Protecting U.S. Citizens From Bioterrorism, Disease Epidemics Requires Global Health Investments

Forbes: Today’s Life-Saving Ebola Vaccine Was Spurred By The 2001 Anthrax And 2004 Ricin Attacks
Bill Frist, former Republican Senate majority leader from Tennessee and chair of Hope Through Healing Hands

“…Outbreaks of known and new diseases are, and will continue to be, an evolutionary certainty. It’s time for forward-thinking prevention. … [I]n our globalized society, we can no longer count on outbreaks being locally or regionally contained. As we saw with Ebola and later Zika, one nation’s challenge can quickly become a global problem. Investing in global health reduces the spread of diseases, improves our nation’s standing in the world, and serves as currency for peace. This small sliver of our federal budget … pays life-saving dividends as it funds the infrastructure and trains the health workers that are the backbone in responding to public health crises. We must protect our citizens from bioterrorism and dangerous disease epidemics … but we will fall short of this goal if we don’t look outward and invest in health beyond our borders” (6/10).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

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