Bioterrorism
Paula J. Olsiewski, Program Director

Early Grants

In the fall of 2000, the Board of Trustees authorized a $3.5 million three-year grant to underwrite the Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies at Johns Hopkins University, now the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org). The Center for Biosecurity has conducted many independent, practical analyses of U.S. biodefense strategy and of major biodefense initiatives of the federal government, including several series of papers addressing, among other topics, federal spending on biodefense, pandemic influenze preparedness, and U.S. healthcare system preparedness. Center staff have briefed policymakers on biosecurity and bioterrorism issues and provided expert testimony to the U.S. Congress. The Center published a series of JAMA papers that provide expert guidance for medical and public health management of disease caused by bioweapons, culminating in the 2002 book, Bioterrorism: Guidelines for Medical and Public Health Management. The Foundation has supported the Center's ongoing effort to provide guidance to clinicians through the Clinicians' Biosecurity Network, which has approximately 2,500 subscribers in 50 states and 45 countries. The Center edits the only peer-reviewed journal in the field, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science. Foundation support has allowed the Center to complete several initiatives focused on citizen engagement in preparedness efforts, including the 2006 conference, Disease, Disaster, and Democracy: The public's stake in health emergency planning; the 2003 conference, The Public as an Asset Not a Problem; and the 2004 follow-on handbook for mayors, governors, and other top health officials: How to Lead During Bioattacks with the Public's Trust and Health, 20,000 copies of which wee distributed at no cost to recipients. In 2005, the Center for Biosecurity collaborated with the WHO Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response Office to convene the International Conference on Biosafety and Biorisks, which was attended by scientists, health leaders, and practitioners from all over the world to discuss the biosafety and biosecurity challenges presented by SARS, influenza, and other major epidemic threats, and the importance of international cooperation during future epidemics.

Recognizing the crucial role that the business community can and should play in preparedness efforts, the Center hosted several events designed to engage and educate the business community, including the 2005 conference, Bulls, Bears and Birds: Preparing the Financial Industry for a Pandemic, and the 2006 conference, Risky Business: Planning for Pandemic Flu. Finally, the Center has organized and hosted several prominent bioterrorism exercises. The Dark Winter exercise, which was held in June 2001, portrayed a fictional scenario depicting a covert smallpox attack on the U.S. In January 2005, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Center for Advanced International Sutides and the Transatlantic Biosecurity Network, the Center organzied and hosted Atlantic Storm, a ministerial table-top exercise that used a fictitious scenario designed to mimic a summit of transatlantic leaders forced to respond to a bioterrorist attack. The Center also produced an abbreviated version of the exercise to brief the u.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, the NIH, the U.S. State Department, the Office of the Vice President, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and the German Chancellor's Homeland Security Advisor. Following this exercise, the Center produced Atlantic Storm Interactive, a multimedia presentation designed to extend the reach of the exercise by conveying some of the most compelling components and lessons of the exercise. This presentation appears on the web and has been distributed to more than 1,000 interested viewers on CD was well.

Other important early grants: In the spring of 2001, the Board approved a grant to the Center for Law and the Public's Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities to support a three-year plan to prepare for the legal aspects of bioterrorist events. After the anthrax attacks in October 2001, and at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Center drafted the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA) and posted it on the Center's website on October 31, 2001. As of July 15, 2006, thirty-eight states and DC have enacted bills or resolutions that include provisions from or closely related to the Act. The extent to which the Act's provisions are incorporated into each state's laws varies. 

In December 2001, the Foundation awarded a grant to DePaul University College of Law.  The DePaul group convened a workshop of representatives from the scientific, diplomatic, law enforcement, and various other communities to explore international law enforcement to prevent bioterrorism.