How a reorganized HHS can improve pandemic readiness

By W. Craig Vanderwagen and Jennifer B. Alton, The Hill Opinion Contributors - 08/18/22

The Secretary of Health and Human Services recently announced an important reorganization that can help the federal government prevent future pandemics and be better prepared for other health emergencies. HHS changed the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response from a “staff division” to an “operating division” and renamed it the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR).

 
 

By W. Craig Vanderwagen, Kevin Yeskey & Jennifer B. Alton, The Hill Opinion Contributors, 05/13/21

As we start the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic under a new administration and we get our country on the road to recovery, it is time to take steps to improve the federal government’s structure for future pandemics. A combination of staffing and structural changes at the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services are needed.

 
 

By W. Craig Vanderwagen, Kevin Yeskey, Jennifer B. Alton, The Hill Opinion Contributors, 2/11/2021

There are many reasons why ASPR has not been able to live up to its full potential at coordinating the federal medical and public health response to this emergency. Conflicts between national plans and frameworks, interagency mission creep, political intervention, departmental in-fighting, disregard for the PAHPA framework and insufficient funding over the last decade all contributed to this outcome.

 
 

By Jennifer B. Alton and Ellen P. Carlin, The Hill Opinion Contributors, 2/28/2020

When Congress appropriates emergency supplemental funding for COVID-19, it should put the money into the Public Health Emergency Fund. Any leftover money after the outbreak could be used as seed funding for responding to future outbreaks, obviating the need for future emergency supplementals.

 
 

Health security threats are real: What is Congress doing?

By Jennifer B. Alton, 06/25/2019

BIOtechNOW

In a rare show of bipartisan agreement, Congress recently passed and yesterday President Trump signed into law legislation that will ensure the country is ready and able to respond quickly to national health security threats.