January 15, 2021
Statement on President-Elect Biden’s COVID-19 Proposal
Below is a statement from Chris Collins, President and CEO, Friends of the Global Fight, on President Elect Biden’s first COVID-19 emergency proposal :
“Thank you President-elect Biden for recognizing the critical importance of a global response to COVID-19 and for proposing $11 billion in international assistance. We look forward to working with the Biden Administration and Congress to ensure this funding includes emergency COVID-19 resources for the Global Fund, the lead multilateral agency working to procure and distribute COVID-19 tests, therapeutics, and PPE to protect health workers, and mitigate damage to AIDS, TB and malaria programs. The Global Fund has run out of funds to assist low- and middle-income countries in tackling COVID-19 and urgently needs $4 billion from the United States. The rapid spread of new COVID-19 virus mutations, from South Africa to the UK and Japan, demonstrate that the United States will not be safe from COVID-19 unless we ensure that other countries have the lab and testing capacity to control their own COVID-19 epidemics.”
For more information on the impact of COVID-19 on low- and middle-income countries and the urgency of Global Fund investments, visit https://www.theglobalfight.org/averting-disaster-urgency-us-support-global-fund-covid-supplemental/. For the latest information on the impact of COVID-19 on AIDS, TB and malaria, visit https://www.theglobalfight.org/covid-aids-tb-malaria/.