Biden Administration Announces New ‘Global Health Security Strategy’

The Biden administration announced Tuesday a new Global Health Security Strategy that purports to better prepare the country for future pandemics by “partnering with other countries.”

In introductory remarks to his Global Health Security Strategy document, Joe Biden touted his administration has “championed the creation of the Pandemic Fund, a new international body that has already catalyzed $2 billion in financing from 27 contributors, including countries, foundations, and philanthropies, to build stronger global health security capabilities,” with a particular focus on the rapid availability of “life-saving medicines and vaccines.”

Biden also said his administration is “leading efforts to ensure international financial institutions, such as the World Bank Group, scale up lending for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response because health security, economic security, climate security, and national security are all related.”

As of February, in addition to the United States, contributing nations to the Pandemic Fund include Australia, Austria, Canada, China, the European Commission, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

The foundations that have thus far committed to the Fund are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Wellcome Trust.

In his official White House statement announcing his new “strategy,” Biden said the COVID pandemic “had local consequences – on our hospitals, our schools, our businesses, and our communities.”

“That’s why – as my Administration worked to end the COVID-19 pandemic – we’ve also focused on ensuring our nation is prepared for any future pandemic, outbreak, or biological threat,” he said.

His new plan, he touted, will:

… drive comprehensive and cohesive efforts across our government, while generating greater support from foreign partners, the private sector, and civil society to ensure long-term impact. It will help protect people—across our nation and around the world—from security threats, particularly those posed by infectious diseases.

Biden’s “strategy” and an accompanying “fact sheet” are announced just four weeks before the key World Health Organization (WHO) deliberations – which appear to be “flailing,” as the Associated Press noted. The strategy is also launched at a time when attention has turned to whether avian flu (H5N1) could be the “Disease X” discussed in January at the World Economic Forum (WEF) by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“You may even call COVID as the first ‘Disease X,’ and it may happen again,” the WHO leader suggested during the WEF.

In a recent interview on “The Absolute Truth” with Emerald Robinson, cardiologist, internist, and champion of early treatment for COVID, Dr. Peter McCullough commented on the timeliness of what is being presented as a bird flu crisis just as members of the WHO prepare to vote on a pandemic treaty.

“[I]t looks like it's game on for H5N1, what's called highly pathogenic avian influenza,” said McCullough, who writes, with John Leake, at Courageous Discourse. “This is now, I think, a fear-driven campaign of unbelievable proportions.”

McCullough explained his response:

In 2021, Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, said that bird flu will be the next pandemic. CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation by the Gates Foundation, WEF – they formed CEPI. CEPI is working on a self-amplifying messenger RNA vaccine with a Korean group. And now we have Thermo Fisher distributing PCR testing of animals.

“Now remember, bird flu has been around for decades,” they physician continued. “We've had thousands of cases of animals with bird flu, they feel sick for a few days, they recover. The flocks are simply monitored. Now, for the first time, there is a human case. A man in West Texas, around Amarillo, has conjunctivitis. That's it. And yesterday was the order by Sid Miller, the Ag Commissioner in Texas, to slaughter millions of chickens. So, you know, the casualty of the bird flu epidemic is going to be the unnecessary slaughter of poultry and meat.”

“How will we know if this is some weaponized strain that they had worked on with the intention of creating another pandemic?” Robinson asked.

“Well, if the gain-of-function research has been done on avian flu like we suspected it could have been done, we'll start to see more human cases and then human-to-human transmission,” McCullough said:

And let's hope it doesn't happen. There's been roughly 800 cases over the decades. There have been several hundred fatalities. Most of these have been in countries where there's not much in the way of healthcare, people presenting very late. There's been deaths in 23 countries due to bird flu. The cases that I reviewed, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005, presented very late, looked like they died of a staphylococcal infection.

“I can tell you we're getting ready,” McCullough stressed:

“We have preclinical data showing that dilute iodine nasal sprays and gargles works fine in killing the virus. The preclinical studies show that. And that the majority of cases, if humans get sick, would respond to Tamiflu or one of the other three influenza drugs that are currently FDA approved.”

Nevertheless, McCullough asserted that “because the gain of function research is pretty well documented here, we know that this virus is being manipulated in laboratories.”

“I think we have to be wary,” he advised. “So, I'm telling you right now, there is a massive government investment in bird flu. We should be paying attention to this.”

In his introductory remarks to his Global Health Security Strategy document, Biden boasted that since he became president “we have more than doubled our global health partnerships—working directly with 50 countries to ensure they can more effectively prevent, detect, and control outbreaks. And we are working with partners to support an additional 50 countries to save even more lives and minimize economic losses.”

“Through investments and cooperation with foreign partners, we will continue to build our capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats wherever they emerge,” he continued. “And we will rally greater support for these efforts from other countries, the private sector, and civil society to ensure long-term impact.”

The Biden departments of State and Health and Human Services (HHS), along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also issued statements Tuesday applauding Biden’s Global Health Security Strategy as a necessity to keep Americans safe and healthy.

The Department of State said that, in light of the risk and burden the COVID pandemic demonstrated globally, “Partnering with other countries to stop infectious disease threats at their source, aiming to prevent health emergencies and pandemics, protects Americans and people around the world.”

“The United States must be in position to prevent, detect, and respond to public health crises – including infectious disease threats at home and abroad,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “This strategy promotes a One Health approach – an approach that is collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary — and recognizes the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment as well as the importance of coordination across government, business, and civil society.”

Becerra emphasized the United States is “committed to contributing to the Pandemic Fund, including $700 million to date, addressing financing gaps and building stronger regional and global institutions that can drive innovation, offering reliable public health guidance, and implementing a rapid response to global health emergencies.”

“Strengthening global health security is a national security priority, and is essential to protect the health, lives, and economic well-being of the American people,” he added.

Similarly, CDC Director Mandy Cohen said “[g]lobal health security is national security, and CDC is proud to contribute its expertise, investments and rapid response to protect the health and safety of the American people and the world.”

To hear more about analysis of the recent reports on bird flu, hear the discussion between McCullough and Leake on this episode of the Courageous Discourse Hot Zone.