Pentagon Establishes Leadership Panel to Counter Emerging Biothreats
The Pentagon has taken significant measures to strengthen its defense against emerging biothreats by forming a leadership panel. This move is part of a comprehensive effort outlined in the Biodefense Posture Review, a groundbreaking report that identified gaps in the Defense Department’s preparedness. The 54-page document, seen by Bloomberg News, examines the department’s ability to respond to various dangers, including Russian bioweapons, lab accidents, drug-resistant bacteria, and the impact of artificial intelligence. It also proposes reforms to enhance readiness.
To address the identified deficiencies, the Defense Department is set to establish a Biodefense Council comprised of top officials. The council’s primary role will be to advise the Secretary of Defense and coordinate both domestic and international efforts aimed at forecasting and responding to emergencies. The review emphasizes that the range of potential biothreats continues to expand, citing factors such as climate change, globalization, and habitat destruction, which expose humans to new diseases. Furthermore, the proliferation of high-containment laboratories engaging in risky research has elevated the risk of accidental infections. Additionally, technological advancements have made it easier to produce deadly pathogens at scale.
It is concerning that the military’s efforts to gather intelligence and differentiate between various biothreats have been inadequate, as highlighted in the review. According to Jaime Yassif, Vice President of Global Biological Policy and Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and a former Pentagon adviser, the insufficient funding provided for pandemic preparedness and biosecurity has been disappointing, resulting in cyclical patterns of panic and neglect.
The decision to form the Biodefense Council came after Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin directed the Pentagon’s senior leadership to assess the landscape of biological threats following an administration initiative to enhance federal agencies’ readiness for health crises. While the ongoing pandemic played a role in initiating this comprehensive review, Richard Johnson, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, emphasizes that emerging technologies, including biology, data science, artificial intelligence, and manufacturing techniques, have made it easier and more cost-effective for foreign nations and terrorists to produce dangerous pathogens at scale. The review also suggests that adversarial nations like Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China pose significant biothreats, with some violating international treaties by operating covert bioweapons programs.
Russia, in particular, has been spreading disinformation alleging that the United States assisted the country in developing bioweapons since invading Ukraine in February 2022. The Pentagon warns that Russia may use such weapons on Ukrainian soil and falsely attribute their use to a lab engaged in disinformation campaigns. Johnson stresses the relevance of this situation, stating that the threats of today are unlike those of the past.
To effectively counter the growing complexity of biological threats, the review emphasizes the necessity for the military to enhance its intelligence capabilities and establish early warning systems. Currently, the Defense Department often receives information about health crises from public health partners, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rather than the intelligence community. Identifying the source of an outbreak is challenging, especially with the prevalence of disinformation and advancements in technology. Adversaries could potentially weaponize naturally occurring bacteria or viruses, release them into the population, and then spread disinformation to deceive the public. At present, the military struggles to distinguish such attacks from natural outbreaks or lab accidents.
To address these challenges, the Pentagon must ensure that its personnel are adequately trained to detect and analyze these threats. The review emphasizes the need to engage the right individuals with diverse expertise and explore unconventional intelligence tools, acknowledging that addressing emerging technologies like artificial intelligence requires collaboration among all relevant stakeholders.
The review extends its assessment of the biothreat landscape until 2035 and proposes an array of reforms. These include training troops to respond to incidents, stockpiling essential supplies like personal protective equipment, improving intelligence sharing and collaboration with U.S. allies, and developing a hub for biosurveillance data collection. Such data could be gathered from wearable devices, medical records, wastewater analysis, and genomic sequencing. Additionally, the review proposes expanding research into new vaccines and treatments for currently unknown threats.
Considering the seriousness of potential biothreats, the resources invested in preparedness need to match the level of risk, especially in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In anticipation of the release of the review, the Defense Department has requested an extra $812.5 million in its fiscal year 2024 budget to implement its recommendations. This request includes funding for an additional 115 civilian employees, making the biodefense programs the second-largest expenditure in the federal government after the Department of Health and Human Services.
Although the Pentagon acknowledges some overlap in its endeavors, it is confident that the Biodefense Council will contribute to streamlining efforts. A comprehensive and collaborative approach is crucial to bolstering the nation’s readiness against existing and emerging biothreats.
