Operation prevents the next pandemic: Biden administration announces new treaty with 50 countries to identify next deadly pathogens
- Effort intended to improve disease surveillance and prevent global health threats
- Fifty countries will be involved in closing preparedness and response gaps. READ
- MORE: Bird flu detected in person who had contact with infected COW
President Joe Biden’s administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, targeting pandemics such as the COVID-19 outbreak.
Federal officials will work with the states to develop better testing, surveillance, communications and preparedness such outbreaks in those countries to help “respond effectively to biological threats wherever they arise.”
The announcement about the strategy comes as countries struggle to reach a global agreement on responses to future pandemics.
The program will rely on the Department of State, the CDC, HHS and the Agency for International Development (USAID) to help countries refine their responses to infectious diseases.
President Joe Biden announced the 50-nation cooperative initiative to close preparedness gaps and improve global national security threatened by biological weapons and health threats
More than seven million people have died from Covid worldwide, while almost 705 million have fallen ill
The White House will release a website Tuesday with the names of the countries participating in the program.
Biden officials are trying to get 100 countries into the program by the end of the year.
The number of 50 countries involved has increased from 19.
The US has spent billions of dollars on this effort. Biden, a Democrat, is asking Congress for $1.2 billion for global health security efforts in his annual budget proposal.
Meanwhile, four years into the coronavirus pandemic, the prospects of a pandemic treaty signed by all 194 members of the World Health Organization are waving.
The collaboration among the 50 countries “to improve their ability to prevent, detect and respond to global health threats.”
Over the next five years, the United States will work with these fifty partners “to build, further strengthen, and sustain a level of demonstrated capacity in at least five (global health) areas.”
The Biden administration oversaw much of the Covid vaccine rollout, saving millions of American lives. But Covid-19 will not be the government’s last public health hurdle.
Bird flu is on the rise nationwide, infecting poultry and cows after the virus was able to jump from the former to the latter.
The second person ever infected with bird flu was reported earlier this month after contracting the disease from a cow.
Shown is Biden’s approval rating around 2022. Another 57 percent of respondents in a new Politico-Morning Consult said they disapproved of President Joe Biden’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The CDC maintains the threat to overall health is low, but government officials said they are “closely monitoring the situation.”
Former health officials said they were not comforted by the administration’s assurances — highlighting how the Trump administration downplayed Covid fears in the early days of the pandemic.
The Biden administration entered the White House with a national strategy to defeat Covid, including restoring trust in government institutions, getting more people vaccinated and expanding mask, testing and surveillance protocols.
The number of cases and deaths at the time was caused by the onslaught of the Covid Delta. The number of deaths during this period of the pandemic reached a record high worldwide.
It is not known which countries will be involved in the Biden-led initiative, but many countries, both rich and poor, including the US, struggled early on to get a handle on the outbreaks as many countries had fewer vaccines. and drastically overcrowded health centers.