The Hill: We must invest in new labs for the CDC to prepare for future health threats
Judith Monroe, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation

“…[W]e cannot afford to let CDC’s lab response capabilities lapse. To provide CDC the capabilities it needs to protect us, the agency has put forward plans for a new high containment continuity laboratory where the agency will be able to conduct life-saving research on a wide variety of pathogens from smallpox to Marburg virus to SARS to emerging strains of influenza. … I believe congressional budget action is critical for work on the labs to begin — the sooner the safer. We never know when the next health threat will occur, but we know that one will. As a nation, let’s make this crucial investment in high containment continuity labs to ensure that CDC as our nation’s health protection agency has the tools it needs to protect us all” (3/15).