[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 48 (Thursday, March 12, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1723-S1724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, earlier today, as the Senate knows now, 
Leader McConnell announced that we would cancel our State work period 
so we could continue to work on legislation here in Washington, DC, to 
help families and our communities get through the economic effect of 
the coronavirus's spread. I am glad he made that decision, and I look 
forward to continuing to work on those issues for the benefit of our 
constituents and the Nation.
  This situation calls for an all-of-government response, and it will 
allow us additional time to hammer out a bipartisan agreement to 
respond to the ripple effect that this outbreak is having in Texas and 
across the country.
  As we continue our discussions on this legislation, I would just urge 
my colleagues that this is a time to put partisanship aside and stop 
playing politics, if there ever was one.
  There is actually precedent for that. At the height of the Ebola 
crisis in 2014, Republicans in the Senate worked with our Democratic 
colleagues and President Obama to ensure we were ready to treat Texans 
and other Americans who needed care from that particular disease.
  We need to come together to do the same now, not to use the 
opportunity to attack or score political points or to try to damage our 
opponents. Unfortunately, that seems to be the first impulse of some of 
our friends across the Capitol Chamber.
  Most of the public concern is focused on the elderly, on cruise ship 
travelers, and those with underlying medical conditions, but we need to 
think of every family, every college student, and to make sure that 
everyone who is worrying about how to make ends meet during this 
particular crisis because they had to stay home and miss work has their 
concerns addressed as well. This virus could disrupt everyone's daily 
routine in one way or the other, and as we have seen from the departure 
of some of our colleagues for self-quarantining, we are truly in this 
together.
  I am glad we will be staying in session to try to bring as much 
relief and reassurance as we can in this uncertain time, and I look 
forward to all of us, Republicans and Democrats, the House and the 
Senate and the White House working together to get every American ready 
for what is to come.
  It is not just the Senate that is altering its plans due to the 
coronavirus. Across the country, serious measures are taking place out 
of an abundance of caution to keep the American people safe. Some 
schools are choosing to close their doors, nursing homes are barring 
visitors, and major events like South by Southwest in Austin are 
canceling.
  On the global scale, we are seeing an unprecedented action, including 
all of Italy--some 60 million people--going on a complete lockdown.
  For many Americans, it seems like this public health crisis has 
escalated incredibly quickly. We went from never having heard of this 
new virus to constant news coverage about its growing reach within a 
matter of weeks.

[[Page S1724]]

  But this outbreak began long before the average American even knew it 
existed, and it was no accident that Chinese officials kept the rest of 
the world in the dark.
  One of first people to sound the alarm about the novel virus--that is 
what they call it, the novel coronavirus--was 34-year-old Chinese 
doctor Li Wenliang, who, sadly, became a victim of the coronavirus.
  On December 30 of last year, after seeing several patients who he 
believed at the time to have SARS, another type of coronavirus, Dr. Li 
messaged a group of medical school classmates to let them know that he 
had seen something new and different and potentially dangerous.
  Dr. Li told them that these were confirmed cases of coronavirus 
infection, but the exact strain was still being subtyped. He also urged 
them to have their families and friends take protective measures, but 
these messages were soon shared much wider than the intended audience, 
and the Chinese Communist Party and the government quickly stepped in 
to stop this information from being spread. Chinese police reprimanded 
Dr. Li and several others for ``spreading rumors'' about the virus.
  In the Chinese Government's effort to carefully conceal information 
about the rapid spread of symptoms throughout the city of Wuhan, this 
amounted to a big threat. They continued to take extreme measures to 
assure the Chinese people that there was no need for them to be 
concerned. They even refused to acknowledge the risk of human-to-human 
transmission, which is responsible for the global spread of this virus.
  While this is a novel coronavirus strain, the underlying story is 
familiar. Chinese officials learn about a deadly outbreak of a new 
virus; they try to conceal the news; they aren't transparent with their 
own people, much less other countries; and when the word begins to 
spread beyond their borders, they try to downplay the seriousness, even 
going so far as to manipulate data about the number of cases or 
fatalities.
  We saw this story line play out with the bird flu in the late 1990s 
and again with the SARS epidemic in the early 2000s. This is just the 
latest example of the Chinese Communist Party's failure in the face of 
a public health crisis. They continue to deny the facts and put their 
pride before public safety. It is a symptom of a much larger 
centralized censorship that we have come to associate with the Chinese 
Government, one that represents a threat to the rest of the world.
  Imagine if the situation were different, if the government had 
listened to Dr. Li's initial warnings, if they had reached out to 
international aid organizations and asked for assistance, deployed 
additional resources to hospitals in Wuhan, and told the Chinese people 
to exercise normal caution. Now, there is no way to be sure, but I 
imagine the current situation would look somewhat different.
  China's censorship seriously handicapped our global response to this 
new virus, and they continue to release inconsistent and misleading 
statistics about the current state of the virus.
  They have reported that the number of new cases continues to 
decrease, but I ask you: How can we possibly trust this data? How can 
we know that this isn't just the latest attempt to downplay the crisis?
  While China's lack of transparency on the coronavirus has, without a 
doubt, had the greatest global impact, it is not the only country 
guilty of misrepresenting the nature of the threat in the rest of the 
world.
  We also suspect massive censorship from Iran, which is battling one 
of the world's largest outbreaks. According to the Coronavirus Resource 
Center, which is operated at Johns Hopkins University, Iran has more 
than 9,000 cases. For reference, out of the more than 120,000 cases 
worldwide, China has far and away the greatest number, with more than 
80,000. Italy is a distant second with more than 10,000, but Iran is 
not far behind.
  Just as China sought to keep initial reports of the virus quiet and 
downplay the impact, so did Iran. The leadership in Iran urged the 
Iranian people to vote in last month's sham election, saying rumors 
about the virus were being pedaled by the United States to suppress 
voter turnout. They mocked the concept of quarantines. They even 
exported their masks to China, expecting that the coronavirus would 
have no impact on their country.
  As we predicted then and now know, the Iranian leaders were 
absolutely wrong. They are now in the throes of trying to control the 
spread of the virus, which has claimed the lives of more than 350 
people in Iran, and that is just the ones we know about.
  It is widely believed that Iran, like China, is suppressing data to 
make the situation seem less dire than it really is, and it is not just 
the civilians who are being impacted. Yesterday reports surfaced that 
Iran's Senior Vice President and two other Cabinet members have the 
coronavirus. That comes after previous reports of other current and 
former officials being admitted to hospitals and at least two deaths.
  The actions taken by the leaders of these countries--Iran and China--
have, without a doubt, contributed to the rapid rise and spread of the 
coronavirus. They have concealed information; they have misrepresented 
the facts; and they have lied to their own citizens and the global 
community, all in their own self-interest.
  The reflexive censorship from China and Iran put the rest of the 
world at greater risk, and it handicapped our preparation for ways to 
address it.
  As our leaders, health officials, doctors, nurses, and scientists 
continue to work around the clock to contain this virus, we have to 
have transparency, and we have to know the facts.
  If we are going to have any success on a global scale dealing with 
the coronavirus, we need honesty and transparency from all countries.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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