The Common Good hosted Congresswoman Donna Shalala (D-FL) for an important conference call conversation on the coronavirus crisis. The longest serving former Secretary of Health and Human Services urged a more vigorous approach to fighting the outbreak. Shalala also offered up specifics on how we must prepare better for future epidemics.
“This epidemic has shown us what a real leader looks like. From Andrew Cuomo to Jay Inslee, we’ve seen governors and mayors around the US who have been way ahead of the federal government and have really been on top of this issue...I support people that are standing around the President, I know many of them - certainly the heads of all of the major scientific agencies. I think the vice-president is trying to do the right thing. I’ve talked to him myself. But the president, I just have never seen anything like it and I’d say the same thing if he was a Democrat.”
Check out the audio recording here:
ABOUT CONGRESSWOMAN DONNA SHALALA
Congresswoman Donna E. Shalala is the longest-serving Secretary of Health and Human Services in U.S. history, having served for eight years under President Bill Clinton. In 2018, she returned to Washington as the Representative for Florida’s 27th District, which includes the city of Miami and surrounding municipalities in Miami-Dade County. In 2007, President George W. Bush hand-picked her to co-chair with Senator Bob Dole the Commission on Care for Returning Wounded Warriors, tasked with evaluating how wounded service members transition from active duty to civilian life. In 2008, President Bush selected her as the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. Congresswoman Shalala has been named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News & World Report (2005), received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights (2010), was inducted into the National Woman’s Hall of Fame (2011), and has more than five dozen honorary degrees.
