ASM Urges Sec. Rubio to Restore Global Public Health Funding
Secretary Marco Rubio U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, D.C. 20520 |
On behalf of the 37,000 members of the American Society for Microbiology, I am writing to express our deep concerns regarding the pausing and potential elimination of U.S. funding for global public health programs. ASM is one of the largest professional life science societies in the world and a leader in scientific publishing. Through our programs and partnerships, we harness the power of microbiology to serve humanity and solve the most pressing challenges, including emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance.
As you review the status and funding of global public health programs at USAID and other federal agencies, including U.S. CDC, we urge you to consider the potentially dire consequences of eliminating, or even pausing, these programs. Global collaboration is paramount to protecting public health. In particular, we must control and prevent infectious diseases in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) through laboratory systems strengthening in order to protect Americans’ health at home and abroad.
Pausing or eliminating these essential programs impedes U.S.’s ability to collaborate with other nations to actively surveil for emerging infectious diseases, and hampers our country’s readiness to protect U.S. citizens, both domestically and globally. For example, South Africa’s swift genomic sequencing was instrumental in alerting the world in December 2021 to an unusual coronavirus genomic profile, the Omicron variant. Recent outbreaks of Marburg virus and mpox in Africa are concerning, and ceasing public communications and support not only threatens the safety of U.S. citizens, but is also an inefficient approach to U.S.’s leadership in combating pandemics. When Ebola re-emerged in 2021 in Guinea, CDC-trained workforce in Guinea enabled the end of the outbreak in just 23 days, compared to the 11,000 deaths in West Africa, and cost U.S. $2 billion and 10,000+ jobs tied to exports from the 2014-2016 outbreak.
Further, drastically scaling back these programs will allow existing and emerging microbial threats, including antimicrobial resistance (AMR), to flourish. AMR is associated with over 5 million deaths around the world every year and spreads regardless of geographic and political boundaries. It is a fundamental threat to global security and economies, with an annual estimated toll of $855 billion. AMR prevention, detection and surveillance are tantamount to preventing further spread throughout the U.S., which exceeds 3 million infections and 48,000 deaths annually.
ASM’s public health programs enable microbiology laboratories to integrate clinical care and infectious disease surveillance in LMICs. These time-bound programs build self-sustained capacity to detect and monitor microbial threats and notify the U.S. of pending outbreaks, or even pandemics. Furthermore, targeted U.S. investments in health systems provide a foundation for regional stability.
Microbes know no borders. ASM and our members strongly urge you to consider immediate reinstatement of funding and communications on global public health programs, for the security of all. I would be happy to engage in further conversations regarding potential paths forward. Please reach out to Amalia Corby, Director of Federal Affairs, at acorby@asmusa.org if you would like to arrange a discussion.
Sincerely,
Stefano Bertuzzi, Ph.D., MPH, CEO
American Society for Microbiology
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