Obama Administration Gets an "F" for Bioterrorism Defense

by Martin Matishak, Global Security Newswire: The United States has made little to no progress toward fully adopting an effective strategy to confront the threat of biological terrorism, a Congressional chartered panel of experts said today. The absence of a comprehensive U.S. capability to rapidly recognize, respond to and recover from a disease-based attack is the most "significant failure" identified in the final "report card" issued this morning by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.

The country lacks the technical and operational capabilities required for an "adequate" response to a bioterror attack, the 19-page document states. That national capacity should include the ability to provide information to authorities and the general public; adequate supplies of medical countermeasures and a program for rapid distribution of those medicines; systems for isolating and treating and the sick; and environmental cleanup systems for materials such as anthrax.

"The United States is seriously lacking in each of these vital capabilities," according to the report, which gives the federal government an F for acting on the commission's 2008 call to augment the nation's ability for rapid response to prevent biological attacks from inflicting mass casualties. "We believe that the strategy which has the greatest potential is a strategy of the ability to respond, to reduce the impact of such an attack, and the ability to deter that attack," former Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.), panel co-chairman, said at a press conference today. Commission co-Chairman and former Senator Jim Talent (R-Mo.) later added: "Anybody who studies this will tell you that we are basically nowhere on biopreparation." . . .

"Our fundamental threat assessment of 14 months ago stands today," Graham said. Graham said he hopes the F on bioterrorism preparedness, one of three given out of 17 total marks, "will be a stinging indictment and a message to our national leaders." "Our concern is that this is like Russian roulette; eventually that bullet's in the chamber," according to Talent (see related GSN story). The remaining F's were given under the government reform section for Washington's asserted failure to reshape congressional oversight of national security matters and to retain the next generation of security experts. . . .

As with the interim report, the task force was critical of the "lack of priority" given to the development of medical countermeasures through Project Bioshield,, a program intended to promote development of medicines against weapons of mass destruction. Roughly $609 million was shifted in this fiscal year from the program's Special Reserve Fund, according to the Consolidated Appropriations Act. . . . The commission gave the administration a D+ for tightening government oversight of high-containment laboratories -- those that handle the most dangerous disease agents. When it comes to governmental policies that are "consistent, enforceable, and promote important bioscience research ... regulatory fragmentation remains the norm," the report card states. "There are too many agencies at the federal, state and local levels that regulate pathogens, in sometimes conflicting ways." . . . [Full Article]

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