yes. >> definitively, yes? there's nothing else the administration can do to get more testing. >> you will hear a dpa action coming up earlier next week. >> would you say enough has been done? enough has been done to make sure that everyone who needs a test, gets a test in this country? >> everything that can be done has been done. >> so, seriously, if they have done everything that can possibly be done, why is testing still a mess in this country? >> so, let me ask you a question. if we've done everything that we possibly can do, why are the results in this country so awful? why are almost 170,000 people dead? well, of course, we haven't done anything that we could possibly do. every public-health official, who has re

. >> reporter: the administration's testing czar, brett giroir appearing on cnn friday after health experts challenged his earlier statements that the country is doing an appropriate amount of testing. >> right now we're testing 700,000, 800,000 people, a fraction of the number we need. >> would you say enough has been done, enough has been done to make sure that everyone who needs a test gets a test? >> everything that could possibly be done has been done. i spend every day trying to increase testing. what i want people to understand, though, is that testing is not the panacea. >> reporter: in georgia where the state reached the highest death toll this week, the governor is praising his state's testing efforts, despite the reporting that recommendations from the white house task force urged the governor to boost mitigation measures since the state's infection rate is nearly double the national average. >> are you going to tell me the data that the governor is looking at and examining is the right data? because if it is, we wouldn't be in the top five while other states that are twice, thre

brett giroir called this a game-changer. what do you make of it? >> it looks as though this test is reasonably good. reasonably rigorous. i haven't seen the final data to see what the specificity and the sensitivity, how many false negatives are there, but nonetheless this is the sort of rapid and and relatively inexpensive test and one that is easy to administer, saliva. a lot easier than putting the swabs up your nose that could be disseminated widely. and clearly we need testing. testing has gone down recently in large measure, i think, because people just despair getting the results in time. so anything we can do to enhance testing and getting the results back quickly will make the data operational. they're useful then rather than waiting a week where the data are not very useful. >> right. you take the test, you find out within an hour or so or whatever, whether or not you have the virus. if you do, you go and isolate yourself. the fda has also authorized four other coronavirus tests that use saliva. explain how this is going to be helpful if

fewer than three hours is being called a game changer by the president's testing zar, admiral brett giroir test that the nba has been using. elizabeth, how exactly does the test work, and might when people expect it to be available? >> jake, this test really has a lot going for it. number one, you don't have to put a stick up your nose. people i know who've had that say it feels like it's touching your brain. it's a lot easier just to use saliva. also, as you said, results in three hours or so. also it's very inexpensive. it can't be used at home right now, but potentially it be developed for at-home use. now, it's not available right now. it's going to take several weeks to sort of do any kind of a rollout. interestingly, this is not the first saliva test to get an authorization from the fda. rutgers had one that came out in may. other companies are working on ones. if we could get a lot of this, they can really maybe cover a lot of territory and many people could use them. and that would really be great. jake? >> so that's some good news. let's talk about the vaccine front. you've got a

admiral brett giroir, the testing czar, testified today that having test results back in two or three days is not -- is not -- a possible benchmark. we have known about this virus since january. how is testing, still, this massive problem? >> well, it's difficult to know because there's not -- there's no real national dashboard that describes exactly what's going on. the numbers evof tests have gon up, pretty substantially, since the start of the pandemic. so we are up to nearly 100,000 tests in a day. but the time delays are longer and longer because we have more disease around the country. people are getting tested because we have more and more disease. and it's like a virtual loop, going in the wrong direction. so we have to get the numbers down and we have to do a better job understanding why the delays are happening. reagent shortages. swab shortages. time. test delays within laboratories. we got to work out all those problems. >> doctor, you came out with a new report this week saying that the u.s. needs to reset its response to covid-19, with policy actions. my question is what

. >> and then, let me ask you about this, just a day after admiral brett giroir said it is time to move on from hydroxychloroquine because there is no evidence it is any kind of effective treatment against covid, president trump is once again hyping the drug. roll it. >> hydroxy has tremendous support, but politically it is toxic because i supported it. interestingly, a great doctor, from what i understand, a great doctor from yale feels strongly about hydroxychloroquine. the ford clinic in michigan came out with a very, very powerful paper saying it is very good. many other -- in france they came out with a very positive statement. many individual doctors have come out with very positive statements. the reason i took it, we have some people that were relatively near me that tested positive. and i took it for that reason, just because i've heard good things. >> kaitlan, why does the president continue to cling to this drug as some sort of solution to covid. >> reporter: he has for months and it doesn't have to be just dr. fauci disagreeing with the president on it. it is the own testing

dismissed hydroxychloroquine calling it ineffective in treating the virus, and on sunday admiral brett giroir said we need to move on from hydroxychloroquine. >>> also, in discussing the threat of coronavirus spread, the president pointed to significant flare-ups overseas. >> we're doing very well with the vaccines and therapeutics. flare-ups in spain, germany, france, australia, japan, and also as you probably heard, in hong kong, they've had some very serious flare-ups. japan has gone -- yeah, a lot of -- six-fold flare-up. that's a lot. but they'll get it under control. >> all right. i want to take a closer look here and fact-check the president a bit. as you see here, the united states recorded far more deaths on august 1st than any of the other countries mentioned there by the president. the president's re-election campaign sends an email to supporters urging them to wear face masks in public saying to do so is, quote, patriotic. he's demeaned the use of masks against him as political. an email sent under the president's name entight ld patriots wear face masks reads in part this. we're

as schools and businesses look to testing as key to reopening plans, admiral brett giroir says results inside of two to three days in many cases are still not possible in much of the country. it comes as the u.s. saw more than 67,000 new cases of the virus on friday. it's pushing the total number of cases above 4.5 million, and the death toll over 153,000. michael george is in new jersey, a state that again is dealing with a flare-up of the virus. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. new jersey had been showing signs of progress, but now the infection rate is rising with more than 700 new cases a day. health experts say the reason is people holding indoor house parties and refusing to wear a mask. it's an issue being seen across the country m. including wisconsin, coronavirus cases are spiking after being pushed back. >> we had made real progress in fighting in virus. unfortunately, things have changed drastically since then. >> reporter: the governor's state saw 6,000 new cases and 55 deaths this week. >> we find ourselves in a completely different situation than one we were in ju

brett giroir, the admiral who leads the testing effort, recently announced a sort of effort to do exactly this program. but specifically, for nursing homes. and i think what they see is a constraint in industry's capacity to scale up production. and what we're suggest is that, by bringing together those who have demand for these tests. and frankly, by setting a new mindset in our country about using screening tests in a far more ubiquitous manner, we think we can actually get industry to overcome those constraints. get to 30 million. >> i'm with you and i love the aim. but i think that you're being too benevolent in the understanding of the underlying motivation. maybe not by giroir, by his boss. because we know what the answer is here. it's an output contract. i don't know that industry can scale up that -- well, give them the money to scale up. do what you did with the wall. find the money. find the will. say we're going to do it. find people to build it. think they'd do the same thing here. it's the same mentality as warp speed. go to these companies. you know who they are. go to other

saying something that i thought was very interesting that i wanted to get your take on, admiral brett giroir, talking about the real impact of what you just were mentioning, wearing masks, listen this. >> wearing mask is incredibly important, but we have to have like 85% or 990% of individuals wearing a mask and avoiding crowds. that is essentially -- gives you the same outcome as a complete shutdown, and why do i say that? well, theoretically we can go through the models, but look at arizona, look at florida, texas, louisiana. these measures are are being implemented and that changes it. >> i -- in that i heard a hopeful very tangible solution to getting out of where we are right now, dr. gander, if everyone wears a mask and everyone avoided the parties you're talking b.do you agree that that would be essentially the same as a complete shutdown? >> i'm not sure, kate, that it would be as effective as a complete shutdown, but if everybody did wear a mask and everybody maintained at least six feet apart and socially distanced you would deskies spread and you wouldn't have are the same economi

i want to begin with your reaction to claims made by admiral brett giroir. >> has the administrationexhausted it to get more supplies like reagents and tips and other testing supplies to the labs, is that true everything's been done? >> i'm going to say definitively yes. >> there's nothing else the administration can do to get more testing? >> you'll hear a dpa action coming up early next week. >> would you say enough has been done to make sure that everyone who needs a test gets a test in this country? >> everything that can possibly be done has been done. >> sanjay, what did you think of that answer? >> i think anybody could look at that and say obviously not enough has been done. we have never gotten testing right in this country. it's sad to say. testing is a key component. i think what the admiral does is he says, look, we're not possibly going to test everyone every day. he holds that up as the counterargument. that's not the counterargument. no one is suggesting that. on the other hand, we have not done nearly enough testing. and i thought pamela really pressed him on that poi

but as admiral brett giroir just warned, things could turn around very quickly unless we are careful.nd getting kids and students back into schools and colleges is the biggest issue perhaps right now. we just heard from governor cuomo in new york who said that k-12 is going to be harder than colleges because you've got kids going home at night potentially spreading the virus. he wants schools to learn from the likes of notre dame. >> we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of positive cases of covid-19 in our first weeks back on campus. >> reporter: 155 cases confirmed in just the past two days. undergrad classes now online only for the next two weeks. but students are staying on campus. covid cases now confirmed at colleges across at least nine states. more than 350 people are now in isolation at the university of tennessee at knoxville. the college has hired contact tracers. >> that's how we found out about this first cluster. and they told us where it was so we knew it was a party off campus. >> reporter: the w.h.o. says now isn't the time for recriminations over parties lik

let's turn to testing of what admiral brett giroir said, giving authorization to a saliva test for coronavirusuld give results in fewer than three hours. how much of a difference could that test make? >> i think it can make a really big difference here, jake. i mean, clearly, testing has been a problem. it continues to be a problem. i know the admiral doesn't like to hear that, but it is true. we are still not doing nearly enough testing here. here's why this is potentially better. one of the challenges has been -- this is a little bit of how the test has done. when you do the swab, you've got to use this particular reagent, then pull the genetic material off the swab. in this case you're using saliva. so that particular reagentwas often in short supply. you don't need that reagentfor this particular test. it still has to go to a lab. it's more easily done as part of pool testing so you can put lots of samples together and then figure out if they're all negative. so it's a big deal. but i'll tell you, jake, i still think it's an incremental big deal in the sense that ultimately what is this go

coronavirus testing czar for the administration admiral brett giroir warns americans not to let up, seeing a declining and not a rise in cases saying that the mitigation that's happening now is working and stay on top of of it. >> also, one night after vp now candidate kamala harris made history becoming the first black and south asian woman ever on a major party ticket tonight it's joe biden's night to make his case, why he thinks he should be the president of the united states. he'll take the virtual stage and officially accept the nomination. more on that later. let's go to diane gallagher for more on this warning by admiral giroir not to ease up on measures like wearing a mask and social distancing. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, poppy. look, there's some cautious optimism seeing the number of cases go down, but health experts also point to the fact that we're seeing the number of people who are being tested across the country decline as well, and so maybe we're not getting the best picture of the infection rate in the united states, especially in states like here in georgia, in flor

robert redfield, head of the centers for disease control and prevention, and admiral brett giroir, the white house testing czar. democratic committee chair jim clyburn of south carolina ripped into the trump administration's response, especially on testing. >> the federal government has still not yet developed and implemented a national strategy to protect the american people. >> reporter: testing and contact tracing have been mostly haheled atocal and state levels. dmd with cases surging in much of the nation,al giroir acknowledged delays in an exchange with democratic congressman andy kim of new jersey.ou >> it be possible for our nation to have results for alls covid templeted and returned within 48 and 72 hours? ishat a possible benchmark that wcan achieve? >> it is not a possible given the demand a supply.oday, it is absolutely a benchmark we ubachieve moving forward >> reporter: replicans pushed the panel on re-opening schools, essential servicesnot inse the classroom. blaine luetkemeter of missouri warned that child abuse is going unreported, because kids are not in school where

brett giroir says the trump administration is working aggressively to create technologies making point of care testing widely available at low cost within the next six weeks. >>> as more schools open across the country, the cdc is now announcing that the number and rate of cases in children in the united states has been steadily increasing. children under 18 make up 22% of the u.s. population and are now accounting for more than 7% of all cases. that's up from earlier this year when children under 18 accounted for just 2% of all covid cases. for more on this, let's bring in cristina alesci. great to see you this afternoon. the new guidance also seems to suggest that almost half of those children show no symptoms of the virus at all. what does that tell us? >> reporter: correct, bianna. and i want to point out two other notable things in this guidance that should be of interest to parents as they weigh whether to send their children back to school. one, is that the cdc officially acknowledged evidence that we know has been out there that children do transmit the disease in places like h

but task force member admiral brett giroir is also distancing himself from the president taking issue with the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus, mr. trump's drufg choice. >> at this point in time, there has been five randomized placebo control trials that do not show any benefit to hydroxychloroquine. i think most physician are not influenced by whatever's on twitter or anything else. and the evidence just doesn't show that hydroxychloroquine is effective right now. >> reporter: asked about that, the president appeared to take criticisms of the drug personally. >> there's a lot of people in a lot of areas that have gotten better very fast. hydroxy has tremendous support, but politically it's toxic because i supported it. if i would have said do not use hydroxychloroquine under any circumstances, they would have come out and they would have said it's a great thing. >> reporter: the president is also sounding defensive when it comes to the u.s. leading the world in covid-19 deaths. >> why do you have so many deaths? the u.s. has so many deaths. >> hold it. we haven't been gi

. >> and joining me now is the a assistant secretary of health, admiral brett giroir. he is also a member of the white house coronavirus task force. since the start of the pandemic, i've had quite a few members of the coronavirus task force on, and i've asked where are we on testing, and i want to play a sample of answers dating back through tril. take a listen. >> we will continue to partner to increase the supply to make sure they have the reagents and the test kits necessary to perform those tests. >> my job is to make sure people of america have enough of what they need going forward. >> so we'll get this virus under control. >> what we're doing now is we've got to test entire communities and find all positive cases because this is a very different virus with this asymptomatic spreading and get every positive case and get those people isolated. >> that last comment was at the end of june. we are now at the beginning of august. we still seem to have the same testing issues and in this case, it's the supply issues and all of that and the lag issue which you testified

i want to turn to testing now and listen to admiral brett giroir had to say on the current state of testing in the country. >> you beat the virus by smart policies, supplemented by strategic testing. do not beat the virus by shotgun testing everyone all the time. it is just a false narrative. i'm really tired of hearing it by people not involved in the system that we need millions of tests every day. >> the u.s. averaging i think about 700,000 tests a day and experts say that's not nearly enough so what do you make of his remarks there? >> he sounded quite upset and i think he maybe overstepped saying people want us to test everyone. i've never heard anyone say let's test everyone every day. that is not the case at all. people say we need to do much more and doing about 700,000 to 800,000 a day and a doctor saying we should do 4 million to 5 million a day for a better idea of who's infected, where to implement the public health strategies, all of that and not saying -- no one's saying test everyone every day. they say we need to do more than we are currently. >> that would be hundreds of mi

brett giroir on one of the sunday talk shows over the weekend saying hydroxychloroquine is not effective treatment for the coronavirus. you have members of this task force, anderson, distancing themselves from the president. and i think -- i think that was very obvious in some of the quotes i was getting from this source familiar with the meeting the president had yesterday. there are people inside the administration who just don't believe the president gets it. >> jim, it's interesting. they're sort of saying he doesn't get it. that's that person's opinion, obviously. and it's -- it's allowing the president a certain -- i mean, it's sort of premised on the idea that, well, it's just a matter of trying to make him understand it. and then, he'll get it and then he'll change. as opposed to, what if he does get it? what if he does understand the numbers which are put in front of him and he actually sees what we are all seeing? but he just doesn't believe that this is a winning topic for him to get re-elected. and so, he has a strategy of just push it to the states. get as far away from it,

. >> reporter: it comes as the white house testing czar brett giroir responds to recent tweets from thes no evidence it helps. >> i think we need to move on from that and talk about what is effective. >> reporter: 22 states plus d.c. and puerto rico now seeing cases climb. >> i don't really know how our family got the virus. >> reporter: in georgia, high school student justin hunter lost both his parents to the virus. his mom and dad died in the same hospital two weeks after being diagnosed. >> my mom, when she would go to the store, she would be wearing a mask. she would be wearing gloves. >> reporter: nearby, a summer camp is closed after the cdc says at least 260 campers and workers tested positive despite safety measures. >> what we want to do is show you the things that we're going to do to keep your camper safe. >> reporter: officials in louisiana now say children make up 10% of their reported cases, surpassing cases in adults over 70. meanwhile, a new york cruise company is in hot water after one of its boats was spotted this weekend packed with nearly 200 people. the owners and

joining us is admiral brett giroir of the white house coronavirus task force and, admiral, thank younounced the most comprehensive testing program in the nation so far. but you're somewhat dismissive of the importance of testing compared to other public health experts. why is that? >> oh, well, thank you for having me on. i'm not at all dismissive of testing. testing is critically important and it plays an important role in surveillance, particularly going back to school. the only thing i'm saying is it's part of a comprehensive plan. you have to do the things the surgeon general and i always tell yourands is the core but, no, test something very important. that's why we've had an historic increase in testing and point of care tests that will be very important to support school re-opening as well as business re-opening? >> how much testing do you think that should be done in schools and when? >> so it's a really good question and that's why we have general guidance and i think we all understand that the amount of testing you need to do depends on what the spread is in your community.

we welcome back admiral brett giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the department of health and human services. and finally we welcome dr. robert redfield, director for -- director of the centers for disease control and prevention. thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today. will the witnesses please stand so i may swear them in? please raise your right hands. do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? you may be seated. let the record show that the witnesses all answered in the affirmative. without objection, your written statements will be made part of the record. dr. fauci, you are recognized for your opening statement. dr. fauci: thank you very much, mr. chairman, ranking member scalise, members of the committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss with you today the role of the national institutes of health in the research endeavor to address covid-19. our strategic plan, which we put together several months ago, implies -- embarks on four separate

and admiral brett giroir, who's in charge, in charge, he's like the czar of testing said let's move beyond. it doesn't work. dr. scott gotlieb said the same thing. and yet you've got these quacks, you've got these cranks, you've got these fphonies, still going around i guess for financial reasons, talking about anecdotal evidence where the overwhelming weight of science says hydroxychloroquine is not the drug to take for covid-19. it's really shocking. but it's one more example of these alternative facts we've been talking about that autocrats use, for whatever reason. and donald trump is using a pandemic and spreading misinformation in a pandemic. and guess what that misinformation and the lies in the pandemic do, mika? they kill people. >> kill people. >> and that's what's happened. >> there you go. that's what i was going to say, his lies are going to lead to the deaths. and i could say, to be a good journalists, scientists say. but we understand the basic science. we can do the math. follow his lies, people will die. we will be right back. lies, pel die. we will be right back. ♪ don't

a member of the white house coronavirus task force, admiral brett giroir says hydroxychloroquine doesn'tho -- this is like the ending of "the sixth sense". i never saw that. the ring's rolling around on the floor and i'm trying to figure out what happens. you never saw it, did you? maybe i need to do this with jonathan lemire. but he says what people have been saying since march, i think, and that is hydroxychloroquine doesn't work and the president just keeps coming back to it. i'd love to follow the money, i just don't know where that money goes. why donald trump keeps pushing this medical scam. >> you know, in this administration, that statement yesterday by the admiral qualifies for a chapter in profiles in courage. you wonder today whether he'll be forced to retire, you wonder what will happen to his career because he spoke the truth. and that is the truth. this is a quackery theory and yet it's been carried on for months and months, led by who else, the president of the united states. amazing. hydroxychloroquine no good. forget it. move on. >> i keep going through ann applebalm's t