The Next Chapter in Bio-Readiness

I am pleased to report that we opened a first-of-its kind biosurveillance center today that gives the nation the ability to see fast-moving, potential health threats in a new way – before it’s too late.

Patterns in illnesses usually are only seen after enough people get sick or die to sound alarms. Investigators then retrace the steps of the victims to determine the source of trouble, but it’s often too late for those who have already been unknowingly exposed.

Whether it’s food contaminated with Salmonella, the first waves of illness from a pandemic flu, or an anthrax attack by terrorists, spotting biological threats sooner means that thousands of lives might be saved.

Traditional methods of detecting such threats often take too long. Our National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) will change that.

The center will combine all sorts of information – from classified material shared in a secure environment, to transportation and border data, to local media reports – so that events around the country and the world can be connected and analyzed more closely and quickly, and threats bubbling up can be detected earlier than ever before.

This 24-hour operation brings together experts from some agencies that may be obvious. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, for instance, both monitor health patterns. And the Departments of Agriculture, State and Commerce all play critical roles in preventing the global spread of avian flu or Foot-and-Mouth disease while protecting the nation’s economy.

But there is more to the center than a collection of agency representatives.

Through the center’s secure computer network, DHS has now created a whole new level of daily cooperation among private sector partners, health officials and government agencies who now all work together to hunt for early signs of trouble.

The center is developing a clearer picture of what typical health patterns look like so that even a small blip can be investigated before large clusters of people get sick.

Being able to identify emerging threats earlier was one of the key recommendations from the 9/11 Commission. As the Japanese learned in 1995 when the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect released sarin nerve gas on subway lines killing 12 and injuring 5,500, biological attacks are a modern global reality.

Our new surveillance builds on another one of our programs, BioWatch, an environmental early detection program which uses monitors in over 30 urban areas to sniff the air for biological threats.

Dr. Jon R. Krohmer
Acting Assistant Secretary/Chief Medical Officer

Clear Benefit

As reported in today’s Washington Post, two recent Congressional reports claim that our Department lacks a comprehensive strategy to protect the American people from the threat of nuclear and radiological weapons and materials, and that our efforts to guard against biological threats are poorly coordinated and have “unclear benefit.”

While we welcome Congressional oversight and thoughtful, balanced recommendations and even criticism, these reports and comments widely miss the mark. They are based on outdated and incomplete information.

Far from lacking a strategic plan or clear goals, the Department, in cooperation with federal, state, local, and international partners, has developed and is implementing a comprehensive Global Nuclear Detection Architecture to prevent the entry of radiological and nuclear weapons or materials into the United States. This architecture is intelligence-driven, and built around a multi-layered strategy that starts overseas, continues at our borders, and is maintained within the U.S. interior.

It begins with securing the international supply chain and working with our partners overseas to prevent illicit nuclear or radiological material from being smuggled into the country. Through programs such as the Secure Freight Initiative, our officers are working with their foreign counterparts overseas to scan U.S.-bound containers for radiation as they move through international ports.

At home, we are scanning cargo at the ports of entry and closing gaps along the land, air, and sea borders. We now scan almost all incoming containerized cargo for radiation at our major seaports. We also scan 100 percent of truck cargo entering the United States from Mexico and more than 90 percent of the truck cargo entering the United States from Canada. Just a few years ago, we didn’t scan any of this cargo for radiation.

But our efforts do not end here. To counter the threat of terrorists attempting to smuggle material aboard small planes, last year we launched an initiative to begin scanning trans-oceanic general aviation aircraft arriving in the United States for radiological and nuclear material. We also recently completed a Small Vessel Security Strategy to address the risk of small boats smuggling dangerous material, and we have been testing radiological and nuclear detection equipment in various maritime locations on the West Coast. This is in addition to equipping every Coast Guard boarding team with radiation detection equipment.

To protect the interior of the country, our “Securing the Cities” initiative is integrating radiation detection capabilities within the New York City urban area, and we are testing fixed and mobile radiation detection systems for commercial trucks traveling on U.S. highways.

Finally, we working with the Department of Energy, industry partners, and others to enhance security for licensed, high-risk radioactive sources, and we are promoting the design and production of non-nuclear alternatives for industrial devices that currently use radioactive sources.

To be sure, these efforts are not complete. But they do reflect a balanced and strategic defense designed to identify and address remaining gaps and vulnerabilities in our detection capabilities and make wise investments of taxpayer resources to draw down the risk of WMD.

Beyond radiological and nuclear threats, we also have made strides to improve our detection of dangerous biological agents. Our BioWatch program is now deployed in more than 30 major cities nationwide to monitor the air for harmful biological agents, giving us a robust detection capability. BioWatch works hand-in-hand with our new National Biosurveillance Integration Center, which analyzes data to quickly determine potential health and security threats.

Under BioWatch – which did not exist before 2001 – the Department has provided guidance to all participating jurisdictions on preparedness, response, and environmental sampling so that they can build their own concept of operations and operational plans around BioWatch. We have specific cooperative agreements with each of the participating laboratories to use their space, but we pay for our staff, test equipment, and chemicals used to analyze the BioWatch samples. And we are now beginning to deploy our next generation of quicker, less expensive BioWatch detectors.

Perhaps those who say that BioWatch has “unclear benefit” need reminding that our nation already suffered an anthrax attack in 2001. Our ability to quickly detect and characterize these kinds of biological agents is critical to saving lives and minimizing the impact. I think most Americans would agree the benefits of such a system are indeed clear.

Michael Chertoff

Building an Effective Bio-Defense Capability

Over the next year, members of our Department will be increasingly talking about the need for Americans to resist complacency in the face of terrorism. There is no question that in some areas of the United States, the sense of urgency to do what is necessary to protect our country from terrorism has begun to wane in the six years since 9/11. Evidence of this can be found in the recent calls to delay new identification requirements to cross our borders; demands to relax current restrictions on liquids in carry-on baggage at our airports; and attempts to put off – or even eliminate – new measures designed to create secure driver’s licenses across our country.

Complacency can be a normal, healthy response to an immense tragedy like 9/11. No one wants to live in a perpetual state of fear or anxiety. But as a nation, it would be irresponsible to pretend the terrorist threat has subsided or that our enemies are no longer interested in waging war on our country. Our job at DHS is to resist complacency. We have not forgotten the need for constant vigilance against the terrorist threat and every day we work diligently to stay ahead of those who would harm us.

One area in particular where we have accelerated our efforts is developing an effective national bio-defense capability to guard against the release of a biological agent that could kill or severely injure tens of thousands to hundred thousands of Americans. Many of these biological agents are not difficult to grow or disseminate over a wide urban area causing thousands of people to become severely ill or potentially die.

Our approach to bio-defense is well defined in Presidential Directives issued by President Bush over the last several years. Our goal is to understand and increase our awareness of such an attack while the perpetrators are still abroad, and thereby prevent an attack from happening. To this end, we have deployed detection systems that monitor the environment for biological agents to provide the early warning necessary to prevent large numbers of causalities and deaths. We are also standing up a robust capability to monitor the status of animal health, human health, food, water, and the environment.

Working closely with the Department of Health and Human Services and other partners, we are creating a nimble and robust response structure to have medicines that can be distributed to people in the event of an attack.

With our colleagues at the Environmental Protection Agency and local environmental health agencies, we must be able to achieve environmental recovery from biological agents that can contaminate cities, buildings, homes, and the environment for years.

These are all complex challenges that require significant planning across all levels of government, multi-year investments in research and technology, and a comprehensive strategy that recognizes the individual needs of cities and states. Moreover, we must set national priorities so that our investments give us a level of national coverage, meet operational needs, and allow us to stay ahead of evolving threats.

We understand that a large-scale biological attack could be far more devastating than even the attacks on 9/11. As that tragedy moves further into the distance, we must remember that our enemy is patient and willing to wait years or decades to strike us when we are most vulnerable. We become more vulnerable as our sense of urgency and vigilance wanes. I can assure you that the committed public servants in our Department will not lose focus as time passes and we will continue to do what is necessary to protect the American people from the full range of threats we face.

Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D.
Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer