Publications

The ultimate objective of the U.S. Civilian Biodefense Strategy should be to eliminate the possibility of massively lethal bioterrorist attacks. A central pillar of this strategy must be an ambitious and aggressive scientific research, development, and production (R&D&P) program that delivers the diagnostic technologies, medicines, and vaccines needed to counter the range of bioweapons agents that might be used against the nation. A successful biodefense strategy must take account of the rapidly expanding spectrum of bioweapons agents and means of delivery made possible by 21^st century advances in bioscientific knowledge and biotechnology. Meeting this challenge will require the engagement of America’s extraordinary scientific talent and investments of financial and political capital on a scale far beyond that now committed or contemplated. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief analysis of the current biomedical R&D&P environment and to offer recommendations for the establishment of a national biodefense strategy that could significantly diminish the suffering and loss that would accompany bioterrorist attacks. In the longer term, a robust biodefense R&D&P effort, if coupled to substantial improvements in medical and public health systems, could conceivably render biological weapons ineffective as agents of mass lethality.