[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1697-S1698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Coronavirus
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I am an unabashed optimist. I am a glass-
half-full not a glass-half-empty kind of guy, and I tell my staff that
I am like the little boy who goes down on Christmas morning and looks
under the Christmas tree and finds a pile of manure and wonders where
my pony is. That is how much of an optimist I am.
So I am optimistic about our progress made in the war against COVID-
19 after this long year that we have all endured. So far, a quarter of
Americans over the age of 18 have received at least one dose of the
vaccine. More than two-thirds of people over 65 have gotten their first
shot. In my State, they have recently said everybody 50 and up can get
a shot. Now, very soon, any adult person over the age of 16 will be
eligible to get the vaccine. That translates into good news across the
board. New cases, deaths, and hospitalizations are all declining. Over
the last week, the 7-day positivity rate in Texas dropped to the lowest
point since last May.
While we continue to follow the public health guidelines to slow the
spread of the virus, it is clear we are moving closer and closer to an
eventual end of this pandemic, and there are a million reasons to be
optimistic.
Despite the narrative pushed by some, all of this hope isn't the
result of just the last couple of months, and it certainly is not the
product of the partisan bill that was passed just 2 weeks ago. These
efforts have been underway for more than a year now, and we owe a great
deal of credit to Operation Warp Speed, the initiative set up by the
Trump administration to accelerate the development of vaccines,
treatments, and therapeutics.
Last summer, when President Trump speculated that we would have an
effective vaccine by the end of the year, he received some serious
blowback. One media outlet published a fact check saying it would
require nothing short of a ``medical miracle.'' Well, thanks to the
leadership of the previous administration, thanks to the great
scientists, pharmaceutical companies, and others, that so-called
miracle has come true not just once but twice. Both the Pfizer and
Moderna vaccines received emergency authorization last year, and
Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was authorized last month.
Rather than setting ambitious goals to bring an end to the pandemic,
the Biden administration has embraced a different approach. An
Associated Press headline in January evaluated the situation pretty
well when it said that Biden's early approach is to ``underpromise''
and ``overdeliver.''
Well, in December, President-Elect Biden announced his
administration's vaccine goal as 100 million shots in the first hundred
days. 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 the planning stages for months. But it
quickly became obvious that we were on a pace to meet that goal before
President Biden even took the oath of office on January 20. The week of
the inauguration, we averaged 1 million shots a day. On January 20, 1.5
million Americans received the vaccine. One physician and public health
expert described the President's goal as a ``disappointingly low bar.''
To no one's surprise, the administration met that goal well ahead of
the deadline.
Last week, the President claimed a victory for hitting 100 million
vaccines in 58 days. Well, so did he follow up with a new goal, a truly
ambitious one that would get us shots in arms even faster? Did he set
up a new benchmark to encourage States to make their vaccination
efforts more efficient and effective? Well, not yet. Maybe he will.
Maybe he will announce a new goal this week. For the sake of our
country, I hope he sets the bar high.
Given the fact that we are now vaccinating about 2.5 million
Americans per day--a staggering number, really--it is time for the
administration to take a truly bold step. The goal here isn't to set a
target you are almost certain to meet. After all, you didn't see the
previous administration set a target of a successful vaccine by the
summer of 2021, which is what many experts believed at the time.
Unfortunately, the underpromise, overdeliver strategy doesn't end
with vaccinations. Just look at the President's latest comments about
small outdoor gatherings. In the same speech where he tried to take a
victory lap for the ``disappointingly low bar'' set for vaccinations,
he made a rather confusing promise to the American people.
He said:
If we keep our guard up, stick together, and stick with the
science, we can look forward to a Fourth of July that feels a
little bit more normal with small groups able to gather for
cookouts in backyards.
Well, that was a little bit of a head-scratcher, when President Biden
said that he anticipated that everybody who wanted the vaccine could
get it by May, and now he is talking about having outdoor gatherings on
the Fourth of July.
I can tell you, these small outdoor gatherings have been a part of
many Texans' routines for almost all year now. Families and friends
have spent time in driveways, backyards, open-air spaces, parks. They
follow the public health guidelines to keep themselves and their loved
ones safe while managing some sense of normalcy
The Centers for Disease Control has said it is safe for fully
vaccinated individuals to gather not just outdoors but indoors as well.
But based on the President's remarks last week, he is trying to frame
these gatherings as a reward if things go well over the next few
months. If you do everything right, then you might be able to hang out
with your family in the backyard in 3 months. Well, the
administration's own Centers for Disease Control has already told us
that these gatherings are safe. Your current public health guidelines
can't also double as a goal for 3\1/2\ months from now.
Then there is another big inconsistency between what the experts are
telling us and what the administration is doing, and that has to do
with reopening schools. Some children have now hit the anniversary mark
of virtual learning. Studies have shown consistently that this is
having a huge negative impact on America's kids academically, mentally,
socially, and emotionally.
We need our schools to reopen, and, of course, we need that to happen
safely, which they can. Back in December, then President-Elect Biden
seemed to share that goal. He promised to safely reopen the majority of
schools within his first hundred days in the White
[[Page S1698]]
House, another hundred-day goal. The experts tell us it is not only
possible, but it has already been done across the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report in
January that said:
There has been little evidence that schools have
contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission.
In short, the schools are not a breeding ground for COVID-19, and as
long as proper precautions are taken, schools can reopen safely. In
fact, it has already happened across most of Texas. Nearly two-thirds
of Texas schools are fully in-person, and just 3 percent of districts
are still fully remote. Two-thirds are fully reopened, and 3 percent
are fully remote.
Unfortunately, in this case, the science is at odds with a key
supporter of our Democratic colleagues, and that is the teachers
unions. For months, teachers unions have fought a safe return to in-
person instruction even though the experts and real-world evidence tell
us that it is safe. It has gone so far that they have now gotten into
some pretty sticky situations.
A leaked post from a private Facebook group for the Los Angeles
teachers union warned teachers not to post pictures of their spring
break photos because it makes it difficult to argue that it is unsafe
to return to school. Well, it is tough to tell parents that it is not
safe for their kids to go to school and then turn around and tell
teachers it is fine to go on vacation; just don't post pictures.
Trusting science and listening to the experts means doing so all the
time, not just when it is convenient or politically expedient.
We are seeing progress every day in our fight against COVID-19. That
is the light at the end of the tunnel that is getting bigger and
brighter, and the question is not if we get there but when. How quickly
can we get more vaccines into arms? When will our children--all our
children--return safely to the classroom? How long until families can
hug one another without fear of spreading the virus to someone they
love?
We all know this is a community effort. It is a team effort. It is a
personal responsibility effort. Each of us has a role to play in
stopping the spread of the virus. But leadership matters too. The goals
and benchmarks set by the administration will determine how quickly all
of these things can happen. Now is not the time to walk back goals, set
low bars, or bow to unions and political supporters. The administration
needs to set clear metrics and targets for how we reopen and find our
new normal, and these goals should be based on the science and the
advice of the experts--nothing less.
So we are getting close to safely crossing the finish line, and we
shouldn't let politics or any other consideration slow us down.
I yield the floor.
I would 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. CRUZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.