Ranking Member Ruiz’s Opening Statement at Select Subcommittee Hearing Assessing Vaccine Safety Systems in the United States
Washington, D.C. (February 15, 2024)—Below is Ranking Member Raul Ruiz, M.D.’s opening statement, as prepared for delivery, at today’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing assessing vaccine safety systems in the United States.
Opening Statement
Ranking Member Raul Ruiz, M.D.
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic
Hearing on “Assessing America’s Vaccine Safety Systems, Part 1”
February 15, 2024
Our nation’s vaccine safety systems play a critical role in protecting public health. Every day, scientists, physicians, and public health officials work together as part of this system to monitor the safety and efficacy of vaccines to ensure the best possible products reach everyday Americans.
Their efforts have helped protect us from the threat of deadly diseases for decades.
And their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic helped contribute to one of the most successful vaccine rollouts in history—which, under President Biden’s leadership—led the country out of the depths of the pandemic.
In total, these efforts saved 3.2 million lives, prevented 18.5 million hospitalizations, and saved the United States an estimated $1.15 trillion in medical costs.
As a physician who went out into underserved communities to administer vaccines during the height of the pandemic, I saw firsthand the difference these vaccines made in helping our communities recover from COVID-19.
So, at the end of the day, we were able to save so many lives, prevent so much illness, and reduce a mountain of medical costs on our system because these vaccines were shown repeatedly to be safe and effective due to extensive clinical data.
And since then, our nation’s robust vaccine surveillance system and countless other studies have only reaffirmed the safety of these vaccines by monitoring for and evaluating serious adverse events, which remain rare.
This system has worked well. In fact, we saw it successfully identify safety signals in vaccines during the pandemic when it detected cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, resulting in the CDC and FDA releasing updated recommendations for vaccine products.
So, I do want to be clear that while adverse events are rare, they are not impossible.
That is why we must continue to invest in a strong, capable vaccine safety and surveillance system that is efficient in ensuring the best quality vaccines reach the American people.
And it is why we must ensure that when an adverse event does arise, people can receive the protection and compensation that they need.
There is good bipartisan work I know we can do on this front to strengthen the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program to make them more efficient, and I hope that discuss those reforms here today.
Today’s hearing does have the potential to generate forward looking policy solutions that improve people’s lives, however, it only does so if we approach this topic with care.
Because if we don’t, I worry that we are opening a Pandora’s box that I fear we won’t be able to close again.
Right now, we are already witnessing an alarming rise in overall vaccine hesitancy which has been fueled by misinformation spread online during the last four years.
And as this misinformation has festered, immunization rates among Americans have fallen for COVID-19, polio, and measles, mumps, and rubella.
This should be alarming to us all.
We’ve already seen outbreaks of measles pop up in under vaccinated communities in the last year, including in Philadelphia and Columbus.
And we’ve already seen an additional 300,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. that could have been prevented if not for a growing distrust in vaccines.
I worry that the politicization of medicine, science, and vaccines will ultimately hurt us all in the end, and that the manufacturing of distrust in public health norms that we have held true for so long, will make us less prepared to combat a future pandemic.
Republicans are already 2.4 times more likely than Democrats or Independents to believe that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe.
Childhood vaccination rates are already at a historic low.
We are already in the process of undoing decades of progress in overcoming infectious diseases, and unless we handle each opportunity to discuss this with immense care, we are hurdling toward an even more grim future.
So, I urge for a constructive conversation among us all today that focuses on strengthening our current safety and compensation programs, enhancing confidence in our public health institutions, and building a brighter, healthier future for us all.
I yield back
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