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Project Bioshield: Actions Needed to Avoid Repeating Past Mistakes
The anthrax attacks in Sept. & Oct. 2001 highlighted the need to develop medical countermeasures. The Project BioShield Act of 2004 authorized the Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) to procure countermeasures for a Strategic Nat. Stockpile. However, in Dec. 2006, HHS terminated the contract for a recombinant protective antigen (rPA) anthrax vaccine because VaxGen failed to meet a critical contractual milestone. Also, supplies of the licensed BioThrax anthrax vaccine already in the stockpile will start expiring in 2008. This report identifies: (1) factors contributing to the failure of the rPA vaccine contract; & (2) issues associated with using the BioThrax in the stockpile. Includes recommendations. Charts & tables.
Witnesses: Jay Cohen, Under Sec. for Science and Technology, Dept. of Homeland Security; Gerald Parker, Principal Deputy Assistant Sec., Office of the Assistant Sec. for Preparedness and Response, Dept. of Health and Human Services; Keith Rhodes, Dir., Center for Technology and Engineering, Applied Research and Methods, GAO; Tara O¿Toole, Dir., Center for Biosecurity, Univ. of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Appendix: Slides submitted for the Record from Mr. Cohen; Questions and responses for the record from the witnesses; Report to Congressional Requesters, ¿Project Bioshield -- Actions Needed to Avoid Repeating Past Problems with Procuring New Anthrax Vaccine and Managing the Stockpile of Licensed Vaccine,¿ Oct. 2007. Illustrations.
Key recent events ¿ the 2001 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, and the H1N1 influenza (¿flu¿) pandemic, among others ¿ sharpened congressional interest in the nation¿s ability to respond to health threats. For the response to health emergencies, most authority resides with state and local governments, and most capacity resides in the private sector. The federal government plays a key role, however, providing numerous forms of assistance for planning and preparedness, as well as for response and recovery. This report summarizes key issues in domestic public health and medical preparedness and response, and discusses selected federal programs. It discusses issues regarding government leadership, organization, and capacity; health system preparedness and response; the development, procurement, and use of countermeasures; and the defense against specific threats, including foodborne outbreaks and bioterrorism, among others. Figures. This is a print on demand report.
The federal government¿s efforts to address the perceived threat of bioterrorism span many different agencies and are organized and directed through several strategy and planning documents. These agencies have implemented numerous disparate actions and programs in their statutory areas to address the threat. Despite these efforts, many experts, including congressional commissions, non-governmental org., and industry rep., have highlighted weaknesses or flaws in the federal government¿s biodefense activities. Contents of this report: (1) Introduction; (2) Strategic Planning; (3) Risk Assessment; (4) Biosurveillance; (5) Medical Countermeasures: R&D; Procurement; (6) Conclusion.
This book investigates the way that the molecular sciences are shaping contemporary security practices in relation to the governance of biological threats. In response to biological threats, such as pandemics and bioterrorism, governments around the world have developed a range of new security technologies, called medical countermeasures, to protect their populations. This book argues that the molecular sciences’ influence has been so great that security practices have been molecularised. Focusing on the actions of international organisations and governments in the past two decades, this book identifies two contrasting conceptions of the nature or inherent workings of molecular life as driving this turn. On the one hand, political notions of insecurity have been shaped by the contingent or random nature of molecular life. On the other, the identification of molecular life’s constant biological dynamics supports and makes possible the development and stockpiling of effective medical countermeasures. This study is one of the few to take seriously the conceptual implications that the detailed empirical workings of biotechnology have on security practices today. This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, bio-politics, life sciences, global governance, and International Relations in general.
This collection of essays is a current and comprehensive review of what scientists and scholars know about WMD terrorism and America's options for confronting it. Complete with mathematical methods for analyzing terrorist threats and allocating defense resources, this multidisciplinary perspective addresses all forms and defenses of WMD, and the role of domestic U.S. politics in shaping defense investments and policies. Also identified are multiple instances in which the conventional wisdom is incomplete or misleading.
The mission of Department of Homeland Security Bioterrorism Risk Assessment: A Call for Change, the book published in December 2008, is to independently and scientifically review the methodology that led to the 2006 Department of Homeland Security report, Bioterrorism Risk Assessment (BTRA) and provide a foundation for future updates. This book identifies a number of fundamental concerns with the BTRA of 2006, ranging from mathematical and statistical mistakes that have corrupted results, to unnecessarily complicated probability models and models with fidelity far exceeding existing data, to more basic questions about how terrorist behavior should be modeled. Rather than merely criticizing what was done in the BTRA of 2006, this new NRC book consults outside experts and collects a number of proposed alternatives that could improve DHS's ability to assess potential terrorist behavior as a key element of risk-informed decision making, and it explains these alternatives in the specific context of the BTRA and the bioterrorism threat.