White House to Launch USD 65Bln Plan to Tackle Next Pandemic

The White House announced today its intentions to launch a billion plan dedicated to stopping the next potential biological threat once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

During a press call, Eric Lander, President Joe Biden's science advisor and director of the Office of Science and Technology, told reporters that, "the next pandemic will very likely be substantially different than COVID-19" and that the United States must be ready to respond.

In his call, Lander said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed "fundamental issues" within America's public health system and that the country must ramp up its efforts to strengthen its public health workforce, improve health care access, and better relegate the flow of information.

"We need better capabilities also because there is a reasonable likelihood that another serious pandemic that could be worse than COVID-19 will occur soon, possibly even within the next decade," Lander warned.

He broke the plan down into five pillars which address each of the administration's concerns regarding the nation's preparedness.

The first pillar, "transforming our medical devices," intends to improve and expand the nation's vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics arsenal.

The second, "ensuring situational awareness," focuses on identifying early pandemic-related warning signs and improving real-time monitoring.

The third, "strengthening public health systems," looks to improve emergency response capabilities in American and abroad.

Building core capabilities, the fourth pillar, seeks to bolster the nation's personal protective equipment, supply chains, biosafety and biosecurity infrastructure as well as implementing overall regulatory improvement.

The final measure looks toward ...