Even after COVID, America is not ready for bioterrorism | Notice

Those who worry about the future often ask me what keeps me up at night. While nuclear war preoccupies me every day, it is the threat of bioterrorism that leaves me sleepless. Warheads can be tracked and intercepted, but pathogens can spread silently, are monitored by infection rates, and require dynamic efforts to neutralize. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic, America struggles to confront the horrors of germ warfare.

In November 2010, I served in Haiti as a medical missionary in response to the worst cholera outbreak in the country’s history. Following a catastrophic earthquake earlier this year, Nepalese peacekeepers deployed to the country by the United Nations were unknowingly carrying Vibrio Cholera, the bacteria that causes the disease. ‘epidemic. The disease was initially twice as deadly as COVID-19 globally, killing young and old people within hours of contracting. Every Sunday morning, in the small church where I attended mass, coffins filled with the deceased lined the sanctuary. With limited resources in a country ravaged by despair and facing a multi-drug resistant strain, we were tasked with developing a mitigation strategy from scratch.

When the coronavirus pandemic emerged, the United States, despite having far more resources, faced a similar challenge: it had to build a response from the ground up. This time I had the opportunity to provide advice on mitigation and treatment strategies in my own country. As leader of the GOP Doctors Caucus, I have been called upon to provide regular updates to my constituents and colleagues on the evolving emergency and our response. While America has made enormous progress in overcoming the crisis at home and abroad, our country remains extremely vulnerable to future biological threats.

Foreign entities seeking to destabilize the United States can model the destruction and upheaval caused by the virus. The pandemic has not only led to tragic loss of lives but has also damaged the social fabric of the nation. We became radically divided, trust in our institutions collapsed, and unscrupulous actors exploited the crisis across the media ecosystem.

Biotechnology has come a long way since the human genome was mapped more than 20 years ago, and the possibilities for its offensive use continue to expand. Although the Biological Weapons Convention achieved near-universal adherence, the treaty did not end covert operations. China’s interest in its sinister uses is growing, and the communist regime’s suspicious actions demonstrate its intentions. Beijing has made huge investments in research and development, enacted strict regulations prohibiting foreign entities from acquiring Chinese genetic data, conducted forced experimentation on Uyghurs, and accumulated data from millions of pregnant women with a product developed in collaboration with its army.

For decades, America has participated in joint allied efforts to prevent legacy threats from biological weapons in former Soviet states from falling into the wrong hands. Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Moscow and Beijing accused the United States of operating biological weapons laboratories in the besieged country. Such accusations amount to little more than propaganda intended to justify their own biological weapons programs.

The United States devotes significant resources to threat monitoring and response, but our agencies’ ability to work cohesively and convincingly in a crisis remains limited. The pandemic has exposed major bureaucratic challenges within the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. Congress must address these shortcomings by expanding oversight and carefully evaluating the needs of our agencies charged with protecting the nation.

In Haiti, despite limited resources and poor sanitation, our coordinated efforts to disseminate reliable information and expand treatment options contributed to a 75 percent reduction in the mortality rate from the cholera epidemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Operation Warp Speed ​​helped deliver several vaccines and treatments that significantly reduced hospitalizations and deaths. Our vaccine rollout has not only saved millions of lives around the world, but has also generated immense goodwill with countries critical to maintaining global security. America has demonstrated the ability to mobilize quickly and save lives, but in an increasingly bellicose world, it is time to redouble our efforts to prepare for future threats.

Greg Murphy, MD, represents North Carolina’s Third District in the United States House of Representatives.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.