Earlier this week, President Donald Trump signed a bill into law that provides additional financial relief for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Part of the bill allocates funding for distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District Representative Steve King gives his comments about the federal government financially supporting the vaccine distribution across the country.

“I’ll say darn right it’s the federal government’s job to do that. The federal government has shut down this economy and they’ve quarantined us. This nation has never had such a blow to the economy, ever. I want to accelerate this vaccine (and) paying for it (to distribute it) with federal tax dollars is completely logical to me, because if we invested these trillions of dollars in propping up the economy, can’t we invest billions of dollars in creating herd immunity, so this economy can come back again.”

King says the quickest way to herd immunity is through a vaccine, which he’sstrongly considering doing himself. 

“I don’t have a lot of fear for it (the vaccine). It’s effectiveness up in the mid-90th percentile for effectiveness is tremendous, and turning this in quickly, it was more or less a Manhattan Project, a Warp Speed Project. So I would say to people: make up your own mind (to get the vaccine). Some people are just by reasons of, I’ll say, faith or logic and are opposed to vaccines altogether. If that’s the case, that’s their decision.”

King notes while it’s an individual’s decision whether or not to get the vaccine, he says in order for herd immunity to happen, about 70-75-percent of the population has to be vaccinated.