Bioterrorism & Biodefense: Are We Ready?
November 1, 2001
Recent anthrax attacks have highlighted the issue of bioterrorism and the capacity of our public health systems to respond. How prepared are we to face other potential bio-threats, particularly those involving more contagious agents? Several nations and groups have engaged in biowarfare research, but creating effective biological weapons is not an easy task. Nonetheless, sophisticated bioweapons are thought to exist in various places around the world and the U.S. must be prepared to defend itself against these threats.
The briefing will focus on three aspects of bioterrorism and biodefense: a realistic appraisal of the potential threat, the status of our public health system as the first line of defense, and new efforts to improve our capacity to respond, particularly vaccine development and other prevention technologies.Senator Jay Rockefeller and Senator Bill
Frist invite you to join them for a discussion of bioterrorism and biodefense.
Written Transcript of the session |
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Featured Speakers: |
Laurie Garrett, Science Writer for Newsday—author of The Coming Plague and Betrayal of Trust, she has documented numerous outbreaks of infectious disease along with the decline of the global public health infrastructure.
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Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota—he served for 15 years as Minnesota’s Chief Epidemiologist investigating disease outbreaks. He is an outspoken advocate for national emergency preparedness for biological attacks.
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Margaret Hamburg, Vice President for Biological Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative—former Assistant Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services and, before that, Commissioner of Health for New York City, she is an expert on bioterrorism and biodefense.
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Phillip Russell, former Director of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland—a virologist and vaccine expert, he advises the Gates Foundation on its vaccine development efforts.
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Led by U.S. Senators Jay Rockefeller and Bill Frist, the Forum advocates no particular position or policy prescription. Our sole purpose is to inform. Our briefings are nonpartisan, balanced, and open to the public and the media.
