Legislation re-introduced into Congress this week would direct the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence to create a program leveraging artificial intelligence to prepare for and respond to pandemics.
Sponsored by U.S. Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), co-chairs of the Senate Artificial Intelligence (AI) Caucus, the MedShield Act of 2025, would create a “shield” to protect the nation against future pandemics, the law makers said, and would foster collaboration between public and private sectors, global allies and partners.
“Artificial intelligence gives us the opportunity to completely revolutionize health care as we know it, including when it comes to rapid response to pandemics,” Rounds said. “The MedShield program would utilize artificial intelligence to help the U.S. identify pathogens that pose pandemic threats and work quickly to develop necessary protections. We can leverage artificial intelligence not only to improve the quality of life for Americans, but to literally save lives and taxpayer dollars.”
Officials said the program would improve efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. pandemic response across five key areas: pathogen detection and surveillance; vaccine development; therapeutic development; pathogen tracking and vaccine distribution modeling; and vaccine and therapeutics manufacturing.
“AI holds amazing potential to supercharge major scientific and medical advances – including our ability to anticipate and address the next public health crisis,” Heinrich said. “By leveraging AI’s potential, our Medshield Act will ensure we are more prepared for the emergence of new biological threats to mitigate the next pandemic.”