To watch Senator Capito’s questioning, click here or the image above.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today participated in a Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) Appropriations Subcommittee hearing to examine the researching, manufacturing, and distributing of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine. During the hearing, Senator Capito questioned Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) Acting Director Gary Disbrow.

HIGHLIGHTS:

CONTROLING OUR OWN DESTINY: “There was a competition globally for all of the supplies. I imagine there will be a competition globally for the vaccine supplies and the vaccine itself… How much of what you’re seeing in the development is actually being manufactured in this country where we can sort of control our own destiny?”

FIGHTING THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC: “NIH has invested heavily—and so have we here—in the opioid epidemic. But, the latest stats coming out of our state of West Virginia and across the country is that there has been a big spike in overdoses during this COVID pandemic. I know you’re fast at work in this in various ways, but how are you seeing that and how might having a vaccine or having better therapeutics be able to help us meet this challenge of folks that are in therapy for addiction or have this addiction issue to be able to cope during these very stressful times?”

BACKGROUND:

Today’s hearing focused on providing committee members with an update on the Trump administration’s efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine through Operation Warp Speed (OWS). According to HHS, OWS aims to deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021, as part of a broader strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics (collectively known as countermeasures).

For more information and a fact sheet on OWS, click here.

Senator Capito launched a page on her website to help bring current and accurate information to West Virginians during the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here to access the webpage for the latest updates and resources. 

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