to the coronavirus. you can see that at 11:30 eastern. president-elect joe biden will introduce his cabinet picks including housing and urban development secretary and the agricultural department. that is by 2:30 eastern. also watch online at c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. fda meets an open session to approve moderna vaccine for covid-19. live coverage thursday at 9:00 eastern following c-span3. stream live and on-demand at c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. next, hearing on nationwide distribution of a vaccine. representatives of fedex and ups testified before a subcommittee about their partnership with the federal government to ship the vaccine.

sen. fischer: the hearing will come to order. good morning. i am pleased to can dean -- convened this hearing. since the beginning of the pandemic, over 280,000 of our family members, friends and citizens have died from covid-19. many more have had the disease and in some cases with severe symptoms and long-term impacts. even more have felt the economic impact through losing a job, shorter work hours or being forced to close businesses. all of us have adjusted to what we call a new normal which has kept us apart from family, friends and colleagues. it has kept us from celebrating

holidays, engaging in our past times, and enjoying company in person. heard news that vaccines may be available, we could be impressed with the science and hard work that went into developing them and relieved that we may be nearing the beginning of the end of this pandemic. we must remember that until vaccines are widely available, people are vaccinated, we need to continue to wear masks, social distance and wash our hands. approved,accines are we will rely on the transportation sector as we have throughout this year to complete what has been one of the biggest logistics challenges in recent history. we have an opportunity to hear about the preparation to ensure the make, safe and efficient transportation of a vaccine to its destination from the

manufacturer to state designated providers. first, i want to thank the administration. operation warp speed and participating agencies, scientists and vaccine manufacturers for all of their dedication and ingenuity to getting us where we are today to rent we must remember all of the frontline workers have given so much in this past year. the cdc says its goal is for everyone who wants vaccine to be able to get one as soon as possible. dod as part of operation warp speed aims to procure enough supply kids to support 660 million doses. as and fedex will play critical role in ensuring vaccines are delivered to providers identified by the state. states will ensure the vaccine

is administered or distributed as necessary. each of the witnesses will provide insight into the planning that has already gone into transporting and distributing a vaccine. the anticipated challenges and what congress and the public should expect from this process. one of the more notable challenges will be maintaining meaning thatn -- the vaccine does not experience a warmer temperature during transportation and storage that it can handle. the pfizer vaccine must be cap or -94degrees celsius degrees fahrenheit. the moderna vaccine must be maintained at -20 degrees celsius or negative four degrees fahrenheit. about the hear transportation network's capacity to ship a vaccine. more people were already using e-commerce and even more will

want to ship gifts for the holidays so how will the vaccine transportation fit into this demand for shipping? we also want to know if the witnesses have the necessary guidance and resources to transport the vaccine, particularly following the department of transportation's notice last week that the guidance and waivers were in place for the vaccine transport. finally, we want to hear about near and long-term plans to transport an increasing number of vaccine doses through the spring and summer of 2021. i look forward to your testimony and i would now like to invite my colleague and the ranking member, senator duckworth, to offer her opening remarks. i believe senator duckworth is speaking to us remotely. sen. duckworth: thank you, madam chair. thank you for holding this hearing.

this is likely our last hearing of the 116th congress. thank you for your leadership and partnership to address pressing transportation and safety issues facing our nation. at our first meeting as to your ranking member in 2019 we discussed issues of mutual interest and agreed to work on legislative matters such as passing a pipeline safety reauthorization. today we are close to finalizing that legislation. i hope we are able to complete that with our house counterparts. supplys been in short but should we be in these seats again, i look forward to continuing our productive collaboration. and to our witnesses, thank you for your participation. unfortunately millions of friends and neighbors are grieving the loss of a family member or loved one. this tragedy has been

exacerbated by president trump's refusal to take this pandemic seriously. to say i am disappointed with the president's response is an understatement. from the onset of covid-19 the president has renounced his response abilities and abandoned logic, stability and expert advice while prioritizing self-promotion. as for the hard work of many dedicated servants, health officials and front line workers, covid-19 may have stolen twice as many american 290,000an the more than we have already perished. if staff could bring up the graphic. , the president dismissed the pandemic by suggesting that after electric day -- election day, "we will be hearing about it anymore." since election day, an

additional 55,000 have died and covid-19 infections have spiked to record highs across this nation. in the past week, the president has held super-spreader holiday parties at the white house despite the advice of his own health experts. he has held a vaccine summit and issued an executive order so meaningless that he did not bother to inform the top scientists of operation warp speed. as is often the case with this administration, others must plan, prepare and implement in absence of presidential leadership. confident inars church really fedex and ups, that they already operate a massive network capable of distributing vaccines nationwide. perhaps most importantly, those testifying appear to be confident that their respective network that already exists for

transporting perishables will be up to the task of safely chipping vaccines. of course, this committee does not only accept connections at face value. ands prudent to prepare for expect things to go terribly wrong. i hope we will learn more about what evidence underlies the confidence of our witnesses. our shippers stressed their capacity to handle a mass of holiday shipping boom and a vaccine or multiple vaccines with different requirements. have companies taking the steps to proactively secure supplies like dry ice? while the president has undermined scientists, experts and logistics professionals at every turn, our long-standing history of public-private partnerships in developing countermeasures as enabled us to develop vaccines in record time.

until the oval office returns last month, our nation is depending on the private sector and state and local government to execute what may be one of the most complex logistical challenges our country has ever faced. this will not be easy. our country has lost significant ground. however i am optimistic about the outcome because of actions taken by many public and private sector stakeholders to develop and implement needed to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines as quickly as possible. again, thank you to our witnesses. thank you, madam chair. i will be turning off my camera because as you can see, i am at home. i'm doing my daughter's distance education. i look forward to today's hearing. sen. fischer: thank you, senator

duckworth. it has been a pleasure to work with you on the issues that we agree on and it is always a joy to be able to work out differences so that we can pass good legislation to the people of this country. next, i would like to recognize senator roger wicker. you are recognized for an opening statement. i believe you are also at a remote location. sen. wicker: i am at a remote location. can you hear me? sen. fischer: i can. i can see you in your office. sen. wicker: my office does not compare to senator duckworth's kitchen. er thanation is much neat my desk. but here we are. thank you, senator fischer for your leadership in holding this

hearing. over 290,000 deaths in the united states because of the covid-19 pandemic. that is tragic in every way. today is a day of good news. will givete the fda approval to one of the vaccines, i certainly hope so. also it is a time to celebrate the great success of operation warp speed -- it is breathtaking how are scientists -- our scientists have exceeded expectations and performed wherees and here we are vaccines are now being given globally and will soon be given in the united states. there is good news amidst the

tragedy. today's hearing will inform the committee about the logistics of distributing vaccines. these vaccines were produced at record pace because of operation public-private partnership devised by the trump administration. there is no way around that. congress passed legislation to invest in this and it makes me feel good as an american and a member of the senate and this committee. efforts to ship the vaccine will begin immediately once the fda issues emergency authorization. we will be looking for news today. our transportation network has been critical in helping sustain our economy during this pandemic and it will be just as critical in enabling us to beat the virus. do, but wech left to are turning the corner.

as we turn the page of the new year, i think things are looking up and thank goodness for that. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses about their roles in insuring the vaccines are distributed safely and efficiently. we will be asking adequate communication between federal, state and local officials -- [inaudible] -- vaccines with the rest of what we are looking for and then we will be wanting to hear from witnesses about any cyber threats that we might have. thank you very much. glad to be part of this. thank you much to our witnesses and i yield back to you, madam chair. sen. fischer: thank you, chairman. i would like to introduce our witnesses for their opening statements.

let's begin with dr. rachel levine, secretary of health for pennsylvania. as levine is here today president of the association of state and territorial health officials. welcome, dr. levine. dr. levine: good morning. thank you very much. i would like to thank chairman senator wicker, senator cantwell, senator fishel -- fisher, senator duckworth, and all of the distinct members of the senate transportation committee to discuss the challenges facing states like pennsylvania. as you stated, my name is dr. levine, i am the secretary of health for the commonwealth attends avandia and i'm currently -- the commonwealth of pennsylvania. i joined the administration in

2015 after 20 years at the penn state hershey medical center and college of medicine as the physician general of the commonwealth. i was the acting secretary in 2017 and confirmed in 2018. time, public policy has always been one of my higher readies. -- one of my priorities. the thing that would keep me up at night would be the risk of a global pandemic. unfortunately, that has come to pass. from a public health perspective, there are three ways to address a pandemic such as covid-19. you can work on containment which includes testing and contact tracing with appropriate isolation and quarantine. you can work on mitigation such as wearing a mask, washing your hands, social distancing, avoiding gatherings and other

mitigation factors implemented by states. and then there is vaccination. we continue to apply containment, mitigation measures to control the spread and we have seen success and we have seen challenges. mentioned, the only way to end this pandemic is through widespread vaccination. this will be our biggest challenge yet. as has been stated, there are two vaccines currently that we anticipate will be available in the next several weeks -- the pfizer vaccine and the modernity vaccine. -- the moderna vaccine. these are two vaccines based on novel technology using genetic material called messenger rna to induce immune response -- a tremendous achievement. each vaccine needs different

methods of containment, transportation and distribution. in pennsylvania we have collaborated with officials from across the country to solve these logistical challenges. the challenges that this essential mission -- of this mission go beyond getting the vaccine from point a to point b. we are facing challenges in coordination and communication in such a massive mission between federal, state and local health agencies. and theacing challenges state had little or no involvement in policy decisions discussion.tions -- we are facing challenges in a coordinated communication strategy to invoke confidence in the safety and efficacy of the vaccines and to be able to counter vaccine hesitancy. finally, we are facing sufficientin finding

to execute a vaccine over the long haul. despite this, we are confident in our ability to carry out this mission. running vaccination programs is fundamental to public health. we have experienced and detailed plans to meet the challenge of this historic moment. this will not be a short-term operation. in the $300 million allocated to states, territories and big cities is insufficient. 300 30 million people in the u.s.. people in the u.s. of state andon territorial health officials of which i am president, has partnered with the association for innovation managers and we are requesting that congress provide $8.4 billion in emergency funding for this

ongoing mass vaccination campaign. that will include funding for workforce, infrastructure, outreach to priority populations, communications and educational efforts to increase vaccine confidence and combat misinformation. our vision is a healthy pennsylvania fall and we are focused in moving toward that mission and ensuring all people have access to the covid-19 vaccines. publicoud of the immense health work being done in pennsylvania and across the country to slow the spread of this virus and save lives. one thing this pandemic has reinforced is the need for investment in public health and placed a spotlight on the need for funding to support our efforts to vaccinate the entire country to bring this pandemic under control. thank you for the opportunity to offer this testimony and for all of your partnership and i can answer any questions.

sen. fischer: thank you. i would like to introduce richard smith, the regional executive vice president of global support for fedex. he oversees operations in the u.s. domestic market, canada, latin america and the caribbean. welcome. mr. smith: thank you. chairwoman fischer, ranking member duckworth, and members of the committee. thank you for inviting meet to appear before you to discuss our involvement in covid-19 vaccine distribution. before i begin, i would like to express my sincere appreciation for the courageous work of our more than 600,000 fedex team members who have been on the front lines since the start of the pandemic providing essential transportation services and

keeping supply chains moving. as a result of their commitment to the communities we serve, we have delivered over 2 billion ofgical masks, 55 kilotons personal protective equipment and over 9600 shipments to support the global response to covid-19. when the pandemic reached the united states we worked to support over 40 testing sites, spanning across 10 states delivering test kits and samples. i am proud of the positive impact the team's work has had on the response and will continue to have as we enter this next critical phase. i am grateful and humbled by their commitment to service which we refer to as delivering the purple promise. 47 years ago fedex was created for the service required for today's mission. fast delivery of high-priority goods. as the largest global express transportation provider, fedex

is serving over 200 countries and territories. within the united states, we can delivered to every zip code. with the largest fleet of cargo airplanes, over 670, and over 180,000 motorized ground vehicles, we deliver more than 17 million packages a day. every day at fedex, we focus on what we can control and prepare for the things we cannot. we invest in our team members and innovative technologies, all in preparation to serve the needs of our customers and communities. fedex has a long history of supporting critical relief efforts around the world and we are ready for the challenge ahead. for the past several months, we have been working closely with our healthcare customers, both the vaccine manufacturers and distributors as well as the federal government. we have years of experience in this area, shipping flu vaccines every flu season and moving vaccines globally for decades, as well as transporting over 80 million vaccine doses to combat h1n1 in 2009.

we also regularly carry vaccines for commercial and government organizations, both domestic and international. our healthcare team has been able to leverage this experience, flex our comprehensive network, and work with various stakeholders to build customized solutions to achieve our collective goal: moving covid-19 vaccine shipments as safely, securely, and quickly as possible. this is who we are and what we do. once the vaccines are approved and ready for distribution, vaccine and related healthcare shipments will be the top priority for the fedex express network. willeam will monitor access using monitoring tools including senseaware id which uses fedex patented technology, as well as our fedex surround platform providing analytics. these technologies provide increased visibility and near realtime updates on sensitive packages allowing us to intervene and intercept a shipment if necessary. long ago, we recognized that information about the package

was just as important as the package itself and invested in these innovative solutions for this exact purpose. ourave made investments in cold chain infrastructure over the years, including our packaging, aircraft, motorized vehicles, and facilities. we are also expanding our freezers at major hubs. we have planned for the contingencies for missions like this and are prepared to respond as needed. finally, maintaining the health and safety of our essential frontline workers will remain our top priority throughout this effort. to date we have spent over $225 million in personal protective equipment and cleaning services to keep our employees safe. we will continue to invest in our employee health safety and monitoring programs, providing safety equipment, cleaning our facilities and ensuring that our employees have access to covid-19 testing. their health and fitness remain

vital to this effort. from day one of our operation, fedex has taken the necessary steps and is well-positioned to respond here and abroad. this concludes my statement. i appreciate your time today and look forward to answering any questions you may have. sen. fischer: thank you, mr. smith. next, i would like to do's -- introduce wesley wheeler. ups's work related to pharmaceuticals and medical devices transportation, wholesalers, retail distributors and customers of healthcare products. welcome. mr. wheeler: good morning, cheer fisher, ranking member duckworth and members of the subcommittee. my name is wes wheeler, and i am the president of ups healthcare, the company's healthcare and life sciences division. thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning and discuss our involvement in covid-19.

i will focus my testimony on our capabilities, our involvement in operation warp speed and the solutions we are implementing to ensure the safe and effective delivery of vaccines upon approval. i trust that my testimony today will clarify our involvement and i look forward to your questions. while ups is known primarily for its brown trucks and drivers, members of the subcommittee may not be aware that ups is also a longstanding provider of supply chain services for many healthcare companies around the world. we handle medicines in more than 10 million square feet of facilities in more than 32 countries. our facilities are designed to handle biologically derived drugs such as vaccines at any temperature. we also offer end-to-end cold chain transportation service by air, ground or ocean and we deliver on average more than 25 million packages per day. ups has been on the front lines of covid-19 since february of this year. we supported fema and project air bridge by moving more than 24 million pounds of ppe and we

opened up our facilities to the national stockpile program. we also supported 32 states by distributing millions of diagnostic test kits and biologic samples for covid-19. we are also involved in clinical trials. wasups healthcare group trialed to be logistic partner for pfizer's covid-19 vaccine clinical trial. in fact, we are providing logistics support for eight of the ten leading vaccines in clinical trials today. our experience with these trials helps us to prepare for the vaccines when they come to market. ups is a proper partner of operation warp speed and we are delighted to present the vaccines this week with the president. we are in daily contact at all levels with the team. just last week, general perna and dr. slaoui visited one of our newest healthcare facilities in louisville, ky. we reviewed our supply chain planning and the preparations we have in place.

we discussed how we will handle ultra-low temperature shipments and in particular, how our dry ice replenishment program will be managed. i believe they left feeling confident with our degree of readiness. let me elaborate on the subjects -- transportation, security and temperature issues. understand that ups has spent many weeks designing the supply routes and expected data flows for these vaccines. capacity has been reserved in our air network, operating hubs and ground operations. our 3000 pilots will know they are carrying vaccines. our trailers will have escorts. we will monitor all vaccine shipments in a newly dedicated 24/7 command center which collects data from all sources including gps and temperature monitors. each package will also carry a ups-exclusive active tag which provides visibility in our network. command center staff have been trained to monitor and, if required, intervene and recover

a vaccine package. ups has also designed software that can detect network disruptions before they occur. on the issue of temperature control, ups has extensive experience with storage and transport of any material at any temperature. however it is important to note that, in the case of these vaccines, the temperature-in-transit will be maintained by its packaging, which is designed to keep its internal temperature at temperature for several days. pfizer and mckesson have chosen appropriate, validated and environmentally-friendly packaging for these two vaccines and we have extensively tested both. ups has also invested in dry ice manufacturing capacity for replenishment at dosing sites where required. ups will produce over 24,000 pounds of dry ice per day in our -- in law bill and we will ship 40 pounds of dry ice to all one dayozing locations after the vaccine arrives. ups is also nearing completion of very large coolers and

freezers in the same facility for storage of future vaccines in the pipeline. we offer a program to supply ultralow temperature freezers for dosing sites where dry ice may not be available. we are ready. i'd like to take a moment to thank the thousands of upsers who are ready to deliver the greatest contribution to this country we can possibly imagine. colleagues,h our none of this would be possible. thank you very much and i will take your questions. sen. fischer: thank you, mr. wheeler and thank you you to our panel. i would like to begin the first round of questions. smith, wer and mr. are in the midst of shipping season when transport capacity is expected to be tight. tens of millions of doses are likely to be available today. approved, willre ups and fedex and share capacity

is available in your network for vaccines and if so, how will you ensure that capacity is available, mr. smith? forsmith: we begin planning peak in january of that year. we recognized this would be a record season and throughout the changeds the picture and we saw the folks ordering things at home and the volumes spiked, we adjusted accordingly. we have taken to calling this peak the shipathon. , we as my competitor said also knew the vaccines would be coming when we started planning for this with operation warp speed and the manufacturers and or should bidder who role. we started reserving capacity for that. we have been preparing for months working with all of our customers to match the network capacity with the demand we expect to see just as we would

do for any surge whether it is peak season, a new iphone release, or any new product introduction. we have been prowling for this -- planning for this. we have hired 70,000 more team members to support our needs this season. as i said, this is what we do. this is what we were built for. we plan for things like this regularly. but weot on the scale, are well-versed in this planning. i will point out for fedex, we have different operating companies that focus on different things. you may see a fedex truck on the road and sometimes you will see an express truck. fedex ground system will handle the bulk of the surging online retail orders, all of your christmas presidents -- christmas presents. express networks focuses on time critical deliveries like vaccines. that is the company that will

focus on delivering your mission-critical vaccines. thank you. sen. fischer: mr. wheeler? mr. wheeler: thank you. i am an engineer. anths ago we started building forecasting model trying to predict how many vaccine companies would be approved this year and next year, where the manufacturing locations where. we started to think about how many doses per shipment. we built a very detailed forecasting model which would allow us to predict how much we would be having too reserve in our capacity. ourng peak we are now above 25 million per day. we are at 34 million. we have reserved capacity in all of the lanes from our manufacturing locations, even those in development. we talked to all of companies including novavax, astrazeneca, j&j to find out how much volume would come to the pipeline at

the first of the year and beyond. we have reserved plenty of capacity. we are ready now. we have the dry ice capacity to start with a large number of pfizer vaccine shipments next week. we agree -- very much looking forward to that. sen. fischer: if i'm understanding you both correctly, you knew this was going to be a preseason anyway and now you have put covid on top of it and the challenges that we face there in our daily ills with people becoming and having to have time off and having those people replaced. you hire more people, you use different delivery systems whether it is for regular shipping compared to the shipping we are going to see now with the vaccines. that theresee a need vaccines are going to have to be -- become a priority?

if the development of the increases at a higher capacity, at a faster capacity, have you , howed for that and then do you plan to get that out? do you plan to follow a model of hiring more people, getting the resources you need whether it is finding other shipping companies , airfreight, and then the freezing capacity and getting it delivered throughout the united states? mr. smith: we have said throughout this that there would be no higher priority shipments in our network. they will have the highest priority of anything we carry in all of our fedex networks but certainly in the fedex express system. we will be using new technologies and i'm sure someone will get to a question on that. i will not go into too much

detail about our tracking technology that will allow us to have positive control of the shipments among know where they are, given that highest priority, and make sure they are delivered and intercede if there is any unforeseen delays weather-related, traffic delays, we will be able to jump into action. sen. fischer: i will interrupt you. do you have a good relationship with airports? mr. smith: absolutely. sen. fischer: -- that you will enter priority lanes there? do you transport by rail and trucking? mr. smith: the shipments will move in our integrated system. we are working closely with the faa. we are working to identify the fights that will have these shipments. they will get the highest priority. to your question on staffing, we staff up just like ups does. we hire a lot of team members during peak. we know as vaccines ramp-up, we

will continue operating at elevated levels. we are confident we have the team members in place and will maintain those team members we have staffed up to continue with distribution and beyond. sen. fischer: thank you. mr. wheeler? mr. wheeler: very similar. every year, we plan on peak. we have added 100,000 workers. this is going to be our biggest peak ever. i believe that is the same for my colleague. planning for the capacity is something we do every year. we have done this for several months. it turns out the volume is there. in terms of the vaccines, similar to what richard was showing, we have a yulia -- ups gold service. everyabel will go on single vaccine package and every dry ice package. this allows us to see the package as soon as it arrives in any of our locations. as soon as it arrives in any airport and even some of our

ancillary supply areas, we will see the package and it will get priority. it goes on the plane first, it comes off the plane first. that gives us the ability to see the package. we have triple redundancy. when the packages leave kalamazoo, michigan or one of the locations of the manufacturers, the trucks will have a device -- this is a tracker that also gives temperature, light exposure and motion. it gives us a lot of data. pfizer is providing data from their own packages. we have three ways of looking at the package through the system and all of that data streams into our command center and we transmit that data through operation warp speed. we are all watching the packages all day long. we have high confidence that we will see all the packages running through the network. sen. fischer: thank you. senator klobuchar? sen. klobuchar: thank you very much to all of the witnesses here.

i think we all know that this vaccine or the vaccines will be critical to getting our economy moving in a big way. while states including minnesota are making the decisions about exactly their own plans for distribution, i think we all know they cannot do it alone. that is why this time is critical as we are in this room and i want to thank the chair and ranking member for holding this important hearing at this time. we've got to make sure that the resources are there for the state and local. i will start with a quick question there of dr. levine and that is, could you explain, dr. levine, why it is important to get federal help in getting the vaccine distribution going? dr. levine: thank you very much for that question. the states and territories as well as the big cities chosen for this mission stand ready to accomplish it and immunize

everyone in the united states that will accept a vaccine. have essential that we proper communication and education messages from the cdc but also, from each state, territory and city to be able to educate people about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine and educate people and dispel misconceptions about the vaccine as well as work passed vaccine hesitancy. we currently have no funding to accomplish that part of our mission. $340 million to all of the states. $14.6lvania's share is million. that is going to give us a start as we administer the vaccine hopefully next week and through december and into january. this is a long mission and it is

going to take more funding. we have no money for the communication. sen. klobuchar: thank you. dr. smith and mr. smith, thank you for the work and your employees. i left my apartment in washington. all of the packages and people working hard including postal service employees, your employees and so many people every single day are on the front lines. i want to thank them for you for that. making no complaints about package deliveries. everything has been going well. i was concerned about how the vaccines are going to get to the rural areas because they are not just going to be parachuted in minnesota of luverne, or to one of the communities in nebraska. can you talk about how you are paying attention to that? mr. smith: as i mentioned in my remarks, we have the credibility

to serve every zip code in the united states. we do it every day. we have over 1.7 billion zip code service combination. with this capacity, where you live in chicago, illinois or south dakota, we are able to ensure deliveries of shipments and we feel very confident in our capabilities in this regard. this is what our network was built to do. add --obuchar: can i pharmaceutical companies have reported about 5% to 20% of vaccines spoiled during distribution. it is just a fact since they are highly perishable. we don't have an unlimited supply. it is really important that they not do that. i assume that the tracking technology that you both were talking about is part of that. if i understand the question, it is about protection of the product.

this is the product. it is a vial. this is the pfizer vaccine, not the actual vaccine. sen. klobuchar: good to know. thatheeler: the packaging pfizer has developed, we presented that to the vaccine summit this week. it is very highly complex. it has dry ice in the bottom. it has pizza trays where they can put up to 195 of these files in the trade and they are packed with more dry ice and there is a tracking device on top. neverassure you, i have seen packaging that complicate it before and they have been very proud to develop that we are the first to show that this week. i am confident aside from being big damage, that we are going to have a lot less spoiled than you think. sen. klobuchar: the dry ice that

you talked about -- i know ups healthcare announced increased dry ice production capacity, producing something like 1200 pounds of dry ice per hour, is that right? mr. wheeler: 25,000 per day. sen. klobuchar: can any of that be made available for hospitals and clinics that need extra storage and how would supply for necessary transportation and storage materials kept up with this increased demand? i'm trying to look at this as the entire supply chain as we get this vaccine out. mr. wheeler: i am sure we both agree -- there is plenty of third-party supply for dry eyes and we are prepared to do that. we had that and we are fine with several months of dry ice. ice andlly built a dry you plant in kentucky. we had the contingency dry ice and we are able, if we have extra, can provide that to independent hospitals and clinics around the world --

around the country. sen. klobuchar: very good. do you want to add anything, mr. smith? mr. smith: we have talked to a number of vendors across the world in terms of dry ice replenishment or top off for packages when they experience a delay where you may be asked by the customer to top it off. we are not being asked to do that while it is in transit. postdelivery, there may be some upsice pop off which acquired and is part of their healthcare business which mr. wheeler will be providing some of those services where they top off postdelivery. in talking to the vendors, they don't believe that a dry ice shortage is real. they think there is plenty out there. sen. klobuchar: good. thank you, both of you and thank you, dr. levine. sen. fischer: thank you, senator klobuchar. i appreciate your comments on how to get things out to rural

america. i would like to recognize senator johnson. you,johnson: thank chairman fisher for holding this hearing in the midst of such a challenging year. we are excited about such a high level of innovation and ingenuity that went into developing these vaccines and it is going to take a high level of ingenuity and coordination to get it just rebooted across the country -- distributed across the country. what my chair from nebraska and my colleague from minnesota said about getting it to rural areas. i appreciate your focus on that. obviously, is going to take a sophisticated supply chain at this scale and that is going to require logistical coordination between organizations.

at least two vaccines, each with its own methods for distribution are likely to be authorized in the future. to how you are preparing to simultaneously distribute these vaccines at scale in a safe and rapid manner and does the potential authorization of additional vaccines and further complexity -- add further complexity? mr. smith: there are two models. the pfizer and the moderna vaccine. moderna has opted to use mckesson to put together the full package of the vaccine with the syringes, needles, wipes and -- theyaccines require will do all of that and ship it at once. pfizer's model is different. the vaccine will come from the pfizer manufacturing site and it up at the

administration site. when i talked about the discrete origin-destination pairs we can connect with our network and a network like ups, that is not really a challenge. as more vaccines come on, this is what we do every day. they are asking us to transport them rapidly from point a to point b, to get them either from the manufacturer, the duchenne beater, to tens of thousands -- or. distributio the onus of protecting the package is on the manufacturer unless there is some unforeseen delay. mr. wheeler: i will add to this. there is a complex difference between the two. theer is going with mckesson shipment with the ppe

and equipment necessary. those kids are going out from ups the day before the vaccines arrive. it gives us good visibility of where the vaccines will be delivered. if there are any errors in the addresses, will know that. when they arrived, we caught it off with dry ice. moderna is different. just as richard said, the whole package is going together from mckesson. it makes it easier. we are picking up from the site in shepherdsville, kentucky and taking it to destinations. in addition to the work you are doing, there are some passenger carriers including united, american and delta preparing to just tribute vaccines -- can you describe how your company's plan to corn with other carriers -- coordinate with other carriers? we don't have a need

to collaborate with other carriers. -- we rungest cargo the largest cargo airline in the world. we have plenty capacity in our own system, particularly in the domestic united states. sen. thune: the department of transportation is committed to providing the flexibility necessary for rapid vaccine distribution. be on the actions taken by the department so far, -- beyond the actions taken so far, do you have any suggestions to improve the ability of supply chains to meet the task? are you getting what you need from the transportation -- mr. smith: the government has been highly supportive in helping service providers continue to operate during these difficult times. as one example, the dot has been andctive issuing guidance providing relief. medical certifications

facilitating alternative methods of training where appropriate, developing guidance on employee health safety practices and working with foreign governments on policies to allow team members to continue to work. we have been getting a lot of great support. mr. wheeler: i will add one thing. we are working with the faa. they have asked us to send them a file every day of where the flights are landing. in the event that they have a difficulty or backup landing aircraft, they will know that vaccines are coming and give priority to those shipments. sen. thune: i am pleased to hear that. madam chair, i think the willingness of the dot to make this as easy as possible given obviously all of the regulations that you all live by on a daily cases is really important to expedite it and get it out as quickly as possible. thank you. appreciate you being here. sen. fischer: thank you, senator.

next, senator peters. morning,rs: good gentlemen. to have you here and a third will be online. dr. levine, a question for you. it was a similar question but it is important for me to get a sense from your state. pennsylvania is like michigan. michigan is the home of a number of rural communities. two thirds of our state is classified as rural and 30% of those residents in those areas are over 60 who are high priority for receiving the vaccine. given the limited number of medical facilities and infrastructure in these communities, how are you preparing to make sure these vaccines remain stable at the temperature that they need is a significant challenge to get a sense of what you're doing in pennsylvania and it may help us as we think through our issues. dr. levine: thank you for that

question. pennsylvania is a very rural state. havehe first vaccine we approximately 100 possibles that vaccine to bethe able to immunize healthcare workers. those are hospitals that have the ability to do two things. one is to have the cold chain stores and refrigeration capacity and the second is to do widespread vaccination of 975 first as oure colleagues talked about. that theticipating moderna vaccine will come out within several weeks. that is the vaccine that will be just tribute it to the rural hospitals that don't have the opacity to store the pfizer vaccine and will be a competent omission of immunizing healthcare workers in those rural areas.

in terms of long-term living facilities, those vaccines will be going to distribution centers and they have hired significant personnel to go out to nursing homes and other facilities to accomplish those immunizations. peters: does your state have resources to implement a mobile vaccination clinic to reach these areas? dr. levine: yes, we will. that will come into play with future phases of the vaccine. particularly, phase two and phase three where the department of health is ordaining much of the vaccination through vaccine hc's and through fq mobile vans. phase one really is going to be the hospital's that will be immunizing most of the healthcare workers. cvs and walgreens going directly

to long-term care facilities to accomplish those immunizations. sen. peters: thank you. a question for mr. smith and mr. wheeler. ibm released a disturbing report detailing cyber attacks on covid-19 vaccine distribution infrastructure. last month, a cold chain stores company reported they were the target of a cyberattack. my question is what steps have you taken to ensure hackers are not able to disrupt the distribution networks for the vaccines for your company's -- companies? mr. smith: i know you understand the sensitivity of this information we are dealing with. we are engaged with all of the relevant agencies on this issue. we are taking the necessary precautions using the latest technology to safely and securely support these vaccines. we also have a tremendously

strong information security group at fedex. it is not my area. i run operations and network planning and engineering for the americas. we can follow up with more specifics on all of the things we have done. iny do a fantastic job protecting us from attacks. sen. peters: thank you. mr. wheeler? mr. wheeler: i think a good way to answer the question. pfizer and mckesson are the two primary distributors and they are long-standing clients of ours. the data movement between these companies and ups is well trodden. it is a path we have been walking for a long time. those data feeds are well protected. we have firewalls and all of the security measures. we presented this yesterday at the operation warp speed headquarters to give them the assurance that we have the right security measures.

thank you.: -- sen. peters: thank you. sen. fischer: thank you, senator peters. next we have senator cap o.uld've -- caput me?an you hear sen. fischer: we see you as well. >> thank you for being here. this is very much top of mind for many people are certainly in west virginia and all across the country. the logistics of this are exceedingly important. dr. levine, i would like to ask you the first question. in pennsylvania, you might have noticed west virginia relied on our national guard to do supply-chain, ppe for our schools, we have done a lot of lleding and have really fi an enormous gap and has been the

front-line workers at the governors rely on. is there any plan in pennsylvania to use that supply-chain or that knowledge that the guard has a cumin lady to be a part of this -- has accumulated to be a part of this distribution? dr. levine: other states do plan to use guys -- good lives national guard. in pennsylvania, we do not. our national guard are working primarily we have used medical personnel extensively as teams to go into challenged nursing homes to provide direct care to patients and in nursing homes that have staffing issues because staff has covid-19 or they are in quarantine.

. we are not used to the guard and our plan. on the dosages, let me ask a question. if you the pfizer dose, is the amount of the first dose this same as the amount of the second dose? dr. levine: yes. >> i think this is going to be a problem, tracking that. particularly in rural america. to was possibility of that? do you as the chief medical officer? does pfizer have the responsibility? where does that responsibility life? my understanding is the second dose is critical. dr. levine: the second dose is critical to create the appropriate immune response so the individual will have a good chance of being immune to

covid-19. .t is primarily responsibility check responsibility to when the first dose is given and when the second dose is given. both the health care providers and the department of health have recall mechanisms to contact patients who don't come for their second dose. >> do you have the systems available to you that would be perfect for inputting this data so you can follow-up? if that system up and does it exist now? dr. levine: the system exists now. we did have to update our system thiske it more robust with transition which is bigger than other campaigns we have had, but we have those systems. >> let me ask you this question last house.

be last house deliveries may from u.s. postal service. is that a correct assumption? >> we both have services where we utilize the u.s. postal service for final deliveries, particularly of lightweight low value commerce items. >> with the vaccine fall into this? >> absolutely not. it will be delivered by fedex express to these sites. >> is that the same with ups? mr. wheeler: that is executive same -- that is exactly the same. all of our ups employees are ups employees. >> i imagine. the fewer hands between the vaccine and the person receives it eliminates any kind of room

for error. mr. wheeler: i agree 100%. >> i was interested to hear the services or pilot licenses or other things. understand that is going to be helpful to both of you to make sure you have full capacity to be able to move forward. you have anything to add on that aspect or you might need some other flex abilities? mr. smith: we are testing pilots on a regular basis to make sure we can rotate them efficiently. we are testing all of our pilots. we are doing the same. they're being tested before they fly internationally --. >> let's go to trucks, same thing? thoseare restrictions on two -- those, too?

we can manage those and we don't have any additional asks. mr. wheeler: we are giving priority to all vaccine distributional. as soon as they arrive, the drivers will know they're moving vaccine and that it is a priority for them. they will put those on their trucks first and the others will follow. moran: -- sen. moore: one more question, you need injection devices. are you in contact with those manufacturers? are you part of that whole stream of logistics that are going to be important to delivering the vaccine? mr. wheeler: ups moves everything so we are moving supplies to our customers.

sen. moore: is that something you're making special consideration for? mr. wheeler: of course. same.ith: we are planning for anything we either from --ve for a manufacturer like pfizer. whether we are shipping a vaccine, we are the same. we are prepared and ready and planning that with them. sen. moore: thank you. senator baldwin, you are recognized. baldwin: we are looking forward to hearing from the fda later today but we all know we have a lot of work to do. we still need to wear masks, we still need to limit gatherings until at least 70% of americans are vaccinated.

our states are going to need support. in hearing from wisconsin officials, they have been working overtime to provide care spread, and prepare for the vaccine distribution. they estimate they will need an additional $10 million for vaccine infrastructure readiness over the months to come. states are doing as much as they can to get ready, but they can't do this work alone. i am concerned about the potential for breakdowns in communication between the federal government, states, and the private sector. we have got to get this right from the start. mr. wheeler and mr. smith, given your roles in the distribution whichs, can you describe points in the distribution coordination will be the most

critical and where you see the potential for breakdowns? what do we need to do to ensure better coordination at these points? stateith: the restrictions -- the state jurisdictions come up with a good forecasting model. as soon as we get to the volume coming to the pipeline and the system, the better. i think that is the best way to answer it. we are taking orders from pfizer. we have embedded employees at their locations so we are scanning everything from the origin to the final destination. operation warp speed is driving the train here, they are the ones giving us the orders to move. mr. wheeler: i would second that. roleel confident about our in this, including transport and point a to point b.

we don't decide where the vaccines go, how much is allocated to each state, how much is allocated within the state. we are the transportation provider and our mission is to get it there apathy and reliably that's reliably -- reliably. there are things that are outside of our control. there are things that after we deliberate that are outside of our control. i am confident about it when it is in our control. it is very useful to have cvs and walgreens signed up. that is very helpful because both companies know them very well. having that focus is very important to the supply chain, i believe. sen. baldwin: thank you. dr. levine, i would like to ask you about dry ice, especially

given its role in delivering the pfizer vaccine. lands tos developed secure access to dry ice for their initial shipments. i am wondering about the second phase of dry ice demand when pfizer shipping containers are replenished with dry ice at the state and local level. i understand it is state and local leaders or whoever receives the shipment within the state who are responsible for ensuring their supply at that point. this is all happening at the time of heightened man for dry in around the holidays and an industry that operates on a time basis. leaders whod local anticipate a shipment of a fiber -- of a pfizer vaccine have clear and robust information

about how and where to source dry ice that is needed for the replenishment and cooling of the supplies they are likely to receive? dr. levine: the pennsylvania department of health is working be able tond would obtain dry ice is necessary. for the first stages, we don't anticipate it will be necessary. the pfizer vaccine will be going to hospitals. that vaccine will be going to hospitals that have the refrigeration capacity to be able to keep it at the ultracold storage temperatures. for the long-term care facility that was mentioned, it is going to distribution centers at cvs and walgreens. those also have the refrigeration capacity to keep it ultracold. with future distributions that to q fac's, we are

going to try to work with that to be administered when the box is opened and we can administer that amount. vaccinethe motor note will be -- the moderna vaccine will be much easier to administer to rural pennsylvania and other parts that want have access to that refrigeration capacity. sen. baldwin: is there any information you would like to be made available by the federal government for cooperation with industry to ensure public health officials have a clear direction on dry ice sourcing or alternative sourcing plans if needed? dr. levine: absolutely. it is very challenging in the states are almost competing with each other for needed resources. that occurred in the spring,

particularly for ppe. we know every state in the country is going to need this material for the eventual distribution as time goes by of the pfizer product. it would be helpful if the government coordinate that and we didn't have to compete against our sister states. senator tester, you are recognized. i want to thank you for holding this hearing, it is one sit on thisns i hearing. i want to thank all the folks who testified. this is for mr. smith and mr. wheeler. we have about 10,000 doses coming into montana in this first round.

there are going to be allocated to hospitals in the seven major cities in montana. i hope there will be no problem there and i don't think there will be. it sounds like you have a plan for that. they have access to things that a lot of the rural frontiers do not. think if this vaccine is going to be distributed throughout the country, i think chairman fisher knows this as well as anybody, the rural areas are going to post some issues -- pose some issues. the first question i have for either or both of you is how long until the furthest location do you think it will get to -- it will take to get from the distribution center to its final location assuming it is more than just those seven major cities in montana? assuming it is a town like chester, montana that has a much

smaller population. mr. wheeler: in the united states, absolutely positively overnight. in the united states, absolutely positively overnight. split ther: ups has country into two, we know which states we have and they know which states they have. we are guaranteeing overnight from the time it leaves the pfizer location portillo derives next morning -- leave the pfizer location and arrived the next morning. the pfizer package is attend a package. then they will have additional tryouts -- additional dry ice to replenish. sen. tester: the key is to get

the vaccine into the body some people who needed. cdcpfizer or moderna or the told you guys what the protocol is going to be to let you know when you're going to pick it up so that the hospital knows? it're going to deliver overnight or by 10:30 the next day. the hospital have to be ready for it, they have to let their patients know. and they have to call the patients that are most susceptible. have a told you what the protocol is going to be? two a lot of people know this vaccine is coming to x town in my 10. but weeler: not really, have any idea on how they want to do this. pfizer has a specific protocol on how the packages handled, how many times a date can be opened, how many files can be with john. vials cany files -- be withdrawn.

once you take the vials out of the box, you can't refreeze them. mr. smith: i would just echo my colleague. processes they are working on. when it is given to us, we are told to transport it to the administration site overnight. we also delivered by 10:30. we have the same commit time to business locations. like good competitors, we keep one another on our toes and we have the same commitment. sen. tester: we like competition. hope for somebody out there, we are going to distribute these in the winter. it will be done in the spring, too. know if they're going to get a hold of the patients

and get them there so we don't waste the vaccine, it is going to take planning. i hope somebody is listening to this hearing but has some stroke and that. -- stroke in that. if you get a blizzard that flows through, it is going to screw stuff up so it is important. question, this is a that senator cowan asked. he talked about delta and american and the airlines carrying this. his question was how are you going to work with them. you said we have the capacity, don't worry about it. let's say whoever is the kingmaker says i don't care if ups or fedex has the capacity, we are using delta for whatever reason it might be. do you have that relationship to be able to work with commercial airlines unless it is not on your ship? mr. smith: we work with them in

the international environment, both of our companies do. we will use passenger underbelly lifts to move deferred cargo from point to point, airport to airport. in the u.s., you have plenty of capacity -- we have plenty of capacity. the decision to use a commercial airline would not make a lot of sense because they don't have the infrastructure to connect those destination pairs i talked about, the 1.7 billion zip code combinations we connect. it is not just about airport to airport, you have to move it to the station and get it out into the field. they don't have the infrastructure to do that to connect to a country on a widespread basis. i don't think that would happen in the u.s. but we would work with them brought in. sen. tester: that is good. thank you very much, and thank you madam chair. i want to thank you for doing the sharing. senator.you,

while we are waiting for a couple more senators to come, i'm going to ask a couple more questions. dr. levine, you noted in your --timony that during mark's mock vaccine shipments come a quarter of the state expressed a lag in receiving supply kits. could you elaborate on what the challenge was and what corrective action is being taken to address it? we keep in touch with all the state health officials but there was a dry run. in pennsylvania, we did receive the mock shipment and the mock kit that was discussed that will be shipped separately for the pfizer product. in a significant number of states, they did not come at the same time. you're going to have three different components. the vaccine, the --, and the

kitting. all of these need to arrive at the same time. we don't transport that. that is being transported throughout partners here, the other test fires as well as under the jurisdiction of operation warp speed. when the ball comes to us and all of it is present and our supervision comes in and we work with the hospitals and the pharmaceutical partners to administer the vaccine. all of that was related to operation warp speed about the challenges some of the states had. hopefully those difficulties will be ironed out and everything will arrive at the correct time next week when the pfizer product will ship. mr. smith or mr. wheeler, is fedex or ups whining to be involved in the shipping of the supply kits?

how are you ensuring those shipments are timed to arrive with the doses? this week, they said they built 150 million test kits already. they stopped 5 -- they stockpiled the supplies. that has the ppe, the instructions to the dosing site, the nixing vials as well. all that is ready to go. ups will be supplying 100% of the kits to the country. fedex and ups will follow up with vaccine shipments and then we will follow 100% of the sense of the sites with trash -- 100% of the sites with dry ice. mr. smith: you have two rivals here who literally are teaming

up to get this delivered and in some cases that relationship is interdependent with them shipping the kitting and us shipping the vaccine to certain states. it is us rely on each other. it is almost like rival college coming together on the same nfl team to play statements. -- to play estimates. thank you mr. chairman and thank you both for being here -- misses chairman and thank you both for being here. teamlad you're on the same and that you are working together to pop the american working together for the american people.

as you know, there are challenges in shipping the vaccine. a number of efforts by many factors are innovating in this area on cold storage and transport. i attended a demonstration of the human brothers vaccine transport system demonstrating their ability for vaccine transportation. i think the innovation and invention can help and is massive -- can help the massive challenge of distribution. people can expect they will arrive at their local cvs tomorrow if that is how it works. to emphasize one particular aspect of this yesterday.hich arose

the head of the veterans affairs health system indicated they are and challengess in delivering vaccines to their health facilities. could you address what specific steps you're taking to provide this vaccine to our veterans which is so important? they are in the age group that is most vulnerable. many are veterans of wars of decades ago. they need this vaccine and they need it right away. they are hopefully going to get through their facilities like they were statements of -- like the westhaven facility. it was a friendly not on the list to receive it because of

strategic obstacles. aware of anym not obstacles that prevent us from delivering to the veterans. we were founded by a vietnam veteran who did two tours of duty. we live to serve our veterans, we employ a lot of veterans. we don't have any control over where the vaccine goes. we are told where to deliver it, we are simply the transportation provider. i am not aware of any logistics challenges that would prevent us from delivering to the va hospital's or to our veterans. i am willing to look into that. anything you have heard on the logistics side, because i've not heard of that. mr. wheeler: i think connecticut is assigned to the ups. we don't have the addresses yet. we are waiting for the addresses any day. we have sent the kits out, they are gone. we will look at the addresses and make sure we can get them. sen. blumenthal: i am glad to

hear that because i think our veterans will expect it. i would like to have my staff contact you and maybe work with the v.a. to make sure there are no difficulties. i'm not attributing those to you, i should emphasize, but i want to make sure we focus on getting the job done. storagenow on-site cold is as critical to vaccine efficacy and effectiveness as stewards during transportation. what challenges do you a you -- do you anticipate providers will face after receiving vaccine shipments? modern and pfizer are different. moderna is at -20 degrees. in terms of storage, there is probably more that available at these sites. pfizer, recognizing that, has built this package that can stay

-70 degrees for seven days. sitese offered for many of portable freezers you plug into your outlet at -70 degrees and it maintains temperature forever. we have offered that as well. mr. smith: we have talked to the big promisee like walgreens who is our customer at they are acquiring some of these freezer units as well and keep it ultra cold after delivery. sen. blumenthal: thank you both. my time is expired with this topic is top of mind for all of today your being here along with dr. levine of pennsylvania is very welcome and i'm sure we will be hearing from you again. thank you so much sen. fischer: as we wait for the ranking members -- thank you so much. sen. fischer: as we wait for the

ranking members, i have questions i would like to ask. dr. levine, the cdc has arguments that has documents indicating the local jurisdiction -- jurisdiction will be responsible after the vaccine is identified -- after the vaccine is shipped to the provider. outline what those redistribution procedures might look like? as the moderna product is going out, particularly because it doesn't require the ultracold chain, we will distribute some of those to health centers. we want to think of health care providers broadly. it is not just hospital providers, it has to be anybody on the front lines seeing patients with covid-19.

including ems providers. we do anticipate some redistribution to a compass that. -- to accomplish that. sen. fischer: given the magnitude of transporting so many vaccine doses, i anticipate flexibility among all stakeholders is going to be important. how are each of you planning to incorporate changes into your logistics or planning as the vaccination effort progresses? dr. levine, would you like to start? dr. levine: all of the vaccine plans we have i considered drafts for our state and all of the states. there are many different factors that could come up as this mission precedes. for example, we don't yet know what recommendations the fda might say about the pfizer and moderna product which would change our vaccine plans as well

as when it goes to the advisory committee on immunization activists which might have some specific -- immunization practices which might have some specific. . advice. -- specific guidelines. at the time is going and we are immunizing in the phases of the cdc, things are going to change in terms of the spread of the virus and which groups might be most impacted. i think it will be important for the territories and cities involved to be very nimble and flexible with their plans going forward to make sure we are able to immunize members of the public. sen. fischer: mr. smith? mr. smith: there is a saying i'm , men and women make plans and the gods laugh. we deal with unforeseen

everyday. shipments,tional regulatory holds, customs and delays. our plans have to be flexible every day. it is customer specific often. i mentioned a new product introduction like a new iphone or a new medicine being brought to market. those require tremendous planning and sometimes the forecasting is wrong so you have to adjust. we do this every day, adjust to changes on the battlefield. we are well-versed in it and we don't expect anything we won't be able to handle in that regard. mr. wheeler: the beauty of our network is that all of these vaccine shipments are going through the first couple of months will come from three locations into our louisville facility. we have 200 fights landing and 400 fights taking off. every time the vaccine shipment

is sourced, it comes with a tag, it gives it a priority. as soon as we have a change in addresses or priority or change in volume, we can immediately pivot to make sure those vaccines arrive the next day at whatever location is required. we are taking direction from the general and his team and we are very flexible. mr. smith: both of these networks have tremendous redundancy built into them. hub in our express memphis, tennessee. we have another location in indianapolis. we also have hubs in newark, greensboro, miami, dallas-fort worth, and anchorage. we have redundancy in the event of weather events. to goischer: i would like back to follow-up on senator peter's question about the ibm report on the cyber attacks.

emailentified phishing attacks. to makeo are you doing sure employees have the appropriate cybersecurity training to ward off these attacks? our security department is externally good. we can follow-up with more information on all the things they're doing in cooperation with federal agencies and internally to battle this. we have regular training and communication as got to employees. we marked an email that does not come in from behind the firewalls as external so they know it is an external email. we tell them not to open links, not to open email. we constantly train them and refresh that training. we do a number of things to harden our systems but also to educate employees about what to look out for. sen. fischer: i imagine you both face hundreds of thousands of

attacks every day. , can youublic setting give us any information on if you have been specifically targeted by any type of cyberattack? and if it was to your administration or to an employee? can you tell us that? mr. wheeler: we are not in a position to say that today but we do have attacks every day. we have information security and cybersecurity and we work with them on best practices, whatever comes up in the industry that is new, we adopt those things. we have incredibly tight email systems and systems around the country. and operation warp speed connections are well-established. diggy veryfischer:

much. senator cantwell. cantwell: thank you for being here. i had to be in and out because small businesses are talking about ppe and trying to help people with this unbelievable pandemic that is increasing in impact. i wanted to ask the question about what we are doing to help states and municipalities on the delivery system. i have heard from mayors, from health officials, this is an intense operation on the ground and they're going to need help and resources in the delivery system. i want to make sure we are thinking about how you give equitable access. i've heard discussions about nursing homes and agree about that distribution. i want to make sure we are distributions.le