AVMA Government Relations Externship: Marie Cozzarelli

By Marie Cozzarelli, Mississippi State University

When I first heard about the AVMA’s Governmental Relations Division externship in Washington, DC I knew it was going to be the perfect experience for me to advocate for and provide transparency for the veterinary profession. My name is Marie Cozzarelli and I am a 4^th year veterinary student from Mississippi State University and a Master’s in Veterinary Public Health student at the University of Tennessee. While I am originally from Asheville, North Carolina, I grew up traveling between Asheville and San Jose, Costa Rica in Central America due to my parents’ professions. Growing up partially in the US and partially in Costa Rica opened my eyes to how intrinsically linked the health of our environment and animals is to human health. Furthermore, as our planet becomes more globalized, our local public health issues morph into global health issues.

This was the 1^st week in DC with the AVMA GRD and already so much is happening! My passion for One Health brought me to the COVID-19 origin hearing that took place this week on Capitol Hill. In this hearing, subcommittee members asked four physicians and virologists for their scientific opinions on the origins of COVID-19. The subcommittee’s primary concerns were that the virus was spread from a research lab or from animal disease spillover in a food market in Wuhan, China. It hit me as I was sitting rows behind accomplished MDs explaining what a zoonotic disease was how important it is that veterinarians be included in these conversations. COVID-19 has taken over 1 million American lives and overwhelmed our global health care systems; highlighting that we need to focus on how to prevent the next pandemic by understanding how this one came to be. Preventing the next pandemic will require transparency from public health professionals in addition to collaboration between all health sectors. This needs to include veterinarians as 3 out of every 4 new emerging disease comes from animals.

For veterinarians to be included in public health conversations at the highest level, advocacy for the importance of the One Health initiative must happen first. This week, we also got to aid in the planning of the AVMA’s Legislative Fly-in coming up in about a month. Back in September, I had the opportunity to participate in a Fly-in and speak with my representatives about the importance of including veterinarians in public health legislation. It was a very meaningful and fulfilling experience to talk about the issues that impact our profession and the animals we treat, but I didn’t realize how much planning and coordination must take place prior to these events until now.

My plans for the weekend include museum-hopping at the National Mall and grocery shopping at the DuPont Farmer’s Market. In the weeks to come I hope to keep exploring DC and veterinary medicine on Capitol Hill! Both of which I will report in my blog post next week.