BCHC and Partners Urge Congress to Support $16 billion in Pandemic Preparedness Funding

 September 28, 2021 

Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, and Minority Leaders McConnell and McCarthy: 

On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we write in strong support of the $16 billion funding level for pandemic preparedness included in Division J of the Build Back Better Act, passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on September 15. 

We strongly recommend that the Senate version of the Build Back Better Act also include at least $16 billion for pandemic preparedness. These funds will deliver tangible national tools and capabilities that we need to save lives, jobs, and money when we inevitably face future dangerous outbreaks. 

1 in 500 Americans have died from COVID-19. And it’s estimated that the country has incurred $16 trillion in economic losses. As COVID-19 has shown, we must build our pandemic defenses, such as a reliable ability to rapidly produce and distribute effective diagnostic tests, vaccines, and therapeutics for both known and unknown viral threats; technologies that will provide early warning systems and real-time monitoring so we can detect and track the course of outbreaks with increased speed and fidelity; a sufficient and dependable supply of effective masks and medical supplies; cost-effective methods for improving indoor air quality to minimize unnecessary disruptions of school, religious services, and workplaces; and a stronger public health infrastructure to deliver services to the American people and protect all of us, including vulnerable Americans, from health threats. 

We must do everything in our power to prevent a global pandemic like COVID-19, or worse, from happening again. 

Congress now has the opportunity to fund the defenses necessary to protect Americans from future pandemic threats by providing the down payment needed to start implementing a new proactive pandemic preparedness plan. 

Providing at least $16 billion for pandemic preparedness in the Senate version of the Build Back Better Act would jump start efforts to bring American ingenuity and resources to bear to meaningfully reduce the threat of future pandemics, if not eliminate their threat all together. Page 2 of 2 

We thank you for your leadership on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and look forward to working with Congress on pandemic preparedness in the months and years ahead. 

Sincerely, 

Alliance for Biosecurity 
American Society for Microbiology 
Association of Public Health Laboratories 
Big Cities Health Coalition 
Biobot Analytics 
Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) 
Coalition to Stop Flu 
CovidActNow 
COVID Survivors for Change 
Foresite Labs 
Ginkgo Bioworks 
Global Health Technologies Coalition 
Guarding Against Pandemics 
Healthcare Ready 
Helix Op Co, LLC 
Infectious Diseases Society of America 
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security 
National Foundation for Infectious Diseases 
North Carolina AIDS Action Network 
Nuclear Threat Initiative 
O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University 
Resolve to Save Lives 
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 
The Gerontological Society of America 
Trinity Health