CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Catherine Cortez Masto
Interview
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SEN. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO (D-NV): Ana, it is a couple of things. What I find is, if we bring the mobile vaccination sites into the community and meet people where they live and work, they will get vaccinated.
What I find and people forget is, you know, Latinos, particularly in Nevada, they work 24/7.
If you grew up in Nevada, there's three shifts, the day shift, swing shift and graveyard shift and people are working. It is hard for them to get away from work just to go across town to get a vaccination.
But if we bring it into their communities, when they have down time, they will get vaccinated. One is making it easily accessible.
One is tearing down the barriers to education. There's so much misinformation out there.
One of the things that I have found is people don't realize it is for free. These vaccines are free.
CABRERA: Right.
CORTEZ MASTO: People can access them easily.
There's a language barrier. So if you bring people into the community and you are speaking the language, whether it is Spanish, or in some of our other communities, we have a large Filipino population, then they can learn about the vaccines and educate themselves.
The other piece is trusted community members in the neighborhood, that they know, they can go talk to, they feel comfortable.
I was just home and I was at a mobile vaccination site at one of our apartment complexes.
A man came and he got vaccinated, and then just a few minutes later he went back and got his whole family and they got vaccinated.
CABRERA: Wow.
CORTEZ MASTO: So that's what this is about, is meeting people where they live and work. And that's why I'm a big supporter.
And we need to continue in these mobile vaccination sites throughout our communities.
CABRERA: Do they trust people in Washington or does it need to be more of that, you know, local person close to you to get them to feel safe getting the vaccine?
CORTEZ MASTO: Yes, it is local people in the community.
So these mobile vaccination sites are community members who have come together to reach out into the communities.
And they could be anywhere. This one was at an apartment complex.
I have been to some that are at our markets where a lot of people, as you well know, will go get their groceries. People will drive by and see a vaccination sign and stop and inquire
about what is going on and then get a vaccination.
So I think it is just a matter of getting into the community and letting people see that it is there.
And there's people that are part of the community that care, and they just really are educating their neighbors about the importance of these vaccines.
CABRERA: I want to switch gears to talk about another crisis that's impacting your home state, record heat. Just last weekend, Las Vegas hit 117 degrees, tying a record setback in the 1940s.
What will it take for something to get through Congress to address the climate crisis?
CORTEZ MASTO: Well, that's the work I'm doing now. I have the opportunity to sit on energy and natural resources. This is one of the reasons I'm on this committee and subcommittee.
We see record drought. We see wildfires that are no longer seasonal fires. They're yearly, every day. I mean, it is just happening.
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And then we need to get people back to work.
That's the importance of the investments we are making now, not only in the infrastructure -- excuse me -- in the COVID relief packages, those investments, but now in the infrastructure, family investment that we're making long term is just as important.
We have to help people. We have to make sure we are addressing the drought.
One of the things that I have just introduced yesterday in committee that we just marked up, a piece of legislation, was how do we recycle these large-scale water-recycling projects, investing in those so that we can keep more of that water in the Colorado River, get more water to individuals in our community.
So there's a number of things that we are working on, really funding fire suppression, making sure we are doing more around prevention around wildfires that we see.
CABRERA: OK.
CORTEZ MASTO: In Nevada it is a lot of range fires.
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: Right.
CORTEZ MASTO: Let me just say they're investments we have to make now, Ana, and that's why it is important we work together. CABRERA: That's the point. Because --
(CROSSTALK)
CORTEZ MASTO: -- working on --
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: -- right now, Republicans are not on board. Not even all Democrats are on board, with Senator Manchin yesterday raising concerns about fossil fuels being impacted, which is a big job provider in his home state.
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, thank you for this conversation. I look forward to continuing it another day.
CORTEZ MASTO: Thank you, Ana.
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