The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts seek recognition . As the member designated by mr. Welch of vermont, pursuant to House Resolution 965, i inform the house that mr. Welch will vote yes on s. 2193. As the member designated by ms. Trahan of massachusetts, pursuant to House Resolution 965, i inform the house that ms. Trahan will vote yes on s. 2193. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from kansas seek recognition . As the member designated by mr. Clay, pursuant to House Resolution 965, i inform the house that mr. Clay will vote aye on s. 2193. The speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 40 3rks the nays are two 403, the ays are two. 2 3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and, without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. For what purpose does the gentlelady from minnesota seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that i may here after be considered as the first sponsor of h. R. 3114, a bill originally introduced by representative john lewis of georgia, for the purposes of adding cosponsors and requesting reprohibitings pursuant to clause 7 of reprintings pursuant to clause 7 of rule 12. Without objection. The chair the speaker pro tempore without objection. The chair lays before the house a communication. The clerk the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, madam. Pursuant to the permission granted granted in clause 2h of rules 2 of the u. S. House of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate at 6 20 p. M. That the senate agreed to, without amendment, house joint resolution 87. That the senate agreed to, without amendment, house joint resolution 88. Appointments, commission on combating synthetic opioid trafficking, Public Safety officer medal of valor review board, with best wished, i am, signed, sincerely, cheryl l. Ohnson, clerk. The speaker pro tempore the chair will now entertain requests for oneminute speeches. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i ask for consent to address the house floor for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Speaker, today i stand here to honor and thank the Courageous Service members and veterans who have served and protected this nation. I was appalled when the president , the commander in chief, referred to them as losers and suckers. These brave men and women sacrificed for us. Some giving their lives. Veterans like my constituent, a u. S. Army specialist who at 18 whereas deployed and had to leave was deployed and had to leave his bife and 2monthold son. Or mr. Rodriguez who was drafted out of high school to serve in the Second Infantry Division in korea. Ms. Mucarselpowell or a coms officer in vietnam. Gary put it best by saying, many of them lost their lives. But none of them were losers. I couldnt agree more. They deserve better, mr. Speaker. And should never be disrespected the way this president did. And i yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition . Mr. Thompson mr. Speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Thompson thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today to honor lieutenant merle t. Shaul. Lieutenant shaul was a member of the United States navy from pennsylvania. One evening on november 6, 1943, at approximately 2 2 00, he took off for what would be his final journey. His plane was shot down while serving as cover and guidance for ship below in the Pacific Ocean as he and his fellow navy men approached an island in an effort to regain control from the japanese who had invaded the island the year before. Sadly, lieutenant shaul did not survive. On wednesday, august 26, i had the pleasure and honor of meeting michael, lieutenant shauls nephew, at the Indiana County courthouse in my district. I was pleased to present michael with his uncles muchdeserved medals. Lieutenant shaul is a recipient of a purple heart, air medal, American Defense service medal, American Campaign medal, airborneatic Pacific Campaign medal, world war ii victory medal, the Honorable Service la pell pen and the gold star la pell button. It was an honor to celebrate his service and his life that he sacrificed to this country at the Indiana County courthouse that day. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition . I seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, sir. The speaker pro tempore without objection, i rise today in recognition of National Hispanic heritage month, celebrated each year between september 15 through october 15. Mr. Higgins this month provides our nation the opportunity to recount the rich cultural legacy the Hispanic Community has made for our country. Due to the pandemic, the Hispanic Heritage Council of western new york is holding a series of events virtually to chronicle the critical contributions the Hispanic Community has made to buffalo and western new york. This here, the Hispanic Heritage Council, is also celebrating 10 years of work raising Community Awareness of the contributions our hispanic friends and neighbors have made toward strengthening our communities future. Americas stronger because of its diversity. Our lives are enriched through a greater appreciation of other experiences and cultures. We are thankful for the opportunity to spotlight the contributions of the Hispanic Community this month. And grateful to have the Hispanic Heritage Council of western new york committed to this mission, this year, and every year. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman rom kentucky seek recognition . Unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to honor a coleman crest farm in lexington, connecticut. This farm is one of kentucky. This farm is one of the oldest africanamericanowned farms with a remarkable legacy. The farms first owner was born into slavery in 1845. Incredibly in march of 1888, James Coleman purchased the land he and his parents had worked on for years as slaves. The farm has passed through four generations of colemans since that time. Mr. Barr all while enduring and prevailing other discrimination, the depression and two world wars. His grandson and late wife purchased the farm. Tomorrow on september 15, kathy colemans birthday, a groundbreaking of a newhouse at the farm will take place dedicated to kathys memory. The farm will be used to help shape the future for black farmers as lexington youth are exposed to the agricultural opportunity as a means to realize the american dream. I am honored to pay tribute to the entire Coleman Family today in the peoples house. Thank you, mr. Speaker. And yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition . Thank you, mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today in recognition of John Henry Turpin. A distinguished u. S. Navy sailor and a life long resident of bremerton, washington. Mr. Beyer his 30year career in the navy included service during the spanish american war, the boxer rebellion and world war ii world war i. Hes believed to be the first black american to qualify as a master diver and was one of the first black americans to achieve the rank of chief petty officer in the u. S. Navy. Mr. Kilmer his outstanding legacy of service to our country is made even more significant by the era of prejudice and discrimination during which he served. I am proud that today the house of representatives unanimously passed the bipartisan bill that i introduced to designate the u. S. Postal Service Facility on pacific avenue in bremerton as the John Henry Turpin post office building. In recognition of his achievements and his service. It is fitting that today democrats and republicans stood together in honoring his lifelong and selfless commitment to the defense of america and american values. And ensuring that his accomplishments are permanently remembered in the city of bremerton. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Van drew thank you, mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize two Brave Police Officers in my district for their outstanding actions and bravery. Sergeant Matthew Christopher ebb and Corporal William giancopolis exemplify the best of our nation. They responded to a house fire and an armed man following a woman during the very same shift. At 1 00 a. M. On july 6, they helped evacuate residents and a family pet from a fire where they bravely went into the burning structure several times. Then at 5 00 a. M. On the same day, they responded to a call of a man following a woman where the officers found him hiding with two knives in his possession. Officers, you exemplify courage. Commitment. And honor. That our nation, state and south jersey deserve. And we thank you for your heroism of. The virtue and integrity of the majority of our hardworking men and women in blue cannot go unnoticed. Especially in these trying times. William and matthew, thank you. May god bless you and god bless america. Thank you, mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlewoman from pennsylvania seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous mr. Conyers sent to address the house for one unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Speaker, i rise today before the house of representatives to commend walter pudefer, tom gardner, hugh lofton ii, dan i gore yo, David Mcdonald for their heroism. On tuesday, august 4, in our community of chester county, amidst fast moving floodwaters, these six men risked their own lives and saved a father and children from sinking in a vehicle. It is so important in these times, these trying times, to try to recognize the brave heroic acts that Everyday Americans are committing. Ms. Houlahan this story is not an isolated incident. There are countless stories acrot the country of people stepping up to save lives, health care workerses, essential workers and the average person who sees somebody in need and drops everything to help. I thank these brave pennsylvanians and i enter their name into congressional record for their acts of service. I yield back, mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to remember and honor the life of an amazing leader, paul beckham, who sadly passed away august 30. He was dedicated to improving my alma mater, young harris college, through his work on the board of trustees. He served on the board for eight years and improved the lives of countless students and faculty members. He had a background in sports and finance and television production. Mr. Carter he served as president of Turner Broadcast Networks an served as president of a wholly owned subsidiary of airport eveloped the channel. He worked with bob hope communications. He was also a devoted member of his church, peachtree road United Methodist church, and was active in several charitable organization. I am immensely grateful for the life he lived. He impacted countless individuals in all his pursuits and i was grate to feel know him. Pauls family and friends will continue to be many mymy thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. I know his legacy will remain for years to come. Thank you, mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today to support our bill h. R. 2969 which passed the house today. Is bill names the florence villea United States post Office Located at 1401 first street north in winter haven, florida, daley althaea Margaret Mills post office building. Shes an unsung hero in the fight for desegregation in florida. He began her education in hughesville, winter hanes first black community. When she was 13 she moved to pennsylvania to live wan aunt. There she was able to attend integrated schools and in 1963, mills filed a lawsuit against Polk County Board of public instruction to end the duel School System and allow the dual School System and allow her son to attend the allwhite winter haveb high school. This led to the integration of all polk county schools. En asked ability her motivation she said our teachers were just as good but some of my sons textbooks would go from page 3 and skip to page 35 and you cant learn that way. She eventually became manager of the florence villea post office which will bear her name thosme she passed in 2008 her legacy lives on. I thank my colleagues for their support of this bill. Thank you, mr. Speaker, i yield ack. The speaker pro tempore under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2019, the gentleman from tennessee, mr. Rowe, is recognized for 60 minute mr. Roe, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. Mr. Roe were here today with the g. O. P. s doctors caucus for the next hour to discuss the covid epidemic and it is my distinct honor and privilege to be down here with my colleagues for the first time in some time, since the house has not been in session for quite a few weeks. Collectively, on the floor tonight, there are over 200 years of Clinical Experience with the g. O. P. Doctors caucus. I myself practiced 37 years before i retired and ran for congress. In 2008. Tonight, i want to go over the timeline just briefly of the pan democrat take we currently are experiencing. Remember about 1 2 months ago, we knew that there was a virus that had spread from china, from wuhan, china, to the u. S. And that timeline, just january 9, the World Health Organization announced that there was a pneumonia in wuhan, china. By the 20th of january, three cities in the u. S. Already had begun to limit flight and to check patients, or passengers, i should say, from flights that landed in los angeles at l. A. X. , at san francisco, and at j. F. K. International. The 21st of january, the first confirmed case which was a person who lived in wuhan but came back to the u. S. By the 31st of january of this year, the president had stopped all flights from china to the u. S. And then subsequently as we all know from europe to the u. S. So literally from not knowing what this virus was in the first month, what r. N. A. Sequence it was, we had limited the travel of this virus. Through the month of february, i became involved with the diamond princess cruise ship. Turns out i had a very good friend on that ship. It was docked, the average age of the passengers on that ship was 75 years of age. My friend is a physician. I talked to him on the phone. And i must give a shoutout o shout out to the h. H. S. Who really led the evacuation of that ship, bringing all americans back home, quarantining them and not a single american died. I think we can take some pride, im a former u. S. Army officer, i served in the Second Infantry Division in korea. We were trained and beat in our heads, you do not leave anyone behind. And i think a number thats left out is our u. S. State departments repatriated over 90,000 american citizens from overseas back home to the u. S. Where they can receive the care that they need. We have recognized that the virus got the r. N. A. Sequence of the virus and literally within six weeks began to approve a vaccine treatment or dreams for this virus we didnt know a lot about. I want to say in my 37 years this december i would have graduated from medical school 50 years ago. I dont ever remember a time many my life where we found a disease, an Infectious Disease where in eight months we cut the mortality rate 40 . Thats literally unheard of. Its a huge shutout to the men and women who get up every day and go into our hospitals. We all know them at home and putter that lives on the lean to treat us as patients and to take care of us. When given the proper equipment, theyre doing a phenomenal job on the frontlines. I want to thank my friends who are still and colleagues who are still in practice every day for that. We have we had an opportunity in may, once we realized that this had ramped up and a lot of americans were affected by this, the white house started something called operation warp speed. And literally in the history of this country, i dont remember a time typically when weave vaccine, a treatment for a disease, theres usually anywhere from three or four years to 10 to 15 years to get that vaccine approved and get it to market. And what we want is a safe, effective vaccine like you would for polio. As a child, i remember, as a little boy, when the polio vaccine came out. Literally overnight we eliminated polio as a risk. Many of my friends developed polio who got it before the vaccine was available. I was fortunate and did not, as were many children, and we have essentially eliminated that from the earth today. We began operation warp speed which was to develop a vaccine. Somehow that going to happen if you kept hearing it would be done in about a year . How can you safely do that in a year . What usually happens in Vaccine Development is you sequence the r. N. A. , the virus, you sequence it. After that virus is sequenced you send your information over to the f. D. A. And they approve that you begin Clinical Phase one trials. Phase one trials are typically 45 or 50 patients. You nene then get the information for the phase one trials, the approval boards give you permission to go to phase 2, then phase 3 trials. If all of that is successful, then you begin to manufacture the vaccine and then deliver the vaccine to health departments, to doctors offices, to hospitals and pharmacies an so forth to use the vaccine just like we did for flu. What has happened this time is that all of these things have occurred simultaneously. So the phase one trial, the f. D. A. Gets the information, phase two trials they get the information, if it looks good they can go ahead with phase three trials. Thats why right now we have three trials in phase three trials in eight month which is is unheard of. I can tell you. These are tens of thousands of patients who are enrolled in these trials. And hopefully by the end of this year we will have a vaccine that is both safe and effective to treat our people in this country. Our ones at most risk. Im going to stop now and the first person i would like to introduce tonight is my good friend, dr. Mike burgess, a fellow ob gyn doctor, texas 26, he is the Senior Member of our g. O. P. Doctors caucus and has been active in the caucus since it began. Dr. Burgess serves on the energy an Commerce Committee as a Senior Member. Now id like to yield to him. Mr. Burgess thank you, dr. Roe, thank you for yielding, thank you for convening this hour, i think its so important that the people hear from us, the doctors serving in the United States house of representatives. Dr. Roe, when you were deliver yurg remarks i was reminded of how the information about this illness came to us and how serious it seemed that a city in china, city of 10 Million People would be shut down. So clearly this was a significant illness and must be taken quite seriously. But i will tell you the committee on which i serve, the subcommittee on health, the committee on energy and commerce, the very Committee Congress before had worked on the reauthorization of the pandemic allhazard preparedness act would not hold a hearing on this in the month of february and it was a missed opportunity. We had created the legislation to reauthorize pandemic preparedness, the president signed that into law in june of 2019 and now six months later were faced with this possible worldwide pandemic yusm would think thered be enough curiosity on the committee to do some real time oversight. Did we get it right . Did we focus on the right conditions . Were we responding to the right signals but we dont know because we didnt look. We had to do a hearing on flavored tobacco, horse race, ticket stub, all kinds of other things and it was not until the end of february, tacked on to the waning miamis of a budget hear that we heard from the secretary of health. In the principal subcommittee that deals with health in this United States house of representatives. Well, dr. Roe also has talked about the speed with with which the development now that the vaccine is progressing and it is truly remarkable. Just as a data point for people who may not remember. When ebela was careening through western africa, august of 2014, basically had a vaccine that was at the same place as our candidate vaccines were at the end of august 14, the final approval by the food and Drug Administration came in december of 2019. Clearly that phiyear time horizon is just too long in this situation and the administration recognized that. The president recognized that. And leaned in to the process of developing a vaccine. One of the more remarkable things i have seen, the food and Drug Administration is going to license the production of appropriate vaccine candidates prior to their approval. Now they cant be sold until they get that final approval so theres a financial risk that is taken by this companies that proceed with the production of that vaccine. But for those who remember the fall of 2009, when h1n1 was such a problem in this country, remember the vaccine was developed and then another month went by before there was sufficient quantity of eff the vaccine to begin vaccinating the most vulnerable populations. Thats not going to happen under the watch of donald j. Trump. I for one am grateful for the leadership the president has provided in this regard. Grateful for the leadership that the House Doctors caucus has been providing as we go through this difficult time. I thank my friend from tennessee for the recognition and i yield back. Mr. Roe i thank the gentleman for yielding. At this time, dr. Burgess is correct, one of the things its one thing to manufacture a very small am of a vaccine and vaccines are only one part of the prevention part. We all know about washing our hands and face coverings and the American People are doing that. Certainly ive lived traveled a lot as we all have. I have seen a great compliance in my home state of tennessee with this deadly virus. At this time i would like to yield to my good friend and he is that indeed, dr. Larry bucshon, ive had the privilege of getting to know him and his family, ive been to his district, indiana 8 in evansville. Hes been here five terms. Served almost a little over 10 years as u. S. Navy reserve and retiered cardio thoracic surgeon. Mr. Bucshon thank you. Its an honor to be here with my fellow doc caucus members. I want to thank dr. Roe for putting this special order together. It is really important that the American People hear from the medical professionals in the congress about this really critical issue. You know, i remember back in medical school, one of my first rotations i was on pediatrics. And, you know, i understood vaccines to a certain extent. But then one of my first patients that i had had whooping cough. Because they hadnt been vaccinated. And so, you know, thats when i started to understand, you know, what it actually means to have safe and effective vaccines. Not home for children, but also for other diseases. And, look, in this situation, what we need to do as the American People, is we need to work to restore our way of life. In america and around the world. And how are we going to do that as it relates to covid19 . Well, were going to have to have a safe and effective vaccine. And what ive been impressed with really over the last few months, up to about six months, is the unprecedented response from this administration as it relates to developing a vaccine so that we can restore our way of life in america. And around the world. And what have they done . Working along with congress, of course, has been financing to help finance research and development of the vaccine. But also other things. Operation warp speed has really put in an unprecedented streamlining of the process. Let me just say this. Not eliminating the process of developing a vaccine, which would potentially make it problematic with safety and efficacy, in whether it works or not. But streamlining the process, doing things together with private sector companies. Helping design the Research Protocols after theyve helped pick the best candidates for an effective vaccine. So, the federal government working in concert with the private sector, helping to pick the best candidates, not just people throwing out, hey, i got a great candidate heerks but looking at the science of here, but looking at the science of these developments, this research. Helping to pick the best candidates and then streamlining the process by helping to design the further protocols as dr. Roe has mentioned, you know, the phase one, two and three trials, and working in concert. So the federal government doesnt just sit back and say, like would normally happen, do your research, go through the process, show us that this rk, say the government under this administration is working in concert at the same time so that once we have this vaccine get to the point where its been developed, people at f. D. A. Already know whats been happening with this vaccine. Its unpruss it unprecedented really. I think dr. Burgess just mentioned the manufacturing process, already manufacturing the vaccines before they develop. So as soon as it gets proven to be safe, number one, effective, number two, look, were going to be able were going to have vaccines available. Again, that would not happen without operation warp speed. And let me just say this in closing. Then ill yield back to dr. Roe, these are career scientists at f. D. A. , n. I. H. , health and human services, these are people who have worked, many for decades, on Vaccine Development. The narrative that this is that politicians are driving this is just not true. The reality is, and i think dr. Collins from the n. I. H. Testified in front of Congress Last week or the week before, is that science is driving this. We want safe and effective vaccines. Let me just say this. When theres a vaccine available, and when the Health Care Providers, other people who are at highrisk and everyone has had their chance to be vaccinated, i will take this vaccine. Myself. Because i have confidence that the process were going through will ensure safety and it will ensure efficacy, the vaccine will work, and lets help restore our way of life. With that, i yield back to dr. Roe. Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Bucshon. You know, i think you have to ask, and any time you put something this like the operation warp speed together, is whats the goal . The goal of that is to produce 300 million doses of an effective safe vaccine to protect the American People. We also its to provide therapeutics and diagnostics, along with that. And this is under the umbrella of health and human services, the f. D. A. , the c. D. C. , the n. I. H. , barta, which is the advanced research and developmental authority, and the develop of defense. O its a multidepartment approach of the entire government. And the private sector. Its a privatepublic partnership to try to help defeat this virus and put our American People back at ease and back at work. And look, every day when i go home, they say, dr. Roe, when are we going to be able to get back to normal . Yesterday was the first day i had attended an inperson Church Service in six months. The longest time in my life i remember not being in church. People were so glad to be there. And to have some semblance of normal. This morning i got up as i drove back and i saw parents putting their children on school buses. Something as simple as that, just to put your child on the school bus. I saw a mother this morning, hug a little boy, he jumps on with his mask on, jumps on the school bus and ready to go to school and i think people are craving for that. At this time id like to yield to my good friend, dr. Brad wenstrup, who is the vice chair of the doctors caucus, as dr. Bucshon is. Hes a colonel in the u. S. Army reserves. I have to salute him. I never made it past 04. For over 20 years served in iraq. And also served on the Veterans Affairs committee and chaired the subcommittee on health. Dr. Wenstrup. I yield to you. Mr. Wenstrup thank you, dr. Roe, i appreciate it. This is such a unique experience for all of us tonight. Here we are on the floor of congress and weve got almost a dozen Health Care Providers coming to share our years of experience and knowledge and education with the American People as far as what we are trying to do in this country to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. I mean, vaccines save lives. Theres nothing new. Vaccines prevent illness. We know this. I know growing up, my moms first cousin had gotten polio when she was 4 years old. She spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair, disfigured, disfigured hands. She still found a way to make a living. But think if she had just had that vaccine a little bit sooner. If we had actually come up with it. To this day the challenges that we face, i look at rotary international, which im a member, and their goal is to rid the world of polio. And try to get everyone in the world vaccinated. This is not new science. But i will tell you this, with the virus that were facing today, it is called novel for a reason. It is new and it is different. And we know more today than we knew six months ago. And thats whats so important. Is that we continue to learn and get better and take care of people. We know that some people are more at risk than others. We know that some people are more vulnerable to this than others. When we look at the symptoms for those that have tested positive and have gotten this, the symptoms can go anywhere from no symptoms at all to maybe a cough or a cold or flulike symptoms, or loss of taste and smell, to respiratory problems, difficulty breathing, all the way as we know to death. But therapeutics have come into play as were studying this. And understanding and identifying this virus. And being able to treat it. Early on we were taking a concept that is not new, which call take what we convalescent plasma, take plasma from somebody who has disease and gotten better, developed the antibodies so they can use it o help someone else. And weve seen that its been effective. Helped. En that its weve seen antivirals come forward that are working and people get better. Not everyone gets better. So the fight always continues. Were using steroid treatments to reduce some of the inflammation that occurs from this viral attack, especially on the lungs. Because its the damage to the lungs that does the most. So think about this and what were doing today. If someone tests positive, especially if they have no or very few symptoms, go home and quarantine, check your temperature, you can check your oxygen level in your blood, which if its going down, then youre getting sicker. You put it on your finger, you can get them on amazon. And if you are getting sicker, then the time to be treated is sooner rather than later. And thats what we were doing. And so as has been mentioned a couple times tonight, the mortality rate has gone down 40 which is almost unheard of. Thats without a vaccine. Thats with the therapeutics that have been developed. And were doing something that probably no other country is doing to the level that were doing. Were testing healthy people. People with no symptoms. Why . Because we know that people without symptoms can spread this. And its important that we know who they are. No other country is doing the amount of testing that we do. I was out with the National Guard during the august break. I went to four sites zwefment about 1,000 tests on sites. We did about 1,000 tests on people driving our walking up. It is amazing what were doing with our country and hour we are trying to respond to and how we are trying to respond to this. On to operation warp speed. This is about a commonsense path forward. To find a safe and effective vaccine. And were doing it in a way that no ones ever seen before. Right now in record time, youve seen pharmaceutical companies that usually compete against each other coming together to share knowledge and to come forward to try and develop a vaccine. We have six that are in phase iii right now. Three that are up phase three right now. Three that are up and running. I want to talk about this being safe and effective. One drug company had one patient in a trial that developed an illness. Just like any other trial, when Something Like that happens, you put it on pause. You put it on pause to make sure that that illness was not a result of the trial of the vaccine. Thats how you develop a safe and effective vaccine. Were asking for about 30,000 volunteers for every one of these trials. Thats the standard. Some will do even more. Its really incredible what we have done in such a short amount of time. And i applaud the people that are stepping up to be in these trials. So that we can develop a vaccine right here in america. The publicprivate collaboration is unique. It is new. And as has been mentioned, the risk we take is that were developing the vaccines and manufacturing before theyve been through phase three and if they dont get through phase three then its wasted. But if they do, then immediately we have it and we start treating the most vulnerable people. Ultimately we want 300 million vaccines to treat all of america. Theres a lot of lessons learned. Weve learned a lot. Theres still more to learn. Only science will solve this, folks. Thats whos going to solve it. And i just want to say this. When i look at operation warp speed and all that we have done in this country so far, if theres going to be a pandemic in this world, theres no other country that id rather be in than the United States of america. With that, i yield back. Mr. Roe before the gentleman leaves, i know we had the opportunity and we do it about weekly, to be on a phone Conference Call of operation warp speed leaders. One of the things they ask us to do, and i do this here tonight, is to ask more africanamericans to sign up for the vaccine trials. They had in one particular large trial, there were only 5. 5 , i believe, arakan americans in the trial. And they need africanamericans in the trial. And they need to get that up. So if youre out there, im asking to you volunteer for this trial. We need that. I think they had enough latinos and Senior Citizens like myself, but i think that we do need that and you need basically you need to study this. I think pfizer is going to increase their trial to the low 40,000s. So its a huge just to let people know, that is a gigantic clinical trial. A placebo control, one group gets a basically a pla see gets basically a placebo and the other group gets the vaccine. You check later. By the way, all of these, these six vaccines, five of them will be two shots. One and then 21 to 28 days later. One which will be developed a little later on, i think, into 2021, will be a single vaccine. Mr. Wenstrup it is important, they are trying to make hour that the people in the trials are coming from the groups that are most vulnerable, especially. They want to make sure that adequate number so we get, again, safe and effective vack seens. Mr. Roe how do you decide who gets the vaccine is, see who suffered most from it. And who has that been . Nursing homes and care facilities. I want to give the v. A. A shoutout. They used the Fourth Mission of the v. A. To go out into many, many Nursing Homes across this country and trinh and bring people up to speed about how you isolate patients so that you dont spread and we certainly, i remember once one nursing home, state nursing home, veterans nursing home that lost over 70 veterans, thats unbelievable, in one facility. So were getting much better. Our elderly, longterm care facilities, over 40 of the deaths have been in longterm care and Nursing Homes. Certainly our health care workers, our First Responders should be the first ones when a safe and effective vaccine is created. Id now like to yield to the cochair of the docs caucus, dr. Andy harris, a navy veteran, haveactive member and will the reins next year, i yield to you. Mr. Harris congress will miss you next year, miss your expertise, especially in this time of crisis in the nation. Im going to make my remarks brief. To remind the American People who are watching what we were talking about back in spring about the possibility of how this pandemic comes to an end. And the possibilities really were, well, the virus weakens on its own but we havent seen that at all, or a vaccine is developed. N. I. H. Tell you, ive had grant, an n. I. H. Grant is usually written far threeyear period with a renewal because thats usually how long it takes to even begin to make a discovery. With vaccines, typically, five to 10 years. And what were talking about now because of what this administration has done is have a vaccine being administered, being declared safe by the f. D. A. , potentially within 10 months of conceptualizing a vaccine. Dr. Roe, as you know, i sit on the appropriations committee, on the health subcommittee. And the foundations for operation warp speed were laid by this administration years ago. When they increased funding to the Biomedical Advanced Research and development thofert, barta. One of the things they did is decide to he to heavily invest in Vaccine Technology and vaccine production. You know, its one thing to discover the vaccine and to prove its safe. Its another thing to make hundreds of millions of doses. Think about it. You actually have to make the glass viles, you have to have the facility that can produce that. Thats what this administration has done through barta the last few years. This isnt like some of the p. P. E. We have to outsource overseas. We have the ability to create hundreds of millions of vaccines and we likely will by next year. Again,s have very, very unusual. This is as youll hear from a lot of the docs tonight, this is very unusual. To be able to do this within months, to be able to tell the American People that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that we see the end of this pandemic because, and again, as the American People know, your own local cool brd may have said you know what, we cant go back to School Full Time until theres a vaccine. Ladies and gentlemen, were going to have that vaccine. Were going to have it because this administration is has cut through the red tape with operation warp speed assuring a safe,esquive vaccine that can be produced for hundreds of millions of people. Thats really phenomenal. Once we take care of the United States, we can actually take care of the world and help end this pandemic. Thatll be truly a wonderful thing. I want to thank you dr. Roe for leading this tonight, for giving me the time to remind the American People that from the very beginning we said the vaccine was the solution and this administration is delivering that solution. Mr. Roe before you leave, lets have some discussion fun. We can get down in the weeds, sometime, the doc caucus does, and thats fun, but what does herd immunity mean . You hear the talking heads talk about this, what does it mean . Mr. Harris herd, just like a herd of critters, in this case we talk about humans. And if you think about it, your chance of contracting a, in this case, a respiratory virus is proportional to the number of people you come in contact with who could spread it to you. Conventional wisdom is that if 60 to 70 of the people have had the virus or cant or are immune to the virus either naturally by having the virus or having a vaccine, then your chance of contracting it goes way down because your chance of coming in contact with someone who has that virus or is not immune to it has gone way down. You achieve functional whats called herd immunity. That is your chance of developing that virus is much, much lower. It means you can begin to do some of the thing, draw back on some of the restrictions that we have now that people are so upset with. Thats what a vaccine promises to deliver. Because certainly a percent of the population now has a has immunity because theyve had the virus. Certainly a much larger percentage will have immunity because they get the vaccine an cant spread it to anyone else. If these vaccines are approved by year end or early next year, by next summer, i tell this to people in my district, we could actually have a normal summer. Wouldnt that be nice . We could actually have a normal summer. Mr. Roe we had a normal sum thats right Great Smoky Mountain National park, 1. 7 Million People came in july which was a record, i understand. One of the things i also want to mention briefly, while dr. Joyce comes up, or dr. Dunn comes up, is should you wear a mask or should you not wear a mask . Look, a mask is an inconvenience. I am standing here away from anybody, 20 feet away from anybody. The way a mask probably works is this. These are not good enough to keep a virus from getting in. But if you walk through a room with coronavirus and you walk through a room filled with people, you potentially will infect about 2. 5 of those people. Why . Because its probably spread by droplets. If i have this mask on it prevents if i sneeze or cough or whatever droplets from getting out or not spreading very far. Thats why if you touch a surface you want to wash your hands or cleanse the surface. Give you an example how infectious measles is, if vi measles and walk through the same room i can infolk 15 to 18 people. Its aerosolized. Its like a pollen in the air. Thats hows its spread as opposed to just a droplet spread which means coronavirus is not spread nearly as easy as some other viruses are. At this time and look i wore a mask over 30 years in the operating room. Fit turns out it doesnt help all that much youve been inconvenienced. If it helps you saved a life. At this point its my great pleasure to introduce dr. John joyce, a internal no, dr. Dunn, sorry about that i look over and my friend dr. Neal dunn is here, a u. S. Army veteran. I served with dr. Dunn on the Veterans Affairs committee. Extremely active on that committee. Its been a real pleasure, dr. Dunn, to serve with you in the u. S. Congress. Mr. Dunn thank you, chairman roe and thank you for putting on this opportunity for us to address the American People directly and reassure them that that th operation warp speed is truly an amazing accomplishment for our country. If you were born after 1969 you didnt get a chance to celebrate with us on the original moon shot, those heady days of the apollo landing and the run up science to get that done. America, this is your new moon shot. This is it. This is an amazing program. By leveraging the private sector and all parts of the private sector as well as all the agency, all of government effort, we are making progress on medical science at a rate that has literally never been seen before. Every living nobel prize laureate nobel prize in medicine is cooperating with the government and rushing forward the science on all these issues to make a difference an make a difference very quickly. The administration put 10 billion with a b in supplemental funding into operation warp speed. And separately another 1. 5 billion into developing the shark tank testing. Were not only working on vaccines, were working on testing for the virus and were working on prevention of the virus and were working on therapeutics, medicines that are true antivirals. We very new protocols so that we are improving the treatment and mortality rate for this disease. I mentioned the innovative, the creative people coming out of working on all facet this is disease. I have a story, this is a mask. Every one of you has a mask. This is a different kind of mask. This is made out of polyester fiber and its impregnated with ionic silver. Kills the al, it virus. When you take your mask off an put it down on the table it sets about sterilizing itself. I pick it back up it will be sterile. Thats an amazing accomplishment. That happened just this year. Just since this started. Amazing these things can happen. All science, all of medical experimenters, researchers theyre running flat out. We are pushing new frontiers in medicine. Were doing things we never thought we could do in my lifetime in medicine. We have broke then mold and im so grateful to all the brilliant, innovative men and women pushing out these frontiers and helping everybody. Medicine will never be the same. After this. Just because of the advances. In this time to this threat. We will be treating all of our diseases differently in the future. Before i close id like to associate myself with the comments of chairman comments that chairman roe made earlier about the heroism of the medical people, the Health Care People at all levels including ambulance drivers and police who have to go out and respond to people. This is heroic for them to go out and do that and continue to work in difficult circumstances, challenging circumstances, i think what this amounts to is americas shining moment. In medicine. I cant think of a better time ive ever seen american medicine respond. With that, mr. Chairman, its been a pleasure working with you. Mr. Roe one of the things youll note, if youll stand there for a second, the cares pack dg package did something, this is not warp speed but the cares pack amming shifted the way we see persons, in person versus telehealth. The v. A. Did a 70,000 to 80,000 telehealth visits a month. Ptsd ntal treatment for treatment that went over the 900,000 in may of this year. That is unbelievable when you can do that. I think many practices now, including my own at home, have used telehealth to see patients. I myself have used telehealth which saved me a many hour drive one way and the other. All the pandemic is not all bad. Weve learned some good things and some things i think that are going to persist after we get through this particular pandemic. I also might add this is not the first pandemic we have had. Thats why i know were going to be fine. Pandemic, h3n2 coronavirus pandemic, and we got through that as a country and we responded so much bet they are time with the therapeutics. Antibodies. Antivirals. Just the way we treat it. The anticoagulation hasnt been mentioned. With know this is an inflammatory response, causes coagulation in the kidneys, heart, lungs. Weve learned that. Hats off to our medical professionals that have gone out and literally at unbelievable literally unbelievable how fast they have upped the knowledge of this. I appreciate your comments. At this time i would like to ask dr. Joyce who i just introduced who is double boarded in internal medicine and derltology, a new relative and dermatology, a new, relatively new member from pennsylvania, dr. Joyce. Mr. Joyce i thank my friend from tennessee for yielding and for his leadership in the doctors caucus. Dr. Roe has educated us that perhaps as physicians in the United States congress there might not be a more important time that we present ourselves, our abilities to communicate, and understand the nature of this Novel Coronavirus and its impact on the world and pecifically on pennsylvania. The American People have united gets what we have come to realize is an invisible enemy. We have done our part to serve our neighbors, each and every one of us have made sacrifices during this pandemic and together we work to make a difference, we work to save lives. As we look to the future, americans are