The Urgent Need for a National Biosecurity Initiative

Posted June 18, 2020

External Article: Belfer Center

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a distinguished professor of the practice in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and senior fellow in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, has co-authored “The Urgent Need for a National Biosecurity Initiative.” The Belfer Center article was written with John MacWilliams, a senior fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

Read an excerpt: 

Biological threats know no boundaries. The world needs the United States to provide leadership now to create and deploy a global biosecurity initiative modeled on the type of national and global network that we already use to protect the US and our allies from the threats of nuclear, radiological, and chemical attacks by nation states or terrorists: sophisticated sensors, intelligence gathering, highly-trained and ever-ready emergency response teams, and, urgently, technologies and methods to mitigate such threats.  And if the United States doesn’t play this role, it will be the net loser too.

Read the article on the Belfer Center.

Related Media