Seattle Times: Fund the National Institutes of Health to fight infectious diseases
Alan Aderem, president and director of Seattle BioMed

“…Disease research is some of the most critical and challenging work of the 21st century. Increased funding to the NIH is the single most important component to discovering new vaccines, drugs, and cures for the world’s deadliest diseases. … U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., and U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, have introduced the Accelerating Biomedical Research Act to increase NIH funding, offsetting severe budget caps previously imposed on the agency. Harkin said, ‘It is time for us on a bipartisan basis to reverse this erosion of support for biomedical research to ensure America’s standing as a world leader in this field.’ Protecting public health is not an issue of politics. The NIH’s mission reaches across party lines. Funding it is an investment in health and our future…” (11/20).