The Recovery Report

The Recovery Report is a weekly newsletter about America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic from Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis (SSOCC) Republicans. 

Coronavirus Fact of the Week:

• 30 million. So far the United States has conducted over 30 million coronavirus tests, still outpacing every other country on earth in overall testing.

Coronavirus Quote of the Week:

“We know how to reopen the economy safely.  Working with Congress, we put $3 trillion in.  It’s beginning to work; we see it.  And our work isn’t going to be done until every single one of these jobs is done.” –Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, June 26, 2020

Bogus Narrative of the Week:

For the past several days, Democrats and the media have been making noise about how the Trump administration is supposedly “abandoning” coronavirus testing sites and further endangering America’s testing infrastructure.

Why it’s false:

• Put simply, there are a ton of testing sites now, and the administration is just rearranging some and sunsetting some based on need available technology. As Admiral Brett Giroir explained in response to the hysteria:“We are transitioning 13 sites from the original now antiquated program to the more efficient and effective testing sites,” Giroir said in an emailed statement. He argued the government is still supporting increased testing capacity through a federal bundled payment program for retail pharmacies setting up testing sites.

  Those 13 being transitioned pale in comparison to the rest of the testing infrastructure that the United States currently has in place. And they’re a mere fraction of the 70 testing sites that were damaged or destroyed by rioters recently, which Democrats and the media don’t appear to be at all concerned about. Furthermore, the administration has agreed to continue testing for Texas sites following a request from the state’s Senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn.

Republicans’ message for the real world:

Grieving families still deserve answers about the deadly state-level orders that forced nursing homes to take in coronavirus patients in contradiction of CMS guidelines, and House Republicans are not going to stop until we get them. This past week, Select Subcommittee Republicans, joined by several Republican members of affected states, turned up the pressure on Governors who issued nursing home orders but still haven’t answered questions about what informed their disastrous decisions by going around them to ask for investigations from their states’ attorneys general. Read the letters and the full press release here.

This Week’s SSOCC Highlights:

This week, Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis will hold a hearing on “The Administration’s Efforts to Procure, Stockpile, and Distribute Critical Supplies” on Thursday at 9 AM.

Committee Headlines:

• House Republicans Call For Investigation Into New York’s ‘Deadly’ Nursing Home Order (Daily Caller)
• Scalise: Cuomo Dodging Responsibility for Nursing Home Deaths (Newsmax)
• Steve Scalise demands answers from Democratic governors on forcing COVID-19 patients into nursing homes (Washington Examiner)
• House Republicans Call For Investigation Into New York’s ‘Deadly’ Nursing Home Order (Daily Caller)
• Whitmer won’t cooperate with GOP inquiry on virus in nursing homes (Detroit News)
• Garcia Supports Investigation Of Gavin Newsom Over COVID-19 Nursing Home Policy (KHTS)

• Nearly half of all coronavirus deaths in US occurred inside nursing homes (Fox News)
• WH says Cuomo ‘alone to blame’ for coronavirus nursing home death toll (New York Post)
• COVID-19 case growth not significant for most of the United States (Forbes)
• Nearly 80% of Wisconsin COVID positive patients have recovered (Channel3000)
• U.S. economy improving as cases rise (Reuters)

• How Do Doctors Treating Coronavirus Relax? By Playing the Game ‘Pandemic’(WSJ)

• Gov. Cuomo can’t dodge accountability for nursing home deaths forever (New York Post)
• Scalise and Wahlberg: Michigan’s nursing home order has risked lives (The Detroit News)
• Cuomo’s Covid Chutzpah (Wall Street Journal)
• Cuomo takes a bow after his deadly nursing home decision: Goodwin (New York Post)
• Michigan continues slow, inadequate response to COVID in nursing homes (Traverse City Record Eagle)

• There have been over 2.5 million cases and over 125,000 deaths in the United States, as reported by Johns Hopkins. There have been over 10 million cases and over 502,000 deaths worldwide.
• The below chart shows the number of new cases reported per day in the US. (source)

• The US has now performed over 30 million COVID-19 tests. The nationwide positivity rate, or percentage of tests coming back positive results, continues to increase.

• Gilead announced prices for Remdesivir. The government price will be $390 per dose or $2,340 for a course and the nongovernment price will be $520 per dose or $3,120 for a course. Patients taking remdesivir are discharged four days sooner than those receiving standard treatment, saving $12,000 in hospitalization costs. Non-partisan drug review panel ICER said “Gilead made a responsible pricing decision.”
• China approved an experimental vaccine from CanSino for use by the Chinese military, skipping phase 3 trials which show whether the vaccine is safe and effective. The vaccine is still undergoing human trials.
• Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said spikes in southern states could result in nearly half the country infected by the end of the year.

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Hearings to examine COVID-19, focusing on an update on progress toward safely getting back to work and back to school. (10 a.m. ET )

Senate Foreign Relations 
Hearings to examine COVID-19 and United States international pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response, focusing on additional perspectives. (10 a.m. ET)

Senate Finance Meeting 
Hearings to examine 2020 filing season and IRS COVID-19 recovery. (10:15 a.m. ET)

House Energy and Commerce 
High anxiety and stress: “How to improve mental health during a crisis.” (11 a.m. ET)

House Financial Services Meeting 
Oversight of the Treasury Department’s and Federal Reserve’s Pandemic Response (12:30 p.m. ET)

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Meeting 
Hearings to examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the territories. (2:30 p.m. ET)

House Small Business Hearing 
The Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program: Status Update from the Administration (10 a.m. ET)

Senate Environment and Public Works Meeting
Hearings to examine infrastructure development opportunities to drive economic recovery and resiliency. (10 a.m. ET)

House Intelligence Hearing 
U.S.-China Relations and its Impact on National Security and Intelligence in a Post-COVID World (12 p.m. ET)

House Foreign Affairs Hearing 
The Trump Administration’s Response to COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean. (1 p.m. ET)

Senate Indian Affairs Meeting 
An oversight hearing to examine the response and mitigation to the COVID-19 pandemic in Native communities, including S.3650, to amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to deem employees of urban Indian organizations as part of the Public Health Service for certain purposes. (2 p.m. ET)

House Small Business Hearing, Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access Subcommittee 
Supply Chain Resiliency (10 a.m. ET)

Senate Appropriations Meeting, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee 
Hearings to examine Operation Warp Speed, focusing on researching, manufacturing, and distributing a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine (10 a.m. ET)