Biosecurity

U.S. ‘a Lot More Fragile Than We Realize’ on Biothreats, Experts Warn

The nation is critically underprepared to confront transnational biological threats ranging from DIY bioterror agents to natural pathogens that outpace current pharmaceuticals and overwhelm medical facilities, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense heard at a Wednesday event at the Hudson Institute.

James Lawler, a retired Navy commander whose experience includes serving as director for medical preparedness policy on the National Security Council and director for biodefense policy on the White House’s Homeland Security Council, warned that the country is “woefully unprepared for these biological threats” in an increasingly interdependent world.

“Events halfway around the world have rapid effects,” he said, and the nation suffers from a “lack of threat awareness and poor situational awareness as it comes to biological threats.”

Problems include “excruciatingly slow and moribund” programs that rely too much on “backwards engineering” of the last big threat along with insufficient staffing and not enough human intelligence on biological programs, as well as a “lack of situational awareness in day-to-day health activities.”

Lawler stressed that there are “still significant problems connecting the clinical world with the public health world,” while the ability “to be able to understand those events in real time is critical to being able to defend ourselves in rapidly evolving events.”