To suppress future pandemics, Biden is launching a new global partnership

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, aiming to prevent pandemics such as the outbreak of Covid-19 that suddenly normal life stopped around the world in 2020.

US government officials will provide support in the countries most are in Africa and Asiato develop better testing, surveillance, communication and preparedness such outbreaks in those countries.

The strategy will help “prevent, detect and effectively respond to biological threats wherever they occur,” Biden said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Global Health Security Strategy, the president said, aims to protect people worldwide and “will make the United States stronger, safer and healthier than ever before at this critical time.”

The announcement about the strategy comes as countries struggle to reach a global agreement on responses to future pandemics. 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 Biden administration plans to move forward with its new strategy to prepare the world for the next pandemic whether a treaty is reached or not, a senior administration official told reporters on Monday.

The U.S. program will rely on several government agencies – including the U.S. Department of State, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – to help countries improve their response to infectious diseases. refine.

Congo is a country where the work has already begun. The US government is helping Congo with its response an outbreak of the mpox virus, also with vaccinations. Mpox, a virus that belongs to the same family as the virus that causes smallpox, causes painful skin lesions. The World Health Organization declared mpox a global emergency in 2022, and to date there have been more than 91,000 cases in 100 countries.

The White House released a message on Tuesday website with the names of the countries participating in the programme. Biden officials are trying to get 100 countries into the program by the end of the year.

The US has spent billions of dollars on this effort, including money raised through private donations. Biden, a Democrat, is asking Congress for $1.2 billion for global health security efforts in his annual budget proposal.

– Amanda Seitz