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Home 5 Articles 5 Will We Be Better Prepared for the Next Pandemic?

Will We Be Better Prepared for the Next Pandemic?

by | Mar 28, 2022 | Articles, News, Open Content

The current COVID-19 pandemic exposed just how unprepared the world was to handle such a biological threat on a massive scale. One key contributor to that lack of preparedness was the reactionary approach most governments took to biological threats, failing to provide adequate funding or plans for pandemic preparedness. The US government aims to rectify that problem with its fiscal year 2023 (FY23) budget, which includes a request for $88.2 billion in mandatory funding, to be made available to several public health-related departments and institutes over the next five years, “to prepare for future biological threats,” according to a White House press briefing. The departments the funding will support include the: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Institutes of Health (NIH) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) The funding aims to tackle six key issues relating to pandemic preparedness: $40 billion for the HHS ASPR to improve the speed at which the country can respond to biological threats such as pandemics and implement countermeasures $28 billion for the CDC to improve […]

Abstract image of red dots moving around the blue globe to represent a pandemic

The current COVID-19 pandemic exposed just how unprepared the world was to handle such a biological threat on a massive scale. One key contributor to that lack of preparedness was the reactionary approach most governments took to biological threats, failing to provide adequate funding or plans for pandemic preparedness.

The US government aims to rectify that problem with its fiscal year 2023 (FY23) budget, which includes a request for $88.2 billion in mandatory funding, to be made available to several public health-related departments and institutes over the next five years, “to prepare for future biological threats,” according to a White House press briefing. The departments the funding will support include the:

  • Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

The funding aims to tackle six key issues relating to pandemic preparedness:

  • $40 billion for the HHS ASPR to improve the speed at which the country can respond to biological threats such as pandemics and implement countermeasures
  • $28 billion for the CDC to improve the country’s early warning capabilities and boost public health infrastructure
  • $12.1 billion for the NIH to conduct basic research that will support a strong response to new biological threats and pandemics
  • $1.6 billion for the FDA to “modernize and streamline” regulatory infrastructure
  • $1.8 billion for the CDC and NIH to support the progress of biosecurity and biosafety to better prevent “biological incidents,” both in the US and around the rest of the world
  • $6.5 billion for the Department of State and USAID to overhaul global health security and pandemic preparedness, both for SARS-CoV-2 variants and future, unknown biological threats

“This investment will fund transformative improvements in our capabilities to prevent, detect, and respond to emerging biological catastrophes,” the White House Statement says. “If we want to create a world free of pandemics and other biological catastrophes, the time to act is now.”