Bill targets future pandemic preparedness

A group of legislators recently introduced legislation designed to create a commission to assess the nation’s response and make recommendations for future pandemic preparedness.

Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) joined 12 colleagues in presenting the Pandemic Rapid Response Act, which establishes the National Commission on the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The commission would consist of 10 experts from such fields as governmental service, biological science, higher education, and medicine, including hospital experts and administrators.

“While our focus now is on helping Americans through this pandemic, we are going to need to look at our response, without finger-pointing or politics, to see what we’ve learned from the first pandemic I’ve experienced in my lifetime,” Davis said. “I’ve worked to ensure this bill is bipartisan, that the commission itself is not swayed to one party or the other, and that the administration is brought in. This commission will also engage the international community to determine the impact the response of other countries had on the U.S.”

Under the proposed bill, the President will have the ability to make at least one appointment to the commission, which will analyze and make recommendations to the President and Congress regarding a comprehensive national plan to respond to future global and national viral outbreaks and medical emergencies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.