Millions in the U.S. and millions more worldwide have contracted COVID-19. This disaster has been magnified by policy failures and irresponsible decisions and statements by Donald Trump, who has sidelined respected health experts, abandoned the WHO, and made something as basic as mask-wearing a symbol of partisanship and division.

President Trump has failed us.

America needs a bold, robust Pandemic Prevention Plan to stop the current crisis—and be ready for what comes next.

There are deadly similarities between this pandemic and HIV, SARS, Ebola, Zika, and other pandemics. Pandemics are accelerating, as a result of corporate globalization, climate change, and systemic racism. Yet, we are not doomed to repeat history. With the right policies in place, we can bring the nation and the world to a safer and healthier ‘new normal’ that heals America, restores U.S. leadership, rejoins our allies, and protects the world from life-threatening global diseases.

A new pandemic plan is essential to stop this outbreak now, support a just recovery, and take the international action necessary to prevent future pandemics from happening. We cannot stop a pandemic anywhere until we stop it everywhere.

We demand that Congress and the next President of the United States enact immediate COVID-19 relief and create the lasting structural changes needed to prevent future pandemic emergencies A robust pandemic prevention plan must include:

1. Public Health Jobs Corps: Launch a New Deal-level permanent program to create 300,000 new union jobs to meet needs for contact tracing, testing, vaccinations, and support for those who must be in isolation, and eventually moving on to address other health disparities that disproportionately impact communities of color;

2. Affordable Medicines: A guarantee of urgently needed affordable medicines and vaccines for everyone, everywhere, instead of high-priced medicines, invented with our tax money, and hidden behind patent monopoly barriers; and

3. Global Health: Wealthy countries must provide funds for health systems and community support in low and middle-income countries to detect and stop pandemics when they start—before they spread.

4. Action Against Environmental Causes of Pandemic Diseases: Combat global drivers of deforestation and wildlife habitat destruction to prevent diseases leaping from animals to humans. This includes prohibiting the sale of products in the US from irresponsible corporations linked to deforestation, outlawing wildlife trade and partnering with Indigenous People and local communities to protect their land.

Together, we will fight for affordable medicines, increased support for a permanent public health corps for contact tracing and testing, an end to climate-change related zoonotic outbreaks, and renewed funding for global health systems, as we build towards a world where the right to health is realized.