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“COVID-19 Vaccines (Executive Session)” mentioning John Kennedy was published in the Senate section on pages S4035-S4036 on June 10.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
COVID-19 Vaccines
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I rise today to say thank you. I rise today to say thank you to President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken. They have both announced today, though it had been rumored for several days, that the United States of America is about to make available 500 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine to our friends and neighbors across the world. And I hope the President and the Secretary are willing to offer even more, if necessary.
We have learned a lot about the virus and the disease that it causes. I will mention three things. No. 1, we have learned that the virus came from China; No. 2, we have learned that the best vaccines for the virus came from the United States of America; and No. 3, we have learned that the pandemic is not over.
Yes, things are better in the United States. And we are so blessed in that regard, and I am so thankful. That is a combination of Americans receiving the vaccine; it is a combination of Americans being careful in their behavior. Our coronavirus rates are a combination of people who contracted the disease and therefore have the antibodies, and that is why our numbers are going down, and we are also thankful for that.
But that is not the situation in other parts of the world. If you go to South America, if you go to Central America, if you ask anyone--if you ask Sub-Saharan Africa about how things are going in terms of the pandemic, it is alive and well and raging. And our friends and neighbors need the help, and I am grateful today that President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken are going to make that help available.
For a couple of reasons, it makes sense to show the world what U.S. leadership really means. No. 1, it is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do. We developed a vaccine. We need to share it. That doesn't mean that we have to require pharmaceutical companies to share their patented and protected information. I think that is a real mistake. We can accomplish everything through licensing agreements. But we do need to share.
No. 2, this makes sense in terms of our national security. It is not the most important reason to do this but in terms of national security and the rest of our neighbors throughout the world understanding that the American people are generous and that we help other folks when they are down.
No. 3, it makes sense for the President and the Secretary to do this in terms of geopolitical terms. China is trying to do the same thing that we are going to do in terms of making vaccines available throughout the world. And I thank China for that, and I thank the Chinese people. The Chinese people are wonderful people. Their leadership, not so much.
The Chinese people--let me say it again--the people of China are wonderful. The leadership of the Communist Party of China is a bunch of pirates. But I am thankful they are willing to make vaccines available. The problem is, they are making their own vaccine available, which is inferior to the American vaccine, and, No. 2, in many cases, their vaccine diplomacy--``their'' meaning, of course, the Chinese Communist Party's vaccine diplomacy--is tied to conditions.
Yes, says the Chinese Communist Party, we will share our vaccine with you if you will help us take over Taiwan. Yes, we will share our vaccine with you, say members of the Communist Party of China, if you will join with us in saying that the Communist Party of China is doing nothing wrong in hiding the origin of the coronavirus.
That is not what we are doing.
Our gift, as Americans, to the rest of the world is unconditional. It is firm. It is categorical. It is the moral thing to do. It is the smart thing to do, in terms of our own national security. We can't completely recover until the world recovers. And No. 3, it makes perfect sense, in my judgment, in explaining to the rest of the world the difference between communism and the free enterprise system and the hearts that lie behind both of those systems.
It is also, and I will close on this point--it is necessary. There are very few countries in the world--we are blessed to be one of them--
that have the ability to manufacture, to store, and to distribute the vaccine. Yes, it is wonderful to talk about, well, we are going to help other countries with their--let's say, their manufacturing needs. We should do that, but we don't have enough time. We just don't have enough time because in the developing world, when time is of the essence, they just don't have the ability that we have to manufacture a vaccine, which is only part of it; to store that vaccine, and these vaccines require very careful protocol in terms of storage; and No. 3, to distribute it. We can do all three, and President Biden, over the last several days, along with Secretary of State Blinken, said we are about to show the world what American leadership looks like. We are going to share our innovation and our vaccines with our world's neighbors, and there are no strings attached. And we are doing it because it is the right thing to do.
I think all Members of this Congress should join with the President and should join with the Secretary of State in this effort. If they need the resources, I think we should provide them, and let's all get back on our feet together as a world.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cortez Masto). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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