On the recordMarch 3, 2021
Madam Speaker, thanks to Operation Warp Speed, we now have a pathway out of the pandemic using anti-COVID vaccines, but I want to share some more good news. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that just one dose of the Pfizer vaccine has an efficacy of close to 93 percent. The clinical difference between 92 percent and 95 percent of the two-dose regimen is minuscule. If we gave everyone, except possibly the most vulnerable, just the first dose, we could possibly double our supply immediately and thus inoculate our citizens much faster. Using this strategy, we could possibly prevent the spread of new variants and mutants and effect a quicker end to this tragic pandemic, which has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives in this country. Yesterday, I joined some of my fellow physician colleagues, asking the Health and Human Services Department to consider adopting this strategy. Acting now could prevent the spread of new variants and the further spread of this tragedy, the kind of tragedy already felt and continuing to be felt by thousands across this country. Madam Speaker, I strongly urge the Health Secretary to follow the science. RECOGNIZING VENANGO MUSEUM OF ART, SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)





