Senator Burr supports Califf renomination to FDA, citing medical advances against pandemic

North Carolina Senator Richard Burr says in floor remarks supporting the renomination of Robert Califf to be FDA Commissioner that the agency would continue to play a leading role in response to a once in a century pandemic, its unprecedented work having helped innovators bring forward countermeasures, test treatments, and vaccines to stand and fight against the virus and instill hope in the Americans in some of the darkest moments of the pandemic, had made significant progress to advance medical product development as mask mandates were lifted and children were back in school but needing a leader who would not lose sight of the progress made, silver lining of COVID showing the value of American innovation and ingenuity as Califf understood with expertise in translational science transforming an idea from a research bench to a real solution for patients, COVID having catalyzed the FDA and private sector to compress the transformation timeline without without sacrificing America's renowned gold standard for safe and effective medical products.