Under the Biden administration, the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response (OPPR), led by Paul Friedrichs, played a crucial role in orchestrating interagency collaboration during health crises. Friedrichs emphasized the importance of daily and later weekly meetings among key health agencies, which ensured a unified understanding of facts behind pandemic decisions. Senator Patty Murray expressed concerns over Trump's attempts to sideline OPPR, emphasizing its statutory importance for coordinating pandemic responses amid growing health threats like H5N1 and measles, and advocating for its continued independence from the National Security Council (NSC).
At the end of the day, bringing everybody together and having those meetings was incredibly important, so that we had a shared set of facts.
Under the last administration, OPPR served, as intended, as the central hub coordinating a whole-of-government response to pandemic threats.
It is deeply concerning that he has moved the statutorily created OPPR into the NSC.
OPPR is a separate, distinct office for a reason, which is especially relevant now as we are seeing outbreaks of measles, bird flu, and other serious threats.
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