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 “managing the mission,” which the Biden administration said means tackling the plan with “seriousness of purpose, commitment and accountability.” It likened this approach to the commitment seen during the original Apollo missions.
While the price tag of the plan may be startling upon initial glance, Lander said it pails in comparison to the estimated $16 trillion America lost as a result of lost economic output and direct spending as a result of the COVID-19-related damages.
At least 642,000 Americans have died as a result of COVID-19.The Biden administration said it will look to take action toward realizing these new measures in the coming weeks.
“Over the next several weeks, we will be building on this vision as we finalize our whole-of-government biopreparedness review, continue to learn from COVID-19, and commit ourselves to a biodefense and pandemic readiness strategy that builds back better in the United States and around the world for this pandemic and the next,” the White House said in a statement.
