[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 6, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S2004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor today on two very 
important subjects. The first is about an issue that is of vital 
importance for the United States across economic, security, and 
humanitarian spheres, and that is vaccinating the world's population.
  I think we all have learned in a very hard, hard way the last 2 years 
that the coronavirus does not respect international borders. It started 
in China. It came to America. It went all over the world.
  Experts have been warning for months that if the virus continues to 
spread in other parts of the world, new variants could continue to 
emerge, just as we are emerging and seeing each other again and going 
to family gatherings and having people and tour groups come into the 
Capitol. We cannot let our guard down.
  American companies have worked with the world to create the most 
effective vaccines in existence. We put our faith in science, and now 
we have an incredible vaccine that we can be proud of. And as we 
continue to ensure that Americans get their shots and their boosters, 
we know that ending this pandemic is going to require a sustained, 
multinational approach to getting these lifesaving shots to the rest of 
the world.
  This makes sense from a humanitarian perspective, it makes sense from 
an economic perspective, and it is just common sense, because we can't 
let this happen again, and we certainly can't put our heads in the sand 
and pretend that, just because it is going on in another continent or 
across the ocean, it won't affect us.
  For those in America who have lost loved ones, that couldn't even say 
goodbye to their loved ones, because they were in a hospital, holding 
the hand of a nurse, and all they could do was see them in the hospital 
bed over a Zoom screen or on an iPad, we can't let any of that happen 
again. And that means that we not only do our work at home and get the 
vaccines out and the leadership that we have seen out of the White 
House on that front, but it is also about leading in the world.
  The United States has long been a leader in global health programs. 
President George W. Bush established PEPFAR, which stands for 
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. That program saved over 20 
million lives and prevented millions of infections. It was a bipartisan 
effort that was led by President Bush.
  The United States has also connected global towns and villages with 
clean water, thought to prevent malaria, and led efforts to end 
smallpox and polio around the world. This is our legacy, but we can't 
rest on our success and the leadership from the past. We have to lead 
now.
  At this point, only about 56 percent of the world's population is 
fully vaccinated. In nations around the world, the individual rate is 
much lower. In Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, only 5 percent 
of people are fully vaccinated. Few people would disagree with the 
assessment that new variants will continue to form--ask Dr. Fauci--as 
long as much of the world remains unvaccinated, and that makes every 
nation vulnerable, including ours.
  And we can do this at such a relatively small cost to what the gain 
will be--the gain in saving lives abroad and in America, the gain in 
keeping a stable economy around the world, because you know we export 
to the world, and we know we are interconnected with the world.
  So when it comes to beating this virus, we have to recognize that our 
destiny is linked with the rest of the world. We can't give up this 
fight. Now is not the time to cut corners. We have suffered enough 
through this virus, and we have the needed tools to vaccinate a global 
population. We have the vaccine. We just have to get it to the people 
that need it.
  I will keep fighting to get the resources to get this done. We will 
work with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle until we get 
this done and vaccinate the world.