Happy Friday! This week includes updates from our program, discussion of an upcoming hearing on the death of Dawn Sturgess, ASPR’s new National Health Security Strategy, and more. We also have several recent publications, upcoming events, and professional opportunities as well, including a publication from a Biodefense PhD student and a fellowship opportunity at CDC.
Biodefense PhD Program Alumnus Named Rodel Federal Executive Fellow
Biodefense PhD alumnus and Schar School adjunct faculty member Dr. Brian Mazanec was recently selected as a member of the Class of 2023 cohort of the Rodel Federal Executive Fellowship. Mazanec is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director, Office of Security, Intelligence, and Information Management, Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, US Department of Health and Human Services.
“The Rodel Federal Executive Fellowship is an intellectual and leadership professional development fellowship for senior-level career civil servants across the federal government’s executive branch agencies. For each cohort, the program selects 20 to 24 exceptional members of the Senior Executive Service (SES), Senior Foreign Service (SFS), GS-15’s, and equivalent positions from across the federal government to come together for a series of three multi-day seminars. Working with expert moderators, the Fellows study and discuss challenging texts on leadership and innovation in large organizations, the nature of democracies, emerging technologies, the American economy, and the changing geopolitical landscape. They also engage in practical, relevant leadership training focused on promoting innovation within the context of large government bureaucracies.”
Hearing Covering Death of Dawn Sturgess Set for October 14
Dawn Sturgess was a Wiltshire woman who died after her and her partner, Charlie Rowley, found a fake perfume bottle containing a Novichok agent. This incident happened months after the targeted attack against the Skripals in Salisbury in 2018 and, though former Home Secretary Priti Patel announced the hearing in November 2021, Sturgess’s family has pushed for the process to finally move forward. According to the Guardian, “At a preliminary hearing last month, lawyers for the UK government defended delays in disclosing documents, claiming that substantial redactions were needed to protect sensitive information from the “hostile state that is Russia”…The UK government has blamed the Russian state for the novichok attack, and the British police have identified three suspects wanted over the poisonings.”
ASPR Releases National Health Security Strategy
“Every four years, ASPR develops the National Health Security Strategy (NHSS) to establish a strategic approach to enhance the security of the nation’s health in times of crisis. The NHSS provides a roadmap to strengthen and adapt health care, public health, and emergency preparedness and response no matter the threat. This includes emphasis on equitable access to post-disaster health services and meeting the needs of at-risk individuals and underserved communities. The 2023-2026 NHSS includes an enhanced focus on several health care and public health challenges exacerbated during COVID-19 and other public health emergencies, including supply chain resiliency, health care and public health workforce capacity, risk communication, and health equity.”
“The 2023-2026 NHSS Implementation Plan builds on the goals and objectives of the NHSS; guides federal actions for desired outcomes; and recommends implementation activities for state, local, tribal, and territorial partners; the health care industry; public health professionals; pharmaceutical manufacturers; communities; and other stakeholders. The NHSS Evaluation of Progress examines the actions taken by the United States between 2019 and 2022. The 2023-2026 NHSS builds on the progress made between 2019 and 2022 to provide a strategic direction that can be used to better protect people in communities nationwide from health security threats in the years to come.”
This NHSS includes three overarching strategic goals: Strengthen health care and public health systems to prepare for and respond to concurrent health emergencies, including those that arise from unknown threats; Improve capabilities to safeguard and protect against an array of health security threats, including emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, especially zoonotic diseases; Ensure a resilient and sustainable public health industrial base and supply chain that can rapidly develop and deploy safe medical countermeasures (MCMs).
Read the strategy, implementation plan, evaluations, and FAQs here.
You-Whippee-Ki-Yay, UIPE is Getting a Facelift Already!
JPEO-CBRND made a very important announcement this week:
Other interesting ideas included revamping the 66P legacy system to include mesh panels to improve breathability. 😉 Learn more about UIPE (“you-whip-ee”) here.
“The Analytic Challenges of Shifting to Domestic Terrorism”
Biodefense PhD student Chris Quillen recently published an article in the Journal of Policing, Intelligence, and Counter Terrorism. After many years of fighting the Global War on Terrorism, the U.S. Intelligence Community is increasingly focusing on the issue of domestic terrorism. This shift in analytic effort raises intriguing questions about the most appropriate tools needed to combat this growing threat. This article addresses the historical approach and possible solutions from similar countries and organizations before proposing a broader focus on extremist movements over designated terrorist groups.
“The Origin of SARS-CoV-2: Animal Transmission or Lab Leak?”
Johns Hopkins’ Dr. Gigi Kwik Gronvall breaks down publicly available evidence of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in this piece for Lawfare. She writes in part, “While the scientific evidence points to a “natural” emergence, it is decidedly not natural to have the conditions in place that led to this spillover event, or the very similar circumstances that led to the SARS epidemic in 2003. (In that epidemic, the market was not immediately cleared out, and samples could be taken from the civet cats and other animals sold there.) There is plenty of guidance available for how to sell and butcher animals safely, regulate markets, and crack down on the illegal wildlife trade—a global phenomenon that has a great deal of overlap with other criminal activities, including human trafficking, money laundering, and the illegal drug trade. Further research could also help improve these standards and better prepare for other viruses that could emerge in similar settings. There are many scientific knowledge gaps that need to be filled about viral evolution and bats, and more undetermined infections that might turn out to be the next pandemic need to be investigated so that researchers and policymakers can do more, earlier and better.”
“Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 at the Huanan Seafood Market”
The much anticipated China CDC article was made available by Nature this week. Its abstract reads: “SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, emerged in December 2019. Its origins remain uncertain. It has been reported that a number of the early human cases had a history of contact with the Huanan Seafood Market. Here we present the results of surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 within the market. From January 1st 2020, after closure of the market, 923 samples were collected from the environment. From 18th January, 457 samples were collected from 18 species of animals, comprising of unsold contents of refrigerators and freezers, swabs from stray animals, and the contents of a fish tank. Using RT-qPCR, SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 73 environmental samples, but none of the animal samples. Three live viruses were successfully isolated. The viruses from the market shared nucleotide identity of 99.99% to 100% with the human isolate HCoV-19/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-01/2019. SARS-CoV-2 lineage A (8782T and 28144C) was found in an environmental sample. RNA-seq analysis of SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative environmental samples showed an abundance of different vertebrate genera at the market. In summary, this study provides information about the distribution and prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the Huanan Seafood Market during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak.”
Dr. Angela Rasmussen breaks down issues and concerns with this article, including flaws in its metagenomic analysis, in this thread.
“What Happened When WMD Experts Tried to Make the GPT-4 AI Do Bad Things”
In this piece for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Thomas Gaulkin covers an open letter recently written and signed by hundreds of leaders in industry, policy, and academia calling for “…an immediate moratorium on the development of artificial intelligence “more powerful than GPT-4,” the large language model (LLM) released this month by OpenAI, an AI research and deployment firm. The letter proposes the creation of shared protocols and independent oversight to ensure that AI systems are “safe beyond a reasonable doubt.”’
He explains that “The letter’s call for a temporary halt on AI development may not be entirely at odds with OpenAI’s own recent representations of its outlook on the issue. The company’s CEO, Sam Altman, recently said “we are a little bit scared of this” and has himself called for greater regulation of AI technologies. And even before the world reacted to GPT-4 and ChatGPT’s release, OpenAI’s creators appear to have been sufficiently concerned about the risks of misuse that they organized months of testing dedicated to identifying the worst things that the AI might be used for—including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. “
“Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism”
From Trust for America’s Health: “Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, has tracked the nation’s public health emergency preparedness since 2003. This twentieth edition of the report is as critical to policymakers now as it has ever been. The report is designed to give policymakers at all levels of government actionable data and recommendations with which they can target policies and spending to strengthen their jurisdiction’s emergency preparedness. The report’s 10 key public health preparedness indicators give state officials benchmarks for progress, point out gaps within their states’ all-hazards preparedness, and provide data to compare states’ performances against similar jurisdictions.”
Lessons From the COVID War: An Investigative Report
Beyond the Pandemic: Addressing Attacks on Researchers and Health Professionals
From the National Academies: “Last fall, the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) held a webcast series, Silencing Scientists and Health Workers during the Pandemic, which examined threats and attacks against science and health professionals connected to their work to combat the spread of COVID-19, as well as related implications for internationally-protected human rights.”
“On April 11 (3:00-4:15 pm ET), the CHR will host a webcast to mark the launch of the webcast series’ Proceedings-in Brief. This event will gather experts to explore practical steps that scientists, researchers, and health professionals are taking to protect themselves and their colleagues from targeting—including violence, harassment, and other attacks.”
Learn more and register here.
Brain-Computer Interfaces Webinar Series, Part 2: BCIs in the Context of International Security: Military Uses, Applications and Risks
From UNIDIR: “Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are technical means and systems that provide direct links and communication between the brain and external devices. BCIs have been used for decades in the medical field, mainly in rehabilitation, including by the armed forces to support the recovery of injured servicemembers. Increasingly, however, the interest in the uses of BCIs has grown in scope, with novel applications exploring ways to enhance physical and cognitive functions in soldiers and weapon systems operators. Research areas include leveraging BCIs to monitor cognitive workload and performance, to enhance learning, to improve training, sensory and decision-making skills, as well as to enable remote direct control of weapon systems. Other areas of research explore convergences with the field of artificial intelligence, including using information and signal from the brain to train artificial intelligence systems.”
“BCIs can have a highly disruptive impact for the future of warfare, with significant legal and ethical consequences that deserve closer analysis.”
“UNIDIR is organizing a webinar series to unpack emerging questions related to the uses of brain-computer interfaces in the context of warfare and international security.”
This event will take place virtually on April 12 from 2-3 pm CEST. Register here.
Nobel Prize Summit-Truth, Trust and Hope
Taking place May 24-26 this year in DC and virtually, this Nobel Prize Summit asks “How can we build trust in truth, facts and scientific evidence so that we can create a hopeful future for all?”
“Misinformation is eroding our trust in science and runs the risk of becoming one of the greatest threats to our society today.”
“Join us at this years’ Nobel Prize Summit which brings together laureates, leading experts and you in a conversation on how we can combat misinformation, restore trust in science and create a hopeful future.”
Learn more and register here.
Gordon Research Conference: Cross-Cutting Science Facilitating Collaboration Across the Threat-Science Research Community
“The Nonproliferation, Counterproliferation and Disarmament Science GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages. The conference program includes a diverse range of speakers and discussion leaders from institutions and organizations worldwide, concentrating on the latest developments in the field. The conference is five days long and held in a remote location to increase the sense of camaraderie and create scientific communities, with lasting collaborations and friendships. In addition to premier talks, the conference has designated time for poster sessions from individuals of all career stages, and afternoon free time and communal meals allow for informal networking opportunities with leaders in the field.”
This conference will take place July 9-14 in Ventura, CA. Learn more and register here.
CDC Laboratory Leadership Service Application Open
The CDC’s Laboratory Leadership Services (LLS) program is currently accepting applications through June 1. Designed as a companion to the Epidemic Intelligence Service, this service was launched in 2015 and aims to train lab-oriented public health professionals. “The LLS fellowship provides a one-of-a-kind training experience for laboratory scientists who are ready to apply their expertise inside and outside of the lab, ultimately preparing them to be the next generation of public health laboratory leaders who work to protect public health. Fellows conduct cutting-edge research, support rapid response to disasters and disease outbreaks, help investigate emerging health threats, and enhance the laboratory systems and practices that are essential for public health. LLS seeks laboratory scientists looking to take their careers to the next level while doing work that delivers real benefits to communities across the country.” Learn more and apply here.
Call for Papers: “Training Programmes To Counter Current And Emerging Biological And Chemical Proliferation Risks: Themes, Practices, And Lessons Learnt”
From the Journal of Strategic Trade Control: “The purpose of this call for papers is to facilitate inter-disciplinary exchange regarding the implementation of training to counter emerging chemical and biological proliferation challenges. In particular, the call welcomes contributions in the form of JOSTC articles on the processes, mechanisms, and tools for creating awareness of the following topics:
– Cross-border movement (e.g. transport, shipment) of chemical and biological materials and equipment.
– Cross-border movement of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
– Trade in sensitive and dual-use chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) materials and equipment.
– Strategic trade control regimes of relevance to disarmament and non-proliferation.
– Information security, data sharing, and cybersecurity challenges to CBRN non-proliferation.
– Due diligence and risk management initiatives to safeguard global supply chains against misuse and diversion.
Information about this call is available on the JoSTC webpage and the full description of the call can be accessed here. The deadline for paper submission is 2 October 2023.”
Weekly Trivia Question
You read the Pandora Report every week and now it’s time for you to show off what you know! The first person to send the correct answer to biodefense@gmu.edu will get a shout out in the following issue (first name last initial). Our question this week is: “The Forced Evolutionary Virus was developed by the the West Tek Corporation’s NBC Division in what popular video game franchise?”
Shout out to Daniel G. for correctly answering last week’s trivia. Our question was: “This well-known Irish-born American cook is thought to have infected as many as 122 people with typhoid fever and was the first person in the US identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the bacteria that cause the disease-Salmonella typhi. What was her legal name?” The answer is Mary Mallon, who became popularly known as Typhoid Mary.
The Pandora Report 
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