Ashley Bennett

Last week, Dr. Nathan Wolfe, Stanford biology professor and director of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (GVFI) joined Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report to discuss GVFI’s work in developing a system to detect future pandemics before they happen. GVFI focuses on monitoring infectious diseases that could ‘jump’ from animals to humans in the future, and maintains field sites in more than fifteen countries. Through its research, GVFI has created a pilot global early warning system for new diseases. During the interview, Colbert described how his 91-year old mother used to decide as a child whether or not to go to school each year based on whether polio was present in her community at the time, and questioned whether that scenario could happen again. Polio, which has been eradicated from the United States due to innovations in health technologies like vaccines, may never return to the US, but Dr. Wolfe stressed that there is an incredible amount that scientists do not yet know about how viruses evolve and move from animals to humans. He added that diseases we have never heard of may one day be in our backyard. Amid jokes about Ebola in the movies and who gets to name the next new disease, Colbert and Wolfe got serious about the need for heightened attention to the interconnected environment we live in and its effect on how disease spreads. Dr. Wolfe noted that “if you look at airplane routes, and the way we move boats, and animals around, we’re this sort of large mixing vessel of microorganisms, and it means that a virus that pops out of Central Africa or Southeast Asia has the potential to get here to New York or Tokyo in a matter of days. And that’s something that we should all be very concerned about and take very seriously.” While Colbert knows how to joke about any subject, it’s clear that this issue is not a laughing matter. Global diseases know no borders. Groundbreaking research and development into technologies to combat the diseases of today—coupled with surveillance of the possible pandemic threats of tomorrow—are critical resources for providing us with the knowledge and tools to be ready for whatever is ahead.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, Ashley Bennett, senior policy associate at the GHTC, provides an update on what’s currently happening with global health in Congress and an outlook for future legislative activity. The government continues to operate under the continuing resolution (CR) that cut 1.5% across the board to all government programs. At the same time, the Senate is starting the Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 appropriations process, debating several “minibus” bills that combine two or more appropriations accounts. With these minibus bills, the Senate aims to complete work on appropriations as close as possible to the Nov. 18 CR expiration date. Here are some details on two minibus bills that would fund the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID): The Senate recently considered a minibus bill that would fund the FDA, in addition to several other programs. The Senate debated this minibus bill last week, but could not agree to the funding levels before the Senate went into recess. This week, when the Senate is back in session, it will likely approve this measure. Also this week, the Senate will likely consider another minibus that combines State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) with several other programs, including Energy. The SFOPS account provides funding to USAID. This package could be debated as early as Tuesday, Nov. 1, and amendments will be allowed during debate. The GHTC has heard that if it looks like there won’t be enough votes to approve the package by the end of this week, the bill will be pulled from the floor and the Senate will try again at a later date. As mentioned in the last What’s Ahead on the Hill, the Senate SFOPs funding levels for FY 2012 are roughly $5 billion higher than the House funding levels, but still about $3 billion below FY 2011 levels overall. As the SFOPs account is combined with the often controversial Energy account, the amount of amendments could lead to a lengthy debate. After the State and Foreign Operations minibus is debated, additional funding packages will still be needed to complete work on the Senate side for all of the appropriations accounts. Meanwhile on the House side, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, has suggested that he may consider adding accounts to the FDA minibus when it is approved by the Senate and moves to the House for negotiations. It is unclear at this point if this will actually be the case. You can find information on the FDA bill here.