Pandemic Action Network welcomes the U.S. Biden-Harris Administration’s launch of the National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan for Countering Biological Threats, Enhancing Pandemic Preparedness, and Achieving Global Health Security and the signing of National Security Memorandum-15 (NSM-15).

“The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and Ebola and other deadly infectious disease threats are escalating around the world. The new National Biodefense Strategy rightly sounds the alarm on the urgent need to bolster our national and international defenses against biological threats and accelerate investments in pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response as core priorities for our national security,” said Carolyn Reynolds, co-founder, Pandemic Action Network.  

“As the new strategy affirms, it’s a myth that we can wall off the United States from dangerous biothreats, and it’s time for the U.S. and the world to get serious about treating pandemics as the existential and systemic threat they pose to humanity. By taking a comprehensive, integrated domestic and global approach and laying out specific targets and timelines for implementation, this whole-of-government strategy is an important step forward in that direction. Yet, none of this will be possible without robust, long-term funding to build and maintain our vigilance and readiness. Biodefense must be a bipartisan priority, and Congress must move swiftly to provide the necessary funding to fully implement this strategy.”