Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

BIODEFENSE WORKFORCE

KAVITA M. BERGER

American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C.

1 INTRODUCTION

Biodefense is defined as defensive measures against a biological weapons attack, while biosecurity has been more broadly defined as measures to protect against harm from a biological agent and includes traditional biodefense and public health activities. Since 2001, activities associated with biodefense and biosecurity seemed to have conflated so that both terms describe the full range of activities to prevent and mitigate an attack using biological weapons.

Prior to 2001, US biodefense activities were mainly restricted to the Department of Defense (DoD). These included policy discussions, threat characterization, countermeasure development, and scientist redirection (termed cooperative threat reduction) activities. Toward the end of the 1990s, the Department of State (DoS) started their own scientist and facility redirection activities. A few select biosecurity programs, like the select agent program and export control program, were overseen by other US agencies. Much of the biodefense workforce came from a military, public policy, or nuclear arms control background. Civilian life scientists in the United States either were generally not aware of these activities nor were they formally trained in biological arms control and nonproliferation. Although a few scientists were working with select biological agents, their goal was not biodefense but rather to understand ...