[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 193 (Thursday, November 12, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6666-S6667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, the world is celebrating major 
developments in the global race for a vaccine. All year, since this 
pandemic hit, our greatest scientific minds have been working around 
the clock to develop a vaccine that will finally bring the pandemic and 
the crisis associated with it to an end. Researchers are testing dozens 
of vaccines in the hope of finding at least one that can stop the 
spread of the virus, which has claimed more than 1.2 million lives 
worldwide and nearly 240,000 here in the United States alone.
  Early data from Pfizer's vaccine trial gives us a lot of reasons to 
be hopeful when the company announced on Monday that its vaccine was 
more than 90 percent effective in preventing the disease. For 
reference, standard flu vaccines for the seasonal flu are typically 40 
to 60 percent effective, so 90 percent is a big deal. This breakthrough 
is a testament to the ingenuity and the near-universal commitment to 
trying to find a vaccine that will eliminate the threat of this 
pandemic, and it is a sign of hope for all people around the world.
  Later this month, once Pfizer has collected the recommended 2 months 
of safety data, the company plans to request emergency authorization 
for the vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration. By the end of 
the year, it will have manufactured enough doses to immunize 15 to 20 
million people. Congress has made tremendous investments in the 
development of therapeutics and of vaccines through the CARES Act, and 
I am incredibly proud of the men and women who have led this fight on 
the frontlines, including in my State of Texas.
  During preclinical trials over the summer, scientists at the Texas 
Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio tested the Pfizer vaccine 
on monkeys, with impressive results. Dr. Deepak Kaushal, who oversaw 
the study, said they saw a 100-percent protection rate in the monkeys 
that were given the Pfizer vaccine.
  Once it was ready for human trials, hundreds of Texans volunteered to 
be vaccinated. Nearly 200 patients from Austin have participated in the 
study. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has enrolled 
more than 500 participants at its three sites in Galveston, League 
City, and Clear

[[Page S6667]]

Lake City, and hundreds more in the Dallas-Forth Worth area have 
volunteered to be part of the trial.
  One of those Texans is a woman named Andrea Lucia, who received her 
first dose of the vaccine from a clinic in Keller, TX, in late 
September and returned for the second dose 3 weeks later. Like other 
volunteers in a double-blind study, where half gets a placebo and the 
other half gets the vaccine, Andrea doesn't know if she received the 
vaccine or not, but every week, she is asked if she has any symptoms. 
Andrea said she will have occasional followup appointments over the 
next year and a half, and once the vaccine becomes publicly available, 
she will find out if she received it already through the clinical 
trials.
  I thank Andrea and the thousands of men and women like her who have 
volunteered to test these vaccines in the ongoing clinical trials. They 
have risked their own health to ensure the world can access a safe and 
effective vaccine as quickly as possible and, of course, subject to the 
determination by the Food and Drug Administration that it is safe and 
effective.
  Of course, none of this would be possible without the brilliant 
researchers, scientists, doctors, and nurses who sprinted at full speed 
in the race for this vaccine for months on end. America is proud of 
their heroic work, and we will keep cheering them on and supporting 
their work as the race for a vaccine continues