Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of the White House coronavirus task force, testified Tuesday before the Senate Health Committee on efforts to combat the coronavirus, amid warnings that lifting restrictions keeping people home from school and work could pose unnecessary health risks.

The hearing, which features Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), as well as three other top administration health officials, is the biggest congressional hearing since the coronavirus crisis began. Fauci did not rip on the Trump administration's response to the pandemic in his planned remarks, instead emphasizing efforts by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop vaccines and other medical means to fight the coronavirus.

"Hopefully our research efforts, together with the other public health efforts, will get us quickly to an end to this terrible ordeal that we are all going through," Fauci said.

"NIH is focused on developing safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, and sensitive, specific, and rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests," Fauci also said in written remarks submitted to the committee. "These efforts will improve our response to the current pandemic and bolster our preparedness for the next, inevitable emerging disease outbreak"

On one point, Fauci said the government is focusing on several different vaccine candidates, using the hockey term "multiple shots on goal" to describe the increased chances that one would work. Additionally, he said if more than one is successful that would help increase the availability of the vaccines globally.

Fauci appeared remotely due to concerns that he might have been exposed to the coronavirus. Multiple senators also appeared virtually for the hearing, including Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the committee, and Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.