Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share with you the inspiring story of a Philadelphia doctor who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in this extraordinary time to combat the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Brown communities in my district and across the country. As evidence mounted that Black Americans were suffering both from greater exposure to COVID-19 and from less access to testing, Dr. Ala Stanford, a board certified surgeon, was done waiting. She took the community into her own hands, as so many Black women have done when our institutions have failed them, and she recruited a group of Black healthcare workers to form the Black Doctors Consortium. Staffed by Black doctors, med students, and nurses on their days off, the Black Doctors Consortium has spent the past few months using their own resources to test thousands of patients in church parking lots, union halls, and rec centers, going into our communities to deliver testing services where they are most needed. The group recently received a $1 million grant to expand and plans to start testing 250 to 350 people a day. Looking ahead, the Black Doctors Consortium plans to use their successful community-based approach to distribute COVID vaccines once they become available. Dr. Stanford represents the very best of who we are and the leadership we so desperately need in times of crisis. I thank Dr.…”