Biden Asking for $88.2 Billion to Prepare for Future Pandemics

by Veronica Kyrylenko
Reprinted with permission from TheNewAmerican.com

President Joe Biden’s budget proposal released Monday calls for a “historic” $88.2 billion to prepare for “future biological threats.”

The “mandatory funding” would be distributed, over the course of five years, among the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

According to the proposal published by the White House on Monday, “The Biden-Harris administration has made great progress in combating COVID-19 and building better health security to protect against future pandemics and other health emergencies. However, much more is needed to prevent future biological catastrophes.”

That “much more” includes the following:

$40 billion is proposed to be sent to the HHS/ASPR to invest in advanced development and manufacturing of “countermeasures for high priority threats and viral families,” such as vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Read Full Article >