[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 1, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           DOCTORS KNOW BEST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. McCormick) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. Speaker, I want to address the Freedom for 
Healthcare Workers Act that has been submitted and we will soon vote 
on.
  As an ER physician who has treated thousands of patients, who has 
been exposed to COVID thousands of times, and watched nurses and 
midlevels and healthcare workers of all kinds complain about the 
government's involvement in healthcare, I wanted to address this topic.
  I believe I am the only Congressman who has actually been an ER 
doctor in the pandemic. My last shift was December 28. I intubated a 
patient and saw three critical patients. Several of them had COVID. 
Nobody was admitted for COVID, though.
  Back to the point, though. During this pandemic we started off with 
no vaccination. Meanwhile, most of us were exposed regardless of what 
PPE we had, and it was limited at times to people who had fevers, who 
had symptoms even before we knew what COVID was. A lot of us got sick 
and developed immunity naturally.
  Then the government stepped in. Although well-meaning, a lot of times 
government officials think they have the answer to everything, 
including things they really don't know about. What they will do is 
cherry-pick the experts that agree with them to say this is what 
experts believe, and that is why all healthcare professionals should 
believe this also. That is not how we make progress in medicine. As a 
matter of fact, it stifles innovation and progress.

  At one time we had a President, President Garfield, who was shot, and 
it was poor practice in medicine where doctors probed his wound and 
made him septic that caused him to die. There was a dissenting opinion 
by Dr. Lister--you may have heard of Listerine--who believed in 
antiseptic but he was scoffed at and belittled because he was the 
outlying person. Imagine where we would be if government stepped in and 
said: Our experts said you don't need to wash your hands before you 
probe wounds. We would still be in the Dark Ages of medicine.
  I beg the government to stay out of the way of healthcare progress. 
To stay out of the debate of healthcare professionals because, quite 
frankly, very few people in Congress understand medicine the way 
healthcare professionals do. They haven't been to medical school, and 
even those who have, they haven't been in medicine for a long time. 
Quite frankly, the Doctors Caucus is seldom relied on for healthcare 
policy, which is a shame.
  If you haven't been to medical school, if you haven't taken your 
boards, if you haven't been through a residency, if you haven't seen 
tens of thousands of patients, you shouldn't be telling doctors who 
have a dissenting opinion what to do.
  There is no standard of care based on government. It is based on 
physicians having a good decision, trying different things, and finding 
out what works. That is how medicine has progressed in America; far 
beyond any limitations that we have in foreign counties.
  We are the leaders of innovation and healthcare. We should consider 
our healthcare professionals when we make decisions and not consider 
government first when it comes to standard of care.
  If you want to require healthcare professionals to have a 
vaccination, why do you think the government understands that 
requirement better than the very healthcare professional who not only 
treats this but was exposed to it, who has natural immunities, and who 
understands the side effects; not only of the disease but of the 
vaccination.
  Once again, I submit to you that it is time to let healthcare 
professionals make their own decisions, especially when it comes to 
their own lives. They are the ones that put their lives on the line 
during the pandemic. They are the ones that treated the sick patients. 
They are the ones that know best whether a vaccination will benefit 
them or harm them, not a government.
  I must also remind you that our Constitution is based on individual 
rights, not on a collective governance by politicians telling people 
what to do in things they don't know about.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope we support the Freedom for Healthcare Workers 
Act.

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