[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1535-S1536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. President, last year I came to the floor on multiple occasions to 
ask consent for a simple, sensible resolution. It called for the United 
States to cooperate in global efforts to address the COVID pandemic. At 
that time, that point was obvious, and it is even more obvious today.
  Pandemics don't respect borders. None of us is safe from highly 
infectious diseases until all of us are safe. That is especially 
important to keep in mind as we begin to turn a corner here in America.
  Last week, during his first address to the Nation, President Biden 
announced that all adults in America over the age of 18 will be 
eligible for vaccinations on May 1 of this year. If all goes to plan, 
we can look forward, as President Biden mentioned, to a Fourth of July 
with family and close friends at a close distance.
  Considering what they inherited, the Biden administration deserves 
credit for dramatically scaling up vaccinations in America. The 
administration helped to strike a historic partnership between rival 
drugmakers, ramped up manufacture of the vaccine, and improved 
coordination with State officials everywhere.
  We are seeing a world of difference that this makes. When you put 
competent, qualified leadership in charge in the White House and in 
State capitols, good things happen. Our weekly vaccine shipments in 
Illinois have nearly doubled. The Federal Government has erected a mass 
vaccination site at the United Center in Chicago. It has also supported 
partnerships with community health centers and retail pharmacies to 
expand access to vaccines. A cautious hopefulness is washing over 
America, but we can't lose momentum in our fight against COVID.
  To put this pandemic really behind us and to bury it in history, we 
need to lend a hand to the many poor nations that have yet to receive a 
single dose of vaccine. The inequities are stark. Ten countries have 
accounted for 75 percent of the total vaccinations administered 
worldwide, while approximately 100 countries have yet to administer any 
vaccine doses. This dangerous shortfall has the potential to undermine 
the good work that is happening here in America. Closing this gap is 
not only the right and moral thing to do, it is the safest and smartest 
thing to do to stop the threat COVID, and its increasingly contagious 
variants, pose to us all.
  Remember back a little over a year ago, an obscure city in China 
generated a virus--we think they did--that ended up circling the world 
many times over and changing life on this planet.
  Last month, I received a briefing from Dr. Fauci on the new genetic 
mutations of COVID-19. He shared troubling news about variants that are 
emerging in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil. Some of them 
may have more resistance to our current vaccines than we care to see. 
He warned that if we fail to stamp out the virus globally, then we will 
continue to see risks within our own borders. Variants of the virus 
could counteract the tremendous progress we have made and the progress 
that we are poised to make in the near future.
  As I said at the outset, viruses don't recognize borders. Crushing 
the virus in other countries is a strategic investment in our own 
national safety and security. President Biden understands this. He is 
serious about addressing the virus first in America and then around the 
world. He has set us on a pace to vaccinate all eligible Americans over 
the course of the next several months.
  Let me urge those who are hesitant or skeptical as to whether it is 
the right thing to do, do it, please--for yourself, for those you love, 
and for this Nation.
  President Biden wisely halted President Trump's withdrawal from the 
World Health Organization. He joined

[[Page S1536]]

the global COVAX vaccine effort, and he allocated significant funding 
toward global vaccination efforts, funding that is expanded under the 
American Rescue Plan, which we passed just a few weeks ago in the 
Senate.
  Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen recently announced that the 
United States will support the issuance of special drawing rights, a 
type of IMF foreign exchange reserve that can help poor countries buy 
vaccines and weather the economic fallout from the pandemic, a welcome 
move that I encouraged and was a coauthor of with Senator Sanders and 
Congressman ``Chuy'' Garcia.
  Just last week, the President announced a partnership with key allies 
in the Pacific region to provide at least 1 billion COVID vaccines in 
countries in Asia. This is prescient, global leadership long overdue. 
The President's actions will save lives here at home and abroad, and 
these investments will fuel a global economic recovery, which we all 
want to see.
  To understand why a global strategy is called for, look at history. 
Some of you who are witnessing this statement on the floor at home may 
be old enough to have a distinct circular scar on your upper arm. Maybe 
you have seen it on the arms of a parent or grandparent. That mark is a 
relic from one of the world's greatest public health victories: the 
eradication of the deadly smallpox virus.
  The fact that so few people living today remember the death and 
misery caused by that disease is a testament to the global public 
health strategy that stopped it. Smallpox was one of the most 
devastating diseases to afflict mankind. It is estimated to have killed 
up to 300 million people in the 20th century, 500 million people in the 
last hundred years.
  In 1967, the World Health Organization launched a historic 
international effort to eradicate it. It was one of the most successful 
public health initiatives in human history. Next month marks the 41st 
anniversary of that historic achievement.
  In the years since, America has led similar global efforts to stamp 
out diseases like polio and Ebola. If we follow in these footsteps, 
historians will one day add COVID to the top of that list of historic 
achievements.
  Pursuing a global strategy is the most effective way--maybe the only 
way--to accelerate vaccine production and distribution in every corner 
of the world. By sharing our wealth of knowledge and resources with the 
world, we reap lifesaving benefits, not just around the world but right 
here at home.
  We all know public health is bigger than partisanship and always has 
been. In the 2000s, for example, I called on then-President Bush to 
help stem the scourge of AIDS around the world through the historic 
PEPFAR Program. At the time, many of my Republican friends in the 
Senate supported it. I hope and expect that they will do the same when 
it comes to supporting the global effort against COVID-19. The moment 
calls for nothing less.
  Public health experts understand that. President Biden understands 
that. I know we here in Congress understand that. We can end the threat 
of COVID once and for all. It is within our power.