Recent News

By Category: Policy & Initiatives

Building Partnerships for Biological Threats Prevention, Preparedness and Response

(U.S. Department of State) As you know, President Obama is committed to creating an unprecedented level of transparency and openness in our own Government and working together with our partners in the Open Government Partnership, to ensure greater transparency, accountability and effectiveness in governance. Transparency also is the word of the day in numerous arms Read More »

September 7, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biological Weapons, Bioterrorism, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
Share

Kofi Annan’s memoir: Did Colin Powell doubt his own WMD claims?

(The Week) Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has called the run-up to the Iraq invasion “a blot” on his distinguished career. But if he’s trying not to think about it, he’s out of luck. Kofi Annan, who was secretary-general of the United Nations during the lead-up to war, is releasing a new memoir — Read More »

September 3, 2012
| Filed under Middle East, North America, International, and Policy & Initiatives
Share

Obama administration takes new action to improve public health

(HHS) Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced new investments that will help strengthen the nation’s public health workforce and fight disease and illness. “These investments are part of our work to promote public health and they will help strengthen our efforts to fight disease and illness before they happen,” Secretary Sebelius Read More »

August 30, 2012
| Filed under North America, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
Share

Will the Candidates Tell Us about Their Policies on Pandemics and Biosecurity?

(Scientific American) A new strain of H3N2 influenza virus transmitted from pigs to humans has caused U.S. patient cases to spike in the past two weeks. During the same time period, an Ebola virus outbreak in Uganda killed at least 14 people. Both these outbreaks are demanding cooperation among scientists and political leaders. Back in Read More »

August 20, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biosafety, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
Share

FDA Issues Annual Food Safety Report to Congress

(Food Safety News) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s annual report to Congress, released this week, offers an overview of what the agency has been up to over the past year. In FDA’s latest report, which is required by the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, one thing is immediately clear: FDA has an enormous food safety mandate. Read More »