WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, about the state of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. During their meeting, Durbin and Gates spoke about preparing for future public health crises by strengthening health systems in developing countries, enhancing integrated global disease monitoring, and addressing existing gaps in public health services. They also discussed challenges and opportunities in addressing climate change.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Durbin has been a champion of strong global health funding, and he has continued to advocate for significant funding, including for the global vaccine alliance, in Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations and supplemental funding proposals.
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“The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as future pandemics require improvements in critical public health infrastructures, monitoring of potential outbreaks, and global response cooperation. We are in this together, and I’m relieved to see the U.S. working with our global partners, like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to address these challenges,” said Durbin. “I admire Bill’s ongoing commitment to helping meet this goal and to building more resilient global health systems.”
