[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 17 (Thursday, January 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S188-S189]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, it has been more than a year now since 
the first COVID-19 case was confirmed here in the United States. As the 
war against this virus has been fought, it has evolved over the last 12 
months, and our country has been challenged like never before in my 
memory.
  Healthcare workers across the country have heroically battled this 
cruel virus, often with insufficient equipment and personnel. Frontline 
workers in delivery trucks, grocery stores, and other essential 
businesses have kept the cogs of society running.
  As a whole, we have hunkered down and tried to stop the spread of the 
virus until enough Americans could get vaccinated. We all have come to 
realize that is really the gold standard in defeating this virus. The 
Trump administration launched Operation Warp Speed to accelerate the 
research and development of therapeutics and vaccines to move us toward 
that goal as soon as possible.
  Just last summer, when President Trump predicted we would have an 
effective vaccine by the end of the year, there was some serious 
skepticism--and you might even call it blowback--from some of the 
critics. One media outlet published a fact check saying it would 
require nothing short of a ``medical miracle'' to have a vaccine by the 
end of last year.
  Thanks to the leadership on a bipartisan basis here and the marvels 
of science and human ingenuity, that so-called miracle came true not 
once but twice, and we are expecting more vaccines to eventually be 
approved in the near term. The world's brightest scientific minds used 
the foundation built by decades of vaccine research to craft lifesaving 
and, in fact, world-changing vaccines.
  Less than 11 months after the first COVID-19 case was discovered in 
the United States, the very first vaccine was administered after it was 
approved--11 months. The number of Americans who have been vaccinated 
against COVID-19 is growing every day, and so far, more than 24.5 
million doses have been administered nationwide.
  Nearly 2 million of those doses have gone into the arms of my fellow 
Texans. Texas became the first State to administer 1 million doses--an 
accomplishment that underscores the hard work of our State and local 
leaders and our public health officials, our private partners and 
healthcare workers.
  Every day, our public health experts are evaluating the current 
distribution process to make improvements and speed up the vaccination 
process. The State has now set up mass vaccination hubs to expedite 
distribution and administer as many doses as they can as quickly as 
they can.
  While these sites are an efficient way to administer vaccines to 
Texans, we need to do more in rural parts of the country. I was glad to 
see in my State Governor Abbott's announcement that the State is 
launching a mobile vaccine pilot program to ramp up vaccination efforts 
in rural parts of the State. Those vaccinations kick off today, and 
with the support of our incredible Texas National Guardsmen, more at-
risk Texans will be vaccinated against this virus.
  With currently two approved vaccines and potentially more on the way, 
we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is 
getting bigger and brighter every day. But we can't take our foot off 
the gas--we all know that. Just as we led an aggressive effort to 
develop vaccines, it is time to redouble our efforts to distribute 
those vaccines.
  I worry we are not starting off on a strong footing. In December, 
President-Elect Biden announced his administration's goals to get 100 
million shots in the arms of Americans within the first 100 days of his 
Presidency. That announcement came about a week before the first doses 
of the vaccine were distributed--before we had a real-world test of the 
processes that had been in planning for months.
  We are now several weeks into this nationwide vaccination campaign, 
and the Biden administration has stuck by this initial benchmark. The 
President has repeatedly described this as an ``ambitious goal''--a 
statement that has led to a fair amount of head-scratching, not because 
it is too aggressive, as some people thought President Trump's proposed 
vaccine delivery date was, but because it is too modest.
  One physician and public health expert described this as ``a 
disappointingly low bar.'' An Associated Press headline evaluated the 
situation pretty well when it said: ``Biden's early approach to virus: 
Underpromise, overdeliver.''
  The truth is, we were largely on track to meet President Biden's 
ambitious goal even before he took the oath of office. On Inauguration 
Day, more than 1.6 million doses had been administered, and over the 
last week, the average number of vaccinations has exceeded 1.5 million 
a day. It is hard to really frame this as a goal when in reality you 
could throw the entire operation on cruise control and surpass it.
  On Monday evening, President Biden appeared to up the target to 150 
million doses in the first 100 days, which would track with the 1.5 
million doses we are currently seeing administered. But the White House 
Press Secretary walked back that claim the following day.
  One hundred million doses in 100 days is certainly catchy, and I have 
no doubt the administration has tried to underpromise so it can be seen 
as overdelivering. That is not altogether a bad strategy. But the goal 
here is not to set a target you are almost certain to meet. After all, 
we didn't see the previous administration set a target of a successful 
vaccine by the summer of 2021, which is what many experts believed to 
be the most feasible. So I

[[Page S189]]

would urge the administration and all of us to accede to a truly 
ambitious vaccination schedule and motivate the newly assembled team at 
the White House to achieve it and to provide the resources that they 
may need from Congress in order for them to execute that plan. There is 
no reason to stick to a goal we were on track to meet before President 
Biden was even sworn in.

  President Biden, of course, ran a campaign criticizing the previous 
administration's handling of the COVID-19 virus, and he campaigned on 
the promise to lead us out of that crisis. But this modest goal is not 
going to get us there fast enough.
  Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston say we need to 
be vaccinating 3 million people a day. That is double the pace we are 
seeing right now and triple the Biden administration's self-described 
ambitious plan.
  The past year has been full of scientific developments and bold 
action by Congress and the administration to develop and distribute 
vaccines to the American people. We simply can't afford to put it in 
cruise control now. Our only option is to mobilize every resource and 
to push as hard and as fast as we can to get the American people 
vaccinated and to finally bring an end to this pandemic.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MURPHY. Madam 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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