News HighlightCommission Awarded Silver Telly for Germ Warfare: A Very Graphic History
The Commission is proud to announce that we are a recipient of a Silver Telly Award for the audiovisual version of our graphic novel, Germ Warfare: A Very Graphic History. The audiovisual won in the Non-Broadcast, Craft-Voiceover category of the 41st Annual Telly Awards.
More28 May, 2020
Commission
August 6, 2020
To Prep Hospitals for Pandemics, Look to the Trauma System
Asha George is a public health security expert who spent four years a congressional staff member with the House Committee on Homeland Security before working as a government contractor for the Department of Homeland Security. As the current executive director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, she helped prepare a blueprint for how the nation should plan for and respond to an infectious disease outbreak, whether from a naturally occurring pathogen or a biological weapons attacks. She shared some of those recommendations with Mother Jones.
August 6, 2020
Episode 2: Science + The Law | Future Biological Threats
The Commission's Executive Director, Dr.Asha M. George, joined the RawScienceTV Podcast for their second episode. What does the future hold for dealing with bio threats? What can we do scientifically and legally? Topics include the opening of casinos versus churches, the speed and safety of vaccines, the role of simulations and preparedness, and the responsibility of scientists versus federal agencies and the courts.
July 21, 2020
Four Pandemic Preparedness Experts Call for 9/11-like Commission
Dr. Parker elaborated on the role of citizens and leaders at every level in this paradigm shift through grassroots movements and campaigning, stating that, "It's going to be up to us, you and I, as individual citizens to play more of a public advocacy role going forward so our politicians will have to make more political and resource commitments [to pandemic preparedness]. I'm hopeful that we will get beyond this boom-and-bust cycle that we've had over the last 15 years and have pandemic preparedness recognized as a national security issue."
July 20, 2020
Alexander Floor Remarks Preparing for the Next Pandemic Act
These are recommendations from public health experts and from bipartisan leaders who have convened experts to gather their advice. Some of those from whom we have heard on some of these issues include: former Governor
Tom Ridge, co-chair of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense; former Senator Joe Lieberman, co-chair of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense; Dr. Julie Gerberding, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and, Andy Slavitt, former Acting Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
July 20, 2020
Assessing the US government response to the coronavirus
The decision to charge Vice President Mike Pence with leading the pandemic response seemed to have been a good one. It was also in keeping with the recommendations from the National Blueprint for Biodefense, which is a bipartisan commission that released its first report in October 2015 (Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense 2015). The report recommended the vice president should be in charge of biodefense at the federal level, in recognition of the cross-cutting nature of this area and the need to be able to allocate funds across numerous departments and agencies within the government. However, since the beginning of May, this task force and the vice president have played a much less visible role despite the growing national toll.
