A robust COVID-19 response is incomplete without international resources. In today’s interconnected world where it only takes 36 hours for a pathogen to spread around the globe, we won’t eliminate the virus in our towns and cities as long as the virus is anywhere.

In addition to the vital resources being negotiated to address urgent day to day needs at home, we cannot lose sight of the impact if we fail to protect America’s health, safety, and security by leaving out critical, targeted investments for international efforts such as GAVI, the Global Fund, and CEPI, the international economic and humanitarian response, and frontline operations for U.S. civilian agencies overseas. We applaud the House for committing resources to these vital programs in the HEROES and FY21 bills earlier this year and urge negotiators to include this essential funding in the final bills.

This week we observed World AIDS Day, and there’s no more powerful example of the return on America’s investment in global health resources than the 18 million lives saved by PEPFAR, whose infrastructure also ensured a significant offense against the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.  Our investment in international health resources pays dividends for America’s global health security and economic wellbeing that we cannot afford to delay.