Ami Bera: “I thank Chairman Engel for his leadership and support. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bipartisan measure…”

“I thank Chairman Engel for his leadership and support. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bipartisan measure, H.R. 6334, the Securing America From Epidemics, or SAFE Act. This legislation, which I introduced alongside my friend, Congressman Ted Yoho, would authorize U.S. participation in the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI. CEPI was created in the aftermath of the 2015 West Africa Ebola epidemic. Its founders understood that due to factors like climate change, overcrowding, malnutrition, and the proximity of people living next to animals, the world would see deadly epidemics more and more frequently. The most effective countermeasures to these epidemics are vaccines. CEPI sought to fund vaccines for several pathogens like MERS that could potentially explode into pandemics. And it sought to help develop universal vaccine platform technologies that could be adapted to quickly address emerging outbreaks. The individuals in CEPI could not have predicted the current COVID-19 pandemic, but they knew it was just a matter of time until we would see something like this. Since the start of the pandemic, CEPI has devoted major funding to nine vaccine candidates to defeat COVID-19. In January of this year, CEPI was one of the first investors in Moderna, providing catalytic funding to spur additional research and development. That early funding has paid off. It looks like Moderna's Phase 3 trials have been successful.…”