[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 12, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1036-S1038]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK AND PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, since first emerging in Wuhan, China, on 
December 31, the outbreak of a new coronavirus, COVID-19, ``novel 
coronavirus'', has spread to 25 countries, infected more than 44,000 
people, caused at least 1,100 deaths, forced entire cities into 
lockdown, triggered hundreds of international flight cancelations, 
restricted hundreds of Americans to U.S. military bases in Federal 
Government quarantine, and caused significant economic harm to 
countries and businesses around the globe, all this in only 6 weeks, 
with no end in sight.
  The virus has infected and killed more people and has done so faster

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than the SARS outbreak in China in the early 2000s, which infected 
8,098 people and caused 774 deaths worldwide. The World Health 
Organization--WHO--has formally declared a public health emergency of 
international concern--the sixth such declaration since 2009--and the 
outbreak will get worse, possibly far worse, before it gets better.
  While the novel coronavirus outbreak is alarming and is creating fear 
around the world, it should not be surprising.
  Scientists, epidemiologists, and other global health experts have for 
years warned that infectious disease outbreaks will continue to occur 
more frequently and cause greater harm, and that most emerging viruses 
will spread from animals to humans. Such zoonotic viruses are 
increasingly common as human activity, including population growth and 
expanding human encroachment into wildlife habitat, increases contact 
between animals and humans, which is what happened in Wuhan.
  The coronavirus strain threatening us today is believed to have 
emerged from a bat, and potentially passed through another animal 
before infecting humans in a live-animal market. Such animal markets, 
which in China and many other countries include bats, rats, birds, 
porcupines, and other animals infected with viruses, are sources of 
protein for hungry humans, but also serve as breeding grounds for 
zoonotic diseases.
  Scientists estimate that there are more than 1.6 million unknown 
viral disease species in mammalian and avian populations, of which an 
estimated 600,000 to 850,000 have the potential to infect humans. As we 
saw during SARS, Ebola, and MERS and are now seeing once again, 
infectious disease outbreaks threaten not only human health but also 
cause economic harm and social upheaval.
  We should all be asking whether we, the United States and the 
international community, are doing enough to combat and prepare for 
this known and escalating threat. It seems obvious that we are not.
  In fact, while the President and Secretary of State have repeatedly 
said that protecting the health and safety of American citizens is 
their highest priority, that is not borne out by the facts. The 
American people should be aware that the Trump administration has 
consistently proposed cuts in funding for the very programs designed to 
help prevent outbreaks and contain the spread of infectious diseases 
like the novel coronavirus. Even in the President's fiscal year 2021 
budget request sent to Congress this week, in the midst of a deadly 
infectious disease outbreak that will almost certainly become a global 
pandemic, the administration has proposed to pay less than half of what 
the U.S. owes WHO, in addition to requesting a 10 percent cut to U.S. 
Agency for International Development--USAID--pandemic preparedness 
programs. It is a reckless game of Russian roulette with a global 
threat we absolutely must prepare for. Yesterday, it was SARS, then it 
was Ebola; today, it is Ebola again and a coronavirus. Tomorrow, it may 
be something that is even deadlier and spreads even faster. Fortunately 
for the American people, Congress has rejected those cuts in the past 
and increased funding for most global health programs, and I am 
confident we will do the same this year, but far more needs to be done.
  Funding for pandemic preparedness at the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention, USAID, National Institutes of Health, Department of 
Health and Human Services, and other Federal agencies that play an 
indispensable role in preparing for and responding to outbreaks should 
be significantly increased, not forced to cut programs and personnel as 
the administration has proposed. It makes no sense to be shortchanging 
the agencies and programs we all depend on to protect public health, 
keep our ports of entry open, and keep our commerce flowing.
  Pandemic response is critical, but often, by then, it is too late. We 
can and must do more to proactively reduce pandemic risk. One approach 
I have urged is for a global viral discovery effort. Such a concept was 
proven successful through USAID's PREDICT program, which used the 
collection and analysis of wildlife samples in areas of the world most 
at risk for zoonotic disease to identify new emerging viruses with 
pandemic potential. PREDICT was able to discover hundreds of disease 
pathogens at their source, rather than waiting for human infection.
  In China, the PREDICT program sampled more than 10,000 bats and 
identified more than 500 new coronaviruses, including a strain that is 
a 96 percent match to the 2019 novel coronavirus strain. The known 
existence of and readily available data on such a close relative is one 
reason China was able to quickly sequence the novel strain and identify 
the animal source of the outbreak.
  As the 10-year PREDICT program comes to an end this year, USAID is 
working to design the next phase of programming to build on the 
successful analytical and modeling work demonstrated through PREDICT. 
Others in the international community should use the lessons learned 
and techniques proven through PREDICT to inform their own efforts.
  Investing in biomedical research focused on infectious disease is 
another crucial, proactive step to reducing pandemic risk. The NIH's 
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases--NIAID--has a 
unique mandate to conduct and support basic and applied research on 
established infectious diseases and also to quickly launch a research 
response to newly emerging and reemerging infectious threats. With 
NIAID support, scientists design and develop new diagnostics, 
treatments, and preventive strategies, including vaccines, which can be 
deployed to protect and treat people worldwide.
  Yet, in the midst of the novel coronavirus emergency, the President's 
budget would cut $3.1 billion from NIH and assumes the reduction is 
spread across-the-board to all 27 Institutes and Centers, including 
NIAID. Slashing infectious disease research programs threatens our 
ability to develop better therapeutics and vaccines for high priority 
pathogens, as well as the rapid development of medical countermeasures 
against emerging infectious diseases, like the coronavirus, when they 
arise.
  The President's budget features similar dangerous cuts to CDC 
programs that have been pivotal in combating the novel coronavirus 
response, proposing a $693 million overall decrease from fiscal year 
2020. Although the administration touts its $175 million proposal for 
Global Health Security in fiscal year 2021, it simultaneously cuts 
almost $100 million from other crucial global health investments, 
including in global HIV/AIDS, global polio eradication, global 
immunization, and the global public health capacity and development 
programs. This is short-sighted and dangerous.
  The President's budget proposes only $50 million, a $35 million 
decrease compared to fiscal year 2020, for CDC's Infectious Disease 
Rapid Response Reserve Fund--IDRRRF--which has served as the primary 
source of funding for responding to the novel coronavirus outbreak. 
This risks potentially undermining the agency's ability to access 
funding to initiate an early and rapid response to emerging pandemic 
threats like novel coronavirus when the U.S. is faced with a public 
health emergency. The administration also proposes an $85 million cut 
to the CDC's Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease and a 
$25 million cut to the Public Health Preparedness and Response Program.
  Slashing these programs weakens CDC's ability to provide rapid 
scientific support during outbreaks of infectious disease, maintain 
support for global health programs that build core public health 
capabilities and bolster frontline preparedness internationally, and 
ensure that State and local health departments are ready to handle many 
different types of emergencies that threaten the health and resilience 
of families, communities, and the Nation, Thus, while the White House 
named its fiscal year 2021 budget A Budget for America's Future, it is 
anything but that. There is no better example of where this 
Administration's rhetoric clashes with reality than the drastic cuts 
they propose to the very programs that protect the American people from 
deadly communicative diseases.
  I continue to urge USAID, other Federal agencies, the White House, 
and Members of Congress to support a more

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proactive approach to reducing pandemic risk. Today, we are struggling 
to control outbreaks of Ebola and the novel coronavirus, and while we 
don't know which viruses will next attack us, we do know it is not a 
matter of it: but when, and we must do everything we can to prepare. 
The more information we have about potential zoonotic viruses, the 
better able we will be to respond. The stakes are immense. Thousands, 
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of lives could 
be lost, and the amount of funding necessary to control it would be 
incalculable.

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