News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – A bill headed for the floor of the US House calls for appointing a special White House advisor to lead and coordinate biodefense activities, including developing a national biodefense plan and a biosurveillance strategy.

(CIDRAP News) – Spurred by events surrounding two controversial H5N1 transmission studies, a US Senate committee today questioned federal officials whose agencies have a stake in dual-use research of concern (DURC) about the procedures they use to spot possible bioterror threats.

(CIDRAP News) – Though much of the nation's ability to detect potentially catastrophic disease outbreaks, manmade or otherwise, is in the hands of state and local agencies, the federal government still lacks a comprehensive view of the role it plays in biosurveillance, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported.

(CIDRAP News) – Although no successful attacks on the US agriculture and food system have been reported in the past decade, the nation's efforts to defend the system came in for a barrage of criticism yesterday about a lack of coordination and various other shortcomings.

GAO criticizes choice of Kansas for animal disease lab, report saysA draft report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used a flawed analysis in deciding to locate a special animal disease laboratory in Manhattan, Kan., the Washington Post reported today. The GAO said DHS greatly underestimated the risk of an accidental release of dangerous pathogens from the lab, as the site is in a tornado-prone area.