U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) chaired a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Thursday to address the federal perspective on the state of U.S. biodefense preparedness.
“Today, we look forward to learning the perspective of federal agencies on the state of our nation’s biodefenses,” Johnson said in his opening statement at the hearing. “We hope to learn how key federal agencies are fulfilling their responsibilities in this area, and what steps they are taking to improve preparedness and response.”
Johnson said that because biodefense encompasses numerous threats, including natural outbreaks of infectious diseases, accidental releases of high-risk pathogens, and purposeful attacks, the U.S. must identify and close gaps in its preparedness and response.
“Ebola certainly caught the nation off-guard,” Johnson said. “In terms of animal health, last spring’s spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza through the Midwest, including Wisconsin, revealed significant gaps in preparedness.”
Kevin Shea, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), told the hearing that safeguards against significant plant and animal pests and diseases are vital to the protection of industry, producers, export markets and consumers, as well as for ensuring that the U.S. has a safe and secure food supply.
“The impact of pests and diseases on the U.S. economy can be staggering,” Shea said. “The outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza last year — which was the largest animal disease outbreak in U.S. history — cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $1 billion just in response, clean up and indemnity costs. That didn’t include lost export markets, temporary shortages or price increases for certain poultry and their products.”
Agricultural health can be threatened from numerous places, Shea said, including pests that are accidentally imported on cargo or ships; food from overseas; sick animals or pets from overseas; and man-made agro-terror attempts.
“Regardless of the intent or mode of entry, APHIS’ focus is on putting in place preventive measures to keep pests and diseases out of the country, finding them if they do enter, as well as preparing for these threats, detecting them, and taking emergency action if necessary,” Shea said.
Richard Hatchett, acting deputy assistant secretary and acting BARDA director for the office of the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, agreed that the U.S. faces myriad biological threats.
“Securing our nation against biological threats is a challenging endeavor,” Hatchett said. “The array of threats for which we must be prepared is vast. Such threats include bioterrorist agents such as anthrax, smallpox and botulism; evolving and emerging threats causing substantial regional disruption such as Ebola and Zika; and highly communicable diseases with pandemic potential such as influenza.”
Hatchett pointed to recent outbreaks and pandemics – outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, anthrax attacks, cholera’s re-emergence in the Western Hemisphere, the largest Ebola epidemic ever recorded, and the global spread of the Zika and Chikungunya viruses – as sources of valuable lessons to learn about preparedness capabilities.
“[T]hanks to lessons learned from previous responses, biomedical breakthroughs and sound strategic investments, we have improved our preparedness for and capability to respond to a wide-range of threats regardless of their origin and properties,” Hatchett said.
Hatchett also applauded recent efforts by the federal government to increase preparedness abilities.
“In the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks and subsequent disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, Congress and the Executive Branch reevaluated the preparedness and response strategy of our nation,” Hatchett said. “In 2006, Congress passed and President Bush signed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA), which established both ASPR (Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response) and BARDA. ASPR will celebrate its tenth anniversary on December 19 of this year. Within 10 years, ASPR has significantly enhanced the preparedness of our nation.
“ASPR has made numerous improvements to ensure national health security and to protect the American people.”
Stephen Redd, director of the Office of Public Health and Preparedness at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told the hearing that the CDC has also changed to reflect the current state of preparedness efforts, greatly expanding its preparedness programs following the September 11, 2001, terror and anthrax attacks.
“One of the lessons learned as a result of responding to the 9/11 and anthrax attacks was that state and local health departments lacked critical capabilities needed to mount an emergency response, and the nation’s public health system also was not consistently able to provide essential public health services during an emergency. Health departments lacked laboratory networks, electronic disease surveillance systems, expertise in risk communication and emergency operations centers.
“To support our state, local, and territorial partners, CDC established the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) cooperative agreement program. In the 14.5 years since 9/11, CDC has awarded an average of $766 million dollars per year to improve preparedness at the state, local and territorial levels.”
Redd added that “preparedness is not a destination,” but instead a process of developing skills and honing abilities to adapt to the current environment while better preparing the nation to address future threats.