Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Bob Menendez
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee that sets national health policy, and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and author of the PREVENT Pandemics Act, today honored the nearly 1 million Americans who have died from COVID-19. They also urged their colleagues to pass the emergency COVID funding package and called for a Senate vote on their bipartisan PREVENT Pandemics Act (S. 3799) to improve the nation’s pandemic preparedness. Joining the Senators were a network of COVID survivor groups, representing more than 350,000 COVID activists, as part of their National Week of COVID Remembrance and Action.
The PREVENT Pandemics Act, which Sen. Murray passed out of the HELP committee by a wide bipartisan margin on March 15, addresses factors that hindered the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The law would strengthen federal and state preparedness, improve public health response capacity, accelerate research, and combat shortages of lifesaving medical supplies. This legislation includes a provision modeled after Sen. Menendez’s National Coronavirus Commission Act that would create an independent COVID Task Force.
“With this week of remembrance and action, we honor the memory of all the lives lost to COVID-19 in our nation and seek to turn our pain into purpose, our grief into growth,” said Sen. Menendez who has long championed the creation of a non-partisan, independent Coronavirus Commission. “We must honor the victims, learn from our nation’s response, and find ways to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again. That’s why Congress should swiftly pass the PREVENT Pandemics Act that includes provisions modeled after my bipartisan National Coronavirus Commission Act to investigate what went wrong, how we can better prepare for the next pandemic, and give the millions of American families, including those here today in Washington, answers and some sense of closure.”
“The pain the COVID-19 pandemic has caused has been unthinkable. Millions of people across the country have lost loved family members and cherished friends, and are grappling with a painful hole in their families or an empty chair at the dinner table,” said Chair Murray, author of the PREVENT Pandemics Act. “We’ve never been through something quite like this—and it’s clear to everyone we must never go through this again. That’s why I’m pushing hard for more COVID funding to make sure we continue to protect the progress we have made, why I drafted the bipartisan PREVENT Pandemics Act to learn from the lessons of this pandemic and strengthen our public health and preparedness system, and why I’m working so hard to get it signed into law as soon as possible.”
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While drawing attention to the tragic milestone of 1 million U.S. COVID deaths, the Senators continued to push for critical emergency COVID funding. It is important to note that more Americans have died from COVID-19 than in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and 9/11 combined. At the same time, long-COVID symptoms affect as many as 23 million Americans with at least 1 million experiencing debilitating health consequences.
“My daughter Elsie recently celebrated her 4th birthday – her second without her dad. My heart breaks for my little girl, but survivors like me are doing all we can to make sure those we lost to COVID did not die in vain,” said Pamela Addison of New Jersey, who founded Young Widows and Widowers of Covid-19. “I’m here for my husband Martin, for Elsie and my son Graeme, and for millions of families like mine to finally have some answers.”
“We desperately need a national moment to pause, to honor those who died, and those who continue to suffer, and to reflect on our collective loss. The U.S. has suffered more COVID deaths than any other nation. Our shared grief is enormous; the scale of our loss is unimaginable. Yet because the pandemic has been politicized, those who have suffered the most feel as if they have been left behind – today that changes,” explains Sabila Khan, of New Jersey, co-founder of COVID-19 Loss Support for Family and Friends and a member of COVID Survivors for Change.
“The National Week Of Covid Remembrance And Action raises a resounding call to action to address the enormous needs that remain, to care for those still suffering, and to take the necessary steps for our country to move forward together to heal and prevent another national tragedy,” said Chris Kocher, executive director of COVID Survivors for Change, a nationwide community of survivors fighting for a stronger pandemic response.
More than 30 organizations are participating in this National Week of COVID Remembrance and Action, including: COVID Survivors for Change, COVID-19 Loss Support for Family & Friends, Young Widows and Widowers of COVID-19, Yellow Heart Memorial, Faces of COVID, Faces of COVID Victims, Make Good Together, Survivor Corps, The World Health Network, Be a Hero, Center for Popular Democracy-COVID Families, Coalition on Human Needs, Covid Wellness Clinic, COVID-19 Long-Haulers Discussion Group, Faith & Grief, Families USA, Health Care Voices, I Lost My Loves One(s) to COVID, In America: Remember, Justice in Aging, MaskTogetherAmerica, National Welfare Rights Union (NWRU), Paid Leave for All, Pandemic Action Network, Pandemic of Love, Parents Who Have Lost a Child to Covid-19, Protect Our Care, Public Health Solutions, R2H Action [Right to Health], STAR Program at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Staten Island Not For Profit Association / SI COAD, Unity Bands Inc., WAVE Educational Fund, and The WhoWeLost Project.
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