MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: Interview with Kim Schrier

Interview

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VELSHI: And joining us now -- thanks, friend.

Joining us is Representative Kim Schrier, Democrat from Washington state. She is the first pediatrician to become a member of Congress. And, Dr. Kavita Patel, former Obama White House health policy director, MSNBC medical contributor, and someone I have relied on for years for health policy discussions.

Thanks to both of you for being here. Representative Schneider, thank you for being here, and halleluiah, we got a pediatrician in Congress.

This is sort of a moment to hear from pediatricians who happen to be legislators, we have a unique issue in this country, we are not able to vaccinate our youngest. They`ve got to go to school, so we kind of -- the rest of us who can get vaccines need to do our utmost to protect them. They`re not immune from COVID, and they`re not immune from dying of COVID.

REP. KIM SCHRIER (D-WA): That is exactly right, Ali. I want to thank you for saying that because I was listening to President Biden talk about this being a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and I was thinking in of my pediatrician and also children. They are susceptible to all of the choices we all make. They have not -- if they`re under 12, they don`t have the option of being vaccinated, they are really, you know, at the whim of how responsible we all decide to be.

VELSHI: Kavita, all the stuff that happened today, it might seem incremental, certainly to a lot of my viewers who are vaccinated, wondering how this has to happened. When taken together, all federal workers, federal contractors, companies with more than a hundred people, that`s a big move of the needle. There are a whole lot of people who tomorrow morning are going to be able to say if you are part of my organization, you need to get vaccinated or be subject to a whole lot of testing.

KAVITA PATEL, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Ali, I can confidently tell you this might be go down as the single important action to help decrease the impact of the pandemic and put the worst of it behind us. We`re not going to eliminate it, of course, I actually think what the president did today, and it`s so much more than even we have the time to kind of cover, you peel it away, and it mandates, teachers, and school officials who were withheld for salaries, just because they stood up for masks.

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I mean, there`s so much there. I really do think that this plan today could define a moment. I thought it would be when the vaccines were discovered, approved and researched that will definitely go down in history. This will be one of the president`s actions that will go down in history for helping us beat this pandemic.

VELSHI: And one of the things that happened, Dr. Schrier this evening, we heard from the L.A. school district, one of the largest in the country, they`re going to require students 12 and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Talk to me about, there`s a patchwork of things going on in schools across this country. Some are openly defying their governors who say we can`t have mask mandates. What does success look like for schools across the country right now?

SCHRIER: Let me first say, bravo to L.A. Unified. I think that is a really smart decision. They are looking out for the best interest of their students. I was meeting with them yesterday, and I`m excited to see this progress.

Look, we require all kinds of vaccinations to go to school, chickenpox, measles, mumps, hepatitis B, they`re all required, and COVID right now is the single biggest threat to our children and should absolutely be required.

VELSHI: Kavita, how much coverage, Stephanie and I were just talking about this, the stuff that happened today has given cover to some companies that want people to be vaccinated. How much does it break the back of the resistance? Because at some point, it needs to stop, right, people have got to figure out if you want to function in this world, and we want to move forward, we have to do that.

The president was very, very firm about where the resistance, there`s always some legitimate resistance to vaccinations and drugs but the president was very clear that a lot of this is politicized.

Does that make a difference, is it going to make people sit there and say I need to get vaccinated?

PATEL: I think it is, Ali. Look, if we go to other countries where they have had something similar, France, Italy, Greece, parts of the U.K., Ireland, these types of requirements and mandates have been effective in overcoming the resistance, including the United States, we`re going to continue to see the GOP outcry, you can`t force us to do this, it`s government overreach, Ali, I can promise you, as people see cases dropping, less children in ICUs and schools opening and the laughter of children all around us and normal workplace environments, that resistance is going to be overcome.

I would say he didn`t go far enough. I would have loved to have seen him but I know it was a step too far to have a domestic travel mandate for vaccinations to actually do what New York state is doing, a lot of leisure activities that we want to be a part of immediately require vaccination. You know what? I think the president`s actions today give more and more municipalities and states, and your point, private entities the authority to do that.

VELSHI: Yeah, I have gone to restaurants in New York where they ask for proof of vaccination. I feel safer in the environment as a result of them doing it.

Dr. Schrier, I want to ask you, the president is drawing a bit of a distinction between people who have hesitancy or reasons to not want the vaccine, and I don`t know how you say it politely, BS, the horse deworming nonsense, and all of this kind of stuff.

I don`t know what you in Congress can do about this, but disinformation and misinformation is ruining our democracy. It has affected our elections but it`s actually killing people right now.

SCHRIER: It is incredibly frustrating, especially as a pediatrician, to see this. And look, in 20 years as a pediatrician, I met with lots and lots of parents who were anxious about vaccines, and we sat down and had conversations and built trust and we got those children vaccinated.

This is a whole different animal. And what I would love to see, frankly, is for everybody who`s worried about the vaccine to just get in touch with their doctor. Talk to their trusted physician who they developed a relationship with and get the information from them. Not from crazy online.

VELSHI: That is good advice. Thanks to both of you for being here.

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