At a brisk press conference outside the Jacobs School last Friday, (from left) Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; Allison Brashear, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; and Rep. Brian Higgins discussed the COVID-19 and Pandemic Response Centers of Excellence Act, which Gillibrand introduced in the Senate and Higgins co-sponsored in the House. The act would establish a network, focused on academic medical centers, to improve and expedite the nation’s fight against COVID-19 and future pandemics. Brashear noted that academic medical centers like UB’s are “ideally suited to address the long-term effects of COVID.” Photo: Sandra Kicman