Administration officials discuss remdesivir distribution, reopening and testing at Senate HELP hearing

May 12, 2020 - 03:40 PM
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The federal government continues to learn lessons about distributing COVID-19 therapeutics, such as remdesivir, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, M.D., said today at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing. "This has to be an evidence-based approach — getting the medical therapeutics, vaccines, remdesivir, whichever it happens to be, to the people in need," Hahn said. 

The committee posed questions around reopening, testing and vaccines. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, M.D., said that communities that disregard "the checkpoints that we put in our guidelines about when it is safe to proceed in pulling back on mitigation" may "trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control." Nursing home and long-term care facility testing and data reporting also were discussed.

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