In Brief
Annual Meeting Session: Global Pandemic Response: Charting a Path Forward Using Guides from the Past and Present
Join us on Wednesday, February 24th at 12:00pm, as the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) hosts a panel to look at the global challenges facing a successful pandemic strategy. Can the lessons from other pandemics provide a framework for international cooperation? Can a strategy be developed that addresses both public health concerns and doubts in the general populace about the safety/efficacy of new interventions? Hear from global experts in science and policy as they weigh in on the challenge ahead.
Panelists:
- Thurka Sangaramoorthy, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Maryland
- Patrick McTamney, AstraZeneca
- Felix Rey, Pasteur Institute, France
- Arturo Casadevall, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Annual Meeting Session: Responding to the Coronavirus Threat through Investments in Fundamental Biomedical Research
Join us again on Friday, February 26 at 12:00pm for a panel session focused on how to effectively contain and limiting the spread of COVID-19, as well as responding to future pandemics by emerging, as yet unknown, infectious diseases, will require substantial increases in our knowledge of how this virus and other pathogens infect humans, how the human immune system responds to infection, and how to leverage this understanding to develop new vaccines and drugs. These needs can only be addressed by substantial increased funding for fundamental biomedical research, as supported through congressional appropriations to federal agencies such as the NIH, NSF and DOE.
Panelists:
- Michael Lauer, National Institutes of Health
- Victoria McGovern, Burroughs Wellcome Fund
- Jennifer Cama, Majority Staff, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services
House Appropriations Subcommittees Release New Rosters
House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro released the new member rosters for the two Subcommittees that approve the majority of federal scientific research grant monies. The Labor, Health and Human Services (Labor-HHS) which directs funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Commerce, Science and Justice which funds the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Labor-HHS Subcommittee:
- Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Chair
- Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
- Barbara Lee (D-CA)
- Mark Pocan (D-WI)
- Katherine Clark (D-MA)
- Lois Frankel (D-FL)
- Cheri Bustos (D-IL)
- Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)
- Brenda Lawrence (D-MI)
- Josh Harder (D-CA)
- Tom Cole (R-OK), Ranking Member
- Andy Harris (R-MD)
- Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN)
- Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA)
- John Moolenaar (R-MI)
- Ben Cline (R-VA)
Commerce, Science and Justice Subcommittee:
- Matt Cartwright(D-PA), Chairman
- Grace Meng (D-NY)
- Charlie Crist (D-FL)
- Ed Case (D-HI)
- C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD)
- Brenda Lawrence (D-MI)
- David Trone (D-MD)
- Robert B. Aderholt (R-AL), Ranking Member
- Steven Palazzo (R-MS)
- Ben Cline (R-VA)
- Mike Garcia (R-CA)
Tonko Reintroduces the Scientific Integrity Act
On February 4, Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) the “Scientific Integrity Act (HR 849),” which seeks to codify in law certain standards for scientific integrity policies. The bill garnered some Republican support last year, but it did not advance after the House passed it as part of partisan pandemic recovery and energy policy packages. Tonko wrote to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy late last year complaining the existing policies had been subject to “egregious violations” under the Trump administration, and in a letter to Biden, Tonko asked him to help press Congress to pass his legislation.