On the recordSeptember 14, 2020
This is such a unique experience for all of us tonight. Here we are on the floor of Congress, and we have got almost a dozen healthcare providers coming to share our years of experience and knowledge and education with the American people as far as what we are trying to do in this country to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. I mean, vaccines save lives. That is nothing new. Vaccines prevent illness. We know this. I know growing up, my mom's first cousin had gotten polio when she was 4 years old. She spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair, disfigured, disfigured hands. She still found a way to make a living. But think if she had just had that vaccine a little bit sooner, if we had actually come up with it. And to this day, the challenges that we face--I look at Rotary International, of which I am a member, and their goal is to rid the world of polio and try to get everyone in the world vaccinated. This is not new science. But I will tell you this: With the virus that we are facing today, it is called novel for a reason. It is new and it is different, and we know more today than we knew 6 months ago. That is what is so important is that we continue to learn and get better and take care of people. We know that some people are more at risk than others. We know that some people are more vulnerable to this than others.…
