Letter to Anthony S. Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases - Senator Markey Queries Biden Administration on Ongoing Efforts to Develop Universal Coronavirus Vaccine

Letter

Dear Dr. Fauci,

I write to inquire about ongoing efforts at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID) to develop a universal vaccine, treatment, or preventive for existing and novel
coronaviruses. When I initially wrote you on February 3, 2020 about this issue, COVID-19 had
killed more than 360 people and infected more than 17,000 individuals across the globe. To
date, COVID-19 has killed more than five million people worldwide, more than 740,000 in the
United States, and millions more are fighting this deadly disease every single day. The
magnitude of this global threat remains clear, and I encourage NIAID to continue taking all
necessary steps to ensure our response to this global pandemic is as comprehensive as possible.

A universal coronavirus vaccine could benefit both our response to this pandemic and the next
one. Thanks to the ingenuity of scientists across the globe, supported in part by NIAID funding,
the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for three COVID-19
vaccines within a year of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; to date, more than 191 million
people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the United States. However, nearly 300,000
Americans died of COVID before these vaccines were initially authorized, and another 200,000 died before these vaccines became widely available in March 2021. Had a universal coronavirus
vaccine existed at the onset of the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of American lives could
have been saved. And we remain at risk of variants that have the potential to defeat the immunity
provided by existing vaccines; a vaccine that targets coronaviruses as a class would likely be less
susceptible to these variants. Further, COVID-19 is the third novel coronavirus outbreak in
roughly 18 years; developing a universal coronavirus vaccine would help to prepare for the next
potential pandemic.

To that end, I am pleased that NIAID recently announced awards to academic institutions
totaling $36.3 million for the purpose of conducting research that will help in the development of
vaccines to protect against multiple types of coronaviruses.
These investments will play an
indispensable role in our continued national response to this deadly pandemic.

As Congress works to support NIAID in its efforts to prevent future pandemic, I respectfully
request that you respond to the following questions in writing by December 14, 2021:

1. Please outline the scientific and resource challenges to achieving a universal coronavirus
vaccine and ways in which Congress can work with NIAID to help in these efforts?
2. Based on NIAID's current funding levels for research on universal coronavirus vaccines,
when do you anticipate we will have a universal vaccine or treatment?
3. Would additional funding accelerate this timeline?

Thank you for your attention to this request. We look forward to continuing to work with you to
mitigate the health and economic toll of infectious diseases on American communities and
families.

Sincerely

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