You can be seated at the witness table. I want to introduce mr. Mike bowen. Mr. Bowen is the executive vice ameritech,f prestige which is americas largest medical surgical mask maker. Your story is a very powerful one. To my colleagues, mr. Bowen has wins i think, really he an award for tenacity, because over three president ial administrations, he has been banging on the door warning, asking for, pointing out the america has a dangerous dependence on Foreign Countries for products that we need here at home. So this is very important testimony and we welcome you. We thank you for traveling to be with us today with all the extenuating circumstances to travel. We are very grateful to you. So you are not recognized for your statement now recognized for your statement. And then you will hear from the members. I am sure both your statement will provoke questions and that you will get good ones from both sides of the aisle. I should add something here, and that is, this issue of our terrible
This hearing will come to order and without objection the chair is authorized to declare recess at any time. The worlds population killing approximately 300 Million People in the 20th century alone. Smallpox is the only human disease to be eradicated thanks to the development of the vaccine. Another devastating disease, polio just started a third case worldwide in 2018 compared to 350,000 cases in 1988. Everyday vaccines are saving lives. There is no such thing as healthy skepticism when it comes to vaccines. There is a wellfunded Disinformation Campaign targeting the public and weakening the publichealth law. School vaccination requirements have been commonplace in the u. S. Generations and exemptions were granted for legitimate political reasons. However in my home state of texas, the number of unvaccinated children who spiked since 2003 when they expanded the exemptions to include non medical reasons. The 57,000 last year we are seeing this played out across the country and innocent
Committee hearing is about two and a half hours. This hearing will come to order and without objection the chair is authorized to declare recess at any time. The worlds population killing approximately 300 Million People in the 20th century alone. Smallpox is the only human disease to be eradicated thanks to the development of the vaccine. Another devastating disease, polio just started a third case worldwide in 2018 compared to 350,000 cases in 1988. Everyday vaccines are saving lives. There is no such thing as healthy skepticism when it comes to vaccines. There is a wellfunded Disinformation Campaign targeting the public and weakening the publichealth law. School vaccination requirements have been commonplace in the u. S. Generations and exemptions were granted for legitimate political reasons. However in my home state of texas, the number of unvaccinated children who spiked since 2003 when they expanded the exemptions to include non medical reasons. The 57,000 last year we are seein
The Vice President would be a pretty good one. Well see. We had a meeting with the Vice President and two cochairs and well see where that leads. But theres a lot of work to be done. Fortunately the panel provide a recommendation to further enhance our abilities to prevent, and respond and protect against a buy logical incident. Today we have the opportunity to discuss recommendations with the heads of several agencies, senior people in several agencies who will be responsible for implementing some of the recommendations of the earlier panel. Im eager to hear your thoughts and hear how you believe we can further improve our countrys biodefense systems. This is an important conversation to have. In the context of recent global events including a couple emergesing as we speak. Ebola continues to threaten west africa and the threat of the virus has declined significantly, thanks in no small part to the Investments America has made and the Health Systems of those countries hardest hit by t