United States—The Biden administration will help 50 countries monitor and respond to infectious diseases to prevent pandemics similar to the one the world faced due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which triggered the sudden global lockdown in 2020.
Focus Areas
United States government officials will partner with these countries in developing better diagnostics, surveillance modes, and preparedness against such outbreaks in these countries. A senior Biden administration official briefed journalists on the program on Monday on a condition of anonymity. The English officer did not provide the list of countries that will apply for the program, as reported by The Associated Press.
The announcement was made against the backdrop of severe challenges by nations in global efforts towards future pandemic response treatments. In 4 years after the COVID pandemic, negotiating a treaty on the world’s health for all 194 WHO member countries seems to be on the brink of failure.
Joint Effort
The US strategy will be the joint effort of several government departments, among which are the US State Department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health and Human Services, and the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, and it’s their work to provide technical assistance to countries in building their capacity for infectious disease prevention.
Support for Congo
Congo is the one country where this work has already been done, as the official pointed out during a press briefing. The US government is supporting the Congo in its response to the mpox virus outbreak by vaccinating its population, among others. Mpox is a virus from the same family as the one causing smallpox and makes painful skin lesions. The current mpox outbreak was recognized by the WHO as a global emergency with over 91,000 cases in 100 countries till date.
Funding Request
On Tuesday the White House is planning to release a site where the names of the countries that are partaking in this initiative will be displayed. The Biden administration continues the search for 100 nations to support the scheme before the end of the year.
The US has already spent a lot of billions of dollars on this concern. Biden, a Democrat, is requesting $1.2 billion for global health safety programs from the legislative body of the US.