The Biden-Harris administration on Oct. 18, 2022, released its comprehensive plan to strengthen the nation’s health security, prepare for biothreats, and protect the nation from future pandemics.
The National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan for Countering Biological Threats, Enhancing Pandemic Preparedness, and Achieving Global Health Security details the administration’s plans to:
- detect pandemics and other biological threats by accelerating the development and deployment of new technologies that can rapidly detect novel pathogens;
- prevent outbreaks from becoming epidemics and prevent biological incidents before they happen by investing in critical multilateral institutions that further strengthen the global health architecture; and
- prepare for pandemics and other biological incidents by working to strengthen and modernize domestic public, veterinary, and plant health capacity at every level.
The strategy also includes a plan to respond rapidly to outbreaks by activating an integrated federal research agenda within 14 days of the determination of a domestically or internationally significant biological incident.
Additionally, the administration plans to partner with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments and communities to recover from any future pandemic or biological incident.
The administration noted that the plan, as well as the president’s request for $88 billion over five years for pandemic preparedness and biodefense, will require support from Congress to provide additional resources.
Visit the America’s Essential Hospitals coronavirus resource page for more information about the pandemic.
Contact Director of Policy Rob Nelb, MPH, at rnelb@essentialhospitals.org or 202.585.0127 with questions.