WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on Tuesday applauded the inclusion of four pieces of his legislation in the Prepare for and Respond to Existing Viruses, Emerging New Threats, and Pandemics Act (PREVENT Pandemics Act), the broader bipartisan pandemic response package introduced by Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Ranking Member Richard Burr (R-N.C.), which passed out of committee today.

“There are a lot of lessons learned from the past two years living with COVID-19, and now it’s on us to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes twice. I’m glad to see HELP Committee leadership include the bills I introduced to tackle health misinformation, crack down on counterfeit medical devices, and improve health equity in their bipartisan pandemic preparedness package that advanced out of committee today. I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure it sees a vote on the Senate floor,” said Murphy.

The PREVENT Pandemics Act includes Murphy and U.S. Senator Mike Braun’s (R-Ind.) Protecting Patients from Counterfeit Medical Devices Act, which would get counterfeit medical devices out of the domestic supply chain by extending the FDA’s existing authorities for cracking down on counterfeit drugs to counterfeit medical devices.

The package also includes provisions from Murphy and U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján’s (D-N.M.) Promoting Public Health Information Act would support efforts across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and with outside stakeholders to communicate effectively during a public health emergency and address health misinformation. To improve the health and well-being of Americans and address the  social determinants of health (SDOH), the HELP legislation also includes parts of both Murphy and U.S. Senator Tina Smith’s (D-Minn.) Improving Social Determinants of Health Act of 2021 that would study and fund efforts to address how social, environmental, and economic conditions exacerbate health inequities, and Murphy and U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan’s (R-Alaska) Leveraging Integrated Networks in Communities (LINC) to Address Social Needs Act that would offer grants to states to establish statewide or regional partnerships to better coordinate the work of health care and social service providers.

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