Media Advisory: Press Call with Senators Cassidy and Schatz on Legislation to Address Public Health Emergencies Like Zika

WASHINGTON— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA) and U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) will discuss their bill to provide more stable long-term funding for public health emergencies like Zika. The legislation is expected to be introduced this week.

Background

Ebola.  Zika.  West Nile Virus. Public health emergencies are inevitable, and the ability to respond to them in a timely fashion is critical.  It has become a pattern that every few years, when an outbreak of an infectious disease or other public health emergency occurs, the world community is taken by surprise.  As media coverage increases, public panic grows.  In response, the U.S. government scrambles to deal with the possible threat, sometimes appropriating billions of dollars in emergency funding, and sometimes—as is the case with Zika—delaying appropriating funds while congressional debate ensues. The pattern has shown that as media coverage fades, public panic recedes.  Avian flu, MERS, Ebola, and other diseases fade from public and government consciousness. This pattern is both financially inefficient and dangerous to public health.

A better approach than this inefficient pattern would be to implement a permanent ability for federal response agencies—including the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other federal departments—to respond proactively to better track and get ahead of infectious diseases and other public health emergencies before they spread or get out of control.  Funding would ideally be spent according to best practices learned from previous responses to public health emergencies, appropriated based on historic needs, and with accountability and oversight for expended funds.

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