It has now been well over two years since the first confirmed American case of COVID-19. In the time since, we've seen over 80 million confirmed cases and surpassed 1 million deaths, while tens of millions of jobs and lives have been upended, and hundreds of thousands of businesses closed their doors only to never see them reopened. Yet, the frightening reality is that we as a nation are woefully unprepared for the next pandemic. We must not kid ourselves that COVID will be the only pandemic we may see in our lifetimes.
In this post-COVID world, our government must prepare for the next pandemic, to avoid the same loss we have witnessed in the past two years. Public health officials have a plan to prepare United States defenses, and in Congress, I am committing to taking a leading role in ensuring that these policies and recommendations are enacted. We must implement and fully fund President Biden’s proposed pandemic preparedness plan, which will increase the supply and stockpiles of masks, vaccines, and tests, ensure the CDC is held accountable, and address disparities in at-risk populations. We must also surveil diseases so we can stop the spread before it begins, and prepare a better system through which vaccines and therapeutics can be created, manufactured, and distributed to communities across America.
In Office Josh…
- Sponsored PPE drives to collect masks and other personal protective equipment for our frontline workers and other vulnerable groups, who were otherwise having trouble accessing PPE
- Provided at home COVID tests to vulnerable communities throughout Josh’s Legislative District and the surrounding areas
- Brought testing sites to his district when other testing sites were booked and before at-home tests were available
- Kickstarted programs to assist senior citizens with everyday errands during the pandemic, allowing seniors to maintain normality while accessing necessary goods, such as food and medicine
- Proposed the Nassau County Restaurant Protection Act, which prevented food delivery services from charging more than a 15% delivery fee, and protecting local businesses that were already struggling during the pandemic
In Congress Josh Will…
- Fight to fully fund federal oversight of dual-use research to prevent dangerous viral threats emerging as a byproduct of scientific research
- Advocate for the full funding of the White House’s proposed $30 billion pandemic preparedness plan, which will increase the supply and stockpiles of masks, vaccines, and tests, ensure the CDC is held accountable to a designated Congressional appointee, and address disparities in at-risk populations
- Encourage our government to provide low-income countries with COVID vaccines with the goal of preventing new variants from developing through unmitigated spread
- Push health agencies to expedite the process for which vaccines and therapeutics can be created, manufactured, and distributed to communities across the nation
- Press health agencies to improve disease surveillance so we can stop the spread before it begins
- Require all U.S. counties to report details about outbreaks to the CDC, and streamline the process currently used to report new COVID cases by individual states
- Work to prepare all 50 states in the nation for the reality of another pandemic, by bolstering the readiness of each individual state to provide emergency services to residents, while keeping our economic engine running
- Ensure the origins of COVID-19 are investigated, so we can learn how best to prevent another pandemic and how to efficiently stop the spread of new diseases
