Harnessing the public and private sectors to battle a pandemic

Earlier this year, Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and I found ourselves in a unique position to help the country respond to COVID-19 pandemic. In my role as the House Energy and Commerce Committee Republican leader and Rep. Guthrie’s role as Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Republican leader, we—along with Health Subcommittee Republican Leader Dr. Michael Burgess (R-Texas)—help oversee federal departments and agencies like HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration.

This spring, we launched the Second Wave Preparedness Project to provide recommendations to help better position the country in the fight against COVID-19, especially as we approach flu season.

Every day counts during this pandemic, and the goal of the Second Wave Preparedness Project has been to study every aspect of this pandemic and determine what’s needed to save lives, resources and time. Developing policy recommendations in the middle of a pandemic in some ways felt like we were building the plane as we were flying it, but my committee has a long, bipartisan tradition of working to better prepare the country for emergencies. Last year, we sent the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act to President Donald Trump for his signature, which reauthorized critical public health preparedness and response programs.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration has worked around the clock to harness public and private sector resources. Through Operation Warp Speed—a whole-of-government effort combined with the power of private sector innovation to develop and then deliver millions of doses of a vaccine to Americans—we’re seeing record progress being made toward a vaccine.

Through committee oversight, I’ve had the opportunity to not only develop recommendations to help streamline the response effort, but also to speak to many public health experts on the front lines of this pandemic. I’ve left those conversations feeling confident that, despite the breakneck speed at which we are moving, the safety and efficacy of vaccines and therapeutics will not be compromised.

Meanwhile, there are lessons learned and opportunities for efficiencies, which is why we made recommendations through the Second Wave Preparedness Project. These recommendations complement the administration’s ongoing efforts to defeat COVID-19, and I’m pleased some of them have already been implemented.

The three pillars of this project examine testing and surveillance; vaccine and therapeutics; and the nation’s healthcare supply chain. With testing, for instance, we examined the kinds of testing available, how they should be used and what types of tests we still need to develop, anticipated supply shortages, and how to better target testing and surveillance efforts. This will be especially important as we head into flu season.

For the next pillar on vaccine and therapeutic development, we sought to make recommendations to help answer questions about how best to distribute a vaccine once the FDA approves one, and we have closely examined the status of the many different therapeutics under development.

The third pillar is on healthcare supply chain preparedness. Through this pandemic, we’ve learned exactly what happens when we heavily rely on other countries for our drug and medical supply chains. China concealed just how serious the virus is in order to hoard supplies for its population, and more than 20 countries limited or even banned drug and medical supply exports. A secure supply chain with domestic manufacturing is the only way to ensure we can adequately deal with this and be prepared for future public health emergencies.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I don’t think any of us could have predicted the human suffering this virus would cause at home and around the world. It is my hope we can work together, utilizing these recommendations, to overcome the many challenges caused by this pandemic and come back stronger and more prepared for the future.

The 116th Congress: Policymaking Amid the Pandemic