Pandemic Action Network welcomes the bipartisan introduction of the International Pandemic Preparedness and COVID-19 Response Act of 2021 (S. 2297) in the U.S. Senate. This bill represents a critical coming together across party lines to step up U.S. global leadership both on the global COVID-19 response and on preparedness to create a world that is better equipped to detect, prevent, and respond to emerging pandemic threats.
“Pandemic Action Network and our more than 120 partners in the United States and around the globe applaud the bipartisan leadership of Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch to introduce this urgently needed legislation to bolster U.S. global leadership in the COVID-19 response and to help ensure that the world is better organized, better resourced, and better prepared to halt future pandemics,” said Carolyn Reynolds, Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network. “America will not be safe from COVID-19 or the next deadly and costly global health threat until everyone around the world is safe ― and the next pandemic will not wait. The Menendez-Risch bill rightly sets pandemic preparedness as a top priority for our national and global security.”
As introduced, S.2297 would strengthen the U.S response to the global COVID-19 pandemic to bring an end to this global health and economic crisis. The legislation heeds Pandemic Action Network’s call for a global vaccine roadmap and requires a detailed strategy to accelerate global vaccine distribution for countries most in need. The bill also directs the Biden Administration to work with international partners to establish a new Fund for Global Health Security, which will significantly bolster public and private investments to help low-and-middle-income countries close critical gaps in pandemic prevention, detection, and response. The Fund embraces the calls by the Pandemic Action Network for the establishment of a new, enduring, and catalytic international financing mechanism, and the Network is pleased to see strong alignment to prioritize pandemic financing across the Administration, U.S. House of Representatives, the G20, and now the U.S. Senate bill. The Network is also pleased that the bill seeks to elevate leadership and coordination for international pandemic preparedness activities within the U.S. Government and authorizes U.S. participation in, and funding for, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global initiative to develop new vaccines for epidemic and pandemic threats, including COVID-19 variants.
“This new Senate legislation is an important step to address the longstanding underinvestment in public health systems and pandemic preparedness that allowed COVID-19 to spiral into a global crisis that continues to devastate people around the world,” Reynolds said. “Congress and the Executive Branch must act without delay to ramp up investments to strengthen the national and global defenses necessary to pandemic proof the planet, commensurate with this growing threat. We have no time to waste.”
