The 2006 Pandemic and All Hazards Preparadness Act?

[question everything]

Anyone heard of this? Authored by Senator Richard Burr?

I was reading about his stock selling and it described Burr as the “Senate leading authority on pandemics.”

What was this act about? Should it have prepared us for this?

[pat_k]

1. Part of the act was to establish Office of the Assistant Sec'ty for Preparedness and Response (ASPR)

Apparently Robert Kadlec, current ASPR has been more focused on these threats:

- Deployment of bio-weapons
- Release of chemical weapons

Even though the word "Pandemic" is in the title "Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act," it seems that there is a culture -- and has been for some time (predating Trump) -- to focus on terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, over preparedness for national/global infectious disease.

Website makes it all sound great, but I'm not finding much about concrete substantive action.

From Wikipedia page on the act:

In January 2018, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held two separate hearings on the reauthorization of the PAHPA law. The conclusion from many witnesses who testified before the hearings is that "decreased and episodic funding from the United States government has stakeholders questioning the true commitment federal lawmakers have for sustaining the nation's preparedness and response capabilities during a catastrophic event linked to infectious diseases, natural disasters or chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) agents."[2]

[question everything]

2. Thanks. We can only hope that once this is over, the last government officials

and legislators remain standing will revisit the act and will give it real teeth.