Frequently Asked Questions: National Biodefense Strategy

Biodefense is defined as those actions designed to counter biological threats, reduce risks, and prepare for, respond to, and recover from bioincidents, whether naturally occurring, accidental, or deliberate in origin and whether impacting human, animal, plant, or environmental health.

Biodefense incorporates a wide range of activities, including biosurveillance, threat monitoring and awareness, biological arms control and nonproliferation, counterterrorism, biosafety and biosecurity, the development of medical countermeasures, medical planning and preparedness, and response and recovery activities. The National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan for Countering Biological Threats, Enhancing Pandemic Preparedness, and Achieving Global Health Security (the National Biodefense Strategy) provides a framework for coordinating these diverse activities across federal departments and agencies.

The strategy defines a biothreats as an entity involved with, or a situation involving, a biohazard that can potentially cause a bioincidents. A biohazard is a biological agent or biologically active substance − excluding toxic chemical substances that are considered solely as chemical weapons agents, regardless of origin (e.g., naturally occurring or bioengineered) − that represents an actual or potential danger to humans, animals, plants, or the environment.

A bioincident is:

• Any natural or accidental occurrence in which a biothreat harms humans, animals, plants, or the environment consistent with the scope of the strategy;
• A crime involving a biothreat consistent with the scope of the strategy; and/or
• Any act of biological warfare or terrorism.
  

The National Biodefense Strategy brings together and puts in place for the first time, a single coordinated effort to orchestrate the full range of activities carried out across the United States government to protect the American people from biological threats.

Key goals of the National Biodefense Strategy are to:

• Enable risk awareness and detection to inform decision-making across the biodefense enterprise;
• Ensure biodefense enterprise capabilities to prevent bioincidents;
• Ensure biodefense enterprise preparedness to reduce the impacts of bioincidents;
• Rapidly respond to limit the impacts of bioincidents; and
• Facilitate recovery to restore the community, the economy, and the environment after a bioincident.

The strategy puts in place a coordinated effort to orchestrate the full range of activity carried out across the U.S. government to protect the American people from biothreats.

The strategy also is the first U.S. national strategy to include naturally occurring biothreats in a coordinated national biodefense effort.

The 2022 update to the strategy reflects the vision of the Biden-Harris Administration, and takes into account lessons learned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent biological incidents. The associated National Security Memorandum puts in place a single overarching coordinator in the White House, ensuring continuing prioritization and understanding of the biological threat landscape, and institutionalizing a learning cycle that takes into account exercises and real world events.

The 2022 strategy does not diverge too far from the 2018 version. However, the 2022 version further emphasizes the One Health approach to biodefense. Importantly, this strategy is accompanied by a very detailed implementation plan, which if fully resourced, will actively drive towards the goals laid out in the strategy. The National Security Memorandum differs from the 2018 National Security Presidential Memorandum by reasserting a single overarching coordinator in the White House, ensuring a continuing prioritization of understanding the biological threat landscape, and institutionalizing a learning cycle that takes into account exercises and real world events.

American Pandemic Preparedness: Transforming Our Capabilities was released by the White House in September 2021. It describes the critical work needed to transform U.S. capabilities to respond rapidly to future pandemics.

There are several areas of overlap between the National Biodefense Strategy and the American Pandemic Preparedness Plan.  However, the National Biodefense Strategy additionally covers biodefense topics, such as counterproliferation, that are not included in the American Pandemic Preparedness Plan. The National Biodefense Strategy implementation plan combines elements from both documents. 

The health of people, animals, and plants, and the viability of ecosystems are linked. Threats to animals, plants, and ecosystems health can cause economic disruption or physical harm to health and wellbeing. One Health, collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally and globally, is a best practice for understanding, communicating, and mitigating biothreats swiftly and efficiently.  As the COVID-19 pandemic as demonstrated, diseases transmitted from animals can cause an enormous infectious burden on people.  The Strategy recognizes that a collaborative, multi-sectoral, and trans-disciplinary approach to the biodefense enterprise is necessary to effectively intervene early to prevent threats from emerging or spreading.

• Department of Agriculture
• Department of Commerce
• Department of Defense
• Department of Energy
• Department of Health and Human Services
• Department of Homeland Security
• Department of the Interior
• Department of Justice
• Department of Labor
• Department of State
• Department of Transportation
• Department of the Treasury
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• Environmental Protection Agency
• General Services Administration
• Intelligence Community
• National Science Foundation
• U.S. Agency for International Development

The rapid globalization of science and technology and the interconnectedness of travel and trade necessitate a strong global biodefense enterprise that can effectively prevent, detect and respond to bioincidents at their source. The National Biodefense Strategy recognizes that domestic action alone is insufficient to protect the nation's public and agriculture health and security. While the desired outcomes at home and abroad are the same, the conditions and avenues available to influence change abroad can be very different. The National Biodefense Strategy encompasses lines of effort available to U.S. Departments and Agencies internationally including: direct investment in sustainable, context-appropriate capacity building and country ownership; and working with multilateral organizations, partner nations at all levels of development, private donors, and civil society to develop and implement biodefense and health security policies and practices.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, natural outbreaks pose significant threats; infectious disease threats can endanger lives and quickly disrupt economies, trade, and travel. Outbreaks anywhere in the world can rapidly spread through international travel and imperil U.S. citizens' health, security, and prosperity and U.S. interests at home and abroad. The National Biodefense Strategy also recognizes that effective detection and response capabilities to any biothreat benefit from integration with natural outbreak systems.

The nature of biothreats are rapidly changing as are the tools available to address them. To ensure that the United States is poised to meet the evolving biorisk landscape, the National Biodefense Strategy  promotes innovation throughout the biodefense enterprise. This includes innovative technologies and systems; encouraging innovative technology communities and industry leaders to take on targeted biodefense and health capacity needs; linking stakeholders with innovative ideas, tools, and products; and pursuing innovative approaches and partnerships to achieve, at home and abroad, desired end states articulated in the strategy.