WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) recently spoke on the Senate floor about how the confusing coronavirus messaging coming from the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is discouraging Americans from getting vaccinated.
Barrasso, a medical doctor, reiterated how the single most important thing you can do to protect yourself and your family is to get vaccinated.
Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:
“I come to the floor today to talk about where our country is in the fight against coronavirus.
“The simple message on the coronavirus is this: Vaccines work. The single most important thing you want to do to protect yourself and to protect your family is to get vaccinated. That is the only message we ought to be sending out.
“I am a doctor. I have been vaccinated. My wife has been vaccinated. Our kids have been vaccinated. There is overwhelming evidence that vaccines are highly effective against serious illness.
“Yet we are talking about this issue today because of the chaos and the confusion that have come about due to messaging coming out of the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“That is why, with limited floor time during this important debate on spending, I come to the floor today to discuss this specific issue. President Biden and the CDC ought to be found guilty of medical malpractice for the comments that they have been making.
“Back in May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, and the President repeated it at the White House, that if you have been vaccinated, if you have been fully vaccinated, you don’t need to wear a mask either indoors or outdoors.
“Now they are saying that even if you have been fully vaccinated, you need to wear a mask again indoors. At a time when we are trying to encourage people to get vaccinated, I ask, how is this going to help someone who hasn’t been vaccinated, encourage them to get vaccinated if you are telling them that even if you get vaccinated, you still have to wear a mask?
“This flip-flopping in policy is why Americans, I think, are very worried and concerned and somewhat anxious about the activities of this administration. They are wondering: What comes next–flip-flop on masks?
“Is this administration going to flip-flop on lockdowns, on shutdowns, on closing schools? People say: Oh no, don’t worry about that.
“Well, let me tell you, just this past weekend, Randi Weingarten–she is the head of one of America’s biggest teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers–she refused to commit to in-person learning this fall, this coming school year.
“The president of America’s biggest teachers union refused to commit to in-person learning this fall.
“So the American people have every right to be concerned and anxious and angry with the communications coming out of this administration and the directives this week. Parents are angry that kids have already lost too much.
“And think about this: Now Nancy Pelosi is requiring fully vaccinated Members of the House of Representatives to wear masks or they will be charged a fine. She has even threatened–threatened–to tell the Capitol Police to arrest staff members–fully vaccinated staff members–who aren’t wearing masks.
“These are people who have been vaccinated. At the same time, the Biden administration is throwing our southern border wide open to 180,000 illegal immigrants a month, with almost every disease known to man. We are talking about people who are undocumented and unvaccinated.
“When I went to the border earlier this spring, our border agents told me that they had arrested people from 50 different countries. Of course, these people are all coming from places where vaccination rates are much lower than they are in our country.
“Since the start of the pandemic, more than 8,000 Border Patrol officers have tested positive for coronavirus. Thirty-two of these agents have died. When I visited the border, roughly 1 in 10 of the unaccompanied children in custody had tested positive, and they were intermingled with others who had tested positive and those not tested positive.
“They were all crammed in like sardines, and the testing occurred only when they were getting ready to be released and then sent all around America, spreading the coronavirus wherever they went.
“And it is interesting to listen to Democrats in the national media and on the Hill who want to blame Republicans for any vaccine hesitancy that is out there.
“Well, let me set the record straight on that. Republican elected officials have gone out of our way to encourage vaccinations. It is the responsible thing to do.
“I have traveled from one vaccination site to another all around the State of Wyoming; made public service announcements with other doctors and doctors who are members of the Doctors Caucus in Congress, in the House and the Senate; made public service announcements; put them out on videos and sent them around the country.
“The truth is that there are a large number of Democrats who are still unvaccinated. Forty percent as of today, of New York City public school employees have not been vaccinated, and it is ready for the school year to start. And yet we don’t have a commitment from the head of the teachers union to have in-person learning this year.
“Forty percent of the public hospital workers in New York City are unvaccinated. Forty-one percent of Chicago residents are not vaccinated. If you take a look, city by city–Democrat-run cities–a high percentage of people are not vaccinated, and yet President Biden and the Senate Majority Leader continue to point fingers.
“It does seem to me that Democrats have utterly failed to communicate a clear message to get the American people vaccinated. In fact, I think Democrat politicians have been a big part of the problem from the beginning.
“Early on, when the vaccine was currently being developed, people were hoping for a vaccine. We saw the Vice Presidential debate–57 million people watching–and then, at the time, Vice Presidential candidate, at the time Senator Harris, now Vice President Harris, said she would not get a vaccine developed under the Trump administration.
“She said: ‘If Donald Trump tells us we should take it, I’m not going to take it.’ Before Democrats point the finger at Republicans, they should get their own cities vaccinated.
“There is much more to talk about. There have been many mistakes made by this administration and Democrats over the last six months, but it is no coincidence that, over the last three months, we have seen a historic drop in national optimism.
“A majority of the country says America is now on the wrong track. Just one in three Americans is satisfied with the way things are going in this country. Fully, only one in five Americans has switched from optimistic about our future too pessimistic about our future in just three months.
“Fully, one in five Americans flipped on their thoughts on the direction of the country, and it is easy to see why. They see inflation eating away at their paychecks. They see Democrats piling up debt on our kids and grandkids.
“They see their taxes are about to go up again. They see an open southern border. They see rising crime in Democrat cities. And independent voters are running away from Democrats as fast as they can. It is time for Democrats to get the message.
“We want to get the virus behind us. The answer is not open borders. The answer is not more flip-flops, and it is not more mandates on the American people. It is time for the Democrats to stop pointing fingers.
“The school year returns in just a matter of weeks. Every school in America must be open. It is time for Democrats to follow the science. No more flip-flops, no more mandates, and no more lockdowns–no more excuses.”
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