WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday addressed the World Affairs Council of Connecticut (CTWAC) for a virtual discussion on federal coronavirus response legislation, the ongoing worldwide health crisis, and U.S. foreign policy priorities during COVID-19. The conversation was moderated by CTWAC CEO Megan Torrey. During the conversation, Murphy said America’s first priority has to be controlling the spread of the coronavirus and saving the economy from catastrophe. Murphy also talked about what the U.S. needs to do to prepare for the next global pandemic.

Murphy authored a piece in Foreign Policy about why the United States was virtually impotent to stop COVID-19 from reaching our shores and what we must do to better prepare for the next pandemic.

“Obviously, our first priority has to be controlling its spread in the United States, and saving the economy from catastrophe. We don't know whether we will sort of see the next pandemic hit our shores in two months, six months, twelve months or three years. What we certainly know is that we weren't ready for coronavirus. And we've got to be having a conversation about how to rebuild our global public health platform, so that we learn from these mistakes. And I'm hopeful to try to lead that conversation,” said Murphy in his opening remarks.

Murphy continued: “And so, I understand that our priority and my priority is keeping Americans safe right now. But if we don't also have this conversation about rebuilding our global public health infrastructure, then we're going to be right back in the same place much sooner than any of us would like. So hopefully, as part of this conversation today, we can talk about both the immediate response, but also the rebuilding of America's international health infrastructure that I think is a very necessary conversation to have right now.”

Excerpts of Murphy’s conversation with Megan Torrey are below:

On the domestic shortage of personal protective equipment Murphy said: “Every single day [healthcare providers] don't know whether they're going to have the components necessary to do the tests. And it is a race to just keep the supply chain coming. So we have a shortage of equipment, but we also have a misdistribution of resources.

“We also, as you referenced, have international supply chains that we are very dependent on. And so Senator Rubio and I have introduced legislation that would start immediately the process of making some decisions about what capacities we need to have domestically and what, maybe we can handle the risk of being international.”

On U.S. foreign relations effecting the international medical supply chain Murphy said: “European suppliers that are compromised in part right now because of the spread of coronavirus there but, also European suppliers that are not particularly excited to help the United States amidst a foreign policy in which the president is regularly attacking the European Union and our European partners. And so, foreign policy matters right now, because when the president is announcing travel bans without telling any of our European partners ahead of time, it certainly kills Europe's interest in splitting the reagent supply between their domestic uses and the U.S. demand.”

On the need to ease sanction on foreign countries trying to combat COVID-19 Murphy said: “I led a group of senators in sending a letter to Secretary Pompeo and the administration asking them to adjust their sanctions. This was specific to Iran and Venezuela to allow in additional relief supplies and medical supplies.

“I think we have a moral obligation, first and foremost, to not effectuate U.S. policy that leads to the death of innocent people abroad, but, we also have to understand that our ability to nuance Iranian politics in the direction of a future regime that is going to end support for terrorist groups is dependent on a sizable chunk of the Iranian people still having good feelings about the United States.”

On how COVID-19 is impacting national security in other areas Murphy said: “I think we all certainly need to be worried about the fact that, as other nations see us rightfully self-obsessed with public health crisis, they will perceive us to be distracted from some of our other measures to keep our country safe. And with a history making election about to occur, it certainly is predicted that China or North Korea or Iran or another non-state actor would maybe ramp up their efforts to try to probe at our voter files, or to try to turn up their propaganda efforts on social media, thinking that we will be distracted from our election security efforts. We can't allow that to happen. And that's why it's good news that states all across the country just got fusion of funding for election security yesterday.”

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