On the recordMarch 11, 2020
The Wuhan coronavirus is certainly on the front of Americans' minds these days, but before I speak about the virus, I would like to talk about leadership. I often tell the kids I work with that leadership is doing the right thing when it is not popular. Here in Washington, I have learned that doing the right thing is when you know over 90 percent of the press and 90 percent of the media is going to disagree with you. Leadership is when President Trump banned travel from China on February 2. While some people went so low as to call this xenophobic, as a physician, this early decision, I believe, has saved thousands of American lives. By now, we have millions of test kits distributed out across the country. I want to just reassure Americans that this testing is covered by Medicare, by Medicaid, and by most every one of their insurance companies. I also want to reassure Americans that antivirals and vaccines are in early phases of trials, way ahead of development. We are very optimistic that these antivirals may soon be available for those who are impacted the most by this Wuhan virus. We are also optimistic that these vaccines will be available by this next winter. We have a plan. The President has given us a plan. Let's stick to this plan. We are implementing this plan, and it is working.…
Source
govinfo.gov




