PREPARED REMARKS: Sanders Hosts Expert Panel on Vaccines and Public Health

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), today held a roundtable discussion with leading medical professionals on the importance of vaccines in America and their impact on public health.

Sanders' opening remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below and can be watched HERE:

Let me thank our distinguished guests who are with us today, the Senators who are here and all of those who might be watching virtually.

As the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, I have convened this roundtable today to get a better understanding about the importance of vaccines and the role they have played, decade after decade, in improving the public health of our nation and the world we live in.

In just a few moments, we will be hearing from Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and expert on vaccines who serves as Director of the Vaccine Education Center and Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Dr. Joshua Sharfstein with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health; Dr. Greg Gonsalves with the Yale School of Public Health; and Catherine Kennedy, the President of the California Nurses Association.

After they are done speaking, every Senator will be able to ask questions of our panelists.

Let's be clear: There is an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community that vaccines have saved millions of lives, prevented massive human suffering and stopped the spread of infectious diseases like polio, smallpox and measles.

In fact, studies have shown that over the past 50 years, vaccines have saved the lives of more than 150 million people around the world.

In August, the CDC reported that over the past 30 years, routine childhood vaccinations in America have prevented over 1.1 million deaths, more than 500 million cases of illness and over 32 million hospitalizations.

And yet, despite these enormous achievements, an increasing number of Americans have started to raise questions about vaccines that I hope our panelists will be able to answer today.

Why is it so important that our children receive so many vaccines at such an early age?

Why is it so important for everyone to get vaccinated?

What could go wrong if we rolled back or eliminated childhood vaccine mandates that exist in every state in America?

What could go wrong if the Vaccines for Children Program that has provided free vaccines to millions of our kids was scaled back or eliminated?

What kinds of diseases could become common again if fewer and fewer people chose to get vaccinated?

These are not new questions. But in an era of massive misinformation campaigns and growing distrust, it is vital that we have an honest conversation with doctors, scientists and nurses about the importance of vaccines. And that is what we intend to do today.

It is easy to forget just how bad some of these infectious diseases were before vaccines were made widely available.

In 1952, 3,000 people in America died from a polio outbreak and many more needed leg braces, wheelchairs and an iron lung to breathe.

In the early 1900s, over 6,000 Americans died from the measles each and every year.

What concerns me very much is that we are at serious risk in this country of seeing the return of diseases that we haven't seen in decades as a result of fewer people getting vaccinated.

I am very concerned that we will see children who could be protected through vaccines get sick and die.

In my view, we cannot and we must not allow that to happen.

We are in a time of growing distrust, not just of vaccines, but of government and science in general. Who's telling us the truth? Somebody on the internet is the truthteller? Who has written a book someplace and is trying to make money off of it? Or is it people who have done research and work for years. That's what this discussion is about.

And with that let me now turn to our esteemed panelists:

1. Dr. Paul Offit is a pediatrician and expert on vaccines who serves as Director of the Vaccine Education Center and Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

2. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein is the Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He was previously Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health, Principal Deputy Commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and former Health Commissioner of Baltimore, Maryland.

3. Dr. Gregg Gonsalves is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. He is an expert in policy modeling on infectious diseases and has, for more than 30 years, worked on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues. He is a 2018 MacArthur "Genius" Fellow.

4. Catherine Kennedy is a staff nurse at Kaiser Permanente Roseville in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She also serves as President of the National Nurses United and the President of the California Nurses Association.