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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AMERICA'S GLOBAL LEADERSHIP DURING COVID-19
______
HON. ILHAN OMAR
of minnesota
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Ms. OMAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues from both
sides of the aisle in recognizing the need for the United States to
take clear, decisive leadership in a genuinely global collaboration to
confront the threat COVID-19.
The threat of COVID-19 is truly global--the virus does not understand
borders or nationalities. Until and unless the virus is contained
everywhere on Earth, it is not truly contained anywhere. The United
States leads whether through action or inaction. We have a
responsibility both morally and to our own national security to
coordinate an international response to COVID-19 that meets the
enormous challenge it presents. It is a sad state of affairs that this
White House has preferred transparently political international
squabbles to the type of American leadership the world is counting on.
In Congress, we have been understandably focused on our districts and
our constituents, who are facing job losses, evictions, and the closing
of their small businesses. We have needed to ensure that our health
care professionals have access to the equipment that they need, and
that our constituents abroad could be safely returned home.
And as we know today that there is still much to do on the homefront,
the threat of COVID-19 in the rest of the world is incredibly grave.
The Central African Republic has three ventilators in the entire
country. In Somalia, there are 15 ICU beds total. Millions of refugees
who have already fled unspeakable brutality and violence now live in
camps where social distancing is impossible, and there isn't clean
water to wash their hands every time they've touched a potentially
contaminated surface. In Yemen, where conflict has already decimated
infrastructure and public health, the confirmed cases of COVID-19 cast
yet another long shadow on a long-suffering population. From Gaza to
Guatemala, and from Lagos to Lahore, the toll of this disease could
reach levels still unthinkable.
It is also important that we remember that it is women who are on the
front lines, making up 70% of global health workers. The United States
must stand in solidarity with these women and other healthcare workers
and be a global leader in ensuring there is funding so that they have
supplies and infrastructure to do their jobs and the long-term support
to address mental and physical health issues as a result of their
response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Not only are women impacted as health workers by health systems being
overwhelmed by the pandemic, but women and girls are also facing new
and exacerbated barriers in access to services, particularly sexual and
reproductive health and gender-based violence prevention and response
services, services that are essential. Pre-existing barriers to
essential health services are exacerbated as overwhelmed health systems
shift their attention solely to COVID-19 response. Experience has shown
us that access to sexual and reproductive health care is critical in a
pandemic. During the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone, reduced access to
reproductive healthcare is estimated to have caused at least as many
deaths as Ebola itself.
We must not turn our back on the world. We must put aside our
grievances and work toward the common good, to find a common solution.
This pandemic is clear, tragic evidence that the outlook that favors
international cooperation over isolationism, institutions over
improvisation, is not just more moral but safer. Just as the ravages of
this terrible disease know no borders, neither must the cure. Our
national interest and our moral duty are one and the same. Now is the
time. It is clearer now than ever that our destinies are linked, and
that we are all in this together.
____________________
