Buchanan backs $300 million fund to fight deadly diseases

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, said he requested federal money for nearly a year to fight the Zika virus in Florida before funding was made available.

As a result, Buchanan pitched a plan Monday to create a $300 million “rapid-response fund” that would allow the nation’s top disease fighters to respond immediately to disease outbreaks rather than waiting for Congress to act.

The fund, if approved, would combat deadly infectious diseases such as the Zika virus, which hit Florida hard last year, and Ebola, Buchanan said Monday.

“We can’t afford to be caught flat-footed when a public health crisis hits,” Buchanan wrote in a bipartisan letter dated April 4, backed by 20 other members of Congress and sent to Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.

“Every minute counts when it comes to saving lives and stopping the next pandemic,” Buchanan added.

Buchanan’s inspiration for the rapid-response fund apparently came from a comment made in 2016 by then-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden.

Said Frieden: “I think the big picture is, we definitely need something like this. It’s crucially important that we have resources to respond rapidly. Epidemics move at one speed — Congress clearly moves at a different speed.”

In the letter to Cole, Buchanan wrote: “In the last decade alone, we have faced serious threats from H1N1 in 2009, MERS in 2012, Ebola in 2014 and Zika last year. Even worse, many have forewarned of future epidemics that could be spread by airborne transmission and therefore be far more contagious than Ebola or Zika.”

The letter also cautioned that African yellow fever could soon spread to the United States.

This story was originally published April 10, 2017 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Buchanan backs $$300 million fund to fight deadly diseases."