{"id":39542,"date":"2021-09-03T16:08:34","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T23:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=39542"},"modified":"2021-09-03T16:08:34","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T23:08:34","slug":"biden-administration-seeks-65b-for-pandemic-preparedness-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=39542","title":{"rendered":"Biden administration seeks $65B for pandemic preparedness plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Biden administration on Friday unveiled its $65.3 billion plan to improve the U.S.\u2019s pandemic preparedness strategy in the midst of COVID-19 and as the country readies for any future biological threats.<\/p>\n

The White House wants the $65.3 billion over seven to 10 years to invest in the country\u2019s ability to respond \u201crapidly and effectively\u201d to future epidemics and pandemics, as the current COVID-19 crisis has disrupted society and killed millions worldwide.<\/p>\n

Funding effort:\u00a0<\/strong>Eric Lander<\/a>, the director of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), told reporters that \u201cit\u2019s vital\u201d to start with a commitment of $15 billion to $20 billion \u201cto jump-start the efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House is also proposing the current budget reconciliation bill dedicate $15 billion to the effort, he said. Officials are in discussions with Capitol Hill about obtaining the $15 billion in the reconciliation and are \u201cvery optimistic,\u201d Lander said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a reasonable likelihood of another serious pandemic that could be worse than COVID-19 will occur soon, possibly within the next decade,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd the next pandemic will very likely be substantially different than COVID-19. So we must be prepared to deal with any type of viral threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apollo-style program:\u00a0<\/strong>Officials said the pandemic preparedness effort will require the \u201cseriousness in purpose,\u201d \u201ccommitment\u201d and \u201caccountability\u201d of former President Kennedy\u2019s Apollo program that aimed to get Americans on the moon.<\/p>\n

To ensure effective management of the endeavor, the administration has proposed setting up a mission control to operate as a central program management unit, but there are ongoing discussions over which agency would house the unit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Biden administration on Friday unveiled...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39543,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39542\/revisions\/39543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}