Spencer Cox: “we are here in extraordinary circumstances, rushing this legislation to the floor as we must, because we are facing an…”

“we are here in extraordinary circumstances, rushing this legislation to the floor as we must, because we are facing an emergency. We have got to provide compensation to those workers who may be injured or killed by the smallpox vaccine. The Committee on Energy and Commerce, of which I am proud to be a member, has done very, very important work to bring this bill to the floor in these emergency circumstances. The Committee on Homeland Security, of which I am also the chairman, has an abiding interest in making sure that our first responders are capable of dealing with crises such as this. If smallpox is used against American citizens as a weapon, we have got to be prepared and we have to be sure that the first responders do not themselves become weapons, because even though they are not manifesting the symptoms they are spreading the disease. Smallpox spreads so fast that it is estimated it will kill at least 30 percent of its unvaccinated victims. Immunity is suspected to have waned among people who were vaccinated before smallpox was thought to have been eradicated in the 1970s.”