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Dr. Asha George: Executive Director, Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense
The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefensewas convened in 2015 in recognition of the severity of the biological threat and the lack of cohesive national preparedness for a large-scale event. The foundational report, A National Blueprint for Biodefense, the Commission noted that the Nation was dangerously vulnerable to biological threats — including an infectious disease pandemic or a terrorist attack with biological weapons. Addressing the totality of federal biodefense policies and programs, the report offered improvements for how the government could prevent, deter, prepare for, detect, respond to, attribute, recover from, and mitigate a biological event. However, little was done in response to warnings and recommendations from our Commission and others.
In March the Commission released “Biodefense in Crisis: IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED TO ADDRESS NATIONAL VULNERABILITIES” that further identifies areas that must be addressed to lessen the impacts of the next pandemic.
Speaker Asha George discusses our nation’s vulnerabilities to biological threats and present key findings that can help strengthen the nation’s efforts to deter biological events.