For Immediate Release
April 28, 2004
Biodefense for the 21st Century
"Bioterrorism is a real threat to our country. It's a threat to every nation that loves freedom.
Terrorist groups seek biological weapons; we know some rogue states already have them....It's important
that we confront these real threats to our country and prepare for future emergencies."
President George W. Bush
June 12, 2002
"Armed with a single vial of a biological agent.small groups of fanatics, or failing states, could
gain
the power to threaten great nations, threaten the world peace. America, and the entire civilized world,
will face this threat for decades to come. We must confront the danger with open eyes, and unbending
purpose."
President Bush
February 11, 2004
Biological weapons in the possession of hostile states or terrorists pose unique and grave threats to
the safety and security of the United States and our allies.
Biological weapons attacks could cause catastrophic harm. They could inflict widespread injury and result
in massive casualties and economic disruption. Bioterror attacks could mimic naturally-occurring disease,
potentially delaying recognition of an attack and creating uncertainty about whether one has even occurred.
An attacker may thus believe that he could escape identification and capture or retaliation.
Biological weapons attacks could be mounted either inside or outside the United States and, because some
biological weapons agents are contagious, the effects of an initial attack could spread widely. Disease
outbreaks, whether natural or deliberate, respect no geographic or political borders.
Preventing and controlling future biological weapons threats will be even more challenging. Advances in
biotechnology and life sciences -- including the spread of expertise to create modified or novel organisms
-- present the prospect of new toxins, live agents, and bioregulators that would require new detection
methods, preventive measures, and treatments. These trends increase the risk for surprise. Anticipating
such threats through intelligence efforts is made more difficult by the dual-use nature of biological
technologies and infrastructure, and the likelihood that adversaries will use denial and deception to
conceal their illicit activities.
The stakes could not be higher for our Nation. Attacks with biological weapons could:
- Cause catastrophic numbers of acute casualties, long-term disease and disability,
psychological
trauma, and mass panic;
- Disrupt critical sectors of our economy and the day-to-day lives of Americans; and
- Create cascading international effects by disrupting and damaging international trade
relationships, potentially globalizing the impacts of an attack on United States soil.
Fortunately, the United States possesses formidable capabilities to mount credible biodefenses. We have
mobilized our unrivaled biomedical research infrastructure and expanded our international research
relationships. In addition, we have an established medical and public health infrastructure that is being
revitalized and expanded. These capabilities provide a critical foundation on which to build improved and
comprehensive biodefenses.
The United States has pursued aggressively a broad range of programs and capabilities to confront the
biological weapons threat. These actions, taken together, represent an extraordinary level of effort by
any measure. Among our significant accomplishments, we have:
- Expanded international efforts to keep dangerous biological materials out of the hands of
terrorists;
- Launched the Proliferation Security Initiative to stem the trafficking in weapons of mass
destruction (WMD), including biological weapons;
- Established the BioWatch program, a network of environmental sensors to detect biological
weapons
attacks against major cities in the United States;
- Initiated new programs to secure and defend our agriculture and food systems against biological
contamination;
- Increased funding for bioterrorism research within the Department of Health and Human Services
by
thirty-fold;
-
Expanded the Strategic National Stockpile of medicines for treating victims of bioterror attacks,
ensuring that the stockpile.s .push packages. can be anywhere in the United States within 12 hours;
-
Stockpiled enough smallpox vaccine for every American, and vaccinated over 450,000 members of the
armed services;
-
Launched and funded Project BioShield to speed the development and acquisition of new medical
countermeasures against biological weapons;
-
Provided Federal funds to improve the capacities of state and local health systems to detect,
diagnose, prevent, and respond to biological weapons attacks; and
-
Worked with the international community to strengthen global, regional and national programs to
prevent, detect, and respond to biological weapons attacks.
Building on these accomplishments, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of our biological defense
capabilities to identify future priorities and actions to support them. The results of that study provide
a blueprint for our future biodefense program, Biodefense for the 21st Century, that fully integrates the
sustained efforts of the national and homeland security, medical, public health, intelligence, diplomatic,
and law enforcement communities.
Specific direction to departments and agencies to carry out this biodefense program is contained in a
classified version of this directive.
BIODEFENSE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
The United States will continue to use all means necessary to prevent, protect against, and mitigate
biological weapons attacks perpetrated against our homeland and our global interests. Defending against
biological weapons attacks requires us to further sharpen our policy, coordination, and planning to
integrate the biodefense capabilities that reside at the Federal, state, local, and private sector levels.
We must further strengthen the strong international dimension to our efforts, which seeks close
international cooperation and coordination with friends and allies to maximize our capabilities for mutual
defense against biological weapons threats.
While the public health philosophy of the 20th Century .- emphasizing prevention .- is ideal for addressing
natural disease outbreaks, it is not sufficient to confront 21st Century threats where adversaries may use
biological weapons agents as part of a long-term campaign of aggression and terror. Health care providers
and public health officers are among our first lines of defense. Therefore, we are building on the
progress of the past three years to further improve the preparedness of our public health and medical
systems to address current and future BW threats and to respond with greater speed and flexibility to
multiple or repetitive attacks.
Private, local, and state capabilities are being augmented by and coordinated with Federal assets, to
provide layered defenses against biological weapons attacks. These improvements will complement and
enhance our defense against emerging or reemerging natural infectious diseases.
The traditional approach toward protecting agriculture, food, and water .- focusing on the natural or
unintentional introduction of a disease -- also is being greatly strengthened by focused efforts to address
current and anticipated future biological weapons threats that may be deliberate, multiple, and repetitive.
Finally, we are continuing to adapt United States military forces to meet the biological weapons challenge.
We have long recognized that adversaries may seek biological weapons to overcome our conventional strength
and to deter us from responding to aggression. A demonstrated military capability to defend against
biological weapons and other WMD strengthens our forward military presence in regions vital to United
States security, promotes deterrence, and provides reassurance to critical friends and allies. The
Department of Defense will continue to ensure that United States military forces can operate effectively in
the face of biological weapons attacks, and that our troops and our critical domestic and overseas
installations are effectively protected against such threats.
PILLARS OF OUR BIODEFENSE PROGRAM
The essential pillars of our national biodefense program are: Threat Awareness, Prevention and Protection,
Surveillance and Detection, and Response and Recovery.
Successful implementation of our program requires optimizing critical cross-cutting functions such as:
information management and communications; research development and acquisition; creation and maintenance
of needed biodefense infrastructure, including the human capital to support it; public preparedness; and
strengthened bilateral, multilateral, and international cooperation.
National biodefense preparedness and response requires the involvement of a wide range of Federal
departments and agencies. The Secretary of Homeland Security is the principal Federal official for
domestic incident management and is responsible for coordinating domestic Federal operations to prepare
for, respond to, and recover from biological weapons attacks. The Secretary of Homeland Security
coordinates, as appropriate, with the heads of other Federal departments and agencies, to effectively
accomplish this mission.
The Secretary of State is the principal Federal officer responsible for international terrorist incidents
that take place outside the U.S. territory, including United States support for foreign consequence
management and coordinates, as appropriate, with heads of other Federal departments and agencies, to
effectively accomplish this mission. When requested by the Secretary of State, and approved by the
Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense will support United States foreign consequence management
operations, as appropriate.
The following sections describe our aims and objectives for further progress under each of the pillars of
our national biodefense program, as well as highlight key roles played by Federal departments and agencies.
Threat Awareness
Biological Warfare Related Intelligence
Timely, accurate, and relevant intelligence enables all aspects of our national biodefense program.
Despite the inherent challenges of identifying and characterizing biological weapons programs and
anticipating biological attacks, we are improving the Intelligence Community.s ability to collect, analyze,
and disseminate intelligence. We are increasing the resources dedicated to these missions and adopting
more aggressive approaches for accomplishing them. Among our many initiatives, we are continuing to
develop more forward-looking analyses, to include Red Teaming efforts, to understand new scientific trends
that may be exploited by our adversaries to develop biological weapons and to help position intelligence
collectors ahead of the problem.
Assessments
Another critical element of our biodefense policy is the development of periodic assessments of the
evolving biological weapons threat. First, the United States requires a continuous, formal process for
conducting routine capabilities assessments to guide prioritization of our on-going investments in
biodefense-related research, development, planning, and preparedness. These assessments will be tailored
to meet the requirements in each of these areas. Second, the United States requires a periodic
senior-level policy net assessment that evaluates progress in implementing this policy, identifies
continuing gaps or vulnerabilities in our biodefense posture, and makes recommendations for re-balancing
and refining investments among the pillars of our overall biodefense policy. The Department of Homeland
Security, in coordination with other appropriate Federal departments and agencies, will be responsible for
conducting these assessments.
Anticipation of Future Threats
The proliferation of biological materials, technologies, and expertise increases the potential for
adversaries to design a pathogen to evade our existing medical and non-medical countermeasures. To address
this challenge, we are taking advantage of these same technologies to ensure that we can anticipate and
prepare for the emergence of this threat. We are building the flexibility and speed to characterize such
agents, assess existing defenses, and rapidly develop safe and effective countermeasures. In addition, we
must guard against the spread of potentially infectious agents from beyond our borders. We are
strengthening the ability of our medical, public health, agricultural, defense, law enforcement,
diplomatic, environmental, and transportation infrastructures to recognize and confront such threats and to
contain their impact. The Department of Health and Human Services, in coordination with other appropriate
Federal departments and agencies, is working to ensure an integrated and focused national effort to
anticipate and respond to emerging biological weapons threats.
Prevention and Protection
Proactive Prevention
Preventing biological weapons attacks is by far the most cost-effective approach to biodefense. Prevention
requires the continuation and expansion of current multilateral initiatives to limit the access of agents,
technology, and know-how to countries, groups, or individuals seeking to develop, produce, and use these
agents.
To address this challenge, we are further enhancing diplomacy, arms control, law enforcement, multilateral
export controls, and threat reduction assistance that impede adversaries seeking biological weapons
capabilities. Federal departments and agencies with existing authorities will continue to expand threat
reduction assistance programs aimed at preventing the proliferation of biological weapons expertise. We
will continue to build international coalitions to support these efforts, encouraging increased political
and financial support for nonproliferation and threat reduction programs. We will also continue to expand
efforts to control access and use of pathogens to strengthen security and prevention.
The National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction, released in December 2002, places special
emphasis on the need for proactive steps to confront WMD threats. Consistent with this approach, we have
improved and will further improve our ability to detect and destroy an adversary.s biological weapons
assets before they can be used. We are also further expanding existing capabilities to interdict enabling
technologies and materials, including through the Proliferation Security Initiative. Additionally, we are
working to improve supporting intelligence capabilities to provide timely and accurate information to
support proactive prevention.
Responsibilities for proactive prevention are wide-ranging, with the Department of State, Department of
Defense, Department of Justice, and the Intelligence Community playing critical roles in our overall
government-wide effort.
Critical Infrastructure Protection
Protecting our critical infrastructure from the effects of biological weapons attacks is a priority. A
biological weapons attack might deny us access to essential facilities and response capabilities.
Therefore, we are working to improve the survivability and ensure the continuity and restoration of
operations of critical infrastructure sectors following biological weapons attacks. Assessing the
vulnerability of this infrastructure, particularly the medical, public health, food, water, energy,
agricultural, and transportation sectors, is the focus of current efforts. The Department of Homeland
Security, in coordination with other appropriate Federal departments and agencies, leads these efforts,
which include developing and deploying biodetection technologies and decontamination methodologies.
Surveillance and Detection
Attack Warning
Early warning, detection, or recognition of biological weapons attacks to permit a timely response to
mitigate their consequences is an essential component of biodefense. Through the President.s recently
proposed biosurveillance initiative, the United States is working to develop an integrated and
comprehensive attack warning system to rapidly recognize and characterize the dispersal of biological
agents in human and animal populations, food, water, agriculture, and the environment. Creating a national
bioawareness system will permit the recognition of a biological attack at the earliest possible moment and
permit initiation of a robust response to prevent unnecessary loss of life, economic losses, and social
disruption. Such a system will be built upon and reinforce existing Federal, state, local, and
international surveillance systems. The Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with other
appropriate Federal departments and agencies, integrates these efforts.
Attribution
Deterrence is the historical cornerstone of our defense, and attribution -- the identification of the
perpetrator as well as method of attack .- forms the foundation upon which deterrence rests. Biological
weapons, however, lend themselves to covert or clandestine attacks that could permit the perpetrator to
remain anonymous. We are enhancing our deterrence posture by improving attribution capabilities. We are
improving our capability to perform technical forensic analysis and to assimilate all-source information to
enable attribution assessments. We have created and designated the National Bioforensic Analysis Center of
the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasure Center, under the Department of Homeland Security, as
the lead Federal facility to conduct and facilitate the technical forensic analysis and interpretation of
materials recovered following a biological attack in support of the appropriate lead Federal agency.
Response and Recovery
Once a biological weapons attack is detected, the speed and coordination of the Federal, state, local,
private sector, and international response will be critical in mitigating the lethal, medical,
psychological, and economic consequences of such attacks. Responses to biological weapons attacks depend
on pre-attack planning and preparedness, capabilities to treat casualties, risk communications, physical
control measures, medical countermeasures, and decontamination capabilities.
Response Planning
A biological response annex is being drafted as part of our National Response Plan (NRP). We are
catalyzing the development of state and local plans that are consistent with the NRP and ensure a seamless
coordinated effort. Capabilities required for response and mitigation against biological attacks will be
based on interagency-agreed scenarios that are derived from plausible threat assessments. These plans will
be regularly tested as part of Federal, state, local, and international exercises. The Department of
Homeland Security, in coordination with other appropriate Federal departments and agencies, is developing
comprehensive plans that provide for seamless, coordinated Federal, state, local, and international
responses to a biological attack.
Mass Casualty Care
Following a biological weapons attack, all necessary means must be rapidly brought to bear to prevent loss
of life, illness, psychological trauma, and to contain the spread of potentially contagious diseases.
Provision of timely preventive treatments such as antibiotics or vaccines saves lives, protects scarce
medical capabilities, preserves social order, and is cost effective.
The Administration is working closely with state and local public health officials to strengthen plans to
swiftly distribute needed medical countermeasures. Moreover, we are working to expand and, where needed,
create new Federal, state, and local medical and public health capabilities for all-hazard mass casualty
care.
The Department of Health and Human Services, in coordination with other appropriate Federal departments and
agencies, is the principal Federal agency responsible for coordinating all Federal-level assets activated
to support and augment the state and local medical and public health response to mass casualty events. For
those mass casualty incidents that require parallel deployment of Federal assets in other functional areas
such as transportation or law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security will coordinate the overall
Federal response in accordance with its statutory authorities for domestic incident management. Under
certain circumstances, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, given their
specialized expertise and experience, may be called upon to play important supporting roles in mass
casualty care.
Risk Communication
A critical adjunct capability to mass casualty care is effective risk communication. Timely communications
with the general public and the medical and public health communities can significantly influence the
success of response efforts, including health- and life-sustaining interventions. Efforts will be made to
develop communication strategies, plans, products, and channels to reach all segments of our society,
including those with physical or language limitations. These efforts will ensure timely domestic and
international dissemination of information that educates and reassures the general public and relevant
professional sectors before, during, and after an attack or other public health emergency.
The Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with other appropriate Federal departments and
agencies, is developing comprehensive coordinated risk communication strategies to facilitate emergency
preparedness for biological weapons attacks. This includes travel and citizen advisories, international
coordination and communication, and response and recovery communications in the event of a large-scale
biological attack.
Medical Countermeasure Development
Development and deployment of safe, effective medical countermeasures against biological weapons agents of
concern remains an urgent priority. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), under the direction of the
Department of Health and Human Services, is working with the Department of Homeland Security, the
Department of Defense, and other agencies to shape and execute an aggressive research program to develop
better medical countermeasures. NIH.s work increasingly will reflect the potential for novel or
genetically engineered biological weapons agents and possible scenarios that require providing
broad-spectrum coverage against a range of possible biological threats to prevent illness even after
exposure. Additionally, we have begun construction of new labs. We are striving to assure the nation has
the infrastructure required to test and evaluate existing, proposed, or promising countermeasures, assess
their safety and effectiveness, expedite their development, and ensure rapid licensure.
The Department of Health and Human Services, in coordination with other appropriate Federal departments and
agencies, will continue to ensure the development and availability of sufficient quantities of safe and
efficacious medical countermeasures to mitigate illness and death in the event of a biological weapons
attack.
Decontamination
Recovering from a biological weapons attack may require significant decontamination and remediation
activities. We are working to improve Federal capabilities to support states and localities in their
efforts to rapidly assess, decontaminate, and return to pre-attack activities, and are developing standards
and protocols for the most effective approaches for these activities.
The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in coordination with the Attorney General and the
Secretaries of Defense, Agriculture, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security, is developing
specific standards, protocols, and capabilities to address the risks of contamination following a
biological weapons attack and developing strategies, guidelines, and plans for decontamination of persons,
equipment, and facilities.
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