Public awareness campaign urges support for program to end pandemic threat

The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense announced launched a public awareness campaign Wednesday to support the Apollo Program for Biodefense, a project that aims to eliminate pandemics in ten years and reduce other biological threats.

The campaign, similar in scope and importance to landing man on the moon organizers said, includes a 30-second PSA and other sharable materials.

The commission called on the federal government to implement the recommendation in its report, The Apollo Program for Biodefense: Winning the Race Against Biological Threats, which detailed a program to develop and deploy the science and technologies needed to defend against biological threats and prevent pandemics. The Commission argued that if the United States acts now, the Apollo Program could effectively end the era of pandemic threats in 10 years.

“It is our belief that with the right encouragement and policies, groundbreaking and lifesaving technologies could be American reality within the next ten years, creating a layered and effective defense against future biological threats,” said Commission Co-Chair, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. “With this new public awareness campaign, we are telling this story and hopefully inspiring Americans to recognize that now is the time for an Apollo Program for Biodefense that we undertake with the same ambition and ingenuity that put the first human on the Moon in 1969.”

Announced during a public meeting of the Commission at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., the Commission said the campaign PSA and other materials were available to the public at TheNextApollo.org.