[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 206 (Monday, December 7, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H6885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             COVID VACCINES

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, there are 14.8 million cases of COVID-
19, now some 282,000 deaths. In the State of Texas, there are 1.3 
million, an increase of 10,000 cases and 23,000-plus deaths. The 
numbers keep going up. The scientists predict that we may have as many 
as 500,000 deaths by March 2021.
  There has to be a national protocol of wearing masks, socially 
distancing, and washing your hands. But as we begin to do the vaccines, 
there must be a public understanding of, one, the safety of those 
vaccines; but, number two, the vaccines should be distributed in our 
small and local hospitals that our communities are familiar with along 
with local health facilities.
  We will be working to ensure that populations--people of color and 
indigenous people who are impacted--have access to vaccines where they 
are familiar with medical professionals. That should be the route of 
the United States Congress and pass the COVID-19 package not next week, 
but this week.
  Our constituents are desperate.

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