This week, the ATS sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to include $31 billion in the next COVID-19 response legislation to support the NIH in COVID-19-related research and research infrastructure. This funding should support grant supplements, laboratory operations, personnel and additional postdoctoral fellowships, as well as other research training positions,

On COVID-19, the ATS asked Congress to ensure funding for NIH to quickly create accelerated grant funding mechanisms for short and long-term research studies to study the disease’s epidemiology and virulence, as well was to develop new diagnostics, therapies, vaccines and training for health care workers and researchers.

The ATS letter points out that research into other respiratory and critical illness killers has been halted, causing uncertainty and the need for supplemental funding to support staff salaries and research facility operations through the fall of 2020. Finally, the ATS expressed deep concern that the education and training of the next generation of scientists, including postdoctoral fellows, has also been put on hold and additional support is now needed ensure that new and early-career investigators around the country complete their education and training and fully transition into the biomedical research workforce. The letter states, “Ensuring a sustainable, highly skilled scientific workforce that can respond to rapidly emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19 is essential to protecting U.S. public health.”