{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://spartz.house.gov/media/press-releases/spartz-president-biden-creating-another-pandemic-misinformation", "Spartz: President Biden is Creating Another Pandemic of Misinformation", "2021-09-30", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "House", "IN", "Victoria Spartz", "S000929", "spartz.house.gov", "spartz", "https://spartz.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 This week, while co-leading a joint hearing of Civil Rights and Health Subcommittees of Education and Labor Committee on successful models for protecting communities from COVID-19, Rep. Victoria Spartz (IN-5) delivered the following opening statement:\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s an important discussion to have: how do we manage and mitigate pandemic risks, look at them comprehensively, and stop politicizing serious government decisions to play politics with people\u2019s lives and advance a party agenda.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s look at the prior year\u2019s successes: Operation Warp Speed was the gold standard of vaccine development and distribution. Under President Trump, who promptly cut red tape and regulations, our private health care sector was able to produce several lifesaving vaccines in record time.\n\n\u201cThis proved, yet again, that America\u2019s health care system thrives when government gets out of the way and supports private innovation. As we continue discussing successful models for protecting communities from COVID-19, we must acknowledge that the most effective mitigation and prevention strategy\u2014vaccination\u2014is both free and widely available for every American over age 12. Our free-enterprise system and the private health care industry made this miraculous feat possible.\n\n\u201cThe timing of the pandemic, happening during an intense reelection year, caused it to be politicized even further; and despite claiming to be the \u2018party of science,\u2019 Democrats fueled the public\u2019s vaccine hesitancy by spawning doubt over whether a Republican president could be trusted to deliver a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccination. This politically motivated disinformation was cowardly, cost people their lives, and exacerbated health disparities. Unfortunately, the Biden administration continues to sow fear, doubt, and confusion.\n\n\u201cThrough ever-changing guidance and policies crafted along ideological lines, President Biden is creating another pandemic: misinformation. We need our Commander-in-Chief to put facts before factions and to clearly communicate with the public about the state of COVID-19, the vaccines\u2019 effectiveness, and the path forward to a pre-pandemic life.\n\n\u201cFrom the latest vaccine mandates\u2014which are not based on risk or science\u2014to precluding our children from in-person learning\u2014which is not based on risk or science\u2014 this President has traded our country\u2019s long-term viability for short-term political wins for the Democrat Party.\n\n\u201cTo capitalize on early successes we experienced responding to COVID-19, it is imperative that we reestablish local and state control, working together with those leaders to execute policies that encourage vaccination and government transparency. Not government force and fear \u2013 it backfires and only belongs to totalitarian regimes, not a constitutional republic of free people. Only then can we begin to regain our pre-pandemic prosperity.\n\n\u201cThank you to all our witnesses for joining us in what, I hope for a change, will be a fact-based, productive, and meaningful discussion.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://spartz.house.gov/media/press-releases/spartz-president-biden-creating-another-pandemic-misinformation"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9490078557282686, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}