WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, on Friday joined Protect Our Care in a press call addressing the COVID-19 vaccine distribution crisis, and the need for quick action on an additional comprehensive relief package that will provide resources and federal leadership to get Americans vaccinated. Murphy was joined by Dr. Nicole Lurie, MD, former Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Dr. Brent Schillinger, MD, frontline medical professional and member of the Palm Beach County Medical Society’s COVID-19 task force; Zac Petkanas, Director of Protect Our Care’s Coronavirus War Room; and Laura Packard, Stage 4 cancer survivor and Health Care Voter Co-Chair.

“[I]t is absolutely devastating to think that 40,000 Americans have died of a preventable pandemic just in the first 15 days of this year,” Murphy said.

Murphy continued: “I've spent this week at vaccination clinics, at testing centers in Connecticut. It's a mess. And it is a mess created by a dangerously broken vaccine distribution system created by the Trump administration.”

“Joe Biden's plan allows us to walk and chew gum at the same time: continue to expand testing and fix a badly broken vaccine distribution system. Wednesday cannot come quickly enough for this country,” Murphy said.

Murphy praised the Biden plan to scale up testing and the national vaccine program, operationalize the Defense Product Act—which Murphy has called for since the beginning of the pandemic—and put money directly into the pockets of suffering Americans and small businesses.

Murphy also praise Biden’s plan for safely reopening schools and helping kids make up for lost time in the classroom: “I weep for students with special needs and learning disabilities who have not had the wraparound services that they need. Joe Biden's plan is going to allow a generation of kids to catch up for lost time and to make sure that the most vulnerable kids out there are able to get their learning back on track.”

A full transcript of Murphy’s remarks can be found below:

“Thank you everyone for joining us here today. I think these numbers tend to wash over us like waves. Sometimes it's hard to understand the significance of these numbers. But it is absolutely devastating to think that 40,000 Americans have died of a preventable pandemic just in the first 15 days of this year. That is absolutely stunning.

“Think about what happened in December. 140,000 people lost their job in December alone. 20,000 of them were teachers. 400,000 people have lost jobs at restaurants and bars over the course of this epidemic.

“I want to give you a little bit of a ground floor perspective. I've spent this week at vaccination clinics, at testing centers in Connecticut. It's a mess. And it is a mess created by a dangerously broken vaccine distribution system created by the Trump administration.

“The Trump administration deliberately gives states no visibility on how much vaccine they are getting outside of a seven day window. And the numbers of vaccines delivered on a week to week basis greatly vary. There's no way that states can stand up an adequate vaccine distribution system when they have no idea how much vaccine they're going to get outside of a seven day window and they have no idea whether next week, they're going to receive double or half what they did the week prior.

“I was in Stamford, Connecticut yesterday. The Stamford Department of Public Health had ready a vaccine distribution platform this week to be able to distribute 1,000 doses. They had hired the folks, scheduled them to come in and run the front desk to distribute and actually put the vaccine in people's arms, only to find out on Friday of last week that they were going to be getting 100 doses. And so they had to cancel the event, they had to tell their staff to go back to other duties, they had to cancel appointments.

“This is the chaos that exists out there today. In addition, because we have underfunded our local public health systems throughout this pandemic, because of the Republicans’ unwillingness to provide significant funding, many jurisdictions are now talking about shifting resources from testing to vaccine distribution. And that's what I also heard yesterday in Stamford, that they don't have enough money right now to be able to both keep up their testing protocols and distribute vaccines, so they're going to have to make a choice. That is absolutely devastating.

“Joe Biden's plan allows us to walk and chew gum at the same time: Continue to expand testing and fix a badly broken vaccine distribution system. Wednesday cannot come quickly enough for this country. And I was so glad last night to hear in detail about President-elect Biden's plan that is going to put $20 billion into a national vaccination program, that is going to dramatically scale up testing all across the country, that is going to operationalize the Defense Production Act so that we produce more vaccine and more testing equipment than we are today, that’s going to put money directly into the pockets of ordinary Americans to the tune of $2,000 per individual, money that they will spend in the main street small business economy of this country, a plan that's going to provide $170 billion to state and local education systems.

“I have two kids in public schools, and I see firsthand the learning loss that has occurred over the course of the last year. I weep for students with special needs and learning disabilities who have not had the wraparound services that they need. Joe Biden's plan is going to allow a generation of kids to catch up for lost time and to make sure that the most vulnerable kids out there are able to get their learning back on track.

“This is a plan that will rescue America, but it's also just as important to understand that plans are only as good as their implementers. And the team that Joe Biden has assembled, from Jeff Zients to Vivek Murthy to Xavier Becerra on down, is the most competent public health team that America has ever seen at a moment where we need the highest levels of competence.

“And so we've got to implement this plan, but we've also got to get his team confirmed very quickly so that they can start fixing all the things that are broken right now about testing and vaccine distribution.”

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