Thousands of people around the world, including dozens throughout the United States and three in my home state of new jersey. And i come to the floor because i hope that people understand the fierce urgency of now, the fierce urgency of now. This is a Public Health crisis. And we cant wait to act. The rapid spread of covid19, also known as the coronavirus, has disrupted our daily lives, its destabilized our economy, its imposed enormous strain on our health care system. I think many failed to grasp the scope of this threat. The lack of a National Response just as the virus began to reach americas shores, but im not here to talk today about where the administration went wrong, im here to talk about how it can start making things right. If theres anything we learned in recent weeks, its that you have to be proactive. In the past week, the number of confirmed covid19 cases here in the United States jumped from around a thousand, well over 4,000. While other countries were testing thousands of people, the United States were testing mere dozens. While other countries were staging makeshift hospitals, we were overloading ours. And while other countries implemented aggressive social distancing measures to limit the spread, our government sent mixed signals about the sacrifices they must make in order to save maybe their lives, and if not the lives of others. State leaders like my own Governor Phil Murphy stepped into fill the leadership void. Earlier this week, he, along with the governors of new york and connecticut announced new restrictions on restaurants, shops, and other public gathering spaces. These are tough, unquestionably. But we need every new jerseyan as well every american to take federal and state recommendations about social distancing seriously. Avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people. Washing your hands frequently. And if you feel sick, staying home and calling your Health Care Provider immediately. We all need to be part of the solution or we can become part of the statistics. We all need to be part of the solution. This is one time in which we all must come together as americans and be part of the solutions so were not part of the statistics. Already families are feeling the impact, whether its lost wages and smaller paychecks, school closures, restaurant curfews or outright job losses. Thats why im calling on the senate to act today, today, on legislation that will provide paid leave and unemployment assistance to impacted workers. Food assistance to children and seniors, more funding for medicaid. We cannot leave familys lone to weather the storm. We also need to do more to help restaurants and shops and other businesses struggling with the economic fallout of the coronavirus. From mandatory curfews to decreased demand for services. They need help, at the end of the day we want them to be able to survive the crisis in order to offer the employment that will be necessary to revive the economy, but we must remember that this is first and foremost a Public Health crisis. The wealth of our nation will ultimately depend on the health of our nation. Nothing economically will be solved without dealing with the health of the American People. We cannot ignore the demands of covid19 will make on our Health Care Sector and especially the hospitals in the days and weeks to come. The u. S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention, the c. D. C. Has projected between 160 million and 214 Million People could contract covid19 in the United States and that between 2. 4 million to 21 million of those infected could require hospitalization. As a means of comparison, our Hospital System has less than 1 million staff beds, which would be inadequate, even under the c. D. C. s most optimistic projection. Hospitals also have to have the resources and equipment available to treat the expected influx of patients. Theres a significant concern of the nations supply of mechanical respirators, ventilators is inadequate to meet the exponential needs we experience in the coming weeks and months and the latest data indicate there may be only 62,000 hospital ventilators in the entire nation. Even if only half of those hospitalized require ventilation, our supply will be wholly enadequate to fill the demand. Health care workers also need protective gear to do their life saving work without risking infection to themselves and unfortunately there have been shortages of personal protective equipment even. And that could cause a cascading effect that could cause our entire response to collapse. Simply put, we need the federal government to step in and provide real leadership. In the midst of a pandemic, state and local governments should not be left on their own scrambling to find or purchase ventilators for patients, personal protective gear for health care workers, and other critical medical supplies. The federal government has a tremendous obligation and an opportunity to help save lives by assisting state and local governments in locating resources, in using existing authorities to increase the manufacturing of ventilators, and other critical equipment, and preparing for the staging of temporary hospitals and beds and more. Lets look at military facilities that have been closed. Theres one in my state. Lets open them up. Lets construct m. A. S. H. Units, lets not wait. Lets rent out hotels that are closing. These are many actions that can be taken if were decisive in our work, thats why im calling on the president to immediately exercise the powers authorized by the defense production act to defend the health and safety of the American People in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. While the administrations response has so far lacked the energy this crisis called for, invoking the powers vested in the defense production act will enable the federal government to step up and take the type of aggressive steps needed in this time of uncertainty. It is that act that can give the federal government the power to say, we are going to become, this is my words now, in essence, were going to become your partner. We want to infuse massive amount of money that we need for the ventilators we need, the personal protective gear we need and if we cant get you to produce it, were going to produce it. We need to use the power of the federal government to have the type of response that this moment calls for. That this crisis calls for. Thats what government in its most significant moment is supposed to be all about. Thats really what the federal government is supposed to be about. What states cannot individually do, individual communities cannot do, its the power of the federal government that can do it. We must be willing to mobilize that power. Its time the United States of america live up to its history of defeating extraordinary challenges and prevailing in the face of great uncertainty. Its time to harness the ingenuity of our people, the might of our manufacturing base, the wisdom of our Health Care Experts to confront covid19, to protect our families and our communities, to slow the spread of the virus so we do overwhelm our hospitals so we can save life. Ive seen the projections. I hope for gods sake that theyre wrong, but we will lose many people unless we all take this seriously and unless we act. This is a moment for action and to show the world once again that theres no challenge too great for the American People. With that, madam president , i yield the floor. We are in the midst of two crises at once, one healthrelated and one economic. I tend to t
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