Commissioners Donna Shalala and Jim Greenwood give testimony to the House Committee on Energy & Commerce

This hearing took place on February 12, 2016. See here for more information. 

Testimony to House Committee on Armed Services

The subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities of the House Committee on Armed Services held a hearing entitled, “Outside Views on Biodefense for the Department of Defense” and Commissioner Honorable Kenneth Wainstein and Commission Ex Officio member Dr. Gerald Parker served as witnesses. Their testimony can be read on the Committee’s website.

This hearing took place on February 3, 2016. See here for more information. 

This meeting of the Commission took place on April 1, 2015, and covers response and recovery needs for biodefense. See here for more information on this event.

Objective: Provide panelists with an understanding of the biodefense requirements for effective preparedness, response and recovery from biological and chemical threats that can inflict potentially catastrophic consequences.

Agenda:

Congressional Perspective

• Former Representative Mike J. Rogers, Distinguished Fellow, Hudson Institute

Panel One: Pre-event Activities and Emergency Response

• Ms. Myra Socher, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University  Chief G. Keith Bryant, Fire Chief, Oklahoma City Fire Department; President and Chairman of the Board of the International Association of Fire Chiefs

Panel Two: Public Health Response

• Dr. Suzet McKinney, Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Public Health

Lunch Keynote

• Dr. Irwin Redlener, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University; Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness

Panel Three: Pharmaceutical Response 

• Dr. Ann DeGroot, CEO, EpiVax

Panel Four: Recovery and Mitigation

• Dr. Kavita Berger, Scientist, Gryphon Scientific

Panel Five: Leadership

• Dr. Kenneth Bernard, former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for Biodefense; former Senior Advisor to President William J. Clinton for Security and Health; Rear Admiral (Retired - US Public Health Service)

This meeting of the Commission took place on March 12, 2015. See here for more information on this event.

Panel One: The Biosurveillance and Detection Landscape Discussion of key elements of effective biosurveillance and detection, and continued challenges in the effectiveness of ongoing efforts.

• Dr. Julie Gerberding, Executive Vice President for Strategic Communications, Global Public Policy and Population Health, Merck; former Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Panel Two: Environmental Surveillance and Detection Discussion of the technological and policy challenges to early and reliable detection of environmentally dispersed biological and chemical agents.

• Dr. Jeffrey Runge, President, Biologue, Inc.; former Chief Medical Officer and Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs, Department of Homeland Security

Lunch Keynote: The Human-­Animal Interface

• Dr. William B. Karesh, Executive Vice President for Health and Policy, EcoHealth Alliance

Panel Three: Clinical Surveillance and Detection Discussion of key elements of an effective clinical surveillance and detection architecture, and impediments to and opportunities in increasing situational awareness for early and accurate disease detection and clinical diagnosis.

• Dr. Dan Didier, Director of Public Health, Thermo Fischer Scientific • Mr. Dan Desmond, President, The SIMI Group

Panel Four: Law Enforcement, Attribution, and the Lone Wolf Discussion of law enforcement activities, attribution of deliberate acts, and the problem of the lone wolf.

• Dr. Randall Murch, Professor in Practice, School of Public and International Affairs and Research Leader, Office of the Vice President, National Capital Region, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)

Panel Five: Read-­outs from Study Panel Satellite Meetings Representatives from satellite meetings held in support of the Study Panel will present their findings and recommendations, providing a preview into response and recovery issues to be addressed at Meeting 4.

• Dr. Elizabeth Posillico, Co-­‐Chair, Alliance for Biosecurity

This meeting of the Commission took place on January 14, 2015. See here for more information on this event.

Panel One: Biological Arms Control, Cooperative Threat Reduction, Global Health Security Agenda, and Quarantine

• Dr. David R. Franz (via internet video)

Working Lunch: First Responder Protection

•  Dr. William Raub

Panel Two: Biosecurity, the Select Agent Program, and Synthetic Biology

• Dr. Timothy Lu

Panel Three: Resilience, Biodeterrence, First Responder Vaccination, and Agricultural Defense

• Dr. Jeff Levi

Panel Four: Insights on Ebola and Pandemic Influenza Response

• Dr. Robin Robinson

Max Brooks partnered with the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense to produce GERM WARFARE: A Very Graphic History which traces the long, brutal story of biological weapons. 

Download the graphic novel here: https://biodefensecommission.org/germ-warfare/