It’s possible there’s a more comprehensive writeup somewhere, but I can offer two data points regarding the removal of $30B in pandemic preparedness funding that was originally part of Biden’s Build Back Better initiative (which ultimately evolved into the Inflation Reduction Act):
I had an opportunity to speak earlier this summer with a former senior official in the Biden administration who was one of the main liaisons between the White House and Congress in 2021 when these negotiations were taking place. According to this person, they couldn’t fight effectively for the pandemic preparedness funding because it was not something that representatives’ constituents were demanding.
During his presentation at EA Global DC a few weeks ago, Gabe Bankman-Fried from Guarding Against Pandemics said that Democratic leaders in Congress had polled Senators and Representatives about their top three issues as Build Back Better was being negotiated in order to get a sense for what could be cut without incurring political backlash. Apparently few to no members named pandemic preparedness as one of their top three. (I’m paraphrasing from memory here, so may have gotten a detail or two wrong.)
The obvious takeaway here is that there wasn’t enough attention to motivating grassroots support for this funding, but to be clear I don’t think that is always the bottleneck—it just seems to have been in this particular case.
I also think it’s true that if the administration had wanted to, it probably could have put a bigger thumb on the scale to pressure Congressional leaders to keep the funding. Which suggests that the pro-preparedness lobby was well-connected enough within the administration to get the funding on the agenda, but not powerful enough to protect it from competing interests.
I think the Pandemic Prevention Network, formerly No More Pandemics, is active in this space. (Definitely in the UK, maybe some work in the US?) More info on them from:
On the other hand, as of October 23 2022, this page on their site states “Our operations are currently on hold,” so maybe they’re not active at the moment.
I don’t follow the US pandemic policy but wasn’t some $bn (albeit much less than $30bn) still approved for pandemic preparedness and isn’t more still being discussed (a very quick google points to $0.5b here and $2b here etc and I expect there is more)? If so that seems like a really significant win.
Also your reply was about government, not about EA or adjacent organisations. I am not sure anyone in this post / thread has given any evidence of any “a valiant effort” yet, such as listing campaigns run or even policy papers written etc. The only post-COVID policy work I know of (in the UK, see comment below) seemed very successful and I am not sure it makes sense to update against “making the government sane” without understanding what the unsuccessful campaigns have been. (Maybe also Guarding Against Pandemics, are they doing stuff that people feel ought to have had an impact by now, and has it?)
As opposed to speaking with Congressmen, is “prepare a scientific report and meet with the NIH director/his advisors” an at-all plausible mechanism for shutting down the specific research grant Soares linked?
Why not?
I apologize for an amateur question but: what all have we tried and why has it failed?
It’s possible there’s a more comprehensive writeup somewhere, but I can offer two data points regarding the removal of $30B in pandemic preparedness funding that was originally part of Biden’s Build Back Better initiative (which ultimately evolved into the Inflation Reduction Act):
I had an opportunity to speak earlier this summer with a former senior official in the Biden administration who was one of the main liaisons between the White House and Congress in 2021 when these negotiations were taking place. According to this person, they couldn’t fight effectively for the pandemic preparedness funding because it was not something that representatives’ constituents were demanding.
During his presentation at EA Global DC a few weeks ago, Gabe Bankman-Fried from Guarding Against Pandemics said that Democratic leaders in Congress had polled Senators and Representatives about their top three issues as Build Back Better was being negotiated in order to get a sense for what could be cut without incurring political backlash. Apparently few to no members named pandemic preparedness as one of their top three. (I’m paraphrasing from memory here, so may have gotten a detail or two wrong.)
The obvious takeaway here is that there wasn’t enough attention to motivating grassroots support for this funding, but to be clear I don’t think that is always the bottleneck—it just seems to have been in this particular case.
I also think it’s true that if the administration had wanted to, it probably could have put a bigger thumb on the scale to pressure Congressional leaders to keep the funding. Which suggests that the pro-preparedness lobby was well-connected enough within the administration to get the funding on the agenda, but not powerful enough to protect it from competing interests.
Surely grassroots support for pandemic preparedness wouldn’t be too hard to get, would it? Is anyone working on this? Should someone work on this?
I’m not aware of anyone working on it really seriously!
I think the Pandemic Prevention Network, formerly No More Pandemics, is active in this space. (Definitely in the UK, maybe some work in the US?) More info on them from:
Their website
This EA Forum post by founder Sanjay Joshi
Sanjay’s talk at EAGxOxford in March 2022
On the other hand, as of October 23 2022, this page on their site states “Our operations are currently on hold,” so maybe they’re not active at the moment.
I don’t follow the US pandemic policy but wasn’t some $bn (albeit much less than $30bn) still approved for pandemic preparedness and isn’t more still being discussed (a very quick google points to $0.5b here and $2b here etc and I expect there is more)? If so that seems like a really significant win.
Also your reply was about government, not about EA or adjacent organisations. I am not sure anyone in this post / thread has given any evidence of any “a valiant effort” yet, such as listing campaigns run or even policy papers written etc. The only post-COVID policy work I know of (in the UK, see comment below) seemed very successful and I am not sure it makes sense to update against “making the government sane” without understanding what the unsuccessful campaigns have been. (Maybe also Guarding Against Pandemics, are they doing stuff that people feel ought to have had an impact by now, and has it?)
As opposed to speaking with Congressmen, is “prepare a scientific report and meet with the NIH director/his advisors” an at-all plausible mechanism for shutting down the specific research grant Soares linked?
Or if not, becoming NIH peer reviewers?