Coronavirus
Floor Speech
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Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President.
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Mr. MURPHY. Yesterday, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital disclosed that 82 people died inside their healthcare system from COVID over the course of the month of September. That is the worst month on record for that hospital system.
It is not shocking to anyone because we just went passed 700,000 people who have now been killed by this virus in the United States of America. And this attack that continues to be launched on the Senate floor against science and against sound public health policy is standing in the way of us defeating this virus.
Now, I will speak to Senator Lee's objection, but Senator Johnson just came to the floor and opened up his remarks by declaring he that wasn't an anti-vaxxer and then just engaged in a 10-minute broadside against vaccines, citing conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory. The effect will be to undermine America's faith in vaccines that are working.
To prove his point, the Senator from Wisconsin read an email from a constituent who got the vaccine and got infected.
I am sure that is true. There are, in fact, people who have gotten the vaccine who have gotten the infection. It isn't 100 percent effective.
But he didn't cite these statistics: those who have been vaccinated are 10 times less likely to be hospitalized. Those who have been vaccinated are 10 times less likely to die.
Here are some numbers from the State of Pennsylvania that I just saw this morning: In Pennsylvania, 97 percent of deaths are amongst the unvaccinated; 95 percent of hospitalizations are amongst the unvaccinated; and 94 percent of cases are amongst the unvaccinated.
Senator Lee is right, vaccines work--vaccines work, and I appreciate his statement to that effect. But others, like the Senator from Wisconsin, are coming down to the floor, and their words have the effect of undermining people's faith in science, and that is deadly. That is deadly.
As to Senator Lee's objections, I know he makes them in good faith, but my impression is that this Congress and this country decided a long time ago that the government does have a role to play when it comes to the safety of our workplaces. In fact, that is the entire reason for the existence of OSHA. Whether you like it or not, from a policy perspective, OSHA has handed down mandate after mandate about what is necessary for employers to make sure that when you show up to work in a hospital or a factory or a school, that your workplace is safe.
Specifically, this country is not a stranger to vaccine mandates. In fact, every parent who sends their kids to school knows all about vaccine mandates because you have to make sure that your child is vaccinated before they go to school. Most of those schools have relatively reasonable exemptions--often, at the very least, medical exemptions; sometimes religious and philosophical exemptions.
Let's be clear: President Biden's plan includes commonsense considerations for exemptions.
Let's also be clear that, at least with respect to the OSHA requirement, it is a mandate for testing, not for vaccinations. There are other mandates that are requiring the vaccination take place, but the broadest of the proposed mandates is a mandate that everybody get tested; you don't have to get tested if you get the vaccine.
And so I am deeply worried about how unserious this country is about the science and about sound public health policy. We aren't going to get over this pandemic--we aren't going to be able to turn the page-- unless people choose to get vaccinated: 10 times less likely to die, 10 times less likely to get hospitalized.
Yes, it is true, there are cases in which there may be medical contraindications. President Biden's plan accounts for that. And yes, it is true that there are individual people who have still had breakthrough cases. But this is an effective vaccine. It is a safe vaccine. And the only way that we save lives is if we stop focusing on ideology and keep our focus on science and what works.
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