Kim Schrier: “I thank the ranking member for yielding. Mr. Chair, our healthcare workforce is stretched to capacity after having spent…”

“I thank the ranking member for yielding. Mr. Chair, our healthcare workforce is stretched to capacity after having spent now 3 years on the front lines of the pandemic, and add to that recent spikes in RSV and flu. Our hospitals have been overpacked, with a shortage of available beds and a real worry and sometimes a reality that there won't be room in a hospital if we get sick or injured. Due to stress and burnout, hospitals across the country are experiencing staff shortages. What healthcare workers and hospital workers really don't need right now is more stress on an already stressed system, and that is exactly what this bill will do. As we all know, and as I can tell you, as a pediatrician, people who are not vaccinated have a significantly higher risk of being hospitalized if they contract COVID. Why in the world would we invite people from around the world to come to visit the United States without that protection and then put our hospital systems at further risk of overcrowding and collapse? Not to mention the higher risk of getting and spreading the disease around our country or even potentially bringing new variants to our shores. Vaccination is safe. I speak as a doctor. It is effective in keeping people out of hospitals and curbing transmission. We should rightly expect that those traveling to the United States get immunized because we should not risk further stressing an already strained healthcare system.…”