Murray: President-Elect Biden’s Proposal On COVID-19 Vaccination Makes Clear “Help Is On The Way”

Murray: “The incoming Biden-Harris Administration’s proposal represents a world of change from President Trump’s hands-off, head-in-the-sand approach.”

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement on the steps President-elect Biden outlined to scale up vaccine distribution and administration as part of his COVID-19 response proposal.

“Today, President-elect Biden sent a clear message to states, territories, Tribes, communities, and health care workers across the country who have been pushed to the brink by this pandemic and left to fend for themselves by the Trump Administration: help is on the way. The incoming Biden-Harris Administration’s proposal represents a world of change from President Trump’s hands-off, head-in-the-sand approach.

“While we have a huge task ahead to dig our COVID-19 response out of the hole President Trump left it in, I’m relieved to say we will soon have a leader in the White House who actually takes this crisis seriously. I look forward to working with the Biden-Harris Administration to make the steps they’ve outlined today a reality, to get our country vaccinated, and to finally end this pandemic.”

Senator Murray has long pressed for more planning, communication, and leadership from the federal government on vaccines under the Trump Administration, and has pushed for more support and funding for states, territories, Tribes, and communities to support vaccination efforts.

Last July, she released a proposal detailing steps the federal government should take to make sure every person in this country can access safe, effective, and free vaccines in order to end this pandemic, and she has continued to press the Trump Administration about its failures and missteps when it comes to ensuring a quick, effective, equitable nationwide vaccination campaign.

She called for months to provide more funding for vaccine efforts and ultimately secured $8.75 billion for vaccine distribution and $19.695 billion for development and procurement of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and ancillary medical supplies in the COVID-19 package passed at the end of 2020.

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