25 Stakeholder Groups Call on Congressional Leadership to Invest $30 billion over 4 years to Better Protect Americans from Future Pandemics

June 22, 2021 – Today, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security joined 24 other stakeholder organizations to submit a letter of support to strongly encourage Congressional leaders to invest $30 billion over 4 years to better protect Americans from future pandemics, as called for in the American Jobs Plan. These funds can create new U.S. jobs in public health, science and technology innovation, and domestic medical countermeasures infrastructure.

Given the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. should aim to achieve an ambitious but achievable goal of creating a pandemic-free future. Together the 25 stakeholder groups strongly encourage Congress to include this $30 billion investment in a funding vehicle this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the national and international consequences that deadly infectious disease epidemics can cause. The next fast-moving, novel infectious disease pandemic could be right around the corner. The United States must be prepared to move faster when the next potential pandemic emerges to avoid catastrophic loss of life and economic disruption.

This new investment should support faster vaccine development and production, a more robust Strategic National Stockpile, increased research regarding possible disease threats, robust public health infrastructure and sequencing technologies, training personnel for epidemic and pandemic response, and related biopreparedness and biosecurity initiatives. The COVID-19 supplemental funds provided to date do not meet these longer-term needs. The Groups urge Congress to provide $30 billion over 4 years to protect Americans from future pandemics, before the next virus threatens the globe.

Read the letter submitted to Congressional leaders.

Editor’s note: On July 23, 2021, Alliance for Biosecurity added their organization as a signatory.