Download or read book Preparing for Bioterrorism the Alfred P Sloan Foundation s Leadership in Biosecurity written by Gronvall, Gigi Kwik and published by . This book was released on 2012-12-04 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the 2001 anthrax attacks, the threat of bioterrorism became real to the nation. Before that, biological weapons were a known threat to warfighters, but after, the vulnerability of US civilians was clear.It was also clear that the US government was not organized to address the national security and civilian threat of bioweapons. Only a handful of civilian experts were involved, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation was the only US philanthropy willing to commit resources to confront the challenges of preparing for bioterrorism.When Sloan got involved in 2000, the professional field of biosecurity did not exist. There was little science or scholarship. There were no guidelines or planning tools and few policies or officials to direct civilian preparedness, planning, and response.Over ten years, the Sloan Foundation awarded more than $44 million in biosecurity grants and was instrumental in establishing the field and many of its most prominent leaders. That was money well-invested. The nation is now vastly better prepared for bioterrorism and other catastrophic threats to the public's health and national security.Author Gigi Kwik Gronvall chronicles the foundation's leadership in the field and the innovations that followed to show how the Sloan Foundation help to build the foundation on which US civilian biosecurity now stands.
Download or read book Essentials of Biological Security written by Lijun Shang and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2024-05-20 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a fundamental resource for life and associated scientists to raise awareness and understanding of biological security with regards to malign manipulation of scientific findings. The book is written by experts who have been engaged in biological security issues for decades, but in a systematically organized manner so that it is accessible to the wide range of different life and associated specialists who are creating the revolution in the sciences and technologies converging around the life sciences and thus radically changing our capabilities for the manipulation of living organisms for good purposes, but also opening up many more dangerous opportunities for malign manipulation in what has been termed dual-use applications such as novel biological and toxin weapons.
Download or read book What s the Worst That Could Happen written by Andrew Leigh and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-08-06 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why catastrophic risks are more dangerous than you think, and how populism makes them worse. Did you know that you’re more likely to die from a catastrophe than in a car crash? The odds that a typical US resident will die from a catastrophic event—for example, nuclear war, bioterrorism, or out-of-control artificial intelligence—have been estimated at 1 in 6. That’s fifteen times more likely than a fatal car crash and thirty-one times more likely than being murdered. In What’s the Worst That Could Happen?, Andrew Leigh looks at catastrophic risks and how to mitigate them, arguing provocatively that the rise of populist politics makes catastrophe more likely. Leigh explains that pervasive short-term thinking leaves us unprepared for long-term risks. Politicians sweat the small stuff—granular policy details of legislation and regulation—but rarely devote much attention to reducing long-term risks. Populist movements thrive on short-termism because they focus on their followers’ immediate grievances. Leigh argues that we should be long-termers: broaden our thinking and give big threats the attention and resources they need. Leigh outlines the biggest existential risks facing humanity and suggests remedies for them. He discusses pandemics, considering the possibility that the next virus will be more deadly than COVID-19; warns that unchecked climate change could render large swaths of the earth uninhabitable; describes the metamorphosis of the arms race from a fight into a chaotic brawl; and examines the dangers of runaway superintelligence. Moreover, Leigh points out, populism (and its crony, totalitarianism) not only exacerbates other dangers but is also a risk factor in itself, undermining the institutions of democracy as we watch.
Download or read book Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2004-03-02 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years much has happened to justify an examination of biological research in light of national security concerns. The destructive application of biotechnology research includes activities such as spreading common pathogens or transforming them into even more lethal forms. Policymakers and the scientific community at large must put forth a vigorous and immediate response to this challenge. This new book by the National Research Council recommends that the government expand existing regulations and rely on self-governance by scientists rather than adopt intrusive new policies. One key recommendation of the report is that the government should not attempt to regulate scientific publishing but should trust scientists and journals to screen their papers for security risks, a task some journals have already taken up. With biological information and tools widely distributed, regulating only U.S. researchers would have little effect. A new International Forum on Biosecurity should encourage the adoption of similar measures around the world. Seven types of risky studies would require approval by the Institutional Biosafety Committees that already oversee recombinant DNA research at some 400 U.S. institutions. These "experiments of concern" include making an infectious agent more lethal and rendering vaccines powerless.
Download or read book Gene Drives on the Horizon written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-08-28 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research on gene drive systems is rapidly advancing. Many proposed applications of gene drive research aim to solve environmental and public health challenges, including the reduction of poverty and the burden of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue, which disproportionately impact low and middle income countries. However, due to their intrinsic qualities of rapid spread and irreversibility, gene drive systems raise many questions with respect to their safety relative to public and environmental health. Because gene drive systems are designed to alter the environments we share in ways that will be hard to anticipate and impossible to completely roll back, questions about the ethics surrounding use of this research are complex and will require very careful exploration. Gene Drives on the Horizon outlines the state of knowledge relative to the science, ethics, public engagement, and risk assessment as they pertain to research directions of gene drive systems and governance of the research process. This report offers principles for responsible practices of gene drive research and related applications for use by investigators, their institutions, the research funders, and regulators.
Download or read book Global Health Risk Framework written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-06-11 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 2014 Ebola outbreak many public- and private-sector leaders have seen a need for improved management of global public health emergencies. The effects of the Ebola epidemic go well beyond the three hardest-hit countries and beyond the health sector. Education, child protection, commerce, transportation, and human rights have all suffered. The consequences and lethality of Ebola have increased interest in coordinated global response to infectious threats, many of which could disrupt global health and commerce far more than the recent outbreak. In order to explore the potential for improving international management and response to outbreaks the National Academy of Medicine agreed to manage an international, independent, evidence-based, authoritative, multistakeholder expert commission. As part of this effort, the Institute of Medicine convened four workshops in summer of 2015 to inform the commission report. The presentations and discussions from the Governance for Global Health Workshop are summarized in this report.
Download or read book Evidence Based Practice for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2020-11-28 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When communities face complex public health emergencies, state local, tribal, and territorial public health agencies must make difficult decisions regarding how to effectively respond. The public health emergency preparedness and response (PHEPR) system, with its multifaceted mission to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from public health emergencies, is inherently complex and encompasses policies, organizations, and programs. Since the events of September 11, 2001, the United States has invested billions of dollars and immeasurable amounts of human capital to develop and enhance public health emergency preparedness and infrastructure to respond to a wide range of public health threats, including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear events. Despite the investments in research and the growing body of empirical literature on a range of preparedness and response capabilities and functions, there has been no national-level, comprehensive review and grading of evidence for public health emergency preparedness and response practices comparable to those utilized in medicine and other public health fields. Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response reviews the state of the evidence on PHEPR practices and the improvements necessary to move the field forward and to strengthen the PHEPR system. This publication evaluates PHEPR evidence to understand the balance of benefits and harms of PHEPR practices, with a focus on four main areas of PHEPR: engagement with and training of community-based partners to improve the outcomes of at-risk populations after public health emergencies; activation of a public health emergency operations center; communication of public health alerts and guidance to technical audiences during a public health emergency; and implementation of quarantine to reduce the spread of contagious illness.
Download or read book Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry written by Robert J. Ursano and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-23 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a decade of advances in the psychological, biological and social responses to disasters, helping medics and leaders prepare and react.
Download or read book Crop Biosecurity written by Maria Lodovica Gullino and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-08-29 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prevention and preparedness are the two basic approaches to maximize food security against any sort of tampering, whether natural, inadvertent or intentional. The NATO funded project “Tools for crop biosecurity” was designed to strengthen the cooperation among U.S., Europe and Israel in the field of crop biosecurity and to generate awareness on how the psychological, economic and cultural consequences of crop bioterrorism, especially attacks on soft targets such as crop seeds, could have a disproportionate adverse effect on Mediterranean agriculture and, more generally, on society. This book illustrates the achievements of the project originated from the workshops organized during the project itself taking in consideration main microbiological threads posed to crops, the tools to recognize and to control them, the needs for international cooperation and research funds to create networks which can face emerging risks for agriculture.
Download or read book Individual Preparedness and Response to Chemical Radiological Nuclear and Biological Terrorist Attacks written by Lynn E. Davis and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2003-09-05 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Individual preparedness is an important element of our nation's strategy for homeland security. This report adopts a scenario-driven approach that provides a rigorous way to identify actions-linked specifically to terrorist attacks-individuals can take to protect their health and safety. The result is an individual's strategy across four types of terrorist attacks-chemical, radiological, nuclear, and biological-consisting of overarching goals and simple and directive response and preparatory actions. The actions are appropriate regardless of likelihood of an attack, scale of attack, or government alert level; designed to be sensitive to potential variations; and defined in terms of simple rules that should be easy for individuals to adopt.
Download or read book Responsible Conduct of Research written by Adil E. Shamoo and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-12 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent scandals and controversies, such as data fabrication in federally funded science, data manipulation and distortion in private industry, and human embryonic stem cell research, illustrate the importance of ethics in science. Responsible Conduct of Research, now in a completely updated second edition, provides an introduction to the social, ethical, and legal issues facing scientists today.
Download or read book Globalization Biosecurity and the Future of the Life Sciences written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2006-06-07 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biomedical advances have made it possible to identify and manipulate features of living organisms in useful ways-leading to improvements in public health, agriculture, and other areas. The globalization of scientific and technical expertise also means that many scientists and other individuals around the world are generating breakthroughs in the life sciences and related technologies. The risks posed by bioterrorism and the proliferation of biological weapons capabilities have increased concern about how the rapid advances in genetic engineering and biotechnology could enable the production of biological weapons with unique and unpredictable characteristics. Globalization, Biosecurity, and the Future of Life Sciences examines current trends and future objectives of research in public health, life sciences, and biomedical science that contain applications relevant to developments in biological weapons 5 to 10 years into the future and ways to anticipate, identify, and mitigate these dangers.
Download or read book Biotechnology Weapons and Humanity written by British Medical Association and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1999-01-18 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity traces the historical development of biological weapons and considers the role of health care professionals, scientists, governments, and international agencies in limiting and managing the effects of new biological weapons. In particular, the strengths and weaknesses of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention are examined, and steps that can be taken to minimize the risk of the proliferation of weapons. This report considers whether new biological weapons, made possible by the mapping of the human genome, could be incorporated into the arsenals of states and terrorist organizations. How might the revolution in biotechnology be used to attack the genetic constitution of a national or ethnic group, or enhance the virulence of organizations hostile to human health?
Download or read book Insecurity and Emerging Biotechnology written by Brett Edwards and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how emergent trends in innovation and its governance are raising new and old questions about how to control technology. It develops a new framework for understanding how emergent fields of science and technology emerge as security concerns; and the key challenges these fields pose from a global security perspective. The study focuses on the politics which have surrounded the emergent field of Synthetic Biology, a field which has become emblematic of both the potentials and limits of more preemptive approaches to governance. This highly accessible work will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners working on the ethical responsibilities of innovators and the assessment of emergent technology as well as the global governance of weapons.
Download or read book Strategic Latency Unleashed written by Zachary Davis and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-30 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is being transformed physically and politically. Technology is the handmaiden of much of this change. But since the current sweep of global change is transforming the face of warfare, Special Operations Forces (SOF) must adapt to these circumstances. Fortunately, adaptation is in the SOF DNA. This book examines the changes affecting SOF and offers possible solutions to the complexities that are challenging many long-held assumptions. The chapters explore what has changed, what stays the same, and what it all means for U.S. SOF. The authors are a mix of leading experts in technology, business, policy, intelligence, and geopolitics, partnered with experienced special operators who either cowrote the chapters or reviewed them to ensure accuracy and relevance for SOF. Our goal is to provide insights into the changes around us and generate ideas about how SOF can adapt and succeed in the emerging operational environment.
Download or read book Disaster Communications in a Changing Media World written by George Haddow and published by Butterworth-Heinemann. This book was released on 2013-12-14 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communications are key to the success of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Accurate information disseminated to the general public, to elected officials and community leaders, as well as to the media, reduces risk, saves lives and property, and speeds recovery. Disaster Communications in a Changing Media World, Second Edition, provides valuable information for navigating these priorities in the age of evolving media. The emergence of new media like the Internet, email, blogs, text messaging, cell phone photos, and the increasing influence of first informers are redefining the roles of government and media. The tools and rules of communications are evolving, and disaster communications must also evolve to accommodate these changes and exploit the opportunities they provide. Disaster Communications in a Changing Media World, Second Edition, illuminates the path to effective disaster communication, including the need for transparency, increased accessibility, trustworthiness and reliability, and partnerships with the media. Includes case studies from recent disasters including Hurricane Sandy, the 2011 tsunami in Japan, and the Boston Marathon bombings Demonstrates how to use blogs, text messages, and cell phone cameras, as well as government channels and traditional media, to communicate during a crisis Examines current social media programs conducted by FEMA, the American Red Cross, state and local emergency managers, and the private sector Updated information in each chapter, especially on how social media has emerged as a force in disaster communications
Download or read book Judging Edward Teller written by Istvan Hargittai and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-12-31 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A personal acquaintance of Teller's presents the definitive, balanced portrait of the scientist against the backdrop of a turbulent period of history, and reveals the contradictory nature of this complex man in all his strengths, flaws, and brilliance.
