Biophysical Society Bulletin | March 2022

Public Affairs

Senate Releases Draft Pandemic Preparedness Legislation At the end of January, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Ranking Member Richard Burr (R-NC) released a discus- sion draft of the Prepare for and Respond to Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats, and Pandemics Act (PREVENT Pandemics Act). The PREVENT Pandemics Act is a bipartisan bill focused on strengthening the nation’s public health and medical preparedness and response systems in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of particular interest to the science community, the PREVENT Pandemics Act will 1) authorize $3 million to establish a Na- tional Task Force on the Response of the United States to the COVID-19 Pandemic; 2) ensure accountability at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by requiring Senate confirmation of the agency’s director, an agency-wide strate- gic plan to be developed every four years, and a Government Accountability Office study on how programs and activities align with the strategic plan; 3) establish a Public Health Information and Communications Advisory Committee; 4) reauthorize a network of Centers for Public Health Prepared- ness and Response; 5) authorize $70 million for fiscal years 2023 through 2027 to address social determinants of health and improve health outcomes; 6) authorize $2 million for a National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine study on the effects of health disparities on health outcomes, including related to public health emergencies; 7) provide for updates to biosurveillance capabilities and infectious disease data collection to improve public health situational aware- ness; 8) authorize $10 million to improve public health data collection; 9) direct the Department of Health and Human Services to continue conducting research on the long-term health effects of COVID-19; and 10) direct the Food and Drug Administration to issue guidance to modernize and improve clinical trials. Senators Introduce the Tracking Pathogens Act On January 31, Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Bill Cassi- dy (R-LA) introduced a bipartisan bill, known as the Tracking Pathogens Act, to strengthen and expand genomic sequenc- ing of pathogens to identify new threats and better prepare for the next pandemic. The bill would authorize sustained funding of $175 million per year for fiscal years 2023 through 2027 for genetic surveillance and genomic sequencing.

The Tracking Pathogens Act would enhance the United States’ ability to prepare for future pandemics by issuing guidance to support collaborations for genomic sequencing, including the use of new and innovative approaches and technology for the detection, characterization, and sequencing of pathogens, to improve public health surveillance and preparedness and re- sponse activities. The bill will direct government health agen- cies, including the CDC and National Institutes of Health, to expand and improve activities related to genomic sequencing. Finally, the bill will award grants to public health agencies and partnerships to establish centers of excellence to promote in- novation in pathogen genomics and molecular epidemiology. The contents of the Tracking Pathogens Act will be included in the draft Senate HELP Committee pandemic preparedness Australian Academy of Science Calls Attention to Political Interference In January, the Australian Academy of Science spoke out against political interference in the nation’s research system and the damage being done to the reputation and integri- ty of Australian research. The Academy reports that of the four known occurrences of political interference, three have occurred in the last three years. The Academy, which is made of up Australia’s leading scientists, expressed its concern in late December that six Australian Research Council Discov- ery Projects had been rejected using ministerial veto. This was despite the projects being recommended for funding by independent panels, all with deep knowledge of the relevant fields. Academy President John Shine said it is reasonable that governments align some proportion of funding schemes with widely agreed national priorities and strategic objectives, and that they are made clear when calling for proposals. However, within those criteria, merit, as identified by independent peer review, should remain the central basis for allocating which research to support. Workshop Brings Scandinavian Biophysicists Together An international workshop with a focus on biomechanics took place in Oslo, Norway, assembling biophysicists mainly from Nordic countries. Biophysics is interdisciplinary by nature and its subfield biomechanics is no exception. On October 29 and 30, legislation, the PREVENT Pandemics Act. Around theWorld

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