BIODEFENSE - The Threat, The Cost & The Priority PREVIEW

On 22 April 2013, DomesticPreparedness.com hosted an Executive Briefing at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. DomPrep40 Advisor Stephen Reeves along with a panel of subject matter experts discussed key issues relating to “Biodefense – The Threat, The Cost & The Priority.” This briefing was a follow-on to the DomPrep Executive Briefing entitled “Advancing Technology in Biological Surveillance and Detection,” which was held on 27 September 2012 at Harvard University’s Faculty Club.

DomPrep conducted a bioterror risk survey to determine the risk perceived by DomPrep readers and the general U.S. population at large. Of those who were polled, DomPrep received 577 responses from its readers and 572 responses from the general public. Most of the readers (73.9 percent) are currently employed as preparers, responders, or receivers, or work for military and government agencies at the local, state, or federal levels, whereas only 17.8 percent of the responses from the general population fall into those categories. Despite the differences in employment, the responses from both groups for the most part are in line, but the readers do recognize a greater likelihood of a biological attack on U.S. soil in the next five years than reflected in the opinions gathered from the general population.

Key points addressed:

• The real and urgent threat;
• Health costs of a biological attack;
• The importance of environmental surveillance;
• Biodefense of “non-natural” diseases;
• Public health response to an event; and
• Decisions and national priorities.

Discussions and presentations were made on the key findings followed by comments from the audience. To listen to a preview of the briefing, click the video below. The full audio is available here:

Download the full report, entitled BIODEFENSE – The Threat, the Cost & the Priority.

Biographies

Stephen Reeves DomPrep40 Advisor and Former Joint Program Executive Officer for Chemical and Biological Defense, Department of Defense (DoD)

Major General Stephen Reeves, USA (Ret.), is a highly accomplished senior executive and an internationally recognized expert on chemical and biological defense as well as defense acquisition. He has testified as an expert witness on multiple occasions before the U.S. Congress and has been interviewed numerous times by the national and international print and television press. He also is a frequent speaker at both national and international defense and homeland security conferences. Experienced in leading and managing large, diverse, global, multi-billion dollar organizations, he established, and for seven years led, the first DoD Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense.

Nathaniel Hupert Associate Professor of Public Health, Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, 
Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Attending Physician, Weill Cornell Medical College

Nathaniel Hupert, M.D., is a primary care internal medicine specialist and a researcher in public health emergency response and medical decision making. He is an associate professor of public health and medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. He trained at Harvard Medical School, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the Harvard School of Public Health. He serves on the Anthrax Modeling Working Group of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and was a member of the 2007 RAND Expert Panel on Defining Public Health Preparedness. He has participated in national webcasts on bioterrorism preparedness for the CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile program and for the DHHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He holds a B.A. from Harvard College, an M.P.H. from Harvard School of Public Health, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Peter Emanuel BioScience Division Chief, U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center (ECBC)

Peter Emanuel, Ph.D., is currently the bioscience division chief at the U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center (ECBC). Prior to assuming this role, he served three years in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations as the assistant director for chemical and biological countermeasures within the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. Before that, he served as: the branch chief of biodefense at ECBC; as the program manager for the Critical Reagents Program within the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense; and a scientific advisor at ECBC. With over 50 papers and presentations, his research interests have consistently focused on finding practical solutions to real-world problems facing the responder and military communities. He holds a B.S. in microbiology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the Pennsylvania State University.

Keith H. Wells Senior Consultant and New England Office Head, Biologics Consulting Group Inc.

Keith H. Wells, Ph.D., is the head of the Massachusetts office of Biologics Consulting Group (BCG) and has more than 23 years of experience in biological process science and product development. Prior to joining BCG, he was senior director of vaccine manufacturing and process development for Acambis. Previously, he served as the director of vaccine production and product development for The Salk Institute Government Services Division and held positions of increasing responsibility in several areas of vaccine process development and manufacturing at Merck. He is a former member of the editorial board for Biotechnology Letters and has served on dozens of National Institutes of Health special emphasis panels and contracts awards committees. He holds a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the State University of New York Health Science Center at Syracuse, and has served on numerous special emphasis and source selection panels for the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease.

Maureen Sullivan Supervisor, Emergency Preparedness and Response Laboratory Unit, Minnesota Department of Health Public Health Laboratory (MN-PHL)

Maureen Sullivan is the supervisor of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Laboratory Unit at the Minnesota Department of Health Public Health Laboratory (MN-PHL), where she has held a variety of positions over the past 20 years. In addition, she is the laboratory bioterrorism coordinator for the CDC Public Health Preparedness Grant and coordinates activities within the BioWatch Program. Nationally, she is the past chair and current member of the Association of Public Health Laboratory (APHL) Public Health Preparedness and Response Committee. She has worked on a variety of subcommittees dealing with emergency preparedness, including the development of performance measures, defining surge capacity, developing a guidance document handling unknown environmental samples, and defining sentinel laboratory partnerships and outreach.  In addition, she has worked with the Department of Homeland Security and other PHL’s to develop a Quality Assurance Program Plan for the BioWatch Program.

Steven P. Bucci Director, The Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, The Heritage Foundation

Steven P. Bucci, Ph.D., is director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He also is an adjunct professor of leadership at George Mason University and an associate professor of terrorism studies and cyber security policy at Long Island University. He serves on the advisory board of the MIT Geospatial Data Center and is an advisor to the Prince of Wales/Prince Edward Fellowship program at MIT and Harvard. He previously served as a lead consultant to IBM on cyber security policy and as a special forces commander in the U.S. Army, where he assumed the duties of military assistant to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. After retiring from the Army in 2005, he served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and defense support to civil authorities at the Pentagon, and was the primary civilian overseer of U.S. Northern Command. He holds a B.S. in national security from West Point and masters and doctorate degrees in international relations from the University of South Carolina. He also is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, the Hellenic Army War College in Greece, and the Senior Seminar of the Department of State.

Matthew Kozey Principal Research Analyst in the Security, Energy, and Environment (SEE) Department,
 NORC at the University of Chicago

Matthew Kozey, J.D., is a principal research analyst in the Security, Energy, and Environment (SEE) Department of NORC at the University of Chicago. While at NORC, he has managed various research projects for government clients, including weekly fuel-price surveys for the Energy Information Administration. Immediately prior to joining NORC, he analyzed and drafted legislation regarding export controls, the international oil and gas markets, and Iran sanctions as a legal fellow for the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade. He served as a summer associate in the energy practice of Duane Morris, LLP, and as an energy industry analyst in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Markets and Regulation. He is admitted to the bar of the state of Maryland, and received a B.A. degree in political science and a J.D. degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.