The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services would be required to implement a pandemic preparedness and response program using artificial intelligence (AI) under a bipartisan bill proposed by U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD).
“Given the millions of deaths and trillions of dollars in economic costs resulting from COVID-19, we need to make strategic investments in pandemic prevention and preparedness,” Sen. Rounds said. “I believe AI should play a key role in those efforts.”
The MedShield Act of 2024, S. 5222, which Sen. Rounds sponsored on Sept. 25 alongside lead cosponsor U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), would leverage AI for national pandemic preparedness and response through a program called MedShield, according to a bill summary provided by the lawmakers.
MedShield would be the United States’ “shield” to proactively protect the nation against future pandemics and avoid the preparedness issues that plagued the nation at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the summary says.
Toward that goal, the program aims to foster collaboration between the public and private sectors, as well as with global allies and partners.
The legislation would call for using AI to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S. pandemic prevention and response across five key areas: pathogen detection and surveillance; vaccine development; therapeutic development; modeling for pathogen tracking and vaccine distribution; and rapid manufacturing of vaccines and therapeutics, the summary says.
“The MedShield program would utilize AI to help the U.S. identify pathogens that pose pandemic threats and work quickly to develop necessary protections,” said Sen. Rounds. “I’m pleased to be introducing this legislation with Sen. Heinrich, my co-chair of the Senate AI Caucus, to leverage AI to save lives.”
The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, the Dakota State University, the University of South Dakota, the South Dakota School of Mines, and the South Dakota State University support the measure, which has been referred for consideration to the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
“AI holds amazing potential to supercharge major scientific and medical advances, including our ability to anticipate and address the next public health crisis,” said Sen. Heinrich. “By leveraging AI, our Medshield Act gives us a significant advantage in preparing for the emergence of new biological threats to prevent the next pandemic.”