Recommending and promoting changes to U.S. policy and law to strengthen national biodefense while optimizing resource investments.

Twenty years ago this week, letters laced with deadly anthrax spores arrived at the United States Capitol and other locations across the country. Yet according to a new report released today by the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense called Saving Sisyphus: Advanced Biodetection for the 21st Century, our federal government still does not have a national biodetection system that works. The report details critical failures with the Department of Homeland Security’s biodetection program and provides a roadmap to Congress for investing in next generation solutions.

As the Biden Administration and Congress continue to negotiate details of a federal infrastructure package, the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense released a new report today entitled, Insidious Scourge: Critical Infrastructure at Biological Risk. The report urges the Administration, Congress, and the private sector to reduce biological risk by protecting infrastructure, sharing and securing information, maintaining public works and services, and ensuring public health and safety..

Despite warnings from public health professionals and the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, the country was caught unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. A new analysis from the Commission finds that the United States remains at catastrophic biological risk. Called Biodefense in Crisis: Immediate Action Needed to Address National Vulnerabilities, the report closely examines the extent of progress that has been made since the Commission released its seminal National Blueprint for Biodefense in 2015. Biodefense in Crisis provides a fresh assessment of governmental efforts to implement the Commission’s recommendations to prevent, deter, prepare for, detect, respond to, attribute, recover from, and mitigate biological threats. It also includes eleven updated recommendations based in-part on real-time learning during the pandemic.

On September 3rd, 2021, The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense commended the Biden Administration for developing a new American Pandemic Preparedness Plan to invest boldly in a national effort that transforms U.S. capabilities to respond quickly and effectively to future biological threats. As detailed in The Apollo Program for Biodefense, doing so could effectively end the era of pandemic threats by 2030. The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark wake-up call for the United States to take biological threats seriously. The risks of future pandemics increase as technological progress eases barriers to modifying pathogens, raising the specter of novel biological agents causing diseases much worse than humanity has ever faced.

In this special focus report, Diagnostics for Biodefense – Flying Blind with No Plan to Land, the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense provides an approach that would ensure the United States can rapidly develop innovative point-of-care and point-of-need diagnostic tests for COVID-19 and other novel, emerging, and reemerging infectious diseases when they occur. The United States failed to develop and distribute a reliable diagnostic test when COVID-19 first struck. While the country stumbled for weeks, others such as Germany, South Korea and Taiwan developed diagnostic tests and established testing infrastructure that allowed them to control the spread of the virus and reduce death rates..

Report of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, formerly the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.

In Holding the Line on Biodefense, the Commission shines a light on the capabilities and policy needs of the non-federal governments, responders, and healthcare workers responsible for safeguarding U.S. public health.

Report of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, formerly the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.

Defense of Animal Agriculture provides specific recommendations for protecting one of the largest sectors of U.S. economy.

Report of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, formerly the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.

The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense was established in 2014 to assess gaps and provide recommendations to improve U.S. biodefense. The Commission is supported by a suite of distinguished ex officio members and staff with deep expertise in science, policy, intelligence, and defense.

Report of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, formerly the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.