Highlighted recommendations from the 2024 Blueprint include:
Strong national biodefense requires sustained leadership from the White House. The Commission recommends reinforcing White House leadership by codifying the role of the National Security Advisor as the leader of national biodefense. 15 federal departments, 9 independent agencies, and 1 independent institution currently have biodefense responsibilities, and one federal department cannot tell other departments and agencies what to do. Only the White House can, and they need to exercise that authority.
A comprehensive National Biodefense Strategy is critical to success. The Commission calls for a quadrennial biodefense review that would culminate in an updated National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan submitted to Congress by the White House. Biological threats change. Biotechnology changes. Our biodefense must change, accordingly.
Reducing the spread of disease indoors saves lives. The Commission calls for a research and development plan with the goal of reducing pathogen transmission in buildings. Diseases like COVID-19 linger in the air. Closing windows and shutters will not defend our buildings against biological threats. Cleaning the air from the inside out will.
Investments today ensure we are prepared tomorrow. U.S. investment in medical countermeasure development is dangerously insufficient and requires emergency funding from Congress each time America faces a biological event affecting national security. This panic-and-neglect cycle results in needless loss of life. The government must fund the medical countermeasures enterprise at no less than authorized levels and address needs identified by the National Strategy for Biodefense.
Using biological detection systems that actually work will protect cities. Twenty years after its implementation, the potential of BioWatch (equipment placed in major cities across the Nation to detect deadly airborne pathogens) remains unrealized. Congress need not wait another two decades to require the replacement of ineffectual BioWatch technology. We can transfer and build on biodetection technologies already in development today.
“Alone, each of our recommendations facilitates some degree of positive change,” Senator Lieberman said prior to today’s release of the National Blueprint. “However, together, they provide a blueprint for biodefense capable of addressing 21st Century biological threats and meeting public expectations of the government to deal with them.”
