Murray, Menendez, COVID Survivor Groups Honor Almost 1 Million Lives Lost to COVID, Urge Congress to Pass PREVENT Pandemics Act

Senator Murray: “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 …. We’ve never been through something quite like this—and it’s clear to everyone we must never go through this again.”

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and COVID survivor groups to honor the nearly 1 million Americans who have died from COVID-19 and urge their colleagues to pass the emergency COVID funding package and Senator Murray’s bipartisan PREVENT Pandemics Act, which the HELP Committee passed in an overwhelming bipartisan vote in March.

“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. “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.”

“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. “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 PREVENT Pandemics Act strengthens the nation’s public health and medical preparedness and response systems and is the result of bipartisan efforts Senator Murray and Senator Burr kicked off nearly a year ago to examine what has worked, and what has not, during the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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