Ranking Member Ruiz's Opening Statement at Select Subcommittee Hearing Examining Pandemic Immunity

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"Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Today, we are here to examine the roles of both vaccine-induced and infection-acquired immunity in overcoming a deadly pandemic.

This hearing comes at a sensitive time for our nation's public health--as misinformation stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled vaccine hesitancy and undermined the greatest tool we have to protect against infectious diseases.

Or in fact, the only tool we have that prevents against developing symptoms from infection that lead to long-term health effects, hospitalization, and death all while reducing overall transmission.

It is my sincere hope that we will approach today's hearing with care, and that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will not draw into question that which we know to be fact: that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe, the COVID-19 vaccines are effective, and the COVID-19 vaccines save lives.

Let me take you back to the winter of 2020 before the rollout of these lifesaving vaccines.

Every day, Americans battled a highly transmissible rapidly changing deadly novel virus.

And at the height the pandemic, we were losing more than 3,000 of our fellow Americans daily to this lethal public health crisis.

More than 3,000 siblings, parents, grandparents, loved ones, and neighbors--lost to COVID-19 every single day.

These were some of the darkest times for our nation.

And so today, as we end the public health emergency, as we look back on the devastation wrought by this virus, we must recommit to preventing future harm and saving lives in the event of another pandemic.

This includes looking at how we can build on the Biden Administration's implementation of the largest; most successful vaccine administration program in history that allowed us to safely reunite loved ones; reopen schools, businesses, and workplaces; and now declare the end of the public health emergency that we all faced.

In fact, according to the Commonwealth Fund, this achievement prevented an estimated 3.2 million deaths and 18.5 million hospitalizations.

Plus it saved the United States over $1 trillion in medical costs.

Now, let's compare that to the damage a reckless mass infection strategy would have done to our nation.

This strategy would've actively encouraged people to go out and get sick during a deadly highly transmissible airborne virus at a time when we knew little about COVID-19 and its long-term impacts.

Even worse, this reckless strategy was embraced by those at the very top of the Trump Administration, such as pandemic advisor Scott Atlas, who pushed a dangerous mass infection strategy that would have strained our nation's health care system.

The strategy that Atlas and others embraced would have pushed already overwhelmed hospitals to the brink, led to further delays in care for patients suffering from chronic conditions, and caused an estimated 3 million additional deaths according to projections by the Washington Post.

Look, I'm a doctor, and I took an oath to do no harm.

So, it's pretty clear to me that we should not reverse course on basic public health measures that have been proven time and time again to reduce harm and save lives.

Because the fact of the matter is, while we can now end the public health emergency because of an overall decrease in hospitalizations and mortality, we must still work to address long-COVID and emerging variants, especially for high-risk communities, immunocompromised individuals, and unvaccinated populations.

And yet the continued spread of misinformation online about not just COVID-19 vaccines, but vaccines overall pose a serious threat to this work and our ability to protect America's overall health.

The Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Microsoft AI for Health have found a growing distrust in vaccines has caused more than 300,000 preventable COVID-19 deaths.

What's more, this misinformation has inflicted serious damage on our efforts to combat diseases that we previously had under control--like polio and measles.

This should be troubling to us all.

So I implore everyone here today to remain focused on the facts and come together to identify real solutions that put people over politics to prevent future harm, save future lives, and ensure America is stronger and better prepared in the future."

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